bread in the Communion considered as Sacrament, signifies the natural, but considered as Sacrifice, it represents the mystical Body of CHRIST, that is His Church. "For we that are many," saith the Apostle, 1 Cor. x. 17," are one bread."... Soon after, the Church added oil and frankincense to bread and wine, to make up the whole meat-offering, which consisted of four things. The truth is, all that we can offer upon our own account, is but such an oblation as this meat and drink offering of Moses was, that cannot be presented but by the virtue and merits of JESUS CHRIST, who supports it: and that can never ascend up to heaven but along with the sacred smoke of that great Burnt Sacrifice, which is to carry it up thither. For, on the one side, our own persons, our works, or any thing else that may be ours, are by themselves but weak, unsubstantial kinds of offerings, which cannot be presented unto God, otherwise but as these additional oblations, which of themselves fall to the ground, unless a more solid Sacrifice do sustain them: and on the other side, this solid and fundamental Sacrifice upholds, saves, and sanctifies but those persons and things, that, according to the Law of Moses his meat-offerings, are thrown into this His fire, are allowed upon His altar, and are together with Him consecrated to God by Him.-pp. 88, 9.

Now, though all men be called to this conformity and communion in the sufferings of CHRIST, from the time of those sufferings until there be no times at all; and although the days of our present life have all the privilege which those seven feast days once had, when every one might gird his loins, eat his unleavened bread, and kill his own bullock, as the Priest did sacrifice the Paschal Lamb; (which bullock was superadded to the Paschal Lamb, that both might better suffice for the seven festival days, besides its other ritual and figurative importance as a Sacrifice ;) it is certain, nevertheless, that there are two more special and extraordinary days, wherein Christians are invited by more urgent and proper circumstances, to present their souls and bodies, by way of second offering, upon the Sacrifice of their SAVIOUR. The first is past, and that was when the SAVIOUR offered Himself to death; when heaven and earth, temple and graves, shook at the blow that killed Him; when pious souls

either stood immovable, as the blessed Virgin, hard by His Cross, or, in a manner, crucified themselves, beating their breasts, as the daughters of Jerusalem; and when every disciple might, by the very conjunction of all the things he saw, be moved to say as Thomas, "Let us go and let us die with Him." John xi. 16. The other time most favourable and proper, next to that of His real Passion, is that of the holy Communion; which, as it hath been explained, is a Sacramental Passion, where, though the Body be broken, and the Blood shed but by way of representative mystery, yet both are as effectually, and as truly offered for our own use, if we go to it worthily, as when that Holy and Divine Lamb did offer Himself the first time.

Therefore, whensoever Christians approach to this dreadful mystery, and to the Lamb of GOD "lying and sacrificed" (as some say that the holy Nicene Council speaks,) " upon the holy Table," it concerns their main interest, in point of salvation, as well as other duties, to take a special care not to lame and deprive the grand Sacrifice of its own due attendance: but to behave themselves in that manner that, as both the principal and additional sacrifices were consumed by the same fire, and went up towards heaven in the same flame, so JESUS CHRIST and all His members may jointly appear before GoD: this in a Sacramental mystery, these, with their real bodies and souls, offering themselves at the same time, in the same place, and by the same oblation. pp. 92-94.

"O Father of mercies, I beseech Thee, both by the merits of Thy Son, who now intercedes in heaven, and by that bloody Sacrifice, which He hath offered on the Cross, (whereof Thou seest the Sacrament upon this table,) this day be pleased to receive me into the communion of His sufferings, and hereafter into the communion of His glory."-p. 102.

It is an express and often repeated law of GOD by Moses, and no where repealed by CHRIST, that no worshipper shall presume to appear before Him with empty hands. Sincere Christians must have them full at the receiving of the holy communion, with four distinct sorts of sacrifices, 1. The sacramental and commemorative Sacrifice of CHRIST. 2. The real and actual

sacrifice of themselves. 3. The freewill offering of their goods. 4. The peace offering of their praises.

The first as representing the Sacrifice offered on the Cross, is the ground of the three others, especially of the second: which must no more be separated from it, than parts are from the whole, or the body from its head.-p. 106.

Now, though CHRIST our blessed SAVIOUR, by that everlasting and ever same Sacrifice of Himself, offer Himself virtually up on all occasions; and we, on our side, also, offer ourselves, and what is ours, with Him several other ways, besides that of the Holy Communion: . . . nevertheless, because CHRIST offers Himself for us at the holy communion in a more solemn and public sacramental way,-(thence it comes, that the memorial of the Sacrifice of CHRIST, thereby celebrated, takes commonly the name of the Sacrifice itself, as St. Austin explains it often),-we are then obliged, in a more special manner, to renew all our Sacrifices, all the vows of our baptism, all the first fruits of our conversion, and all the particular promises which, it may be, we have made. . . .

