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 Knott, John W. 
 Supper of the Lord 
 
THE SUPPER OF THE LORD, 
 
Digitized by 
 
 the Internet Archive 
 
 
 in 2015 
 
 
 
 https://archive.org/details/supperoflordwithOOknot 
 
* JAN 14 191] 
 
 THE 
 
 SUPPER OF THE LORD; 
 
 WITH AN APPENDIX 
 
 ON TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 
 
 BY JOHN W. KNOTT, M. A. 
 
 VICAR OF ST. SAVIOUR'S, LEEDS ; 
 AND FELLOW OF BRAZENOSE COLLEGE, OXFORD. 
 
 LONDON: 
 J. AND C. MOZLEY, 6, PATERNOSTER ROW: 
 
 LEEDS : J. SMITH, COMMERCIAL STREET. 
 
 1858. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 It may be well to state to the candid reader at 
 the outset, that the writer does not bind himself 
 to all the opinions of those whose words he cites, 
 as expressing truth on the subject of which he 
 treats. But it is his earnest desire to reverence 
 any spark of truth, wherever it may please the 
 Holy Spirit to kindle it. 
 
 In a few instances thoughts and words have 
 been borrowed without acknowledgement. As 
 to substance, the writer is a debtor to many, 
 and probably much more than he is himself aware. 
 
 From a desire not to interrupt doctrinal and 
 practical reflections by direct controversy, he has 
 thrown some remarks upon Transubstantiation 
 into the form of an appendix. 
 
 In the course of this argument he has been led 
 to speak of the actual existence of creation at 
 some length. He is convinced that there is an 
 interest to the believer in maintaining the ob- 
 jective reality and order of creation, correspond- 
 ing, though very subordinate, to the interest 
 which he has in maintaining the part of revealed 
 
vi 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 truth which concerns the order of grace. It is 
 the same sovereign, holy will which called into 
 being, and now upholds, the creature, and which 
 saves sinners. As a Christian poet has said : 
 " The voice that rolls the stars along, 
 Speaks all the promises." 
 
 And has not the reader realized that there are 
 boundless resources of strength and comfort in 
 the first article of the Creed? "I believe in 
 God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven 
 and earth." 
 
 On the other hand, the same evil disposition 
 which leads a man to deny the creation of the 
 world, will lead to his denying also the new cre- 
 xtion of grace. He who takes away the glory of 
 God in the one case, will take it away in the other. 
 
 Now there is an energy of falsehood abroad in 
 the world, of which the workings are coming into 
 dew on every side, even that spirit of error 
 which identifies or confounds the Creator with 
 the creature, substituting for the living God an 
 ' Anima Mundi,' or vital principle of the universe, 
 and, upon the supposition that this universal vital 
 force is intelligent, making the universe to be a 
 necessary development of its thought. 
 
 Now this Pantheistic scheme recommends it- 
 self to some imaginative minds, as elevating to 
 nature, and as bringing the human soul into con- 
 sciousness of union with God. But the believer 
 sees that it nullifies equally the Creator and the 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 vii 
 
 creature, and overthrows, from the very founda- 
 tion, all conscience and sense of sin, the indi- 
 vidual responsibility of men, and eternal judg- 
 ment to come. It nullifies also redemption and 
 salvation. If sin were a transient illusion, so 
 also were salvation. This falsehood is, indeed, 
 the abomination which maketh desolate. 
 
 Of, or towards, this mystery of iniquity, strong 
 tendencies are at work, as the writer believes, 
 under the calm surface of Roman uniformity. 
 
 In this point of view, of deep significance is 
 the doctrine taught in one of the Roman schools 1 
 of a physical predetermination by God of all 
 second causes, and, in particular, of every human 
 will. Now in the order of grace there is a spiri- 
 tual predetermination of the human will, an in- 
 flux of God, intrinsic and efficacious, into the 
 heart; and may ever} r reader experience this 
 saving efficacy of grace, or, in other words, the 
 new birth and indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 
 But if, as to the order of nature, it be asserted 
 that there is a physical influx of God into all 
 second causes, and in particular, that He applies 
 each corrupt will to every choice of evil and 
 every act of sin, the assertion is equivalent to 
 saying, that the Holy One is the author of evil. 2 
 
 1 The Thomist. See Goudin, PMlosophia D. Thomce, p. iv. 
 
 2 The spirit of error, the strong delusion, the leprobate 
 mind, is sent upon those who, by free choice, have pre- 
 pared themselves for it, and called it down upon them. The 
 
viii 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 This falsehood, with all its tremendous soul- 
 destroying consequences, is, in the dry light of 
 
 remarks in the text above apply also to the philosophical 
 opinion of necessity, as held by many Protestants. It is, 
 in truth, a dogma of the natural man ; and having been 
 inherited by some of the Reformers from one of the Roman 
 Schools, it contributed much to stop the Reformation. On 
 the other hand, the will of the natural man is in bondage to 
 the corruption within itself. This is a fact of experience, as 
 well as a truth of revelation. The will of fallen man retains 
 the faculty of choice ; but when it chooses good, it has not 
 power to act upon its choice. Towards God it has a freedom 
 of exercise, but not of execution ; and it freely determines 
 itself by its own inward bias to evil against the light which it 
 sees, and perhaps faintly wishes to follow. It is physically 
 free, and hence its responsibility and guilt ; but within itself 
 it is in bondage to its own corruption. The truth alone 
 makes it free indeed, even the Word of God, made flesh, 
 offered on the Cross for sin, raised again, preached and 
 believed on. Through belief of the truth, the Holy Spirit 
 enters and gives life and power, and the inward bondage of 
 the wjll ceases ; although there still remains warfare with 
 sin 4n the flesh. The Holy Spirit does not act upon the 
 will in any way inconsistent with the condition of freedom 
 which He gave it at creation. In the act of faith, the heart 
 yields a ivilling consent or submission to the influence of 
 the Spirit. Through dying, it lives, and becomes free both 
 to will and to do that which is good. God does not destroy 
 our nature ; but through its death, (and the submission 
 of faith is a deathj He quickens, exalts, and sanctifies, 
 or, in one word, renews it. It was physically free before, 
 but, owing to its own inward corruption, it freely chose 
 to do evil. Now it is free indeed, and by the power of the 
 indwelling Spirit it freely and effectually determines itself 
 to do good. Thus all necessity is excluded ; and I can 
 truly say, All my evil is purely my own ; but all my good 
 is the gift of God. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 ix 
 
 reason, inseparable from the view that God is 
 the necessary source of a necessary chain of causa- 
 tion, of which the universe is the effect, or, what 
 is another side of the same untruth, that He is 
 the necessary source of a necessary chain of being, 
 which is the universe. 1 That conception which 
 is brought in under the pretence of giving all 
 glory to God, ends in absolutely identifying Him 
 with the universe, and with all that takes place 
 in it, even with evil, as its cause. 
 
 1 This error places God on the same line of causation and 
 being with the creature. The first cause is represented as 
 so linked with His creatures as that He cannot leave them, 
 in some respects, to themselves. But the withholding of 
 His hand, and the hiding of His power, is precisely the 
 greatest exercise of His omnipotence and sovereign will. 
 Our conception of necessity appears to be derived from the 
 usually unvarying sequence of effects in the natural order ; 
 and our conception of causality from effects, or modifica- 
 tion of effects, which our wills produce by interposing in the 
 series. The great machine of the universe and our splits 
 were alike called into being, and are upheld in being, by 
 the will of God. His holy will is free, and is not deter- 
 mined by any necessity above or below it. And it has 
 been His will to create spiritual beings capable of origina- 
 ting acts of their own ; and some acts of their own they have 
 originated, which He has not, in any way, originated, though 
 He permits and overrules them, — acts, that is, of rebellion 
 against His will. By such acts some free agents have made 
 themselves what He did not make them, that is, evil. But 
 if the greatness of God is shown in His resting and leaving 
 creatures, in some respects, to themselves, much more is 
 it shown in His working and redeeming creatures who have 
 been under the bondage of evil. 
 
X 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 In like manner, a miracle is imagined to take 
 place in Transubstantiation, which professes to 
 magnify the power of God, but which really un- 
 dermines the distinction between the creature 
 and the Creator, by setting up an object of wor- 
 ship under the phenomena of things which have 
 no actual existence. It is at once obvious how 
 utterly unlike this is to the true doctrine of the 
 Incarnation. 
 
 If nature had no existence distinct from its 
 author, there would be no creation ; and so if 
 man were not distinct from God, he would save 
 himself; sin would be an illusion, and so would 
 salvation. Indeed, the whole system which rests 
 the salvation of man upon his own works and 
 deservings, is essentially akin to Pantheism. 
 
 The primary and the ultimate sin is, the taking 
 away the honour due to the Creator and ascrib- 
 ing it to the creature. Of this nature was the 
 sin of the angels who fell from their first estate. 
 And so now it is Satan's lie to persuade men to 
 look for help and salvation from the creature in- 
 stead of from the Creator. This was Eve's temp- 
 tion, and so it is ours. 
 
 And the great falsehood takes the form of re- 
 ligion. But we may not shrink from confessing, 
 that all works which are not the fruits of faith in 
 the living God are sin ; such, therefore, "as are 
 performed in hopes of having our sins forgiven, 
 and of being saved by another sacrifice, by another 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 xi 
 
 Saviour than the one Mediator between God and 
 men, by our own righteousness, by the merits of 
 other men, or any otherwise ; such works also as 
 are done for ostentation, to make ourselves accept- 
 able to men, to appear holy, to deceive, and to 
 confirm false doctrine." 
 
 In particular, to reject the righteousness of God 
 offered us in Christ, and to seek to establish our 
 own righteousness for acceptance with God, is, 
 after all, only idolatry in another form. Man really 
 ascribes the perfections of God to the creatures 
 from whom he looks for salvation and help, and so 
 ultimately to himself. And indeed in all sin there 
 is a root of idolatry, in that men "forsake God, 
 the Fountain of living waters, and hew them out 
 cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." 1 
 
 It has been well said, that all errors in religion 
 are connected with a defective sense of sin. Now 
 the seeking to set up our own righteousness in- 
 dicates a deep, or rather entire, deficiency of the 
 sense of sin. This has clothed itself under a 
 philosophical form. The scholastic doctrine of 
 sin appears to make it simply a defect arising 
 from the defectibility of subordinate wills, where- 
 by they fail to correspond duly with the supreme 
 will. 2 But as Christians we are to know, (and do 
 
 1 Jer. ii. 1.3. 
 
 5 The illustration commonly given is that of a badly-made 
 pen in the hand of a good writer. He writes well ; but the 
 writiffg is not good, because his defective instrument does 
 not correspond with his skill. 
 
xii PREFACE. 
 
 we not know by experience ?) that sin consists in 
 direct opposition of a created will to the will of 
 the living God. Sin is enmity and rebellion 
 against God. It has for its root, unbelief, and 
 for its issue, hatred of God ; 1 and so it deserves 
 everlasting punishment ; and our own hearts tell 
 us so ; unless indeed they are hardened by a re- 
 jection of grace, they cry out, against all sophis- 
 tical refinings away of the guilt of sin, that it is 
 indeed " a fearful thing to fall into the hands of 
 the living God," "for our God is a consuming 
 fire." 
 
 But, blessed be God, the one remedy and re- 
 fuge is before us, not afar off, but very nigh us, 
 even in our mouth, and in our heart. We see it 
 in the Holy Supper of the Lord. We behold 
 the one spotless victim, the Holy One of God, 
 who has endured for us the wrath typified by the 
 knife and the fire, 2 who has passed through it, 
 and now lives for us. Mystically, by eating and 
 drinking, we appropriate Him to ourselves ; we 
 claim His righteousness and life for ourselves. 
 We enter into them. Now, because He lives, 
 we shall live also. 
 
 Our God is a consuming fire. The victim 
 burnt up by the fire on the altar was called the 
 food, or bread, of God. It typified that one 
 holy Victim, who has perfectly and for ever satis- 
 
 ' St. John, xv. 22-25. 
 
 2 Gen. xxii. 6. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 xiii 
 
 fied the righteous wrath of God against sin. In 
 His Holy Supper He imparts Himself to us as 
 our food also. By eating of His Bread and drink- 
 ing of His Cup, we lay our sins upon His head 
 as our victim and substitute ; we concur in that 
 judgment upon them which He has voluntarily, 
 and out of love, borne for us. We show our 
 fellowship with the Father by finding our satis- 
 faction in that whereby His holiness has been 
 fully satisfied, even in the oblation and satis- 
 faction of His dear Son once offered. That 
 atonement is the support of our spiritual life. 
 Through this reconciliation with God, we pass 
 over into His love, and righteousness, and life. 
 
 The typical lamb has ceased to be offered, be- 
 cause the precious Blood has been shed once for 
 all. But the true Lamb of God will retain that 
 title to all eternity, and under it will receive 
 His sweetest incense of praise. 1 
 
 But the Tree of Life He was in the begin- 
 ning, is now, and ever will be. 2 By Him and 
 His fruits, which are His holy works, merits, and 
 perfections, we live unto God. Spiritually, by 
 faith, we eat of Him, and by eating live in the 
 spiritual world, in the heavenly places. Even 
 now He is the food and sustenance of our spiri- 
 tual life; hereafter, He will be the support of 
 our psychical and corporeal lives also. Even 
 
 1 Rev. v. 12, 13 ; vii. 10; xv. 3. 
 2 t Gen. ii. 9 ; iii. 22 ; Rev. ii. 7 ; xx. 2, 14. 
 
xiv 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 now, in some measure, His holy body and soul, 
 once broken and bruised, but now glorified, are 
 the support of our poor bodies and souls in our 
 daily life, through faith, and in the power of the 
 Holy Ghost. 1 But hereafter what we now ex- 
 perience in part will be perfected, when He 
 " shall have changed our vile body, that it may 
 be fashioned like unto His glorious Body, accord- 
 ing to the working whereby He is able even to 
 subdue all things unto Himself," 2 and when "we 
 shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." 3 
 In the meanwhile we are to worship here in 
 spirit and in truth. We are to worship as know- 
 ing " God our Saviour," for this is the true wor- 
 ship which alone is acceptable unto the Father. 
 And we are to follow after "holiness, without 
 which no man shall see the Lord." 4 Grace, known 
 and received, "pleads for holiness." No man 
 can possess the present sense and enjoyment of 
 grace, and yet be satisfied to return to any of 
 the pollutions of sin. And we are to love one 
 another, and to serve one another by love. A joy- 
 ful man, in the true joy of the Spirit, is a loving 
 and an active man. And all our fruit, love to 
 the brethren, service, mortification, and worship, 
 must spring from love to God, because He has 
 first loved us. True love gives Him His true 
 place, that of the free giver ; and it is pure, dis- 
 
 1 Gal. ii. 20. 2 Phil. iii. 21. 
 
 3 1 St. John, iii. 2. 4 Heb. xii. 14. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 XV 
 
 interested love, because it is love of gratitude. 
 We love Him simply for what He is; and we 
 know what He is, by what He has done for us. 
 This love of God in Christ is clearly and fully set 
 before us in the Supper of the Lord ; and in the 
 following pages the writer has endeavoured to 
 show, however feebly, some of its many aspects, 
 as expressed in that holy institution. 
 
 He is conscious how much the great subject 
 must have suffered in his hands through his 
 ignorance, infirmities, and sins. In whatever he 
 may have trespassed against either the substance 
 or the proportion of the faith, he will not be 
 ashamed to retract, when he is shown his error. 
 
 In conclusion, he desires to submit all that he 
 has written to the judgment of the children of 
 God. Whatever they may find written accord- 
 ing to the word of truth, let them thank God for 
 it ; and whatever they may find written accord- 
 ing to the mind of the flesh, the writer hopes 
 that they will pardon it, while they reprove; as he 
 prays that He also will, Whose eyes are as a flame 
 of fire, and Who searcheth the reins and the 
 hearts. 
 
 Leeds, 
 November, 1858. 
 
V 
 
THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 THE WORDS OF INSTITUTION. 
 
 " Now before the Feast of the Passover, -when Jesus 
 knew that His hour was come that He should depart 
 out of this world unto the Father, having loved His 
 own which were in the world, He loved them unto the 
 end." 1 St. John does not expressly relate the Insti- 
 tution of the Holy Supper, but some have thought that 
 he refers to it, not obscurely, in these words. Our 
 Lord instituted it as a pledge of His love to His own 
 which are in the world, that He loves them unto the 
 end. And His love which He specially assures to 
 them is His love in dying for them ; and this is per- 
 fect love, for "Greater love hath no man than this, 
 that a man lay down his life for his friends." 2 
 
 Though He has died, and can die, but once, yet it 
 is His good pleasure that His own which are in the 
 world should have His love in dying for them con- 
 tinually in remembrance ; because in this love is His 
 great glory as the Mediator between God and man. 
 Therefore when we remember His Death, we honour 
 ' St. John, xiii. 1. 'St. John, xv. 13. 
 
 1 
 
2 THE SUPPEE OF THE LORD. 
 
 Him, and do that which is well-pleasing to H im ; and 
 we honour the Father, also, for that inestimable love 
 whereby He gave His only-begotten Son to take the 
 form of a servant, and to lay down His life for His 
 own servants, and those, too, servants who were sin- 
 ning and rebelling against Him. 
 
 And as this continual remembrance of His Death is 
 honourable and well-pleasing to the Lord, so also is 
 it necessary for us. We cannot live without it. Our 
 life is by His Death. As our new birth and begin- 
 ning of life is by faith in His Death, so also is our 
 continuance and growth in life. " I am crucified with 
 Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ 
 liveth in me : and the life which I now live in the 
 flesh, I live by the Faith of the Son of God, Who 
 loved me, and gave Himself for me." 1 There is no life 
 unto God but that which is through Faith in Jesus 
 Christ, and Him Crucified. 
 
 Our New Birth is through Faith, and that Faith in 
 His Death. Baptism, the Sacrament of our Regene- 
 ration, shows that this Faith works death in us, and 
 through death, Life : Faith applies the Blood of Christ 
 to wash and purify the heart, and by washing, puts sin 
 to death in us ; and by putting sin to death, raises up 
 the soul again to life. The power which generates 
 Faith is the effusion of the Holy Spirit upon the soul, 
 drawing, but not forcing, the submission and consent 
 of the will of man. The object of Faith in Regene- 
 ration is always the Person of the Lord as our Saviour 
 and the Propitiation for our sins ; or, in other words, it 
 is the Sacrifice of His Death, and His precious Blood 
 shed for us ; and through Faith in His Death, we pass 
 into communion with His Resurrection and Life. 
 1 Gal. ii. 20. 
 
THE WORDS OF INSTITUTION. 3 
 
 Now as we are born, so we live and grow. It is 
 the will of the Lord that His Death for us should be 
 the daily food of our souls. He Himself saith : "Verily, 
 verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the Flesh of the 
 Son of Man and drink His Blood, ye have no life in 
 you." 1 As it has been well said : "The elect remnant 
 live by Faith on the Son of God ; but only in the Son 
 of God as Crucified. For our life lies in His Death, 
 and through the Faith which feeds on that Death. No 
 acceptance of Christ but as Crucified avails for life. 
 It is not His virtues, His instructions, His example, or 
 the like, but His death, His Flesh and Blood, that 
 must be fed upon. His Death accomplished, singly 
 and alone, what all together and beside never did, 
 and never could. The Blessed Lord died, gave up 
 the ghost, or surrendered the life which He had, and 
 which none had title to take from Him ; but the mo- 
 ment that was done, results broke forth which all His 
 previous life had never produced. It was then, but 
 not till then, that the veil of the Temple was rent, the 
 rocks were riven, the graves opened. Heaven, earth, 
 and hell felt a power they had never owned before. 
 The life of Jesus, His charities to man, His subjection 
 to God, the savour of His spotless human nature, the 
 holiness of that which had been born of the Virgin, 
 none of these, nor all of them together, nor everything 
 in Him and about Him, by Him or through Him, 
 short of the surrender of life, would ever have rent 
 the veil, or broken up the graves. God would still 
 have been at a distance, hell been still unconquered, 
 and he that has the power of death still undestroyed. 
 The Blood of the dear Son has done what all beside 
 never did, and never could do; and over Him, thus 
 1 St. John, vi. 53. 
 
4 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 preached and set forth, it is still to be said, ' he that 
 hath the Son, hath life.'" 1 
 
 The Loud hath given His Life a ransom for many. 
 Our lives were justly forfeited, according to that law, 
 "the soul that sinneth, it shall die." But the Lord 
 hath made peace for us by the surrender of His Life. 
 He hath given life for life ; and the life of the Son of 
 Man, Who is the Son of God, is a ransom infinitely 
 more than an equivalent for the lives of the whole race 
 of men, who were before under the righteous wrath of 
 God. Now " the Blood is the Life ;" and His Death 
 was by His Body being broken, and His Blood being 
 shed from it. And therefore it is His will that be- 
 lievers should by faith continually feed upon, and appro- 
 priate, to their soul's life and good, His Body broken, 
 and His Blood shed for as. 
 
 Blessed be His Name "Who has made such good pro- 
 vision for us, and Who so sweetly and powerfully stirs 
 up our dull, forgetful, wandering hearts to remember 
 Him, and to receive life from Him. " The Lord 
 Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed, took 
 bread ; and when He had blessed and given thanks, He 
 brake it, and gave it to His disciples, and said, Take, 
 eat : this is My Body, which is given and broken for 
 you : do this in remembrance of Me. After the same 
 manner also He took the cup, when He had supped, 
 and when lie had given thanks, He gave it to them, 
 
 1 " On the Gospel according to St. John," pp. 58, 59. The 
 Death of our Lord must not be separated from His Resurrection. 
 '■ When Thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death, Thou 
 didst open the kingdom of Heaven to all believers." The 
 Lord's Supper prominently shows forth the fact of His Death, 
 one side, that is, of the great Truth ; but it also implies His 
 Resurrection ; and through faith in His Death and Resurrec- 
 tion, we live by His Life. 
 
THE WORDS OF INSTITUTION. 
 
 5 
 
 Baying, Drink ye all of it : for this Cup is My Blood — 
 the New Testament in My Blood, which is shed for 
 you and for many, for the remission of sins : this do ye, 
 as oft as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of Me." 1 
 "For as often as ye eat this Bread, and drink this 
 Cup, ye do show the Lord's Death till He come." 2 
 
 1 St. Matt. xxvi. 2G-28 ; St. Mark, xiv. 22-24 ; St. Luke, 
 xxii. 19, 20 ; 1 Cor. xi. 23-25. In the Roman Canon of the 
 Mass there are some remarkable words inserted in the con- 
 secration of the cup, which stands thus: "This is the cup of My 
 Blood of the New [and eternal] Testament, [the mystery of 
 Faith,] which shall be shed for you, and for many, for the re- 
 mission of sins." 
 
 2 1 Cor. xi. 26. In the great liturgies of the Syrian and Al- 
 exandrian Churches these words arc recited after the words of 
 Institution as if they were spoken by our Lord Himself. The 
 canon of the Ambrosian Missal also has them, as appears from 
 the oldest manuscript copy of it known to exist, which is print- 
 ed by Muratori in his Liturgia vetus Romano, T. I. pp. 131-134. 
 These words are found in the same position in the Mozarabic 
 liturgy, that of the primitive Church in Spain. And it is also 
 probable that they formed part of the Consecration Prayer of 
 the primitive Church in Gaul. This liturgy is plainly identical 
 as to its general structure and order with the Mozarabic liturgy, 
 which was probably derived from it. Our English ritualists, 
 Palmer and Nealc, believe that this type of communion office 
 came to the Churches of Gaul from the Churches of Asia Minor. 
 They speak of the original form as the Ephesine Liturgy, and it 
 may well be supposed that it was arranged by St. John himself, 
 no far as regards the order of the parts of the service. The 
 primitive British and Irish Churches appear to have been daugh- 
 ters of the Church in Gaul, and thus to have had their spiritual 
 descent from the Churches of Asia Minor, over which St. John 
 presided in his last days ; and, therefore, it is probable that they 
 celebrated the Holy Communion according to this Ephesine 
 order, and thus would append to the words of Institution the 
 words to which this note refers. Whether (hesc or similar 
 words were spoken or not by the Loud Himself at His Last 
 
6 
 
 THE SUPPER OF T1IE LORD. 
 
 Surely in these blessed words our Lord has opened 
 His whole heart of love towards us. It is, indeed, 
 from His words of Institution that we shall mainly 
 learn the significance of this Sacrament, although His 
 actions also which accompanied His words are full of 
 meaning. " He took the bread, and when He had given 
 thanks, He brake it," signifying that breaking of His 
 sacred Body, which should take place the next day 
 upon the Cross. And He took the Cup separately 
 and delivered it apart from the bread, to signify the 
 shedding of His precious Blood from His Body, both 
 while He was pouring out His soul unto death, and 
 again after death, when " one of the soldiers with a 
 spear pierced His side, and forthwith came thereout 
 blood and water." 1 But the elements of bread and 
 wine, and the prayers and bodily actions with which 
 they are consecrated, have all their spirit and life from 
 the words which our Lord spake at the first Institu- 
 tion : " This is My Body, which is given and broken 
 for you ;" and " drink ye all of it : for this is My Blood, 
 
 Supper, they are of the highest importance, both as pointing 
 out the perpetual relation between the Eucharist and His 
 Second Coming, and also as fixing the true doctrine that His 
 Presence at His Holy Table is not a local presence, as of a 
 material body, but spiritual, to those who commemorate and 
 confess His Death. This we show forth as an act done once 
 for all ; and since He has yet to come again, as to bodily Pre- 
 sence, He is not here. Superstitious opinions, which overshadow 
 both the past fact of the Lord's Death, and the future fact of 
 His coming again, are most dangerous to Faith. Our own 
 Liturgy embodies an application of these words in the prayer 
 of consecration: "A peqietual memory of that His precious 
 Death, until His coming again." Note also that the Sacrament 
 of the Body is still bread. " As often as ye eat this Bread." 
 1 St. John, xix. 34. 
 
THE WORDS OF INSTITUTION. 
 
 which is shed for you and for many for the remission 
 of sins." It is not merely that the Lord, the Son of 
 God, has come down from Heaven and taken into the 
 Godhead in His own Person our flesh and blood, but 
 the infinite depth of His humiliation and self-sacrifice 
 and love, is in these words, " Which is given for you," 
 " Which is shed for you." By these words He assures . 
 us that He has given for our life that life which He 
 had in a mortal body, in the likeness of sinful flesh, 
 but without sin ; that He has given it up as an offer- 
 ing for sin, and that He has thus made peace with 
 God for us, and that now pardon, holiness, and eter- 
 nal life are ours, through this offering of His Body once 
 for all. 1 
 
 This, His perfect Sacrifice and Propitiation for sin, 
 He would have us to keep continually in remembrance. 
 " Do this, as oft as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of 
 Me." We are to remember His Body broken, and His 
 Blood shed for us, always in the depth of our hearts, 
 and as before the eyes of the Father ; but also as mem- 
 bers of the Christian body, partaking together of that 
 one Bread, and drinking together into that one Cup. 
 And our remembrance is to be of the very strongest 
 kind, not a mere superficial one, but such as shall 
 change, and assimilate to our Lord, the spiritual sub- 
 stance of our souls, and make us one with Him, and 
 with one another, — tV, one spiritual reality or Body. 
 
 "Take, eat," "Drink ye all of this." When we 
 eat the bread and drink the wine, they are assimilated 
 into the substance of our bodies. Somewhat in the 
 same way, subject to a certain difference, we take into 
 ourselves, into our very hearts, the grace and truth 
 which the bread and wine represent, and we feed upon 
 1 Heb. x. 10. 
 
8 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 them there, and drink into them, by faith with thanks- 
 giving. But the difference between bodily and spiri- 
 tual food is this ; when we partake of bodily meat and 
 drink, we take them into ourselves, and they are as- 
 similated to our bodily substance, and become part of 
 ourselves ; but when we partake of the True Bread 
 which came down from Heaven, and drink His Blood, 
 He assimilates us to Himself, and makes us spiritually 
 one with Him, as it is written, " He that is joined unto 
 the Lord is one Spirit." 1 
 
 This oneness with the Lord is the end and object of 
 the Sacramental words and action, of the whole risible 
 word of the Lord. And this union makes saints, and 
 yet it is for those who have been sinners, yea, whom 
 the Sacrament finds sinners ; or rather the very words 
 of Institution show that they only receive the Lord in 
 this Holy Sacrament, who draw near as sinners confess- 
 ing sin, displeased with sin, and desirous to be delivered 
 from it. " Which is shed for you and for many, for 
 the remission of sins." What wonderful grace and love 
 is this ! Who can speak of it worthily ? that the Lord 
 should devise to take His sinful, rebellious creatures 
 into union with Himself, by forgiving them their sins, 
 and that by a way so full of love, and of truth, and of 
 righteousness, even by taking their nature, and shedding 
 His own Blood for them ; and that He should make 
 this sacrifice His own peculiar glory, and their chief 
 blessednesss, on which He would have them always to 
 feed mentally and spiritually. 
 
 He knows also the weakness and sinfulness still in- 
 dwelling in His little ones, yet not for that would He 
 
 1 1 Cor. vi. 17. The Holy Spirit has His own proper office in 
 effecting this union with God. He unites us through the Son 
 with the Father. 
 
THE WORDS OF INSTITUTION. 
 
 9 
 
 turn them away from this Holy Table. At the first 
 Institution He gave the Holy Bread and Cup to all 
 His Apostles, though He clearly foresaw that the 
 eleven sincere and faithful ones would all forsake Him 
 that very night, and that the foremost among them 
 would three times deny with an oath, that he knew 
 Him. He saw, that whatever their weakness, their 
 hearts were right towards Him ; and this made an in- 
 finite, eternal difference between their case and that 01 
 Judas ; and so the words " given for you," " shed for 
 you, for the remission of sins," were found true for 
 them in effect, as they are proved true for so many at 
 this day, who approach the Holy Table with fear and 
 trembling, as conscious of their own weakness, and the 
 body of sin still remaining and struggling in their flesh. 
 This Holy Ordinance, if for any, is surely for the weak, 
 but sincere and striving, believer. 
 
 Our Lord assures us also by the words of Institu- 
 tion, that all the good contained in this Sacrament is 
 of free grace and mercy. " This Cup is the New Tes- 
 tament in My Blood." The Gospel, the New, is not, 
 like the Old, primarily a law, nor, even as it is a Cove- 
 nant, does it so much imply compact, or interchange of 
 obligations, as its ground and principle ; but rather it 
 is a Testament or will which takes effect through the 
 Death of the Testator. Its blessings, the forgiveness 
 of sins and eternal life, are given freely as a legacy. 
 As soon as they are received, indeed, they place us in 
 a position of new responsibility to God, and they call 
 for the fulfilment of certain obligations ; but in them- 
 selves they are free gifts, not of works, but of grace, 
 and received by faith. 1 
 
 1 The words which the Roman Missal inserts in the form of 
 consecration of the Cup, are of deep significance. "Mysterium 
 
10 
 
 THE SUPPEE OF TIIE LORD. 
 
 St. Paul received the account of the Institution 
 of the Holy Supper by special revelation from the 
 Lord Himself, and St. Luke, it is probable, received 
 it from St. Paul; and they both recite the words of 
 Consecration of the Cup thus, " This Cup is the New 
 Testament in My Blood." It is certain that our Lord 
 used this very form of expression ; and it is a most 
 remarkable one, and conveys a teaching which He has 
 left, and doubtless had a special interest in leaving, to 
 His Church and faithful ones in all ages. " This Cup 
 
 Fidei— Mystery of Faith." The Blood of the New Testament 
 is the centre truth on which the mind of the believer rests, and 
 it is apprehended, rested upon, and partaken of, only by Faith. 
 In a Commentary on the Mass, in the midst of much that is 
 erroneous, there occurs the following striking remarks upon 
 these words, " The mystery of Faith. The greatest of all mys- 
 teries — and, so to speak, the whole secret of Faith, the whole 
 secret of religion is, that the Blood of God must needs be shed 
 for the salvation of the world. This mystery includes all these 
 truths ; that all men since the beginning of the world, being 
 sinners, were bound to be sacrificed to the justice of God ; that 
 sins are never remitted without shedding of blood ; that the 
 blood of sinners was unworthy of being offered to God ; that 
 from the time of Abel, men have substituted in their place the 
 blood of animals ; that, nevertheless, it was impossible that the 
 blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins ; and that 
 there must needs be a holy victim to sanctify men, — the Blood 
 of God made man, to reconcile them and unite them to God. 
 This is the Great Mystery which was hidden until the Death 
 and Resurrection of the Messiah — the mystery declared by 
 Jesus Christ Himself to the Disciples at Emmaus, when He 
 explained to them the Scriptures, and said, ' Ought not Christ 
 to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?' 
 Mystery, of which the blood shed in all sacrifices was nothing 
 else than a shadow and a figure." — P. Le Brun sur la Mcsse. 
 Tom. i. 477, 478. The Blood actually shed upon Calvary, and 
 sacramentally in the Cup, is pre-eminently the Mystery of 
 Faith. 
 
THE WORDS OP INSTITUTION. 
 
 11 
 
 is the New Testament in My Blood." As if He would 
 say, "All the good things which I purchase for you 
 and which I leave to you, are mystically contained in 
 this Cup." The Blood is not only the Life given and 
 price paid for forgiveness of sins, and for eternal life, 
 and all grace that is necessary to qualify us for Hea- 
 ven ; but it is also the sure seal and pledge that the 
 New Testament takes eternal effect to every soul that 
 receives it, and holds it fast unto the end. The Blood 
 is the sign of the Death of our Testator, and makes us 
 sure that all His is ours, and that freely. " He that is 
 dead, is freed from sin." So our Testator " died unto 
 sin once;" therefore, "Death hath no more dominion 
 over Him ;" 1 and now, because He lives, we shall live 
 also. The Blood of our Testator ministers perfect as- 
 surance to every soul that will trust to it. It taketh 
 away sin ; it sprinkles the heart from an evil conscience ; 
 it purges the conscience itself from dead works to serve 
 the living God; it makes the comers thereunto per- 
 fect ; it perfects for ever them that are sanctified ; it 
 imparts true solid peace ; it has made peace for us ; it 
 is our peace, — that "Blood of sprinkling which speak - 
 eth better things than that of Abel." It speaketh in- 
 deed of the righteous wrath of God against sin, but 
 also of punishment inflicted and borne, and of justice 
 satisfied, and, therefore, it speaketh peace, and that 
 eternal peace ; because it is the Blood of Him Who is 
 equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, and 
 One with the Father. 
 
 Truly He has the Words of Eternal Life, and His 
 Words are Spirit and Life. Let us consider more at- 
 tentively the very words in which He instituted the 
 Holy Supper. " This is My Body, which is given for 
 1 Rom. vi. 7, 9, 10. 
 
12 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 you." " This is My Blood, which is shed for you and 
 for many, for the remission of sins." Each form of 
 consecration naturally resolves itself into two clauses, 1 
 and the mind may either rest upon the first clause, or, 
 as it ought, go on to embrace the whole word of the 
 Lord. The habit of many souls in the Church is to 
 Btop short at the first clauses, and worship ; and thia 
 habit is the result of a certain kind of teaching about 
 the Sacrament; as if the object of the Lord were to 
 change the bread and wine into His Body and Blood, 
 and so to present these as objects of worship. But in 
 truth, in order to apprehend rightly the purpose of the 
 Lord, and the Gift of God, we must go on at once to 
 the words that follow ; " Which is given for you ;" 
 " Wliich is shed for you." For these words make it 
 plain what the Lord intended in ordaining this Sacra- 
 ment; namely, to show forth His Death, and especially 
 the atoning and saving power of it, — that it is " a full, 
 perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction 
 for the sins of the whole world." 
 
 The words of Institution, taken as a whole, and 
 unmutilatcd by the doctrine and tradition of men, are 
 a most full, clear, and direct statement of the purpose 
 for which the Lord laid down His Life, and shed 
 His precbus Blood. They are a declaration of the 
 Atonement such as the Apostles, it is probable, had 
 never received before that memorable evening of the 
 Last Supper. In the former three Gospels, which are 
 called the synoptical, there is absolutely no distinct 
 setting forth of the Atonement before the Institution 
 of the Lohd's Supper, except the Baying incidentally 
 recorded by St. Matthew and St. Mark : " Even as the 
 
 ' The original Greek may be thus resolved, and is rendered 
 in two clauses by the Latin and English versions. 
 
THE WORDS OF INSTITUTION. 
 
 13 
 
 Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to 
 minister, and to give His Life a ransom for many." 1 
 But when the Lord Jesus took bread, and gavo 
 thanks, and brake it, and spake the words of Insti- 
 tution, and likewise gave to them the Cup after Sup- 
 per, then, if their eyes had been spiritually open, the 
 Apostles would have discerned clearly that lie was 
 laying down His Life as a Ransom and Propitiation for 
 the sins of men, and that by this very ordinance He 
 was setting forth His Death as the object upon which 
 their faith, and the faith of all men, who know them- 
 selves sinners, must rest, and feed, and live. Now the 
 whole teaching of this mystery lies in the words, 
 " Which is given for you ;" " Which is shed for you." 
 
 The Roman Missal cuts short the form of conse- 
 cration of the Bread at the words, " This is My Body." 
 In this it differs from every other Liturgy with which 
 we are acquainted, but is countenanced in a measure 
 by the recital of the words of Institution in the Gos- 
 pels of St. Matthew and St. Mark. The Roman 
 Church perverts the Institution of the Lord, by 
 making the Sacrament immediately after consecration 
 the object of adoration, and therefore she has adopted 
 that form of reciting the words of Institution which 
 seems at first sight to allow the mind to rest upon the 
 clause, " This is My Body." But, in itself, this form, 
 when considered more closely, is not only consistent 
 with its being the design of the Sacrament to show 
 forth the Lord's Death, but by carrying the mind on 
 to the form of consecration of the Cup, it manifests the 
 unity of the Sacrament, as a whole, in this intention. 
 Our Lord gave the Cup apart from the Bread, to 
 
 1 St. Matt. xx. 28 ; St. Mark, x. 45. 
 
14 THE SUPPEE OF THE LOED. 
 
 signify thereby the shedding of His Blood from His 
 Body broken. Without the Cup, the significance of 
 the Sacrament is incomplete. There is nothing to 
 signify the shedding of Blood, "without which there 
 is no remission." The Church of Rome, by with- 
 holding the Cup from the people, robs the faithful of 
 that which is most essential to the significance of the 
 Sacrament, especially according to her own form of 
 consecration ; for that Cup signifies the Blood shed 
 from the Body which was given and broken, and the 
 partaking of it is the mystical sprinkling of that Blood 
 of our true Paschal Lamb, which purges the con- 
 science from the guilt of all sin, and which is the 
 only and sufficient ground, to every one that believeth, 
 of Peace with God, and of sweet security that to 
 him there is no condemnation, — that the destroyer can 
 never and shall never touch him. 
 
 The Supper of the Lord, in its completeness, signi- 
 fies that He gave His Life a ransom for many. All 
 depends upon the one giving and sacrifice of His Holy 
 Life. That Life can be laid down but once ; that 
 sacrifice can never be repeated. "Now once in the 
 end of the world He hath appeared to put away sin by 
 the Sacrifice of Himself." " Christ was once offered 
 to bear the sins of many." "We are sanctified 
 through the offering of the Body of Jescs Christ 
 once for all." 1 "There is," therefore, "no more offer- 
 ing for sin ;" and the Lord's Supper is not a Propiti- 
 atory Sacrifice, that is, not a sacrifice to take away sin. 
 It may, indeed, in a certain sense be justly considered 
 as a sacrifice, but if so, it is on all hands confessed 
 that it is an unbloody sacrifice. But that the same 
 sacrifice should be at once Propitiatory and Unbloody, 
 1 Heb. ix. 26, 28 ; x. 10. 
 
THE WORDS OF INSTITUTION. 
 
 15 
 
 is a contradiction as a religious conception ; for " with- 
 out shedding of blood is no remission." 1 Now the 
 Lord has given His Life, and shed His Blood, for us 
 only once, and once for all; and now, "being risen 
 from the dead, He dieth no more ; death hath no more 
 dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died 
 unto sin once ; but in that He liveth, He liveth unto 
 God." 2 So, then, the Breaking of the Bread, and the 
 Pouring out of the Cup, are a figure — one whole 
 figure — looking back to the " one oblation of Himself," 
 which was " once offered," when He actually died upon 
 the Cross, and which is finished, and can never be 
 repeated. " He liveth, and was dead, and is alive for 
 evermore." 3 
 
 Considered, therefore, as a commemoration of the 
 Lord's Death, the Holy Supper has for its main 
 scope and object to set forth the breaking of His 
 Body, and the shedding of His Blood, Who now liveth ; 
 and, therefore, when the people are deprived of that 
 Cup, they are deprived of that which ought most 
 powerfully to convey to their souls that the Lord has 
 really given His Life a Ransom for them, and that 
 this Atonement is now accepted of God for them. The 
 Lord designed His own pledge and visible Word to 
 confirm this truth, and apply it to the souls of His 
 people severally ; and when they are deprived of this 
 pledge, in that part of it which is most significant, they 
 are robbed of that peace and joy, and that spirit of 
 strength and of praise, which this assurance should 
 give, and was designed by the Lord to give them. 
 And this is, in a great measure, the true account of 
 that spirit of bondage, servile fear, and superstition, 
 which prevails among truly godly people whenever the 
 1 Heb. ix. 22. 2 Rom. vi. 9, 10. 3 Rev. i. 18. 
 
1C 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 Sacrament is thus mutilated. Of course the ungodly 
 thrive very well, in their own conceit, under the loss. 
 They do not know the preciousness of the Lord's 
 Blood ; they do not feel their own want of it, for they 
 have never seen, or, at least, do not now see, their own 
 einfulness. 
 
 In the Holy Supper the Lord Himself is truly 
 present to Faith in the whole truth of His Person, and 
 opens His whole heart of love to the broken-hearted 
 worshipper — to him, and him alone, who fears God, 
 and puts his trust in His Mercy. The Lokd is pleased 
 to reveal Himself both by signs and by words, and the 
 purport of all is to assure every individual believer 
 severally, and His whole Mystical Body collectively, 
 u I loved you, and gave Myself for you f and this ex- 
 press declai-ation of His love is contained chiefly in 
 these words, 11 given for you:" " shed for you." It was 
 much love that He took our flesh and our blood upon 
 Him, but ineffectual for our salvation would they have 
 been, but for His much greater love, in that He gave 
 them to death for us. "Greater love hath no man 
 than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." 1 
 
 In the Words of Institution we may consider the 
 Lord to speak as God, as He truly is, Blessed for 
 evermore. Amen. Then He reveals to us the good 
 pleasure of the will of God to save all them that 
 believe — " the eternal purpose which He purposed in 
 Christ Jesus our Lord." 2 He reveals the eternal lovo 
 of the Godhead, both of the Father, Who gave His 
 only-begotten Son, and of the Son, Who willingly 
 offered Himself to come into the world to do His 
 Father's will in being made Man, and laying down 
 His Man's life for man. In this point of view He is, 
 1 St. John, xv. 13. 2 Eph. iii. 11. 
 
THE WORDS OF INSTITUTION. 
 
 17 
 
 as to His divine Person, "the Lamb slain from the 
 foundation of the world." 1 Yea, "Who verily was 
 foreordained before the foundation of the world." 2 
 
 But to assist our minds and hearts in lifting them- 
 selves up to the eternal purpose and incomprehensible 
 love of our God, the Lord in the Words of Institution 
 speaks also as Man, " of a reasonable soul and human 
 flesh subsisting." He has a human will, which in the 
 hour of His Passion was naturally reluctant against 
 death, but which submitted itself freely to the Divine 
 Will. "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto 
 death." 3 "Father, if it be possible, let this Cup pass 
 from Me : nevertheless, not My will, but Thine be 
 done." 4 It was in the free acting of His human will 
 that He took the Bread, and, when He had given 
 thanks, brake it, and gave it to His disciples, and 
 gave, likewise, the Cup after supper. And by the free 
 acting of the same will submitted to the will of God, 
 He gave His Body to be broken, and shed His Blood, 
 for us. We were then, as we are now, in His human 
 heart. The motive of all that He said and did was 
 free, unmerited love to us. Good to us was the one 
 end which He sought in Life and Death. And in 
 all that He did and suffered, He was in perfect har- 
 mony with the will of the Father. Thus we are led 
 up through the love of the Man Christ Jesus to 
 the love of the Father, Whose He is, Whom He 
 declares, and with Whom He is One, and is God. 
 
 They who dwell most upon a presence of the Lord's 
 Body and Blood, in this Holy Sacrament, as if they 
 were made locally present by an act of divine power, 
 and who rest in them as objects of worship, without 
 
 1 Rev. xiii. 8. 2 1 St. Peter, i. 20. 3 Matt. xxvi. 38. 
 1 Matt. xxvi. 39. 
 
 2 
 
18 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 spiritually apprehending Christ, in many cases appear 
 to forget that He had, and has now, a reasonable soul, 
 in all points made like unto our souls, sin only ex- 
 cepted "of which he was clearly void, both in His 
 flesh and in His Spirit." But such persons must forego 
 the unspeakable comfort and peace of being able, as 
 one has said, to rest the soul upon a beating human 
 heart — the heart of One who has a fellow-feeling with 
 our infirmities, and was in all points tempted like as 
 we are, " yet without sin ;" through "Whom, therefore, 
 we may "go boldly unto the throne of grace, that we 
 may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of 
 need." 1 
 
 This defective apprehension must very much hinder 
 Faith in that which is proposed as the object of our 
 Faith in the Lord's Supper, that is to say, the Death 
 of the Lord ; that the Man Christ Jesus, being the 
 Holy One of God, without blemish and without spot, 
 freely of His own will offered Himself up to die as our 
 substitute, and gave His Life a ransom for many. His 
 Body was not swayed immediately by His Godhead, 
 but by His reasonable soul and will, submitting itself 
 to the Divine Will ; and in this Holy Sacrament we 
 see Him in the free acting of the same human heart, 
 pointing, as it were, to His own Person, and saying 
 to each individual soul, "Behold and see how I have 
 loved thee, and do love thee. Is there anything more 
 which could have been done for thee, which I have 
 not done? Take, eat: I have given My own Body 
 to be broken for thee. Drink of this, for I have given 
 My own Blood to be shed for thee. It is My gift, 
 the gift of My Love, whereby I declare the good- will 
 
 1 Hcb. iv. 15, 16. 
 
THE WORDS OF INSTITUTION. 
 
 19 
 
 towards thee of My Father Who hath sent Me. Why 
 dost thou not freely own, and freely receive My Love f 
 Freely I give; freely do thou receive." "Verily, 
 verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me hath 
 everlasting Life. I am That Bread of Life. Your 
 fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. 
 This is the Bread Which cometh down from Heaven, 
 that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the 
 Living Bread which came down from Heaven : if any 
 man eat of This Bread, he shall live for ever: and 
 the Bread that I give is My Flesh, Which I have given 
 for the life of the world." 1 
 
 This is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, which 
 bringeth salvation. This grace it is which, applied 
 and received by the power of the Holy Spirit, touches, 
 softens, and changes our sinful, rebellious hearts. 
 
