of Christ, cannot but be understood to convey remission as effectually, yea and more effectually than the other, which the very phrases here made use of, parallel to the former, strongly argue.

I shall only add further, that since there certainly is spiritual manducation in the Eucharist, as before shewn, and since remission of sins, by all accounts, and even by the Socinians, is allowed to be included in spiritual manducation; it will plainly follow, that remission of sins is conveyed in and by the Eucharist; which was to be proved.

Having thus far argued the point from Scripture principles, I may now proceed to inquire what additional light may be borrowed from authorities, ancient or modern. I shall draw together a summary account of what the primitive churches taught in this article, and shall afterwards consider, very briefly, the doctrine of our own Church on the same head.

The learned author of the Antiquities of the Christian Church, having previously observed of Baptism, that it was esteemed the grand absolution of all, proceeds soon after to take notice of the absolution granted in the Eucharist, and gives this general account of it:

'It had some relation to penitential discipline, but did not solely belong to it. For it was given to all baptized persons who never fell under penitential discipline, as well as to those who lapsed and were restored to communion: and in both respects, it was called rò réλetov, the perfection, or consummation, of a Christian; there being no higher mystery that an ordinary Christian could partake of. To those who never fell into such great sins as required a public penance, it was an absolution from lesser sins, which were called venial, and sins of daily incursion: and to penitents who had lapsed, it was an absolution from those greater sins for which they were fallen under censure. To this may be added, that the name of pódiov, 'viaticum,' which means provision for one's journey into the other world, and which was frequently Bingham, book xix. c. 1.

W

given to the Eucharist, in the fourth century, and so on, is a general proof of the sense of the Church in those times with respect to remission in the holy Communion: for as that name imports more, so it certainly implies remission of sins, as part of the idea belonging to it.

After this brief general account, let us come to particulars. The elder Fathers, of the two first centuries, (so far as I have observed,) make not express mention of remission of sins in the Eucharist, though they are explicit enough with respect to Baptism. Their common way, with regard to the Eucharist, was to pass over remission, and to go higher up to sanctification of the Spirit, and spiritual or mystical union. with Christ, and the consequent right to glory and immortality and eternal life. Perhaps they might conceive it low and diminutive, in that case, to speak at all of remission, which was but the initiatory part, and belonged more peculiarly to the initiatory Sacrament, which in those times, and in the case of adults, immediately preceded the other. However that were, we find proofs sufficient from the writers of the third century, that the Eucharist was thought to be of a propitiatory nature, in virtue of the great sacrifice therein commemorated: and though the elder Fathers do not directly say so, they tacitly supposed or insinuated the same thing, by their standing discipline and by their so often calling the Eucharist a sacrifice well-pleasing to God: besides that the sanctification which they do speak of, as conferred in the Eucharist, implied remission of sins, either as then granted, or at least then confirmed and established.

Origen is one that speaks plainly of the propitiatory nature of the Eucharist; understanding it in a qualified sense, as being propitiatory only in virtue of the grand sacrifice, or * Testimonies are collected by Casaubon, Exercit. N. lii. p. 415.

Y Suicer, in 'Epódiov, p. 1290. Bingham, book xv. cap. 4. sect. 9: book xviii. cap. 4. sect. 3. Mabillon de Liturg. Gall. p. 85.

Si respicias ad commemorationem de qua dicit Dominus, Hoc facite in meam commemorationem, invenies, quod ista est commemoratio sola quae propitium facit hominibus Deum.' Origen. in Levit. Hom. xiii. p. 255.

as all acceptable services are, in some sense, appeasing and pacificatory.

6

Cyprian, of the same time, takes notice of the sacramental cup as relieving the sad and sorrowful heart, before oppressed with the anguish of sins, and now overjoyed with a sense of the Divine indulgence a. From which words it is manifest, that it was God's pardon (not merely the Church's reconciliation) which was supposed to be conveyed in and by the Eucharist; which is further evident from the noted story. of Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria his sending the Eucharist to Serapion at the point of death, and the reflections which he made upon it, as being instrumental towards the wiping out his sins before his departure b. Such was the prevailing notion of that time in relation to remission of sins, as conferred in the Eucharist. 'Some ancient writers' (I use the words of Mr. Bingham) acknowledge no other sorts of absolution but only two; the baptismal absolution which is antecedent to all penitential discipline, and this of reconciling public penitents to the communion of the altar: because this latter comprehends all other ways of absolution, in the several acts and ceremonies that were used in conferring it c. Another very learned writer has made the like observation, in the words here following: They that have with the greatest diligence searched into antiquity, can discover no other rite or solemnity used upon this occasion, but barely the admitting the penitents to communion: by this they were entirely acquitted and absolved from the censure under which their crimes had laid them: by this their sins were remitted to them, and so they became once more fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God d'

a Epotato sanguine Domini, moestum pectus ac triste, quod prius peccatis angentibus premebatur, Divinae indulgentiae laetitia resolvatur: quod tum demum potest laetificare in Ecclesia Domini bibentem,' &c. Cypr. Ep. lxiii. p. 107, alias 153.

b Vid. Euseb. E. H. lib. vi. c. 44. p. 318.

Bingham, book xix. cap. i. sect. 6.

d Johnson's Unbloody Sacrifice, part ii. p. 210: compare p. 107, and part i. p. 284, &c. Cp. Morin. de Poenitent. lib. iv. c. 21, 22.

