be proved, it might be inferred from what has been already adverted to; I mean the striking tendency of those, by whom the notion of any such pledge and token is rejected, either to think illusively of the direct intercourse of God with the human spirit, or else utterly to deny its reality.

But in following the light of our Redeemer and the guidance of his Apostle, do we not find in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, just such a pledge and token of the special presence, and real influence of our God and Saviour, as at once meets the demand of our nature, and suits the high aim and intellectual spirit of the Christian dispensation? That life of faith by which, as Christians, we gradually rise on the moral scale, would have been counteracted, had any impression been made on the senses; whereas the absence of every such impression preserves the moral evidence of reality from delusive mixture, and fits the mind for the most sober perception of its practical influence. The great point, to which every circumstance in the institution bears witness, is, that the cup of blessing which is blessed, is the communion of the Lord's blood, and that

the bread which is broken, is the communion of his body. But reason must pronounce that earthly elements can serve so high and holy a purpose only as instruments of the divine power; and in such an exercise of the divine power, the special presence of the Almighty agent, according to all our habits of thinking, is necessarily implied. In yielding to the force of St. Paul's first position, we are directly led to this impressive conclusion. And its unutterable weight and interest must concur with the infinite value of the communicated blessing, to deepen the effect upon every human feeling.

In this view, as often as we approach the table of the Lord, we may account ourselves to have admission, in a manner beyond human conception, into the presence chamber of the King Messiah. Under the full sense of this Christian privilege, we shall not need a Bethel, a Peniel, the Jewish sanctuary, or even its Holy of Holies. In contemplating with St. Paul, the mystery of the Eucharist, the Christian cannot but see, that in this sacred ordinance, especially and most eminently, "a new and living way" is opened for him (far above what was granted

even to the Jewish High Priest,) to "enter "into the holiest by the blood of Jesus."

Is it then, too much to say, that the Eucharist, thus apprehended, makes the richest provision which we could conceive to be made by any stated means, in this lower world, for our spiritual sustenance and comfort? While as a pledge and token of divine presence and influence, its authenticity never can be impaired-its significancy, to close and sober attention, never obscured, its invisible mystery will be as wonderful, as impressive, and as inestimable, in its latest as in its earliest celebration. The communion of the Lord's blood, and the communion of the Lord's body, must have, as terms, the same profound import-as blessings, the same infinite value, yesterday, today, and for ever. Let not, therefore, the simplicity of what is visible to our bodily sight, veil from our mental eye those invisible realities, which are to us so consolatory, and in themselves so glorious. On the contrary, let us recognize the same spirit of meek majesty, which veiled its transcendent. brightness in the mystery of the incarnation, as still continuing the like gra

cious condescension in the mystery of the Eucharist; and let us joyfully and reverently approach to do homage to our King, who in this his own peculiar institution, comes to diffuse benediction in his mystical Zion, with the same apparent lowliness, as when in conformity with the divine prediction, he entered his literal Jerusalem "sitting upon "an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass."

I might now proceed, in the way of contrast, to remark more particularly on those views of the Lord's Supper, which stand opposed to the explanation attempted in these pages. I might, possibly, shew that by rejecting the mysterious instrumentality of the symbols, and thereby reducing the sacrament itself, externally to a mere ceremony, and internally to an act of common Christian devotion, besides the liberty thus taken with holy Scripture, the Eucharistic celebration at once loses all its proportioned hold, (proportioned I mean to its high origin,) on the natural reason, as well as on the natural feelings of man. But these would be, in some sort, controversial topics;

and I trust the grounds on which the claims of the sacred Eucharist have been shewn to rest, do not need to be defended by such auxiliaries.

I might also pursue still farther, the line of observation, which I have been following. I might speak of that general influence on the whole mass of professing Christians, which might be looked for, from the doctrine of St. Paul respecting the Lord's Supper, being literally received, and adequately promulgated. I might shew, that by this means, those who are yet insensible to the goodness and wisdom of God, manifested in the gospel, would be obliged to recognize another of His divine attributes, before which the hardest heart must bow, (His almighty power,) as in direct and continued exercise within the Christian sanctuary; and I might support the justness of this reckoning, by appealing to the precise purpose for which St. Paul introduced those invaluable declarations, and the manner in which he enforces them. I might dwell upon the indescribable light and warmth, which all the other solemn services of religion would be felt to derive from such a central sphere of divine presence and opera