 A true history of Avhat took place not long ago, will 
 illustrate, as by way of parable, the saving power of 
 this free grace and loving-kindness of our Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 An Englishman sojourning in one of the principal 
 towns of Switzerland, was moved with compassion for 
 the multitudes lying in darkness and the shadow of 
 death, and being able to speak French with ease, he 
 opened a room, and began to preach the Gospel to all 
 that would come to hear. He preached Christ faith- 
 fully, and offered His salvation freely to all and each 
 one who heard him. One day there came in to hear 
 him, as it were by accident, one of the most profligate 
 men in the place, a notorious evil-liver, who heard 
 these glad tidings, and received that which did not leave 
 him, and which made all things new in him. For, 
 
 1 St. John, vi. 47-51. 
 
20 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LOED. 
 
 about a fortnight afterwards, the principal minister of 
 the town was astonished by his coming to him and 
 asking to be admitted to the Holy Communion. The 
 minister told him that he was not a fit person to come 
 to the Holy Table of the Lord, " for," said he, " we 
 all know what kind of life you have been living. And 
 what can make you wish to come now ?" But the poor 
 lost one had been found, and he replied, " I wish to 
 come, because 1 know that Jesus loves me." " And 
 how do you know that Jesus loves you ?" asked the 
 minister. To whom he replied to this effect: "I 
 went to hear the Englishman who preaches, and he 
 told me — I never heard such a thing before — that 
 Jesus loved me. It went to my heart ; I saw and felt 
 that it was true ; and it has changed everything to me, 
 and I hate and lothe all that I loved before ; and now 
 I want to give myself up to the Lord to be His al- 
 ways, because I know that He loves me. And this is 
 why I wish to come to the Holy Communion." And 
 then he went on to relate a remarkable dream, to this 
 effect : " One night, when I had fallen asleep with my 
 heart full of this, ' Jesus loves me,' it seemed as if 
 there suddenly stood before me a glorious Person, so 
 bright and awful, that I could scarcely bear to look on 
 Him. I knew by His wounds, that it was the Lord, 
 and I fell at His feet to worship Him, and looking up, 
 I said, ' 0 Lord Jesus, I do love Thee ;' but He did 
 not say one word, or move a feature, and, indeed, seem- 
 ed as if He did not hear me. In some distress I said 
 again, 1 0 Lord Jesus, I do love Thee ;' still He stood 
 just like an image, without word or motion. And now 
 quite in an agony, I cried out, 'Lord Jesus, dost 
 Thou love me ?' and immediately He smiled on me so 
 
if 
 
 THE WORDS OF INSTITUTION. 21 
 
 sweetly, and said, 'I do love thee;' and I am come 
 here now, because I believe that Jesus loves me." 1 
 
 Here is in truth the root of the whole matter. The 
 religion of man is always saying, " 0 Lord, I do love 
 Thee;" that is, the natural heart from first to last 
 claims acceptance on the ground of my love to God. 
 But true religion, the religion of Christ, is the re- 
 ligion oifree gift. It is the grace of God that bringeth 
 salvation. "Herein is love, not that we loved God, 
 but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the 
 Propitiation for our sins." 2 Then, if so be we own and 
 receive His love, " we love Him because he first loved 
 us." 3 But all that salvation includes, pardon, peace, 
 righteousness, love, joy, eternal life — all from first to 
 last is His free gift, in the Person of His Own dear 
 Son. And the Lord Jesus is ever inviting us — all 
 those who are weary and heavy-laden with the bur- 
 den of their sins — to come to Him, and claim and own 
 Him as our Saviour, upon this ground only, that the 
 Father hath first loved us — loved us while we were 
 sinners, and loves us now. 
 
 The Holy Communion in its primary significance is 
 simply the expression and visible utterance of this mind 
 and heart of our God and Saviour. What would 
 any one give to receive from His own lips an assurance 
 like that which He appears to have vouchsafed to this 
 penitent in a vision of the night ? But, in truth, the 
 holy gifts are His own visible words, saying the very 
 
 1 Whatever account may be given of this remarkable dream, 
 that which it impressed upon the man's soul is sacred truth, 
 and most important. And, be it observed, this penitent be- 
 lieved the Word of God first, and was changed by it, before he 
 had the dream. 
 
 * 1 St. John, iv. 10. 5 Ibid. 19. 
 
 t 
 
22 
 
 THE SUPPER OF TIIE LORD. 
 
 same thing, to every broken-hearted believer. And 
 most plainly, by the words wherewith He consecrates 
 and delivers the bread and wine, does He say : ." I love 
 you, and have given Myself for you. Take and eat ; 
 Drink ye all of this. Receive, as I have given, freely, 
 without money, and without price." 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 THE WAY TO GOD THROUGH THE FLESH OF THE LORD. 
 
 Our apprehension of the Gift of God very much de- 
 pends upon attention to the word and fact of His giving. 
 " The bread that I will give" saith our Lord, " is My 
 Flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." 1 If 
 that Flesh were not given, we were yet in our sins, and 
 in bondage to death, hell, and the devil. But because 
 it has been given, we, if we receive it, have eternal 
 life. And thus we are brought again into contact with 
 a first truth, ever to be dwelt upon, — namely, that 
 there is no true Christian communion with the living 
 God but through union with the Person of Christ, 
 and no union with His Person but through faith in 
 His Death — in the fact, that is, that He has given His 
 Flesh for the life of the world. And this, doubtless, is 
 a chief reason why the Lord has ordained His Holy 
 Supper, " for the continual remembrance of the Sacri- 
 fice of His Death, and of the benefits which we re- 
 ceive thereby." 
 
 Before He died for us in the flesh, we, that is, all 
 men born of Adam, were under condemnation and sen- 
 
 1 St. John, vi. 51. 
 
 « 
 
THE WAY TO GOD. 
 
 23 
 
 tence of death for our sins. We were children of 
 God's wrath. And the Lord also Himself, although 
 the Holy One of God, was, until He died on the Cross, 
 under condemnation as our substitute, who had taken 
 our sins upon Him. Thus we read in the Scripture, 
 " God, sending His Own Son in the likeness of sinful 
 flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." 1 And 
 again, "He hath made Him to be sin for us, Who 
 knew no sin." 2 Now while He was standing in our 
 position, liable to death, as if He were a sinner, or 
 rather the sinner, there was, properly speaking, no 
 Christian communion with God. He, in Whom coidd 
 be no sin, came down into this wicked world of ours, 
 and took part, in all points, in our lot, and bare our 
 sins, that He might raise us into His righteousness 
 and life eternal. But in order effectually to raise us, 
 it was necessary that He should discharge all the obli- 
 gations of our lot; that is, that He should die the 
 actual death of the flesh, inasmuch as it is the ordain- 
 ed penalty of sin. And then, and not till then, He 
 was justified in the Spirit. "Christ hath once suffer- 
 ed for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might 
 bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but 
 quickened by the Spirit;" 3 that is, "He was declared 
 to be the Son of God with power, according to the 
 Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead;" 4 
 and this, His quickening, or Resurrection by the power 
 of the Spirit, is also spoken of in Scripture as His 
 being "justified in the Spirit." 5 And now, because 
 He died once for all, our sins are taken away ; and be- 
 cause He is justified, we are justified, and accepted of 
 God; and our persons are made holy and righteous 
 
 1 Romans, viii. 3. 2 2 Cor. v. 21. 3 1 St. Peter, iii. 18. 
 * Romans, Li. 4 1 Tim. iii. 16. " itnifMrt. 
 
24 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 by union with Him and His spotless righteousness, 
 which is accepted and visibly sealed by God the Father, 
 by His resurrection from the dead. Thus He "was 
 delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our 
 justification." 1 
 
 Now, therefore, "having boldness to enter into the 
 holiest by the Blood of Jesus, by a new and living 
 way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the 
 veil, that is to say, His Flesh; and having an High 
 Priest over the House of God ; let us draw near with 
 a true heart in the full assurance of faith, having our 
 hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our 
 bodies washed with pure water." 2 This freedom of 
 access to God is precisely that blessedness which the 
 Supper of the Lord powerfully and effectually repre- 
 sents to the broken-hearted believer, that he may em- 
 brace and ever hold it fast ; and the way, the only way, 
 is " through the offering of the Body of Jescs Christ 
 once for all," — "through the veil, that is to say, His 
 Flesh," — "Who hath reconciled us in the Body of His 
 Flesh, through death, to present us holy, and unblame- 
 able, and unreproveable in His sight." 3 He died but 
 once for ever ; but the way through His Flesh broken 
 and His Blood shed, is a new and living way, con- 
 tinually open until the end ; and by it we go straight 
 to our Living High Priest, where in the Holiest He is 
 discharging His office as our Advocate and Mediator 
 at the right-hand of God. His Person is the mercy- 
 seat, or Propitiatory of God, and our way to it is 
 through His Death and precious Blood-shedding in 
 our flesh, and is, on our part, by Faith, and the Sacra- 
 ments of Faith. 
 
 1 Rom. iv. 25. 1 Heb. x. 19-22. 
 
 »Heb. x. 10,20; Col. i. 21, 22. 
 
THE WAT TO GOD. 
 
 25 
 
 This simple first truth at once cuts at the root of all 
 that false spirituality which would pretend to approach 
 the Living, Holy God immediately, and not through the 
 Manhood of our Lord Jesus Christ ; or more specifi- 
 cally, not through His Flesh given and broken for us, 
 as if man were by nature, or could become by self-dis- 
 cipline, too spiritual to need a way to God through 
 another Man, and through His Flesh. 
 
 Even in the times of the Apostles errors of this kind 
 had arisen, which promised immediate access to God 
 and communion with Him, or if not immediate, at least 
 by ways seemingly more spiritual, and more separate 
 from the material world, than that which is our New 
 and Living Way. And these errors seem to have been 
 propagated by a great spiritual power at work, an 
 ivepyeta wXavr)?, a strong delusion having the appear- 
 ance of power from God. And there are some such 
 appearances in our day, and perhaps have been in every 
 age all along through the histoiy of the Church. 
 Therefore the Apostle St. John warns Christians to 
 try all such appearances by a simple test. " Beloved, 
 believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether 
 they are of God; because many false prophets are 
 gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit 
 of God : every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ 
 is come in the Flesh, is of God : and every Spirit that 
 confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, 
 is not of God; and this is that spirit of Anti-Christ 
 whereof ye have heard that it should come ; and even 
 now already is it in the world." 1 
 
 In all ages of the Church the faithful witnesses of 
 the Lord and His Truth have had occasion to apply 
 this test : " Jesus Christ is come in the flesh." This 
 1 1 St. John, iv. 1-3. 
 
20 
 
 THE SCPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 ■was doubtless the central truth on w hich turned the 
 controversy of St. Irenoeus and other Catholic cham- 
 pions, with the Gnostics of the second century. And 
 this same vital truth was assailed in the fifth century, 
 within the Church herself, from different sides, by what 
 are called the Nestorian and Eutychian heresies. The 
 former, addressing itself to those whose bent of mind is 
 towards rationalism, separates the Two Natures which 
 are united in the Person of our Lord ; the latter, ad- 
 dressing itself to those whose mental disposition is 
 inclined to superstition, confuses the two natures, and, 
 as it were, absorbs the Manhood into the Godhead. 
 Either heresy issues in a direct denial of the Lord's 
 having come in the flesh, and so nullifies the reality of 
 the Atonement, which rests upon the Incarnation as its 
 foundation. 1 
 
 1 It is worthy of consideration whether Nestorianism and Euty- 
 chianism, be not the out-working or development of two falsely- 
 spiritual tendencies which beset the faith of every believer seve- 
 rally, according as the natural bias of his fleshly mind is either 
 towards rationalism or towards superstition. In the former 
 case he may be drawn unconsciously, perhaps, but still most 
 injuriously to his soul, to separate the Manhood from the God- 
 head, and so may virtually become a Nestorian. In the latter 
 case, he may be drawn as perniciously, though with more ap- 
 pearance of piety and reverence, to lose the Manhood in the 
 Godhead, and so may become virtually an Eutychian. It may 
 be that the same person has experience of both these evil ten- 
 dencies, at different stages of his course, according as, at different 
 times, his fleshly mind is more inclined to rationalism or super- 
 stition. From either temptation may the good Lord deliver us. 
 The danger of these false-spiritual tendencies, is not altogether 
 obviated by holding the Catholic forms of sound doctrine. 
 Looking at the disposition to have recourse to angels and de- 
 parted saints, as mediators, which has so much prevailed in the 
 Church, may we not ascribe it to a false or defective view, whe- 
 
THE WAY TO GOD. 27 
 
 In later ages of the Church the denial of the truth, 
 that the Lord is come in the flesh, has cloaked it- 
 self in more and more subtle forms of error. But the 
 Lord has from time to time raised up His servants to 
 expose and combat these delusions. In some cases, 
 simply to expose and bring them to the light is to kill 
 them outright. Thus even St. Theresa, with quiet sim- 
 plicity, laid bare the delusion of those falsely-reputed 
 contemplatives in the monasteries of Spain, who, in 
 their self-conceit, were exalted to such an height of 
 pure spirituality, that they thought the Sacred Man- 
 hood of our Blessed Lord an hindrance to them, rather 
 than an help in their contemplations, for that without 
 It, they had direct approach to, and immediate com- 
 munion with God. 
 
 So too, almost contemporaneously, the great Re- 
 former Martin Luther had maintained, from the time 
 when he received clear views of divine truth, a life-long 
 warfare with the Anabaptists and other fanatical spirits, 
 who directly, or by implication, denied that the Lord 
 has come in the flesh. Herein he was combating a 
 
 ther rationalist or superstitious, of the Person of the Lord ? 
 One view, tending to Nestorianism, would make Him seem in- 
 sufficient to save; the other view, tending to Eutychianism, 
 would make Him seem too high, and as if He were unable or 
 unwilling, to feel for us in our sins and distress. The congeni- 
 ality of Nestorianism with Pelagianism, has often been re- 
 marked, and is easily accounted for, by their common rationalist 
 or naturalist origin. May not a similar affinity be detected be- 
 tween Eutychianism and that extreme Predestinarianism, which 
 one may call Necessitarianism, and which refers all that is 
 human, to the will of God, and, as it were, loses all in God ? If 
 this be so, it establishes a remarkable correspondence or paral- 
 lelism between the heretical tendencies prevalent during the 
 fifth century in the eastern and western Churches respectively. 
 
28 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 tendency to false spirituality, which passed over to the 
 age of the Reformation from the ages preceding, and 
 which had been extensively working among the so- 
 called Friends of God in Germany. Luther appears 
 to have felt, and probably had learned from his own 
 experience, that the danger from false spirituality is not 
 so much that of an open cfenial of the truth, as of a 
 secret stealthy drawing of the soul aside from the true 
 and spiritual apprehension of the Lord, and that this 
 danger is better met by the faithful exhibition of the 
 truth than by argument. Accordingly his writings 
 abound with forcible and clear presentations of the 
 Person of our Lord, on the side of His Manhood, as 
 the one way to the Father. The exercise of this ob- 
 jective faith in the Lord Himself is doubtless the best 
 corrective, whether of the morbid introversion of the 
 eye of the soul upon itself, or of that self-confident ap- 
 proach to the naked Majesty of God, and those pre- 
 sumptuous speculations concerning His unrevealed will, 
 which are sure to prevail wherever there is practical 
 denial or neglect of the fundamental truth, that the 
 Lord is come in the flesh. 
 
 There can be no doubt that these and kindred forms 
 of error, are to be found at this day among Christians, 
 both within the Catholic Church and outside of it. 
 But there is one form of error, the most exquisitely 
 subtle of all, which appears to be springing up on all 
 sides, and which is certainly not confined to our own 
 Church, but is to be found, perhaps, even more com- 
 monly, in the Church of Rome ; the error, namely, 
 that our union with Christ is 'wrought directly and 
 simply by virtue of His Incarnation, applied to us by 
 Sacraments. This orror is the more specious, because 
 it not only admits the Incarnation and the Sacraments, 
 
THE WAY TO GOD. 
 
 29 
 
 but appears both to exalt the Incarnation and also to 
 glorify the Sacraments as the unfailing instruments of 
 its application to us. Whereas, in truth, this view 
 makes void the design both of the Incarnation and of 
 the Sacraments. When the Lord was made flesh, and 
 came in the likeness of our sinful flesh, it was first of 
 all for sin, to be made a sin-offering for us. Accord- 
 ingly, both the Sacraments bring us into contact, first 
 of all, with the power of His death to take away sin. 
 We see by the Sacrament of Baptism, that Faith in 
 the Death and precious Blood-shedding of the Lord is 
 the only way to union with His Person ; and the same 
 truth is embodied in the Lord's Supper. It is only by 
 receiving the Lord as given for us, that we can come 
 to receive Him as given to us. 
 
 But for greater clearness on this momentous subject, 
 one may well go again over ground which has been 
 already traversed. To adopt the words of a dear 
 friend: "There are two great facts or truths respecting 
 Christ : first, His coming into our lot ; and secondly, 
 our coming into His lot. The first is curse to Him ; 
 the second is blessing to us. The first is accomplished 
 by His Incarnation ; the second, by His Death and 
 Resurrection. His coming into our place is a step to 
 this. We could not come into His place did He not 
 first come down into ours. But His coming down into 
 our place is not, strictly speaking, the Christian truth. 
 St. Paul ' preached Jesus and the Resurrection.' 
 Christ is said to be justified in the Spirit. In the 
 flesh He was condemned and put to death ; for in the 
 days of His flesh, before His death, that is, He was in 
 our place, not we in His." But now. through faith in 
 Him, as having died in the flesh and risen again, as our 
 substitute, in our place, we pass into His place, which 
 
30 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 is Resurrection and Life. t: I am the Resurrection 
 and the Life, saith the Lord," but it is to them that 
 believe on Him, as having died for us and risen again. 
 And if men are suffered to stop short and rest in the 
 Incarnation, and taught that they are already indis- 
 solubly united with Christ, by birth-relationship to 
 Him, whether simply by the fact of His Incarnation, or 
 by virtue of the reception of Baptism in their infancy, 
 as if it conveyed an indefectible grace which could 
 not be lost by unbelief and disobedience ; it is but too 
 likely that they will fatally deceive themselves, and 
 think that they are in Christ, when they are not, 
 will never experience the power of His Death, through 
 Faith in His Blood, and so will never attain to the 
 Resurrection and the Life. 
 
 Now " so many of us as were baptized into CnRiST, 
 were baptized into His Death." " As often as ye eat 
 this Bread, and drink this Cup, ye do show the Lord's 
 Death, till He come." Both the Sacraments of the 
 Gospel obviously present the Death of the Lord to our 
 Faith ; and both are standing witnesses of God that 
 our union with the Lord is not through His Incarna- 
 tion merely, but through Faith in His Death and 
 Resurrection. He was made Flesh that He might be 
 for sin, that is, the Sacrifice for our sins. God " made 
 Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin, that we might 
 be made [or become] the righteousness of God in 
 Him." 1 When He took on Him our flesh, our sins 
 were imputed to Him, and He took them away by the 
 suffering of death, so that they are not imputed to us 
 who believe on Him. 
 
 By Faith, and the Sacrament of Faith, we put Him 
 on, we become one with Him, we enter into His right- 
 1 2 Cor. v. 21. 
 
THE WAT TO GOD. 
 
 31 
 
 eousness and Likeness inwardly, God accepting our 
 persons as being united with His dear Son. Then 
 follow communion with IJini, and growth in His like- 
 ness, throughout our whole nature, in every principle 
 and faculty of it — a growth wrought by the grace of 
 God working from within outwards, and descending 
 from the highest to the lowest regions of our nature, 
 until our very bodies shall be transfigured into the 
 likeness of His glorious Body. 
 
 The Lord "is come in the Flesh." The truly spiri- 
 tual man never loses sight of this fact. From first to 
 last the Manhood of the Lord is our Way, and our 
 only Way to God. But the Manhood of the Lord 
 may be known after two manners, spiritually, and 
 after the flesh. After the flesh, It is known by the 
 exercise of the merely natural imagination ; but spiri- 
 tually we know It by the exercise of Faith as it is 
 presented to us by the Word and Sacraments of Faith. 
 Now they present the Manhood of Him Who both 
 died for us and rose again ; and any presentation of 
 Him which does not include, at least virtually, this 
 fundamental Truth, is not saving. 
 
 As a matter of experience, every soul which by the 
 spiritual vision of Faith has once beheld the glory of 
 His Manhood in the glory of the Father, will recog- 
 nize the difference between spiritual knowledge of Him 
 and knowing Him after the flesh, and will understand 
 what is meant when it is said that the only way to the 
 spiritual knowledge of the mystery of the Incarnation, 
 and of the glory of the Man Christ Jesus, is through 
 the Faith of a sinner in His Blood as shed for sin. 
 
 In His Holy Supper, the Lord teaches us to show 
 forth His Death continually, until He comes again. 
 His Death, therefore, He would have us hold in re- 
 
32 
 
 THE SUPPEE OF THE LOP.D. 
 
 membrance, not merely at first conversion, as if it were 
 only an infantine piety which rested on His Blood, but 
 continually, all through our spiritual life. The Holy 
 Supper is manifestly an ordinance for growth. As we 
 are born, so we grow. 
 
 The principle of life is one and the same — the Lord 
 Himself received and held by Faith. The just man 
 lives by Faith, and Faith lives on Christ, His Death 
 and Resurrection, His Life and Person. But so far is 
 it from being a mark that a Christian is in a low state, 
 standing still, and remaining but a babe in Christ, 
 because he continues to rest upon the Precious Blood, 
 and glories and delights himself on It, that on the con- 
 trary, if he were not to do so, he would not be growing 
 in grace at all ; for wherever there is growth in true 
 spirituality, there is growth also in apprehension of the 
 power and preciousness of the Death and Blood-shed- 
 ding of the Lord. And this is one sure test, or note, 
 by which to distinguish true spirituality from false. 
 And the reason is obvious. The believer, growing in 
 grace, and entering into closer and closer communion 
 with God, must be growing in insight into His Holi- 
 ness, and in apprehension of the evil and guilt of sin, 
 and of his own sin, and in that concurrence also with 
 the wrath of God and His righteous, everlasting judg- 
 ments against sin, of which the Psalms and the Pro- 
 phets are so full ; and so the righteous man feels every 
 day more deeply the infinite preciousness of the Lamb 
 slain, without blemish and without spot, and realizes 
 more strongly the safety there is to all who are 
 sprinkled with His Blood. Becoming more godly, that 
 is, more godlike, the advancing Christian comes to see 
 things, in a manner, from the same point of view from 
 which God sees them, and he learns more and more 
 
THE WAT TO GOD. 
 
 33 
 
 to set the same value upon the Precious Blood which 
 God sets upon It. This is the principle of holiness of 
 the Truth. 1 Sanctification of the Spirit always ad- 
 vances side by side "with sprinkling of the Blood of 
 Jesus Christ. 2 
 
 In itself the preciousness of the Blood rests, as on a 
 foundation, upon the dignity of the Person ; but as 
 regards our apprehension, it is a first truth, that we 
 attain to realize the worthiness, grace, and truth of the 
 Person of the Lord, through faith in His Blood. And 
 never to the last does the faithful Christian lose sight 
 of His Death : no, nor ever will throughout eternity ; 
 for the centre of the worship of Heaven is the Lamb 
 Which was slain. And by the Holy Supper we see 
 that, according to His own will and commandment, 
 our worship of Hitn and communion with His Person, 
 must continue to be, as long as we live here, through 
 His Body broken, and His Blood shed. And herein, 
 as by an instrument, He is pleased to impart Himself, 
 His whole self, to us. The Cup of Blessing which we 
 bless, and the Bread which we break upon earth, are 
 the visible words of Him Who livcth, and was dead, 
 and is alive for evermore. Through them we receive 
 Him, not as now suffering, or dead, but as He is, the 
 risen, ascended, living Lord. That Bread and that 
 Cup signify, or imply, that He is come in the Flesh, 
 that He has died and risen again, and is gone up on 
 high, and is appearing before God for us, and that 
 He will come again. And, moreover, they present to 
 our Faith His whole Person, His Body, Soul, and 
 Godhead. 
 
 Through the Body which was broken and actually 
 * Epb. iv. 24. 1 1 St. Peter, i. 2. 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 TILE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 suffered, and through the Blood which was shed, we 
 discern the reasonable soul, whereby, in the love and the 
 free acting of His human will, He gave His Body and 
 His Blood for us. And again through His human 
 soul, we discern His true and proper Godhead, wherein 
 He is equal and co-eternal with the Father Who sent 
 Him. Thus passing through the veil which He has 
 opened — that is to say, His Flesh — we are led on 
 through Him into the Holiest of all, even to the love 
 and eternal "Will of God, the Father, the Son, and 
 the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Access to God is through the Person of the Son; 
 and in the whole truth of His Person He is the reality 
 signified, or, if it seem good so to speak, the Substance, 
 the spiritual Substance, of this Sacrament. 1 He is the 
 
 1 There can be no question but that to »ohto», the spiritual re- 
 ality in the Lord's Supper, is the Lord Himself in the whole 
 truth of His Person, Body, Soul, and Godhead. The doctrine 
 of Transubstantiation is the carnalising of this deep spiritual 
 truth. The Lord is the Substance, the elements of bread and 
 wine are shadows, and, as it were, " accidents ;" that is, they 
 are simply means to the spiritual end of the Sacrament, which 
 is to present Christ to the soul. After consecration, remaining 
 physically what they were before it, they receive from the Holy 
 Spirit efficacy to present the Lord's Body and Blood as given 
 and shed for us. As mere bread and wine they are to the be- 
 liever as though they were not. They arc figures, on which his 
 mind does not rest, but through which it passes on to the re- 
 alities which they signify, and to the end of all, which is the 
 Lord Jesus Himself, the True Substance, the True Bread of 
 Life, which came down from Heaven. In the same way, when 
 one preaches the Gospel, the words, taken in themselves separ- 
 ately, are ordinary and earthly sounds ; and the words of the 
 Lord which one writes, are in themselves mere scratches with 
 pen and ink upon paper ; but from the inward sense which they 
 convey, — from Christ, Whom they offer, these words, written 
 or spoken, pass, as it were, into the spiritual reality Itself, and 
 
TOE WAT TO GOD. 
 
 35 
 
 Bread of God, the Bread of Life ; and His Flesh is 
 meat indeed, and His Blood drink indeed; and our 
 heart, and mind, and soul, pass on through the out- 
 ward and visible gifts, the Bread and the Cup, and 
 lose all note of them in apprehending That Gift which 
 they respectively signify; and in apprehending That 
 Gift we apprehend the Person of Him Who gave it ; 
 and in apprehending Him, we lay hold upon the good 
 pleasure of the Will of God, which is revealed in 
 Hun. 
 
 " 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 communion of the Body of 
 Christ?" 1 We communicate in His precious Gifts, 
 given for us, that we may enter into communion with 
 the Giver Himself, and that our heart, and mind, and 
 
 are lost sight of in It ; they become instruments and channels 
 of the grace of God, and nothing else, to our spirits. And very 
 awful realities they become— if not a savour of life, a savour of 
 death. Just so the Holy Sacraments offer Christ, even to 
 the unbelieving, impenitent, and unthankful, but then there is 
 no capacity to receive Him. God Himself, so to speak, cannot 
 give to those who will not receive. And so the ottering of 
 Christ to the obstinately wicked is not to life, but to condem- 
 nation. It appears that those who deny that the Sacraments 
 powerfully offer Christ to the unbeliever must, if consistent 
 with themselves, be led on to deny that the Word powerfully 
 offers Him to the unbeliever. On this point a remarkable 
 conversation of Luther with Bullinger, is recorded in Luther's 
 Table Talk; Bogue's Ed. § 35, p. 15. But Bullinger appears 
 to have gone back to his old opinion, so far as relates to the 
 Sacraments. There is a remarkable letter to him from Peter 
 Martyr about the Sacramental views of our English Ueformen.. 
 in Bradford's Works, vol. ii. p. 403, (Parker Soc.) On "Tran- 
 substantiation," see an Appendix. 
 
 1 1 Cor. x. 1C. 
 
36 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 soul may rest in Him, feed on Him, and find perfect 
 satisfaction in Him. "My Beloved is Mine, and I 
 am His ;" 1 " He is Mine," said the fervent Robert Mac 
 Cheync. "He is mine in the Sacrament." 
 
 The Lord Jesus is God, and God is Love, and He 
 delights to communicate Himself. It is His very Na- 
 ture. And so our communion with the Lord in this 
 Holy Sacrament is all by way of free gift on His part. 
 It is not a work of our own. A preparation, indeed, 
 of the heart, and mind, and affections, is recpiired on 
 our part. We are to examine ourselves whether we 
 be in the Faith, abiding in Christ by Faith, not in 
 word only, but in deed, and in truth. But in the act 
 of Communion we are not workers, but receivers. 
 " Open thy month wide, and I will till it." 
 
 The Lord Himself says, "Take, eat." It is not 
 " Give," but " Take." God says not, " I am claiming 
 something here," but " I am giving Life ; take It as a 
 free gift." In other words, "Take," utters all the 
 Gospel, that we have only to come as empty ones, not 
 as givers, but as receivers, to be filled. 
 
 Accordingly, in receiving the Holy Communion, no 
 violent exercise of the will, or understanding, or feel- 
 ings, is required. Rather it would be a hindrance, re- 
 calling the soul to self; whereas the blessing is to for- 
 get self, and feed on the Lord by Faith with Thanks- 
 giving. Many seem to deprive themselves in a great 
 measure of the fruit of the Sacrament by striving with 
 violent effort to work themselves up to tears, or some 
 other excitement of sensible devotion, or to testify 
 extraordinary reverence by forced postures of body, 
 instead of waiting in a still calm posture of body aud 
 soul to receive the Gift of God, as His Gift. There is 
 ■ £3oug of Sol. ii. 16. 
 
THE WAY TO GOD. 
 
 37 
 
 much of self in all our workings and strivings, but 
 there is Faith in expectation and waiting upon God. 
 Faith in itself is a calm principle, of the nature of 
 rest, for it is reliance upon God and His Word. 1 It 
 is born from the imperceptible breathing of the Spirit 
 of God upon our free-will ; and the Word and Sacra- 
 ments which Faith receives, are as a still small voice in 
 the very centre of the soul. But they change all things 
 to us, and in us. Great excitement of feeling may 
 follow, when the change is perceived ; but the Life of 
 CHRIST, His Cross, and Likeness in us, these are the 
 results which prove that Faith is living, and that union 
 with the Lord truly subsists. 
 
 In His Holy Supper, then, it is good to wait upon 
 Him in this calm posture of Faith, that is, in simple 
 reliance upon His words, both visible and spoken. 
 " My soul truly waiteth still upon God ; for of Him 
 conieth my salvation." 2 " O taste and see how gracious 
 the Lord is : blessed is the man that trusteth in Iliin." 3 
 
 1 Faith in itself is a receiving; a submission of the will and 
 understanding to the word and will of God ; a simple resigna- 
 tion of self; a holy passivity of the soul, resting all upon the 
 Word of Gor>, and on His Word made Flesh. But who can de- 
 scribe the Secret of the Lord. They know it to whom it is given. 
 "I live," saith the Apostle; "yet not I, but Christ liveth in 
 me." And on this inward life depends the outward life of the 
 Christian in the body. " But the life which I now live in the 
 flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and 
 gave Himself for me."— ( Gal. ii. 20J From the inward, pure, 
 passive Life of Faith, or rather of the Loud in the heart by 
 Faith, there springs activity infinitely more powerful, more fruit- 
 ful, more continuous and lasting, than any energy of the flesh 
 or mere nature. Faith worketh by love, and love never faileth. 
 
 * Ps. Ixii. 1. ITCH silentium, silens auxilii diviui expectatio, 
 fiducia in Deo rcposita. Simonis Lexicon. * 
 3 Psalm, xxxiv. 8. 
 
THE SUPPER OF TI1E LORD. 
 
 It is good to lose oneself in Him " Who of God is 
 made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctifi- 
 cation, and redemption." 1 He is All, the First and 
 the Last, to those who put their trust in Him. There 
 is sufficiency in Him which can never be exhausted, 
 " for in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the God- 
 head bodily." 2 Therefore He is our Rock, the Rock 
 of our salvation. He is our Sun and our Shield. He 
 gives hoth grace and glory; and we may, and ought 
 to, apprehend in detail those good things which are 
 already ours in Him, not only pardon for what is past, 
 but peace, love, righteousness, and joy in the Holy 
 Ghost, Resurrection, and Eternal Life. 
 
 If we come to Him, expecting much, we shall get 
 much : expect little, and you will get little from Him. 
 His Sacraments herein resemble Himself, that they, 
 like Him, may be known either in the flesh or in the 
 Spirit, and that we may get much or little from them 
 according to our Faith. By the expectation of Faith 
 we touch Him, and virtue comes out from Him. But 
 it-goes forth to meet no merely local or carnal touch, 
 were such at this day possible. " When He was upon 
 earth," one has said, " He was thronged, and yet people 
 close to Him got nothing, while one feeling her need 
 really touched Him. The same outward thing of 
 Christ, which was so much to the poor soul, was no- 
 thing at all to the soldiers." Indeed it may be truly 
 said, that all the things of God and of Christ are to 
 us, as we are to them. Expect, believe, and you shall 
 have. And so especially is it with the Sacrament. 
 Come, relying amply on the Word of the Lord, and 
 you shall drink of the Water of Life freely, that is, you 
 shall draw from the Lord, of Grace and Truth what 
 
 1 1 Cor. i. 30. 
 
 • Col. ii. 9. 
 
PRESENCE AND WORSHIP. 
 
 39 
 
 you will. On the other hand, " You cannot give people 
 what they cannot receive ; for instance, food to the 
 dead, or blessing to the unbelieving." The inability to 
 receive, the " cannot," is in the will which has to be 
 touched and changed by the breath of the Spirit of 
 God, before we can receive, and by receiving live. 
 
 Blessed be God, He Who gives the Gift, gives also 
 the capacity to receive It. A.nd when It is received, 
 the Living Water Itself enlarges the vessel into which it 
 flows. To him that hath, and is faithful, more is given, 
 and he hath more abundantly, because his heart is en- 
 larged. This is the wondrous and precious effect of the 
 presence of the Lord by the Spirit ; He enlarges the 
 heart. Even so do, Lord Jesus. Amen. 
 
 CHAPTER ni. 
 PRESENCE and worship. 
 
 The Word and Sacraments of the Lord are efficacious 
 instruments whereby He communicates Himself. Among 
 spiritual men from one end of the Church to the other, 
 there is absolutely no question about the fact of His 
 spiritually-real Presence in the Holy Supper. " Where 
 two or three are gathered together in My Name, there 
 am I in the midst of them." 1 And this saying of the 
 Lord is most certainly true, wherever two or three are 
 gathered together for the Breaking of Bread in His 
 Name, according to His Holy Institution. His faith- 
 ful ones come together relying simply upon His own 
 word and promise, and then they know by experience 
 1 St. Matthew, xviii. 20. 
 
that He is present, for thev find that virtue comes 
 out from Him. 1 The -writer has known a pastor ex- 
 tremely startled by the strong assurance of the true 
 Presence of the Lord, which a simple, pious miner 
 expressed to him : " It is Blood ; I know it is." The 
 earthly element was to him lost sight of in the spiritual 
 realirr. 5 
 
 But then this Presence is not a carnal one, as in a 
 float. It is in quite a different order from that of 
 nature and matter, because it is in the power of the 
 Holy Ghost. The apprehension and experience of the 
 power, doubtless, gave rise to those remarkable expres- 
 sions found in Ephrem Syrns. and other Fathers of the 
 Eastern Church, of Fire in the Bread, and Fire in the 
 Cup. Such words express a fact of experience, which 
 is also a truth of the Word of God. " We have been 
 all made to drirJc into One Spirit." 3 
 
 1 ■ Lord, what need I labour in run to search out the man- 
 ner of Thy mysterious presence in the Sacrament, when my love 
 assures me that Thou art there? All the faithful who ap- 
 rr:c:h T-a — I:"- rre; irs-i Zizr.s. :iey ~e" k-:.- Thou srt 
 there : they feel the virtue of Divine Love going out of Thee, to 
 heal their infirmities and to inflame their affections : for which 
 al i" re Tza.~—EL* : : K-.-.. P-s:\>: :f L>i<n\; 
 
 Z*re,p.^- 
 
 " The word "real" admits of ambiguity. It may mean real 
 in the aider of matter and place, or real in the order of the 
 Spirit. It were well that the term -Beal Presence" were 
 
 ■ i l a riV i rl. as having been much misused. It hardly, if ever, oc- 
 curs in the ancient Church writers- Indeed, the Real Absence 
 
 ■ true, as well as the Real Pummic. These are the days in 
 which the BiiuVgiw is taken awaj from ns : and if Kis ab- 
 sence be not apprehended and felt, the distinctive character of 
 this dispensation cannot he discerned. In a true sense, we are 
 waiting for Hk Real Presence, VU^t la. 
 
 ■ 1 Cor. xii. 13. 
 
42 
 
 TI1E SUPPER OF TIIE LORD. 
 
 In the Person of our Lord Jescs Christ, the two 
 natures of God and Alan are united, truly, indivi- 
 sibly, inseparably, and without confusion or essential 
 change resulting to either. Because of this union and 
 the communication of properties from the higher to 
 the lower nature, the Manhood of our Lord is virtually 
 present to us wherever we are, and at every moment 
 of time; so that from every place we can call upon 
 Him with confidence, that, as He is Man, He sees and 
 knows us, and hears our prayers. And this presence 
 is called virtual, because it is not local, or as in a place 
 upon earth ; neither is it substantial, after the mode of 
 subsistence, which our Lord's Body has. in that it is 
 material, and has flesh and bones like unto our bodies. 1 
 Tins virtual presence is not identical with the Sacra- 
 mental Presence of the Lord, nor with that more gene- 
 ral presence which He promises wherever two or three 
 are gathered together in His Name, nor with that pre- 
 sence whereby He is with His Church always unto the 
 end of the world, nor with that whereby His "Word 
 preached presents Him, nor with that whereby He 
 dwells in our hearts by Faith. All these are modes 
 of His presence of a more special kind than the for- 
 mer virtual presence ; and one may distinguish them 
 from it, without attempting to discriminate them more 
 particularly from one another, by saying generally that, 
 in all these kinds of His Presence, the Lord is present 
 by the special power and operation of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 1 St. Luke, xxiv. 39-43. The notion of a substantial presence 
 upon earth of Our Lord's Body, would involve that It had lost 
 those properties of extension in space, and circumscription by 
 outline, which belong to It as a material Body. 'Whereas the 
 Catholic Faith is, that the union of the two Natures is without 
 change or confusion of the essential properties of either. 
 
PRESENCE AND WORSHIP. 
 
 43 
 
 The dispensation under which we as Christians live 
 is emphatically the dispensation of the Spirit ; and all 
 true access to God and communion with Him, is by 
 the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity. It is the 
 Holy Ghost Who manifests and applies to the believer 
 the Sacrifice of Christ, Who thus reveals His Person, 
 unites the believer with Him, and thereby imparts His 
 Life and Righteousness ; and, in one word, Who leads 
 the Christian to communion with God the Father, 
 through Him Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. 
 We may say, then, with absolute certainty, that the 
 Sacramental Presence of the Lord is through a special 
 energy of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Now, when the believer truly apprehends the Pre- 
 sence of the Lord, he must needs be drawn to worship; 
 and his heart will spontaneously obey the attraction. 
 Surely the spirit of worship is the test or note of a true 
 apprehension of the Lord's Presence. In His Holy 
 Supper, believing Him present, truly and after a special 
 manner, by the power of the Holy Ghost, we worship, 
 joining, as closely as we are capable of joining upon 
 earth, in that worship of God and of the Lamb which 
 is continually offered in Heaven. 
 
 But here it is necessaiy to guard against a miscon- 
 ception which has issued in much superstition. Ac- 
 cording to the true belief of our Church on this subject, 
 we have no doubt that the Bread and Wine remain in 
 their own natural substances, and that there takes place 
 in them no physical change whatsoever. 1 The change 
 is purely a spiritual one, in that by the Word being 
 added to the elements, according to the Lord's own 
 Institution, they are made, by the power of the Spirit, 
 to present Him, even whole Christ, to our Faith. In 
 1 See the Appendix on Transubstantiatiou. 
 
44 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 the power of the same Spirit, we receive Him into our 
 hearts, and feed upon Him there, by faith in His Body 
 as given for us and His Blood as shed for us ; and this 
 is truly and spiritually to eat His Flesh and drink His 
 Blood. Our eating is not carnal, but by Faith, accord- 
 ing to that scriptural saying of St. Augustine — " Why 
 make ready the teeth and the belly? Believe, and thou 
 hast eaten." 1 
 
 We eat and we worship. Let the order be observed ; 
 it is not "we worship" first, but "we eat" first, and 
 then we worship Him on whom we feed, and by whom 
 we live. The object of our Faith is the Lord in the 
 same Flesh and Blood which He took of the substance 
 of the Virgin Mary, which He actually gave for us ; 
 in which He suffered, and rose again, went up into 
 Heaven, and is there locally, " ut in loco" at the right 
 hand of God, and in which He will come again. And 
 when, through eating and drinking by Faith, we go 
 on to worship Him, we worship Him in the whole 
 truth of His Person, subsisting still in the very same 
 Flesh and Blood. Thus, spiritually, we may feed upon 
 and worship Him, not only at the Holy Supper, but in 
 all times and in all places. This, as Christians, we are 
 called upon and bound to do, and in proportion as we 
 are true worshippers, worshipping the Father in Spirit 
 and in Truth, we really do so. 
 
 There are many who appear to think, and speak, and 
 write, as if the near Presence of the Lord were only to 
 be looked for, after the consecration, and for a short 
 time after communicating, or where the Sacrament is 
 reserved ; and as if, where they had not the Sacrament, 
 they could not hold communion with Him, nor worship 
 
 1 Tract xxv. in Ioann. vi. 29. 
 
PRESENCE AND WORSHIP. 
 
 45 
 
 Him. But this is a very carnal conception, and injuri- 
 ous to Faith. The most real and nearest Presence of 
 the Lord is inward, in the heart ; and it is abiding. 
 
 It is also true that the Bread and the Cup do really, 
 in the power of the Holy Spirit, present the Lord's 
 Body and Blood to our faith. But then we may not 
 imagine that our Lord is locally included under the 
 forms of the Bread and Wine, so as to be lifted up or 
 placed upon an Altar to be worshipped. The pre- 
 sence which the Holy Spirit effects is not local, nor 
 materially substantial, nor such as is in any way in- 
 consistent with the essential properties of our Lord's 
 Body, which though spiritual and glorified, is not di- 
 vested of the essential properties of material substance. 
 The Spiritual Presence of the Lord does not bring 
 Him down to us upon earth, but raises us up in heart 
 and mind to where He is, at the right hand of God ; 
 so that, through Him and in Him we enter into the 
 Holy of holies as true worshippers, to worship in 
 heavenly places. 
 
 Turning aside, therefore, from all superstitious and 
 puerile notions, the enlightened believer will seek after 
 a continual feeding upon, and worship of the Lord, as 
 the end to which the Holy Supper is a means. " Christ 
 our Passover is sacrificed for us ; therefore let us keep 
 the Feast ;" not merely while we are actually celebrat- 
 ing the Holy Supper, but in all times and at all places, 
 as those who are united with Him, who " dwell in Him 
 and He in us; who are one with Plim, and He with 
 us." Our proper Christian life is a Eucharistic one. 
 To this we are called. To borrow and apply a strik- 
 ing thought of St. Athanasius with regard to the true 
 Paschal Lamb, and the typical commemoration of Him, 
 — we should not, like Jews, keep the Feast because of 
 
46 
 
 THE SUPPER OF TITE LORD. 
 
 the commemoration, but, the commemoration because 
 of the Feast. 1 
 
 The true worshippers, who worship the Father in 
 spirit and in truth, are they, and only they, who have 
 eaten spiritually. No worship is acceptable to the Fa- 
 ther, except that which is offered by them. The great 
 brazen altar stood before the entrance into the Taber- 
 nacle, and " we have an altar," 2 of which we must 
 eat, before we can enter iuto the true Holy Place.-. 
 
 ' " We do not keep the Festival as observers of days, knowing 
 that the Apostle reproves those who do so, in those words which 
 lie spake : Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. 
 But rather do we look upon the day as a solemn one because of 
 the Feast. . . . For the blessed Paul, when announcing the near- 
 ness of gladness like this, did not announce days, but the Lord, 
 on whose account also we keep the Feast, saying, Christ, our 
 Passover, is sacrificed; so that all of us contemplating the eter- 
 nity of the Word, may have nearness of access to Him. For 
 what else is the Feast but the service of the soul ? And what 
 is that service but prolonged prayer to God, and unceasing 
 thanksgiving ?"— St. Athan. Festal Epistles. Let. iii. p. 23. Oxf. 
 Transl. 
 
 * Heb. xiii. 10. Thomas Aquinas, commenting on this verse, 
 docs not mention Sacramental eating, but says that to eat is to 
 receive the fruit of the Passion of Christ, and to be incorpo- 
 rated in Him as Head. The altar he interprets to be either the 
 Cross on which Christ was sacrificed for us, or the Lord Him- 
 self in Whom, and through Whom, we offer our prayers. " And 
 this is that Golden Altar which is spoken of, Rev. viii. 3." — 
 Thomas An. in Heb. xiii. 10. Properly the Lord is the Altar, 
 as well as the Priest and the Victim. In the truth of His 
 Person, God and Man, He, as Priest, offered Himself, through 
 death in our flesh, upon the Altar of His Godhead. The Cross 
 was the wood of the bumt-offering, and the pains of death were 
 the fire. Of this Altar we eat. The Golden Altar of Incense 
 gives us, in figure, an aspect of the Person of our Lord, as now 
 alive before God for us, in the present exercise of His office as 
 our Mediator. 
 
PRESENCE AND WORSHIP. 
 
 47 
 
 By Faith with thanksgiving we feed upon Christ, as 
 once for all offered for our sins, and we are incorporated 
 in Him as our Head, and so we have access to the 
 Father. Thus a wondrous ladder is set up on the 
 earth, reaching to Heaven. By the word of the Gos- 
 pel, and the Sacraments of the Gospel— by sounds 
 formed by earthly lips, and by a little water, and com- 
 mon bread and wine, we are brought into spiritual 
 contact with the Death of the Lord, and through His 
 Death with His Resurrection and Life. The Holy 
 Ghost sanctifies and empowers these sounds and ele- 
 ments of earth to quicken or confirm our Faith in the 
 Lord's Death, so that, knowing hereby our union with 
 His Person, we know that in Him we are accepted of 
 the Father, as true worshippers in whom He is well 
 pleased. 
 
 Under the Old Covenant, God had one certain place, 
 where He set His Name, and there it was His will to 
 be sought, and there would He be found. But now 
 the Lord Jesus is our Propitiatory, or Mercy-Seat, 
 where God reveals Himself in grace, and where alone 
 He will be sought. Nowhere can we find the true and 
 Living God but in Christ ; and if despising His medi- 
 ation, we will rush presumptuously upon the naked, 
 unveiled Majesty of God, we shall justly be over- 
 whelmed by That Glory, and consumed in That Fire. 
 But how great is the condescension of our God ! He 
 would not have us to be daunted by His Perfections, 
 nor that we should so much as recoil from His Pre- 
 sence. That we may not be lost before II im, nor 
 shrink back, but come boldly to Him, He lias stooped 
 down to us, and veiled Himself in our flesh, and 
 stands, as it were, in the midst of us ; and the Father, 
 by the Spirit, and by the Word, and by Sacraments, is 
 
48 
 
 TOE SUrrER OF THE LORD. 
 
 ever pointing to One in our nature, both in body and 
 soul, and saying, " This is My Beloved Son, in Whom 
 I am well pleased : hear ye Him." In hearing Him, 
 we hear God ; in seeing Him, we see the Father. 1 
 " In Him dwellcth all the fulness of the Godhead 
 bodily." 2 Far be it from us, that we should seek God 
 elsewhere than in Him. 
 
 " No man hath seen God at any time ; the only-be- 
 gotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He 
 hath declared Him." 3 True religion is the knowledge 
 of God ; it is salvation, and the knowledge of salvation 
 in the forgiveness of sins ; 4 and this knowledge of 
 salvation is by the revelation of God, and this revela- 
 tion is in and by the Lord Jesus. " This is the True 
 God and Eternal Life." 5 
 
 But the state of grace is not only a state of know- 
 ledge and of conscious reconciliation with God, it is 
 also a state of worship. " The right Faith is that we 
 worship." As it has been said before, as soon as the 
 Person of the Lord is truly and spiritually revealed to 
 the soul, the first effect is worship. Like St. Thomas 
 we discern the Son of God through the wounds of the 
 Risen Man, and then with Hhn we worship also and 
 say, " My Lord and my God." We cannot from the 
 heart say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy 
 Ghost. 6 And when we do truly " confess that Jesus 
 Christ is Lord," it is " to the Glory of God the Fa- 
 ther," 7 who would have all men honour the Son, even 
 as they honour Himself. But " he that honoureth not 
 the Son, honoureth not the Father which hath sent 
 Him." 8 All true worship is in the fellowship and 
 
 1 St. John, my. 9 ; xii. 45. » Col. ii. 9. 
 
 * St. John, i. 18. 1 St. Luke, i. 77. 3 1 St. John, v. 20. 
 • I Cor. xii. 3. ' Phil. ii. 1 1. 8 St. John, v. 23. 
 
