ON THE LORD'S SUPPER. INTRODUCTION. ON THE NATURE OF THE SACRAMENT OF THE THE Church of England has briefly, and yet fully, thus described the nature of a Sacrament: 'It is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us, ordained by Christ himself, as a means whereby to receive the same, and a pledge to assure us thereof.' It is a divinely-instituted means of grace, whereby God invisibly, but effectually, communicates that grace to all true believers. Hooker, with the comprehensive wisdom which marks his Ecclesiastical Polity, thus sums up the varied properties of a sacrament:— 'Let respect be had to the duty which every Communicant undertakes, and we may well determine concerning THE USE of Sacraments, that they serve as B bonds of obedience to God, strict obligations to the mutual exercise of Christian charity, provocations to godliness, preservation from sin, and memorials of the principal benefits of Christ. Respect THE TIME of their Institution, and it thereby appears that God has annexed them for ever unto the New Testament, as other rites were before with the old. Regard the weakness which is in us, and they are WARRANTS for the more security of our belief. Compare the receivers of them with such as receive them not-and sacraments are MARKS OF DISTINCTION OF GOD's own from strangers, so that in all these respects they are found to be most necessary. But their chiefest force and virtue consists not herein so much, as in that they are HEAVENLY CEREMONIES, which God has sanctified and ordained to be administered in his Church: first AS MARKS whereby to know when God does impart the vital or saving grace of Christ to all that are capable thereof, and secondly, AS MEANS conditional, which God requires in them unto whom he imparts grace. For since God in himself is invisible, and cannot by us be discerned working; therefore, when it seems good in the eyes of his heavenly wisdom, that men, for some special interest and purpose, should take notice of his glorious presence, he gives them some plain and sensible token whereby to know what they cannot see. (Exod. iii. 2. Acts ii. 3.) In like manner it is with us. his Holy Spirit, with all their blessed effects, though entering into the soul of man, (we are not able to comprehend or express how,) do notwithstanding give notice of the times when they use to make their access, because it pleases Almighty God to communicate by sensible means those blessings which are John v. 4. Christ and |