rish priest. Had these pages been put together in the form of a tract, and not as sermons, we are of opinion that the Society: for Promoting Christian Knowledge would have done well to admit them in its catalogue. The arrangement of the Sermons is as follows-The Institution of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper-Its obligation as a commemorative rite-And a mean of grace. The first commences by shewing, that this Sacrament was instituted in the place of the Jewish Passover, which was indispensably binding upon all. It then explains the nature of the ordinance, and speaks of its simplicity and solemnity in the following passage. "It is, indeed, impossible, my brethren, to imagine any thing more simple, and yet more solemn and affecting. The world we dwell in surrounds us with objects of sense; and so gross and material are we, even in our highest imaginations and finest feelings, that we require, even in Religion itself, something tangible, something that the eye may see, and the hands handle, and the thoughts rest upon, and the heart recur to, with accurate and well-defined feelings. This may account for the necessity of some "outward and visible sign;" and if any were necessary, none most certainly could better have supplied this necessity, than the institution before us; so simple, that nothing but the darkened imagination of the Papist could pervert and misunderstand it; and, at the same time, of such lofty import, that angels themselves might desire to look into its deep mysteries; and so affecting, that, notwithstanding its continual recurrence, the heart of the true worshipper will acknowledge that he has seldom partaken of these consecrated symbols of his Saviour's love, without a tear or a sigh." P. 11. On the universality of its obligation Mr. Blunt delivers himself with equal effect. It is in this light, as obligatory upon Christians, that, it appears to me, the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is not sufficiently considered. We look at it as a privilege, or perhaps as a duty binding upon particular persons, and at particular seasons; but we do not look at it as that which the Gospel most certainly describes it to be, an universal, an absolute, an imperious command. The words of the text were spoken to all the disciples, all were admitted to his table (with perhaps the single exception of the traitor, and even that exception is questionable), though our Lord well knew that Peter would that very night deny Him, and that all would forsake Him, and fly. We have seen that this sacred Institution was to supply the place of the Jewish Passover: now let us for a moment observe the strictness with which an attendance upon that solemn feast was exacted. We read in the ninth chapter of Numbers' And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If any man of you, or of your posterity, shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be in a journey afar off, yet he shall keep the Passover unto the Lord: but the man that is clean, and is not on a journey, and forbeareth to keep the Passover, even the same soul shall be cut off from among his people : because he brought not the offering of the Lord in His appointed season, that man shall bear his sin.' I trust I shall not be misunderstood, in referring to this instance of the severity of the Mosaic dispensation; I do not intend to apply it literally to the Sacrament; I do not mean to say that the cases are strictly analogous; that we are to compare the blessed liberty of the Gospel with the heavy bondage of the law; but I suggest it for your own reflection with this single observation: both these services were instituted by the same God, and the same God shall hereafter take cognizance of the intentional neglect of them. Surely, then, although the Jewish law was written in letters of blood, and the Christian dispensation is inscribed with the beams of mercy, the distance between them can scarcely be so immeasurable, that the wilful neglect of the one should be followed by death temporal and spiritual (for the man who neglected the Passover was not only to be cut off, but to bear his sin), and yet the neglect of the other, though it may be wilful, intentional, and unrepented of, shall be overlooked in the great day of account, as too trifling to have excited the attention of the Almighty, and too venial to have deserved His displeasure. Upon the subject of the obligation of this great duty, I shall only add one more observation, that in our Church Catechism we find no distinction whatever made between the necessity of the Lord's Supper. They are declared to be the only two Sacraments which Christ ordained in His Church; and both are, without distinction, pronounced to be generally necessary to salvation.'". P. 13. The author is deeply impressive, when he touches upon the manner in which Christ is to be remembered. "As earnestly then as we call upon you to present yourselves at the table of our Lord, so earnestly do we beseech you to come not thither without these feelings, or at least without a sincere and heartfelt desire to possess them; for if they are absent, the ordinance is deprived of its life, its soul, its benefits. Unless you can thus remember Christ, it ceases, in fact, to be an ordinance specifically Christian. If for example, you remember Christ as a Prophet, there is nothing specifically Christian in this. The Mahometan could conscientiously join with you, and allow him a rank second to none but the Arabian impostor. If you remember Him as the greatest of all Prophets, as the Messiah, still even this does not exceed the limits to which the unscriptural Unitarian will readily accompany you ;-if you go beyond all this, and pronounce with your lips the great eternal truth, that you are willing to remember Him as 'Jesus, the Son of the most high God,' the devils themselves have been unable to close their eyes to this great fact, have preceded you, in the very words of this confession, and in their caves of darkness, at the present hour, and throughout a miserable eternity, will thus remember Him, when they have been consigned, by His unerring justice, to the blackness of darkness for ever.' "But, my Christian brethren, we call upon you in this ordinance, so especially the Lord Jesus Christ's own ordinance, to have your thoughts and heart filled with the remembrance of all He has done and suffered for you; to remember Him, not only as a Prophet, as the greatest of all Prophets, but as your Prophet, Priest, and King;' not only as the Son of God, but as that Son, who left the bosom of his Father for you, and for your salvation; who lived for you, laboured for you, died for you; rose again for you, and now for ever makes intercession for you, before God. This is the manner in which we ask you to remember Christ in this holy ordinance, as a friend, as the best and dearest friend you ever had, or ever can have; the