would do justice to him, to the subject, and to ourselves, we must understand his terms in the fulness of their import, as even then, we shall only see by means of a glass, obscurely; and therefore, be liable through the least aberration of our mental vision, either to see delusively, or not to see at all.

But, may it not be apprehended, that the ascribing of such instrumental importance to the material elements of bread and wine, as the literal interpretation of St. Paul's expression would imply, involves an inconsistency with that purely spiritual character, which is regarded as the great distinction of the gospel dispensation ?

To this it might, with reason, be answered, that in forming our notions of the gospel dispensation, we are not to trust to any general conclusions, however plausible, but simply to its own representations of itself. From these we shall learn, that though the gospel is purely spiritual in its ends, the means which it employs are most wisely adapted and proportioned to the mixt na

ture of man. It is the exquisiteness of this accommodation, which constitutes the most conclusive internal evidence, that the author of Christianity needed not that any should testify to him of man, in as much as he knew what was in man. To a creature con sisting, not of spirit only, but of soul and body also, how disproportionate would have been a scheme of moral improvement, much more of moral disenthralment, adapted exclusively to the highest portion of his nature?

But the fact is, that the gospel commenced in: am accommodation to man's animal exigencies, which was as admirable as it was gracious, and which the hosts of heaven contemplated with delight and wonder. The incarnation of the co-eternal Son, through which St. John was enabled to declare, what he and his fellow apostles" had seen with "their eyes, what they had looked upon, " and their hands, had handled of the word "of life," was, in the first instance, so to consult human nature in its animal and sensitive capacity, as to give the strongest pledge, that a dispensation thus introduced would, in every subordinate provision, mani

fest the same spirit, and operate on the same principle.

For, could it be thought that the first wonderful accommodation of Godhead to the sensitive apprehensions of man, should be wholly temporary, and that though that mystery of godliness was ever to be regarded as the vital source of all spiritual benefits and blessings, no continuance of this wise and gracious condescension should be manifested in the means whereby its results were to be perpetuated and made effectual?

May we not rather conclude, that on the same wise and gracious consideration, which induced the divine nature to enshrine itself in a human person, that through that medium there might be a more familiar, more impressive, and more engaging communication of God with man, it would be deemed by the divine wisdom and goodness, most suitable to man's natural feelings and conceptions, to convey to him the special influences of incarnate Deity, through a medium similarly adapted to his imagination and his senses? And when we believe, as

if we are Christians we must believe, that he who was God over all, united himself to so low a thing as human flesh, in order to become the fountain of those influences, we surely need not question the credibility of his conveying those influences through any other work of his own hands, which he saw it fit to appoint. When he had condescended to imbody himself in our flesh, that he might, more conformably to the laws of our nature, give spiritual life to the world, and when he was establishing a perpetual ordinance expressly to represent that primary mystery, and to subserve its purpose by instrumentally communicating its virtue, was it either unsuitable or improbable, that the heavenly grace, to be thus communicated, should be, as it were, imbodied in two of the purest and simplest provisions, which, as Creator of the world, he had given, for the sustenance of our animal life, and the refreshment of our animal weakness?

The expediency of such a method, as peculiarly fitted to impress the mind of man,

is illustrated, (as has been observed) by all the analogous instances already adverted to. In no case could the divine power itself have required any medium of operation; and therefore every thing of this kind, must have been employed in order to an easier apprehension, and a deeper feeling, of the source from which the benefit proceeded. It was chiefly to give such an apprehension, and excite such a feeling, that miraculous works were wrought; and that end could not have been more infallibly secured, than by enduing with supernatural efficacy, an instrumental means which, in itself, was utterly inefficacious. It was obviously, by no general law, that a benefit thus conferred had been accomplished; nor would it require any reasoning to establish the belief, that the virtue which had so wonderfully imbodied itself in a material vehicle, could be no less than a real and substantive influence from the divine omnipotence.

Was it not then if possible, still more requisite, that a like apprehension, and a like: feeling, should be insured, respecting the highest and holiest communication that had