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ment of the Lord's Supper, that it includes the figns alfo; without which the notion of fpiritual manducation is unfounded, and the paffage, both to Jew. and Christian, inexplicable in oppofition to those who confider the Lord's Supper fimply as a remembrance of his death, that it is a commemoration of the facrifice for fin made by his death, and a fymbolical feaft upon a facrifice; and is therefore a pledge and means of communicating to us all the benefits of that facrifice."

Such is the opinion of this excellent writer on thefe paffages of St. John, and fuch alfo is, and was always, mine. But though it is certainly proper to confute the erroneous interpretations of controverfialifts, who, from motives of party, have denied the reference of this chapter to the the Sacrament, yet I cannot help obferving, that fcarcely any reader of common fenfe can doubt that the words, concerning eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Chrift, are to be applied to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. I

venture to affirm that they are now fo understood by all who have not been misled by the perufal of learned commentators or leaders in the field of controverfy; and I think the decifions of common fenfe in matters of which it is competent to judge, are often more to be depended upon, as criterions of truth, than the refined speculations of men accustomed to dispute for the palm of victory.

I fhall again have occafion briefly to confider the reference of the fixth chapter of St. John to the Sacrament, when I proceed more particularly to review the benefits annexed to the worthy reception of it.

SECTION VI.

The Lord's Supper confidered as a Feast on, or after, a Sacrifice.

HAT the Lord's Supper is a feast on,

T or after, a facrifice, is an explication of it, which has been adopted by the ableft and most learned men. Dr. Cudworth, a great and venerable name, firft fuggefted it in this country; and it has been firmly fupported by the ingenious arguments of fucceeding Divines. They have indeed given additional confirmation to it; but the honour of the original idea, fhould, I think, be affigned to him alone.

From a clofe and impartial attention to their arguments, I am fully convinced, that the Eucharift is a feaft after a facrifice; a feaft after the great facrifice of all, even Jefus Chrift upon the crofs; in which all other facrifices, however various in their

kind and modes, from the rifing to the fetting of the fun, were ordained to terminate.

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But the idea of the Sacrament, as a feast on, or after, a facrifice, may not be obvious to the apprehenfion of the unlearned, whoare no lefs deeply concerned in it than the bestinformed; and it fhould therefore be explained to them, in order to fatisfy their minds, and facilitate its general adoption.

The death of Chrift was a facrifice for the fins of the whole world, a facrifice that comprehended in it, not only the commemorative oblation of the Pafcal Lamb, but the other Jewish facrifices, the fin offering and the peace offering. Like them. it was to have a feast on, or after, it, and that feaft is the Lord's Supper. The Heathens, as well as the Jews, had a feast after their facrifices, and the partakers of the feaft in both cafes were to be partakers of the benefits fuppofed to redound from the facrifice. "Are not "they which eat of the facrifice," fays · Saint Paul, " partakers of the altar?"

What

What then were the benefits of the Jewish facrifices of the fin offering, forgiveness of fins of the peace offering, acceptance with God. The facrifice of Chrift on the crofs conveys, therefore, to those who par take in its benefits, by partaking of the feast instituted upon it, pardon of their fins and acceptance with God; which must infer fanctification of their fouls, or, as the church expreffes it, an inward and fpiritual grace.

I proceed to mention, in a curfory manner, fufficient for my purpose, the Pagan facrifices. The rites of the Pagan theology were derived from the Jews, though corrupted and distorted, and their original purpose loft and forgotten in the lapfe of time. But they retained the practice of feafting after a facrifice, that is, of eating a part of the victim offered, in order to partake of the propitiation fupposed to be effected by the facrifice.

It would be tedious to recite paffages from the ancient writers to confirm this affertion. The first book of Homer affords a proof of it. But the fact is well

known,

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