SACRIFICE AND PRIEST. 
 
 49 
 
 power of the Holy Ghost, and is through the Son, and 
 through Him passes on to the Father, in whom it ter- 
 minates, to the glory of the One God and One Lord, 
 Who is Blessed for evermore. Amen. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 SACRIFICE AND PRIEST. 
 
 For those who have sinned there can be no true 
 worship or communion with God without a Sacrifice 
 and a Priest. Every religion of fallen man hears 
 witness that man himself feels the necessity of recon- 
 ciliation by the Sacrifice of life, and of mediation by a 
 Priest, and that without these he dare not approach 
 God. And the Word of God plainly reveals this 
 necessity to which natural conscience bears witness. 
 All the Sacrifices offered by the Patriarchs, or appointed 
 by the Law, under the Old Testament, point to this 
 necessity. And in the New Testament, by the Words 
 of Institution of His Holy Supper, the Lord stands 
 forth revealing Himself as our Sacrifice and our Priest, 
 Who gave Himself and shed His Blood for us. " This 
 Cup," saith He, " is the New Testament in My Blood." 
 
 When we eat That Bread and drink That Cup we 
 look back to the past fact of the Lord's Death for us, 
 and upwards to the present fact of His Mediation and 
 Intercession for us. And first, we "do this" in remem- 
 brance of the Sacrifice of His Death. His obedience 
 unto death, even the Death of the Cross, is finished 
 and complete, and can never be repeated. That which 
 is essential to the Sacrifice of Propitiation — the actual 
 4 
 
50 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 giving up of Life — the actual shedding of Blood — has 
 been evidently accomplished once for all. " He is the 
 Propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but 
 also for the sins of the whole world ;" 1 and as our Pro- 
 pitiation His work is finished, and it is the very peace 
 and rest of our souls that He hath offered " One Sac- 
 rifice for sins for ever." 2 
 
 And He has finished His Sacrifice of Himself not 
 only as our Sin-offering, but also as our " burnt sacrifice, 
 an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the 
 Lord." 3 In perfect obedience to God, and in perfect 
 love to us, " He gave Himself for us, an offering and a 
 Sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour." 4 He 
 is the Lamb of God, "without blemish and without 
 spot," 5 the perfectly righteous Victim, the Holy One 
 of God, in Whom, as Man, the Evil One could find 
 nothing, 6 no one single way, or deed, or word, or 
 thought, contrary to the will of His Father in Heaven. 
 In Him was no sin. 7 And as in this perfect righteous- 
 ness He has taken our place, has borne our judgment, 
 has given His Life a ransom for our lile, has been 
 punished instead of us, and thus has taken away our 
 sins, so the same spotless righteousness He gives to all 
 who believe on Him, and clothes them with It. They 
 are made by grace One with Himself, so that their 
 persons are accepted of God as being united with Him, 
 and incorporated in Him as their Head; and they re- 
 ceive from Him His Holiness as their holiness. 
 
 God is the God of truth, and He cannot deal with 
 unrealities. Nothing short of perfect righteousness can 
 satisfy His Holy requirements for acceptance with Him. 
 
 1 1 St. John, ii. 2. 2 Heb. x. 12. 3 Lev. i. 9. 
 4 Eph. v. 2 s 1 St. Peter, i. 19. 
 
 * St. John, xiv. 30. ' 1 St. John, iii. 5. 
 
SACRIFICE AND PRIEST. 
 
 51 
 
 Our personal righteousnesses as individuals are mani- 
 festly not perfect, even after grace received. O ! how 
 far are they from being able to stand the consuming 
 fire of His holiness and the light of His pure eyes! 
 But by the eternal counsel of His will, He does not 
 look on us as we are in ourselves, but as we are in 
 His Son. Being made one with Him, and He with 
 us, we stand in Him ; we are seen of God in Him ; 
 His Righteousness is become our righteousness, as 
 every excellence of the head is the excellence of the 
 whole man and so belongs to eveiy member of the 
 body, however feeble or insignificant it may seem. 
 This transference of the righteousness of the Lord to 
 us as His members, is not a mere outward imputation, 
 as some who do not apprehend the reality have in- 
 ferred from the term 'imputation,' which, however, 
 is really sanctioned by Scripture ; but it is an actual 
 giving, or imparting. As the bridegroom endows the 
 bride -with all his goods, and with power over his body, 
 giving himself to her, even so the Lord unites us to 
 Himself, so that all His becomes ours. He has brought 
 in everlasting righteousness, and He makes it ours. 
 He is the Lord our Righteousness. 
 
 Now this our true, complete, and eternal sanctifi- 
 cation is by the Blood of the covenant. 1 Through 
 Faith therein we are sanctified, and so are made capa- 
 ble of being accepted of God, and are accepted of Him, 
 "by, or in the power of, His will, through the offer- 
 ing of the Body of Jksus Christ once for all." 2 Tins 
 is the past fact which our Faith apprehends; and then 
 actually, as in time, and with a measure of experi- 
 ence, we are sanctified and accepted of God. But as 
 regards the counsel of His will, when the Eternal Son, 
 1 Heb. x. 29. 2 Ibid. 10. 
 
52 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 through the Eternal Spirit, offered Himself without 
 spot to God, 1 " by One offering He perfected for ever 
 them that are sanctified." 2 
 
 In respect, then, both to the forgiveness of their sins, 
 and to the acceptance of their persons as righteous, be- 
 lievers are complete in the Lord Jesus by virtue of 
 that one full, perfect, and sufficient oblation of Him- 
 self which He consummated once for all by His Death 
 upon the Cross. And of this Sacrifice HLs Holy Sup- 
 per is the remembrance. 
 
 One part, then, of His Priestly Office the Blessed 
 Lord has fulfilled once for all, never again to repeat 
 it, and that is, the actual slaying of the Victim and 
 shedding of His Blood. But there is another part of 
 His Priestly Office which He is now actually discharg- 
 ing for us. Our Great High Priest is passed into the 
 Heavens. "Through the Veil, that is to say, His 
 Flesh," He is gone into the True Holy of holies, " even 
 Heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God 
 for us." "There He ever liveth to make intercession 
 1 Heb. ix. 14. 
 
 2 Heb. x. 14. We are said to be sanctified tbrough the truth, 
 (John, xvii. 17, 19.) by faith, (Acts, xxvi. 18. comp. Acts, xv. 
 9 ; 1 Pet. i. 22.) by the Blood of Christ, (Heb. ix. 13, 14 ; 
 x. 29 ; xiii. 12.) and through the offering of His Body, (Heb. x. 
 
 10, 14.) Again we read of sanctification of the Spirit, (2 Thess. 
 
 11. 13 ; 1 Pet. i. 2 ; 1 Cor. vi. 11.) In truth the essential sancti- 
 fication of our persons takes place when the Holy Spirit reveals 
 the Blood of Christ to us, and by Faith we are united with the 
 Person of our Lord. But the mortification of sin in our mem- 
 bers, the subjugating the lower powers of our nature to the 
 obedience of Christ, and our being conformed to His example 
 in mind and walk, are a gradual process; and our sanctification, 
 in this sense, is wrought in us by the Holy Spirit in proportion 
 as we apprehend by faith, and follow by love, the things which 
 He reveals to us of the Loed Jesus. 
 
SACRIFICE AND PRIEST. 
 
 53 
 
 for us." 1 There He is now, even with Blood and with 
 Incense. The cloud of the Incense, even the sweet 
 savour of His Own merits and intercession, covers the 
 mercy-seat of God ; and the Blood is sprinkled on the 
 mercy-seat and before it.' 2 In virtue and efficacy the 
 One Sacrifice of His Life is infinite, abiding, eternal, 
 and by It He now maketh Atonement for us. 
 
 He Who by the suffering of Death once offered 
 Himself to be the Propitiation for our sins, is now 
 our Advocate with the Father. As our Priest He is 
 appearing and pleading for us — livingly, actively, con- 
 tinually. This blessed truth He himself applies to our 
 souls in His Holy Supper by the power of the Holy 
 Ghost. The Table of the Lord is both for a continual 
 remembrance upon earth of the Sacrifice of His Death, 
 and also for a pledge that He is continually remember- 
 ing It before the face of His Father Which is in Hea- 
 ven. The effusion of the Holy Spirit which attends the 
 breaking and eating of that Bread, and the drinking 
 of that Cup, brings the believer into Spiritual contact 
 and communion, not with the Lord as now dead, nor 
 with His Blessed Body and Blood as separate from His 
 Soul, but with Him as living, risen, ascended, sitting 
 on the right-hand of the Father, and now appearing 
 before God as our Advocate and Priest, God and 
 Man, one Christ. 
 
 Now because the Supper of the Lord is both the 
 commemoration of the One Sacrifice of His Death, and 
 also the pledge of His present Priesthood, in the early 
 ages of the Church it was without question looked 
 upon, and spoken of, as a Commemorative Sacrifice. 
 Hence in the course of the Church's development, 
 ceremonial usages of a sacrificial character gathered 
 1 Heb. iv. 14 ; x. 20 ; ix. 24 ; vii. 25. 2 Lev. xvi. 12-14. 
 
54 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 round the original simple form; and these in time 
 helped on the conception of it as a true and proper 
 Sacrifice ; and then, by a transition very easy in a time 
 of corruption, it came to be regarded as a Propitiatory 
 Sacrifice for the remission of sins. And so in proportion 
 as the Visible Church was leavened by the spirit of 
 the world, the original design of the Supper of the 
 Lord, as a commemoration of the One Sacrifice once 
 offered on the Cross, was, practically, almost or alto- 
 gether lost sight of by those who worshipped outwardly. 
 They saw and thought of only an official priest on 
 earth — a sinful man, like themselves, who, it was com- 
 monly said, offered Christ for the quick and the dead, 
 to have remission of pain or guilt. 
 
 And yet it may be that as the minds and hearts of 
 Christians grew carnal, God condescended to their 
 carnal state, as He did to that of the Israelites of old ; 
 and sacrificial rites and ceremonies, revived from the 
 ritual of Israel, became once more earthly envelopes of 
 the deepest spiritual truths. And thus while God, in 
 His unsearchable wisdom, permitted the One Sacrifice 
 of the Lord, and His present Mediation as our Priest, 
 to be obscured. He caused these very truths to be pre- 
 served, in a manner, by the very carnal ordinances in 
 which they were shrouded, so that even in the darkest 
 ages those simple, believing, contrite, loving souls who 
 had eyes to see and ears to hear, found the ceremonies 
 of the fallen Church to be foH of Christ, and were 
 helped by them to apprehend the spiritual realities 
 which they intimated, until the times of Reformation 
 came. This seems to have been the case with many 
 of the pious precursors of the Reformation, and with 
 some of the Reformers themselves in their early days ; 
 and so also it may be now with many a true and living 
 
SACRIFICE AND PKIEST. 
 
 58 
 
 6oul in those parts of the Visible Church which are 
 unrefbrmed. 
 
 It is indeed worthy of being considered, whether a 
 very outward system of ritual worship be not necessary 
 for outward men, at least, for a season. There are 
 many truly godly souls who are at present carnal, 
 rather than spiritual. Now as the Lohd became as 
 if weak to save the weak, and when He came in the 
 Flesh made Himself as if carnal, to win those who 
 were carnal, 1 does He not now stoop down to the weak 
 and carnal ? And does He not make use of outward 
 forms, weak and beggarly elements, in order to convey 
 blessings both of truth and grace to those who are not 
 capable of receiving and feeding upon truth in its pure- 
 ly spiritual forms? If this be His way — and is it not 
 so? — surely they are very unlike Him who, think- 
 ing themselves spiritual, rudely assail the outward 
 religious forms of other, it may be, more outward 
 Christians, and who would suppress, if they could, 
 indiscriminately, and even by force, usages which to 
 weaker brethren in Christ are significant of Him, 
 which have been found by them profitable, by which 
 He Himself has condescended to work good to them. 
 There has been too much of this mistaken spiritu- 
 ality, both at the Reformation, and in the Reformed 
 Churches at other times since ; would that it were not 
 to be found working, and that strongly, among us at 
 this day ! To be truly spiritual is to be like the Lord 
 in His Mind and His Ways. Of course, when He 
 blesses the use of outward forms not expressly com- 
 manded by Him, and when spiritually-minded Chris- 
 tians bear with them, it is for the good of the carnal 
 and weak in Ciikist; not that they may remain car- 
 1 St. Luke, vii. 34. 
 
.50 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LOUD. 
 
 nal, but that they become spiritual, and learn to look 
 through all to the end of all, which is the Loud 
 Himself. 
 
 Would that all Christians were spiritual; then the 
 Sacraments administered in their most simple form 
 would be sufficient for all — nay, most profitable to all. 
 In the use of the Sacraments we see through a glass. 
 Now it is the excellence of a glass to be transparent. 
 One would not have that through winch one beholds 
 the Lord, to be coloured by art and man's device. 
 The truly spiritual man, in using the Sacraments, de- 
 lights to lose the sign in the thing signified — to see and 
 know nothing but the Lord, and Him not after the 
 flesh, but in the Spirit. 1 And the Holy Spirit may 
 
 1 On this whole subject one would commend to brethren in 
 the Lord, and especially to those who are over others in the 
 Lord, some words of wisdom which have a wide application 
 in directions which were not all, perhaps, apprehended by the 
 "writer himself: — "That the truth should be presented before 
 the mind, and continually kept there, by human means, and 
 by Divine Aid, is all that Christianity can require. To con- 
 tribute to this end we have two signs, Baptism and the Lord's 
 Supper, answerable to the two parts of salvation which are 
 carrying on on earth, Justification and Sanctitieation, the wash- 
 ing away of sin, and the living by Faith on the Lord Jesus. Con- 
 cerning the things signified by these signs, there is no dispute 
 among those who take the Bible for their guide: concerning 
 the mode of administering these signs there are endless con- 
 troversies amongst inquirers after truth, who, to all appearance, 
 are equally sincere. Whatever is important in the Scriptures, 
 is clear in proportion to its importance. We may conclude, 
 therefore, that the signification of these signs is highly impor- 
 tant, but that the mode of administering them is not so, because 
 very doubtful. It is clear that every one should be allowed to 
 choose for himself, and to use the sign in that way which most 
 directly carries the mind to the thing signified. Controversy 
 here is entirely out of place. It makes the sign of no effect ; it 
 
SACRIFICE AND PRIEST. 
 
 57 
 
 justly be expected to attend with most abundant grace 
 the administration of the Sacraments in their most 
 simple form ; that is, when the original institution of 
 the Lord is followed as closely as possible. There is 
 an outward simplicity in this which fitly corresponds 
 with the inward simplicity which is in Christ. 
 
 In particular the simple breaking of bread, accord- 
 ing to the Lord's own Institution, is transfigured to 
 the believer by the outpouring of the Spirit, so that he 
 sees the Heavens opened, and the Lord Jesus stand- 
 ing at the right hand of God. In the breaking of 
 bread He would be known of us, that He now liveth, 
 and that He is actually pleading before God His Body 
 once broken and His Blood once shed, for the pardon 
 of our trespasses, and His perfect, spotless Obedience 
 and Righteousness in Life and unto death, for the sanc- 
 
 distracts the attention from the thing signified, which alone is 
 the useful contemplation, to the mode in which the sign is 
 administered, which is altogether an unprofitable subject of 
 thought ; for the use of a sign is, that the mind may pass im- 
 mediately from it to the thing signified. Thus these signs not 
 being received in peace and faith, but being continually dis- 
 puted about, are to controversialists not so much the signs of 
 salvation as the emblems of a peculiar party." — Truths of Re- 
 ligion, by Douglas of Cavers. Of course no wilful breach of the 
 order of the Church to which one belongs is to be justified ; but 
 saving this, very great latitude ought to be allowed as to the 
 mode both of administering and receiving the Sacraments ; and 
 it is a grave question for those who bear rule in the Church, 
 in what way the order of the Church may be so framed and ad- 
 ministered as not to offend weak consciences. On the other 
 hand, might not some indulgence bo granted to those who de- 
 sire more ritual or symbolical observances than they are at 
 present allowed by the Church law ? What is desirable for 
 the Church is, not so much uniformity as unity. Unity in di- 
 versity would accord with the law of liberty aud of love ; and if 
 there were more love, it might be brought to pass. 
 
58 
 
 TIIE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 tification and final acceptance of our persons. Not 
 that any outward opening of the Heavens, or any 
 other sensible manifestation of the Divine Presence, 
 is to be expected at the Breaking of Bread. "We shall 
 be much mistaken if we look for any ; but inwardly, 
 by faith, we should know that the Lord Jesus is now 
 acting as our High Priest, or, what comes even closer 
 to our hearts, is our Advocate with the Father — our 
 Paraclete, without sin, yet in all points made like unto 
 His brethren, and, therefore, sympathizing with us; 
 and above all, so truly One with those who believe 
 and are baptized, that He is, and appears, in the Pre- 
 sence of God for us. 1 He is seen of God as for the 
 believer, and the believer is seen as being in Him, or 
 as being Christ. 2 He has taken our place on earth, 
 in the flesh, and therefore now He gives us His place 
 in Heaven and in the Spirit, and we, by faith, receive 
 and take it. 
 
 Now manifestly this realization of our present stand- 
 ing in the Lord Who liveth for us, presupposes that 
 we are in the state of reconciliation through Faith in 
 His Death ; it presupposes that we know our accep- 
 tance ; and anything which interferes with our know- 
 ledge of acceptance, must interfere also generally with 
 our freedom of access to God by the Lord Jesus, and 
 in particular with our Spiritual discernment of Him in 
 His Holy Supper. 
 
 Knowledge of acceptance is an effect in the soul, of 
 knowing the Lord Himself by faith. A patriarch 
 could say, "I know that my Redeemer liveth." Much 
 
 1 ipLQxvtoQrivxi tw TfoawTy rov ©eoD iTtf r^Zv. Heb. ix. 24. 
 
 2 Writing of the Church which is His Body, the Apostle calls 
 it Christ — " So also is Christ." The members with the Head 
 make up one Body. 1 Cor. xii. 12. 
 
SACRIFICE AND PRIEST. 
 
 59 
 
 more can the disciple of Christ say, "I know in whom 
 I have believed." To believe on the Son of God, is 
 heartily to receive and take for true all that God has 
 said of Him. "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is 
 the Christ is born of God." " AVho is he that over- 
 cometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is 
 the Son of God?" "If we receive the witness of 
 men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the 
 witness of God which He hath testified of His Son : 
 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in 
 himself. He that believeth not God hath made Him 
 a liar, because he believeth not the record that God 
 gave of His Son. And this is the record, that God 
 hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His 
 Son. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that 
 hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things 
 have I written to you that believe on the name of the 
 Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, 
 and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of 
 God. And this is the confidence that we have in 
 Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, 
 He heareth us ; and if we know that He heareth us, 
 whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the pe- 
 titions that we desired of Him." "And we know that 
 we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wicked- 
 ness. And we know that the Son of God is come, 
 and hath given us an understanding, that we may know 
 Him that is true; and we are in Him that is true, 
 even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, 
 and eternal life." 1 
 
 Now of these most blessed words it is to be ob- 
 served, that when St. John, by the Holy Spirit, teach- 
 es us that life consists in believing on the Son of God, 
 1 1 St. John, v. 1, 5, 9-15, 19, 20. 
 
no 
 
 THE SUPPFR OF TIIE LORD. 
 
 he speaks at the same time of the consequences to and 
 in the soul itself of believing on Him and living in 
 Him, — consequences affecting the consciousness, and 
 in the consciousness, — in short, such effects as the soul 
 of the believer cannot but be conscious of, if it be 
 rightly directed to look for them. 
 
 St. John speaks of our having confidence in or to- 
 wards the Son of God, 1 and of our knowing that our 
 prayers to Him are heard and answered. He saith, 
 " He that believeth on the Son of God, hath the icit- 
 ness in himself." 2 He was writing to believers — to 
 those who had a measure of faith in the Lord Jesus ; 
 and he expressly states that his reason for writing to 
 them was, that they might know that they had eternal 
 life, and might so grow on to a higher degree of faith 
 in His Name. 3 
 
 There can be no manner of doubt that the conscious- 
 ness — the certain consciousness of acceptance with 
 God is the right state of the true-hearted believer — 
 the state which is intended for him, offered to him, 
 given to him by God. Let these other words of 
 St. John from the preceding chapter be honestly and 
 carefully weighed : " Hereby know we that we dwell 
 in Iliiu and He in us, because He hath given us of 
 His Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the 
 
 1 Tlapp-naU nfi< avrov. It were well to bring into one view all 
 those passages in which •nappr.ala is spoken of as a characteristic 
 of the Christian's standing and communion with God. Eph. 
 
 iii. 12. Heb. iii. 6; iv. 16; x. 19, 35; 1 John, ii. 28; iii. 21; 
 
 iv. 17; v. 14. The apostle, in writing to the Hebrews, iii. 14; 
 xi. i., and speaking of faith, uses the remarkable word, i-xooraais, 
 which, taking into account the use of it, 2 Cor. ix. 4; xi. 17., 
 appears to express a confident, personal realization of the things 
 of God. 
 
 ' Verse 10. ' Verse 13. 
 
SACRIFICE AND PRIEST. 
 
 CI 
 
 Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. 
 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, 
 God dwellcth in him and he in God. And we have 
 known and believed the love that God hath to us." 1 
 
 St. John indeed throughout this Epistle guards care- 
 fully against forms of spiritual consciousness which 
 are unreal and delusory. A true knowledge of ac- 
 ceptance is grounded upon the Lord Jesus by faith ; 
 and it involves true dealing with God, humble con- 
 fession of sin, love to the brethren in deed and in 
 truth, and freedom from wilful and prevalent sin. 
 
 Again : it is important to distinguish between ac- 
 ceptance, and the knowledge of acceptance. Accept- 
 ance, in the sense of pardon for past sin, cannot be 
 more or less, and wherever it is given at all, it is 
 given entire. But the knowledge of acceptance ad- 
 mits of degrees, for it depends upon faith in the Lord 
 Jesus, and faith admits of degrees. There is a strong 
 faith and a weak faith, and our knowledge of accept- 
 ance rises or falls with our faith. So far as faith is 
 reigning in the heart, there is certainty. Uncertainty 
 and faith cannot stand together in the region to which 
 faith belongs, that is to say, in the spirit of a Christian, 
 subject to the Spirit of God. The lower nature in 
 which the mind of the flesh still lives, is the region of 
 the soul, out of which spring guilty doubts and fears, 
 and all other evil motions. After regeneration we 
 find the flesh lusting against the Spirit, the old man 
 warring against the new man within us. The mind 
 of the flesh, the old man, is enmity against God, and 
 there is no good in it ; it is the source of pride, false- 
 hood, impurity, and selflshness — of disobedience, hatred, 
 envy, suspiciousness, and all that is contrary to love ; 
 1 1 St. John, iv. 13-16. 
 
62 
 
 TOE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 it is the source also of distrust of God, and murmur- 
 ing against Him, or, in one word, of unbelief. But 
 our Spirit, the New Man, is the region of life and 
 peace, of light and love and power. It is so, because 
 it is the region in which the Lord Jesus is appre- 
 hended, and in which He dwells by faith. <; O, 
 wretched man that I am ! Who shall deliver me 
 from the body of this death ? I thank God, through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord." 1 
 
 As long as the warfare in us between the flesh and 
 the Spirit continues, our knowledge of acceptance will 
 waver, as more or less affected by our lower nature, 
 according to the progress of the conflict. And to the 
 last, motions of doubt and fear will rise up in us from 
 the mind of the flesh ; but by faith in the word of 
 God, and by the power of His Spirit, we can conquer 
 them, and not suffer them to pass over into our spirit, 
 wherein the Lord dwells. Still to the last we must 
 fear with a godly fear on the side of the flesh, lest it 
 draw us away from God into sin, and specially into 
 unbelief. Under the leading of the Holy Spirit we 
 must mortify the flesh with its affections and lusts, its 
 guilty feelings, doubts, and misgivings. 
 
 The cross continually upon our flesh is the secret 
 of true blessing and joy and assurance in our spirit 
 "To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually 
 minded is life and peace." 2 While the flesh is cruci- 
 fied, our spirit is at liberty in the Lord. He lives in 
 us, and we in Him; and we know His presence; and 
 the exercise of our spirit is simply to keep that one 
 great commandment of God : " That we should be- 
 lieve on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love 
 one another, as He gave us commandment;" and if 
 1 Rom, vii. 24, 25. * Rom. viiL C. 
 
SACRIFICE AND PRIEST. 
 
 83 
 
 we keep this commandment in deed and in truth, 
 " Hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall 
 assure our hearts before Him." 1 
 
 It is a truth of experience, as it is a truth of revela- 
 tion, that the Lord purifieth our hearts by faith. 2 The 
 grace of God towards us, known and believed, is the 
 secret of dominion over sin ; or rather the Lord Jesus 
 Himself, the Son of God, known, possessed, and en- 
 joyed in the heart, puts sin to death in us. To all 
 then it may be said, If you do indeed know the Lord 
 Himself, do not doubt your acceptance, but reckon ye 
 yourselves to be what you arc in Him ; for so to do is 
 not presumption, but a holy boldness, which is not 
 compatible with the love of sin, as those who have 
 part in Him know well. 
 
 Certainty of grace cannot be separated from the 
 direct knowledge of the Lord Jesus that He is God 
 my Saviour. Knowledge of acceptance rests upon 
 living faith in the Lord Jesus as its foundation ; or 
 rather it rests upon Him whom faith apprehends. 
 True faith, one has well said, is transparent and 
 colourless; it is merely a medium through which we 
 see the Lord. And yet it is the glass which, as it 
 were, brings Him down to the eye of the soul, al- 
 though the eye does not rest on it, but looks through 
 it to Himself. 
 
 Now whosoever believes on the Lord Jesus that 
 He is the Son of God, given to be the Saviour of the 
 world, that He has come in our flesh — has suffered 
 and died, and risen again for us, and is now living at 
 the right hand of God for us — whosoever believes 
 thus on His Name, with honest and true heart, is ac- 
 cepted of God as a child of God, and can, and should, 
 1 1 St. John, iii. 23, 19. * Acts, xv. 9. 
 
64 
 
 TOE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 know his acceptance, and is bound honestly to follow 
 his faith to its issues, and to live the life, and to do 
 the works which belong to him as accepted of God. 
 But no one can in any measure live the life of Christ, 
 except he knows, and knows for certain, that he is in 
 Christ. 1 And again, when a man's heart and con- 
 science arc touched and awakened by the Holy Spirit 
 to a true sense of the guilt of sin, nothing short of 
 certainty as to the forgiveness of it ought to satisfy, 
 or indeed can satisfy, the never-dying soul. This 
 question must be faced in the light of eternity. Most 
 happy are they who the soonest face it in their day 
 of grace. 
 
 Of course the unconverted, unrenewed man cannot 
 know his acceptance, because he is in a state of igno- 
 rance of God. 2 And after we have tasted of the Hea- 
 venly Gift, knowledge of acceptance is destroyed by 
 the love of known sin indulged in the heart; and it 
 may also be very much hindered by erroneous or de- 
 fective teaching. But one thing overthrows it from 
 the very foundation, and that is, the substitution of 
 9ome untrue ground, for the true ground, of a sinner's 
 acceptance in the sight of God. There is but One 
 
 1 Thomas Aquinas admits that those servants of God, to 
 whom the Church is most indebted, had certainty of grace. 
 Summa 1. 2x. qu. 112. art. 5. It is probable that what hin- 
 dered him from admitting that this blessed consciousness be- 
 longs of right to all godly souls, was that which hinders so 
 many from admitting the same truth now, namely, the con- 
 sideration of worldly-minded and merely outward members of 
 the Church. If true religion is a present reality, a present 
 knowledge of, and communion with, the living God, what peace 
 can there be between those who have it, and the world, espe- 
 cially the world within the Church ? 
 
 « iywiixt ©too this fgoun. 1 Cor. xv. 34. 
 
SACRIFICE AND PRIEST. 
 
 05 
 
 Sacrifice of Propitiation which can truly take away 
 and that Sacrifice, once offered, has taken away 
 sin for ever. For sinful man to put aside this One 
 Offering, and to approach God for acceptance upon 
 the ground of some work of our own hands, is pre- 
 sumptuous and deadly sin ; it is plainly a breaking of 
 the Second Commandment. 
 
 Now there is a doctrine concerning the Holy Sup- 
 per which represents it as a proper Sacrifice of Propi- 
 tiation. However this may be scholastically stated 
 and explained, practically there is floating in the 
 minds of those who hold it, a conception that in the 
 Eucharist there is either a reiteration, or a filling up, 
 or an extension of the Sacrifice of the Cross, for the 
 remission of sins. A reiteration there is not, for there 
 is no Sacrifice for the remission of sins without the 
 shedding of Blood; and the Lord has died, and can 
 die, but once. A filling up, or completion, there is 
 not, for what can be needed to add to, or complete, 
 the value and efficacy of the Lord's Death ? Truly 
 such a conception is derogatory to the dignity of His 
 Person. And what extension can there be of that 
 which as a past fact is finished, and of which in itself 
 the value and efficacy is infinite ? 
 
 But in the Holy Supper is there not, it may be 
 asked, an application of the One Sacrifice for sin ? This 
 is on all hands confessed ; but then it is an application 
 by way of commemoration of it as a past fact — an ap- 
 plication of it precisely as having been finished once 
 for all. The one aspect of the truth in which alone 
 the soul of the sinner can find peace and can rest in 
 security, is this, that the Lord has died for sin — has 
 borne the iniquities of us all — has been judged in our 
 place, and has taken away all our sin. He is the Pro- 
 5 
 
THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 pitiation for our sins, by One Death and Bloodshed- 
 ding, and this Propitiation, apprehended by the heart, 
 gives peace. 
 
 Obviously the application of the Sacrifice is not the 
 true and proper Sacrifice Itself ; and yet it may very 
 easily be made to take its place in the minds of men. 
 The outward acts of the official Priest strike upon the 
 senses. Man naturally wants a religion, a priest, and 
 a sacrifice. Here his wants seem met and supplied, 
 and, his mind being carnal, rests in the sign instead of 
 passing on through it to the thing signified. And, in- 
 deed, the original simple rite has bei/n so disguised, 
 both by doctrine and ceremonies, as positively to draw 
 the mind aside to rest in the acts of the representative 
 priest, instead of looking up through all to Christ; 
 and so the weak in faith have been led to put an earthly, 
 official priest between their souls and the Lord, and 
 to attach such a value to his offering as to make it a 
 necessary condition of their partaking in the pardon 
 purchased for them by the One Offering of the Lord ; 
 as if their acceptance depended upon the offering of 
 Christ by a sinner like themselves, and as if the more 
 times he offered, the more they were accepted of God. 
 On the other hand, utterly carnal, worldly-minded, 
 ungodly men have been encouraged to hope that, by 
 the offering of an earthly priest, they may be made in 
 some sort partakers of the Sacrifice of Christ without 
 their hearts being really changed. 
 
 It was the sight and feeling of these evils which led 
 our Reformers to judge the sacrifices of Masses as 
 " blasphemous fables and dangerous deceits." When 
 the Lord has once for all given His Life a ransom for 
 ns, it is sheer blasphemy to assert or imply that this 
 Sacrifice is not sufficient, but has need to be supple- 
 
SACRIFICE AND PRIEST. 
 
 07 
 
 mented by fresh offerings of Him at the hands of 
 earthly priests ; and if the dogmatic assertion of this 
 has been evaded by a dexterous use of words, the notion 
 itself has been to all practical purposes implied to the 
 ininds and souls of men. All those usages, therefore, 
 those ceremonies and ways of speaking about the Lord's 
 Supper, which had become in men's minds closely con- 
 nected with the conception of it as a Sacrifice of Pro- 
 pitiation, were rightly put away at the Reformation ; 
 for they were as much an abomination to the Lord, as 
 was the brazen serpent when it had been abused to 
 superstition and idolatry. 
 
 It is indeed lamentable that the rite which was in- 
 stituted by the Lord, for the continual remembrance of 
 the Sacrifice of His Death, has been so awfidly per- 
 verted, as to obscure, or rather to take the place of, 
 that one Sacrifice of Propitiation. The thing signified 
 is confounded with the sign. Not that the sign is quite 
 seen through, and, as it were, lost in the view of the 
 reality beyond, which it signifies, but the thing signified 
 is brought down and identified with the sign, is carnal- 
 ized, so to speak, and made the act of an earthly priest, 
 instead of the Heavenly, and so becomes the foundation 
 of a whole system of approach to God for acceptance, 
 upon the ground of ritual acts and observances, human 
 inventions and the works of men's own hands. Now 
 wherever this perversion prevails, there cannot be the 
 true and spiritual apprehension of the Lord in His Holy 
 Supper, because there can be no knowledge of accept- 
 ance ; in most cases, it is to be feared, there can be no 
 acceptance. 
 
 For, be it observed, in such a system, which super- 
 sedes the One Propitiatory Sacrifice, there is a show of 
 religion : there is religion. Cain has his religion as 
 
G8 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 well as Abel ; and at this day there are in the world 
 just these two religions, the religion of self, and the 
 religion of God ; the wa) r of Cain, and the way of 
 Abel. Blessed are they who have put away the re- 
 ligion of Cain, the way, that is, to God, as for accept- 
 ance, by self, and by the fruits of the cursed ground of 
 self ; and who, with the confession of sin and with Faith, 
 come to God only by the way of His Promise, by the 
 bruised Seed of the "Woman, and His Bloody Victory, 
 by the Death and Resurrection of the Lamb of God, 
 as accomplished and accepted. 1 
 
 Where this One Sacrifice of Propitiation is appre- 
 
 1 " Cain is declared by the Spirit of God in the Apostle to 
 have been ' of the wicked one.' The first thing we see in him, 
 is his religion. He renders to God, offering or sacrifice, the 
 fruit of the cursed ground, the produce of his own toil. But 
 this was unbelief. It was the denial of all that had happened 
 since the creation, the religious denial of it. It was the direct 
 contradiction of the way of Faith, or of Abel. Abel took the 
 way of the promise to God, the bloody victory of the Woman's 
 Seed, the Death and Resurrection of Ciikist, and offered of his 
 flock ; but Cain refused to see man's ruin and God's redemption, 
 giving God the fruit of the earth : in effect saying that He was 
 to be read and known in the thorns and thistles, the sweat, and 
 the sorrow, and the death ; and by the solemn services of his 
 altar he was denying all truth. This was the way of a heart 
 deeply departed from God. He was laying the scene of ruin at 
 God's door, as Adam, ere he repented, had laid down the sin 
 itself there. His next way is in terrible keeping with all this. 
 He hates his brother, being of that wicked one who is a mur- 
 derer, and in process of time he slays him. Tremendous fruit 
 of the apostate nature ! He was the first of that generation who 
 delivered Jesus to be crucified — self-righteous and murderous. 
 For envy the Jews delivered Jesus ; and Cain slew Abel, be- 
 cause his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous. It 
 is the world. 1 St. John, iii. 13-15." — From a Troxt on " Enoch," 
 pp. 27, 28. 
 
SACRIFICE AND PRIEST. 
 
 69 
 
 hended in the heart, there is a measure of true and 
 spiritual apprehension of the Lord in His Supper. 
 Where there is no apprehension whatever of the One 
 Propitiation, there can be no acceptance, no reconcil- 
 iation, no life. And it is quite certain that the Lord 
 instituted His Supper, as food not for the dead, but 
 for the living. We do not put bread into the mouth 
 of a dead man, so no soul which is dead unto God can 
 be a partaker of Christ at His Holy Table. Life 
 admits of degree ; it may be strong, or it may be weak. 
 But Life in some measure there must be. 
 
 Now Life comes through reconciliation by Faith in 
 the one Propitiation. The degree of the apprehension 
 of this is the measure of the knowledge of forgiveness; 
 reconciliation, and acceptance; it is the measure of 
 life. Where Propitiation is little apprehended, life is 
 weak. The Holy Supper pre-supposes in the recipient 
 reconciliation and life ; that is, it pre-supposes that the 
 Propitiation is in some measure already apprehended 
 by Faith. 
 
 It is certain that there are many by whom the Pro- 
 pitiation for sin is not apprehended as it ought to be, 
 and might be, by them. Therefore they do not know 
 the acceptance of their persons. And their souls are in 
 a weak and languishing state. Life in them is weak. 
 
 This is, indeed, the case with all those, who, after 
 conversion, are in any way sowing to the flesh ; who 
 are resisting the leadings of the Holy Spirit, and are 
 going back in their hearts from the Lord, to live once 
 more to the flesh, or the world, or self. .These cer- 
 tainly are on the road to death. How can they live — 
 how can they keep the knowledge of God, who in their 
 works are denying Him ? 1 
 
 'Tit. i. 1C. 
 
70 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 Of such as these, however, we are not now speaking, 
 but of true and striving souls. They have once turned 
 from sin to God ; they have confessed with the mouth 
 the Lord Jesus, and have believed in their heart that 
 God hath raised Him from the dead ; 1 and yet they 
 do not realize their standing in Him, their deliverance 
 from sin by His Death, and the acceptance of their 
 persons in Him. The religious life of many seems 
 to be spent in inquiring and debating whether or not 
 they have an interest in Christ ; that is, whether or 
 not they are yet in their sins. Consequently they are 
 full of doubting and distrust, and their spiritual life is 
 weakness itself; they can receive very small measures 
 of the Spirit ; they attempt little in the service of God ; 
 they are not able to make great sacrifices or suffer 
 much for the Lord's sake ; and, what is worst of all, 
 they often relapse into sin. They are without strength ; 
 sin revives, and they die. 
 
 But the Word of God says, " Sin shall not have 
 dominion over you." And why shall it not? "For 
 ye are not under the law, but under grace."' 2 In truth, 
 such souls have not yet fully learned what the grace 
 of God which bringeth salvation is, or that the Blood 
 of the Lord Jesus cleanseth from all sin. They are, 
 as it were, mixing up with it, or putting in its place, 
 for a ground of then- pardon and acceptance, some- 
 thing of their own, or some gift of God out of its 
 proper order. But neither our experience, past or 
 present, nor our frames and feelings, nor our ear- 
 nestness and strivings, nor our prayers, nor our good 
 works — not all the evidences of faith and faints of the 
 Spirit together, can put away our sins, or endure the 
 severity of God's Judgment. There is but one Sacri- 
 1 Rom. x. 9. ' Rom. vi. 14. 
 
SACRIFICE AND PRIEST. 
 
 71 
 
 fice for sin for ever, but one Holy Victim without spot 
 and Avithout blemish, but One who satisfies the holi- 
 ness and justice of God. All that is in us, even the 
 gifts of God, are tainted by our sin ; and when the 
 question is whether we are in our sins or not, if ever 
 we look away from Christ crucified, to anything in 
 ourselves, to answer this question and give us rest, that 
 very moment we are plunged in uncertainty and dark- 
 ness, and there follow immediately instability and loss 
 of strength. If we look even at our faith as it is in 
 ourselves, we cease to look to Christ, and our life is 
 weakened; for faith itself only gives life and peace, 
 inasmuch as it apprehends Christ. And so with Sac- 
 raments : they are media through which to behold the 
 Lord. 
 
 By Faith and through the Sacraments of Faith, we 
 live immediately upon the Son of God who hath loved 
 us and given Himself for us. As we are born, so we 
 grow, by faith in His death for forgiveness, and by 
 faith in His Life for righteousness. Souls would be 
 much helped in learning this lesson, by a right and 
 true apprehension of the Sacraments of the Gospel. 
 In the former part of this treatise, it has been shown 
 of the Lord's Supper in particular, that in it the 
 Lord is continually reassuring His people of their 
 interest in His Death, and of their cleansing by it 
 from all sin. He stirs up our remembrance of it as 
 a finished fact ; and the weak in faith spiritually drink 
 His Blood, hearing Him say, and believing His word, 
 "This is shed for you and for many, for the remission 
 of sins." 
 
 This assurance which He gives us of His Propitia- 
 tion already made and finished, is not that we may be 
 idle and remain as we are, but for this very end, that 
 
72 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 we may be strong and overcome sin, may grow in life 
 and love, and serve and suffer for His sake, with Him 
 and in Him, to the glory of God the Father. 
 
 " If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to 
 God by the Death of His Son : much more, being re- 
 conciled, we shall be saved by His Life. And not 
 only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, by Whom we have now received the 
 Atonement." 1 
 
 They who have truly learned this lesson, and with 
 whom it abides, who apprehend the Propitiation and 
 reconciliation by it, do indeed joy in God through the 
 Lord Jesus ; and His Holy Supper is to them not only 
 a memorial of His Atonement once made, but also a 
 sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving. By a true and 
 holy instinct — an inspiration of the Spirit — the ancient 
 Church gave to the Lord's Supper the name Eucharist, 
 The Thanksgiving. Very fitly too, she made it the 
 crowning act of her worship, and offered to God with 
 it her loftiest hymns of praise, and her lowliest bow- 
 ings of adoration ; and if she gathered round it sacri- 
 ficial forms, borrowed from the ritual of Israel — vest- 
 ments, and lights, and incense, a material altar and a 
 visible Holy of holies 2 — it is certain that, at the be- 
 
 'Eom. v. 10, 11. 
 1 However much these things have been perverted in these 
 latter days, at first and in themselves they were not wrong ; 
 and they are even countenanced by the symbolical represen- 
 tations of the worship of God and the Lamb, given us in the 
 Revelations. It cannot be doubted that in this dispensation the 
 Lord intends the weak and carnal, the babes in Him, to be 
 taught and fed by figures, parables, visible words and represen- 
 tations mystical — representations, that is, at once figurative, 
 and yet spiritually real. And may not those, too, who seem 
 to be something, gain by such accommodations and condescend- 
 
SACRIFICE AND PRIEST. 
 
 73 
 
 ginning, it was from no conception of the Lord's Sup- 
 per as being a proper Sacrifice of Propitiation, but be- 
 cause it is the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving for 
 Atonement made, Acceptance known, and Salvation 
 received. 
 
 The Eucharist, in this point of view, answers not to 
 the Sin-offering, nor to the Burnt-offering, in the ritual 
 of Israel, but rather to the Peace-offering, which was 
 a Sacrifice upon acceptance, or for salvation received, 1 
 — "a sweet savour to God," which, be it observed, 
 supplied food not only to God by the fire on His Altar, 
 but also to man — to the offerer and the priest and the 
 priest's children. That which was offered, was also 
 eaten. 
 
 "When by that Bread and that Cup we show forth 
 the Lord's Death, we do indeed "offer by Him the 
 sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit 
 
 ings of the Lord ? Often is it true now in respect to Chris- 
 tian mysteries: "Thou hast hid these things from the wise 
 and prudent" — those, it may be, who think themselves too 
 spiritual to require signs — "and hast revealed them unto 
 babes," who do not despise signs, but pass on through them 
 to the realities which they signify. The harm of signs is when 
 they are rested in, and are made a law of, and that a ceremonial 
 law, to be observed as a ground of acceptance with God. As 
 regards the Sacraments themselves, the sign is very often put 
 in the place of Him whom it signifies. And to this perversion 
 our fleshly mind is prone. 
 
 1 ©inn* ffurnfi'ov. Sept. See Lev. iii. vii. 11-21, 28-34. On 
 the whole of this subject the writer's obligations are great to that 
 valuable book, " The Law of the Offerings," by Andrew Jukes. 
 (Nisbet.) In the Eucharist there is no actual shedding of 
 blood, or giving up of life, as there was in the Peace-offering. 
 As regards the shedding of blood, the Lord's Supper, in every 
 one of its aspects, is simply the commemoration of the One 
 Sacrifice. 
 
74 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 of our lips giving thanks to His Name." 1 But we 
 offer much more, for, in offering praise by Him, we 
 offer the Lord Himself. As Royal Priests we pre- 
 sent Him before the eyes of the Father, to His praise 
 and glory. Through the Sacramental action we see 
 the Lord Himself — His ready, perfect obedience, His 
 unblemished holiness of walk and mind, His entire 
 conformity to the will of the Father, His love to God 
 and to us, stronger than death, and we shotdd offer 
 Himself, all that He has done, and all that He is, to 
 God for praise ; for all His is ours, and it is not we 
 alone who offer, but He in us, and we in Him. 
 
 If we have rejoiced, and do rejoice, in His finished 
 Atonement known and received, let us go on and 
 learn to rejoice even more in Him, as offering Him- 
 self to the glory of God the Father. Surely it should 
 be our joy that there is One in Heaven, bone of our 
 bone, and flesh of our flesh, "Who as Man has glorified 
 the Father, and in Whom the Father is noir glorified, 
 perfectly; in Whom in the days of His flesh there 
 could be found no one single way, or word, or wish, 
 or thought, or feeling, contrary to the will of His Fa- 
 ther; and Who in pure love and of free will offered 
 Himself wholly to the glory of His Name. We have 
 not glorified, neither do Ave glorify, our Heavenly Fa- 
 ther as we ought; but here we have One "Who has 
 perfectly glorified, and is glorifying, Him for us, and 
 tn Whom, and hj Whom, we too glorify Him. We 
 bless and praise God, we glorify Him, we give thanks 
 to Him for His great glory, through His Only-begotten, 
 His Beloved Son, in Whom He is well-pleased. Our 
 praise ascends to God through the Lord Jesus, the 
 
 Heb. xiii. 15. 
 
EATING AND DRINKING BY FAITH. 75 
 
 Lamb of God, Who as man died, and rose again, and 
 is now glorified, and Who is, as He ever was, God. 
 "For Thou only art Holy ; Thou only art the Lord; 
 Thou only, O Christ, with the Holy Ghost, art most 
 high in the Glory of God the Father. Amen." 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 EATING AND DRINKING BY FAITH. 
 
 But to descend once more to the lower ground of our 
 own experience, of our wants and their fulfilment. 
 When we look into ourselves we can find no food or 
 satisfaction either for God or men. We are sinners, 
 and we cannot satisfy the justice of God so as to cover 
 our sins, neither can we of ourselves satisfy the require- 
 ments of His holy law for righteousness. Our best 
 services are polluted by sin. All our righteousnesses 
 are as filthy rags.' But in Heaven we have One Who 
 has satisfied l'or us at once the love and the severity of 
 the justice of God; in one word, who satisfies His 
 Holiness. 
 
 In ourselves, that is, in our flesh, we are unholy ; in 
 
 1 " What can all our righteousness be in the sight of God ? 
 Shall it not be reckoned, according to the Prophet, ' as filthy 
 rags?' (Isaiah, lxiv. 6.) And if it be strictly judged, shall 
 not all our righteousness be found unrighteous and defective? 
 What, then, will become of our sins, if not even righteousness 
 can answer for itself? Therefore let us earnestly cry out with 
 the Prophet, 'Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, O 
 Lord ;' and let us with entire humility betake ourselves to 
 mercy, which is alone able to save our Souls." — St. Bernard, 
 L Sermon on All Saints. 
 
76 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 the Lord Jesus we are holy. "When the Israelite 
 brought his Peace-offering to the door of the tabernacle 
 of the congregation, he laid his hand upon its head. 1 
 Doubtless he made over it a confession of unworthi- 
 ness and of sin. But by this rite he identified himself, 
 as it were, with it, as his substitute — a substitute with- 
 out blemish, and giving its life for him. And the Lord 
 Jesus has both given His Life for us, and has done for 
 us, well and perfectly, in the service of God, what we, 
 if so be, attempt to do in weakness, and with pollution 
 attending; and He is without blemish and without spot, 
 "for in Him is no sin ;" 2 and He is ours. "What peace, 
 and security, and joy, there is when we realize that in 
 the sight of God we are identified with our Substitute ! 
 In spite of our unworthiness, or, rather, with confession 
 of it, by Faith, we lay our hand upon the Head of our 
 
 ' Lev. iii. 2. It is a remarkable fact, and illustrates the 
 great chain of interdependence which there is in the Church, 
 that Charles Simeon found peace with God, by Faith, through 
 some words in Bishop Wilson's Introduction to the Lord's Sup- 
 per. All through Lent he had been seeking peace, in much 
 distress of soul, with fasting and prayer; and when at last he 
 was quite in despair of himself, feeling himself a lost sinner, 
 he came upon these words, in the course of his preparation for 
 the Communion on Easter Day : " An Israelite, under the Law, 
 being obliged to lay his hand upon the head of his sacrifice, 
 confessing his sins, and laving them, as it were, upon that crea- 
 ture, did easily understand that this was to show him that death 
 was the due reward of sin," &c. The Holy Spirit blessed these 
 words to him, and led him to think, "If the Israelite knew what 
 he was doing, I too may lay my sins upon the Head of the 
 Lamb of God." He did so, and found that peace which springs 
 from knowing with the heart that of which Bishop Wilson goes 
 on to speak, "that our Lord Jesus Christ became a Sacrifice 
 for us, and that on Him all our sins were laid — on Him Who 
 knew no sin." 
 
