the institution of the Holy Sacrament in the same night in which he was betrayed. Now the inspired writers of the New Testament explicitly set forth the typical character of ancient sacrifice, from the sacrifice of Abel to the sacrifices of the Jewish Law, which are expressly declared by the Apostle to be "the shadows of good things to come:" and they declare, that they had all of them reference to that great sacrifice, which was to be offered upon the cross for the sins of the world. But this is particularly the case with the sacrifice of the Passover. It is with reference to this sacrifice that St Paul calls "Christ, our Passover which was sacrificed for us6;" that St John, in his account of the crucifixion, expressly mentions the remarkable fulfilment in the great anti-type of that which was declared of the type, that a bone of it should not be broken; that the Baptist perhaps more especially alluded to him, as the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world; and that St Peter speaks of Christians as having been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. The following is the account given of the institution of the Lord's Supper, by the three first Evangelists and by St Paul: "The night in which the Lord Jesus was betrayed, as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and giving thanks, blessed it, and brake it, and gave it unto his dis

4 Hebr. xi. 4. xii. 24.

5 Ib. x. 1-14.

7 John xix. 36. compared with Exod. xii. 46.

6 1 Cor. v. 7, 8.

8 John i. 29.

9 1 Pet. i. 19. compared with Exod. xii. 5 Heb. ix. 14.

ciples, and said; Take, eat, this is my body which is given and broken for you; do this in remembrance of me. After supper likewise, having taken the cup, and given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of this, for this cup is my blood of the new covenant, the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you, for many, for the remission of sins: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me. Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of this fruit of the vine, until that day, when I shall drink it new with you in the kingdom of my Father, in the kingdom of God." Now the obvious purport of the language, which is here employed by our Saviour, is this;-that the Passover-feast, which had been heretofore kept in remembrance of the deliverance out of Egypt, would hereafter take a new signification, and be a memorial of a much greater deliverance, even that deliverance from sin and death, which would be accomplished by our Saviour's death; that the bread, which had heretofore represented the body of the Paschal Lamb, would hereafter represent the body of himself, the true Lamb, whose body was to be given for the salvation of the world; that the wine, which had heretofore represented the blood of the Passover-Lamb, would hereafter represent the blood of himself, the true Lamb,-the blood of the new covenant, which was about to be shed for many, for the remission of sins; and they were solemnly enjoined to do this in remembrance of him, as the solemn act, by which they would shew the

Lord's death till he come1.-In reviewing the history of this most interesting transaction, we may observe, with respect to the language which is here employed by our Saviour, that it not only points out the spiritual design and import of the sacrifice of the Passover, and in that, of the whole of ancient sacrifice; but also that all the circumstances of the institution of the Lord's Supper pre-suppose all the benefits, which were to be derived from our Saviour's death to the whole race of mankind, of which our Lord ordained this as the most solemn and affecting memorial; and that our Lord speaks, with all the confidence of actual fulfilment, of that new covenant of pardon and forgiveness, which was to be ratified in his blood. The circumstances attending the institution of the Lord's Supper, and the language which was employed by our Saviour on this occasion, appear to pre-suppose, almost beyond all other passages of the New Testament in which the subject is alluded to by him, a full knowledge of every thing relating to his death and the benefits which it was to procure for mankind: and it is impossible to consider all the circumstances connected with this most interesting transaction, and the divine foreknowledge which was displayed by our Saviour with regard to the great events, in which he was shortly to bear so conspicuous a part, without being impressed with feelings of the highest reverence and adoration towards the great author of our salvation.

1 1 Cor. xi. 26.

5. Closely connected with these transactions is a remarkable passage in the sixth chapter of St John's Gospel, in which our Lord speaks explicitly with regard to his own divine origin, and his death, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread, that came down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life: and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever1:" in which passage, by eating our Saviour's flesh and drinking his blood, we must understand, (as Archbishop Cranmer has observed,) "the spiritual eating of his

1 John vi. 47-58.

flesh, and drincking of his blood by faith, by digesting his death in our myndes, as our only pryce, raunsom, and redemption from eternal damnation; for there is no kynde of meate that is comfortable to the soule, but only the death of Christ's blessed body; nor no kynde of drynke that can quenche her thirst, but only the bloode sheddyng of our Saviour Christ which was shed for her offences"." This is the direct and obvious meaning of our Saviour's words: for that we cannot understand the bread, which is here spoken of by our Saviour, either of common bread, or of sacramental bread, is evident, because neither of them was given upon the cross for the life of the world.

It will, however, involve no unnatural straining of our Saviour's words, if we adopt the opinion of some of the most learned Fathers of the Church, and believe Him to have made an ultimate reference to that spiritual participation of the body and blood of Christ, by which, according to the doctrine of our Church, they are "verily and indeed taken and received in a spiritual manner by the faithful in the Lord's Supper." For "as the bread is outwardlie eaten indeede in the Lordes Supper, so is the very body of Christ inwardly by faith eaten indeede of all them that come thereto in such sorte as thei ought to doe; which eating nourysheth them unto everlasting

2 Abp. Cranmer on the Sacrament. pp. 22. 41. Waterland on the Eucharist. Works. Vol. VI. pp. 139, 140.

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