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ERRATA.

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last, for "that of grace," read “ of that grace.” omit "be" after " will."

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AN INQUIRY,

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AS the great body of Christians who, three centuries ago, rejected the Romish yoke, differ generally from the Church of Rome on the subject of the Eucharist, so do they also among themselves, maintain certain specific differences respecting the design and import of that sacred institution.

The principal point of controversy appears to turn upon this question: Is the blessing, to be expected in the Eucharist by qualified receivers, a mere communication of the ordina ry grace of God, obtained in the same purely inward and mental manner, as in other exercises of devotion;-or, is there in this holy sacrament a peculiar effluence of supernatural grace, mysteriously united with the con

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secrated symbols, so as to make them the vehi cles of heavenly benediction to the capable communicant?

The maintainers of the former of these views have doubtless explained themselves, with much verbal difference, and in the earlier times of the Reformation, with not a little obscurity. But their great point of agreement seems to have consisted in their separating the sacramental blessing, in whatever manner they defined it, from the sacramental symbols, and regarding the spiritual part of the transaction as exclusively within the mind of the receiver.

Of this way of thinking were, most probably, all the Helvetic Reformers. Calvin, though accustomed to use strong language respecting the Eucharist, must still be understood to have connected the grace of the Eucharist with the commemorating act, but, in no manner with the symbols. And Bucer, who was invited into England in the reign of Edward VI. to give counsel in farther changes which were meditated in the lately established English Liturgy, was clearly and zealously of the same opinion.