tuted the sacrament, was, beyond all doubt, unleavened, as it was that used at the passover; and this accounts for the following remarkable words of St. Paul to the Corinthians: "Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump; seeing ye are unleavened." This can only be explained satisfactorily, by taking into consideration that other declaration of the Apostle which we have already referred to, in its connexion with his account of the design of the sacrament: "So we, being many, are one body, and one bread; for we are all partakers of that one bread." That unleavened bread which was then used in the Lord's supper represented the pure body, or humanity, of the incarnate Son of God; those who partook of it, discerning the thing it represented, that is to say, "the Lord's body,"-by a true and appropriating faith, became one living body with him, and thus one new, unleavened lump. Thus, the Corinthian Christians were, by profession at least, unleavened; and it was their incumbent duty to purge out of themselves all the old leaven of malice and wickedness, and to become, in sincerity and truth, like pure unleavened bread, as He to whom they professed to be vitally united, as the members of the body to the head, undoubtedly is, and ever will be, and cannot retain in connexion with himself any corrupt member.

3. Thus we see, according to the Apostle's view of the thing represented by our eating of that bread, and drinking of that cup, that it is only by eating the flesh, and drinking the blood, of the Son of man, who is the second Adam, the Author and Giver of a new and better life to us, by shedding his blood to atone for our sins, living in us, as the second Head of a renewed body or race of men, that we can have that life within us, or expect that he will gloriously raise us up at the last day. Without his perfect moral purity, we cannot be placed with him under the ineffable radiance of his holy Father's infinite and eternal love. It is through the influence of his Father's revealed truth alone, that we can be thus sanctified and fitted for such "glory everlasting." His word, our Lord says, is that truth. That word was then to be found in the whole body of prophetic testimony contained in the Scriptures of the Old Testament. That body of prophetic testimony related to the sufferings of Christ, and the glories which were to follow them, even to our nature; in the first instance, as that nature was assumed into his divine person, and perfectly purified, and even rendered an object of the infinite, and eternal, and unchangeable love of the God of love for his own proper Son, who is called "the Son of his love;" and then to all men who constitute his body, the church, which is the fulness, or completion, of Him who filleth all in all. But, in order to all this, there must be such a real and vital participation of Christ, as will make us (to use again the strong words of St. Paul) "members of his body, and of his flesh, and of his bones."

4. Thus we may see how this Man can give us his flesh to eat, and that his flesh is truly meat, and his blood truly drink. And we may

also see in what way the truly faithful eat his flesh, and drink his blood, so as to dwell in him, and he in them. What we teach and believe on this most important subject is neither transubstantiation nor consubstantiation; nor is it, as far as we can understand the matter, what is now called Puseyism. We neither say, nor believe, that the bread we present to you has become, by consecration, the very body, and blood, and soul, and even the divinity of Christ; so that every separate portion of it is a whole Christ, substantially and really, though the outward form of bread still remains. Nor do we say, that in the substances of bread and wine there are also the real body and blood of the Redeemer of the world. Nor do we even believe the sacramental elements to be, by whomsoever consecrated, a necessary means of conveying any grace, or blessing, to the communicants, considered simply in themselves. They can only be even the true representatives of the body and blood of Christ, to those who have the divinely-granted faculty of discerning the Lord's body thus represented, and of knowing that "the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God," actually "purges" their "consciences from dead works, to serve the living God."

What we maintain is, we are persuaded, the real doctrine of our national Church on the subject. We fully admit, in the sense we judge was meant, that "the body and blood of Christ are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's supper." Thus we hold to the solemn words of Jesus Christ: "My flesh is truly meat, and my blood is truly drink ;" and, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." And we shall address many of you this night in the words of our national Church, when we present to you the bread set apart to represent the thing to your very senses: "The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto eternal life. Eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed upon him in thy heart by faith." What is this but saying, "The bread is not the body of Christ, but only represents it; while it is by faith that you feed upon him in your hearts?

Thus, while we keep from all the absurd and unscriptural mysteriousness attached to either the notion of a real change of the bread into our Saviour, though all our senses tell us it remains bread; or that of some kind of inexplicable presence of his body in the bread; or even that of a supposed regularly ordained Elder or Minister's power to give a species of supernatural efficacy to the sacramental elements, by repeating over them the solemn words of Christ, "This is my body," and "This is my blood," and touching them at the same moment; we urge men to look to the things signified by the bread and wine they eat and drink, in remembrance of Christ's death and passion; and to seek after the possession of that enlightened faith in the testimony of the Spirit of truth, respecting the designs of God in

the incarnation and death of his Son, which will make them to know that the flesh of Christ is their true meat, and his blood their true drink.