 ■ 1 St. John, iii. 5. 
 
EATING AND DRINKING BT FAITH. 
 
 77 
 
 Peace-Offering. And who can condemn us ? " It is 
 Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, Who 
 is even at the right-hand of God, Who also maketh 
 intercession for us." 1 And He is our all in all, "made 
 of God unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanc- 
 tification, and redemption." 2 
 
 In this satisfaction of our every need, the Lord be- 
 comes, in the deepest sense, the food and sweet re- 
 freshment of our souls. His Holy Supper, it has been 
 well said, is a Feast upon the Sacrifice. We share 
 with God ; this is Communion ; and what we share in 
 is the Lord Jesus. "Truly our fellowship or commu- 
 nion is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus 
 Christ." 3 He Who is the Bread of God, 4 consumed 
 upon His Altar, a Sacrifice to Him " for a sweet-smell- 
 ing savour," 5 is our Bread also, "the Bread of Life," 
 even " That Bread which cometh down from Heaven, 
 that a man may eat thereof, and not die." 6 
 
 And here let no one, with the Jews at Capernaum, 
 imagine that a carnal eating with the mouth is the 
 participation intended. When our Blessed Lord spake 
 His mystical words in their synagogue, He signified 
 the same spiritual reality, as when He took the Bread 
 and brake it, and took the Cup likewise after Supper, 
 and gave it to His disciples. The Discourse (or the 
 spoken word,) and the Sacrament (or the Visible word.) 
 speak of the same thing. 
 
 No one can read that discourse with an unprejudiced 
 eye, and not see that, from beginning to end, it is con- 
 cerning spiritual union with the Lord, and this union 
 
 1 Rom. viiL 34. 2 1 Cor. i. 30. * 1 St. John, i. 3. 
 * St. John, vi. 33; Comp. Lev. iii. 11, 16; xxi. G, 22; Ezek. 
 xliv. 7 ; Mai. i. 7, 12. 
 
 5 Epta. v. 2. 6 St. John, vi. 35, 50. 
 
78 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 by faith. At the beginning, He defines : " This is 
 the work of God, that ye believe on Him Whom He 
 hath sent." At the end, He draws from Simon Peter 
 this confession of faith in Him : " We believe and are 
 sure that Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living 
 GrOD." 1 Faith He sets forth as that whereby, as by 
 an instrument, so to speak, we apprehend and appro- 
 priate Him to ourselves. To believe on Him is to 
 come to Him, and to eat and to drink of Him. " Jesus 
 said unto them, I am the Bread of Life : he that cometh 
 to Me, shall never hunger ; and he that belieuetk on Me, 
 shall never thirst. But I said unto you, That ye also 
 have seen Me, and believe not. All that the Father 
 giveth Me, shall come to Me ; and him that cometh to 
 Me, I will in nowise cast out." 2 
 
 The same great effects, even Resurrection and Eter- 
 nal Life, are ascribed ecpaally to Faith and to eating 
 and drinking. "This is the will of Him that sent 
 Me, that every one that seeth the Son, and believetk on 
 Him, may have everlasting life, and I tvill raise him up 
 at the last day." 3 And again : " Verily, verily, I say 
 unto you, He that believeth on Me, hath everlasting life. 
 I am that Bread of Life. Your fathers did cat manna 
 in the wilderness, and are dead: this is the Bread 
 which cometh down from Heaven, that a man may 
 eat thereof and net die. I am the Living Bread which 
 came down from Heaven : if any man eat of this Bread, 
 he shall live for ever : and the Bread that I will give 
 is My Flesh, which I will give for the life of the 
 world." 4 And again: " JVJioso eateth My Flesh, and 
 drinketh My Blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise 
 him up at the last day." 5 
 
 1 St. John, vi. 29, 69. * lb. 35, 36, 37. 
 
 3 lb. 40. 4 lb. 47-51. 5 lb. 54. 
 
EATING AND DRINKING BY FAITH. 
 
 70 
 
 In all this there is a manifest parallelism between 
 believing on the one hand, and eating and drinking on 
 the other. What eating and drinking are to the body, 
 believing is to the soul. Somewhat, not of ourselves, 
 but which cometh from without, is apprehended, taken 
 in, and appropriated, in either case, There is a Sa- 
 cramental eating, and this is a Spiritual eating, by 
 believing. Eating with the mouth is the outward 
 form — eating in the heart, by faith, is the inward 
 reality, of the Sacramental action. The former is, as 
 it were, the body, the latter the soul of the action. 
 When the Spiritual man partakes of the Lord's Supper 
 there is a concurrence, or rather identification, of the 
 eating with the mouth and of the eating by believing 
 with the heart. The soul of the action is united with 
 the body of it. 1 
 
 1 St. Augustine saw and has stated very clearly, that eating 
 and drinking in the figurative language of Scripture means 
 nothing else than the hearing, and receiving, and delighting 
 one's self in the Word of God by faith. "Believe on Him ivhom 
 He hath sent. This, then, is to eat, not that meat which per- 
 isheth, but that which remaincth unto eternal life. Why make 
 ready the teeth and the belly ? Believe, and thou hast eaten." 
 And again: "The Lord, being about to give the Holy Spirit, 
 said that He (Himself) was the Bread which came down from 
 Heaven, exhorting us to believe on Him. To believe on Him, 
 this it is to eat the Living Bread. He that believeth, eateth ; in- 
 visibly he is fed to the fall, because invisibly born again. He 
 is a babe within, new within ; where he is made a new-horn 
 babe, there is he satisfied with food." — St. Aug. on St. John, vi. 
 TV. 25, and 26. pp. 389, 400. Oxf. Trans. One would not, in- 
 deed, refer this question to the authority of any human teacher, 
 but it would be well if some who rely upon the authority of St. 
 Augustine would carefully read through his Tractates on John 
 vi., endeavouring to take his words in their obvious, natural 
 sense. Herein may be a sort of test. The spiritual man will 
 
80 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 Again, what food is to the body, the words of God 
 are to the soul. This is a fundamental conception 
 given us by the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures. "It 
 is written," said our Blessed Lord to Satan, "Man 
 shall not live by bread alone, but by every word 
 (pr/fiari) that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." 1 
 Where quoting according to the Septuagint, our Lord 
 uses for "word" the term "Rhema," which ha3 a 
 shade of meaning expressive of a certain identification 
 of the sigii with its significate, so that the word em- 
 bodies, as it were, the fact which it represents. " Rhe- 
 ma" is an outgoing, or utterance, not merely as the 
 act of speaking, or the sounds uttered, but as the 
 words joined with and conveying the fact spoken of. 
 A word, an outgoing or utterance of the mouth, is 
 a reality, the body, as it were, of that which is meant 
 within. 
 
 Now at the end of this sixth chapter of St. John, 
 where the Lord is leading the minds of His disciples 
 to apprehend His sayings after the Spirit, He makes 
 use of this same term ' Rhema.' " It is the Spirit 
 that quickeneth ; the flesh profiteth nothing : the words, 
 1 Rhemata,' that I speak unto you, they are Spirit and 
 they are life." 2 And afterwards Simon Peter, re- 
 
 know of what Augustine is throughout speaking. There are 
 others who will not understand; — and why will they not? Au- 
 gustine, I think, would answer, Because they are not taught of 
 the Spirit. 
 
 1 St. Matt. iv. 4. In Deut. viii. 3, the Hebrew word is K2RB 
 "outgoing," or " utterance," from Ki" 1 131 corresponds exactly 
 with faut in Greek, as signifying first, "word, speech," and 
 then, "matter," or "thing;" combining, as it were, the fact 
 spoken of, with the word which expresses it. 
 
 2 St. John, vi. 63. 
 
EATING AND DRINKING BT FAITH. 
 
 81 
 
 sponding, with a measure of spiritual apprehension, 
 uses the same term : " Lord, to whom shall we go ? 
 Thou hast the words, 'Rhemata,' of eternal life." 1 
 Truly the words of the Lord are spiritual, living re- 
 alities. And again, it is a most simple, most deep 
 and true conception, that a Sacrament is a Visible 
 Word of the Lord. 2 
 
 Bread is given to strengthen man's heart, and wine 
 to make his heart glad; and by His "Word and His 
 Sacrament the Lord Jesus is both Bread and Wine 
 to His believing people ; that is, He makes Himself 
 food and satisfaction, both for strength and refreshment, 
 and for joy and gladness, to all those who by faith 
 receive and feed upon Him, and delight themselves in 
 Him. 
 
 For what is the food which the Word, spoken or 
 visible, conveys? The discourse in St. John vi. shows 
 that it is the Lord Himself, both in His divine and 
 in His human nature. When at the beginning He 
 speaks of Himself as the Bread of God which cometh 
 
 1 St. John, vi. 68. 
 ■ The symbolical use of food to signify the Word of God, and 
 of eating or tarting to signify the receiving of the word or the 
 enjoyment of it, runs through the whole of Scripture. Thus we 
 read : "How sweet are Thy Words unto my taste ! yea, sweeter 
 than honey to my mouth." — Psalm, cxix. 103. Comp. Prov. ix. 
 1-6. Again: "Thy Words were found, and I did eat them; 
 and Thy Word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine 
 heart." — Jcr. xv. 16. Very strikingly is this figure employed by 
 Isaiah, lv. 1-3 ; and worthy of especial notice, as giving the 
 key to the signification of the whole, arc these words : "Hearken 
 diligently unto Me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your 
 soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear and come unto Me ; 
 hear, and your soid shall live." To come to the Lord, and to eat 
 of Ilim, is spiritually nothing else but to hearken ; and by this 
 hearing of Faith cometh life. Compare verses 10, 11. 
 6 
 
82 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 down from Heaven, 1 plainly He is pointing to His 
 divine nature ; since He did not come down from 
 Heaven as He is Man, but as He is the Son of God. 
 As the Personal Word of God, He is the Bread which 
 the Father gives. But afterwards in the 51st verse 
 He speaks of the Bread which He Himself should give, 
 even His own Flesh : " And the Bread that I will give 
 is My Flesh, which I will give for the Life of the 
 world." And from this point in the discourse He goes 
 on to speak of communion with God by eating His 
 Flesh and drinking His Blood. 
 
 By so speaking He was signifying to the Israelites 
 who heard Him that He was about to offer Himself 
 as a Sacrifice. And had they spiritually understood 
 their own ritual, they would at once have apprehended 
 His meaning. For they were familiar with the practice 
 of eating the flesh of victims offered in sacrifice. 2 That 
 which gave up its life for man, was incorporated in 
 man by being eaten. This was seen most clearly, 
 perhaps, in the Paschal Lamb, which was altogether 
 consumed by those for whom its life was given up, and 
 who were preserved from destruction by its blood. 
 
 Christ, as the Son of God, is the Bread from 
 Heaven ; and, having been made Man, He is our Pas- 
 chal Lamb. There is indeed a close correspondence 
 between the Holy Supper and the Feast of the Pass- 
 over. The blood of a lamb, without spot or blemish, 
 was shed, and sprinkled outside, to deliver from death, 
 and signified our redemption by Christ from eternal 
 death; the flesh of the same lamb was wholly eaten 
 within, and signified our entire incorporation in life 
 1 St. John, ri. 32, 33. 
 
 1 " Behold Israel after the flesh : are not they which eat of 
 the sacrifices partakers of the altar ?" — 1 Cor. x. 18. 
 
EATING AND DRINKING BY FAITH. 83 
 
 with the true Lamb of God. So in the Holy Supper 
 we have first, commemoration of the Sacrifice of His 
 Death, and then, eating and drinking, that we may 
 have union and communion with Him in life. The 
 Paschal Lamb pointed forward to Him, perhaps, more 
 comprehensively and fully than any other sacrifice or 
 rite ordained for Israel. The Lord's Supper looks 
 back and points upwards to Him, in all His relations 
 to us, both as He was signified by the Paschal Lamb, 
 and also as every sacrifice and rite of Israel found its 
 fulfilment in Him. 
 
 In particular, as they ate the flesh of the Paschal 
 Lamb and other victims, the Flesh of the Lord is 
 eaten by us, that we may live by Him. He says 
 expressly, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of 
 Man, .... ye have no life in you." But then He 
 added also, " Except ye drink His Blood, ye have no 
 life in you." 1 The feeding on blood was expressly 
 forbidden under the Old Testament. " Flesh with the 
 life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not 
 eat." 2 Whereas in the New Testament, to drink the 
 Blood is as expressly commanded. "Drink ye all of 
 this." "For this Cup is the' New Testament in My 
 Blood." The Blood is, as it were, the New Testament 
 itself. And herein is precisely the characteristic differ- 
 ence between the Law and the Gospel. 
 
 1 St. John, vL 53. 
 Gen. ix. 4. Compare Lev. xvi. 14-19; and xvii. 10-14. 
 Especially to be observed are the words: "The life of the lk-sh 
 is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to 
 make an atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that 
 maketh an atonement for the soul." There was sufficient in the 
 Scriptures to make Our Lord's most mysterious sayings, in the 
 main, intelligible to an Israelite, had the ear of his heart been 
 open. St. John, iii. 10. 
 
84 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 Under the Law, life was forfeited to the justice of 
 God. By the Gospel we are told that the one pure 
 and spotless Life of Man has been given for us, by the 
 shedding of Blood ; and in that Blood we are to partake 
 by faith that we may receive the life thereof as the free 
 gift of God, and enjoy all the blessings that come from 
 it. As it is well-p'easing and most precious to the 
 Father, so are we called to have communion with Him 
 in that wherein He delights. "We have fellowship 
 one with another," even we with the Father, " and the 
 Blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all 
 sin." 1 Mystically, atonement and life is in that Cup, 
 and therefore it is our wine of joy and gladness. 2 It is 
 the Mystery of Faith ; we drink and take it into our- 
 selves by faith ; we simply receive That which the Son 
 hath given for the life of the world, and through taking 
 that Gift we see and apprehend and confess that the 
 Father loved the world, and sent His Son to be its 
 Saviour. 
 
 But let it not be thought that this Spiritual feeding 
 is within the power of mere nature, or that man by 
 the unassisted strength of his own will and understand- 
 ing can lay hold upon spiritual truth and the Person 
 of the Lord, so as to apprehend, and appropriate, and 
 dwell in Him. To receive the Lord by believing His 
 words appears the most simple and easy thing in the 
 
 1 1 St. John, i. 7. Compare v. 3. "Truly our fellowship is 
 with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ." 
 
 - It was remarked of Philip Xeri that he always received the 
 Cup with peculiar fervour of affection. In the latter part of 
 his life, he took so long a time in communicating, that he used 
 to be shut up by himself, and left to his own devotion for hours. 
 Why should the Church of Rome deprive her lay communicants 
 of that which Philip Neri appears to have found so precious? 
 
EATING AND DRINKING BY FAITH. 
 
 85 
 
 world ; and so it is, in one way, but in another it is 
 the most difficult ; as we find by experience ; for it in- 
 volves absolute death to nature — that is, to the reason- 
 ing mind of the flesh. And no man knows how to 
 believe, except he be taught it by power from on High. 
 Thus the Lord Himself instructs us in this sixth 
 chapter of St. John : " No man can come to Me, ex- 
 cept the Father which hath sent Me draw him; and 
 I will raise him up at the Last Day. It is written 
 in the Prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. 
 Every man, therefore, that hath heard, and hath learn- 
 ed of the Father, cometh unto Me." 1 We do not 
 know how to come to the Lord and to eat of Him — 
 that is, we do not know how to trust His Words and 
 believe on Him, except the Holy Ghost teach us. 
 Faith is not without ourselves, for, in the act of faith, 
 our will submits itself, and surrenders the understand- 
 ing, to rely upon the Word of God ; but also, faith is 
 not of ourselves. It is the Gift of God. Therefore 
 the Lord says again, " It is the Spirit that quickeneth ; 
 the flesh profiteth nothing." 2 
 
 The Holy Spirit is the Giver of Life. 3 When by 
 His inspiration we believe on the Lord Jesds, we 
 begin to live in God ; and when we begin to live, we 
 are united with the Lord by a marvellous incorpora- 
 tion, in the power of the Spirit ; we are made members 
 of that Body of which the Loud Jesus is the Head. 
 For He is the Spiritual Head of a Spiritual Body. 
 
 The Lord is not the Head of the whole race of man- 
 kind, as He is sometimes erroneously represented. 4 By 
 1 St. John, vi. 44, 45. 'P. 63. 3 2 Cor. iii. G. 
 
 4 On the writer's saying to a Romish priest that the Lord is 
 the Head of the Church, he replied, " No : as the Second Adam 
 He is the Head of the whole human race." But He is not; for 
 
8G THE SUPPER OF TTIE LORD. 
 
 His Incarnation He has indeed taken part of our flesh 
 and blood, 1 and has so come into our lot, that He is 
 the Brother of all men, even of the incurably wicked. 
 But as the Second Adam, He is the Spiritual Head of a 
 Spiritual family. All men, all who have souls, are 
 naturally one with the first Adam, and were in a man- 
 ner contained in him, from whose flesh they spring ; 
 those who have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, are 
 spiritually one with the Second Adam, and are incorpo- 
 rated under Him as their Head. From Him, as Man, 
 and through His Holy Manhood, they derive the new 
 life of the Spirit ; from Him, that is, because He has 
 come in our flesh, and has died for us in the flesh, and 
 has risen again and is justified in the Spirit, and so is 
 become " the author of eternal salvation unto all them 
 that obey Him," 2 sending the Holy Spirit from the 
 Father into their hearts. " And so it is written, the 
 first Adam was made a living soul : the last Adam was 
 made a quickening Spirit." 3 
 
 We know that there is a principle of unity between 
 ourselves and the first Adam ; though we cannot dis- 
 tinctly ascertain in what it consists. But it is obvious 
 that the principle of unity between ourselves and the 
 Second Adam is the indwelling Spirit, abiding in Him 
 in all Its fulness, and communicated from Him to us. 
 
 if He were, it would follow that all men must be partakers of 
 Him, and be saved. As descended from the first Adam, He 
 is the Brother of all men ; but He is the Head of the Church, 
 that is, of those who truly believe on Him and obey Him. As 
 members under Him as our Head, we are children of God; 
 and this adoption becomes ours through Faith. "While ye 
 have light, believe in the Light, that ye may be the children of 
 Light."— St. John. xii. 36. Comp. i. 12 ; Gal. iii. 26. 
 
 1 Heb. ii. 14. 2 Heb. v. 9. s 1 Cor. xv. 45. 
 
EATING AND DRINKING BT FAITH. 
 
 87 
 
 " For by One Spirit are we all baptized into one 
 Body." 1 
 
 Our union, then, with the Lord is not carnal, not 
 by local nearness, or bodily contact, but is spiritual. 
 In the end, it is with Him, not as He is in our flesh, 
 but as He is Spirit. "The Lord is that Spirit;"' 2 
 and "he that is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit." 3 
 And yet it is even so, that as man, the Second Adam, 
 He is made a quickening Spirit. By Faith, ascending 
 through His flesh as Man, we apprehend and rest in 
 Him after the Spirit, as God. He who by the Holy 
 Ghost with the heart believes, and with the mouth con- 
 fesses that Jesus is the Lord to the Glory of God the 
 Father, has passed through the veil, and has entered 
 into the Holy of Holies, that secret place of the God- 
 head which is Light, and Love, and Peace, and Joy, 
 and Life Eternal. He, the believer, has communion 
 with God, He is joined with the Lord, and is become 
 one Spirit with Him. 
 
 Thither, whosoever would, can only ascend through 
 the Man Christ Jesus. And of Him we are partakers 
 through Faith in the fact, that He has given His Body 
 and shed His Blood for us. As was said before, a 
 wondrous ladder is set up on the earth, and the top of 
 
 1 1 Cor. xii. 13. That faithful Father of the Church, St. 
 Irenfeus, in refuting the Gnostics who perverted the text, " Flesh 
 and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God," discourses at 
 length upon the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and His union 
 with the souls and bodies of the children of God ; and he shows 
 that they are made spiritual and alive in God, by being united 
 with the Holy Spirit, not losing anything of their former sub- 
 stance, but possessing Him, or rather being possessed by Him, as 
 the principle of their new life. — Irenceus Contra licenses, v. 
 6-12 pp. 730-750, Ed. Stieren. 
 
 2 2 Cor. iii. 17. "1 Cor. vi. 17. 
 
88 
 
 THE SDPPEE OF THE LORD. 
 
 it reaches to Heaven, and the Lord God stands above 
 it. 1 The Words and Sacrament of the Lord present 
 to our Faith the fact of His Death and Resurrection 
 for us in our flesh ; participating in this truth by Faith, 
 we apprehend the Person of the Son, and, through the 
 Son, the Father also ? and in fellowship with the 
 Father our end is attained. Our Blessed Lord Him- 
 self reveals to us these several steps. " He that eateth 
 My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood, dwelleth in Me, and 
 I in Him. As the Living Father hath sent Me, and 
 I live by the Father : so he that eateth Me, even he 
 shall live by Me." 2 The Life which is eternally and 
 essentially communicated from the Father to the Son, 
 is imparted by the Son to those who by faith eat His 
 Flesh and drink His Blood. 
 
 We can by no means dispense with the Flesh of the 
 Son of Man in our approach to God. We draw near 
 by It, and receive Life through It. But then our par- 
 taking is not by bodily eating of flesh upon earth, as if 
 the Lord had only been incarnate, and had not died, 
 risen again, and ascended ; for so to eat of Him would 
 profit us nothing ; but our communion is in the Flesh 
 which has borne our judgment, and passed through it, 
 and which is now glorified at the right-hand of God ; 
 and our communion is by Faith, or spiritual eating and 
 drinking. 
 
 As one and the same nature of flesh, which was in 
 the first Adam, is in all men by natural communication, 
 so one and the same flesh of the Second Adam, as 
 having been given for the life of the world, is the object 
 of faith to all who believe ; and through this faith, 
 one and the same Spirit of the Second Adam is im- 
 parted to them by spiritual communication, and is ap- 
 1 Gen. xxviii. 12. ' St. John, vi 56, 57. 
 
EATING AND DRINKING BY FAITH. 
 
 89 
 
 prehended and appropriated by them as the common 
 principle of their new life. And so " we being many, 
 are one Bread, and one Body: for we are all partakers 
 of that one Bread." 1 
 
 As that Flesh binds together Christians into one 
 Body, so it is the principle of life to our bodies seve- 
 rally ; and they will rise again by the virtue of it. It 
 has infinite preciousness and efficacy, because it is the 
 flesh of the Son of God, His own Flesh, peculiar to 
 Himself, taken together with His reasonable Soul into 
 personal union with Him, even as our bodies are per- 
 sonally united with our souls. Therefore, His Flesh 
 is life-giving, and it has an especial function in im- 
 parting life to our bodies. By Faith, and through 
 the Sacrament of Faith, our flesh is united with His 
 Flesh, as well our souls with His Soul ; and because 
 there is this spiritual and real union between our flesh 
 and His, our bodies will rise again at the Last Day 
 unto eternal life. 
 
 In order to live in the natural world, we must eat 
 of the natural world. In order to live in the spiritual 
 world, we must eat of the spiritual world. No eating 
 of natural things can sustain the spiritual life ; neither 
 can natural food implant in our bodies the seed of the 
 Resurrection Life. As, therefore, we would hereafter 
 rise unto eternal life, we must live now spiritually, 
 through eating by faith the Flesh, and drinking the 
 Blood, of Him who came down from Heaven to be 
 the Bread of Life, and Who saith, " I am the Resur- 
 rection and the Life." The power of Resurrection and 
 Life goes forth from the Son of God to that faith 
 which apprehends His Flesh after the Spirit, and re- 
 
 1 Cor. x. 17. 
 
90 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 alizes both how He once {rave His Flesh for us, and 
 how in it He now lives and is glorified. 
 
 The words, spoken or visible, whereby our Lord 
 declares and imparts His Flesh to us, "They are 
 spirit, and they are life." Grant, O Lord, that Thy 
 words may ever abide in us ; and that we may so eat 
 Thy Flesh and drink Thy Blood, that we may attain 
 to know Thee as Thou art, the only-begotten of the 
 Father, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of 
 very God, of one substance with the Father; and 
 that feeding on Thee in our hearts by faith, with 
 thanksgiving, we may not die, but have eternal life in 
 Thee, Who with the Father and the Holy Ghost 
 livest and reignest, one God, world without end. 
 Amen. 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 THE FRUIT OF THE SACRAMENT, THE LIFE OF CHRIST 
 IN US. 
 
 The sum of what has been said is, that through Faith 
 in the Lord's Body given for us, and His Blood shed 
 for us, we feed on the Lord Himself, and that He be- 
 comes spiritually our bread and wine, and through His 
 Manhood imparts to us the knowledge of His Divine 
 Nature, to nourish and refresh that new life which He 
 has imparted to us by the sending of His Holy Spirit 
 into our hearts. Truly we live by Him. " Man doth 
 not live by bread only, but by every word that pro- 
 ceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live." 1 
 
 1 Deut. viii. 3. 
 
THE FRUIT OF THE SACRAMENT. 
 
 01 
 
 We live by more than His words, even by Himself in 
 the Person of the Word — of Him " Whose goings forth 
 have been from of old, from everlasting." 1 And now 
 we know that " the Word was made Flesh, and dwelt 
 among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of 
 the only-begotten of the Father,) full of grace and 
 truth. . . . And of His fulness have all we received, and 
 grace for grace." 2 
 
 This is sanetification, to receive from His fulness 
 grace and truth, and to be conformed by the spirit of 
 
 1 Mic. v. 2. The same word as in Deut. viii. 3. R¥< 
 
 is found in connection with "OT Isaiah, lv. 11. In the first 
 words of Psalm xlv., " Eructavit cor meum verbum bonum," 
 (Vulg. xliv.) the Ancients saw an intimation of the eternal 
 generation of the Personal Word of God the Father. The 
 Arians abused this application of the words to countenance 
 their heresy, and Athanasius had to defend Dionysius of Alex- 
 andria against their misrepresentations of him upon this sub- 
 ject. But in truth this unspeakable Generation is altogether 
 above and beyond time ; it was in the beginning, is now, and 
 ever shall be. Movc^snw expresses simply the relation, not any 
 historical event which was the beginning of it. In so far as it 
 is permitted to use such analogies, it may be said that God the 
 Logos or Son is of and in God the Father, not by an act in 
 time, as my heart by an act of volition produces a thought and 
 embodies it in a word, but essentially and by nature, as my 
 intellect itself is of my heart or will itself, and immanent in it. 
 In using such analogies, it must be borne in mind that we 
 cannot ascend from contemplation of our own nature to a 
 comprehension of the unsearchable Triune God ; but it is also 
 true that there is in our nature a certain image of Him Who 
 said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness."— 
 (Gen. i. 26.) And this image, if it be seen wherein it consists, 
 may help us to apprehend some things which God has revealed 
 about Himself, and will certainly teach us very much about 
 ourselves. Such thoughts occur frequently in the ancient 
 Church teachers. 
 
 2 St. John, i. 14, 16. 
 
92 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 His grace to the perfections of His Manhood, so that 
 there are graces in the believer corresponding to the 
 graces which shine in Him. Our way to sanctification 
 is none other than to live upon Him by Faith ; that is, 
 to look out of ourselves and to feed on Him — con- 
 tinually in heart and mind, to ascend from His Man- 
 hood to His Godhead, and to draw from the ful- 
 ness that is in Him, life, and strength, and peace, and 
 joy. And this contemplation is never barren nor un- 
 fruitful : " We all, with open face beholding (or re- 
 flecting) as in a glass the Glory of the Lord, are 
 changed into the same image from glory to glory, even 
 as by the Spirit of the Lord." 1 Therefore our pro- 
 gress and growth in life is not by any infusion of the 
 substance of the Lord's Flesh into our bodies, but by 
 the assimilation of ourselves in sold and body to His 
 Holy Manhood. It is not by our bringing Him down 
 from Heaven to earth that we may touch and feed 
 upon Him, in a local, bodily presence, but by His 
 drawing up our hearts and minds now, as He will here- 
 after our bodies, to where He is at the right-hand of 
 God. 
 
 And all He works in us by the secret inspirations of 
 the Holy Ghost, " even by the Lord the Spirit," "Who 
 receives of the things of Christ, and shows them unto 
 us. 2 And as He reveals to us one by one the perfec- 
 tions of the Manhood of the Lord, even as they are 
 presented before the Father, and accepted for vs, so 
 He inwardly draws us to a resemblance in heart and 
 life to that glory and loveliness which He presents to 
 our minds, and thus He works in us grace for every 
 grace that is in the Lord, even as a mirror answers to 
 the object which it reflects. 
 
 1 2 Cor. iii. 18. 1 St. John. xvi. 14. 
 
THE FRUIT OF THE SACRAMENT. 
 
 03 
 
 Every perfection, all the glory and loveliness of 
 God, is declared to us in the Manhood of the Lord 
 Jesus, which is heavenly and spiritual, " full of grace 
 and truth." In Him we see the whole mind and heart 
 of God, His thoughts and ways, not written in a book, 
 but shown in the Lord's Life and in Himself. And 
 all is for us, and is ours, given to us; and it is our 
 calling to be conformed to Him, until there shall be 
 a measure of correspondence between what He has 
 wrought for us, and what He works in us. 
 
 Of the Glory and Beauty of His Person who can 
 speak 1 The Holy Ghost alone can reveal Him. But 
 of the glory of His mind, and walk, and ways, as they 
 are signified to us in this Holy Sacrament, somewhat 
 may be profitably said, if the Lord the Spirit teach. 
 And may it not be said that in the Holy Supper the 
 Lord is set before us in the threefold glory of His 
 love, of His lowly service, and of His suffering ? 
 
 "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man 
 lay down his life for his friends." 1 This is the love 
 which the Lord Jesus declares to us in His Holy Sup- 
 per, as was shown at the beginning. What so speaks 
 of love as the Atoning Blood shed for us, not while we 
 were friends, but while we were enemies and rebels? 
 That Blood was shed not only through the Love of 
 God, but also through the Love of the Lord Jesus 
 as He is Man. And as He shed It once for all, and 
 has saved us by It in His Death, much more now that 
 we are reconciled, does He save us by It in His Life. 
 " Sprinkled there, before and on the throne," truly now 
 
 " It speaks of sympathy above, 
 Whatever sins we mouru." 
 
 1 St. John, xv. 13. 
 
'J 4 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 "It speaketh better things than that of Abel;" 1 It 
 cries out of justice satisfied, and so. and much more, 
 does It speak of the love of the God and Man who shed 
 It. By It we enter through the veil, and we find there 
 " a beating human heart," on which we can rest. There 
 we have appearing in the presence of God for us, our 
 own Brother, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, 
 " of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting." 
 That Body and that Soul are not absorbed or lost in 
 the Godhead. No ; they are indeed by the Eternal 
 Spirit transfigured and glorified, and filled with all the 
 fulness of God ; but in that glorious, holy form which 
 our eyes one day shall see, in visible bodily presence, 
 there is the soul of man, with a human heart or will, 11 
 the mind, and thoughts, and affections of Man ; and in 
 that soul there is love, as of man to men ; and what 
 
 1 Heb. xii. 24. 
 
 1 The last great heresy relating to the Person of the Lord 
 which divided the Catholic Church, was that of the Monothe- 
 lites, who denied that He has a proper and distinct human heart 
 or will. For confessing the truth and opposing this heresy, 
 Martin the First, Bishop of Koine, died in exile, a.d. 655, on 
 the shores of the Crimea. An old man, his death was hastened 
 by the hardships and privations to which he was subjected. 
 The cruelties inflicted also by the Byzantine court upon the faith- 
 ful Maximus the Confessor, give the liveliest impression of the 
 tyranny and persecuting spirit of a state Church when it departs 
 from the faith. This illustrious champion of Christ was of 
 high rank in the empire ; but he gave up worldly power and 
 station to devote his great learning and talents to the defence of 
 the truth concerning the Person of our Lord ; and for opposing 
 this Monotheletic heresy he was publicly scourged, his tongue 
 torn out, and his right-hand cut ofF at the wrist, although at 
 the time he was eighty years of age. This heresy appears to 
 be a revival and modification of the Apollinarian, which denied 
 altogether that our Blessed Lord has a human souL 
 
TOE FRUIT OF THE SACRAMENT. 
 
 95 
 
 great love ! Love, once proved stronger than death, and 
 which many waters could not quench, is not quenched 
 now, hut lives, and burns, and pleads, and acts, and 
 serves. 
 
 "Lord, in all Thy power and glory, 
 
 Still Thy thoughts and eyes are here ; 
 Watching o'er Thy ransomed people, 
 
 To Thy gracious heart so dear. 
 Thou for us art interceding, 
 
 (Everlasting is Thy Love :) 
 And a blessed rest preparing 
 
 In our Father's house above." 
 
 As He is now, so are we called to be. " Flesh and 
 blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God ; neither doth 
 corruption inherit incorruption . . . But we shall all 
 be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at 
 the last trump ; for the trumpet shall sound, and the 
 dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be 
 changed. For this corruptible must put on incorrup- 
 tion, and this mortal must put on immortality." 1 But 
 when we thus put on the image of That Heavenly One, 
 His glory will not destroy flesh and blood, but will 
 change, transfigure, and glorify it. The individual per- 
 sonality will not be lost, but will remain unabsorbed ; 
 both the bodies and souls of the saints will subsist en- 
 tire in the midst of That Glory. 
 
 As it will be in the life of Glory then, so is it with 
 the saints in the life of grace now. The true believer 
 from flesh has been made Spirit ; not, that is, that his 
 flesh and blood and his reasonable soul have been lost 
 or annihilated, but he is inwardly changed, trans- 
 figured, and glorified by the Gift of God ; and This 
 Gift is the Holy Spirit Himself. 
 
 1 1 Cor. xv. 50-53. 
 
96 
 
 THE SUPPER OF TIIE LORD. 
 
 The living faithful Christian does not consist merely 
 of body and soul, but of spirit, soul, and body. 1 For 
 the Holy Spirit sent from the Father in the name of 
 the Lord Jesus has imparted to him a new nature, or 
 a principle of life, which is purely spiritual ; not de- 
 stroying the material and intelligent substances of his 
 old nature, or unclothing him of them, but clothing 
 them upon, and thereby changing and sanctifying them 
 into likeness to the Spirit, Soul, and Body of the 
 Lord Jesus. Now this new nature is Love, for the 
 Holy Spirit is the Personal Love of the Father and of 
 the Son. And thus the Lord wills and pleads for His 
 faithful people in all ages: "That the Love wherewith 
 Thou, O Father, hast loved Me, may be in them, and 
 I in them." 2 
 
 1 The Apostle thus enumerates the parts of the constitution 
 of man : " May your whole spirit, and soul, and hody, be pre- 
 served blameless," &c. (1 Thess. v. 23.) It cannot be denied 
 that in the natural — that is, the unrenewed man — there is a 
 distinct spiritual principle of personality. But at the Fall the 
 proper constitution of man's nature was overthrown, and its 
 principles disorganised and dislocated. The natural man is 
 not spirit, soul, and body, but rather body, soul, and spirit, the 
 order being reversed, and the lowest principles having become 
 prevalent. When a man is begotten and born from above, the 
 Holy Spirit of God apprehends the individual human spirit, and 
 brings it, through Faith in the Lord Jesds Christ, into har- 
 mony with the will of the Father, and joins it unto the Lord, 
 so that it becomes with Him One Spirit ; and hereby the indi- 
 vidual human Spirit is rehabilitated and reinstated as the pri- 
 mary principle of the human constitution, so that it becomes 
 '■de facto" what it always has been "de jure." Something not 
 onlv very deep, but also very practical, is indicated when it is 
 said that " the Word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper 
 than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder 
 of soul and spirit." — (Heb. iv. 12.) 
 
 2 St. John, xvii. 20. 
 
THE FRUIT OF THE SACRA3IENT. 97 
 
 The Holy Spirit, Who is Love, teaches us to love 
 one another. He teaches us by the pattern of the 
 Lord Jesus. He applies in inward power what He 
 speaks in outward words by the Apostle : " Grieve not 
 the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto 
 the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, 
 and anger, and clamour, and evil-speaking, be put away 
 from you, with all malice : and be ye kind one to ano- 
 ther, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God 
 for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Be ye therefore 
 followers of God, as dear children : and walk in love, 
 as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself 
 for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet- 
 smelling savour." 1 
 
 The Holy Spirit not only points us to the example 
 of the Blessed Lord, but He actually presents and im- 
 parts Him to us, to be in us the principle of this new 
 life of love ; and especially He does this in the minis- 
 tration of this Holy Sacrament. A few words will in 
 a measure explain this. 
 
 The Supper of the Lord is the Sacrament of our 
 incorporation and oneness with the Lord and with one 
 another. As many grapes yield their juice to make to- 
 gether one cup of wine, and many grains of wheat are 
 ground and kneaded together to make one loaf of bread, 
 so we being many are one Bread and one Cup ; and 
 that principle of unity which knits or fuses us together, 
 is the one love of God shed abroad in all our hearts. 
 But we can love God only in so far as we know His 
 love towards us, that is, in so far as we are in the 
 Spirit partakers of Christ, by Faith in His Body given 
 for us and His Blood shed for us. Thus " we being 
 
 1 Eph. iv. 30-32 ; v. 1, 2. 
 
 7 
 
03 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LOED. 
 
 many are one Bread and one Body ; for we are all par- 
 takers of that one Bread." 1 
 
 In the Holy Communion the Lord is presented to 
 us, as the Head of the Body, by virtue of the common 
 love wherewith He loved each one of His members 
 even unto death, and doth love them now, and will 
 even unto the end. Wherever two or three are met 
 together in His Name for the breaking of Bread, the 
 common bond between them is, that one and the same 
 Lord loved them and gave Himself for them; and 
 there He is in the midst of them ; and when He presents 
 to their Faith His Body broken and His Blood shed for 
 them, in so far as He makes Himself known to them 
 in the breaking of Bread, He inwardly draws them to 
 put away all that is inconsistent with love, and to for- 
 get everything but their common life, which is Himself ; 
 and in so far as they feed on Him, He fashions them 
 to that perfection which He commanded the same night 
 on which He instituted His Holy Supper, even likeness 
 to His own love: "A new commandment I give unto 
 you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, 
 that ye also love one another. By this shall all men 
 know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to 
 another." 2 
 
 Blessed Lord, when we remember Thy great love, 
 teach us Thy new commandment, and write it in our 
 hearts. In Thy Feast of love so give Thyself to us, 
 that the same mind which was in TLee may be in us. 
 Thy love was proved in every trying circumstance, by 
 the weaknesses and failures and sins of Thine own 
 dear people, by open enemies, and by treacherous 
 friends. And in all, Thy love was found perfect. 
 
 1 Cor. x. ]7. 
 
 2 St. John, xiii. 34, 35. 
 
THE FRUIT OF TIIE SACRAMENT. 
 
 99 
 
 Thou wert, and Thou art, ever ready to forgive, and 
 art kind to the unthankful and the evil. Be Thou in 
 us what Thou art for us. Forgive the pride and un- 
 charitableness of our hearts, and help us to forgive, as 
 we have been forgiven. Help us to walk, as Thou 
 didst walk in every trying circumstance. Help us to 
 bear, and to hope, and to believe, and to endure all 
 things, 1 as Thou didst. And write this other word of 
 Thine upon our hearts : " If ye know these things, 
 happy are ye if ye do them." Do all, blessed Lord, for 
 Thine own love's sake. Amen. 
 
 All the ancient liturgies or communion offices contain 
 long intercessory prayers for all ranks and conditions 
 of men; and we gather from indications in the Fathers, 
 that in the earliest times they embraced in their pe- 
 titions, not only those afflicted and poor in this life, but 
 also backsliding and fallen Christians, the civil rulers 
 not yet professing Christianity, the heathen generally, 
 and even the open persecutors and enemies of the Cross 
 of Ciirist. And herein was a beautiful exhibition of 
 the mind of Christ, which is Love. But especially 
 towards those in the Lord was there the constant 
 exercise of love in the administration and partaking 
 of the Holy Supper. For them prayer was always 
 offered at the most solemn part of the service. The 
 religion of the first Christians was not selfish. They 
 did not communicate for themselves alone, but as mem- 
 bers of the Body. They remembered in love those 
 who were absent and could not communicate, and they 
 helped them by their prayers, and supplications, and 
 thanksgivings, offered in Christ and within the veil. 
 And there are some at this day who have experienced 
 refreshment, strength, and consolation, thus diffused 
 1 1 Cor. xiii. 7. 
 
100 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 through the mystical Body, and who speak of that 
 which they know. 
 
 That great sacrificial prayer which was offered by 
 our Blessed Lord on the night of the Last Supper, 
 and which we have recorded in St. John, xvii., is the 
 very pattern of all intercessions offered at His Holy 
 Table for those who are His true members, and who 
 are therefore not of the world, even as He was not 
 of the world. And is it not important that the dis- 
 tinction which He Himself has drawn between prayer 
 for them and for the world, should be observed in our 
 intercessions ? 
 
 But love, to be at all like His, must be essentially 
 practical, — must be "not in word, neither in tongue, 
 but in deed and in truth." 1 His love was equal, or 
 rather identical, with obedience. This is His own 
 record before the Father: "I have finished the work 
 which Thou gavest me to do." 2 The uriU of the Father 
 was ever present to His human soul, and was the 
 spring of all His actions and of all His submission to 
 suffering. " My meat," He said, " is to do the will of 
 Him that sent Me, and to finish His work." 3 Our 
 love therefore must be like His love, rooted in the 
 heart and will. True love is the correspondence of 
 our will with the Will of God; and it is proved by 
 a succession of acts. " This is the love of God, that 
 we keep His commandments." 4 
 
 We are too apt to forget that obedience to Him 
 involves obedience to all whom He sets over us. Love 
 to Him is first exercised in obeying them. The Fifth 
 
 1 1 St. John, iii. 18. 2 St. John, xvii. 4. 
 
 3 St. John, it. 34 ; Cf. the references to the Will of the 
 Father ; v. 30 ; vi. 38. 
 
 * 1 St. John, v. 3. 
 
 ♦ 
 
THE FRUIT OF THE SACRAMENT. 
 
 101 
 
 Commandment stands the first in the table of our duty 
 to our neighbour. And nearly thirty years of our 
 Blessed Lord's life on earth were spent under subjection 
 to parental authority in His home at Nazareth. In the 
 obedience of that private life He was doing the will of 
 His Father, as much as in His ministry and in His 
 Passion. Throughout in every stage of life His love 
 was obedience to the Divine Will. 
 
 Truly this obedience of love did not cost the Blessed 
 Lord words alone, but labours and sufferings. And 
 first it cost Him the continuous activities and conde- 
 scensions and humiliations of service. His whole life 
 among men was a continual stooping and toiling for 
 them; and He needed not to have been among them 
 at all, but for that love to them which was obedience 
 to the Father. And oh, how low did love make Him to 
 stoop! To come among men, He who was the highest, 
 for His love's sake, made Himself the lowest. He who 
 is the first, became the last. And He who is in the 
 form of God, proved Himself more like God, in that 
 li He emptied Himself and took upon Him the form 
 of a servant," than if He had thought it a thing to be 
 grasped at, "to be equal with God." 1 For God in His 
 own nature, stoops to His creatures, hides Himself, and 
 withholds the putting forth of His power that He may 
 not hurt them, ministers to their wants, and makes 
 Himself their servant. 2 Would that His creatures did 
 
 1 Phil. ii. G, 7. 
 
 2 This is a beautiful thought of Origen's, where he is writing 
 on the names of our Lord, at the beginning of his Commentary 
 on St. John's Gospel. He who came to seek and to save that 
 which was lost, is the Very Image, the Word, and the Son of 
 the Merciful Father which is in Heaven, Who "maketh His 
 sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the 
 
102 
 
 TIIE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 not make Him to serve with their sins. But even so, 
 their sins draw forth the glory of His grace, for He 
 bears long with them, and spares them, " not willing 
 that any should perish, but that all should come to re- 
 pentance." 1 So even where unknown, God is the ser- 
 vant of men. He is, may one be allowed to say it, the 
 most unselfish of all beings. And when the Blessed 
 Lord truly declaring this mind of God, "was made in 
 the likeness of men, and was found in fashion as a man," 
 He humbled Himself still lower, and was among men, 
 " as He that serveth." " He came not to be ministered 
 unto, but to minister," and at last, (and this, too, in one 
 aspect is an act of service,) " to give His life a ransom 
 for many." 2 
 
 Bread and wine are servants of man. They are 
 consumed in ministering to our life and enjoyment. 
 So it was the mind of That Blessed One to spend and 
 be spent for men, even though the more abundantly 
 He loved, the less He were loved. And so even now, 
 He still serves among men on earth. As He presents 
 Himself in this Holy Sacrament. He ministers to His 
 members, weak, erring, and sinful though they be in 
 the flesh, making Himself their food, the Bread and the 
 
 just .and on the unjust," (St. Matt. v. 45,) and "Who " is kind 
 unto the unthankful and to the evil." — St. Luke, vi. 35. All 
 the a-o^n which is naturally in men and in animals is a faint 
 ' reflection of what is eternally in God. " The Lord is good to 
 all; and His tender mercies are over all His works." — Ps. cxlv. 9. 
 Godly men have this mind of God, and know what is in Him. 
 A missionary, addressing a pious negro woman, said, " Mary, is 
 not the love of God wonderful?" And then, enlarging on its 
 manifestation in the Atonement of Christ, he made the appeal, 
 "Is it not wonderful?" Mary replied, "I no think it wonderful, 
 because it is just like Him." 
 
 1 2 St. Peter, iii. 0. " St. Mark x. 45. 
 
THE FRUIT OF THE SACRAMENT. 
 
 103 
 
 Wine of our souls, for growth and strength, and for 
 refreshment and joy. Thus He is still the servant of 
 all; as He called Himself, "the Least in the Kingdom 
 of Heaven." 1 
 
 Now, as He is, so should His members be in this 
 world. Our calling is to walk even as He walked. 2 
 If so be we are in Him, living by Faith on Him, we 
 are called to minister in Him ; for we are consecrated 
 to be Priests in Him, " to offer up spiritual sacrifices, 
 acceptable to God by Jesds Christ." 3 Our service and 
 our praise, " our work of faith and labour of love," are 
 not to Him, as if to be a ground of acceptance with 
 Him, but from Him, as wrought by those standing in 
 Him. From without, our offerings may indeed be 
 viewed as for Him, to His praise and glory; the 
 Church and angels see them so, and God Himself con- 
 descends to see them so, and to accept them as a sacri- 
 fice of a sweet savour. But the believer does not let 
 his eyes rest upon his offerings, though made in Christ; 
 for his mind passes on directly to the one unblemished 
 and perfect offering which alone makes his offerings 
 acceptable. He sees and knows that he is in Christ ; 
 on Him he feeds, and in Him delights himself ; in Him 
 and His whole burnt-offering he loses himself and his 
 offerings, with all his weakness and sinfulness, and the 
 blemishes even of his holy things, because that one 
 sacrifice is at once for pardon, and for acceptance, and 
 for righteousness ; and by this holy boldness and pre- 
 sumption of Faith, he gains strength to offer fresh 
 service and sacrifice. 
 
 " The Mercies of God," known and received in the 
 heart, alone enable us "to present our bodies a living 
 
 'St.Matt.xi.il. 2 1 St. John, ii. 6. 
 
