mystery of the Incarnation, "He is life by nature, inasmuch as He was begotten of the Living Father; but no less vivifying also is His Holy Body, being in a manner brought together (ovvnveyμévov) and ineffably united with the all-vivifying Word; wherefore it is accounted His, and is conceived as one with Him. For, since the Incarnation, it is inseparable; save that we know that the Word which came from God the Father, and the Temple from the Virgin, are not indeed the same in nature; for the Body is not consubstantial with the Word from God, yet is one by that ineffable coming together and concurrence; and since the Flesh of the Saviour became life-giving, as being united to that which is by nature Life, The Word from God, then, when we taste it, we have life in ourselves, we too being united with it, as it to the indwelling Word." "I then, (22) He saith, being in him will by Mine own Flesh raise up him who eateth thereof, in the last day. For since Christ is in us by His own Flesh, we must altogether rise, for it were incredible, yea rather, impossible, that Life should not make alive those in whom it is." To add the words of one father only of the Western Church, ever had in honor, as well for his sufferings for the faith, as for his well-weighed and reverent language. S. Hilary (23) adduced the very actualness of this union in proof against the Arians that the unity of the Father and the Son was not of will, but of nature, because our union with the Son is by unity of nature, not of harmony of will only. "For if the Word was truly made Flesh, and we, in the Supper of the Lord, truly receive the Word, being Flesh, how must He not be thought to abide in us, by the way of nature, Who, being born man, took to himself the nature of our flesh, now inseparable from Him, and under the Sacrament of the Flesh which is to be communicated to us, hath mingled the nature of His own Flesh with His eternal nature. So then, we are all one, because both the Father is in Christ, and Christ in us. Whosoever then shall deny that the Father is in Christ by way of nature, let him first deny that himself is by way of nature in Christ or Christ in Him; because the Father in Christ and Christ 'in us, make us to be one in them. If then Christ truly took the Nature of our Body, and that Man, Who was born of Mary, is truly Christ, and we truly, under a Mystery, receive the Flesh of His Body, (and thereby shall become one, because the Father is in Him and He in us), how is it asserted that the Unity is of will only, whereas the natural property (conveyed) through the Sacrament is the Sacrament of a perfect unity?" And a little after, (24) alleging our Blessed Lord's words, "My Flesh is truly meat, My Blood is truly drink." "Of the truth of the Flesh and Blood, there is no room left for doubt. For now,

according both to the declaration of the Lord and our Faith, it is truly Flesh and truly Blood. And these, received into us, cause, that we are in Christ and Christ in us. Is not this truth? Be it not truth to those who deny that Christ Jesus is true God. He then is in us through the flesh, and we are in Him, since this, which we are, is with Him in God."

Would that, instead of vain and profane disputings, we could but catch the echoes of these hallowed sounds, and, forgetting the jarrings of our earthly discords, live in this harmony and unity of Heaven, where, through and in our Lord, we are all one in God. Would that, borne above ourselves, we could be caught up within the influence of the mystery of that ineffable love whereby the Father would draw us to that oneness with Him and His Son, which is the perfection of eternal bliss, where will, thought, affection shall be one, because we shall be, by communication of His Divine Nature, one. Yet such is undoubted Catholic teaching, and the most literal import of Holy Scripture, and the mystery of the Sacrament, that the Eternal Word, Who is God, having taken to Him our flesh and joined it indissolubly with Himself, and so, where His Flesh is, there He is, (25) and we receiving it, receive Him, and receiving Him are joined on to Him through His Flesh to the Father, and He dwelling in us, dwell in Him, and with Him in God. "I," He saith, "in the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you." This is the perfection after which all the rational creation groans, this for which the Church, which hath the first fruits of the Spirit, groaneth within herself, yea this for which our Lord Himself tarrieth, that his yet imperfect members advancing onwards in him, (26), and the whole multitude of the Redeemed being gath ered into the One Body, His whole Body should, in Him, be perfected in the Unity of the Father. And so is He also, as Man, truly the Mediator between God and Man, in that being as God, One with the Father, as man, one with us, we truly are in Him who is truly in the Father. He, by the truth of the Sacrament, dwelleth in us, in Whom, by Nature, all the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth; and lowest is joined on with highest, earth with heaven, corruption with incorrup. tion, man with God.

But where one may feel, is there here any place for the sinner? Here all breathes of holy life, life in God, the life of God imparted to man, the indwelling of the All Holy and incarnate Word, the Presence of God in the soul and body, incorruption and eternal life, through His Holy Presence and union with him, Who, being God, is Life. Where seems there room for one, the mansion of whose soul has been broken down, and he to have no place where Christ may lay His head (27); the vessel has been broken, if not defiled, and

now seems unfit to contain God's Holy Presence; the tenement has been narrowed by self-love, and seems incapable of expanding to receive the love of God, or God Who is love; or choked and thronged with evil or foul imaginations; or luxury and self-indulgence have dissolved it, or evil thoughts and desires have made room for evil spirits in that which was the dwelling-place of the Trinity?