For the fourth century, Eusebius may be an evidence to prove the doctrine of remission in and by the Eucharist, where he says; 'We moreover offer the show-bread, while we revive the salutary memorial and the blood of sprinkling of the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world, the purgative of our souls' He seems here to understand the blood of Christ as making the purgation directly, and the salutary memorial as doing it indirectly, and in virtue of the other. He speaks plainer elsewhere, directly saying, that Christians receive remission of sins in the daily memorial which they celebrate, viz. the memorial of our Lord's body and blood f.

Cyril of the same century styles the Eucharist the sacrifice of propitiation 5, (in such a sense as I have before hinted with relation to Origen,) and he supposes it to be offered in order to render God propitious, which amounts to the same as if he had said, for remission of sins h.

Ephraem Syrus, of the same age, supposes that the Eucharist purifies the soul from its spots, that is, from its sins i. And Ambrose scruples not to ascribe to the bread consecrated remission of sins; which is to be understood with some allowance for a figurative way of speaking. He speaks

• ̓Αλλὰ καὶ τοὺς ἄρτους τῆς προθέσεως προσφέρομεν, τὴν σωτήριον μνήμην ἀναζωπυροῦντες, τό τε τοῦ ῥαντισμοῦ αἷμα τοῦ ἀμνοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ, τοῦ περιελόντος τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ κόσμου, καθάρσιον τῶν ἡμετέρων ux@v. Euseb. in Psalm. xci. p. 608.

· Διὰ τῆς ἐνθέου καὶ μυστικής διδασκαλίας πάντες ἡμεῖς οἱ ἐξ ἐθνῶν τὴν ἄφεσιν τῶν προτέρων ἁμαρτημάτων εὑράμεθα ... εἰκότως τὴν τοῦ σώματος αὐτοῦ καὶ τοῦ αἵματος τὴν ὑπόμνησιν ὁσημέραι ἐπιτελοῦντες, K.T.λ. Euseb. Demonstr. Evang. lib. ii. c. 10. p. 37.

8 Τῆς θυσίας ἐκείνης τοῦ ἱλασμοῦ. Cyrill. Mystag. v. sect. 8. p. 327. Cp. Deylingius, Observat. Miscellan. p. 155, &c.

η Χριστὸν ἐσφαγιασμένον προσφέρομεν, ὑπὲρ τῶν ἡμετέρων ἁμαρ τημάτων προσφέρομεν, ἐξιλεούμενοι ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν τε καὶ ἡμῶν τὸν φιλάνOpшпоv eúv. Cyrill. Mystag. v. sect. 10. p. 328.

Animae accedentes per illa tremenda mysteria macularum purificationem accipiunt.' Ephr. Syr. de Sacerdotio, p. 3.

J'Ego sum panis vitae; etiamsi quis mortuus fuerit, tamen si panem meum acceperit, vivet in aeternum: ille enim accipit qui seipsum probat. Qui autem accipit, non moritur peccatoris morte; quia panis hic remissio peccatorum est.' Ambros de Benedict. Patriarch. c. ix. p. 525.

indeed of the living bread, that is, of Christ himself, but considered as symbolically received in the Eucharist; which is manifest from his referring to 1 Cor. xi. 28, 'Let a man examine himself.'

St. Austin appears to have been in the same sentiments exactly where speaking of the grand sacrifice, by which alone true remission k comes, he immediately adds, that all Christians are invited to drink the blood of it, meaning in the Eucharist.

All the ancient Liturgies are full of the same notion of remission of sins conferred in this Sacrament. And though they are mostly spurious, or interpolated, and answer not strictly to the names which they commonly bear, yet some of them have been in use for many centuries upwards in the Greek, Latin, and Oriental churches, and are a good proof of the universality of a doctrine for the time they obtained. The Clementine, though it is not thought to have been ever in public use, is commonly believed to be the oldest of any now extant and though, as an entire collection, it cannot perhaps be justly set higher than the fifth century, yet it certainly contains many things derived from earlier times, and among those, probably, the doctrine of eucharistical remission. In that Liturgy prayer is made, that the Holy Spirit may so bless the elements, that the communicants may obtain remission of sins. And in the post-communion, prayer is again made that the receiving of the Eucharist may turn to salvation, not condemnation, to the benefit both of body and soul, to the preserving true piety, and to remission of sins m.

k Illis sacrificiis hoc unum sacrificium significabatur, in quo vera fit remissio peccatorum. A cujus tamen sacrificii sanguine non solum nemo prohibetur, sed ad bibendum potius omnes exhortantur qui volunt habere vitam.' Augustin. in Levit. tom. iii. pp. 516, 517. Cp. Daniascen. de Fid.

lib. iv. c. 13. p. 271.

1 Ἵνα οἱ μεταλαβόντες αὐτοῦ . ἀφέσεως ἁμαρτημάτων τύχωσι, κ.τ.λ. Apostol. Const. lib. viii. c. 12. p. 407.

τα Καὶ παρακαλέσωμεν μὴ εἰς κρίμα, ἀλλ ̓ εἰς σωτηρίαν ἡμῖν γενέσθαι, εἰς ὠφέλειαν ψυχῆς καὶ σώματος, εἰς φυλακὴν εὐσεβείας,