 3 1 St. Peter, ii. 5, 
 
104 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God." And this is our 
 ''reasonable service." 1 It is the response of a reason- 
 able heart to the dealings of God with us, so far forth 
 as they are known and apprehended by us ; and, as we 
 increase in the knowledge and apprehension of His 
 mercies, we are more and more able to render unto 
 Him both our souls and bodies in sen-ice. If we at all 
 apprehend His love, as it is revealed to us in this 
 Holy Sacrament, surely we must see that it is only our 
 bounden duty and service to give to Him " all for all." 
 Did we realize, as we should, what we owe to the Lord. 
 we could not keep anything back from Him. If we 
 realize it in any measure, then does " the love of 
 Christ constrain us, because we thus judge, that if 
 One died for all, then were all dead: and that He died 
 for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto 
 themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose 
 again." 2 
 
 The secret spring of living truly unto Him, is to ap- 
 prehend by Faith that He died and rose again for me ; 
 and would you continue to apprehend that He died 
 and rose again for you, then you must live, not unto 
 yourself, but unto Him. These two things hang one 
 upon the other, and this Holy Supper is the Sacrament 
 to us of them both. 
 
 We live unto Him by praising God for Him, and 
 through Him, and in Him, and also by ministering to 
 Him, both in His members, and in all men; for all 
 men are by birth-relationship His brethren. From His 
 walk upon earth we learn what this service must cost 
 us. Our love must be proved by contact with the sins 
 both of believers and of unbelievers — with sin not unto 
 
 1 Rom. xii. 1. 
 
 2 Cor. v. 14, 15. 
 
THE FRUIT OF THE SACRAMENT. 
 
 105 
 
 death, .and with sin unto death. As He washed His 
 disciples' feet, so are we bound to wash one another's 
 feet ; that is, if a brother be overtaken in a fault, to 
 contribute all that is in our power, by grace, " to re- 
 store such an one in the spirit of meekness." 1 And as 
 the Blessed Lord "endured the contradiction of sin- 
 ners against Himself," 2 so we are called to be long- 
 suffering, and to bear with evil men, and by offices of 
 love to strive to win them to Christ, and yet to re- 
 ceive evil at their hands, and hatred for our good-will. 
 Truly the path of ministry is the way of the Cross. It 
 costs suffering, because it springs from love. We are 
 to walk in love, as Christ also loved us, and gave 
 Himself for us. His love brought Him to suffering and 
 to death, and so will ours, in its own measure. The 
 same love which made Him a victim to men, should 
 make us victims also. When our neighbours, whether 
 they be our brethren in the Lord, or only after the 
 flesh, sin against us, or hurt us by their sins, would 
 that we bare the burden without resentment or com- 
 plaint, but with sorrow and compassion and love for 
 them in our hearts, and so were true followers of Him 
 Who was oppressed and was afflicted, yet He opened 
 not His Mouth ; Who was brought as a lamb to the 
 slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, 
 so He opened not His mouth; 3 "Who when He was 
 reviled, reviled not again ; when He suffered, He threat- 
 ened not ; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth 
 righteously." 4 
 
 Where there is love, there must be suffering. Plainly 
 it is so among men. Suffering is inwrought in all hu- 
 man relationships and human friendships. How much 
 
 1 Gal. vi. 1. 2 Heb. xii. 3. 3 Is. liii. 7. 
 
 * 1 St. Peter, ii. 28. 
 
LOG 
 
 TflE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 suffering does love cost father and mother, husband 
 and wife ! And corresponding with all this, there is 
 something very deep in God Himself, even in His 
 Eternal Nature. Some men imagine to themselves a 
 merely intellectual God ; but how far are they from 
 the truth. God is Love. He is indeed the Being of 
 beings, and the Mind of minds ; but He is also the 
 Heart of hearts. We may not, indeed, ascribe to Him 
 passions or passibility, but by His Word we know that 
 the emotions and affections of our nature are types and 
 shadows of the eternal realities which are in Him. 
 When in Holy Scripture He ascribes to Himself 
 " bowels and mercies," 1 saith that " He is very piti- 
 ful and of tender mercy," 2 and tells man that, when 
 He saw man's sin, "it grieved Him at His heart," 3 
 He unveils to us somewhat in Himself very deep 
 and most blessed — somewhat which does not involve 
 changeableness or infirmity, neither is inconsistent with 
 any of His glorious perfections. His eternity, His 
 Almighty power, His all-knowing Providence, His 
 sovereign, holy Will, are not interfered with or dis- 
 paraged by His "kindness and love towards man," 4 
 by His pity and tender compassion ; for Love is One 
 with all His perfections. And be it remembered that 
 the same considerations apply, when we hear ascribed 
 to Him jealousy, wrath, and anger against sin, as they 
 so often are ascribed in immediate connection with His 
 love and pity. 5 
 
 1 With Is. lxiii. 15, Jer. xxxi. 20, Hos. xi. S, compare Phil, 
 ii. 1, Col. iii. 12. <rirXa7 X y« oi'xnf^Jv. So also Rom. xii. 1. 
 "The mercies of God." ol t>iW;/iui toS 0io5. 
 
 2 woXiWJka^x'O! x«! oixrig/uH. St. James, v. 11. Comp. Exoil. 
 xxxiv. 6; Ps. cxlv. 8; Joel, ii. 13; Jonah, iv. 2. 
 
 ' Gen. vi 6. 4 Tit. iii. 5. 
 
 s Exodus, xx. 5, 6 ; xxxiv. 6, 7 ; Num. xir. 18. 
 
THE FRUIT OF THE SACRAMENT. 107 
 
 In the work of our Redemption all His attributes 
 are manifested and harmonized and magnified. There 
 is in Him no weak indulgence, or tolerance of sin, 
 neither can there be. But by the Sacrifice of the Cross 
 His Holiness is vindicated. His Love has by Wisdom 
 devised the way to reconcile Justice with Mercy, " that 
 He might be just, and the justifier of him which be- 
 lieveth in Jesus." 1 
 
 O blessed, most awful mystery ! His wrath is one 
 with His Love ; the same Holy, Blessed Will issues 
 on the left hand in wrath, and on the right hand in 
 love. 0 Lord our God, who by searching can find 
 Thee out ? And yet how hast Thou stooped and hum- 
 bled Thyself to make Thyself known to us, as Thou 
 art — Love ! 
 
 " No man hath seen God at any time ; the only- 
 begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He 
 hath declared Him." 2 To all them that by Faith sub- 
 mit themselves to Him, and love and obey Him, God 
 is known in Christ as "the Father of mercies, and 
 the God of all comfort." 3 And when the Word was 
 made flesh, and dwelt among us, what suffering did 
 the pity and love towards man of God the Father in- 
 flict upon the human nature of the Son ! What suf- 
 fering did His own love cost the Lord Jesus! The 
 same night on which He took the Bread and brake it, 
 and gave the Cup likewise after supper, His soul, 
 filled as it was with all the fulness of God, was " ex- 
 ceeding sorrowful, even unto death;" 4 "He was trou- 
 bled" even "in spirit," 5 and in this agony of soul and 
 
 1 Rom. iii. 26. 2 St. John, i. 18. 
 
 3 2 Cor. i. 3. o ira-rrif tSv oixTif/*2v. 
 
 4 St. Matt. xxvi. 38. 6 St. John, xiii. 21. 
 
108 
 
 TOE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 spirit, " His sweat was as it were great drops of blood 
 falling down to the ground." 1 
 
 To signify long- protracted, continuous, varied, 
 searching, intense suffering, what more significant, 
 more perfect types can there be than Bread and 
 Wine? The grain of wheat falls into the ground 
 and dies; out of its dissolution springs up the blade 
 to encounter cold and heat, wind and rain. By night 
 the frost parches it, and the drought by day. By suf- 
 fering it grows, until the full corn in the ear is ripen- 
 ed by the scorching sun. Then the wheat is cut 
 down and is bound, and the grain is threshed out 
 and winnowed, is ground, sifted and kneaded, and the 
 terrible fire passes on it ; and last of all it is broken 
 and eaten. And all is for man, "to strengthen his 
 heart." 
 
 And the fruit of the vine, behold how it suffers. 
 Her grapes too ripen through suffering ; and then her 
 clusters are plucked rudely from off her, and are 
 thrown carelessly into the wine-press, and are tram- 
 fled by men tinder their feet. And thus, as it were, 
 shamefully and cruelly, their sweet blood is crushed 
 out, and then it is poured from vessel to vessel, and 
 ferments, and passes through dissolution, in order to 
 rise again in a new form of life. And all is for man, 
 " to make glad his heart," even though man abuses to 
 sin the glorious gift, and the joy which it brings him. 
 
 Blessed Lord, Thou art our Bread-Corn, and our 
 Fruit of the Vine, even the Blood of the grape, to our 
 souls. For us Thou wast oppressed and wast afflicted, 
 wast bruised and crushed, misunderstood and misre- 
 presented, hunted down, forsaken even by friends, and 
 
 1 St. Luke, xxii. 44. 
 
THE FRUIT OF THE SACRAMENT. 
 
 109 
 
 betrayed by one whom Thou lovedst. At the hands of 
 the Priests of Thy God and Thy Father, Thou didst 
 suffer, and they denied to Thee the common sympathy 
 and bare justice which are given to the worst evil- 
 doers. Thou wast buffeted and scourged, crowned with 
 thorns, mocked and spitted on ; and even in the ago- 
 nies of death they reviled Thee, so that Thou couldst 
 not die in peace, nor shut Thine ears against those 
 fierce cries of hatred, which were the voice "of man's 
 rebellion and enmity against Thee and Thy Father. 
 But more afflicting than all which Thou didst undergo 
 outwardly, was the scorching fire which consumed Thy 
 soul within, and at last brake Thine heart — even the 
 sense of sin — the sins of those who rejected and slew 
 Thee, and of the whole world besides — the sense of the 
 dishonour done to God by sin, and of His eternal 
 wrath against it, and of the everlasting loss of those 
 who will not repent of it. And now dost Thou plead 
 with us men at all times, and most of all when we 
 show forth Thy Death till Thou come : " Is it nothing 
 to you, all ye that pass by? Behold, and see if there 
 be any sorrow like unto My sorrow, which is done 
 unto Me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted Me in the 
 day of His fierce ange^" 1 
 
 Into His lot of suffering we too are called to enter, 
 in our measure, and in our day. If pain and sorrow 
 and the wrath of God consumed Him, it was because 
 
 i Lam. i. 12. The Hebrew words rendered by our translators 
 " which was done unto Me," is given in the Vulgate, " Vinde- 
 miavit me" — hath vintaged Me," or "gathered My grapes." In 
 His Passion, the True Vine yielded the last grape to be plucked 
 and crushed for us, till He was left stripped and bare of every 
 comfort. Some readers will remember Bishop Audrewes's ser- 
 mon on this text — the second on the Passion. 
 
110 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 Lore also was consuming His heart. Great as was 
 His suffering, so was His Love. And He suffered 
 only because He first loved ; and thus Love was the 
 wine-press which wrung from Him the Blood of both 
 Body and Soul. In proportion as His Love is shed 
 abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, and we love 
 after His pattern, we too have to suffer with Him. 
 If we love Him, and for His sake feel that the burden 
 of our sins which He bare for us is indeed grievous 
 and intolerable, we shall not think it hard to be, with 
 Him, vexed by the sins of neighbours and brethren, or 
 even to be trodden under foot of men, and cast out by 
 them as evil-doers. 
 
 " Beloved," saith the Apostle by the Holy Ghost, 
 u think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which 
 is to try you, as though some strange thing happened 
 unto you : but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of 
 Christ's sufferings; that, when His glory shall be 
 revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy." 
 And again : " Forasmuch as Christ hath suffered for 
 us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same 
 mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath 
 ceased from sin ; that he no longer should live the rest 
 of his time in the flesh to the l«ets of men, but to the 
 will of God." 1 
 
 The life of suffering with Christ is a pure life, freed 
 from the dominion of sin. It is a life of nearness to 
 God and confonnity to His blessed Will, because a life 
 of conscious and realised union with the Lord Jesus. 
 The more suffering there is with Him, the more joy 
 there is with Him even now, and the greater glory 
 hereafter. " It is a faithful saying : For if we be dead 
 
 1 1 St. Teter, iv. 12, 13, 1, 2. 
 
THE FRUIT OF THE SACRAMENT. 
 
 Ill 
 
 with Him, we shall also live with Him : If we suffer, 
 we shall also reign with Him." 1 
 
 His sufferings endured for us were unutterably severe, 
 and such as altogether surpass our knowledge ; and, 
 because of the holiness and dignity of His Person, they 
 were all expiatory. When we suffer, we do but suffer 
 the due reward of our deeds ; and how small are our 
 sufferings compared with His ! — even finite compared 
 with infinite. And yet our sorrows are all known to 
 Him ; and, borne from love to Him, they have an 
 acceptableness in Him. 
 
 He is the crucified Head of crucified members. In 
 His Holy Supper He imparts Himself to His suffering 
 people, and, in fulness of blessing, to them alone. It is 
 the Eucharist, the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving ; 
 and therein we are invited to partake in all the results 
 of His finished sacrifice, in His present mediation for 
 us, and, above all, in Himself. And in all we may 
 rejoice, if we are at least willing to suffer with Him, 
 but not otherwise. If there be no bearing of the Cross 
 with Him, it is because there is little love ; and while 
 this is so, there can be no rejoicing in Him. 
 
 The reason why many believers at this day have so 
 little value for the Lord's Supper, is because they have 
 so little love, so little of the Cross, and, therefore, so 
 little of Christ. The first Christians were under the 
 Cross, and therefore they so highly valued the Breaking 
 of Bread, and rejoiced to celebrate it frequently, even 
 daily, or as often as they assembled for worship. What 
 joyful Eucharists they must have held, what a felt pre- 
 sence of the Lord must they have enjoyed, when they 
 met together to break Bread in upper-rooms, and 
 
 1 2 Tim. ii. 11, 12. 
 
112 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 catacombs, and in dens and caves of the earth, having 
 love within, and the Cross from every side without ! 
 
 But in these evil latter days of this dispensation, 
 amidst falling or fallen Churches, there is one form of 
 suffering by which believers are brought into nearness 
 and conformity to the Lord in a way by which the 
 first Christians could not be brought. For He, too, 
 lived iu the last evil days of that dispensation, in the 
 midst of a religious polity, divinely ordained and gifted, 
 but fallen ; and to every ordinance of it He submitted 
 Himself as to His Father's and His own institution, 
 and at the hands of the chief ministers and official 
 priests He suffered. And so now, some of His faithful 
 people, it may be, have to go " unto Him without the 
 camp bearing His reproach," 1 not voluntarily, but be- 
 cause they are cast out, as He Himself was. Even 
 now there is a Jerusalem upon earth, that is, those 
 Churches which by outward succession, and forms of 
 doctrine, are Catholic and Apostolic, outward manifes- 
 tations of the One Catholic and Apostolic Church. 
 And this earthly Jerusalem still sheds the blood of 
 righteous men ; and " it cannot be that a prophet," or 
 righteous man, "perish out of Jerusalem." 2 
 
 It is an indisputable fact, that for many hundred 
 years, in different parts of the visible Church, godly 
 men have from time to time suffered as evd-doers, even 
 unto death, simply for keeping and confessing the 
 Word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ. 
 The world hated them because they were not of it; 
 and it prevailed against them in the Church ; for 
 wicked prelates and church teachers, worldly, carnal 
 men, not having the Spirit of God, resented against 
 
 1 Heb. xiii. 13. 2 St. Luke, xiii. 33. 
 
THE FRUIT OF TIIE SACRAMENT. 
 
 113 
 
 them their possession of that spiritual life, which they 
 themselves manifestly had not, took the side of the 
 world against them, and cast them out ; and thus, long 
 before the Reformation, the trife children of God were 
 persecuted, hunted down, and at last slain, as wicked 
 heretics, blasphemers of God, and destroyers of His 
 temple, upon the very same charges, that is, upon 
 which their Lord and Saviour suffered before them 
 and for them. It is true, they were not, like Him, 
 without spot or blemish ; and their infirmities and falls, 
 their unguarded and inaccurate statements of doctrine, 
 and . erroneous opinions, which perhaps they really 
 entertained, have been eagerly taken hold of, and the 
 worst possible construction put upon them, in order to 
 give colour to the accusations against them. How 
 often in Church History do we hear the cry again 
 raised, " He is a Samaritan, and hath a devil !" But 
 at the last, wisdom will be justified of all her children. 
 
 In truth, we may not limit this form of trial to any 
 age or line of rulers in the Church. A necessity to 
 the godly of suffering from the ungodly within her is 
 inherent in the present condition of the visible Church 
 as a whole, because in her " the evil are ever mingled 
 with the good," — the tares among the wheat, and 
 "sometimes the evil have the chief authority in the 
 ministration of the Word and Sacraments." 1 All the 
 godly fathers of the Church experienced and acknow- 
 ledged this. In general they speak almost despairingly 
 of the state of the Church, each in his own days, be- 
 cause faith was scarcely to be found, iniquity abounded, 
 and the love of many waxed cold. Perhaps it was 
 from this experience that St. Augustine called Churches 
 
 8 
 
 1 Article xxvi. 
 
114 THE S0PPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 "wine-presses." 1 And certainly at this day "wine- 
 presses" they are, into which the genuine grapes of 
 the True Vine are cast to be pressed and crushed — in 
 which, that is, the true disciples of the Lord are ex- 
 ercised, as He was, by the contradiction of sinners; 
 of whom the saints yet hope, that they will repent 
 and enter with them into the kingdom. From this 
 kind of trial none suffer so much as godly prelates, 
 pastors, and teachers; and although for the present 
 it is grievous, "nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the 
 peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are 
 exercised thereby;" 2 for through the mortification of 
 their flesh, it sanctifies them and conforms them to the 
 Lord. On the other hand, those who wilfully break 
 the order of the Church and separate themselves, 
 besides all else which they lose, can scarcely know 
 anything of the benefits of this discipline. 
 
 In supplying trials to exercise the children of God, 
 the visible Church is discharging one of her chief 
 functions. For the end of this dispensation is not the 
 present triumph of the godly, but then- trial and purifi- 
 cation. It is a very common mistake to identify the 
 visible Church with the Bride, the Lamb's wife, as if 
 they were coincident in their members. But plainly 
 they are not the same. The Visible Church is the 
 great workshop in which the living stones are being 
 hewn, and chiseled, and polished, each for its own 
 place, which it will eternally occupy in that new Jeru- 
 salem which is above and is the mother of us all. 3 
 
 This consideration explains at once that which is to 
 some so perplexing, namely, the case of good men 
 
 1 See his comments upon the heading of Psalms viii. and 
 Ixxxiv. 
 
 2 Heb. xii. 11. ■ Gal. iv. 26. 
 
TIIE FRUIT OF TIIE SACRAMENT. 
 
 115 
 
 thrown into trying circumstances, in which they are 
 helpless and powerless, shut up, as it seems, by the 
 hand of God, from doing that kind of woi"k for which 
 His gifts appear to fit them, or placed, it may be, in 
 positions to which they are really unequal ; or again, 
 the case of those who are called away by death from 
 the midst of what seemed to be their work. If the 
 present age and the Visible Church were all, these ap- 
 pearances would be unaccountable. But when the 
 Lord returns, that Kingdom will come in which rule 
 will be given to each according to his capacity ; and the 
 saints are acquiring their capacity for future rule by 
 suffering here with Christ ; for we know that they 
 who suffer with Him, shall also reign with Him. 1 
 And, indeed, how could any bear rule in the world to 
 come, except chastened spirits, who with Him have 
 learned obedience by the things which they have suf- 
 fered? 2 
 
 Hence, too, we learn somewhat of the nature of true 
 Christian mortification ; for it is that in which we are 
 not so much active as passive, receiving trying circum- 
 stances, and especially those of the Church, as from 
 His hand, and submitting and committing ourselves to 
 Him, and suffering Him to work His own holy and 
 sovereign Will in us. It cannot indeed be denied, that 
 voluntary fastings and other bodily exercises are profit- 
 able to the spiritual man ; and yet they profit but a 
 little compared with that mortification which is received 
 immediately from the hand of God, as our Blessed 
 Lord received His Cross from the hand of the Father. 
 Wbere the Cross is not self-chosen, but given and re- 
 ceived, there is no danger of will-worship and pride 
 under the garb of voluntary humility. 
 
 1 2 Tim. ii. 12. 2 Heb. v. 8. 
 
116 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 And be it observed, that all which the Blessed Lord 
 suffered outwardly at the hands of men, He suffered 
 for the confession of the truth. In childhood and in 
 youth, the Holy Child Jesus grew up in favour with 
 man as well as with God. But as soon as the Heavens 
 were opened unto Him, and He was anointed with the 
 Holy Ghost, to preach the Gospel to the poor, then at 
 once persecution broke forth upon Him. 1 And so His 
 people find it to be with them now. Nothing so rouses 
 the enmity of the corrupt heart of the natural man as 
 the Gospel, or word of the grace of God, and every 
 one who embraces and confesses it, and holds it forth 
 before men, not in word only, but in life, and with a 
 measure of power, necessarily provokes and draws 
 down on himself the whole force of that enmity. No 
 one could know this better than St. Paul did ; and in 
 the full experience of it, he cries out with holy joy, 
 " God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is cruci- 
 fied unto me, and I unto the world.' 2 The instrument 
 which separated and crucified Him was the Gospel of 
 grace which He both preached and lived, — the truth, 
 that is, that salvation is by grace, through faith in 
 Christ, and not by works of law. This is not a mere 
 formula of doctrine, but living truth to all who with 
 the heart receive it; and it has numberless bearings 
 upon practice and issues in life, especially in love to the 
 brethren and grace towards all men ; and whosoever 
 embraces the word of God's grace, as more than a 
 form of doctrine, and confesses it before men, and 
 strives to live up to it, must expect to encounter. 
 
 1 Compare our Lord's life at Nazareth. St. Luke. ii. 52, and 
 It. 16-30. 
 
 « Gal. vi. 14. 
 
THE FRUIT OF THE SACRAMENT. 
 
 117 
 
 sooner or later, the hatred of the world, and, by con- 
 sequence, of worldly religionists of every school. The 
 truth as it is in Jesus cannot consist with carnal reason 
 and selfishness; in those who effectually receive it, it 
 must humble all the mind of the flesh ; and it conse- 
 quently must provoke the enmity of the flesh in all 
 those who U-ill not be humbled by it. Thus the Gospel 
 itself proves to be the cross by which the Lord mor- 
 tifies and crucifies His true and living members. If 
 the Gospel be possessed in life, it must bring the Cross 
 with it. 
 
 Our Lord Himself intimated this separating and 
 crucifying power of His own blessed words, when to 
 the Father He spake of His disciples, " I have given 
 them Thy Word; and the world hath hated them, be- 
 cause they are not of the world, even as I am not of 
 the world." 1 And He gives all His true servants this 
 encouragement. " If the world hate you, ye know 
 that it hated Me before it hated you." 2 Indeed the 
 one great comfort is, that the Lord knows all that is 
 keen and searching in the trials and sorrows of His 
 members, and that by experience ; for He has Himself 
 passed through the very same for them. And nowhere 
 can we attain to know His fellow-feeling and oneness 
 with us so clearly and powerfully as in the breaking of 
 bread, which, as it is the most evangelical of all ordi- 
 nances, both shows forth the sacrifice of His Death, 
 and also brings us into fellowship or communion with 
 every phase of His Life ; and the effect of this fellow- 
 ship He designs to be, that He should become in us all 
 that He has been made of God for us. And this effect 
 is twofold, first of sorrow, and then of joy — first of suf- 
 fering, then of glory. 
 
 1 St. John, xvii. H. 2 St. John, xv. 18. 
 
118 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 This is the great mystery of our life in Him, or 
 rather of His life in us. The Blessed Lord would be 
 in us, and abide in us, not only to rejoice in us, but 
 first of all to suffer in us — even to suffer again, as it 
 were, sorrow and shame, reproach and death. There- 
 fore " there should be no greater comfort to Christian 
 persons than to be made like unto Christ, by suffering 
 patiently adversities, troubles, and sicknesses. For He 
 Himself went not up to joy, but first He suffered pain ; 
 He entered not into His glory before He was crucified. 
 So, truly, our way to eternal joy is to suffer here with 
 Christ ; and our door to enter into eternal life is gladly 
 to die with Christ ; that we may rise again from death, 
 and dwell with Him in everlasting life." 1 
 
 If we have eyes to see, when we eat of That Bread, 
 and drink of That Cup, we discern this to be the mind 
 of the Lord concerning us, and we thank Him for it, 
 and He imparts Himself to us to be our strength and 
 our joy even now in the midst of the miseries of this 
 sinful world, and to be the pledge to us that He will 
 assuredly cany us safely, through suffering and death, 
 to His eternal glory. 2 
 
 1 Exhortation in the Visitation of the Sick. 
 2 "Many times the Christian understands by an experimental 
 lesson, that he has in his Lord exactly what his necessities 
 require, — not only substantial food, by which his soul lives, but 
 stimulating and cheering cordials, by which his soul triumphs. 
 It is with the affections thus instructed, that such a man finds 
 at the Lokd's Table the suitable supply of symbols, and that he 
 eats the Bread and drinks the Wine, as the sacramental sign 
 of the one great Redemption, while he knows how to distribute 
 the several parts of the blessing, as his case requires, and to 
 rejoice alike in the Flesh and in the Blood, thus represented. 
 Believers have also a pure and holy delight while taking the 
 Cup, in the hope that Jescs will empower them to have fellow- 
 
TOE FRUIT OF THE SACRAMENT. 
 
 119 
 
 Blessed Lord, wherever two or three are gathered 
 together in Thy Name, to eat of That Bread and drink 
 of That Cup, Thou art there in the midst of them. 
 However poor, despised, and few Thy people be, how- 
 ever weak and foolish in the eyes of men — though men 
 east out their name as evil, and though their brethren 
 even should know them not, or reject them, Thou dost 
 not pass them by, as unknowing or unknown, rather 
 because they are, as Thou wert on earth, Thou dost 
 come among them and bless them. And if of these 
 Thy ways, Blessed Lord, we know very little, O reveal 
 Thyself to us more and more, that we may know Thee, 
 and the power of Thy Resurrection, and the fellowship 
 of Thy Sufferings, being made conformable unto Thy 
 Death, if by any means we may attain unto the Resur- 
 rection of the dead. And then our songs too shall be 
 songs " of the wine-press ;" for we will sing of Thy 
 Love, and of Thy Sufferings, and of Thy Victory, and 
 of Thy Glory : if so be that we love, and suffer, and 
 conquer, and reign with Thee. Lord Jesus, grant it 
 for Thine own love's sake. Amen. 
 
 ship with Him, not only in joy, but in tribulation. Their joys 
 are peculiar, and of a spiritual nature ; they know that they are 
 possessed, even in the moment of great external trial, or mental 
 affliction ; they therefore mingle with their joy of salvation, faith 
 also in the joy of the Cross: and in this sacramental sign they, 
 as it were, pledge the Lord, and express their willingness cheer- 
 fully to partake with Christ in present tribulations. — The 
 Relit/ion of the Reformation, On Art. xxx. 
 
120 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 MISAPPREHENSIONS OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 
 One cause has been already pointed out why many 
 Christians at this day so little understand, and have so 
 little value for, the Supper of the Lord. It is because 
 they are so little conformed to the mind of the Lord in 
 love and self-denial and suffering for His Name's sake, 
 and because consequently they are so little conformed 
 to Him in joy. " Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed 
 for us ;" but we are not being crucified with Him, and 
 therefore we cannot keep the Feast. We do not rejoice 
 in the Lord at all times ; and His Holy Supper is not 
 to us the Eucharist, the Sacrifice of praise and thanks- 
 giving. 
 
 Too many Christians obey the Lord's commandment, 
 " Do this in remembrance of Me," simply because it is 
 His commandment, as fulfilling a duty, and just as if 
 it were a legal ordinance. They prepare themselves 
 for the Lord's Table with a sort of earnestness, for 
 they are afraid of it ; they draw near in the spirit of 
 servile fear ; they bring with them little or no filial 
 confidence in God, — little or no love to our Blessed 
 Lord's Person. And therefore they do not draw from 
 His fulness, and they come away with little or no 
 comfort, strength, or joy. Experiencing no particular 
 benefit in their spirits and souls, they do not receive 
 the Holy Supper often ; and they think it best and 
 most conducive to reverence, that it should be adminis- 
 tered comparatively seldom. 
 
 Such persons cannot be otherwise minded so long as 
 they have little or no fellowship with the Lord in ex- 
 
MISAPPREHENSIONS OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 121 
 
 perience and life. If they were at all as He was in the 
 world, they would be separate from the world, while 
 living in it, and they would be, as He was, and as His 
 true servants ever have been, "sorrowful, yet always 
 rejoicing." In the Lord sorrow is bound up with joy, 
 and, as it were, one with it. It is certain that there 
 cannot be true Christian joy in the spirit without suf- 
 fering in the flesh and dying to the flesh. This holds 
 good from the beginning to the end of our Christian 
 course. The Thessalonian Christians first "received 
 the Word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost." 1 
 And to more advanced Christians St. Peter writes, 
 11 Rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's 
 sufferings." 2 
 
 If there were more of this suffering and rejoicing 
 mind in us, 3 we should indeed know the Lord in the 
 Breaking of Bread ; we should find by experience that 
 He imparts Himself to us by this Holy Sacrament, to 
 live and suffer in us, that He may rejoice with us, and 
 we with Him. And if it be objected that suffering for 
 the name of Christ is a very high and crowning grace, 
 it must be again said that the Cross in some measure 
 attends all grace from the very beginning. Hardly 
 any one receives the incorruptible seed of the Word 
 except through much affliction in the flesh going be- 
 fore, through cries and tears and wrestlings in prayer, 
 terrors of conscience and sense of loss, confession of 
 sin and shame for it, and painful partings from what is 
 dear to flesh and blood. And when Faith comes, the 
 act of faith itself is a death to the reasoning mind of 
 the flesh, although joy follows immediately upon it. 
 
 ' 1 Thcss. i. 6. 2 1 St. Peter, iv. 13. 
 
 * See 2 Cor. xii. 9, 10. 
 
122 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 And no sooner does the Lord reveal Himself to us 
 .through faith, than He begins to show us ourselves 
 and our sins and corruptions, and we loathe ourselves 
 for them, and, as we look upon Him "Whom we have 
 pierced by them, we mourn even while we rejoice in 
 Him. And, as we grow in Him, we are learning by 
 experience more and more that it is impossible to keep 
 and enjoy Him and yet to have the world and the flesh 
 and self together with Him. But can a daily dying to 
 the word and the flesh and self be without pain? or 
 can we bear witness of Him before men without suf- 
 fering, or, at least, risking to suffer, shame, reproach, 
 and ill-usage ? 
 
 In truth, there can be no real grace without the 
 Cross. This is an universal law of the Kingdom of 
 God : " All that will live godly in Christ Jescs shall 
 suffer persecution." 1 And again : " We must through 
 much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God." 2 
 What fellowship with the Lord at His Holy Table 
 can they have from whom this first truth of His doc- 
 trine is hidden? Can He unsay His own words, 
 "Whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after 
 Me, cannot be My disciple?" 3 "He that taketh not 
 his cross, and followeth after Me, is not worthy of 
 Me." 4 
 
 Of course there are those calling themselves Chris- 
 tians who have no part nor lot in this matter — who, 
 being dead in sin and unbelief, are in nowise partakers 
 of CnRiST in His Holy Supper. Some bosom sin, open 
 or secret, which they will not judge, confess, and re- 
 nounce, shuts the Lord out of their hearts ; it may be 
 the most inward and deadly sin of all — unbelief — a sin 
 
 1 2 Tim. iii. 12. ■ Acts, xiv. 22. 
 
 1 St. Luke, xiv. 27. * St. Matt. x. 38. 
 
MISAPPREHENSIONS OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 123 
 
 which is inherent in the corrupt heart of man, being, 
 as he is by his fallen nature, an enemy and rebel against , 
 God ; — a sin, moreover, which often reigns in greatest 
 strength where it is least suspected, and which some- 
 times cloaks itself under attempts to apprehend divine 
 truth as a matter of speculation, and even under an 
 appearance of zeal for the forms of sound doctrine in 
 the Church. But so long as there is wilful love of 
 known sin, and, above all, wilful unbelief in the heart, 
 there can be no feeding upon Christ in His Holy Sa- 
 crament; — least of all, will the spiritual truths which 
 it embodies yield themselves to the grasp of unrenewed 
 intellect. 
 
 Such dead souls are self-condemned in drawing near 
 to the Lord's Table. But there are others who have 
 once been quickened by the Spirit of God, who have 
 yet a measure of spiritual life, but who are unwilling 
 to be mortified and crucified with Christ, and to be 
 separated by Him from this present evil world, whose 
 interests and aims and hopes are becoming earthly 
 again, and who freely indulge themselves in thoughts 
 and words and ways which are sinful and altogether 
 unlike the Lord, but which pass with them for un- 
 avoidable sins of infirmity. Certainly such souls, 
 while they continue as they are, can have no fellow- 
 ship with the Lord in His Holy Supper. 
 
 And to such souls as these, be it observed, even to 
 such as have tasted of the good word of God, and who 
 appear to be within the household of faith, the Holy 
 Ghost by the Apostle addresses those awful words of 
 warning: "Whosoever shall eat this Bread, and drink 
 this Cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the 
 Body and Blood of the Lord. But let a man examine 
 himself, and so let him eat of that Bread, and drink of 
 
124 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 that Cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unwor- 
 •thily, eateth and drinketh damnation (or judgment) to 
 himself, not discerning the Lord's Body. For this 
 cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many 
 sleep: For if we would judge ourselves, we should 
 not be judged." And the words which follow show 
 conclusively that those mainly intended in this warning 
 are true believers, having a measure of life, but incon- 
 sistent and unfaithful in conduct, and so unworthy par- 
 takers of that holy Table. " But when we are judged, 
 we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be 
 condemned with the world." 1 
 
 They who sow to the flesh, even though they be 
 found children of God at last, "shall of the flesh 
 reap corruption ;" 2 and virtue goes out from the Lord 
 in His Holy Sacrament to judge and to punish their 
 trespasses against His Body, even to the destruction of 
 their flesh, that their spirit may be saved in His Great 
 Day. 
 
 This awful effect of the Presence of the Lord in 
 His Holy Supper, if it were realised as it ought to be, 
 would very much correct that defective apprehension 
 of the Sacrament which is too common among Chris- 
 tians, even true believers, at this day. It has been 
 asked, seeing that the Sacraments are Visible Words of 
 the Lord, in what does their ministration differ from, 
 or in what is it superior to, the ordinary ministry of 
 the Word ? Perhaps the asking of such a question at 
 all argues a defective apprehension of all the Lord's 
 ordinances, and all the ministrations of His grace. 
 And it is certain that no one of His ordinances ought 
 to be set up in opposition to, or so as to disparage, any 
 other of His ordinances. 
 
 1 1 Cor. xi. 27-32. 
 
 1 Gal. ri. 8. 
 
MISAPPREHENSIONS OF THE LORD'S SUrPER. 125 
 
 But if the Holy Supper he looked at positively, and 
 not hy the way of comparison with other ordinances, 
 and if the words of the Holy Ghost concerning it, as 
 those recited ahove, be duly weighed, it will be seen to 
 have an absolute efficacy, which should be unto life, but 
 which, if not unto life, is unto death, or, in the case of 
 some, unto the preservation of the life of the spirit by 
 the death of the flesh. It will be seen also, that 
 this efficacy results from the spiritual contact with the 
 Lord, His Flesh and His Person, into which the 
 Sacrament brings us by presenting the fact of His 
 Death for us. 
 
 In His Holy Supper the Lord presents to our faith 
 His Body and Blood, as given and shed for us ; and 
 through them He presents Himself, even His whole 
 Person; and this presentation is by His own visible 
 Word, in such a way as that, if it be duly ministered 
 and received, the earthen vessel who ministers is 
 nothing, but the Lord Himself is all. His Sacra- 
 ments bring us into such close and direct contact with 
 Himself, as no other ordinances can give. 
 
 Again, that Bread and that Cup call our minds 
 away from every other object of contemplation, and 
 fix them upon the Lamb of God as sacrificed for us, 
 upon His dying love, and the saving, life-giving efficacy 
 of His Blood. At His Holy Table, we are called to 
 know nothing, save Jesus Christ and Him Crucified. 
 And great as is the blessing offered, great must be the 
 guilt and danger of despising it. 
 
 It is plain indeed that the gift of God, on the one 
 hand, and the guilt and punishment of the unworthy 
 communicant, on the other, do not depend upon any 
 local presence of the Lord's Body, or any carnal con- 
 tact wit It. And the Holy Ghost shows us this by 
 
126 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 the connexion of thought in the words which He in- 
 spired the apostle to write on this subject : " As often 
 as ye eat this Bread, and drink this Cup, ye do show 
 the Lord's Death till He come. Wherefore whosoever 
 shall eat this Bread, and drink this Cup of the Lord, 
 unworthily, shall be guilty of the Body and Blood of 
 the Lord." 
 
 The Body of the Lord is in Heaven, and not upon 
 earth, and upon earth it never will be until He comes 
 again. But in receiving His Holy Supper we show 
 forth His Death, till He come. "Wherefore," or "so 
 that," by way of consequence, to partake of that Bread 
 and of that Cup profanely, with a heart not right 
 towards God, is to be guilty of the Body and Blood 
 of the Lord — is, as it were, to repeat over again the 
 sin of Judas, and to betray the Lord with a kiss. 
 Not, of course, that it is possible actually to betray 
 Him again, or to ill-treat That holy Body, or shed 
 That "innocent Blood;" but the guilt is all one, as if 
 it were possible. To be guilty of the Body and Blood 
 of the Lord is the very same sin which is described 
 in those other awful expressions of crucifying the Son 
 of God afresh, and putting Him to an open shame ; 
 and again, of a man treading underfoot the Son of 
 God, and counting the Blood of the Covenant, where- 
 with he was sanctified, an unholy tiling. 1 No one 
 imagines that it is possible now literally to crucify 
 the Son of God afresh, or to tread Him underfoot, 
 but the guilt of sinning wilfully against His grace known 
 and tasted, is the same as if it were possible. 
 
 The sin spoken of in 1 Corinthians xi. as eating and 
 drinking unworthily — not discerning or distinguishing 
 
 Heb. vi. 6 ; x. 29. 
 
MISAPPREHENSIONS OF THE EORD's SUPPER. 127 
 
 the Lord's Body — is one particular form of this sin- 
 ning against grace. The wilful indulgence of some 
 sinful affection or way darkens the eye of faith in the 
 soul ; the value of the Lord's Body, which He gave 
 for the life of the world, is not seen ; there is no sense 
 of His love, and no communion with Him in it ; the 
 spiritual interest of fellow-Christians who, as partakers 
 of His Body by faith, are fellow-members, is disre- 
 garded ; and judgment follows. Wilful persistence in 
 the love of sin will, of course, issue in wilful and final 
 rejection of Christ — in a rebellious unbelief of the 
 Word and Sacraments of His grace, which is hopelessly 
 incurable ; and eternal judgment must follow ; there 
 can remain nothing " but a certain fearful looking for 
 of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour 
 the adversaries." 1 Wherefore, "let a man examine 
 himself, and so let him eat of That Bread, and drink 
 of That Cup." 2 Let him prove himself whether he be 
 in the faith, and whether he discern or not the Lord's 
 Body ; that is, whether he has any due sense of its 
 preciousness as given for him, and whether he has any 
 fellowship with the love by which He gave It. 
 
 Rebellious unbelief of the word of His grace is in- 
 deed that primary and root sin which entirely excludes 
 a man from partaking in His blessed Body and Blood. 
 What communion can there be between the Lord and 
 such a sinner? And it makes no difference whether 
 we suppose this sin to arise immediately from self-will, 
 pride, and hardness of heart towards God, or more re- 
 motely from the wilfully indulged and prevalent love of 
 any other sin ; for in itself, and in every case, it is re- 
 bellion and enmity against God. 
 
 1 Heb. x. 27. 
 
 2 1 Cor. xi. 28. 
 
128 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 On the other hand, there is the case of those who 
 with weak faith are striving to apprehend that for 
 which they are apprehended of God, and whose heart's 
 cry is, " Lord, I believe ; help Thou mine unbelief," 
 and who are judging sin in themselves, confessing and 
 bewailing it. The difference between their state and 
 that of one who wilfully rejects the Lord, is the 
 difference between light and darkness, and between 
 life and death. "A bruised reed the Lord will not 
 break, and smoking flax will He not quench, till He 
 send forth judgment unto victory." 1 And the true, 
 broken-hearted, though weak, believer, is not to be 
 repelled from the Holy Table, but rather by all means 
 to be encouraged to draw near, to discern there more 
 clearly the Lord's mind of love towards him, and the 
 preciousness of the Lord's Body and Blood as given 
 for him ; and it may be that, when He has proved him, 
 the Lord will there make Himself known to him in 
 the Breaking of Bread. 
 
 There is a weak and defective discerning of the 
 Lord's Body which is yet a true discerning. Indeed 
 there are very many measures of apprehension of the 
 Lord. And the true apprehension of Him in any de- 
 gree is the gift and work of the Holy Ghost. But if 
 the blessed Lord be truly discerned at all, He is dis- 
 cerned as full of grace to sinners. And preeminently 
 in His Holy Supper does He reveal Himself under this 
 aspect. There we show forth His Death; and there 
 before our eyes He is evidently set forth crucified 
 among us. 2 At that Cross we see that "Mercy and 
 Truth are met together: Righteousness and Peace have 
 kissed each other." 3 For, as one has said, "Truth, 
 
 1 St. Matt. xii. 20. 2 Gal. iii. 1. 5 Psalm lxxxv. 10. 
 
5IIS APPREHENSIONS OF TIIE LORD'S SUrPER. 
 
 129 
 
 which required death, (Gen. ii. 17,) and 'Mercy,' 
 which can think of nothing but life and blessing, 
 are here together. Death is endured according to 
 truth, and the culprit given life and liberty according 
 to mercy. ' Righteousness ' also kisses ' Peace,' and 
 'Peace' kisses 'Righteousness.' Instead of being of- 
 fended at each other's presence, they welcome each 
 other. For righteousness is more honoured by That, 
 which He Who makes peace offers to it upon the 
 Cross ; and peace is deeply satisfied when it sees that 
 it can publish itself to sinners on so sure a title as 
 honoured and accomplished righteousness. And all 
 these glories will shine in consistent beauty in that 
 kingdom which this wondrous Cross introduces. All 
 is harmony where all was strife before." 1 
 
 The truth of the Lord's Body, given and broken for 
 us upon the Cross, is spiritual truth, and can only 
 be discerned by the enlightening of the Holy Spirit. 
 " But the natural man receiveth not the things of the 
 Spirit of God ; for they are foolishness unto him : 
 neither can he know them, because they are spiri- 
 tually discerned." 2 
 
 Very much evil has arisen all through this dispensa- 
 tion from the contact of the natui-al man with spiritual 
 truth, and from the efforts of his unrenewed mind to 
 master it, and deal with it. When our Blessed Lord 
 was speaking of the mystery of eating His Flesh and 
 drinking His Blood, the carnally-minded about Him 
 were misapprehending His words ; and He knew that 
 they were, and took occasion from their stumbling to 
 raise up the hearts and minds of true beliavers to 
 
 1 Short Meditations on the Psalms, pp. 101, 102. Compare 
 Rom. iii. 26. 
 
 * 1 Cor. ii. 14. 
 
130 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 heavenly things, and to the power and working of the 
 Holy Spirit whereby alone that of which He was speak- 
 ing can be effectually apprehended. u Many, there- 
 fore, of His disciples, when they had heard this, said, 
 This is an hard saying ; who can hear it ? When 
 Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples murmured 
 at it, He said unto them, Doth this offend you ? "What 
 and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where 
 He was before? It is the Spirit that quickeneth; 
 the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak 
 unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there 
 are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from 
 the beginning who they were that believed not, and 
 who should betray Him. And He said, Therefore 
 said I unto you, that no man can come unto Me, ex- 
 cept it were given unto him of My Father." 1 
 
 The words of the Lord, whether they be spoken, or 
 visible, (as are His Sacraments,) are spirit and life. 
 The Holy Spirit goes with them, and quickens or gives 
 life by them. But they do not profit, except they be 
 mixed with faith in those who hear them. 2 When 
 they are received into the heart, a spiritual birth takes 
 place, by Faith and in the power of the Holy Ghost. 
 There is a concurrence of the Holy Spirit speaking, 
 both outwardly by the word, and inwardly in the heart 
 of those who hear; and the immediate effect is life. 
 The Father has given, outwardly, the "Word, and in- 
 wardly, the Spirit, and has drawn unto Himself, through 
 the Son, by the Spirit. 
 
 In every case, whether they be received or not, the 
 words of the Lord are true and pure words, living and 
 powerful through the accompanying Spirit ; if not to 
 
 1 St. John, vi. 60-65. 
 
 3 Heb. iv. 2. 
 
MISAPPREHENSIONS OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 131 
 
 save and give life, yet to judge and to destroy. "The 
 Word of God is quick (or living,) and powerful, and 
 sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to 
 the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints 
 and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and 
 intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that 
 is not manifest in His sight : but all things are naked 
 and opened unto the eyes of Him with Whom we have 
 to do." 1 As the Incarnate Word Himself warned those 
 who heard Him speak on earth, " If any man hear My 
 words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came 
 not to judge the world, but to save the world. He 
 that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not My words, hath 
 one that judgeth him : the word that I have spoken, the 
 same shall judge him in the Last Day." 2 Verily, the 
 Words of the Lord are awful realities ; to receive them 
 is to receive Him, and to reject them is to reject Him ; 
 and by them, he that belie veth not, will be judged, 
 yea, " is condemned already, because he hath not be- 
 lieved in the Name of the only -begotten Son of God." 3 
 
 But when the Words of the Lord are mixed with faith 
 in those who hear them, that is, when they are applied 
 and engrafted in the heart by the secret working of the 
 Holy Spirit, then they become the incorruptible seed, 
 which begets again by a birth from above ; 4 they give 
 life, "for Thy Word hath quickened me;" 5 they cleanse 
 and wash away sin : " Ye are clean through the word 
 which I have spoken unto you;" 6 they sanctify : "Sanc- 
 tify them through Thy truth : Thy Word is truth." 7 
 
 Outward words are instruments by which the Holy 
 
 1 Heb. iv. 12, 13. 2 St. John, xii. 47, 48. 
 
 ' St. John, iii. 18. * 1 St. Peter, i. 23; St. James, i. 18. 
 
 s Psalm cxix. 50. 
 6 St. John, xv. 3 ; Comp. Eph. v. 26. 7 St. John, xvii. 17. 
 
L32 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 Spirit presents and conveys the Lord Jesus to those 
 hearts, on which at the same time He inwardly breathes, 
 so as to touch and open them. This energy of the 
 Spirit in union with the external word springs out of 
 somewhat very deep and unspeakable in the Eternal 
 Nature of God. Thus much at least we know, that it 
 is the good pleasure of His Will not only to manifest 
 Himself to some of His creatures, but also to commu- 
 nicate Himself to them. And as it is the peculiar office 
 of the Second Person in the Godhead, the "Word or 
 Son of God, to declare the Father, so it is the peculiar 
 office of the Third Person, the Holy Spirit, to commu- 
 nicate or impart God. In the Man CinusT Jesus is 
 the Word made Flesh, and in Him we see dwelling all 
 the fulness of the Godhead bodily. This sight comes 
 to us from without; and by giving us this sight, the 
 Holy Spirit makes that God-man, who as the object of 
 faith is without us, to be within us, and actually imparts 
 Him to dwell in us, so that we are in Him and He in 
 us ; and therefore because He is in the Father, and the 
 Father in Him, we too are in God, and God in us. 
 
 This self-communication of God is the sole end and 
 purpose of all outward words, whether written, or 
 preached, or made visible in signs and Sacraments, and 
 in particular we may say that the end of the Lord's 
 Supper is the impertition to us in measure of the Divine 
 Nature, through our spiritual union and incorporation u-ith 
 the Manhood of the Lord Jesus Christ, by faith specifically 
 in His Body as given for us, and in His Blood as shed for 
 vs. " Whereby," that is, by the Glory and Virtue of 
 God, "are given unto us exceeding great and precious 
 promises ; that by these ye might be partakers of the 
 Divine Nature." 1 
 
 1 2 St. Peter, i. i. 
 
