would have triumphed over truth, which would never have found zealous disciples from the moment they should have seen their chief intimidated by menaces. Touched, therefore, with the fatal state to which depravity had reduced the world, convinced that by sacrificing himself he gave the last blow to sin, he saw the necessity of such a sacrifice, and took the generous resolution of shedding his own blood, rather than put any obstacle to the salvation of man.

With this view he assembles his disciples in order to prepare them for this event; and, seeing them overwhelmed in profound grief, he addresses to them the most tender and consolatory discourse. Sometimes he explains to them the reasons of his undertaking, and the advantageous consequences it was going to produce. He had said to them a little before, predicting the manner of his death, "If I be lifted up above the earth, I will draw all men after me.' He also makes them look upon his own death as a sure means of vanquishing the world. Sometimes he exhorts them to patience, and not to suffer themselves to be shaken by persecution. Sometimes he recommends to them the important duty of benevolence, repeats it, and enforces it by his own example. "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." Greater love can no one have than to lay down his life for his friend. And in order to preserve the memory

of this signal benefit, amidst all these discourses he establishes the ceremony of the Eucharist.

The circumstance of the time was favourable. It was then the day of the Passover, the grand festival of the Jews. Jesus Christ celebrated it with his disciples, with the design of making it serve to another usage. As they were yet at supper, he took bread, and agreeably to the custom of the Jews, observed especially in the Paschal solemnity, he gave thanks to the Deity that he had given men bread for their nourishment; after which he parted it into several morsels, which he distributed to the Apostles, saying to them, "Take and eat, this is my body, which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of me."

As if he had said, It is necessary that I should be sacrificed in order to accomplish the work with which I am charged; it is a payment which I owe to God, who hath entrusted me with the salvation of the world; the interests of truth require a victimlo here it is-it is my body. This news afflicts you, but it ought to be to yourselves an example of courage and firmness. And in order to represent to you my body which is going to be broken, eat of this bread which I have cut into morsels for you. I now do not say to you; This is the bread of affliction, which your Fathers eat in Egypt; I say to you, "This is my body which is broken for you." This ceremony is no longer to celebrate the departure

out of Egypt, but affectionately to perpetuate the idea of your Saviour; "At all times, therefore, that you shall be together, do this in remembrance of me."

He afterwards took a cup full of wine, which he presented to his disciples, with a command to them all to drink of it. "For," says he, "this is my blood, the blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for many, to obtain the remission of their sins." They seldom made a solemn treaty, but they slew a victim, in order to render it in some measure more sacred, and thereby confirm it the more. Thus Moses did, and made himself a sprinkling of blood upon the Israelites; "This is the blood of the Covenant," said he, "which the Lord makes with you." In like manner, the blood, which Jesus Christ shed, established the truth of his Gospel, serves as a foundation to the New Covenant; and this effusion of his blood is figuratively represented to us by the wine in the Eucharist. Wherefore drink you all of it, if you have any regard for the sacrifice which I offer to God, and to truth; for this wine is the symbol of my blood which I am going to shed in favour of men, to the end that being confirmed in the profession of my doctrine, they may obtain the pardon of their

sins.

Such is the origin of the Eucharist, such the end which its Author assigns to it. One perceives nothing here that savours of mystery. Every thing in it

is clear, simple, and natural. If we consider the air of the assistants, one observes in them no surprise, except the grief which they witness at seeing themselves shortly to be separated from their master; and to search for the marvellous under a pretended veil, is certainly to want to be more subtile than they. Here is a person, who takes leave of his friends, who eats with them for the last time, who gives them a token that they may remember him.

Besides, it appears from all the circumstances that this ceremony is an imitation of the Passover, except that it represents another event. The Passover recalled to the mind of the Jews the miraculous deliverance from the Egyptian captivity. "When your children," says Moses, "shall ask you what means this ceremony, you shall tell them, that it is the Passover of the Lord, when he smote Egypt." It is the same with regard to the Eucharist. It exhibits to Christians the death of Christ, who delivered them from spiritual Egypt; it preserves the memory of this grand event, and transmits it from age to age. If you here consult the infallible Teacher, he will answer you, that you should do this in remembrance of him. If you address yourselves to the disciples, St. Paul informs you, that "every time that you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you do show forth the Lord's death till he come."

Remarks on John xiv. 28.

WHEN the Arians object, that Jesus Christ, in various passages, is represented as inferior to his father, the Trinitarians reply, that these passages ought to be understood of Christ as man; but that though Christ be inferior to his Father as man, yet at the same time he has in him a divine nature, by which he is God, blessed forever, with the Father. If they urge, for example, this passage of St. John xiv. 28. where Christ says, "The Father is greater than I;" and that of St. Matthew xxiv. 36. where it is said, that "the son does not know the day of judgment," they reply, that it is as man that Jesus Christ says, that the Father is greater than he; that it is as man that he does not know the day of judgment; but that as God, he is equal to his Father, he knows all things, he searches the hearts and reins. These answers do not appear satisfactory to the Arians; they frame various difficulties against them, which merit examination, and which we are going to exhibit to the reader.

1. They say, that in order to apply this answer to the passages which represent Jesus Christ as inferior to his Father, it ought to appear very clearly from scripture, that there are two natures in Christ,

one divine, and the other human.

But this is what

does not appear from the sacred writings. There is