Flesh was meat indeed1, and His Blood drink indeed (Jn. vi. 51, 55). Again, at the following Passover, gathering up in action all that He had then expressed in words, when He gave the bread to His disciples, He said, Take, eat; this is3 My Body; and when He took the Cup, He said, Drink ye all of this; for this is My Blood of the New Covenant.

3. The words of St Paul. Thus also in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, reprehending the practice of some of joining in the idol-feasts, St Paul says, I speak unto wise men; judge ye what I say. The Cup of Blessing which we bless, is it not the Communion (an actual partaking) of the Blood of Christ? The Bread which we break, is it not the Communion (an actual partaking) of the Body of Christ? For we being many are one bread and one body: for we are all partakers f that one Bread (1 Cor. x. 15-17). And, again, when rebuking the disorder and confusion which had de

1 The better reading is ἡ γὰρ σάρξ μου ἀληθής ἐστι βρῶσις, καὶ τὸ αἷμά μου ἀληθής ἐστι πόσις=For My Flesh is true meat, and My Blood is true drink. "Fateor," says Calvin, "nihil hic dici quod non in Cœna figuretur ac vere præstetur fidelibus; adeoque S. Cœnam Christus quasi hujus concionis sigillum esse voluit."

Our

2 Τοῦτό ἐστι τὸ Σῶμά μου-Τοῦτό ἐστι τὸ αἷμά μου. Lord says this of the Bread in His hand, of the Cup in His hand. This (Bread) is My Body, This (Cup) is My Blood. It is not οὗτος ὁ ἄρτος, οι οὗτος ὁ οἶνος, but τοῦτο in both cases. Bread being a thing without life is referred to by a neuter pronoun.

3 For the force of eσrɩ, is, here, compare the places where Christ says of Himself, I am the Door (Jn. x. 9); I am the true Vine (Jn. xv. 1); I am the bright and morning Star (Rev. xxii. 16); also St Paul's words, that Rock was Christ (1 Cor. x. 4).

4 Here alone the word κowvwvia is used of the Lord's Supper, and is the origin of the name as applied to it..

5 In early times the reception of the Communion formed part of an Agape or love-feast, to which the rich contribute l of their wealth, and the poor of their poverty. But at Co

graded their celebration of the Holy Feast almost to the level of a heathen orgy, he declares that he who ate this Bread and drank this Cup in the unworthy and irreverent way they did, was guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord; that he ate and drank judgment' unto himself, not discerning the Lord's Body (I Cor. xi. 27, 29).

4. The solemnity of the Lord's Supper. These words of our blessed Lord and of St Paul are sufficient to show the surpassing dignity and solemnity of this "holy mystery3;" that it is far more than "only a sign of the love that Christians ought to have among themselves one to another4;" that while the outward part or sign is but Bread and Wine, the inward part or thing signified is "the Body and Blood of Christ, which are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper ."

5. The Passover a Feast upon a Sacrifice. In reference to this reception it may be well to revert to the Jewish Passover, at a celebration of which, as we have seen, the Lord's Supper was instituted. The Passover, then, was a Festival of Redemption. The victim was rinth the richer Christians made this feast minister to their own self-indulgence, and utterly overlooked the wants of their poorer brethren, so that while one was hungry another was drunken (1 Cor. xi. 21).

1 "EvoXos eσTα-i.e. crimini et pœnæ corporis et sanguinis Christi violati obnoxius erit. Meyer.

2 See the margin of our Version here. The word кpíσw, rendered damnation, denotes rather judgment or punishment, and refers to the temporal chastisements spoken of in 1 Cor. xi. 30. 3 See the Exhortation in the Communion Service.

4 See the XXVIIIth Article.

5 Compare the words of the XXVIIIth Article: "The Supper of the Lord is...a Sacrament of our Redemption by Christ's death, insomuch that to such as rightly, worthily, and with faith receive the same, the Bread which we break is a partaking of the Body of Christ; and likewise the Cup of blessing is a partaking of the Blood of Christ."

M. C.

12

offered up in behalf of each Paschal company1. Having been presented before the altar in the Temple, and its blood having been sprinkled there, it was then not burnt, or eaten by the priests only, but by the entire Paschal company, for whom it had been offered, at a Sacrificial Feast. Now Feasts on sacrifices were means of ratifying covenants 2 between man and God3; they were also peculiar to the Peace-offerings of the Jews, and indicated that what had separated the offerer from Jehovah was covered and cancelled, that He now welcomed him to His Table, and in this feast gave him a pledge of reconciliation and favour1.