MISAPPREHENSIONS OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 133 
 
 This crowning blessing is, as it were, embodied in 
 the promises and identified with them, and whosoever 
 truly with the heart receives them, by them receives 
 God, and is made a partaker of His Nature; by which 
 is meant, not that the Spiritual substance of God, nor 
 that His essential attributes are imparted to His crea- 
 tures, but that the true Christian is made like to the 
 very character and mind of God ; and this, whatever 
 else it is, is Holiness and Love. The outward in- 
 struments whereby this impertition is wrought, are the 
 words of the Lord, whether spoken, or written, or made 
 visible in Sacraments ; and there is certainly no word 
 of His which so sums up all His evangelical promises, 
 and embodies them in itself, as His Holy Supper does. 
 
 Now he who truly receives the Lord's Words, re- 
 ceives the Lord Himself; for He, as it were, identifies 
 Himself with His Words, as where He says, " He 
 that rejecteth Me and receive th not My words;" 1 and 
 again, " If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in 
 you." 2 And if, as He saith, "He called them gods, 
 unto whom the Word of God .came, and the Scripture 
 cannot be broken ;" 3 and if this high title was given to 
 those here spoken of, merely because they had the 
 Word of God committing judicial authority to them, 
 it is not surprising that they to whom the Word of 
 His Grace comes, and who receive it by Faith, and in 
 whose heart it is grafted by the Holy Spirit, should be 
 said to be, in a certain sense, deified; since they are 
 united with God in the Person of His Word, being 
 incorporated with Him as their Head and conformed 
 to His image and likeness. 
 
 His outward words present Himself; through them 
 
 1 St. John, xii. 48. 
 
 '- lb. xv. 7. 
 
 3 lb. x. 35. 
 
1?,! 
 
 THE SCTPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 we receive of His Manhood in grace and suffering, and 
 in joy and glory, and thus through His Manhood we 
 partake of His Divine Nature ; when we know His 
 Manhood, as taken and offered for us, wc pass on 
 through it to know His Godhead; and on God we 
 rest, "my God, ray Saviour, and my Rock." 
 
 " This is the Bread which cometh down from Heaven, 
 that a man may eat thereof, and not die." The Blessed 
 Lord is That Bread of Life to us, principally and 
 ultimately in that He is Spirit, not in that He is Flesh. 
 But that He has been made Flesh, is the means and 
 the only way by which we attain to know Him and to 
 be united with Him, as He is Spirit and is God. The 
 Fathers in general, plainly teach that the Person of the 
 Word, or Son of God, is the Living Bread which came 
 down from Heaven. And this is the truth; the Father 
 gives Bread, and the Son gives. The true Bread from 
 Heaven, which the Father gives, is the Son; the Bread 
 which the Son has given, is His Flesh, which He has 
 given for the life of the world. And these are the steps 
 of the sacred ladder from earth to Heaven ; the outward 
 word or Sacrament, the Flesh given in Sacrifice and 
 accepted, and the Person of the Word ; the end is, the 
 Person of the Father known, and through this knowledge 
 union with God and a participation of His Nature. 1 
 
 1 That saving knowledge of God, which is Eternal Life, is all 
 through the knowledge of the Person of the Word, imparted by 
 the Holy Spirit. "This is Life Eternal, that they might know 
 Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast 
 sent." (St. John, xvii. 3.) " Jesus cried and said, He that be- 
 lieveth on Me, helieveth not on Me, but on Him that sent Me. 
 And he that seeth Me, seeth Him that sent Me." (Ib. xii. 44, 
 45.) " He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father ; and how 
 sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that 
 I am in the Father, and the Father in Me ?" (Ib. xiw 9, 10.) 
 
MISAPPREHENSIONS OF THE LOKD's SUPPER. 135 
 
 AH this deep spiritual truth is, as it were, embodied 
 in the Lord's Supper. That Holy Sacrament is a 
 spiritual reality, and can only be discerned spiritually. 
 Wherever the spiritual birth and the spiritual sense 
 are wanting, the nature and end of this Blessed Ordi- 
 nance will not be known ; and horrible confusions must 
 result from unspiritual dealing with it. 
 
 This would never have been denied in purer ages of 
 the Church, and has been recognized by her truly godly 
 teachers in every age. They say emphatically that in 
 the Holy Supper everything is spiritual, and is to be 
 discerned spiritually. As witnesses on this point, let only 
 two Fathers of the Church be cited from one period of 
 her history, and that a very critical one, when she was 
 suffering from so great an influx of the world and its 
 spirit within her outward walls, that the very founda- 
 tions of the faith appeared to be shaken, — the age, that 
 is, of the Arian heresy. The one, the great Champion 
 of the Faith, Athanasius, may well represent the dog- 
 matic theology of the Church ; the other, his contem- 
 porary and friend, Macarius, a great master in the 
 inward life of experience, may be taken to represent 
 the Church's teaching on practical and experimental 
 religion. 
 
 St. Athanasius, commenting on St. John, vi. 01-63, 
 writes thus : " And here He affirms both of Himself, 
 Flesh and Spirit, and He distinguished the Spirit from 
 the Flesh, in order that, believing not only what was 
 visible of Him, but also what was invisible, they might 
 understand that the things which He speaketh are not 
 fleshly, but spiritual. For to how many would His 
 Body suffice for food, that it should become sustenance 
 for the whole world? And therefore did He make 
 mention of the Ascension of the Son of Man into 
 
136 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 Heaven, that He might draw them off from corporeal 
 thoughts, and that they might understand for the future 
 that the flesh whereof He spake was heavenly food 
 from above, [and spiritual sustenance given by Him.] 
 For He saith, ' The things which I have spoken unto 
 you are Spirit and Life;' as though He said, 'That 
 which is visible and is given for the salvation of the 
 world, is the Flesh which I bear ; and both It and the 
 Blood thereof shall be given to you by Me, spiritually, 
 as Food, so that, spiritually, it may be distributed in 
 each, and may become to all a protection, unto the re- 
 surrection of Life Eternal."' 1 
 
 St. Macarius says of the Fathers of the Old Testa- 
 ment: "It had not come into their heart, that there 
 should be a Baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost, and 
 that in the Church Bread and Wine are offered, a figure 
 (aj/TtTO7roi/) of His Flesh and Blood, and that they who 
 partake of the visible bread, eat the Flesh of the Lord 
 spiritually." 2 
 
 • Again he writes: 3 "The Spirit of the Lord cometh 
 to the refreshment of worthy souls, and to their joy 
 and delight and life everlasting. For the Lord em- 
 bodieth 4 Himself even into meat and chink, (as it is 
 
 1 Epist. iv. ad Serapion § 19, p. 710. Ed. Ben. 
 * Homil. 27, p. 386, ed. Prit. 3 Horn. iv. p. 51. 
 
 ' auparovonl. In the 1 De elevatione mentis,' the same word 
 occurs, in a passage which is almost the same as that now 
 cited. " He embodieth Himself as into Spiritual food, so also 
 into clothing and unspeakable beauty, that so He may fill the 
 soul with spiritual joy ; for He saith, ' I am the Bread of Life.' * 
 — p. 11(3. It has been well said that when we hear the word 
 <ru/**Toiroier in relation to the Sacrament, we are not to imagine 
 a union of the sacramental elements with the Lord exactly an- 
 swering to the union of God and man in His Person. And yet 
 there is a certain connection and correspondence. He Who 
 
MISAPPREHENSIONS OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 137 
 
 written in the Gospel, ' he that eateth this Bread shall 
 live for ever,') that He may ineffably rest the soul, and 
 fill it with spiritual gladness ; for He saith, ' I am the 
 Bread of Life.' " 
 
 It cannot be doubted that all the best teachers of the 
 ancient Church apprehended the Supper of the Lord, 
 His presence therein, and the eating of His Flesh and 
 the drinking of His Blood, in the true and spiritual 
 sense. At the same time, it is also true that they used 
 much mystical language in their popular and devo- 
 tional teachings. But the example of our Blessed 
 Lord's own words shows that He designed His people 
 to be taught very much by mystical representations — by 
 representations, that is, at once figurative and spiri- 
 tually real. 1 Such representations are peculiarly liable 
 
 was made Flesh, and took body and soul of man into hyposta- 
 tic union with Himself, by virtue of this mystery embodies Him- 
 self, in a certain lower order, in every one in whose heart He 
 dwells by faith ; and of this embodiment as an end St. Macarius 
 is speaking in the last two passages cited. Again, the Lord 
 embodies Himself in the whole company and Church of be- 
 lievers, "which is His Body, the fulness of Him that rilleth all 
 in all." (Eph. i. 23.) As a means to this end, and in a still 
 lower order, the Loud may he said to embody Himself in out- 
 ward signs, as in His words spoken, or written, or made visible 
 in Sacraments, for the Sacraments are visible words. In the 
 natural order words embody thought, and thought embodies, so 
 to speak, the mind which thinks it. Now that which we thus 
 conceive of naturally, the Holy Spirit exalts and renders effica- 
 cious supernaturally, as the Loud Jkshs Himself has said, "It 
 is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing: the 
 words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life." 
 —St. John, vi. 63. 
 
 1 It appears probable that hereafter the whole creation will 
 be seen to have on it somewhat of a sacramental character. 
 Perhaps in those new heavens and that new earth for which 
 we look, every creature will be to other creatures a sign, and 
 
138 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 to be misapprehended. But this very danger consti- 
 tutes part of the probation of the honest and good 
 heart. 
 
 "When our Lord was upon earth, He was in the 
 habit of speaking by parables — in such a manner, that 
 is, that those who had ears to hear, might hear, and 
 they only. And so it came to pass that even His sin- 
 cere disciples were continually in danger of mistaking 
 His true meaning, through their minds being as yet 
 carnal. On one occasion, when He warned them " to 
 take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees 
 and of the Sadducees," they thought that He was 
 speaking of the leaven of bread. 1 Hence it is not sur- 
 prising that even the true-hearted disciples should 
 have been at first somewhat offended by His words 
 concerning eating His Flesh and drinking His Blood. 
 
 These blessed words to which the natural man is so 
 dark, occur in that Gospel which records, without 
 doubt designedly, a series of instances in which our 
 Lord's words were misunderstood by persons of very 
 different degrees of spiritual apprehesion. When He 
 said, " Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will 
 raise it up;" they who heard Him, even His own 
 
 in some sort a means, of spiritual grace. " The sacraments," 
 writes Mr. Bickersteth, "seem to be a kind of redemption of 
 the most needful things, water, bread, and wine, for the highest 
 end of their creation, their spiritual use ; in token that ultimate- 
 ly every part of creation shall thus be saernmentally blessed, 
 and made a means of grace to lead us to constant and delightful 
 communion with God." — Companion to the Holy Communion. 
 Introduction, p. xv. That we «hall see face to face, and know 
 even as we are known, will not hinder the redeemed from taking 
 delight in tracing the goodness and wisdom of God, as they will 
 then be reflected in the creature. 
 
 1 St. Matt. xv. 6-18. 
 
misapprehensions of the lord's SUPrER. 139 
 
 diciples, understood not that He spake of the Temple 
 of His Body. 1 When He spake of regeneration, Nico- 
 demus thought that He meant that a man should enter 
 a second time into his mother's womb and be born. 2 
 When He spake to the woman of Samaria concerning 
 the Gift of God and the living water, she could think 
 of nothing but natural water from a spring. 3 To His 
 disciples He said, " I have meat to eat that ye know 
 not of;" and they thought of bodily food, not under- 
 standing that the meat which He meant was to do the 
 will of Him that sent Him, and to finish His work. 4 
 He spake to the Jews of the freedom which His truth 
 gives; and they thought only of bondage to man. 5 
 He said, " Our friend Lazarus sleepeth ;" and the 
 disciples " thought that He had spoken of taking rest 
 in sleep. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death." 0 
 
 Other instances of the like misapprehension will 
 occur to the thoughtful student of St. John's Gospel. 
 Our Lord throughout speaks in parables, and desig- 
 nates Himself by symbols. From the ungodly His 
 meaning was altogether hid ; and He intended that jt 
 should be hid from those who had not eyes to see nor 
 cars to hear. On the other hand, the instances above 
 given, show the danger there is, even to those in a 
 measure well disposed, of their misapprehending the 
 Lord's words, through their taking literally, what He 
 spake in figure to intimate to them spiritual truth 
 beyond. And this danger arises from a deficiency in 
 them of spiritual apprehension, or from the mind of 
 the flesh darkening again the measure of apprehension 
 which they do possess. Everywhere in handling the 
 
 ' St. John, ii. 19-22. 2 lb. iii. 3, i. 3 lb. iv. 10, 1 1. 
 • lb. iv. 31-84. 5 lb. \ iii. 32, 33. 6 lb. xi. 11-14. 
 
L40 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 words of the Lord there is need of spiritual discern- 
 ment. The Holy Spirit alone gives the right key to 
 His meaning. 
 
 And all experience in the Church shows how easy 
 it is to carnalise deep spiritual truth, simply because it 
 is spiritual, and requires to be spiritually discerned. 
 For some centuries the disciples of the Lord have been 
 stumbling over His words, as those of old did in the 
 Synagogue at Capernaum, and as He foresaw when He 
 spake them, that His words would be stumbled over. And 
 be it observed, that in proportion as offence was taken 
 at the mystery, He deepened the expression of it. as 
 will appear from a comparison of verses 51-5G, St. 
 John, vi., with the former part of the discourse. 
 
 The whole mystery is a spiritual touchstone; and 
 accordingly even true Christians have been from time 
 to time striving among themselves, saying, " How can 
 this man give us His Flesh to eat?" But, in truth, 
 were it not for inveterate prejudice, and teaching falsely 
 calling itself Catholic, all truly godly men would soon 
 be led to apprehend in their true meaning our Lord's 
 words, as well these in St. John, vi.. as those of Insti- 
 tution, as clearly as they apprehend St. Paul's meaning 
 when he says, "And that Rock was Christ," 1 — in a 
 mystery or figure, Christ, but really, because spiri- 
 tually, powerfully, efficaciously. 
 
 Our Lord, indeed, Himself excludes all real ground 
 of misapprehension on this subject by those memorable 
 words of His already cited, uttered at the close of that 
 discourse in which He expressly spake, as never man 
 spake, of spiritual union and communion with Himself 
 through Faith in His Body given and His Blood shed 
 1 1 Cor. x. 4. This passage, it is noticeable, occurs shortlv- 
 before the discourse upou the Lord's Supper. 
 
MISAPPREHENSIONS OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 141 
 
 for the life of the world. " Doth this offend you ?" He 
 asked, and thereupon intimated to His true and be- 
 lieving disciples that His local presence in the Body 
 was to be taken from them by His ascension into 
 Heaven, and that they were to look not to the flesh, 
 but to the life-giving power of His words, and of the 
 Holy Spirit which would accompany them. '"But," 
 He added, " there are some of you that believe not." 
 
 And so it is now. There are many truly godly 
 souls entangled in error on this subject, through a tem- 
 porary blindness, as it seems. But there are also some 
 perversely unbelieving souls, who obstinately and wil- 
 fully maintain a carnal view of the Lord's words, for 
 carnal purposes. But " the Lord knoweth them that 
 are His." 1 "Jesus knew from the beginning who 
 they were that believed not, and who should betray 
 Him." 2 
 
 There is something very significant in the references 
 which are made to Judas at the close of this sixth 
 chapter of St. John. That form of unbelief which 
 perverts words of the Lord in a carnal sense and to a 
 carnal purpose, appears to be closely connected, as it 
 was in his case, with love of this present evil world. 
 And this love, in its more subtle forms, may influence 
 souls even of the better sort. The true account of the 
 prevalence of many a corruption in the Church appears 
 to be, that while the more thoughtful, wiser, and better 
 prelates saw the evil rising, they did not dare to stand 
 out against the current of popular superstition, either 
 because they loved the praise of men more than the 
 praise of God, or from some other carnal motive. 
 
 Tt is a pregnant fact that Gregory VII. was very 
 
 1 2 Tim. ii. 19. 
 
 2 St. John, vi. 64. 
 
THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 reluctant to condemn Berengarius for his teaching on 
 the Lord's Supper. He appears indeed to have yielded 
 only because, on account of what appeared to him to 
 be the interest of the Church, he was unwilling to risk 
 his influence with the people by going counter to that 
 carnal apprehension of the Loud's Presence which had 
 already become inwoven with their habits of devotion. 
 
 But the working of the spirit of the world upon 
 doctrine and worship may be traced all along the later 
 history of the Church, in much grosser forms. It is 
 impossible not to see how strongly the lust of domi- 
 nation has possessed the official priesthood of the 
 Church, and how much it has accelerated the develop- 
 ment of superstitious practices and doctiines in regard 
 to the Lord's Supper. Neither can it be estimated 
 how much influence the same evil affection has in now 
 upholding these corruptions. The notion of a carnal 
 and local Presence of the Lord's Body and Blood, 
 and of a proper propitiatory sacrifice made now, at 
 man's will, by means of them, must needs throw 
 enormous power into the hands of the Oificial Priest- 
 hood. Truly the power, as it has been described, of 
 making the body of God, and of then offering it for 
 quick and dead, is a cunningly devised fable, obviously 
 tending to exalt one class of sinners at the expense of 
 all other sinners. 
 
 It is also true that the people love to have it so. 
 There is something very attractive to the natural man. 
 in a religion which brings down the object of his wor- 
 ship close to him, with a local presence and in a sen- 
 sible form, so that he can come before it with offerings, 
 as he thinks, for propitiation, and to win acceptance, 
 and can imagine himself to get good from it, by local 
 nearness to it, without that painful necessity of under- 
 
MISAPPREHENSIONS OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 143 
 
 going a change of heart, or, if he have tasted, in some 
 measure, of the good word of God, without the neces- 
 sity of keeping his heart. 
 
 Wherever this system of worship prevails, it is a 
 system of Death, but especially wherever it comes into 
 direct outward competition with true, pure, and spiritual 
 worship. Inwardly they are always contrary the one 
 to the other. The carnal mind is always striving to 
 substitute forms for repentance and faith, and for Him 
 upon Whom faith lives ; and this religion of the carnal 
 mind, perverting the Lord's own words and institu- 
 tions, indisposes the soul and darkens its eyes to all 
 the great spiritual truths of the Gospel. Then error 
 in doctrine and the hiding of truth bear fruit, in 
 practical corruptions. Devotees tamper with the pre- 
 cepts of the moral law and explain them away, as the 
 Pharisees did of old. Outward forms are looked to 
 as compensations for disobedience. And there is no 
 antinomianism more terrible than that of superstition 
 and formalism. Obedience, love, purity, truthfulness 
 to man, are all sinned against. The breaking of the 
 first table of the Law leads of course to the breaking 
 of the second. 
 
 It is true indeed that genuine piety may often be 
 found in those who are subject to corrupt religious 
 systems. They may enjoy full realization of the things 
 of God, and bring forth, as fruit, the genuine obedi- 
 ence of love ; but then it is in spite of corruptions, and 
 through continual warfare with them, by the abound- 
 ing grace of God. Faith and love have a blessed 
 virtue to neutralize the poison of some speculative 
 errors. Or rather neutralizing virtue goes out from 
 Him, who is the object of love, and whom faith appre- 
 hends. His own words appear to be accomplished now 
 
144 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 to believer.?, in a spiritual sense : " They shall take 
 up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it 
 shall not hurt them." 1 And it appears to be a law of 
 this dispensation, that the best fruit should be matured 
 in immediate contact with the worst forms of evil, and 
 through protracted conflict with them. Many a true 
 soul is inwardly separate from that to wliieh he 
 appears outwardly most bound down, and which has 
 become his cross. 2 
 
 But, in themselves, the effects of formalism and 
 superstition are absolutely evil and destructive. And 
 this is true, in particular, of the carnal apprehension 
 of the Lord's Supper. 
 
 The notion of a repeated propitiator}- sacrifice 
 disparages that One Propitiation which the Lord 
 once for all offered for the sins of the whole world, 
 
 1 St. Mark, xvi. 18. 
 1 " Archbishop Lcighton reckoned the greater number of the 
 regular clergy in Roman Catholic countries, to be little better 
 than ignari fures, rapacious drones ; at the same time that he 
 recognized among them a few specimens of extraordinary 
 growth in religion, and thought he had discovered in the piety 
 of some conventual recluses a peculiar and celestial flavour 
 which could hardly be met with elsewhere. Of their sublime 
 devotion he often spoke with an admiration approaching to 
 rapture ; and much he wished, that the sons of a purer faith 
 and discipline could match them in that seraphic strength and 
 swiftness of wing, by which they soared to the topmost branches 
 of divine contemplation, to crop the choicest clusters of heavenly 
 fruitage." — Pearson's Life of Leiyhton, p. 113. Either the pious 
 archbishop was somewhat mistaken in his judgment, or there 
 were instances of that which is spoken of above, namely, in- 
 ward separation from corruptions, and deep exercises of soul 
 through them, producing very good fruit. But it would be un- 
 mixed and deadly evil to attempt to graft again such corruptions 
 upon Churches happily purged from them. 
 
MISAPPREHENSIONS OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 145 
 
 and whereby He has perfected for ever them that are 
 sanctified. His whole present work as our Mediator 
 rests upon the truth of this Sacrifice as finished. As 
 soon as any one entertains the notion that the Eucharist 
 repeats, or continues, or supplements, or extends the 
 One Sacrifice of the Cross, a sinful man upon earth 
 steps into the place of our One High Priest and Advo- 
 cate with the Father. And many practically hold this 
 falsehood, who would deny it scholastically. 
 
 His Priestly Office the Lord is executing, not in 
 earth, but in Heaven, where He appeareth in the pre- 
 sence of God for us. There He is locally, in the 
 nature of man, sitting at the right-hand of God. At 
 His Ascension He made a real local translation of 
 Himself from earth to Heaven. At present, as the 
 Scripture saith, "the heaven must receive Him, until 
 the times of the restitution of all things, which God 
 hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets 
 since the world began ;"' and at the Last Day, He 
 will come again by a real local translation of Him- 
 self from Heaven to earth, even as he went up into 
 Heaven. 
 
 " He ascended into Heaven ; And sittcth on the right- 
 hand of God the Father Almighty ; From thence He 
 shall come to judge the quick and the dead." A local 
 presence of His Body and Blood upon earth in their 
 natural substances, is inconsistent with these articles of 
 the Creed; whatever subtlety may be used in explain- 
 ing such a Presence, whether it be said to be by union 
 or identification with the bread and wine, or by a local 
 inclusion in them, or by a substitution for them, and 
 their substantial conversion into those Blessed Gifts 
 which they signify. 
 
 •Acts, iii. 21. 
 
 10 
 
146 
 
 THE SUrPER OF TOE LORD. 
 
 As Man, the Lord Jesus is in Heaven. But in His 
 place we have another Comforter, the Third Person in 
 the Godhead ; a Comforter so Blessed, that, in order 
 that He might come, it was even expedient for us that 
 our Saviour should go away ; as our Lord saith Him- 
 self: " For if I go not away, the Comforter will not 
 come unto you ; but if I depart, I will send Him unto 
 you."' 
 
 Now wherever there is an attempt made, so to speak, 
 
 1 St. John, xvi. 7. The teaching of St. Augustine on this 
 subject is most worthy of attention. See the references col- 
 lected in the Oxford translation of his tractates on St. John, 
 ]). 886, and especially the passage given at length from his 
 sermon 143 on St. John, xvi. 7-11. Our present knowledge 
 of the Lord Jesus and communion with Him are in the power 
 of the Holy Ghost. Thus we know Him as to His Godhead, 
 whereby He is ever with us ; the eye of our mind is directed 
 to the very form of God, iu which He continued to be equal 
 with the Father, even when He deigned to come in our flesh. 
 By justifying faith we have fellowship witli the Word, God of 
 God and with God, by Whom and for Whom all things were 
 made, and Who was made flesh in order that He might dwell 
 in our hearts by faith ; and this knowledge and communion, 
 infinitely deep and close, we could not have at a'l, if we merely 
 handled or saw Him after the flesh, by our bodily senses. Very 
 memorable are the words of Leo the Great, where he expounds 
 "that saying which the Lord, after His Resurrection, addressed 
 to Mary Magdalene, (who represented the Church,) when she 
 was pressing forwards to touch Him: Touch Me not, for I urn 
 not yet ascended to My Fattier. — St. John, xx. 17; that is, "I 
 will not that thou come to Me in a bodily way, nor that thou 
 recognize Me by the perception of sense ; I put thee off" fbr 
 higher blessings; I prepare for thee greater things. When I 
 shall have ascended to My Father, then shalt thou touch Me 
 more perfectly and more truly, when thou shalt receive That 
 which thou dost not touch, and believe That which thou dost 
 not see." Serm. 73, (second on the Ascension,) p, 1j4. 
 
MISAPPREHENSIONS OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 147 
 
 to disturb this divine order, and to make our Lord 
 again present upon earth by a local presence, the Holy 
 Ghost is, as it were, thrust out of His present office, as 
 our Comforter. There almost inevitably follows a 
 darkening of the mind and a deadening of the heart to 
 His blessed influences; His personal presence in the 
 believer is hardly recognized; neither are unrenewed 
 men warned and pressed to seek for it as necessary 
 to salvation. At this day many in the Church seem 
 practically not so much as to know whether there be 
 any Holy Ghost. Notwithstanding, this abideth true, 
 " If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is 
 none of His." 1 
 
 In truth, what is the real standing of the Christian 
 who is alive to God by faith, under this the dispensa- 
 tion of the Spirit ? In a true sense, he is absent from 
 the Lord, that is, from His local presence as Man ; 
 but, instead, he has the fellowship of the Holy Ghost 
 who dwells in him to comfort and more than com- 
 pensate him under this absence, by revealing the Blessed 
 Lord to him spiritually, and by uniting him with the 
 Lord. But a carnal view of the real presence in the 
 Lord's Supper tends to nullify all this work of the 
 Spirit, and also the true character of our Christian 
 standing in this world, both as to the imperfection of 
 our present intercourse with our Lord, and as to our 
 hope of what it shall be hereafter. 
 
 The notion of such a presence contradicts plain words 
 of our Lord's, which otherwise it were not easy to mis- 
 understand ; " I leave the world, and go to the Father ;" 2 
 and again, " Now I am no more in the world ;" 3 as 
 also it is said of Him, " He knew that His hour was 
 
 1 Rom. viii. 0. 2 St. John, xvi. 28. 3 lb. xvii. 11. 
 
148 
 
 THE SUFFER OF THE LORD. 
 
 come, that He should depart out of this world unto the 
 Father." 1 In these days the Bridegroom is taken 
 away from the children of the Bride-chamber ; and the 
 hope of the Church is the return of the Bridegroom, 
 and that not sacramentally, in a mystery, but locally 
 and visibly in the Nature of Man, in that very Body 
 with which He went up into Heaven. 
 
 His Presence, or Coming, irapovct'a, is, in its several 
 modes, relative to our condition and faculties. Now 
 He is present spiritually, to Faith ; hereafter, He will 
 be present locally, and to sight. If He were now pre- 
 sent with us locally, as Man, doubtless it would be in 
 such a way that we might see Him, yea, see that He 
 has flesh and bones, such as could be touched and 
 handled. 2 Thus we shall see Him hereafter, but as 
 yet we see Him not; and the attempt to think and 
 act as if that were true which is not, namely, that 
 His Holy Manhood is substantially here with us on 
 earth, besides that it is in itself an untruth, necessarily 
 tends to indispose the mind against apprehending that 
 blessed truth and glorious hope of the appealing again 
 of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 If men, instead of looking for and hasting unto the 
 Day of the Lord, are trying to satisfy themselves with 
 a local, bodily Presence of His Manhood, which is not 
 visible, and not real, it is very commonly, because 
 they are ensnared by the love of this present evil world, 
 in some grosser or more subtle form, and are content 
 with the evil state of things in the visible Church. 
 This temper is a fruitful cause of misapprehension of 
 the Lord's Supper. It is also akin to a delusion, 
 
 1 St. John, xiii. 1. 
 1 St. Luke, xxiv. 39, 40 ; St. John, xx. 27. 
 
MISAPPREHENSIONS OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 149 
 
 characteristic of the clay, with respect to the office of 
 the Church and to the prospects of the world. 
 
 On all sides we hear men, and Christian men, ex- 
 pressing hopes of progress and improvement for the 
 human race ; as if man 'could be made perfect in the 
 flesh without passing through Death and Resurrection ; 
 as if the evil world had not to come into judgment, but 
 could be gradually brought into order, and ameliorated 
 into a Paradise, and as if it were the office and work 
 of the Church to effect this. Whereas the Spirit 
 speaks expressly and most strongly in the prophetic 
 Scriptures of the New Testament, that all things will 
 be more or less in confusion until the Lord comes 
 again, and that they will be most in confusion when 
 His coming is nearest and lie is standing at the very 
 door. 
 
 All that can be hoped for in the present age is, the 
 preaching of the Gospel " in all the world for a witness 
 unto all nations," 1 the conversion of a chosen remnant 
 from among Israel after the flesh, the breaking up and 
 downfall of all human systems and inventions in the 
 Church, and the calling out and separation of the 
 people of God from the great apostasy, that they be 
 not partakers of her plagues. It appears that the cor- 
 rupt systems of Christendom, which now are, will cer- 
 tainly fall ; but that they will fall only to give place 
 to somewhat worse behind. Even St. Paul could say 
 in his clay, "The mystery of iniquity, (or lawlessness, 2 ) 
 doth already work." But at last "That wicked, 
 (or the lawless One, 3 ) shall be revealed, whom the 
 Lord shall consume with the Spirit of His mouth, and 
 shall destroy with the brightness of His Coming : even 
 
 1 St. Matt. xxiv. 14. '' rns ivo/Aiar. 3 o a*ofi.os. 
 
150 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 him, whose coming is after the working 1 of Satan with 
 all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all 
 deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish ; 
 because they received not the love of the truth, that 
 they might be saved." 2 The Lord has His coming and 
 presence, irapovala, and the Evil One has his — his, but 
 permitted by God; for God Himself, we read, will 
 send upon the unbelieving, disobedient, and unloving, 
 "a strong delusion (or working of delusion.) 3 that they 
 should believe a lie (or the lie ; 4 ) that they all might be 
 damned, who believed not the truth, but had pleasure 
 in unrighteousness." 5 
 
 Now we learn from prophecy that before the great 
 apostasy be consummated, and "that man of sin be 
 revealed, the son of perdition ; who opposeth and ex- 
 alteth himself above all that is called God, or that is 
 worshipped ; so that he as (a) God sitteth in the temple 
 of God, showing himself that he is (a) God," G — before 
 this great development and manifestation of evil, and 
 concurrently with the train of events which lead to it — 
 and is not the world fast hurrying on in this line of 
 things? — in the midst of the confusions of the world 
 and of the Church, the everlasting Gospel will be 
 preached with power, to recall men to first truths, as a 
 witness against idolatry, and the nature-worship of the 
 natural heart, and in preparation for judgment. 
 
 " I saw another angel fly in the midst of Heaven, 
 having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them 
 that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kin- 
 dred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice. 
 Fear God, and give glory to Him ; for the hour of 
 
 4 T«T vJflvJsi. 
 
 2 2 Thcss. ii. 7-10. 
 4 2 Thess. ii. 11, 12. 
 
 6 lb. 3, 4. 
 
MISAPPREHENSIONS OP THE LORD'S SUPPER. 151 
 
 His judgment is come : and worship Him that made 
 Heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of 
 waters." 1 
 
 This is the Gospel for these latter days, which 
 preaches that our God is the Living God as He always 
 was, not one with nature, but above and beyond it — 
 the Creator and the upholder of it — and that He is to 
 be worshipped only through His One Image, the Lord 
 Jesus Chirst, who died once, and now liveth, is risen, 
 and ascended into Heaven, and sitteth on the right 
 hand of the Father ; and this will prove to be that true 
 Gospel which sends, not peace on earth, but a sword — 
 which inflicts the Cross upon those who preach the 
 Cross — which imparts to those who receive it joy in 
 the Spirit, with tribulation, yea, sore pressure to the 
 flesh — which gives peace, not in the world, but in the 
 Lord Jesus. 
 
 1 Rev. xiv. G, 7. Let the order of the whole vision be observed. 
 After the first angel has preached the everlasting Gospel, the 
 second angel proclaims the fall of Babylon, whatever that may be ; 
 and then the third angel denounces the judgments of God upon 
 those who worship the personal Anti-christ, and receive the 
 mark of his name, his name indicating his personality. Now 
 will not this personal Anti-christ be the embodiment of the 
 spirit of the world, and will he not spring from the compromise 
 of professing Christians with the world ? Compare the whole 
 connexion of thought in 1 St. John, ii. 15-19, and iv. 1-5: 
 " He that is in the world." Compare our Lord's mention of 
 "the Prince or Ruler of this world." o *ex m T0 " *&*fl*ov tovtou. 
 St. John, xii. 31 ; xiv. 30 ; xvi. 11. to mtv/** toD xoo/aov. 
 1 Cor. ii. 12. o ®tos rov alwvos toutou. 2 Cor. iv. 4; also Eph. 
 ii. 2 ; vi. 12. The close of the vision in Rev. xiv. appears to 
 carry us on to the Great Day of the Lord ; — the reaping of 
 the harvest of the earth answering to the first resurrection, 
 that of the saints ; the vintage of the wrath of God answering 
 to the second resurrection, that of the wicked. 
 
152 
 
 THE SITPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 And do not all things in ourselves, and in the world, 
 and even in the Church, warn us to cease from man, 
 to despair of the flesh, and to hope only in the Lord, 
 and for His coming ? Most miserable of all men were 
 His people, if they had not this hope. But " here is 
 the patience of the saints : here are they that keep the 
 commandments of God, and the faith of JE.-rs."' 
 " Yet a little while, and He that shall come will 
 come, and will not tarry;" 2 and He Himself saith, 
 " Surely I come quickly." May Thy servants be able 
 to answer with truth from the heart, "Amen. Even 
 so come, Lord Jesus." 3 
 
 In the meanwhile " Sursum Corda" — Lift up your 
 hearts. Rightly has the Church appointed these words 
 to be her constant preface to the Breaking of Bread. * 
 She bids us, when we worship, lift up our hearts to 
 where Christ sitteth on the right-hand of God ; and 
 we reply, We lift them up unto the Lord — " Habemus 
 ad Dominum." We have them there, where He is in 
 Heaven locally; and from thence He is present with us 
 on earth to bless us. We see a similitude of this in 
 the outward world. The sun is shining in the heavens, 
 locally millions of miles from us, but from thence he 
 is present with us by powerful influences, light, and 
 heat, and attraction, without which we could not live. 
 And so it is with our true Sun of Righteousness, risen 
 upon us with healing in His Wings. 
 
 All similitudes of Himself in the outward world 
 which He has made, all words which He has given 
 
 1 Rev. xiv. 12. 2 Heb. x. 3". 3 Rev. xxii. 20. 
 
 ' In the great Liturgy of the Church of Constantinople it 
 stands, "Am ax^t* 1 " r * s tagtiat. In the great Liturgy of the 
 Church of Alexandria it is nearer to the Latin form, "A»»i V*. 
 
snsAprREnExsiONS of the lord's supper. 153 
 
 us, all outward signs which He has ordained, are 
 means to the end, which is Himself and communion 
 with the Father through Him. 
 
 The notion of a carnal presence in the sign, and of a 
 worship resting in it, saves the fleshly mind trouble, 
 gratifies man's natural sentiment of religion, is com- 
 patible with thorough love of this present evil world, 
 and is godless and lawless in its issues. 
 
 " God is a Spirit : and they that worship Him must 
 worship Him in spirit and in truth." 1 Our communion 
 with the Lord is by faith, not by sight. By faith we 
 eat the Flesh of the Son of Man. Faith has an ap- 
 propriating power, whereby we take into ourselves 
 Him Whom God has given to us, and Who gave Him- 
 self even to death for us. By His death in Flesh like 
 unto ours, we live. Therefore we do This which He 
 has commanded, in remembrance of Him ; and in re- 
 membering Him thus, we feed on Him in our hearts by 
 faith with thanksgiving. 
 
 We feed on Him. The Sacrament is a glass, which 
 we but look through to Him. That Flesh which we 
 gaze upon and receive by faith, is life-giving, because 
 it is the Flesh of the Son of God, — His own flesh, per- 
 sonally united with Him, in which He has passed 
 through dcatli, and overcome death for us. When we 
 believe on Him, that He has died for us in the flesh, 
 and has risen again, and now liveth, His Spirit unites 
 our very flesh with His flesh, so that we are bone of 
 His bone, and flesh of His flesh. And so, too, by the 
 Holy Spirit, through faith, our mind is made one with 
 His mind. And life, once imparted from Him, works 
 outwards from within, as we submit ourselves to His 
 
 ' St. John, iv. 24. 
 
1S4 
 
 THE SUPPER OF THE LORD. 
 
 Spirit to work in us ; and the effect is, moral confor- 
 mity to His own image and likeness. 
 
 But ever as we grow by our Heavenly Food and 
 Sustenance, we feed upon Him still, as knowing that 
 we are sinners. He is Light, and in His light we see 
 our corruptions more and more clearly; He shows 
 them to us, in order that He may give us fresh grace 
 to mortify them ; and He kills them in us by telling us 
 that He has borne the guilt of them, and that God for- 
 gives them ; and in Him we overcome them. His grace 
 and truth, seen in the Breaking of Bread, soften our 
 hearts, and make them contrite. When we see truly 
 how He has loved us, we would never willingly forget 
 our sins which cost Him so much. When we take the 
 Cup and spiritually drink His Blood shed for us for 
 the remission of sins, we would sorrow, even while we 
 rejoice. Our deepest sorrow is, in a manner, one with 
 our highest joy. 
 
 As often as we eat that Bread and drink that Cup of 
 the Lord, we do show the Lord's Death till He come. 
 Till He come, we, yea, the whole Church, shall ever 
 be learning more and more of His Death, of its 
 preciousness, and of the love which It reveals, and of 
 the Life and Peace which It gives. And the more 
 evil the days are outwardly, the more will the Church 
 learn inwardly, and the more good will she draw from 
 this fountain of all goodness. 
 
 We eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup, as pro- 
 fessing that we stand for acceptance in the virtue of 
 that once-offered and finished Sacrifice. Eating of 
 that Paschal Lamb, and with that Blood sprinkled 
 upon us, we are safe from the destroyer, and shall not 
 come into condemnation. 
 
 Again, we eat and drink as members of His mystical 
 
MISAPPREHENSIONS OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 155 
 
 Body — of that Body made up of all those for whom 
 effectually He gave His natural Body to Death. That 
 Body cannot fail of its completion, and not one mem- 
 ber of it shall be found wanting at the last. 
 
 The fruit of the Holy Supper within ourselves which 
 we should seek is Holiness — love and unity with the 
 brethren — a mind to lowly service, as the Lord was 
 minded — separateness from the evil world — and willing- 
 ness to take up our Cross daily, and to bear it after 
 Him. And He gives Himself to us, to work all these 
 good tilings in us, that our joy may be full, and may 
 abide for ever. 
 
 May He grant to every one who reads these pages to 
 be found at the last a member of His Body, accepted 
 in His Sacrifice, washed in His Blood, clothed in His 
 Righteousness, sanctified by His Spirit, crucified to the 
 world, and in charity with every other member of 
 Christ. 
 
 And will not the reader also pray for him who 
 writes these words, that he may have grace to attain 
 unto the Kingdom which is to come ? For he has 
 sinned much against light, and finds in his flesh the 
 seeds of every evil of which lie has felt constrained to 
 speak. 
 
 May the Blessed Lord forgive all, and grant all the 
 good desires of our hearts, even He Whose Flesh is 
 meat indeed, and Whose Blood is drink indeed, and 
 Who liveth and rcigneth with the Father and the Holy 
 Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. 
 
157 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 ON TRAN SUBSTANTIATION. 
 
 Like many other terms of Roman theology, Transubstantia- 
 tion is a two-faced word. It may be taken in a certain 
 spiritual sense, to express that the Lord, in the whole truth 
 of His Person, is made present to the eye of faith by His 
 visible Word, so that He is, as it were, the substance of 
 the Sacrament, and the elements are merely accidents ; the 
 terms substance and accidents being understood in a sense 
 corresponding to the terms, inward and spiritual grace or 
 thing signified, and outward and visible sign, as they arc 
 used in our formularies. Or again, Transubstantiation may 
 be understood, and generally is understood, as it is most 
 natural to understand it, to express the falsehood of a local 
 and material presentation of the Body and Blood of Christ, 
 under the outward appearances of bread and wine. 
 
 So strange and anomalous is the state of things in the 
 visible Church, that doubtless a spiritually-minded Roman 
 Catholic may for himself apprehend Transubstantiation, as 
 bearing on the innermost life of his own spirit, in the former, 
 spiritual, but, it must be added, nou-natuial sense, while 
 yet he is more or less involved in the superstitions to which 
 the second, carnal and natural sense has given rise. In 
 such a case it is likely that now the one apprehension and 
 now the other will predominate, according as the mind is 
 swayed by the flesh or the spirit. 
 
 The Scholastic representation of the doctrine of Transub- 
 stantiation, has doubtless undergone a very great refinement, 
 since a formulary of belief " truly Capernaitic " was offered 
 
158 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 for subscription to Berengarius in the eleventh century ;' — a 
 formulary which contained statements so gross and carnal, 
 if taken in the letter, as necessarily to drive every sound - 
 minded Christian to explain them in a spiritual sense. 
 
 The speculations of the schoolmen upon Transubstantia- 
 tion had a material influence in modifying the Roman state- 
 ment of the doctrine. This may be asserted from a com- 
 parison of what was written on this subject in the thirteenth 
 and fourteenth centuries, with the formularies of Trent. 
 The fullest authoritative exposition of the Roman doctrine, 
 and that also which places it in the most favourable light, is 
 to be found in the Catechism of the Council of Trent. 1 
 This manual was drawn up by men who had much light, 
 and who, in treating on the Eucharist, endeavoured to 
 grapple with the questions which bad been raised. 
 
 Accordingly, they expressly assert that, in the Eucharist, 
 the Body and Blood o f the Lord are not present as in a place, 
 nor by any local motion from heaven to earth ; and again, that 
 they are present in the Sacrament without their own proper 
 material quantity, or, in other words, without extension in 
 space. 3 It is also the received opinion of Roman Theolo- 
 gians, that the substances of the Eokd"s Body and Blood, 
 as they are i:i the Sacrament, are objects to the intellect 
 alone, and can never become objects of perception to the 
 senses. 4 Moreover, the Tridentine Catechism asserts that 
 
 1 See Gieseler Eccl. Hist. III. Period, Div. II. c. 3, § 29, 
 " Ego Berengarius — consentio S. Rom. sedi, panem et vinum. 
 qua; in altari ponuntur, post consecrationem non solum Sacra- 
 mentum, se<l ctiam vcrum Corpus Domini Nostri Jesu Chkisti 
 esse, et sensualiter, non solum Sacramento, sed in veritate, manibus 
 sacenlotum tractari, frangi, et fidelium dentibus atteri." Lanfranc 
 de Cor]), et Sang. Dom. c. 2, p 232. 
 
 2 Now made accessible to the English reader by Buckley's 
 Translation. Routledge. 
 
 3 Catech. of Trent, Part H. c. iv. qu. 42 and 35. 
 * Thomse Aquin Summa. S.p quasst. 76, art. 7. See also the 
 references given by Wilberfbrce, On the Eucharist, c. v. pp. 
 108, 9. The 'quidditas,' or substance of a thing, it is said, 
 does not occupy place, and is an object to intellect alone. When, 
 therefore, the substances of the Bread and Wine are said to be 
 changed into the substances of the Lotto's Body and Blood, is 
 it meant, into their intelligible substances? But what is meant 
 by the intelligible substance of a material subject or thing, such 
 as bread or wine? A wide door appears to be opened here for 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 the Bread and Wine 1 retain, together with their extension, 
 in space, their nutritive properties. 2 And this admission, 
 in fact, involves that when the consecrated elements are 
 subjected to the processes of digestion, they are resolved 
 into the constituents of common bread and wine, and are 
 thus appropriated by the bodies of communicants. 
 
 One question perhaps remains to be asked of Roman 
 Theologians : If the consecrated bread and wine were 
 subjected to chemical analysis, would they not, in like man- 
 ner, be resolved into the constituents of common Bread and 
 Wine ? In a manner, the experiment has been already 
 tried, when the consecrated elements have been left, by 
 accident, to the natural processes of decomposition. 
 
 After the admissions, however, which have been already 
 made, it might seem a single and short step to allow that 
 the change made by the Words of Institution is purely a 
 spiritual one ; that the Lord Himself becomes present by a 
 special energy of the Holy Ghost, and that the bread and 
 wine are not annihilated, changed, or otherwise affected in 
 their natural substances, but that, remaining altogether 
 what they were physically, they, as Visible Words of the 
 Lord, present Him spiritually in the whole truth of His 
 Person to the eye of Faith, so that every crumb of the 
 
 equivocation. The mind can by abstraction form in itself a con- 
 ception of the nature of a material thing; and this abstract 
 substance, or ' quidditas,' is an object to the understanding 
 alone ; but then it subsists only in the understanding as a con- 
 ception, and not really in the material tiling itself. Such a 
 logical conception must not be confounded with the real subject 
 or thing which presents phenomena to the senses, which is 
 known to us only through its phenomena, and of which the 
 material constituents were concreated with their ' proprietas ' or 
 proper nature. Now, since the Bread and Wine are material 
 things, they have, in themselves, no intelligible substance. 
 Therefore, if the change supposed be one of intelligible sub- 
 stance, the things themselves are not changed; but as material 
 subsistences, all their properties and phenomena remaining un- 
 changed, they continue to be, after consecration, exactly the 
 same individual things which they were before it. 
 
 1 Really one does not know what else to call them. What is 
 one to call an assemblage of accidents, subsisting in space, hav- 
 ing the extension and all other properties and effects of a particu- 
 lar substance, which phenomenon is yet to be conceived not to 
 be that substance, nor, strictly speaking, a thing at all? 
 * Catech. ibid. qu. 38. 
 
160 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Bread is sacramentally His Body, and every drop of the 
 Wine sacramentally His Blood, just as one and the same 
 sun, reflected in millions of drops of dew, is in each and all 
 of them, at one and the same time, by reflection. 
 
 To take this step would be absolutely easy and congenial 
 to every spiritually-minded Roman Catholic ; it is that to 
 which his mind must inevitably tend. But there is an in- 
 superable difficulty ; because the Church of Rome claims 
 to be infallible, she cannot repent of any falsehood which she 
 has once uttered. Therefore the doctrine of Transubstantia- 
 tion remains bound upon the necks of all the children of 
 God within her, together with all the contradictions, con- 
 fusions, and corruptions, to which it has given rise and 
 which cannot be got rid of by any scholastic subtleties. 
 
 There must ever remain this absolute assertion: The 
 whole substance of the bread is changed into the whole 
 substance of the Body of Christ, and the whole substance 
 of the wine into the whole substance of His Blood; and the 
 word " substance," in either part, can in truth mean nothing 
 else than the natural substance. 
 
 The minds of learned, acute, yea, and good men, have 
 been for centuries exercised by contradictions, unprofitable 
 questions, doubtful disputations, and old- wives' fables, 1 
 which all arise from this assertion of a corporeal and local 
 presence of the Lord's Body and Blood, and from the 
 attempt to reconcile it with the natural phenomena, by 
 means of a conception, not at all spiritual, but borrowed 
 from an unsound human philosophy. 
 
 Well might Thomas a Kempis, from his standing-point, 
 warn simple and pious souls against all inquiry into this 
 Sacrament, lest they should be swallowed up in an abyss of 
 doubt. 2 And a Reformer describes the nervous apprehen- 
 sion with which he and others like-minded always ap- 
 proached the doctrine of the Eucharist, before they were en- 
 lightened upon the subject by divine grace. Dreadful indeed 
 must be the confusion when the human mind first carnalizes 
 deep spiritual truth, and then applies unsound metaphysics 
 to reconcile natural facts and phenomena with its own carnal 
 conceptions, to which it has given the title of divine truth. 
 
 1 A moderate acquaintance with the writings of schoolmen 
 and ritualists, from the Master of the Sentences and Innocent 
 III. downwards, will show the truth of what is here said. 
 3 In profundum dubitationis submergi. Imitat. iv. 18. 
 
ArPENDIS. 
 
