efficacy of eating his flesh and drinking his blood, or participating of these memorials of them by a lively faith: John vi. 49, Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, andare dead; bet ver, 54, 56. whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life,—and dwelleth in me, and I in him. And what he adds,

ver. 63.

The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life; shews plainly, that he spake of spiritual gifts and graces, which breed and nourish in us a spiritual life, and maintain a spiritual union between Christ and us; and which are conveyed and sealed to us by our partaking of his holy ordinance, that he hath appointed, with true faith, and a penitent heart. The substance of all which is briefly, but fully expressed in our Church Catechism, where it tells us the meaning of a sacrament in general; namely, an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace, given unto us, ordained by Christ himself, as a means whereby we receive the same, and a pledge to assure us thereof.

Accordingly, the sacrament of baptism, is not only a rite or ceremony, by which we are admitted into the christian church,

or the society of christian people; but it is also, as St. Paul calls it, the laver of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, Tit iii. 5. agreeably to our Saviour's own expression John iii. 5. of being born again of water, and of the spirit; all which accompanying this initiation into the society of christians, are plainly descriptions of a new birth, and a new life, produced and wrought in us by the spirit of GOD. Of which spiritual life, the body and blood of CHRIST (received by the faithful, according to his own ordinance, with a penitent heart and lively faith) are the proper nourishment; as the graces therein conveyed to us, are the showers which water and keep alive those seeds of the spirit that are sown in our hearts by baptism, and make them spring and grow up to everlasting life. And as the covenant into which we enter with God in our baptism, is a covenant of grace, which not only leaves room for mercy and favour upon our repentance for past sins, but also promises new supplies of strength, to enable us to resist and subdue them for the time to come ; so is our receiving the sacrament of CHRIST's body and blood, a solemn re

C

newing of that covenant. On our part, it is a pleading before GOD the merits and efficacy of Christ's death, for the pardon of our past sins, and for grace to avoid them for the time to come; and on GoD's part, it is a conveying and sealing those benefits to every penitent and faithful receiver.

And on account of the great benefit and importance of this institution, and the due use of it, in the whole course of the christian life, it has been long called among christians, by way of eminence, the holy sacrament; as being, of all others, the most holy and significant ordinance and mystery of our religion, and being also, (according to the use of the word in Latin writers for an oath, and particu. larly for the oath of fidelity which soldiers took to their commanders) a solemn engagement, by which christians declare their unfeigned resolutions of obedience, and that notwithstanding their former disobedience, they will, for the time to come,be the faithful servants and soldiers of JESUS CHRIST. Agreeably to the account which Pliny writes to Trajan the emperor, of the manner of the christian worship, That having sung an Hymn to

Christ as God, they did sacramento se obstringere, bind themselves by an oath, not to rob, steal, commit adultery, &c. Book 10. Ep. 97. which is a plain description of the celebration of the Lord's Supper.

SECTION II.

The obligation upon Christians to partake frequently of the Sacrament of Christ's body and blood.

frequent commun

ion.

In this account of the institution, nature, and efficacy of the sacrament of The comfort of Christ's body and blood; every serious christian will find sufficient arguments not only to persuade and dispose him to be a partaker of it, but to desire it zealously, and to come to it frequently, as an institution and exercise that is full of spiritual comforts blessings and benefits. Consider it barely as a memorial of Christ's dying for us; and what can be more comforta ble, than to remember our deliverance from the dominion of Satan, the slavery of sin, and eternal misery? Consider it not only as a sign, but as an assuring sign, or, in other words, not only as a remem. brance of our redemption from sin, and reconciliation to God, but as a seal and pledge of his pardon and favor; and how sweet and refreshing must this be to a pious soul, which finds no peace or com.