The truth is, there is scarcely a more common form of speech, in any language than this is, for this represents or signifies.* And as our Lord refers, in the whole of this transaction, to the ordinance of the Passover, we may consider him as saying, "This bread is now my body in that sense in which the Paschal Lamb has been my body hitherto, and this cup is my blood of the new testament, in the same sense as the blood of bulls and goats has been my blood under the old. (Ex. xxiv. Heb. ix.) and as the Paschal Lamb, and the sprinkling of blood represented my sacrifice to the present time, this bread and this wine shall represent my body and blood

* When a man enters into a museum, enriched with the remains of ancient sculpture, his eyes are attracted by a number of curious busts-on enquiring what they are, he learns, this is Socrates, that is Plato, a third is Demosthenes, Cicero, Herodotus, Liry, Cæsar, Nero, Vespasian. Is he deceived by this information? Not at all-he knows that the busts he sees are not the identical persons of those ancient philosophers, poets, orators, historians, and emperors, but only representations of their persons in sculpture, between which and the originals, there is as essential a difference, as between a human body, endowed with all the principles of rational vitality, and a block of marble.

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through all future ages: therefore do this in remembrance of me. As to many of my readers, it may perhaps appear utterly improbable, that in the present enlightened age, (as it is called,) any people can be found who seriously and consistently credit the doctrine of transubstantiation; lest I should fall under the charge of misrepresentation, I shall here transcribe the eighth lesson of the catechism, for the use of all the churches in the French empire, published in 1806, by the authority of Napoleon Bonaparte, with the Bull of the Pope, and the mandamus of the Archbishop of Paris; which on this subject, is exactly a counterpart, of all that have been published, for a series of years, in the Popish churches.

Q. What is the sacrament of the eucharist? A. The eucharist is a sacrament which contains really and substantially the body, blood, soul, and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, under the forms or appearance of bread and wine. Q. What is at first put on the altar, and in the chalice? is it not bread and wine? A. Yes; and it continues to be bread and wine, till the priest pronounces

his

the words of consecration. Q. What influence have these words? A. The bread is changed into the body, and the wine is changed into the blood of our Lord, Q. Does nothing of the bread and wine remain ? A. Nothing of them remains, except the forms. Q. What do you call the forms of the bread and wine? A. That which appears to our senses as colour, figure, and taste. Q. Is there nothing under the form of bread, except the body of our Lord ? A. Besides his body, there is his blood, soul, and his divinity, because all these are inseparable. Q. And under the form of wine? A. Jesus Christ is there as entire, as under the form of the bread. Q. When the forms of the bread and wine are divided, is Jesus Christ divided? A. No, Jesus Christ remains entire under each part of the form divided, Q. Say, in a word, what Jesus Christ gives us under each form? A. All that he is, that is, perfect God and perfect man. Q. Does Jesus Christ leave heaven to come into the eucharist? A. No, he always continues at the right hand of God his Father, till he shall come at the end of the world with great glory, to judge the living

and the dead. Q. Then how can he be present at the altar? A. By the almighty power of God. Q. Then it is not man that works this miracle? A. No, it is Jesus Christ, whose word is employed in the sacrament. Q. Then it is Jesus Christ who consecrates? A. It is Jesus Christ who consecrates: the priest is only his minister. Q. Must we worship the body and blood of Jesus Christ in the eucharist? A. Yes, undoubtedly for this body and this blood are inseparably united to his divinity.

To shew that this is consistent with the canon of the mass, I shall translate the consecration prayer, from the Roman Missal. When the priest receives the bread and wine he thus prays, making the sign of the cross where this mark ‡ appears :-We beseech thee, O God, to render this oblation in all things, blessed, approved, effectual, reasonable, and acceptable, that it may be made to us the body and blood of thy most beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who, the day before he suffered, took bread into his sacred and venerable hands, and having lifted up his eyes to thee, O God the Father

Almighty, and giving thanks to thee, blessed, brake, and gave it to his disciples, saying, take and eat ye all of this, for this is my body, (Hoc est enim corpus meum.) [Then the priest adores and elevates the consecrated host.] In like manner after he had supped, taking also this excellent chalice into his sacred and venerable hands, giving thee also thanks, he bless‡ed and gave it to his disciples, saying, take and drink ye all of this, for this is the chalice of my blood, (Hic est enim calix sanguinis mei,) of the new and eternal testament, the mystery of faith which shall be shed for you, and for many, for the remission of sins; as oft as ye shall do these things, ye shall do them in remembrance of me." (Here the chalice is elevated and adored, and the Lord is besought to command his angel to carry these offerings into the presence of his Divine Majesty.) About 1218, Pope Honorius III. ordered kneeling at the elevation of the host-order of the mass, vol. I. page xxiv. &c.*

For the above extract, and other valuable matter, the reader is referred to Dr. Adam Clarke's learned discourse on the Nature and Design of the Eucharist.