 161 
 
 On the other hand, it may be boldly said that no one who 
 had the true spiritual apprehension of the Lord's Supper, 
 ever yet found the consideration of it, from any point of 
 view, a hindrance to faith. As the Visible Word of the 
 Lord, it will bear, as every Word of His will, the deepest 
 and most searching inquiry, and will be all the more a means 
 and stay, a pillar and ground, of Faith. 
 
 In truth, TransubstantiatioD has changed the mystery of 
 Faith into the belief of an unintelligible and unfounded 
 assertion, which it has substituted for that Truth and those 
 living words whereby men may be saved.' The object 
 which it places prominently before the minds of those who 
 believe it, is an imaginary miracle which quite overshadows 
 the true mystery of Faith set forth before us in the Lord's 
 Supper, namely, His standing for us, and our standing in 
 Him, so that our sins were imputed to Him that they might 
 not be imputed to us, and that we, taking and receiving 
 Him by spiritually eating His Flesh and drinking His 
 Blood, might be partakers of His Righteousness and Resur- 
 rection and Life. 
 
 The fact of TransubstantiatioD is disproved by the 
 Word of God, which supplies abundant evidence of its un- 
 truth. For let the whole account of the Institution of the 
 Lord's Supper be considered, as it is given in Scripture. 
 When, as they were eating, the Lord took the bread, and 
 when He had given thanks, He brake it ; — and when, like- 
 wise, He gave the Cup after Supper, He was there in natu- 
 ral presence, according to the ordinary laws of the presence 
 of a material body in space. After the consecration, His 
 natural Body and Blood remained physically and locally 
 just as they were before. The disciples knew by the evi- 
 dence of their senses that His Body had not passed into the 
 place of the Bread. They saw it with their eyes, they 
 looked upon it, and might have handled it with their hands. 
 The Holy Ghost Himself appeals to the evidence of the 
 senses ; and it will be shown hereafter of what dangerous 
 consequence it must be to discredit it. 
 
 St. Matthew, who was present, records expressly that our 
 Lord added immediately after the Words of Institution: 
 "But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this 
 fruit of the Vine until that day when I drink it new with 
 you in My Father's kingdom."- The contents of the Cup, 
 
 1 Acts, xi. 14. 
 11 
 
 ■ St. Matth. xxvi. 29. 
 
162 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 therefore, remained in their true natural substance ; and 
 our Blessed Lord Himself indicates to us this fact, to re- 
 move every shadow of doubt that the sacramental elements 
 remain in their own substances. So St. Paul speaks of 
 "the Bread which we break," and, as immediately after 
 consecration, of "this Bread and this Cup." 1 
 
 That which our Blessed Lord took into His hands, and 
 which lie blessed and brake, and gave, was bread ; the 
 pronoun ' it ' must be supplied after each verb, and, consis- 
 tently with the proprieties of language, no other pronoun 
 can be supplied; and when our Lord said, "This is My 
 Body," He indicated the bread as the subject of which 
 "My Body" is the predicate, according to that figurative 
 manner of speech of which there are so many examples in 
 the Scriptures, and especially among the sayings of our 
 Lord. " I am the Door." " I am the true Vine." " That 
 Rock was Christ." 2 
 
 With respect to the other element in the Sacrament, 
 both St. Paul and St. Luke expressly state that our Lord 
 in consecrating it, made "This Cup" the subject of the 
 proposition, meaning, of course, the contents of the Cup. 
 Bread and wine, therefore, are the subjects of which the 
 Body and the Blood of the Lord are predicated. 
 
 But in the form given by St. Paul and St. Luke the pre- 
 dicate of "This Cup" is not "My Blood," but "the New 
 Testament in My Blood." 3 Manifestly the words demand 
 the spiritual sense. It could not be meant that the natural 
 substance of the Cup was changed into the natural sub- 
 stance of the New Testament. 
 
 1 1 Cor. x. 16 ; xi. 26. 
 
 2 St. John, x. 9 ; xv. 1 ; 1 Cor. x. 4. David applied the word 
 'blood' to that which was virtually blood, upon occasion of the 
 remarkable incident recorded 2 Sam. xxiii. 14-17, and 1 Chron. 
 xi. 15-19. 
 
 3 It may indeed be inferred from St. Luke, xxii. 20, and 
 1 Cor. xi. 25, to Ix^ri/Aiyov not agreeing in case with ti»" ni^ari, 
 that the more direct form was also used by our Lord : '• This 
 Cup is My Bood," which lie explained by subjoining, "the New 
 Testament in My Blood." Of all the ancient Liturgies with 
 which we are acquainted, the Mozarabic, which probably re- 
 presents the Ephesine Liturgy, approaches most nearly to the 
 form of Consecration of the Cup as recorded by St. Luke and 
 St. Paul. "This is the Cup of the New Testament in My 
 Blood, which shall be shed for you and for many for the re- 
 mission of sins." 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 163 
 
 But there is another point very deserving of attention, 
 At the time when our Lord instituted this Sacrament, His 
 Body had not been broken, nor His Blood shed, actually, 
 but only in His gift and purpose of love. And therefore 
 in speaking of them, He used the present tense for the 
 future, "which is to be broken," and ''which is to be shed." 
 No one pretends that there is now, or is yet to be, any 
 actual breaking of His Body or shedding of His Blood, and 
 yet the bread and wine are consecrated by these words in 
 the very same tense. And indeed the great Liturgies of 
 the Western Churches, the Boman, the Ambrosian, and the 
 Mozarabic, — all use the absolute future in the consecration 
 of the Cup. We commemorate the blessed facts transacted 
 once for all, past and finished, and yet we speak of them as 
 being in course of taking place. Now, if part of the essential 
 words of consecration be thus confessedly figurative, look- 
 ing back to the past fact, so also must the other part. And 
 yet the hallowed Bread and Wine are not mere dead and 
 barren figures, but visible words of the Lord, full of Spirit 
 and Life. " This is (in a mystery) My Body." " This is 
 (in a mystery) My Blood." 
 
 This way of taking the words is quite in accordance with 
 the manner of speech both of the Old and New Testaments, 
 and especially according to our Blessed Lord's own manner 
 of teaching. And that, we know well, involved great dan- 
 ger to the carnal and worldly-minded of misunderstanding 
 Him and thereby stumbling awfully. Jesus said, " De- 
 stroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." 
 And upon this charge He was arraigned before the Chief 
 Priests and the Council. " But He spake of the Temple of 
 His Body." 1 
 
 Again, the doctrine that our Lord's Body and Blood be- 
 come present on earth in their natural substances, abso- 
 lutely contradicts all that is taught as of His local departure 
 from the earth, of His local presence in Heaven, sitting at 
 the right hand of God, and of His local absence from us 
 until the completion of this world or ' age.' 
 
 All these are truths closely bearing upon our calling, and 
 walk, and inmost life, as Christians in this present evil world, 
 and the virtual obliteration of them from the minds of men 
 
 1 St. John, ii. 19-21. In the foregoing pages other instances 
 have been pointed out, in which our Loud was thus misappre- 
 hended by the carnally minded. 
 
164 
 
 APPEXDIX. 
 
 has brought forth deadly fruit to Christendom. And above 
 all, wherever a local presence of Our Lord on earth is rested 
 in, the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, is virtually displaced 
 from His present work and office ; for His coming and pre- 
 sence in the Church was at the first conditional upon the 
 absence for this little while of Him who said : " I tell you 
 the truth ; it is expedient for you that I go away : for if I 
 go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you ; but if 
 I depart, I will send Him unto you."' 1 
 
 But moie need not be said here upon these injurious 
 issues of the doctrine of Transubstantiation ; as they have 
 been sufficiently enlarged upon in the foregoing tract. 
 
 It will of course be answered by the advocates of the Ro- 
 man doctrine, that, by virtue of consecration, the natural 
 substances of our Lord's Body and Blood, are made to sub- 
 sist under the appearances of Bread and Wine, while, at the 
 same time, they continue to subsist in Heaven under their 
 own natural appearances ; and that they are not transferred 
 from place to place, but that the Bread and Wine are changed 
 into them, while they themselves remain, as to place, exactly 
 as they were before. And this is alleged to be the true 
 account of the matter, both when our Lord instituted the 
 Sacrament, and now that He is at the right-haDd of God. 
 
 Now it may be asked : Does not such a conception of our 
 Lord's Presence strike at the very root of the Mystery of 
 His Holy Incarnation ? 
 
 The Catholic Faith is, that the Son of God has so united 
 the nature of man with the nature of God in His own Person, 
 as that either nature retains and will ever retain its own 
 proper substance and distinctive essential properties, or as it 
 was expressed in the formulary of the Council of Chalcedon, 
 its own iS>0Tr,r or ' proprietas.' 2 When the Word of God 
 was made Flesh, He took upon Him a material Body, like 
 unto our bodies, and complete in all its parts and properties. 
 
 This Sacred Body is now glorified ; and yet we believe 
 that it retains all the parts and essential properties of a 
 material body. It retains the order of its parts in its whole, 
 it has extension in space, it is circumscribed by outline, and 
 it presents phenomena to the perception of the senses.* 
 
 ' St. John, xvi. 7. 
 2 Defin. Fidei Cone. Clialccd. Routh. Opuscule, ii. pp. 79, 83. 
 Smpofa, be it observed, is rendered "essentia" iu the Latin 
 version. 3 St. Luke, xxiv. 36-43. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 165 
 
 The dogma of Transubstantiation requires it to be be- 
 lieved, that the same Body, complete in all its parts, and in 
 the proper order of them, subsists substantially, under phe- 
 nomena not its own, in many places at once, while it is itself 
 divested of all its own phenomena in this supposed mode of 
 subsistence. 
 
 But if our Lord's Body were to subsist in a mode incon- 
 sistent with the essential properties which belong to it as 
 a material human body, it would clearly have departed from 
 its own ISiott.i or ' proprietas ; ' which would be contrary to 
 the Catholic Faith. 
 
 Now we know nothing of matter except through its phe- 
 nomena. Our mind itself, informed by experience, abhors, 
 as it were, the thought of matter divested of all phenomena. 
 To be phenomenal, and to have extension in space, are to 
 our minds parts of the ISiorm or ' proprietas' of matter. It 
 is as unnatural to our minds to think of matter existing 
 without this, its ' proprietas,' as to think of an intellect 
 existing without the faculty of thought, or of a will without 
 the faculty of volition. 
 
 If, therefore, our Lord's Body be supposed to be now in 
 this place, and now in that, without motion in space from 
 the one to the other, — to subsist here and there at the same 
 moment, and not as in a place, — to have all its parts perfect 
 and in their proper order, and yet not to have extension in 
 space, nor weight, nor any other property of matter, what 
 ' proprietas' of a human body remains to it ? 
 
 It is one thing to believe that the Spiritual Body has 
 spiritual powers and properties beyond the merely natural 
 body, and that it prevails over merely natural bodies, and 
 at the will of the Spirit, hides itself from their perceptions ;' 
 but it is quite another thing, to assert that our Lord's Body 
 anywhere or ever, so subsists as to be divested of that 'pro- 
 prietas' with which He concreated it when He assumed it, 
 and by which it is of One Nature with our lodics. 
 
 It may be answered, that we know nothing, from the phe- 
 nomena of matter and by the testimony of our senses, of what 
 the subject or substratum of those phenomena really is ; 
 that probably the ultimate substance, in this sense, of what 
 we call matter, is Spirit, and that what we call the pheno- 
 mena of matter, are simply impressions made by Spirit upon 
 Spirit, This view is akin to the theories by which ancient 
 
 1 St. Luke, xxiv. 16, 31. St. John, xx. 19. 
 
166 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 heretics assailed the mystery of the Incarnation, and by 
 which Pantheists assail the distinction between God and 
 the universe. It would make of the whole external world, 
 its phenomena and facts, a mere illusion, and, by conse- 
 quence, of the whole mystery also of the Incarnation and 
 our Redemption, a mere illusion. All would be what the 
 Indian Philosophy terms ' Maya.' 
 
 As Christians we believe that God has created things 
 which are not Himself ; and that when he created them, He 
 pronounced them to be good ; and that each of these things 
 according to its several position in the order of the universe, 
 was concreated with its own proper nature, or ' proprietas :' 
 and that from this ' proprietas' it does not depart, whether 
 it be inorganic matter on the one hand, or organized matter 
 on the other, and whether the principle of life of this latter 
 kind be vegetative, or sensitive, or intelligent, or spiritual. 
 
 In particular, we believe that God in the beginning created 
 certain elementary principles, which we call by a generic 
 name, matter, which really exist in space, but which were 
 not before He created them in space and space with them. 
 
 Quite in harmony with this belief is the conclusion, in 
 which the inquiries of modern science appear to issue, that 
 the elements of all material substances are certain ultimate 
 particles, physically indivisible. 1 It appears also that God 
 has imposed fixed laws upon all the elementary particles 
 of matter. They combine together only in definite and in- 
 variable proportions. And each of them keeps, and never 
 departs from, the ' proprietas ' originally imparted to it. 
 Some of these elementary particles, when they are com- 
 bined together, enter into higher and more complex natures, 
 and become constituents of organized bodies. Now when 
 the original elements are thus taken into organisms, they 
 are combined into organic molecules under the influence 
 of a force higher in the scale of creation, which determines 
 their new forms and properties. Doubtless all such forces 
 operate according to fixed laws ; and these laws and the 
 
 1 On the Atomic theory, see Lirhiy's letters on Chemistry, 
 " The immutability of the proportions, by weight, in which 
 bodies combine, is fully explained theoretically by assuming the 
 existence of indivisible ultimate particles, which are of unequal 
 weights, incapable of penetrating or being diffused through each 
 other when they are united in chemical combination, but being 
 arranged together side by side." — Letter vii. p. 103. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 1G7 
 
 effects upon matter which they determine, differ accord- 
 ing to the order of the life of the particular organism, as it 
 is vegetative, or animal, or intelligent, as well as according 
 to the more special kind of the organism itself. Some 
 elementary particles pass thus through several orders of 
 organisms. First they are constituents of vegetables, then 
 through vegetables, of animals, and through the lower 
 animals, of men. Now what is most remarkable is, that 
 each elementary body retains its own 'proprietas' or proper 
 nature throughout ; and when, after all changes, it is extri- 
 cated from the complex nature into which it has been com- 
 bined, it is found to present those phenomena which are its 
 own characteristics, or in other words, when questioned by 
 experiment, it deports itself according to its own proper 
 nature. It has not lost its individual substance, so to speak, 
 by having been incorporated for a time into higher orders 
 of" being. 
 
 Holy Scripture teaches us that man was formed at first 
 out of the dust of the ground. And now, exalted as is the 
 order of his life, and refined as is his organism, (and there 
 is a close relation between the two,) yet his body is ulti- 
 mately composed of inorganic particles of matter. And, 
 moreover, as dust he is, so into dust does he return. When 
 life departs, into inorganic particles does his body tend to 
 be decomposed. 
 
 But now at the apex of creation is there one glorious 
 form, in which the Creator dwells united with His own 
 creature, truly, perfectly, inseparably, unchangeably, uncon- 
 fusedly. There the highest is united with the lowest, even 
 God with the lowest order of being in creation. That 
 glorious form is of one substance with our bodies, and con- 
 sists, as ours consist, of elementary, inorganic particles of 
 matter. But not now is that most holy Body liable to 
 change or vital dissolution.' That material substance and 
 organism now liveth eternally ; it is that in which He who 
 loved us, suffered the extremity of shame and pain, the 
 Cross, and Death. In that very body, we shall see Him 
 one day with our own eyes. Very meet, and right, and 
 fitting is this : All glory be to Him, Who is the First and 
 the Last, Who liveth, and was dead, and is alive for ever- 
 more. Amen. And hereafter, because He lives, we shall 
 live also. Even our bodies shall live, and live eternally and 
 
 1 Sisj&oja. Acts, xiii. 34. 
 
1 68 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 unchangeably. " This corruptible must put on incorrup- 
 tion, and this mortal must put on immortality." 1 The 
 organism which is informed, not merely by intelligent life, 
 but by spiritual, does not cease to be what it was before ; 
 but it is exalted, and will ultimately be made permanent 
 in its own individual subsistence without liability to any- 
 thing which can be called decay, being altogether delivered 
 from the bondage of corruption. 1 
 
 The lowest order of things, even in the elements of 
 material substance, appear to have permanence, or such 
 indestructibility as the creature is capable of ; for, as we 
 have seen, they subsist unchanged in themselves, and keep 
 their own ' proprietas ' through all changes of position and 
 combination. Ultimately the highest and most refined order 
 of material organism will have persistence as unchangeable. 
 In the meanwhile we believe, as the Word of God requires 
 us, and as the Church has defined in her formularies, that 
 the Lord's sacred Manhood now retains, and ever will re- 
 tain its own subsistence in body as well as soul, without 
 loss or change of the ' proprietas,' either of its form or of 
 its matter. 
 
 As bearing on this whole subject, it may be well briefly 
 to notice that ancient theory or hypothesis of actual and 
 physical existence which the schoolmen borrowed from 
 Aristotle, and which the Church of Rome has appropriated, 
 as seeming to harmonize with her dogma of Transubstantia- 
 tion. 
 
 According to this hypothesis, every actually existing 
 thing consists of matter and form. Matter has no inde- 
 pendent existence by itself, but is mere possibility of being, 
 and is made actual only by the accession of form. Now 
 this actualization can only take place in an individual thing. 
 The form is that which makes a thing to be what it is, and 
 not something else. The form is really one with the in- 
 dividual thing which is actualized by it. At the same time, 
 the form is an object to the intellect of intelligent beings, 
 who are, in different degrees, capable of apprehending it, 
 and of producing in themselves a conception of it as ab- 
 stracted from matter ; and this conception exists, as, so to 
 speak, an intelligible substance in the mind which has 
 formed it in itself. 
 
 The Divine Mind has produced all individual things ; It 
 
 1 1 Cor. xv. 53. 
 
 2 T?t pOofSf. Rom. viiL 21. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 169 
 
 has produced all the conditions of their actual existence; 
 It has originated their forms. Each form is repeated in 
 many individual things, and while, as actually existing, it 
 can be seen and known by us only in and through indi- 
 vidual things, doubtless it is absolutely known to the Divine 
 Mind which originated and imposed it upon them. It 
 was so known prior to the existence of individual things ; 
 it is known now as imparting a common nature to many 
 individuals. 
 
 Doubtless, then, there are forms, according to which in- 
 dividual things actually exist and are what they are; 1 and 
 our minds are capable of producing in themselves concep- 
 tions of these forms. These conceptions are in our minds, 
 as objects to them ; and they are true and valid conceptions, 
 in so far as they are derived from phenomena, by observa- 
 tion and experiments conducted according to the innate 
 laws of the mind itself. 
 
 The most minute material objects — the smallest particles 
 of matter with which we are acquainted, actually exist sub- 
 ject to certain laws of measure, number, and weight, which 
 determine all their phenomena, and from which they appear 
 never to depart. 2 By the observation and investigation 
 
 1 Lord Bacon says: "The form of any nature is such, that 
 where it is, the given nature must infallibly be. The form, 
 therefore, is perpetually present when that nature is present ; 
 ascertains it unhersally, and accompanies it everywhere. Again, 
 this form is such, that when removed, the given nature infallibly 
 vanishes. Lastly, a true form is such as can deduce a given 
 nature from some essential property, which resides in many 
 things." Cited by Herschel, On the Study of Natural Philosophy, 
 p. 326. 
 
 2 Nature is one Book ; Revelation, the Word spoken and 
 written, is another. The Saints see the harmony of the two ; 
 they see that the order of Nature and the order of Grace are 
 parts of one whole ; and they have ever delighted in observing 
 phenomena, and in contemplating the general fixity and per- 
 manence of Gon's ordinances in nature, because this stability 
 is a pledge to them that, when He speaks in the order of grace, 
 His word shall surely be accomplished, and shall stand fast for 
 ever. " For ever, 0 Lord, Thy word is settled in Heaven. Thy 
 faithfulness is unto all generations : Thou hast established the 
 earth, and it abideth (or standeth fast.) They continue this day 
 according to Thine ordinances ; for all are Thy servants."— 
 Ps. cxix. 89-91. Cf. Ps. xxxiii. 6, 9 ; cxlviii. 5, 6. " He hath 
 
170 
 
 APPEXDIS. 
 
 of phenomena — by asking questions, that is, of nature — we 
 learn what these laws are ; and through them we enter into 
 some apprehension of the forms themselves on which par- 
 ticular natures depend; we know them, in a measure truly, 
 through the phenomena, and, be it observed, only through 
 the phenomena, which they determine. 
 
 But the schoolmen followed a method of thought in re- 
 spect to being, olaia, which led them away ftom phenomena 
 and actual existence into a region of abstractions. And 
 some of them even attempted to pass over from logic to a 
 knowledge of Being, or in other words to convert the art 
 of reasoning into a science of Being. Doubtless things 
 actually exist in a reverse order from that in which, by our 
 natural faculties, we come to the knowledge of them. Now 
 the method of logical abstraction appears to offer an easy 
 way by which to rise at once to a conception of Being as a 
 whole, so as to be able to classify and arrange its forms in 
 scientific order and dependence. By this method the most 
 general and abstract of all conceptions comes to be at the 
 top of the scale, — a conception of 'being' abstracted from 
 all qualities or properties — a conception of which it is hard 
 to say, whether it represents everything or nothing, or of 
 
 made them fast for ever and ever : He hath siven them a law 
 which shall not be broken." God assigned to Noah the rain- 
 bow, as a faithful witness in Heaven and to be a perpetual 
 sicn of grace. To those who know and love the Living God, 
 His whole creation is such a sipm or Sacrament. " Heaven and 
 earth shall pass away," saith the Lord, "but My 'Words shall 
 not pass away."— Matt. xxiv. 35. Not that the creature shall 
 ever cease to exist, but that the same Word which called it into 
 being, and which upholds it in bein.'r. and guides it safely 
 through all its changes, is pledged to us in grace. Those occa- 
 sional interpositions of God in the order of creation, which we 
 call miracles, will cause no difficulty to any one who at all realizes 
 the continual and entire dependence of the creature upon the 
 Creator, and His constant and intimate presence with every part 
 of it. But the miracle imagined in Transubstantiation appears 
 on the face of it deceptive and needlessly destructive, in short, 
 altogether unlike creation and the known mind of the Creator. 
 In every case the question is not what He ran do, but what He 
 will do. Now His Will is revealed by His "Word ; and the book 
 of nature entirely harmonizes with His written Word: and 
 Transubstantiation is inconsistent with the contents of either 
 book. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 171 
 
 which, perhaps, one may say that it represents, logically, 
 everything, and actually, nothing. 1 
 
 Akin to this logical conception of ' being,' or substance 
 abstracted from all properties and qualities, is the concep- 
 tion which belongs to the scholastic physics, of 'materia 
 prima,' as standing between nothing and everything, poten- 
 tially everything, a subject capable of receiving any form, 
 but having no actual existence by itself without form. 2 
 
 Matter was by abstraction thought of, apart from all form ; 
 but it was admitted that, so divested, it never did, and never 
 
 1 In truth this misapplication of the logical method is a very 
 dangerous one. having an inevitable tendency to Pantheism. 
 There have been, and are, philosophers who have followed this 
 method on, until the Living Gor>, the most actual of all beings. 
 Who is pure actuality, has ceased to be the highest object of 
 their intellect, and they have set up instead of Him an abstract 
 conception without any actuality, emptied of all determinate 
 contents, and which represents equally well everything or no- 
 thing. But the Lord our God is the Living God, the Father, 
 the Son, and the Holy Ghost. 
 
 2 The schoolmen appear to have derived their doctrine about 
 'materia prima' from St. Augustine. In the twelfth book of 
 his Confessions, he states at length the questions raised in his 
 mind on this subject. May not the truth, so far as it is revealed 
 to us, be thus stated ? In the beginning, on the evening, as it 
 were, with which the first day or period of creation began, God 
 created those ultimate, elementary particles or principles of 
 which the heavens and the earth respectively are composed. 
 These elements, whether they were of many, or, as it is proba- 
 ble, of very few kinds, appear to have been created with exten- 
 sion in space and each with its own proper nature, having 
 dimensions and figure and numerical proportions and a capacity 
 for receiving influence and motion from the brooding Spirit of 
 God which 'moved upon the face of the waters.' But at first 
 the elements lay without onler or combination, and were in- 
 visible by reason of the darkness 'which was upon the face of 
 the deep.' This period of darkness, described as the evening, 
 came to its end when God said, ' Let there be light ; and there 
 was light.' And when the light acted with all its quickening 
 forces upon the chaotic mass of elementary particles and irra- 
 diated the deep, it produced ' the morning,' a period of visible 
 order and beauty; and thus 'there was evening, and there was 
 morning, the first day.' And God in grace still deals with His 
 fallen creatures after this similitude, 'commanding the light to 
 shine out of darkness' 2 Cor. iv. 6, First there is the evening, 
 and then the morning in our hearts. 
 
172 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 can exist. Thomas Aquinas, the greatest of the schoolmen, 
 expressly asserts that, in this supposed state, matter haa 
 no existence, neither is it cognoscible, or an object to our 
 intellect ;' and again, that matter is concreated with its 
 forms. 2 
 
 Still there was present to the minds of men the concep- 
 tion of material substance divested of all properties, quali- 
 ties, and phenomena, but the possible subject of any. This 
 conception manifestly and confessedly is the product of the 
 understanding, and exists only in the understanding. But 
 it is precisely this conception which has opened a wide door 
 for mistake and equivocation in respect to the doctrine of 
 Transubstantiation. 3 
 
 Substance, Ma, is either actual, as it exists 'in rerum 
 nature,' a subsistence, that is to say, in the whole order of 
 created, individual subsistences or things: and, in this sense, 
 it is perfectly known by the Divine Mind, and may he im- 
 perfectly, and yet, in a measure, truly, known to us through 
 experience ; or it is logical, a mere product of thought, a 
 conception formed by abstraction for the purposes of 
 
 1 Materia, secundum se, neque habet esse, neque cognosci- 
 bilis est. Summa, la. qusest. 15, art. 3. ad. 3. cf. qu.-est. 7. 
 art. 2. 
 
 'Materia in Deo non habet propriam ideam, sed eamdem 
 ideam cum toto composito, nec creari ullo mo lu potest, nisi 
 cum forma.' These words are cited as from Aquinas by Goudin 
 Phi/osop/iia D. Thorn. Physica. I. qu. 2. art. 3. Cf. Quasi, disp. 
 de ideis. iii. art. 5. 'Materia prima uou existit in rerum nature 
 per ipsam, cum non sit ens in actu, sed potentia tantum. 
 Unde magis est aliquid concreatum quam creatum.' Summa la. 
 qu. 7, art. 2. Cf. qu. 45. art. 4. 
 
 3 Philosophically speaking, the primary falsehood of the scho- 
 lastic physics appears to be the conception, that the ultimate 
 elements of matter really change from one form into another. 
 On the contrary, there is every reason for believing that matter 
 was created in minute indivisible particles, having size, shape, 
 and numerical proportions, according to their several kinds, and 
 that from its own proper form or nature each of these atoms 
 never departs. In the compounded bodies indeed into which 
 atoms enter as constituents, one form takes the place of another, 
 but the elementary bodies themselves never really pass from 
 one form into another. The conception that they do thus 
 change, is obviously akin both to the doctrine of Transubstan- 
 tiation, and to the Pantheistic conception of the universe as an 
 ever-changing thought or imagination of an Anima Mundi. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 173 
 
 thought. Now it is very easy in thinking or speaking, to 
 pass from the one to the other, and to put this logical con- 
 ception of abstract substance, in the place of actual sub- 
 stance, and, as affects the question before us, in the place 
 of corporeal or material substance, as it really exists, and as 
 God concreated it, compounded, if so be, of matter and 
 form. 
 
 The schoolmen held, and the Church of Rome holds now, 
 we are told, that the ' quidditas,' or substance of a thing, 
 does not occupy place, and is an object to intellect alone , aud 
 when the substances of the bread and wine are said to be 
 changed into the substances of the Lord's Body and Blood, 
 we are led to infer that what is meant is, that the intelligible 
 substances are changed into the intelligible substances.' 
 But what is meant by the intelligible substance of a material 
 subsistence or thing, such as bread or wine ? It cannot be 
 bare matter without form, for as we have seen matter has 
 no existence without form, and is not by itself intelligible, or 
 an object to intellect. Is it then the essential form which 
 makes the thing to be what it is ? If so, Romanists would 
 be obliged to assert that the bread is changed into the soul 
 of the Lord ; for, according to the hypothesis of Aristotle 
 and the schoolmen, which the Church of Rome has authori- 
 tatively adopted, - the soul is the substantial form of the 
 human body. 
 
 And again, what are the forms which make these par- 
 ticular objects to be bread and wine, if all their constituents, 
 properties, and phenomena be put out of view ? Bread and 
 wine must have forms corresponding to their kind, as actual, 
 physical, individual subsistences or things, existing in the 
 world, just as the Lord's Body has a form corresponding 
 to Its kind, as an animated organism actually existing in 
 Heaven. 
 
 A piece of bread, for instance, is a subsistence ultimately 
 composed of particles of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, to- 
 gether with certain constituents of the crust of the earth. 
 
 1 See Wilberforce on the Eucharist, c. v. pp. 108, 9. 
 * Doctrinam omnem, sen positionem temere asscrcntcm, aut 
 vertentem in (labium, (mod substantia animoe rationalis, sou in- 
 tellectual, very ac per so humani corporis non sit forma, velut 
 erroneum ac veritati Catholicai inimicum fiilei, pracdicto sacra- 
 approbantc concilio, reprobamus. — In Clcmentiuis, Cap. de. Sum- 
 ma Trin. The Coimcil referred to is the Council of Vienue, 
 a.d. 1311-12. 
 
171 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 All these constituents have passed through many natural 
 processes ; most, if not all, of them, have heen constituents 
 of organic substances, and, probably, of many in succession, 
 and they are now destined to be appropriated by another 
 organism, and to become constituents of blood and flesh ; 
 but at present they subsist combined into a whole of which 
 they determine the structure, properties, qualities, and phe- 
 nomena, by virtue of the proper natures with which they 
 themselves were originally concreated. Now what is the 
 essential form of bread, as distinguished from these con- 
 stituents, together with their properties, their proportions, 
 and the laws by which their combination is regulated ? * 
 
 It has been above said that ' form' is that which makes 
 the thing to be what it is, and without whicli it would not 
 be what it is, and it may be added, without which it would 
 not receive the name which it has. In this sense, 'form' 
 is equivalent to the theological term, 'JSiomf' or ' proprietas.' 
 The ' name' of a thing denotes its form or ' propnetas.' 
 The name and the form of a thing must always go together. 
 We believe that our Blessed Lord is in the ' form' of God, 
 and in the ' form' of man ; and therefore we give Him the 
 name of God and the name of man. In all theological 
 questions it is of the greatest importance to attend to that 
 Canon of Tertullian : " Fides nominum salus est proprie- 
 tatum." 1 
 
 Water and steam are distinct material subsistences, hav- 
 ing different forms and different names. When water is 
 turned into steam, the form of steam takes the place of 
 the form of water, and the thing is no longer called water, 
 but steam. Bread also is a material subsistence, not indeed 
 natural, but the product of the art of man. Art availing 
 itself of the properties of certain natural substances, and 
 of certain natural laws, and acting in obedience to them, 
 combines together those material constituents, and by means 
 of them, produces a thing, adapted by certain properties, and 
 by its structure to answer a certain end; and this thing 
 
 'ZJe Came Christi. c. 13. The whole passage is worthy of 
 attention, as bearing on the relation of words to things. 'Omnia 
 periclitabuntur alitor aocipi quam sunt, et amittere quod sunt, 
 dum alitor accipiuntur, si aliter, quam sunt, cognominantur. 
 Fides nominum salus est proprictatum. Etiam cum demutantur 
 qualitates, accipiunt vocabidorum posscssiones. Verlii gratia, argilla 
 excocta testa; vocabulum suscipit. Nec commumeat cum voca- 
 bulo pristini generis, quia nec cum ipso genere.' 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 is denominated 'bread.' So far as we can see, the form 
 of bread is that collection of essential properties and that 
 structure which make bread to be -what it is, and without 
 which it would not be what it is, and would not be called 
 bread.' 
 
 Now since in the Sacramental bread after consecration 
 its physical properties, structure, and phenomena, all remain 
 unchanged, and in particular those properties, such as 
 digestibility and nutritiveness, for the sake of which the 
 art of man produced it, and by reason of which it is called 
 ' bread ;' and since the organism of the Lord's Body also 
 remains in Heaven, physically unchanged, as the bread upon 
 earth, it is plain that there is no change of those forms 
 which constitute them, after their kind, actual, individual, 
 material things or subsistences. 
 
 It remains then, that by intelligible substance must be 
 meant that conception of substance, as divested of all proper- 
 ties, qualities, and phenomena, which the understanding pro- 
 duces in itself by abstraction. 2 Now since this abstract sub- 
 stance or 1 quidditas ' is a mere conception, existing only 
 in the understanding, and not really in the actual things 
 themselves, nor anywhere ' in rerum natura,' it would be 
 absurd, if it were not dishonest, to confound it, as if equiva- 
 lent, with any real subsistence or actual thing which pre- 
 sents phenomena to our senses, which was concrcated by 
 God with its form or proper nature according to its kind, 
 and which becomes an object to our intellect through the 
 phenomena which that form determines. We may not sin so 
 
 ' This particular quantity of material constituents individu- 
 alizes tliis particular piece of bread. But in all subsistences 
 having life, the principle of individualization is a higher one. 
 Thk soul animates and individualizes this body. And herein 
 appears to be the great difference between animate and inani- 
 mate subsistences. The latter are individualized by the quantity 
 of material constituents of which they consist, but the former 
 receive at once their individuality and their form from a vital 
 principle or living substance, which is itself an individual being, 
 as it were, a living atom, having the power of actuating many 
 material atoms and combining them together into one indi- 
 vidual material subsistence with its parts subordinated to itself 
 as a whole. 
 
 '' The reader will observe thut this statement involves a con- 
 fusion which is in fact the burden aud difficulty of the view in 
 question. 
 
176 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 against the divine order as to substitute a mere abstraction 
 for any thing which God has created. But a great profanity 
 must it be to substitute a mere abstraction for the Body of 
 the Lord, and to lead poor souls to worship they know not 
 what. 
 
 But really the Roman assertion is that the whole sub- 
 stance of the bread is changed into the whole substance of 
 the Lord's Body; and the same is asserted likewise of the 
 wine and His Blood.' The whole substance can itself be 
 nothing else than the actual individual thing, consisting of 
 matter and the essential form which constitutes it an actual 
 subsistence or thing; and the term 'whole substance' io. 
 the foregoing assertion either means a bare mental concep- 
 tion of the whole substance, consisting of matter and form, 
 in which case there is again a gross equivocation ; or it 
 means the actual thing, whether the bread or the Body of 
 the Lord; and in this case there is a contradiction to "the 
 Catholic Faith ; for we believe that His human Body retains 
 its ' proprietas ' as an actual individual organism, and has 
 undergone no change, and subsists now in no mode of sub- 
 sistence, inconsistent with its retaining its proper nature as 
 a human Body. 
 
 A human body is a material body. The glorified bod)-, 
 although spiritual, is not mere Spirit; it is matter informed 
 by Spirit. Our Blessed Lord Himself, after His Resurrec- 
 tion, thus contrasts His own Body with mere Spirit. " Be- 
 hold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself: handle 
 Me and see ; for a Spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye 
 see Me have." 2 
 
 Is it not also plain, that where a body subsists substan- 
 tially, it subsists as in a place, and that if it does not subsist 
 as in a place, it docs not subsist substantially ? And on the 
 whole subject, may we not, in truth and reverence, appeal, 
 as our Lord Himself appealed on the occasion now men- 
 tioned, to the ordinary conditions of corporeal existence as 
 distinguished from spiritual ? 3 
 
 ' See Bellarminc de Sacramento EucharistUe, lib. iii. c. 18. 
 2 St. Luke, xxiv. 39. 
 5 Many passages from the Fathers might be given, containing 
 their judgments by anticipation upon the philosophical and 
 physical questions opened by the doctrine of Transubstantiation. 
 They plainly teach that a body cannot be in more than one 
 place at a time ; that a body always occupies space ; that what 
 
 - 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 177 
 
 Of vital importance is it to realize that our Lord's Body is 
 now an actual, individual, material organism. For at His 
 Incarnation He did not take upon Him the abstract sub- 
 stance of our nature, which would make His Incarnation 
 a mere illusion, neither did He so take our common nature 
 as to be incarnate in our whole species, as some, it appears, 
 incline to think ; but He took upon Him our whole and 
 perfect nature, as it belongs to an individual ; and He sub- 
 sists in it as an individual man subsists in it. The Son of 
 God was so made Man, as to be truly a Man, even as He is 
 called by the inspired Apostle, "A Man, Christ Jesus." 1 
 
 does not occupy space is not a body ; that accidents cannot exist 
 without a subject ; that the Lord's Body is not ubiquitous ; 
 and that God alone is present in more than one place at the 
 same time. See G. ft. Forbes on the Eucharist, pp. 199-214. 
 1 avJf«7roj. 1 Tim. ii. 5. 
 The truth on this subject is well stated by John Damascene: , \ 
 "Nature is either apprehended by the intellect in mere abstract |\ " V . 
 thought, u vJ/iX-iT Sfuf/a, for it has uo subsistence by itself ; or it ' 
 is apprehended as a common nature, xoivSt, and as in all the 
 subsistences of the same form or kind, joining them together, 
 and is called nature considered in the species ; or entirely the 
 same nature is apprehended as having acquired to itself acci- 
 dents in a single subsistence, and is called nature considered in 
 an individual, lv xtZ/aw, being the same with nature considered 
 in the species. When God the Word was made flesh, He did 
 not take upon Him nature as apprehended in mere abstract 
 thought, for this would not have been an Incarnation, but an 
 illusion and a feigning of Incarnation ; neither did He take na- 
 ture as considered in the species ; for He did not take upon 
 Himself all the subsistences of the species ; but He took the 
 nature of man in an individual, being the same with nature in 
 the species. He took on Him a first-fruit of our lump, not as 
 if it subsisted by itself and was denominated an individual pre- 
 viously, and so was assumed by Him, hut as having had its 
 beginning of existence in His own Personality. For the Person 
 of God the Word became the principle of personality to the 
 flesh. And thus the Word was made flesh, without alteration, 
 that is to say ; and the flesh was so made the Word as not 
 to undergo change, and God was made Man. For the Word 
 is God, and the Man God, by reason of the union in person- 
 ality."— On the Orthodox Faith, b. iii. c. 11. The Person of 
 the Word, the Son of God, is the principle of personality 
 winch individualizes the Soul and Body of our Lord. imoaTxtru, 
 
 ised of intellect 
 
 12 
 
178 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 He has come in the flesh; in our human frame, made 
 glorious and spiritual, lie now lives. As having tome in 
 our flesh, He is our Brother ; but as having risen again, He 
 is the elder Brother of His saints, — the first-born among 
 many brethren ; and we hope ihat hereafter lie will change 
 our vile bodies, and make them like unto That His Glori- 
 ous Boay, which is in Heaven, subsisting as in a place, at 
 the right-hand of the Father; — a material organism, ani- 
 mated by the living Soul of Him Who is God, blessed for 
 evermore. From this ISio™ and actual individual subsist- 
 ence we may not admit any change or departure, such as 
 would be involved in a substantial presence, at this time, 
 of His actual Body upon earth. Therefore we do not be- 
 lieve that the bread and wine are changed into His actual 
 Body and Blood ; while we do believe that in the power of 
 the Holy Spirit they aie instruments by which the Lord 
 Jesus efficaciously presents Himself in the whole truth of 
 His Person to the mind and heart of the believer. Doing 
 This in remembrance that He died for us, we feed on Him 
 in our hearts by faith with thanksgiving. But the proper 
 mode of subsistence which He has as Zvlan, is in no way 
 affected by this spiritual presence and communion. 
 
 As we believe that the Lord's Body and Blood keep their 
 own 'proorietas,' the same are we to believe of the bread and 
 wine. The mind, by an innate law, infers from phenomena 
 that there is a real subject or actual thing which presents 
 them. And again, the properties and phenomena of an 
 individual thing, or even certain of them, remaining unaltered, 
 the mind naturally infers that the thing itself remains un- 
 altered. And thus, inasmuch as the physical properties 
 and phenomena of the bread and wine all remain unaltered, 
 we legitimately infer that as actual physical substances they 
 are unchanged, and continue after consecration exactly the 
 same individual things which they were before it. 
 
 If we examine the assertion, that after the Consecration 
 the bread and wine no longer exist as things,' but that 
 their qualities and phenomena subsist without any subject 
 in which they inhere, this notion may be shown to be in- 
 consistent with all God's known ways of dealing with the 
 minds of His creatures, and to trench injuriously upon the 
 mystery of the Incarnation. 
 
 1 In the scholastic phraseology of Rome, the consecrated ele- 
 ments are said to be " signum c't non res." 
 
ArPKXDIX. 
 
 179 
 
 For how very much depends upon the credibility of our 
 senses. Anything which should invalidate their testimony, 
 or the judgments of our mind upon it, would render all 
 knowledge uncertain. There is no knowledge in the mind 
 but what has cither first come to it or been first awakened 
 in it through the senses. We know nothing of the external 
 world, or of any actual existence in the natural order, ex- 
 cept what we have learned by experience of phenomena 
 and facts, of which the mind takes cognizance, either upon 
 the report of the senses, or more remotely upon the testi- 
 mony of others, which is itself received through the senses. 
 What do we know of the history of our race except through 
 our senses ? What docs a child know of his father and 
 mother, — what does a man know of his friend, except from 
 outward facts, first observed through the senses, and then 
 judged of by the mind, and made the ground of inferences P 
 
 I see the action, the look, the gesture ; I hear the word ; 
 I infer that a living soul, a person, underlies these appear- 
 ances and presents them ; I have experience of the person, 
 and experience convinces me that there is no illusion ; from 
 that which is outward, I pass on to that which is within ; I 
 discern the character of the person ; I know and I love him, 
 — my fellow-man. 
 
 In the same way the invisible God, Whom no man hath 
 seen nor can see, makes Himself known to us by phenomena, 
 facts, and words, external to ourselves, and brought to our 
 knowledge through our senses. Even in the natural order, 
 the visible things of creation bear witness of Him, and a 
 true witness, as far as it goes. By His works in nature He 
 shows Himself to men. " For the invisible things of H in 
 from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being under- 
 stood by the things that are made, even His eternal power 
 and Godhead." 1 By means of outward and sensible objects 
 and facts, if only men will observe them and reflect on them 
 in their minds, it is in their power to rise to a measure of 
 the true knowledge of Gob. By phenomena and facts pre- 
 sented to our minds through the senses, not only in the 
 stars of heaven, but in the organization and life of the 
 meanest insect and of the smallest plant, He shows us 
 somewhat of His power, and wisdom, and goodness. 
 
 Much more in the order of grace does He make Himself 
 known to us by outward facts, communicated to us through 
 
 Kom. i. 20. 
 
180 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 our senses. The Life and Sufferings, the Death and Resur- 
 rection of our Lord, declare God, even the Father. 1 We 
 know the Father, if we know Jesus Christ and Him 
 Crucified. He is the Book in which all is written. And 
 His blessed Person is made known to us by outward facts. 
 We know Him by His words, His miracles, His actions, by 
 what men saw and heard, and reported, and wrote down, and 
 which we through our senses have received. His Death upon 
 the Cross is an outward fact, in which, through the senses, 
 we read of mercy reconciled with justice ; we read of the 
 evil of sin, atoned for in righteousness, and conquered by 
 the love of God; and the open, empty sepulchre is a sensible 
 object declaring Him who died to be the Son of God, with 
 power to save to the uttermost all who come unto God by 
 Him. 
 
 And Who is like unto our God, as He condescends thus 
 to make Himself known to us through our very senses ? 
 He is not, as He appears to mere speculative reason, at the 
 end of her unassisted search after Him, a cold, clear, 
 Almighty Intellect, generating ideas, and laying down laws, 
 rewarding and punishing, out of a void eternity; but He is 
 the most living and personal of all beings, One in Nature 
 and Three in Personality, pure Light and pure Love, not 
 only the Mind of minds, but also the Heart of hearts. As 
 such we know Him by what He has said and what He has 
 done — by what the eyes of men have seen, and their ears 
 have heard, and their hands have handled, of the Word of 
 Life. 2 
 
 There is indeed a close correspondence between the be- 
 stowal of divine knowledge, and the acquisition of natural 
 knowledge. In the natural world we observe through our 
 senses ; the mind asks questions of nature through them, 
 and then compares and judges their reports. Thus from 
 sensation and observation we pass over into experimental 
 knowledge, and from this again into science. In a measure 
 we know the world ; it is intelligible to us : and we hold it, 
 as it were, in our mind. So in the order of grace, by words 
 and signs, we see and hear what God has done ; we believe 
 the facts, and act as if they were true : we call upon God, 
 and inquire of Him ; we make trial of Him ; and thus from 
 belief upon testimony, we are led on by the Holy Spirit 
 into experimental knowledge of God ; we believe and are 
 
 1 St. John, i. 18. * 1 St. John, i. 1-3. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 181 
 
 sure, as her fellow-townsmen, when they had believed, 
 said to the woman of Samaria : " Now we believe, not be- 
 cause of thy saving : for we have heard Him ourselves, 
 and know that this is the Christ, the Saviour of the 
 world." 1 By realizing in ourselves the facts which we 
 have received concerning Him, through the Word, we 
 come to know Him, whom we knew not before, " though 
 He be not far from every one of us : for in Him we live, 
 and move, and have our being." 2 
 
 Again : the knowledge which the child has of the uni- 
 verse, and the knowledge which the philosopher has, are both 
 true in their degree. But how widely do they differ in 
 degree ! Much more widely does the knowledge of God 
 which the babe in Christ has, differ from that which the" 
 full-grown believer has, when now matured in love. 3 And 
 what shall be said of the knowledge which the Saint in glory 
 has ? But all knowledge of God in all its degrees is derived 
 from facts, of which we realize the import by experience. 
 
 In saving us, God entirely condescends to this compound 
 nature, consisting of body as well as soul, which He has 
 given us, and in which we derive food for the soul through 
 the organs of the body. He saves us by facts which were 
 transacted in this outward, visible world, subject to the 
 conditions of time and place. These facts He brings to 
 our knowledge by testimony which our mind receives 
 through our senses ; and to remind us of .these facts, He 
 has given us visible words, or signs addressed to our senses ; 
 for whatever other functions the Sacraments have, they 
 certainly have this. And the Word of the Lord, whether 
 spoken, or written, or made visible by signs, always pre- 
 sents to us, in the first instance— facts, and in particular 
 the cardinal facts of His Death and of His Resurrection, 
 whereby He "was declared to be the Son of God with 
 
 1 St. John, iv. 42. 2 Acts, xvii. 27, 28. 
 
 3 In proportion as the believer knows God, in the light of 
 Gon he sees himself and the evil of sin. Job, xlii. 5. 6 ; Isaiah, 
 vi. 1-5 ; Luke, v. 8, 9. Vast as is the universe, and wonderful 
 as is its order and beauty, so great is the evil of sin. Job was 
 taught this by experience The God of creation is the God of 
 grace in Christ, the Lord our God. Surely this ought to 
 break down the hearts of sinners. He who made all things 
 to be, which were not, has loved sinners, who are worse than 
 nothing, that He may make them like Himself, holy and happy. 
 