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This is a holy and sanctifying subject. The right apprehension of it generates in us no gross and carnal notions about the body and blood of Christ, or the manner in which they become meat and drink to us. For, although we believe his flesh and blood are real flesh and blood like our own, and are made the real medium of all the grace, and sanctity, and blessedness he communicates to us, as the second Man, the Lord from heaven," we neither expect to eat his flesh, nor to drink his blood, as we eat and drink the bread and wine he appointed to represent them to us in the sacrament; we discern the Lord's body as thus represented, and in like manner his blood, which was shed for our redemption from the curse of the law, and from death; and we are inwardly persuaded, by the Spirit of faith, that the perfect purity he has given our nature, by uniting it for ever to his own divine nature and person, can by him be imparted to us, and is so imparted, while his blood shed for us removes the sense of guilt from our consciences, and gives us the most perfect internal peace.

Pray, then, for the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, in order to your having the true knowledge of Christ. Pray that God would show you the reasons and results of the incarnation and death of his Son. Pray that he would form his Son in you, and make you to know that he lives in you, and that you live in him. Then you shall know what he meant when he said, that his flesh is truly meat, and his blood truly drink; and you will no longer put the question, with the feelings and notions the carnal Jews did, and many carnal Christians, so called, still do, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

WE MAY NOT DO EVIL THAT GOOD MAY COME. THE rule holdeth perpetually, and without exception, that that which is simply evil, may not for any good be done. We know not any greater good (for there is not any greater good) than the glory of God: we scarce know a lesser sin (if any sin may be accounted little) than a harmless, officious lie. Yet may not this be done; no, not for that. "Will ye speak wickedly for God, and talk deceitfully for him?" (Job xiii. 7.) If not for the glory of God, then, certainly, not for any inferior end; not for the saving of a life, not for the conversion of a soul, not for the peace of a church, and (if even that were possible too) not for the redemption of a world. No intention of any end can warrant the choice of sinful means to compass it.-Bishop Sanderson.

MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

THE SABBATH. (No. II.)

MORAL OBLIGATION OF THE DAY.

(To the Editor of the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine.)

THAT branch of the Sabbathquestion which now falls under our consideration is, the moral obligation which we, and all to whom the word of God comes, are under, to keep the day holy. This may be proved,

1. By an appeal to the time when the Sabbath was instituted, and to the catholic character of the reasons assigned for its early observance.

"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God had created and made." (Gen. ii. 1-3.) Dr. Paley and others have employed much learned ingenuity to prove, that these words are introduced by way of anticipation, to secure the order of connexion, and to give additional weight to the subsequent enactment at Sinai in other words, that they do not describe what then took place, but what God had determined to do two thousand five hundred years afterwards. But their reasonings are inconclusive; they contradict the obvious meaning of the text; and are, as we think, highly injurious to the interests of religion and morality. The laws of God stand in no need of rhetorical artifice; they are binding on his creatures from the first moment of their promulgation; and the impress of his authority alone, invests them with a character of solemnity which human expedients cannot increase.

The above account bears on its face such evidence of being a real, an original, and a consecutive history of what then took place, that not one of a thousand commonsense readers would ever dream of

its being an anticipatory parenthe sis. Not only is it manifestly a part of the history of creation, but it bears the same affinity to that history which the capital does to a column, which the chief corner-stone does to a temple; for it gives majesty and beauty to the whole; and in its polished lines we trace the holiness, the sovereignty, and the goodness of God; the moral obligation of man, the origin of ordinances, and the type of eternal rest. The creation of the world, under any circumstances, must have been contemplated as a gigantic manifestation of power, and a consummate device of wisdom; but had it not been sanctified by the keeping of a Sabbath, it would have wanted a character of holiness; and, wanting this, it would have been unworthy of God, and an unsuitable residence for man, who was made in the image and likeness of God.

If we admit, that the Sabbath was not instituted till the time of Moses, it follows, that the human race were not only without a chartered holyday for the space of two thousand five hundred years, but that they were left, for this vast period, to worship God as often, or rather as seldom, as they thought meet. But had this been the fact, it is difficult to imagine how they came to learn, that to neglect his worship was a sin, or that its regular performance was a duty, and acceptable in his sight. It appears to us a libel on the Most High, to suppose that, while he gave rational and immortal man instructions respecting the keeping and dressing of the garden, the replenishing of the earth, and the subduing of the animals, he should have left him wholly ignorant of the time when, and the reasons why, he should evince his gra