only one who ever sacrificed His life for you, or who, by such a sacrifice, could have obtained so glorious a result as your salvation, and eternal felicity." P. 21. The second Sermon considers the advantages offered to the faithful communicant-the feelings with which all partakers should present themselves before these high and holy mysteries, and the influence which a devout participation of them should produce upon future behaviour. The subject of the real presence, is discussed with considerable judgment. "We are told then expressly, that the benefits of which we are partakers in the Lord's Supper, are the strengthening and refreshing of our souls by the body and blood of Christ; and we are farther assured, that the body and blood of Christ are verily and indeed taken and received (that is, spiritually 'taken and received') by the faithful in the Lord's Supper. The Church of Christ has from the very night on which this Supper was instituted, eighteen hundred years ago, believed in the real presence of Christ in this His ordinance, not indeed in the bread and wine, but in the souls of the faithful Communicants; and when Protestants disavowed the doctrine of transubstantiation, the monstrous absurdity of Christ's bodily presence in the bread and wine, a fiction unheard of until seven hundred years after his death, they were too wise, or, I should rather say, they were too well directed by the Spirit of Truth, to deny the essential fact, for the sake of discrediting the error which ignorant and superstitious men had built upon it. They, therefore, even at the risk of being misrepresented or misunderstood, clung firmly and faithfully to the promise of our Lord, and declared their belief that the faithful Communicant did' verily and indeed' eat the flesh of Christ and drink His blood, in a spiritual manner, in this His ordinance. Thus, when two or three are gathered together in His name, and at his table, the Divine Master of the feast is himself present, to pour forth the blessings of his grace upon them; to nourish their faith; to increase their love; to add continually to their hope, by these fresh confirmations of the mercy of God the Fa ther, through his beloved Son; while, like the gentle dew from heaven upon the thirsty ground, shedding new life and vigour over the languid face of the creation, the blessed influences of the Holy Spirit fall thus abundantly upon the prepared and joyfully expecting heart of the believer." P. 28. Every body must be pleased with the tone of Christian rebuke in which the author speaks of those who absent themselves from the table of the Lord. "God forbid that when His servants earnestly and affectionately exhort you, as you love your own salvation, to be partakers of this holy Communion,' though there may (and, I fear, will) be found many who from different motives are content to go their way,' that there should be one weak enough or wicked enough to make light of' His invitation,' who speaketh from heaven.' I am willing to believe that there are few in any congregation who thus act; few who turn their backs upon this solemn ordinance, and exclude themselves from its high privileges and unspeakable benefits, with a feeling either of unmeaning levity, characteristic only of a mind which cannot reason, or of a heart which has ceased to feel, or who, in a spirit of proud defiance, throw back the offers of mercy to Him who makes them; few who can behold their fellow-Christians advancing humbly and faithfully to the table of their Lord, to eat and drink with Him now during the days of their pilgrimage, that they may be strengthened and refreshed for their onward journey, and can turn from them with a smile or a sneer, and yet profess a belief in this Saviour, and conclude every petition they have offered up this day in His house, for pardon of sin and deliverance from condemnation, through Jesus Christ our Lord.' No. Unfavourably as the Bible and as daily experience teach us to think of the heart of fallen man, we cannot believe this: whatever may be the reasoning with which men satisfy their minds for the neglect of so positive a duty, and with which they in some indescribable manner evade its force, we should be loth to believe that as the members of Christ's Church, and as constant worshippers within the courts of the house of our God, you ever quitted these walls in such a spirit, or with feelings such as these: we rather believe (unwillingly as the acknowledgment of such a feeling would be wrung from you) that you, who invariably neglect this important duty, have seldom left this sacred temple upon a Sacrament-day, without some feeling of regret, however slight and however transitory, that you were evading a command which you were expected to observe; that you were excluding yourself from benefits of which you might be a partaker; that you were treating with indifference (to use the mildest term) that blessed Redeemer upon whom, as a Christian, you must have fixed your every hope of deliverance from hell, and of the enjoyment of heaven." P. 33. The last passage of the second Sermon is so eloquently touching, that we would fain persuade our readers to refer themselves to the original, from which it is transcribed, as to a composition which bears internal evidence of coming warm from the heart of a minister of Christ, who is anxiously alive to the eternal interests of his flock. NOTICES. 1. A Short Letter addressed to the House of Lords on the reported intention of Parliament to make a provision for the Roman Catholic Clergy of Ireland. 8vo. Pp. 16. 1s. 6d. London. Hatchard. 1825. 2. A Letter to Charles Butler, Esq., of Lincoln's Inn: containing brief observations upon his question," What has England gained by the Reformation?" By a true Catholic. Svo. Pp. 26. 1s. London. Hatchard. 1825. 3. Observations on the Bill now in progress through Parliament, in support of the Spiritual authority of the Church of Rome. By a Senior Member of the University of Oxford. 8vo. Pp. 33. 1s. 1s. Oxford. Parker. 1825. 4. A Letter to Lord Calthorpe containing some observations on what has occurred relative to the Roman Catholic Bill: with an Appendix. By a Layman. 8vo. Pp. 49. 1s. London. Hatchard. 1825. 5. Taxatio Papalis; being an account of the Tax-books of the United Church and Court of Modern Rome; or of the Taxa cancellariæ Apostolicæ et Taxe sacræ penitentiariæ Apostolicæ. By Emancipatus. 8vo. Pp. 63. 2s. 6d. London. Rivingtons. 1825. 6. An Authentic Review of the Principles, Measures, and Designs of the Catholic Association; recommended to the serious attention of the Protestants of Great Britain and Ireland, the British Government, and Members of the Imperial Parliament. By Amicus Hibernicus, Trinity College, Dublin. 8vo. Pp. 68. 2s. London. Eedes. 1825. 7. The Bible prohibited: a Dialogue between a Roman Catholic Priest and a Roman Catholic Layman. 12mo. Pp. 24. 4d. London. Rivingtons. 1825. |