182 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 power." 1 The apostles were expressly called to be wit- 
 nesses of His Resurrection; 2 and it is plain from the ac- 
 counts in the Acts of the Apostles that their preaching to 
 the unconverted hinged mainly upon this single fact. "With 
 great power gave the Apostles witness of the Resurrection 
 of the Lord Jesus." 3 The fact of His Resurrection in- 
 volves the facts of His Incarnation and the Sacrifice of His 
 Death. All together make up the preaching 01 Word of 
 the Cross. We cannot become Christians, we cannot be 
 saved, except through these facts of Christ crucified and 
 Christ risen, and through the knowledge of them. The 
 speculative reason, indeed, of the natural man, revolts from 
 .the humiliation of admitting that his eternal interests de- 
 pend upon the reception of facts external to himself. But 
 the economy of our Redemption is adapted, not to the 
 pride, but to the necessities of our natural constitution, 
 very humbling as those necessities are. Human reason was 
 for a while left by God to itself, for this, among other 
 ends, that it might find out its own wants, weakness, empti- 
 ness, foolishness, nothingness : — that it might try by search- 
 ing to find out God. and fail, as it signally did. But " after 
 that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew 
 not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching 
 to save them that believe." 4 To the speculative reason un- 
 humbled, the objects proposed for belief, and the medium 
 by which they are brought before it. are alike foolishness. 
 How, reason would ask, can facts transacted upon the earth 
 and reported by man, claim submission as having power to 
 save ? And yet even a sound human philosophy would 
 not despise nor pass over any facts proved by testimony. 
 And though speculative reason may falsely and foolishly 
 conceive itself above external facts, yet the practical reason 
 
 ' Rom. i. 4. Comp. x. 9 ; 1 Cor. xv. 12-20; 1 St. Peter, i. 
 3, 21 ; iii. 21. 
 
 2 Acts, i. 22. 
 
 3 Acts, iv. 33. Comp. ii. 14-36; especially v. 32, iii. 12-26; 
 espec. ver. 15, 26, iv. 2, 8-12, v. 29-32, x. 34-43: cspec. ver. 39- 
 41, xiii. 16-41 ; espec. ver. 29-37, xvii. 3, 18, 31, xxiii. 6. xxv. 
 19, xxvi. 23. Would that the ministry of the Church did once 
 more bear witness of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus u-ith 
 great power. Then would great grace be upon us all. But this 
 is a witness to be borne by the life of men risen with Christ, 
 as well as by the word ol doctrine. 
 
 4 1 Cor. i. 21. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 183 
 
 even of the natural man cannot dispense with them : they 
 are necessary to it as grounds from which to draw its prin • 
 ciples ; and it cannot find rest except its principles concur 
 with facts. 1 
 
 But, in truth, the heart and intellect of men crave after 
 a knowledge of God by facts. When St. Paul was preach- 
 ing at Athens, among those to whom he was speaking were 
 some who in their own conceit were soaring upon the 
 wings of speculative reason into the highest regions of pure 
 truth ; though, indeed, as a philosopher of this world has 
 said, Mere speculative reason, endeavouring of herself to rise 
 to the knowledge of the tilings which are above her, is like 
 
 1 Many systems of philosophy have been devised which have 
 presented a great appearance of scientific completeness and 
 precision, but which, when tested by the facts of God's world, 
 have been found not to harmonize with them. And so it it, 
 wiih sniiK' systems of religion; they do not harmonize with the 
 true facts of God's dealings in grace, either with the external 
 facts whereby He reveals Himself, or with the interna! facts of 
 experience, which we may observe in ourselves when we have 
 received those external facts upon testimony and realized them 
 in ourselves by faith. Again, true theology, like true natural 
 science, is incomplete. God does not give us all truths at 
 once ; He leaves us to realize in experience the truths which 
 He has given us, before He gives us more. Who doubts the 
 truth of the law of gravitation, although the system of the 
 material universe does remain after all a scheme imperfectly 
 comprehended? We may know nothing of many other forces 
 which may be at work, nor of the laws according to which they 
 operate ; but by experience we are sure, with an ever progres- 
 sive certainty, that some force is operating aeceording to this law ; 
 because applying it as if it were true, we find that it harmonizes 
 in all cases with facts. Very similarly arc we situated with 
 rcs"pcct to revealed truth. We are to be certain of all truths 
 that are revealed ; but the measure of our certainty is the de- 
 gree in which we apply them, act upon them, and so realize 
 them in experience. Again, as the universe manifests the in- 
 exhaustible resources of the wisdom and goodness of God, 
 much more in Himself, as He is revealed in the Lokd Jesus 
 Chkist, are there inexhaustible treasures and depths of grace 
 and truth. Therefore theology as a science must ever be incom- 
 plete ; notwithstanding, all that is revealed is certainly true, 
 and may be infallibly relied upon as a safe clue to guide us 
 through all appearances; and by it we live eternally. '-It is 
 not a vain thing for you ; because it is your life." — Deut. 
 xxxii. 47. 
 
184 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 a bird trying to fly without air, and can but flap her wings 
 in a void, through which she can make no progress, for there 
 is nothing to support her. But though St. Paul must have 
 known, or rather because he knew well, the general habits 
 and bent of mind of those whom he was called upon to ad- 
 dress, he preached unto them Jesus and the Resurrection, 
 the Person and the Fact. And there were some in whose 
 hearts and minds these great simple truths filled up an 
 aching void, and turned want and restlessness into full satis- 
 faction and rest. 
 
 In Hue's travels we are told that when the elements of 
 the Christian Faith were expounded to some poor Budd- 
 hist Lamas in Thibet, their minds at once seized upon the 
 historical facts, and that they dwelt upon them with satis- 
 faction, as affording a solid standing ground for faith.' That 
 remarkable article of the Creed, for instance, "He suffered 
 under Pontius Pilate,''' 1 would contribute to assure them that 
 the Death of our Lord was really an historical fact. What 
 a blessed change, from a religion like theirs — a Pantheistic 
 mysticism, to be brought, by believing true facts, to the 
 knowledge of His Person, Who is truly Divine and truly 
 Human, neither confounding the Godhead with the Man- 
 hood, nor losing the Manhood in the Godhead. 
 
 But to recapitulate what is designed now to be mainly 
 insisted upon. It has been shown in the foregoing treatise 
 that we attain to union with the Person of Christ only 
 through faith in His Death and Resurrection ; or, as it 
 might be otherwise expressed, we cannot have Christ spiri- 
 
 ' " The instruction we communicated was altogether historical 
 in its plan, everything being carefully excluded which could 
 suggest dispute, or arouse the spirit of contention ; we gave our 
 friends a simple and concise outline of our religion, leaving them 
 to derive thence, for themselves, conclusions against Buddhism. 
 Proper names and dates, precise!;/ set forth, produced more effect vpon 
 them than the most logical reasoning. When they hud thoroughly 
 mastered the names of Jesus of Jerusalem, and of Pontius 
 Pilate, the date of four thousand years since the creation of the 
 world, and the names of the twelve Apostles, they had no longer 
 any doubts as to the Redemption, or as to the preaching of the 
 Gospel. The connection which they observed between the his- 
 tory of the Old Testament and that of the Kew, amounted, in 
 their eyes, to demonstration. The mysteries and the miracles 
 created no difficulty in their minds." — Hues 1'raiels, Haditfs 
 transl. vol. ii. p. Co. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 185 
 
 tnally formed within us, except through Faith in Him, as 
 made known to us historically, that is, by the facts confessed 
 in the Creed. The Word and the Sacraments externally 
 delivered by men, and making their impression first upon 
 the senses, and through the senses upon the mind and soul, 
 whatever else they are, certainly are the witness of the His- 
 torical Christ, if the phrase be permitted, and are indeed 
 the sole channel by which the knowledge of Him can be 
 communicated from man to man, from soul to soul. 
 
 It is, indeed, a great mystery that God should make 
 preaching of true facts, or the word of the Cross, His in- 
 strument by which He saves souls ; so that in truth our 
 salvation may be said, from one point of view, to depend 
 upon it ; that is, upon the utterance of words by our fel- 
 low -men reporting historical facts. And the mystery is 
 the same, and certainly not greater, that by a washing with 
 water, and the eating and drinking of bread and wine, with 
 the addition of certain sacred words expressive of deep 
 truths, Goi> should present spiritual blessing through the 
 bodily senses to the soul, thus making of earthly elements, 
 channels or media of grace. 
 
 Both the Word and Sacraments are means of grace, in one 
 point of view, by the power of the Holy Spirit which attends 
 them ; but in another, by their significance and representa- 
 tive connection with the true Facts of the Lord's Death 
 and Resurrection which they present as objects of Faith. 
 Ultimately all rests upon the objective reality of the facts. 
 
 Now historical facts are observed through the senses and 
 are reported upon their testimony. The Holy Ghost Him 
 self, speaking by St. John, does not dispense with their testi- 
 mony. He makes the testimony of St. John as an eye-wit- 
 ness, a ground of Faith to the Church in all ages. " He 
 that saw it, bare record, and his record is true ; and he 
 knowcth that he saith true, that ye might believe." And 
 again: "lie saw and believed."' Any view, therefore, 
 which invalidates the certainty of the testimony of the 
 senses, and of the judgment of our mind upon them, invali- 
 dates also all our experience of the external world, and thus 
 overthrows the whole historical foundation of our faith. 
 
 When the mind, through the senses, takes cognizance of 
 an object, it infers by a natural, innate law, that there is sub- 
 stance underlying and presenting its phenomena. Neither 
 
 1 St. John, xix. 35 ; xx. 8. 
 
186 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 does the Holy Spirit dispense with the service of this law. 
 The Apostles knew and bore witness that the Lord has 
 come in the substance of our Mesh, because they saw It with 
 their eyes, and looked upon It, and handled It with their 
 hands.' They knpw and bare witness that He has risen 
 again in the substance of our flesh, because they saw Him, 
 and did eat and drink with Him, after He rose from the 
 dead," and were invited b\ Him to handle Him and see; 
 "for a Spirit," said lie, "hath not flesh and bones, as ye 
 see Me have." 
 
 The doctrine, therefore, which invalidates the objective 
 reality of the substances of the Bread and Wine after con- 
 secration, tends to invalidate also the objective reality 
 the Incarnation of our Lord, the fact, that is, that He has 
 come and abides now in the substance of our flesh ; and so 
 it undermines also the facts that He has died and risen 
 again in our flesh. When it is proposed to men to believe, 
 as an article of the faith, that the accidents of the Bread 
 and Wine are separated from their natural substances, and 
 that there is no substance which locally and physically 
 underlies and supports them, but that the substances, of 
 which we should infer from the testimony of our senses 
 and the judgment of our mind, that they subsisted there, 
 have passed into quite different substances, and no longer 
 subsist really, there will be found those who either in a 
 profane spirit, or from a theorizing turn, and with minds 
 really confused by the notions upon which they have been 
 made to dwell, will easily pass on to the blasphemous con- 
 ception which the Doceta; and other Gnostics held of old, 
 that the Lord's visible Body was a similar system of acci- 
 dents, without natural substance, but upheld immediately 
 by Divine power. Hence, of course, must follow a denial 
 of the objective reality of His Death and Besurrection, 
 which would be blasphemously represented to be illusive 
 transactions of an illusive phantom ; and so the whole mys- 
 tery of our Bedemption would vanish away in a mystical 
 dream. 
 
 In truth, every self-destructive theory of the human mind 
 which overthrows or undermines tlje credibility of human 
 testimony to facts, or the objective reality of the visible 
 world, and the truth of our experience of it, or the validity 
 
 1 1 St. John, i. 1, 2. " Acts. x. 41. 
 
 * St. Luke, xxiv. 39. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 187 
 
 of those laws of consciousness and thought which God h;\a 
 Himself implanted in us, — every such theory, whether its 
 subject matter be of the natural order, or of the super- 
 natural — whether its character be sceptical or mystical, is 
 alien from the mind of God, and false, lie does not de- 
 stroy the nature and substances which lie has created, nor 
 invalidate the faculties and principles which He has given 
 us ; on the contrary, His will is to bless, and hallow, and 
 exalt them by grace. He does indeed set limits to the 
 exercise of our faculties, and He punishes and humbles 
 them for any excess; but within those limits, He recognizes 
 and confirms their validity, and makes use of them as in- 
 struments in carrying out His own purposes of grace to- 
 wards men. 
 
 The doctrine of Transubstantiation entirely overthrows 
 this divine use of the order of nature as subservient to the 
 order of grace, and thus tends, not remotely, to a denial of 
 our Lord's having come in the flesh. We may not indeed 
 raise any question as to its being in the power of God to 
 work a miracle as great as, or infinitely greater than, that 
 supposed to take place in Transubstantiation. The only 
 question is what lie willeth to do, and what He has said He 
 will do. It has been above shown that the assertion of a 
 change of the Bread and Wine from their natural substances 
 is not revealed truth, but is contrary to the plain Word of 
 God. And now it has been shown to be inconsistent with 
 what we learn from revelation of His way of dealing with 
 the order of nature as subordinate to that of grace. 
 
 The miracle imagined in Transubstantiation is not worthy 
 of God. It is unlike Him, and all that we know of Him. 
 We know of other miracles relating to food ; and they have 
 all issued in results homogeneous to the rest of creation ; but 
 a miracle like this would issue in a monstrous illusion, and 
 would appear not to be the work of the God of Citation, 
 but of some other being.' 
 
 1 We know of no instance in which God lias annihilated sub- 
 stance which He lias created. Not that He could not, but that 
 it appears not to be His will to do 60. The Roman formularies 
 say that the Bread and Wine arc not annihilated, but changed; 
 yet, certainly, according to the Roman supposition, their sub- 
 stances cease to exist, in whatever way. But if the consecra- 
 tion were to cause the Bread and Wine to cease to be, it could 
 hardly be said to be a blessing of them. When our Loud turned 
 the water into wine, the elementary particles of water did not 
 
 _ 
 
j 88 
 
 A1TEXDIX. 
 
 Such a miracle totally differs from the Incarnation. Here- 
 in God is manifest in the flesh. The Creator of Heaven 
 and earth is united with His own creature, without de- 
 struction, or loss, or confusion, or essential alteration, re- 
 sulting to the creature. And so, when God in grace works 
 upon His creatures, which were creatures before grace 
 wrought in them, they do not cease to be what they were 
 before, but they come to be what before they were not. 
 They are not unclothed, but clothed upon, not destroyed, 
 but hallowed, exalted, and glorified. 
 
 But it is most material to observe that the dogma of 
 Transubstantiation is closely akin to the Eutychian heresy, 
 which represented the Manhood of our Lord, so far as re- 
 gards its substance, as absorbed and lost in the Godhead. 
 The same mystical, superstitious bent of mind which could 
 conceive a confusion of the Manhood with the Godhead, 
 attended with an annihilation or essential alteration of its 
 natural substance, would readily conceive also a Transub- 
 stantiation of bread and wine into the Person of the Lord. 
 
 It is historically certain that gross and carnal v ews of the 
 Real Presence began to prevail widely in the Eastern 
 Churches contemporaneously with the up-growth of the 
 Eutychian heresy. Even writers esteemed orthodox use 
 language in speaking of the Eucharist, which gives too much 
 reason to believe that they were lapsing into some vague 
 conception that the flesh of our Lord, by union with the 
 Godhead, has lost its own natural properties and even its 
 individual subsistence, so that they speak of its being com- 
 mingled physically and corporeally with our bodies, as one 
 piece of wax can be fused with another. 1 
 
 cease"to exist, but by an act of sovereign and creative power 
 were made constituents of wine. "At water turned into wine 
 who does not marvel, though God doth the same in vines even- 
 year." — Augustine on St. John ii. 
 
 ' Cyril Alex, in Joann. lib. x. p. 8G0-S64. The charitable 
 construction to be put upon such statements is, that the writer 
 intends to speak of that spiritual union of our flesh with the 
 Flesh of Our Loiin, which is by Faith, and in the power of the 
 Spirit. But it is deeply to be regretted, that similar statements 
 are now frequently to be heard in our Churches. They are by 
 no means justified by those passages of Scripture which speak 
 of the incorporation of believers with Christ as their Head, 
 in the Church which is His Mystical Body. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 189 
 
 Now, as the wide spread of Eutychianism, and other 
 kindred superstitious heresies, preceded the rise of the great 
 false prophet Mahomet, one very like Antichrist, is it un- 
 likely that a development of cognate heresies will precede 
 the coming of the last great Antichrist, the man of sin, the 
 son of perdition ? 
 
 There are some appearances which point very much in 
 this direction. It is said that a fearful conception is to be 
 found not unfrequently among Romanists, namely, that the 
 Manhood of our Lord has been, and is being, more and 
 more, withdrawn into the Godhead, and that this is given as 
 a reason for His office of Mediation being now exercised 
 by delegation, through St. Mary and other glorified members 
 of His Mystical Body ; a notion, surely, destructive of faith, 
 and akin to antichristian heresy. • 
 
 The recent dogma of the Immaculate Conception really 
 looks the same way. It has been held by the Monophysite 
 or Eutychian communions in the East, probably ever since 
 the rise of their heresy. 
 
 Mr. A. L. Phillipps, in his letter " On the Future Unity 
 of Christendom," 1 writes thus : " It is a iconderful fact that 
 the ancient Apostolic Church of Abyssinia, although for so 
 many ages tainted with the errors of Eutyches, nevertheless 
 always maintained the sinless conception of Mary as a 
 part of the divine faith ; so that several years ago a friend 
 of mine, the learned French traveller, Mons. d Abbadie, 
 after a lengthened stay in Ethiopia, was assured of this fact 
 by the patriarch of that ancient Church. And I myself 
 was assured of the same fact by the Syrian Archbishop of 
 Keriatim, who visited me at Grace-Dieu, the year after the 
 Syrian patriarch and twelve bishops with three archbishops 
 of the ancient Church of Syria, following the Syro-Chaldaic 
 rite of the Apostle St. James, had returned to the commu- 
 nion of the Pope. He stated that in the Syrian Church the 
 sinless conception of Mary had always been believed as of 
 divine faith." The fact is not at all wonderful. Instead of 
 "Although," &c., Mr. Phillipps should have written, "Be- 
 cause tainted with the errors of Eutyches." The Church of 
 Rome has erected into an article of belief, a fiction which 
 Eutychianism, it is probable, borrowed from Gnosticism. 
 
 The feeling which secretly prompts to all such imagina- 
 tions is a desire to remove our Blessed Lord one step far- 
 
 1 P. 45. 
 
190 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 ther back from contact with our sin and misery. But this 
 is simply a thought of unbelief in the Son of God. He 
 was nude like unto us in all points, sin only excepted ; and 
 sin His Person could not contract from sin in His blessed 
 Mother. He who, without taint, ate and drank with publi- 
 cans and sinners, without taint took flesh from the substance 
 of one who was by nature a sinner. Her heart had been 
 purified by faith in the Word of God, as the hearts of all 
 other sinners are, according as it was said of her, " Blessed 
 is she that believed;" 1 and doubtless, when she conceived, 
 the Holy Spirit sanctified in an especial manner the very 
 substance of her flesh. But in itself the flesh taken of her 
 substance was natural flesh, naturally descended from the 
 flesh of Adam and Eve. 
 
 Now there can be no e*il inherent in the material con- 
 stituents of blood and flesh ; there can be no evil in their 
 organization simply ; nor in the principle of life or living 
 soul, which God in each individual case creates and infuses 
 into the organism when first it is actually formed. The 
 evil of our fallen nature appears to be communicated 
 through the inordination of the act or acts by which the 
 organization is on our part originated, and by which the 
 living soul is on our part received. 1 The Son of God of 
 course could not participate in any act which would be in- 
 ordinate and of the nature of sin ; lie could not allow the 
 bodily organism, and the living soul which He took into 
 personal union with Himself, to be affected by any such 
 act ; and therefore He was conceived by the Holy Ghost, 
 acting upon and in a chosen vessel, whom at the very time, 
 and by that very acting, He sanctified ; according as it was 
 
 1 St. Luke, i. 45. 
 " "Original sin is the fault and corruption of the nature of 
 every man, that naturally is ingendcred of the offspring of 
 Adam." — Article ix. Tlie acts of generation and conception 
 by the creation and ordinance of God are innocent and holy ; 
 but through the corruption of our nature they have become 
 infected by sin ; and they are believed to he the means of 
 transmitting sin. Besides the transmission of the general cor- 
 ruption, there appears also to be a transmission of purlicu/ar 
 modifications of it, according to those mysterious laws by 
 which the moral, mental, and physical constitution of the 
 parents affects the constitution of the child. Of course there 
 could he no effect of this kind in the ease of that one concep- 
 tion by the Holy Ghost. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 191 
 
 6aid to lier by the angel Gabriel : " The Holy Ghost shall 
 come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall over- 
 shadow thee : therefore also That Holy Thing which shall 
 be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.'" 
 
 Guarding jealously the fact of our Blessed Lord's hoi}', 
 pure, and spotless conception, we must as jealously guard 
 against any imaginations which, under pretence of reve- 
 rence, would presume to thrust Him away from the closest 
 possible contact with us in our sin and misery, and which 
 would thus ungratefully disparage the exceeding depth of 
 the self-humiliation to which the exceeding greatness of 
 His love has brought Him down. " Being in the form of 
 God, He thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 
 but made Himself of no reputation," even emptied Himself, 
 "and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made 
 in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a 
 man, He humbled Himself." 2 That He might come as 
 close to us as was possible, " God sent His Own Son in the 
 likeness of 'sinful flesh, and for sin." 3 
 
 The triumph of the grace and loving-kindness of God 
 our Saviour is, that He has entered into the order of His 
 own creation, and has taken created substance into personal 
 union with Himself, and has lived the life of a creature, in 
 order that by the offering of that holy, yet created, sub- 
 stance, and by the sacrifice of. that holy, yet creaturcly, life, 
 He, the Son of God, might redeem from the bondage of 
 corruption the creation itself, which was in itself very good, 
 but " was made subject to vanity, not willingly," (on the 
 part of creation,) " but by reason of Him who hath subjected 
 the same in hope.'" 
 
 That which He took into personal union with Himself, 
 and of which He truly was made, was real created substance, 
 however it may be possible to describe it, — a subject sub- 
 sisting with its accidents, and consisting of matter with its 
 properties and form, having the ordinary constituents of 
 human flesh and blood, and the ordinary human organiza- 
 tion, and animated by a reasonable, living soul, in all points 
 made like unto our souls, except in not having the smallest 
 taint of sin, but made perfectly pure and holy. That rea- 
 sonable soul did not, and does not note, lose its U torn;, or 
 'propiietas,' by reason of its personal union with the Son 
 
 1 St. Luke, i. 35. 2 Phil. ii. 6-8. 3 Rom. viii. 3. 
 4 Rom. viii. 20. 
 
192 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 of God ; neither does that organism which it animates, nor 
 do those constituents of which that organism is composed. 
 That organism with its constituents is now a real subsis- 
 tence in the order of matter, place, and time. 
 
 And be it observed, and it is most important, that those 
 ultimate constituents themselves nrcer were evil. When 
 our Blessed Lord first took them, the}' were as He created 
 them, good, very good. And in the created order they 
 were the subjects of properties, and had real subsistence 
 from the beginning. Infinite condescension, however, was 
 it that the Son of God should take them into union with 
 Himself at all, but most overwhelming that the first con- 
 stituents of flesh and blood which He took should have 
 been constituents of a body which had been subject to sin ; 
 and yet this fact is perhaps not more surprising than that 
 He should afterwards have taken from the hands of sinners 
 meat and drink, and assimilated their constituents to His 
 own Holy Body ; and this, we know, He has done even 
 since His Resurrection. ' 
 
 These facts, once apprehended, altogether overthrow the 
 error of those who assert that matter is in itself evil ; and 
 again they are inconsistent with the theory that material 
 substance has no real existence. But in truth these false 
 opinions are cognate with those heresies or heretical opinions 
 which deny, or tend to deny, that our Blessed Lord subsists 
 now in true and perfect manhood, of a reasonable soul and 
 human flesh subsisting. 1 But again : He was made " in the 
 
 > St. Luke, xxiv. 43. 
 * It appears to be a prevalent opinion entertained by Chris- 
 tians widely differing on other points, that our Lord's Body 
 has undergone such a change as that it is no longer material. 
 This loss of its former ' proprietas' is supposed to have taken 
 place at the Ascension, if not at the Resurrection. Some state- 
 ments in Newman on Justification, Lect. ix., which appear to 
 assert this, were severely commented upon by Archbishop Law- 
 rence. Such an opinion seems indeed to be in the interest of 
 certain erroneous teaching upon the Lord's Supper. But it is 
 plain that the objects which this Sacrament first proposes to oor 
 faith are the very Body which was given, and the very Blood 
 which was shed for us. " No designation could be more precise 
 than that of the words of Institution. That Body and that 
 Blood we apprehend by faith, and in the power of the Spirit 
 we are united with Him who abides still in that very nature in 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 193 
 
 likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin ;" that is, to be a sacrifice 
 for sin, He charged Himself with our sin. They were imputed 
 to Him, and He bare them. "God laid upon Him," or made 
 to meet on Him, "the iniquity of us all." 1 According to the 
 Will of the Father, the Son could not redeem His creation 
 from the bondage of corruption without suffering death for 
 our sins. Appropriately to this divine purpose, He has 
 taken part with us in all points in which He could take part 
 without forsaking His own eternal nature and holiness as 
 God. He has not merely called us up to Him, but He first 
 came down among us, and entered into our lot ; and in 
 particular He has condescended to be born of a line of 
 sinners. Look at the list of those from whose seed, accord- 
 ing to the flesh, Christ came. From Adam and Eve, the 
 first sinners and the first saints, downwards, all through the 
 sacred line of our Lord's ancestors, not only do we learn 
 that, as sprung from Adam, they were born in sin, but from 
 time to time their actual sins are recorded — grievous sins, 
 the sins even of the friends of God, Noah, Abraham and 
 Isaac, Jacob and Judah, the great sins and the great peni- 
 tence of David and Manasscs, and also the sins of those of 
 whom we are not told whether they ever repented, such as 
 Solomon and Rehoboara, Uzziah and Ahaz. Look also at 
 what is recorded of the women in the line of our Blessed 
 Lord's ancestry. What a taint of sin and error attaches in 
 various forms to Thamar and Rahab, to Ruth and Bathsheba, 
 the four women who alone in the whole genealogy are men- 
 tioned by name. He, for His great love's sake, wherewith 
 He loved us, has come "in the likeness of sinful flesh," and 
 He has in His Holy Body, so to speak, the very blood of 
 great sinners, and so at the last He did not shrink from 
 taking flesh of a woman who was by nature a sinner, who, 
 having been naturally engendered of the offspring of Adam, 
 inherited, together with the substance of his flesh, all the 
 consequences of his transgression, and who had committed 
 
 which Ho suffered. That He rose again in the same Body, is 
 certain from Scripture. It was changed and glorified, now no 
 more to return to suffering and death: but its corporeal 'pro- 
 prietas,' in a true sense, has not been lost. And so it will be 
 with our bodies. " This corruptible must put on incomiption, 
 and this mortal must put on immortality." — 1 Cor. xv, 53. 
 1 Isaiah, liii. 6. 
 
 13 
 
194 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 actual sin, although at the time when she conceived she 
 was sanctified by the Holy Ghost. 1 
 
 Now this humiliation of Himself is altogether in keeping 
 with every one of our Blessed Lord's works, and ways, and 
 purposes, lie came " for sin ;" to suffer and to die "for our 
 sins, to redeem from all sin, to cleanse from all sin, entirely 
 to cure us of all sin ; and in Him was no sin ; and therefore 
 He would come near our sin and face it in its worst forms 
 as closely as possible, so that, as He has overcome all, and 
 paid the penalty for all, He may give us boldness of access 
 to God by Him, however great our sins are, to obtain 
 pardon for all, and power over all. This is our comfort 
 and confidence, our hope and joy; and all teaching which 
 contradicts or undermines the truth that He has come in 
 our flesh and for sin, or which puts Him far off from us in 
 sympathy, or which explains away the greatness of His con- 
 descension, is autichristian error, or tends to it. As with 
 individuals, so with Churches, it is easy to see that a senti- 
 mental, carnal, superstitious, false reverence, hinders or 
 destroys faith in Him — reliance, that is, on His Person, 
 which we can only exercise, in so far as we believe that God 
 the Word, the Son of the Father, has come in our flesh and 
 for 6in, and now liveth true and perfect Man, that we may 
 live also. 
 
 The dogma of the Immaculate Conception is akin to the 
 Eutychiau heresy, inasmuch as it is a refining away of the 
 mystery that Jesus Chbist has come in the flesh, and an 
 
 1 The Church of Rome has ruled that St. Mary never com- 
 mitted actual sin. Scripture, to say the least, intimates that 
 she did. St. Chrvsostom and other fathers were not afraid to 
 say that she did. One of Perrone's arguments for her immacu- 
 lato conception is, that the Church of Rome in riding that St. 
 Mary never committed actual sin, appears to go against the 
 authority of several of the Fathers, who expressly impute actual 
 sin to her; but the Church of Rome has so ruled, and therefore 
 much more may she go on to rule, that St. Mary was conceived 
 without original sin, which is a point on which the Fathers speak 
 only in general terms, concluding all men under sin, but with- 
 out any express reference to the case of St. Mary. But these 
 general statements are in fact statements of Scripture ; and to 
 this objection really the same answer is given — the Church of 
 Rome has ruled against them in that which is greater, therefore 
 she may in that which is less. Thus is the word of God 
 handled". Cf. Perrone, De Immaculato Conceptu, pp. 207, 209. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 195 
 
 attempt to put Him further off from contact with sin and 
 misery in our flesh ; and therefore it is a treason against 
 His grace and love, and against the souls of men. 
 
 In our days we have seen many startling events, which 
 ought to awaken the most careless ; but really one of the 
 most startling is, that the Bishop of Rome, who claims to 
 be the successor of St. Peter, and the Visible Head of the 
 Catholic Church, should have voluntarily propounded as an 
 article of the Faith, a doctrine as to matter of fact, which 
 very nearly touches the Person of our Lord Himself, which 
 is without the smallest historical testimony from Holy 
 Scripture, or even from primitive tradition, and which to 
 every plain mind is contradicted by obvious and conclusive 
 inferences from Holy Scripture. And indeed true reverence 
 for the Blessed Mary cannot admit a view which would take 
 her away from her true position as a representative or 
 specimen of the Church, that is, of all sinners who are 
 saved by grace through faith.' 
 
 The most pregnant fact is, that this new article of belief 
 does touch the Person of our Loud Himself. It has hitherto 
 been generally held, even by Protestants, that the Church 
 of Rome has been orthodox in her Creed as concerning the 
 Person of Him, Who is the true Roc':, on Whom as Chief 
 Comer-Stone the Church is built. She preserved the form 
 of sound words concerning Him, when tne Churches of the 
 East so generally failed to hold it fast ; and it is this ortho- 
 dox belief doubtless which has ensured her the permanence 
 and pre-eminence which she has so long enjoyed among the 
 Churches of Christendom, and which has given some colour 
 to her claim to a spiritual descent from St. Peter. 
 
 " Only the West and Rome do keep them free, 
 From this contagious infidelity. 
 And this is all the Pock whereof they boast, 
 As Rome will one day find unto her cost." 2 
 
 ' This position she herself has taken in her hymn Magnificat: 
 "My soul doth magnify the Loud: and my spirit hath rejoiced 
 in God my Saviour."— St. Luke, i. 4G, 47. Cf vv. SO, 54. fetor; 
 Job, xiv. 4; Ps. li. 5; Rom. iii. 23, v. 12, 18; 1 Cor. xv. 22; 
 2 Cor. v. 14, 15 ; Eph. ii. 3. The judgments of the wisest and 
 best of the medieval theologians themselves arc all against this 
 new dogma. Sec the remarkable collection of references and 
 passages given by Perrone, Be. Immac. Cone. pp. 13, 14, 35-40. 
 ' George Herbert's Church Militant. 
 
196 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 When she finally forsakes That Rock, the Church of Rome 
 will fall to utter destruction, as so many other churches 
 have fallen which equally with her have had their outward 
 descent by succession from St. Peter. The ground of the 
 Reformation was, that Rome took away the Glory of Christ 
 in His offices. Now, we cannot but believe that she has 
 formally assailed the Truth and tbe Glory of His Person. 
 
 We have no reason, however, to be surprised at this fact. 
 It has been shown in the foregoing pages, that the Church 
 of Rome did for centuries before the Reformation hold a germ 
 of error contained in her doctrine of Transubstantiation, 
 which, sooner or later, was sure to develope in a false 
 apprehension of the Sacred Manhood of our Lord, and, it 
 is to be feared, in a denial that He is come in our flesh.' 
 For it cannot be consistent with holding that His Holy Body 
 retains its true 'proprietas' as corporeal substance, to be- 
 lieve that it subsists substantially in many places at once, 
 or that it subsists substantially in any place without its own 
 dimensions and extension in space or any other property of 
 corporeal substance. 
 
 On the other hand, this doctrine of Transubstantiation 
 proposes it to be belie* cd, as an article of faith, that the 
 accidents of Bread and Wine, afar consecration, subsist 
 apart from their substances, but upheld immediately by the 
 divine power ; and it has been shown that this belief invali- 
 dates all our experience of the external world through our 
 senses, and all the judgments of our mind upon things and 
 facts; and that, as it thus overthrows the natural order 
 which God has created, so it sins against a higher than the 
 natural order, even against that order of grace, in subser- 
 vience to which the natural order is being carried on. 
 
 The orthodox fathers of the Church in the fifth century, 
 answered the Eutychians by appealing to phenomena. Our 
 Blessed Lord ate, drank, slept, was wearied, suffered, died, 
 and rose again, in that which had all the appearances of a 
 human body ; therefore He had, and has now, the true Body 
 of a Man. By the same line of argument, the Fathers of the 
 second century answered the Gnostics, and maintained the 
 fundamental truth that the Son of God has come in our 
 flesh. We reply to the Roman assertion of Transubstantia- 
 tion, by a similar appeal to phenomena. Test them how 
 
 1 1 St. John, iv. 2. ei <r«f x! tXnXuSora. A past fact, with abiding 
 present consequences. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 197 
 
 you will, the Sacramental Bread and Wine still present all 
 the phenomena of common Bread and Wine ; therefore they 
 have not ceased to be Bread and Wine. They do not pre- 
 sent the phenomena of flesh and blood ; therefore they are 
 not, substantially and physically, the phenomenal and mate- 
 rial Body and Blood of our Lord. 
 
 It is worthy also of especial attention, that both the 
 Fathers of the fifth century, as Theodoret and Gelasius, 
 writing against the Eutychians, and also the Fathers of the 
 second century, as Irenseus and Tertullian, writing against 
 the Gnostics, argue expressly from the fact that the sacra- 
 mental bread and wine subsist as earthly substances in the 
 order of creation. And, in truth, if this fact be denied, a 
 wide door is open for heresy in respect to the Incarnation of 
 our Blessed Lord. 
 
 But there is somewhat even more fearful yet behind. 
 The doctrine of Transubstantiation asserts, not only that 
 the sacramental bread and wine cease to exist, as subjects, 
 but also that their accidents which remain are supported 
 and presented immediately by God Himself. Now this 
 assertion obviously affords a point of attachment to that 
 greatest of all lies concerning Almighty God, the Pantheistic 
 theory, which identifies the Creator with His creation, as 
 being one substance with it. 
 
 Even some religious philosophers have conceived that the 
 ultimate subject, or substratum, so to speak, of all those phe- 
 nomena which we call material, is Spirit. Hence irreligious 
 minds have easily passed over to the conception, that there 
 exists but one Spirit, and one universal subject, and that all 
 which Christians believe to be created substances, have no 
 real subsistence, and are nothing more than a series of ac- 
 cidents or phenomena, which this one spiritual subject or 
 substance evolves from, and presents to, itself. Now this 
 conception is really little more than a transference or ex- 
 tension to all phenomena of one of the fundamental concep- 
 tions in the doctrine of Transubstantiation. 
 
 Many forms has this monstrous heresy of Pantheism 
 taken. In germ, and again as fully developed, it is to be 
 found in some of the philosophies of Greece ; in Neo-Platon- 
 ism it revived as the last great intellectual antagonism to the 
 Christian Creed, when the world was becoming nominally 
 Christian ; the Arabian commentators on Aristotle developed 
 it from the germ which existed latent in his system ; re- 
 ceived from these Mahometan philosophers, it infected the 
 
198 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 schools of the mediaeval Church ; and it is not too much to 
 say, that the doctrine of Transubstantiation was constructed, 
 unconsciously, under a certain influence derived from it ; as 
 Neo-Platouism and Peripatetieism it sprang up afresh in 
 Italy immediately before the Reformation, under the very 
 eyes of Popes ; again and again it has reappeared in Papal 
 Italy since ; it is now the religion, probably, of most Italian 
 democrats, and of many thinking, but irreligious, Roman 
 ecclesiastics ; it was thrown into shape for the thinkers of 
 Northern Europe by Benedict Spinoza, an infidel Jew ; it 
 has been, and perhaps is now, the general issue of thought 
 in the schools of German philosophy ; towards it, deeply 
 thinking men in France, England, and America, who have 
 not true and vital religion, appear inevitably to gravitate with 
 more or less of attraction ; and now we encounter it in the 
 far east, at the other extremity of our great Indo-Germanic 
 race, as the basis of the religious philosophy of the Brah- 
 mans, and again, in the form of Buddhism, as affecting 
 perhaps one-third of the whole human race. 
 
 Pantheism is indeed real Atheism ; but it is Atheism in 
 disguise. It is, after a sort, a religion. There is, it cannot 
 be doubted, a supernatural power attending its propagation. 
 It is probably that great lie, which the ungodly at the end 
 of this dispensation shall be led by Satan to believe, (be 
 it observed, to believe,) under an energy of delusion, per- 
 mitted, and sent upon them by God Himself.' 
 
 From a remarkable passage in the Revelations we have 
 express reason to conclude that the last great trial of men 
 in general, and of believers in particular, will be in respect 
 to a denial of the first article of the Creed ; — a denial, that 
 is, of the real and distinct subsistence of the Creator and 
 His creation. The everlasting Gospel to be proclaimed in 
 the last days is, " Fear God, and give glory to Him ; for the 
 hour of His judgment is come; aud worship Him That made 
 heaven and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." 1 
 This Gospel involves the truths which are the ultimate 
 difficulty of every unbeliever, namely, that God, Who by 
 creation has manifested Himself is yet the Living God dis- 
 
 ' 2 Thess. ii. 3-12. 
 2 Rev. xiv. 6, 7. In chap. xxi. 27, xxii. 15, doom is pro- 
 nounced expressly upon " whosoever loveth and makcih a lie." 
 Compare +eD5of, Rom. i. 25, with the use of ip^ in the Old 
 Testament, e. y. Isaiah, xliv. 20. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 199 
 
 tinct from creation and transcending it, and that creation, 
 which was not, was called into being, at His good pleasure, 
 by His Word, and by His Word is still upheld in being. 1 
 
 " By faith we understand (yoovju.iv) that the worlds were 
 framed by the Word of God, so that things which are 
 seen were not made of things which do appear.'' 2 The 
 intellect of man (voSt) can have the true apprehension of 
 the creation in its relation to God, only by an act of faith, 
 which is the work in him of the Spirit of God influencing 
 his mind and heart ; and only through this divine faith can 
 a man have a true scientific apprehension of the universe in 
 itself as really subsisting. Wherever this divine faith is 
 wanting, the speculative intellect of man is ultimately, but 
 inevitably, driven to conceive of himself and of the universe 
 as a mere illusion, the product of the thinking, imagining, 
 or picturing energy of the absolute being — an illusion pro- 
 jected from the absolute being, and destined to return into, 
 and be lost in it, again. 3 
 
 A very awful conclusion it is, that this monstrous delu- 
 sion is akin to that great doctrine, which is the basis of 
 Roman worship. But the truth on this subject ought in 
 love to be spoken to our Roman brethren. By our common 
 baptism and our common creed we are members of one 
 visible Church of Christ with all those who profess obe- 
 dience to the See of Rome. As fellow-members with them 
 of the Catholic Church we are bound to speak the truth to 
 them — and they act really in the most Catholic spirit who, 
 believing their brethren to be involved in grievous errors, 
 and yet to be, at least outwardly, their brethren in Christ, 
 protest most openly against their errors, and faithfully use 
 all means which are of God, to convince them of the truth. 
 
 ' "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, 
 and power: for Thou hast created all tilings, and for Thy plea- 
 sure they are" (they exist.) "and were created." — Rev. iv. 11. 
 2 Heb. xi. 3. 
 
 * According to this awful theory, matter appears to be con- 
 ceived of as evil, or as fallen spirit." In the free play of its self- 
 manifestation, the absolute being has seemed to project from 
 itself somewhat, which it has suffered to seem to fall, and which 
 it will seem to recover back to itself again. This conception 
 was one of the Gnostic delusions. By means of it we may re- 
 concile with Pantheism those characteristic forms of error, of 
 which the Holy Ghost by St. Paul informs us, that they will 
 prevail iu the latter times. 1 Tim. iv. 1-3. 
 
200 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Moreover, we know and confess that there are to be found 
 in the Roman Church true children of God, who look 
 through all outward ordinances to Christ Himself, and find 
 their all in Him ; who look to Him even through all the 
 corruptions of their system, and who, in their use of this 
 Holy Sacrament of His Supper in particular, although the 
 doctrine of it and the mode of its administration have been 
 so deeply corrupted, yet feed on Him in their hearts by 
 faith with thanksgiving. How this can be, we know not. 
 Why God should have left dear children of His own to be 
 exposed, as it seems, to so much evil and danger, we know 
 not. And yet we are certain that the Day is coming, in 
 which God will be abundantly justified for every seeming 
 inconsistency, irregularity, or unevenness in His ways and 
 dealings with His children. 
 
 But the great body of Roman worshippers worship they 
 know not what. Their thoughts and hearts, it is to be 
 feared, end and rest in the visible Sacrament ; it is to them 
 their God. Certainly that which our Blessed Lord insti- 
 tuted to be a means of worship, has been made to them an 
 object of worship, and, it is not too much to say, the object 
 of their worship; and it has been so made, as we have seen, 
 by a falsehood. In consequence, they treat the host pre- 
 cisely as the heathen do their false gods. 
 
 Ingenious theories, falsely called philosophical, have never 
 been wanting to justify superstition and idolatry. But it 
 may be said in general that Pantheism is the theoretical 
 conception involved in all false worship, from the Sabean 
 worship of the heavenly bodies down to the most degraded 
 Fetish worship. The absolute being, who is all things, is 
 supposed to be in this or that thing most especially mani- 
 fest, and to present itself as the object of worship.' 
 
 It is a profound remark of a living Roman writer, that 
 theurgy or magic is congenial to the natural disposition of 
 man. In all nations there have been those who have sought 
 to charm divine beings into forms and shapes of earth, and 
 to draw supernatural powers under their own disposal, by 
 virtue of certain rites and spells. It is easy to see how 
 
 1 In a modern Roman religious novel the hero is described as 
 carrying abuut with him the host in a little box, which, when he 
 wanted to pray, he took out and placed before him, as his ob- 
 ject of worship. This appears to be a legitimate development, 
 in practice, of Roman doctrine ; but is it not idolatrous ? 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 201 
 
 such practices at once fit in with the conception that the 
 absolute being is already the subject of all external appear- 
 ances, as well as identical with every mind to which they 
 present themselves. Gross superstition is countenanced by 
 a speculative lie, which at once extinguishes all sense of re- 
 sponsibility, of guilt, and of judgment to come. 
 
 Already we find in the East the grossest forms of idol 
 worship for the multitude, combined with a Pantheistic 
 philosophy for the intellectual and refined; and this not 
 without traces of corrupt and tidlen Chtistianity. It there- 
 fore should by no means surprise us to see the same fatal 
 combination in Christendom, at whatever stage of develop- 
 ment it may have arrived. 
 
 Neither must we be surprised to see those evil fruits of 
 idolatry which are its meet recompense, untruthfulness, 
 blood-thirstiness, uncleanness. Already that systematic 
 allowance of sin which actually prevails to such an extent 
 in Christendom, has its root in idolatry, open or disguised. 
 
 Already there exists in the public worship of great part 
 of Christendom, a point of attachment for the worship of 
 Nature in its twofold form, both as it is openly idolatrous, 
 and as it is philosophical, falsely so called. 
 
 Probably the time is not far distant when the Holy Seed 
 will be completely withdrawn from all those outwardly 
 Christian bodies, whicli shall prove to be hopelessly corrupt ; 
 and free scope will then be given to those elements of infi- 
 delity and hypocrisy, sensuality, and intense love of the 
 world, which have long been lying hidden under the veil of 
 outward uniformity. 
 
 Doubtless these evils are not confined to the Church of 
 Rome. They exist in every Church and body which par- 
 takes of the Spirit of Babylon. Doubtless from every part 
 of Christendom, worldly-minded, sensual, unbelieving, un- 
 godly men, Churchmen and Dissenters, will one clay come 
 together, and find out some formula of concord which will 
 allow (hem to enjoy in common their nature-worship, their 
 idolatries, their superstitions, and their philosophies. Holy 
 Scripture gives us ground for believing that this future 
 unity of Christendom so called, will take place under a 
 personal head, a very wicked man, who will be worshipped 
 as a manifestation of God. 1 
 
 But in whatever degree the mystery of iniquity already 
 
 ' 2 Thcss. ii. 3, 4. 
 
202 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 works, and we know that it does work, may God preserve 
 those who read, and him who writes, from worshipping the 
 beast and his image, and from ever receiving the mark of 
 his name.' 
 
 There is need of much spiritual discernment here, and of 
 prompt action also, when the evil is discerned. " This 
 Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, 
 for a witness unto all nations ; and then shall the end come. 
 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, 
 spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, 
 (whoso rcadeth, let him understand ;) then let them which 
 be in Judea flee into the mountains; let him which is on 
 the house-top not come down to take anything out of hi9 
 house ; neither let him which is in the field return back to 
 take his clothes." 2 
 
 " Whoso readeth, let hiin understand." This saying is 
 for us. But what will be or what is to us, in this age, the 
 abomination of desolation ? 
 
 Of Transubstantiation we have seen, that as the doctrine 
 concerns the elements, it overthrows the order of creation ; 
 and, as it concerns the bodily presence of our Lord, it over- 
 throws the mystery of the Incarnation. The doctrine, built 
 upon it, of a propitiatory sacrifice in the mass, overthrows 
 the whole order of grace. It sins against righteousness. 
 Righteousness gives to every one his due : and the entire 
 glory of the One Sacrifice for sin is the due of God; 
 while to us belong shame and confusion of face for our sins. 
 Again, unrighteous appropriation of the glory which belongs 
 to Him, and unrighteous denial of the sin which is our own, 
 bear fruit in unrighteousness towards men, even in that 
 iniquity (ivo^/«) of which the Word of God says so much. 
 And that the great mystery of iniquity may not lack its 
 full consummation, a door appears to have been opened in 
 Christerdom for directly idolatrous worship, based upon 
 the great lie of human philosophy, falsely so called. 
 
 Is there not in all this something very like the abomina- 
 tion of desolation ? 
 
 And be it remembered, the Body of our Lord is the 
 Temple or Tabernacle of the New Testament. 3 In the 
 place of His Body, the last great idol will stand to be wor- 
 shipped as God. 4 
 
 1 Rev. xiv. 0-11. 2 St. Matthew, xxiv. U-18. 
 
 3 St. Johu, ii. 19-22; Heb. viii. 2; ix. 11; Rev. xxi. 3. 22; 
 cf. xi. 19; xv. 5. * 2 Them. ii. i. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 203 
 
 To His true disciples the Lord says : " When these 
 things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your 
 heads, for your redemption drawcth nigh." ' 'Whenever the 
 abomination of desolation is completely set up, then He is 
 nigh at hand Who shall consume that wicked one with the 
 spirit of His mouth, and destroy him with the brightness of 
 His coming. 2 
 
 This is the Presence, om U,) for which Christians should 
 be waiting. This alone will put an end to the confusions of 
 Christendom ; this alone will solve all the difficulties of 
 Christian nun. 
 
 That day will indeed be the day of wrath, but it will be 
 the Day of Love also. It is that consummation for which 
 the whole creation of God is groaning and travailing in pain 
 together; and the righteous, who have the first-fruits of the 
 Spirit, they too groan within themselves, " waiting for the 
 adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body."* 
 
 This age is not the kingdom of righteousness. But we, 
 according to the promise of the Righteous One, " look for 
 new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwellcth righteous- 
 ness."' 
 
 He, by Whom and for Whom all things were created, 5 
 will take to Himself His great power, and reign to His own 
 lory, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, and to the 
 ighest good of all His redeemed creation. And of His 
 kingdom there shall be no end. Amen and Amen. 
 
 1 St. Luke. xxi. 28. 8 2 Thess. ii. 8. 
 
 * Rom. viii. 19-23. 4 2 St. Peter, iii. 13. 5 Col. i. 16. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 John and Charles Mozley, Printers. Derby- 
 
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