lively imagery and instructive emblem; drawn by Christ himself, and left as his legacies, for the use of all the churches. Let us then, my Reverend Brethren, be careful to preserve these sacred deposits with all due reverence and watchfulness; inasmuch as they contain treasures of infinite value; and Christianity itself appears to be so entirely wrapped up in them, that, humanly speaking, it must unavoidably stand or fall with them. THE CHRISTIAN SACRIFICE EXPLAINED IN A CHARGE DELIVERED IN PART TO THE MIDDLESEX CLERGY AT ST. CLEMENT-DANES, APRIL 20, 1738 TO WHICH IS ADDED AN APPENDIX REVEREND BRETHREN, THE Sacrament of the Eucharist has for some time been the subject of debate amongst us, and appears to be so still, in some measure; particularly with regard to the sacrificial part of it. As it is a federal rite between God and man, so it must be supposed to carry in it something that God gives to us, and something also that we give, or present, to God. These are, as it were, the two integral parts of that holy ceremony: the former may properly be called the sacramental part, and the latter, the sacrificial. Any great mistake concerning either may be of very ill consequence to the main thing: for if we either mistake the nature of God's engagements towards us, or the nature of our engagements towards God, in that sacred solemnity, we defeat the great ends and uses of it, and prejudice ourselves in so doing. so far A question was unhappily raised amongst us, about an hundred years ago, whether the material elements of the Eucharist were properly the Christian sacrifice. From thence arose some debate; which however lasted not long, nor spread very far. But at the beginning of this present century, the same question was again brought up, and the debate revived, with some warmth; and it is not altogether extinct even at this day. Those who shall look narrowly into the heart of that dispute may see reason to judge, that a great part of it was owing to some confusion of ideas, or ambiguity of terms; more particularly, from the want of settling the definitions. of sacrifice by certain rules, such as might satisfy reasonable men on both sides. How that confusion at first arose may perhaps be learned by looking back as far as to Bellarmine, about 1590, or however as far as to the Council of Trent, about thirty years higher. Before that time things were much clearer, so far as concerned this article. Nobody almost doubted but that the old definitions of sacrifice were right, and that spiritual sacrifice was true and proper sacrifice, yea the most proper of any. 'Spiritual sacrifice' is St. Peter's phrasea: and it agrees with St. Paul's phrase of reasonable service b' and both of them fall in with our Lord's own phrase, of 'worshipping God in spirit and in truth.' It is serving God 'in newness of spirit, not in the oldness of the letter d.' It is offering him true sacrifice and direct homage, as opposed to legal and typical, in order to come at true and direct expiation, without the previous covers or shadows of legal and typical expiations, which reached only to the purifying of the flesh, not to the purging of the conscience e. This kind of sacrifice called spiritual does not mean mental service only, but takes in mental, vocal, and manual, the service of the heart, mouth, and hand; all true and direct service, bodily f service as well as any other, since we ought to serve God with our bodies as well as our souls. Such is the nature and quality of what Scripture and the ancients call spiritual sacrifice, as opposed to the outward letter. Such services have obtained the name of sacrifice ever since David's time, warranted by God himself, under the Old Testament and New. The Jews, before Christ and since b, have frequently 1 Pet. ii. 5. b Rom. xii. I. • John iv. 23. See Dodwell on Instrumental Music, p. 31. Stillingfleet, Serm. xxxix. p. 602. Scot, vol. iv. Serm. iv. d Rom. vii. 6. Heb. ix. 9, 13, 14. They are emphatically styled sacrifices of God (Psalm li. 17), as being the fittest presents or gifts to him, the most acceptable offerings. h Vid. Vitringa de vet. Synag.in Proleg. pp. 40, 41. Philo passim. Justin. Mart. Dial. p. 387. |