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circumstances, wine poured out, the figure of his blood shed, does. Besides, as meat and drink are both necessary to nourish us, so the two figures, of the body and blood, seem given to show us that there is in Christ Jesus a complete nourishment for the soul, and that we need only look to him for every part of our salvation. To omit either bread or wine is to depart from that primitive institution, on which the whole authority of this ordinance rests.

We have now to explain in WHAT SENSE THE BREAD WAS OUR SAVIOUR'S BODY AND THE CUP HIS BLOOD. The previous remarks will have prepared the way for a right understanding of these words. Let us remember, also, the general nature of expressions used in the appointment of divine ordinances. Of circumcision it is said, This is my covenant, (Gen. xvii. 10.) though it was only the token of the covenant. Of eating the paschal lamb, it is said, It is the Lord's passover, (Exod. xii. 11.) though it was only the sign of his passing over the Israelites. St. Paul calls the manna spiritual meat, and the water that flowed from the rock spiritual drink, and says, that rock was Christ. 1 Cor. x. 3, 4. So Christ is called our passover. 1 Cor. v. 7. Amid these obvious figures in similar circumstances, there can be no difficulty with an unbiassed mind, as to the true interpretation of these words. The disciples do not appear to have seen any obscurity in them, nor to have asked our Lord to explain them. They had before been reproved for a literal interpretation of our Lord's direction, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Matt. xvi. 6-9. Mark viii. 15-21. They had seen how the Jews had erred at Capernaum, (John vi. 53.) through literally inter

preting similar expressions to those under consideration; at which time our Lord told them, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. John vi. 63. And when our Lord instituted this ordinance, they were not in the least danger of imagining the bread and wine to be the actual body and blood of the Saviour, because he was then conversing with them. From these considerations it is evident that the declarations of our Lord, on this occasion, by no means require an interpretation so altogether remote from common sense and experience, as either the transubstantiation of the Roman Catholics, or the consubstantiation of the Lutherans. Had our Lord meant that any constant miracle of

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* The acknowledged and authorised document of the Roman Catholics respecting transubstantiation, is here recited from the Canons of the Council of Trent. That Council denounced the following curse!!! 'If any one shall say, that in the holy sacrament of the Eucharist, there remains the substance of bread and wine, together with the body or blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and shall deny that singular or wonderful conversion of the whole substance of the bread into his body, and of the whole substance of wine into his blood, there remaining only the species, that is, accidents of bread and wine, which conversion the Catholic Church very aptly calls transubstantiation, -let him be accursed.' See Session 13. can. 2.

This doctrine was introduced by Paschasius Radburtus, in the ninth century, and was at first, even in that dark age, vigorously opposed. The Book of Bertram, on the subject, in that century, has been preserved, is acknowledged to be genuine by the most learned of the Catholics, and was very useful at the Reformation. Ridley and Cranmer were indebted to it for correct views of the Lord's Supper; views which they have embodied in the formularies of our own Church. The following extracts will show Bertram's sentiments. 'As to the substance of the creatures, what they were before consecration, they remain after it. Bread and wine they were before, and after consecration, we see, they continue beings of the same kind and nature.'

'It is the body of Christ, yet not corporal but spiritual; it is the blood of Christ, yet not corporal but spiritual: so that nothing is here to be understood corporally, but spiritually.' (205.)

'Both by testimonies out of the Holy Scriptures, and of the Fathers, it is most evidently demonstrated, that the bread which is called the

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such kind was to be performed by his ministers, and believed by his people, how different would have been his expressions! The words are not, "This is now, and will be ever hereafter, when you meet together, my transubstantiated and real body,"—or, now let it and ever hereafter be changed into my body," but merely, "This is my body." As he said “I am the true vine," "I am the door," meaning they were a figure of him; so the bread was the emblem, figure, or token of our Saviour's body, and the wine of his blood. Just as in seeing a bust of the king, we should say, "This is the king!" so does our Saviour say, "This is my body!"* There was a pe

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body of Christ, and the cup which is called the blood of Christ, is a figure, because it is a mystery.' (255.)

'The bread and blood which is placed upon the altar, is set there for a figure, or in remembrance of the Lord's death, that what was really done long since, may be called to our present remembrance; that having his passion in our mind, we may be made partakers of that divine gift, whereby we are saved from death, knowing well that when we shall come to the vision of Christ, we shall need no such instruments to admonish us, what his infinite goodness was pleased to suffer for our sakes; for we shall see him face to face; we shall understand, not by the outward admonition of temporal things, but by the contemplation of the very thing itself, how much we are obliged to give thanks to the Author of our salvation.' (259.)

These extracts are taken from the valuable edition of Bertram, which was published in 1688. The work is both curious and satisfactory, as to the sentiments of the fathers previous to Bertram, and of the church in general in his age. Cranmer, in his Treatise on the Sacrament, closely follows Bertram.

One great danger to be feared from the Roman Catholics, is the subtilty with which they cover the grossest errors, and the plausible appearance they give to the most dangerous delusions. The attempt of Fran, a Sancta Clara, in a work published in 1634, to explain the Thirty-nine Articles of the English Church, so as to give them a Roman Catholic sense, when many of them directly oppose the Romish doctrines, is a specimen of this subtilty.

*The old Hebrew and the Syriac possess no word that answers to our English terms "signify " or "represent." See Gen. xli. 26, 27. Dan. xvii. 17-24. Gal. iv. 24, 25. Rev. i. 20. They use the substantive verb for this term. Our Lord could not, therefore, according to the ordinary idiom of the language, have expressed himself otherwise.

culiar propriety in the expression which he made use of, when we consider the institution as appointed in remembrance of his sacrifice, and as declaring the establishment of a new covenant, ratified as the old had been, by the shedding of blood, and our communion in its blessings. This will be more fully . pointed out in the subsequent chapter.

The expression used in giving the cup, This is my blood, must be interpreted as a figurative expression. The cup manifestly denotes the wine in the cup, and that wine was the figure of our Saviour's blood. And one admitted figure surely ought to make those who would be disposed to insist on a literal interpretation hesitate in their statements.

But when the writer remembers how the most eminent servants of God have contended with each other on this subject, he cannot but add an earnest desire that it might please God that all who love our Saviour in sincerity, might learn to lay aside fierce disputes about that appointment, which is peculiarly calculated, when rightly viewed, to fill our hearts with love to him, and love to each other; and that all his people, desiring in simplicity of heart to believe what he has declared, and to practise what he commands, might ever seek to edify each other in love.

Having in this chapter explained several of the expressions in the appointment of the Lord's Supper, we shall proceed to consider in subsequent chapters, more at large, those important doctrines directly connected with it.

CHAPTER II.

THE ATONEMENT MADE BY THE DEATH OF CHRIST.

IN instituting the Lord's Supper, our Saviour states, that his body was given and broken for his disciples, and his blood was shed for them, and for many, for the remission of sins.

There is an evident reference in these words, to the sacrifices of the law of Moses, which were figurative of the one great sacrifice of Christ. The epistle to the Hebrews shews this sufficiently. A body broken, and blood shed for the remission of sins, exhibit the meaning and intent of the Mosaic sacrifices.

Those sacrifices, and that of Christ, are thus contrasted in the Hebrews. (ix. 11.) But Christ being come, an High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building: neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redėmption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall

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