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been accounted in all Nations a principal Act of Religion. And accordingly the Celebration of this Sacrament hath from the Beginning been efteem'd by the Church the chief and moft excellent Part of the Chriftian Worship. The Subftance indeed of the Bread and Wine is the fame after, as it was before Confecration; but feveral new Qualities are added to them which they had not before, and which cannot be afcribed to common Bread and Wine. By Chrift's own Appointment they are the Reprefentatives of his moft precious Body and Blood; they are Signs and Seals of God's Covenant with us; they are Tokens and Pledges of his Favour, and, as I fhall fhew hereafter, are a Means of conveying to us all the ineftimable Benefits purchafed for us by the Paffion and Death of Chrift. It feems to have been the unanimous Opinion of Antiquity, that they are in an ineffable Manner fanctified by the powerful Operation of the Holy Spirit. What Irenæus, a Writer of the fecond Century, afferts, was probably the

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the Sentiment of the whole Church in his

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SERM, Time, viz. That the Bread which is from the Earth, receiving the Divine. Invocation, is no longer common Bread but the Eucharift, confifting of two Things; the one Earthly, and the other Heavenly By the Earthly, meaning the material Bread; and by the Heavenly the Grace of the Divine Spirit. Agreeably hereto, in the most antient Liturgy now extant, and which was probably in Ufe in and long before the Time of Irenæus, the Prieft is directed in the Confecration Prayer to use these Words, which will fufficiently explain what Ires naus means by the Divine Invocation. We befeech thee that thou wilt mercifully look down upon thefe Gifts which are here fet before thee, O thou God who ftandeft in need of none of our Of ferings; and accept them to the Honour of thy Chrift; and fend down thine Holy Spirit, the Witness of the Sufferings of the Lord Jefus, that he may make this Bread to become the Body of thy Chrift, and this Cup the Blood of thy Chrift;

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that those who are Partakers thereof may be strengthned in Goodness, may obtain the Remiffion of their Sins, may be de livered from the Devil and his Wiles, may be filled with the Holy Ghost, may be made worthy of thy Chrift, and may obtain eternal Life upon thy Reconciliation to them, O Lord Almighty. The Liturgy used in the Time of King Edward the Sixth, expreffes the fame Thing thus: Hear us, O merciful Father, we moft humbly beseech thee; and with thy Holy Spirit and Word vouchfafe to blefs and fanctify thefe thy Gifts, that they may be unto us the Body and Blood of thy moft dearly beloved Son Jefus Chrift. 3.

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AND this Opinion of the Primitive Christians is very much countenanced and fupported by the Expreffions ufed in the Holy Scriptures. St. Paul in this very Epiftle plainly enough intimates, that they who partake of the Euchariftical Cup are all made to drink into one Spirit. And our bleffed Saviour affures us that it is the Spirit which quickneth, and that the Flesh, i. e. the Flesh without the Spirit, profi

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profiteth nothing.Tis obfervable that SERM. our Lord inftituted this Holy Sacrament

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in a moft folemn Manner. He bleffed feverally both the Bread and the Cup, after the Pafchal Supper, and directed his Apostles, and in them their Succeffors in the Chriftian Priefthood to do what he then did, for a perpetual Memorial of him, and of the great Things which he both did and fuffered for the Salvation of Mankind. Even as the Sacrifice and Feaft of the Passover was inftituted for a Com memoration of God's paffing over the Ifraelites when he deftray'd the Egyptians, and his delivering them out of the Houfe of Bondage. As our Lord hath commif fioned his Priefts to confecrate the Eucharift; fo he has committed this Power to none but them. From the Beginning this Power hath been appropriated to the Bifhops and Priefts, and that Rule of Ignatius, a Difciple of St. John, hath been ftrictly obferved; Let that Eucharift be accounted valid and good which is confecrated by the Bishop, or by one whom he appoints.

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Again, In this Epiftle the Apoftle declares, that whofoever fhall eat this Bread, and drink this Cup of the Lord unwor thily, fhall be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. But let a Man examine himself, and fo let him eat of this Bread, and drink of this Cup. For he that eateth and drinketh Unworthily, eateth and drinketh Damnation to himself, not difcerning the Lord's Body. From all which it is abundantly evident that the Lord's Supper is far from being an ordinary Supper, and that the mean and low Notions which many of late have entertain'd of this moft Holy and Tremendous Ordinance, are very contrary to the Declarations of Scripture, and the Sentiments of the Primitive Chriftians.

Fourthly, I OBSERV'D that the Lord's Supper is not rightly celebrated by a fingle Perfon alone, but by a Number of Communicants.

THE Chriftian Communion in the Eucharift is a Communion not only with God and with Chrift, but with our Fellow Chriftians, as appears from the Verse

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