...

So shall the new Israel tread on the pious steps of the old, who ever from time to time reiterated, either in Mispah or in Gilgal, &c., that covenant which the LORD had made with him in Sinai. It is true, the LORD did not then again repeat the thunder, that once made the mountains tremble; as, in our Churches, He doth not reiterate that very Passion, that made the powers of heaven mourn and shake: nevertheless, as Joshua, Asa, Josias, Jehoiadah, and other such holy men, could from their Master assure the people, that the covenant which they did renew,-for example, in Shechem, Josh. xxiv. 25. 2 Chron. xv. 12. and xxiii. 16.—was not less powerful, either to bless the observers, or to destroy the offenders thereof, than it was when Moses and the holy angels published it at the first upon Sinai: so now the ministers of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, having in their hands the Sacraments of the Gospel, (true seals and tables of the new law,) may both produce and give them out as evidences, that the Sacrifice of their Master is not less able to save men's souls, when it is offered to men,

and sacramentally offered again to GOD, at the Holy Communion, than when it was new-offered upon the Cross. ...

By this it is easy to see, that our holy eucharistical Communions are much correspondent to those feasts, that did call the people of Israel together, first to appear and prostrate themselves before the LORD with Sacrifices for their sin; and then to lay upon the altar that other kind of Sacrifices which they used to call "peace offerings," and which were ordained to express both their thankfulness to GoD, and their charity to men.-pp. 113-115.

This is the reason why, because primitive Christians never received those holy mysteries but after they had made their offerings, and because those very mysteries which they received were commonly taken, as to the matter, from that bread and wine which they had before offered; the holy fathers, (for instance, St. Irenæus,) who thus had no occasion to be so exact or cautious as to distinguish precisely the nature of two sacred offices, which went constantly together, do not scruple to speak of the blessed communion, promiscuously as Sacrament or Sacrifice. pp. 119, 20.

I dare appear before the LORD with all my sins and my sorrows; it is very just also, that I should appear with these few blessings which are mine: they are mine by Thy favour, and having received them of Thy hand, now do I offer them to Thee'. Forgive, I beseech Thee, my sins, deliver me from my sorrows, and accept of this my small blessing. Accept of this my Sacrifice, as Thou didst of that of Abel, of Abraham, and of Noah: or rather, look in behalf of that only true Sacrifice, whereof here is the Sacrament,-the Sacrifice of the only unspotted Lamb, the Sacrifice of thine own Son, of Thine only Begotten Son, of Thy SoN proceeding from Thee, to die for me. O let Him again come from Thee to me; let Him come now as the Only Begotten of the FATHER, full of grace and Amen, Amen.-pp. 128, 9.

of truth, to bless me.

11 Chron. xxix. 14.

ID.-Depth and Mystery of the Roman Mass.

The main intention of the Mass is, first, to offer up to GoD the FATHER the Body and Blood of His SoN. . . . This is the grand object of Rome's Catholic religion; and whosoever every morning goes to that Church, it is in order to have some share in this unreasonable service.

For, both in reason and Scripture, we are to offer ourselves to GOD; which St. Paul calls our "reasonable service." Rom. xii. 1. We must, likewise, offer our prayers, praises, elevation of hearts, tears of contrition, virtuous thoughts, just and charitable vows and works, &c., which, in opposition to the flesh and blood of Levitical Sacrifices, the ancient fathers use to call "Sacrifices without blood." We must also celebrate, and in a manner offer to God, and expose and lay before Him the holy memorials of that great Sacrifice on the Cross, the only foundation of God's mercies and of our hopes, in like manner as faithful Israelites did, at every occasion, represent unto God that covenant of His with Abraham their father, as the original conveyance of blessings settled on his posterity. And this is the "sacramental priestly office" in the Areopagite, the " commemorative Sacrifice" in St. Chrysostom, and the "Sacrifice after the order of Melchisedek" in St. Theodoret, which we solemnly do offer in the celebration of holy mysteries. All these things, I say, and whatsoever else depends on them, it is our duty to offer to God and to CHRIST, or rather to God by CHRIST. But that we should offer also CHRIST Himself, our LORD and our GOD, to whom we must offer ourselves; it is a piece of devotion never heard of among men, till the Mass came in to bring such news.-pp. 28-30.

Because it was the general custom of primitive Christians, never to receive the holy Sacrament but after they had made their offerings, out of which the two elements of bread and wine, being set apart and consecrated, and then, by an ordinary manner of speech, called the Body and Blood of CHRIST; the word, as well as the act of offering, got so large and common a use in two distinct offices, as to signify the whole service; which St. Augustine