6. The Eucharist a Feast upon a Sacrifice. Now as the Passover was a Feast of redemption and deliverance, so is the Lord's Supper a Feast of a still greater Redemption and Deliverance". He who accomplished it is none other than our Master and only Saviour Jesus Christ. By His one oblation of Himself once offered, He has "made a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world." Having through the Blood of His

1 See Class-Book of Old Testament History, pp. 150, 151. 2 Hence our Lord said when He took the cup, This is My Blood of, i.e. ratifying the New Covenant.

3 See Cudworth's True Notion, Chap. VI. Compare the scene on Sinai, when Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders, after the covenant between Jehovah and His people had been solemnly ratified by sacrifices and sprinkling of blood, ate and drank of a portion of the sacrifice in His presence at a Covenant-feast, and therein received the pledge of His mercy and favour (Ex. xxiv. 9-11; Heb. ix. 19— 21).

4 As the total consumption by fire on the altar was the culminating point in the burnt-offering, so was the sacrificial feast of the peace-offering. See Kurtz's Sacrificial Worship; p. 163.

See above, p. 170.

6 See the Prayer of Consecration in the Communior Service.

Cross become our Peace (Col. i. 20; Eph. ii. 14), He has instituted and ordained this Feast upon His one Great Sacrifice1, once offered. By this sacred Banquet the peace He has made for us is accepted, the covenant He has ratified is sealed, and we are assured of God's "favour and goodness towards us2." At this Holy Table we are God's guests, and He "vouchsafes to feed us, who duly receive these holy mysteries, with the spiritual food of the most precious Body and Blood of His Son our Saviour Jesus Christ;" we "spiritually eat the flesh of Christ and drink His Blood; we dwell in Christ, and Christ in us; we are one with Christ, and Christ with us;" and thus verily and indeed, though after a heavenly and spiritual manner3, under the form of Bread and Wine, are given, taken, and received by the faithful the Body and Blood of Him, who gave His flesh for the life of the world (Jn. vi. 51).

1 "The Passover was a feast on a sacrifice; the Eucharist is a feast on a sacrifice. The one on the lamb; the other on the Lamb of God. The one true; the other true. But the one carnally true; the other spiritually, and therefore even more true." Bp. Browne on Art. XXVIII. Sect. 2.

2 See the Second Prayer in the Post-Communion Service. 3 See the XXVIIIth Article, and compare the address to each communicant at the moment of receiving, "Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on Him in thine heart by faith with thanksgiving." "What these elements are in themselves it skilleth not. It is enough that unto me that take them they are the Body and Blood of Christ. His promise in witness hereof sufficeth. His word He knoweth which way to accomplish. Why should any cogitation possess the mind of a faithful communicant; but, O my God, Thou art true; O my soul, thou art happy!" Hooker's Eccl. Pol. Bk. v. lxvii. 12.

CHAPTER IV.

THE BENEFITS OF THE LORD'S SUPPER.

I.

Connection. Having thus treated both of the outward part or sign and the inward part or thing signified in the Lord's Supper, the Catechism proceeds to ask, "What are the benefits whereof we are partakers thereby ?" To this question it teaches us to reply, The strengthening and refreshing of our souls by the Body and Blood of Christ, as our bodies are by the Bread and Wine.

2. The Benefits which we receive are thus declared to be two, (1) Strengthening, and (2) Refreshing, and these effects are compared to those wrought on our natural bodies by the reception of bread and wine. Bread, the staff of life, strengtheneth man's heart1 (Ps. civ. 15), and without it "the body fails, and falls, decays, pines away, and winders to nothing2" Wine maketh glad the heart of man (Ps. civ. 15), cheers and refreshes the body, and imparts vigour and sustenance, so that it faints not. Even so in the inner man and our spiritual nature are wrought by these holy mysteries, effects analogous to those in the outward man by "the creatures of bread and wine."

1 "The testimony of Geology confirms unequivocally the testimony of Revelation, and shews us that corn was not only specially created for man's use, but was also got ready specially for the appointed hour of his appearance on earth. Not the slightest trace or vestige of corn-plants occurs in any of the strata of the earth, until we come to the most recent formations, contemporaneous with man." Macmillan's Bible Teachings in Nature.

2 Nicholson On the Catechism, p. 225; Hammond's Practical Catechism, p. 397.

3 Creatures, from the Latin creatura, in its original sense is used of “anything created," and is not limited to "living