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but it is in the worthy receiver; man becomes Christ's by this glorious privilege of divine union, through the Spirit's influence; and this constitutes the prime benefit of the Sacrament, which is undoubtedly the Holy Ghost's indwelling or assistance. “If any man is Christ's, he has the Spirit of God dwelling in him."

The passages proving this assimilation of the divine with the human nature, this grand benefit of the Eucharist in the sixth chapter of St. John are so full and strong, that it is impossible to resist their force. "I am the bread of life," says Christ, "he that eateth me even he shall live by me. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood hath eternal life,-dwelleth in me and I in him. Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." The meaning of which is plainly this; they that feed on Christ in the Sacrament, have life, spiritual life in Christ; that is, they are connected with him, and supported by him, as the branch by the vine; and all that do not, have no life, but are like dead branches, or branches cut off from the vital stock of the vine, whence alone they can derive nutrition. The union of the branch and trunk is destroyed; the union of man with the divine nature is no more; and man, in consequence, decays and perishes like the dead branch of a tree. But let it be remembered, that none but worthy receivers

do really feed on Christ in the Sacrament, though they eat and drink the elements. According to an article of our Church: "The wicked and such as be void of a lively faith, although they do carnally press with their teeth (as St. Augustine saith) the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, yet in no wise are they partakers of Christ."

Judas was washed by our Saviour after the declaration, “If I wash thee not thou hast no part in me." Judas was washed with the other disciples, yet it cannot be supposed, that he had any part in Christ. A plain proof that something was to be done in the mind of the disciples whose feet our Saviour washed, either by themselves or the Holy Spirit of Christ, before the bodily act could be efficacious. This is necessary to observe, lest objectors should argue, as they have argued, the absurdity of supposing wicked men united to Christ by a single and outward act, the act of mere manducation. "It is the Spirit that quickeneth," said our Saviour," the flesh profiteth nothing.” Some among the ancients, whose opinions I forbear to cite, because they have been often cited, and my proposed limits do not allow room, seem to have maintained, that the Spirit's operation was on the elements, the creatures of bread and wine. In this, I doubt not, they were mistaken; the Spirit's operation is, I conceive, solely on the recipi ents; but what they say and held proves that they

believed the Spirit powerfully active in the Eucharist; and they could mean nothing less, in asserting that the elements were sanctified, than that sanctification was communicated through the elements to the Communicants, which virtually and ultimately is the same doctrine which is here maintained.

None, who admit the doctrine of the Spirit's energy on the human heart, deny that the Spirit's assistance is afforded to man on many accounts, besides his worthy reception of the Eucharist. But there is every reason to believe, that it is afforded more plentifully, with more comfort and more certainty by an ordinance of Christ himself, purposely instituted to bestow it on faith and repentance, than by any other means. Indeed the Sacrament is, as it were, a seal to confirm the gifts already received, as well as an instrument of present influences from on high, and an earnest of future salvation. It is impossible to suppose, but that every spiritual blessing must follow from man's union with Christ; that is, from the influence of Christ's Holy Spirit on the human heart.

That this is the case, is, I believe, the general opinion of pious, humble Christians, taught by the Gospel, and illuminated by grace, throughout all Christian countries. It is controverted by very few, comparatively speaking, any where; and these few, are men who have been misled into a false idea of

the strength of human reason, and who endeavour, by a proud and superficial philosophy, to explain away all that reason cannot comprehend, in the unsearchable ways of Divine Wisdom.

SECTION IX.

Union with Christ farther considered.

GOD is a Spirit; the soul of man is a spirit, and the perfection of the soul of man, is its union with the Deity, the pure fountain of all that is good and beautiful.

The Gospel of Christ has shewn how this union is to be effected. A rite is established by the mysterious operation of which, man, duly qualified by faith and repentance, is to be one with Christ and Christ with him. The union may certainly be effected in any other way that God may in his wisdom choose; but he has actually, as appears by the Gospel of St. John, in particular, chosen and appointed, the Eucharistical mode.

There is a natural union with God, and there is an evangelical. The Apostle probably means the natural union, when he says, " He is not far from every one of us; for in Him we live, and move, and have our being."*

Acts xvii. 27, 28.

But of this union the animal and vegetable world partake with the rational. Man would derive no pre-eminence over the oak of the forest, or the beast of the field, from this union alone; for they as well as he, live, and move, and have their being in God, who gave and sustains all life.

God, therefore, has vouchsafed to his rational creatures an evangelical union, an union accomplished, not by nature, but by grace.

It were profane and blasphemous in man to pretend to such a privilege, if he were not justified in it by the written word of Revelation. We are taught that, so far from presumption, it is our duty to aspire at it; and that by the due use of the means prescribed, we shall not be disappointed.

Sacramental Communion is, without doubt, one of the most certain means of accomplishing this union with the Deity, because it is the means instituted by our Saviour. In compassion to our infirmities, he has condescended to take upon him the form of a man, so that his approach to us might diminish that awful distance between a worm crawling on the earth and the Divinity; a dreadful distance which might have discouraged us from entertaining a thought of partaking in the divine nature. Christ, assuming the nature of man, formed an intermediate link in the vast chain which connects Heaven and earth. Christ permits us in the

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