and by an amicable controversy in which the Author had been engaged with Dr. Zachary Pearce, yet the 'Review of the Doctrine of the Eucharist,' as Bishop Van Mildert has observed, has little the aspect of a polemical work, although so large a portion of it may be applied as a corrective, or a preventive, of error. With scarcely any personal reference to the living authors of his time who entertained different views of the subject from that which he supported, Dr. Waterland has so conducted his train of reasoning and investigation, as to meet all their diversities of opinion in their full force; stating them with candour and fairness, and controverting them with no less moderation than ability and decision.' And the three Charges to the Clergy of Middlesex which defend and supplement his former treatise, that 'On the Christian Sacrifice' (with its Appendix in reply to Johnson), that 'On the Sacramental Part of the Eucharist,' and that 'On the Distinctions of Sacrifice,'occasioned though they were by Some Remarks on the Review' by Dr. Brett, are equally devoid of controversial acrimony, nor are they of merely local or personal application. They form, together with the Review,' a body of teaching on the doctrine of the Eucharist, especially with reference to the various opinions. on this vital subject which have been main tained within our own Church, almost equally applicable to all times, and having a peculiar interest and importance in our own. The wide and intimate acquaintance which Waterland possessed, not only with the Christian Fathers but with the Romish Theologians and the writings of the foreign Reformers, the perfect fairness with which he, almost invariably, states and meets the views and reasoning which he controverts, and the singular simplicity, clearness, and vigour of his style, have placed him among the most trustworthy and instructive of our own Divines: and while asserting and defending, as the true doctrine of the Eucharist, the via media between two extremes, which, though not excluded by the tolerant moderation of our Articles and formularies, have each too facile a tendency to pass into serious error, he will be found, even by those whom he does not convince, to leave them in no doubt as to the meaning of his language and the bearing of his arguments; and by others, and especially by students in divinity, a safe and perspicuous guide to those tenets on the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper which, as a matter of fact, have been held by the great majority of the ablest and most learned Theologians of the Reformed Church of England. J. L. CONTENTS A Review of the Doctrine of the Eucharist, as laid down in An Introduction, first briefly shewing the Design of the PAGE II. That for the right understanding of Scripture, it is of great moment to know what the most eminent Writers III. That of the two Extremes, Profaneness and Super- stition, the latter is the safest for any one to lean to IV. That it is injuring and degrading the Sacraments to call them Positive Duties, rather than Religious Rites. CHAPTER II. Considering the Institution of the Holy PAGK 1. As an expiatory Sacrifice. 2. Which is applied in the Eucharist 1. The Sentiments of the Ancients on that head 2. The Sentiments of Moderns CHAPTER VIII.—1 Cor. x. 16 explained and vindicated from misconstruction ΙΟΙ |