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Doubtless, God's highest and "holy" gift is, as the Ancient Church proclaimed, chiefly "for the holy." "Ye cannot be partakers of the Table of the Lord, and the table of the devils." And as Holy Scripture, so also the Ancient Church, when alluding to the fruits of this ineffable gift, speak of them mostly as they would be to those' who, on earth, already live in Heaven, and on Him Who is its life. and bliss. They speak of those "clothed in flesh and blood, drawing nigh to the blessed and immortal nature (28);" of "spiritual fire;' (29);" "grace (30) exceeding human thought and a gift unutterable;" "spiritual food (31), surpassing all creation visible and invisible," "kindling (32) the souls of all, and making them brighter than silver purified by the fire ;" "removing (33) us from earth, transferring us to heaven,' 'making angels for men, so that it were a wonder that man should think he were yet on earth," (34) yea, more than angels, "becoming that which we receive, (35) the Body of Christ.” For that so we are "members (36) of Him, not by love only, but in very deed, mingled with that Flesh, mingled with Him, that we might become in a manner one substance with Him," "the one Body and one Flesh of Christ (37) ;" and He the Eternal Son and God the Word in us, "commingled (38) and co-united with us," with our bodies as with our souls, preserving both for incorruption; "re-creating the spirit in us, to newness of life, and making us 'partakers of His Divine Nature; "the bond of our unity with the Father, binding us to Himself as Man," Who is "by nature, as God, in God His own Father;""descending to our nature subject to corruption and to change, and raising it to Its own excellences, and "by commingling it with Itself, all but removing it from the conditions of created Nature," and "re-forming it according to Itself." "We are," adds S. Cyril, "perfected into unity with God the Father, through Christ the Mediator. For having received into ourselves, bodily and spiritually, Him who is by Nature and truly the Son, 'Who hath an essential Oneness with Him,' we, becoming partakers of the Nature which is above all, are glorified." "We," says another (39), "come to bear Christ in us, His Body and Blood being diffused through our members; whence, saith St. Peter, we become 'partakers of the Divine Nature.'"

Yet although most which is spoken belongs to Christians as belong

ing already to the household of saints and the family of Heaven and the Communion of Angels and unity with God, still here, as elsewhere in the New Testament, there is a subordinate and subdued notion of sin; and what wraps the Saint already in the third Heaven, may yet uphold us sinners, that the pit shut not her mouth upon us. The same reality of the Divine Gift makes it Angel's food to the Saint, the ransom to the sinner. And both because It is the Body and Blood of Christ. Were it only a thankful commemoration of his redeeming love, or only a showing forth of His Death, or a strengthening only and refreshing of the soul, it were indeed a reasonable service, but it would have no direct healing for the sinner. To him its special joy is that it is his Redeemer's very (40) broken (41) Body, It is His Blood, which was shed for the remission of his sins. In the words of the ancient Church, he "drinks his ransom (42)," he eateth that, "the very Body and Blood of the Lord, the only sacrifice for sin (43)," "God poureth out" for him yet" the most precious blood of His OnlyBegotten (44);" they "are fed from the Cross of the Lord,because they eat his Body and Blood; (45)" and as of the Jews of old, even those who had been the betrayers and murderers of their Lord, it was said, "the Blood (46) which in their phrensy they shed, believing they drank,” so of the true penitent it may be said, whatever may have been his sins, so he could repent, awful as it is to say, the Blood he indeed despised, and profaned, and trampled under foot, may he, when himself humbled in the dust, drink, and therein drink his salvation. "He (47) who refused not to shed His blood for us, and again gave us of His Flesh and His very Blood, what will He refuse for our salvation?" "He," says S. Ambrose (48), "is the Bread of life. Whoso then eateth life cannot die. How should he die, whose food is life? How perish, who hath a living substance? Approach to Him and be filled, because He is bread; approach to Him and drink, because He is a fountain; approach to Him, and be enlightened, because He is Light; approach to Him and be freed, because, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty; approach to Him and be absolved, because He is Remission of sins."

In each place in Holy Scripture, where the doctrine of the Holy Eucharist is taught, there is, at least, some indication of the remission of sins. Our blessed Lord, while chiefly speaking of Himself as the Bread of life, the true meat, the true drink, His Indwelling, Resurrection from the dead, and Life everlasting, still says also, "the Bread that I will give is My Flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." As amid the apparent identity of this teaching, each separate oracle enounces some fresh portion of the whole truth, so also does this; that His Flesh and Blood in the Sacrament shall give life, not only because they are the Flesh and Blood of the Incarnate

Word, who is Life, but also because they are the very Flesh and Blood which were given and shed for the life of the world, and are given to those, for whom (49) they had been given. This is said yet more distinctly in the awful words whereby He consecrated for ever (50) elements of this world to be His Body and Blood. It has been remarked (51), as that which cannot be incidental, (as how should any words of the Eternal Word be incidental?) how amid lesser variations in the order or fulness of those solemn words they still, wherever recorded, speak of the act as a present act. "This is My Body which is given for you;" "This is My Body which is broken for you;" "This is My Blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins;" "This Cup is the New Testament in My Blood, which is shed for you." He saith not, "which shall be given," "shall be broken," "shall be shed," but "is being given," "being broken," "being shed", (didóμevov, phúμevov, (διδόμενον, χλώμενον, ¿xyvvóμɛvov,) and this in remarkable contrast with his own words when speaking of that same Gift, as yet future, "The Bread which I will give is My Flesh, which I will give (öv ¿yà dúow) for the life of the world." And of one of the words used, S. Chrysostome (52) remarks how it could not be said of the Cross, but is true of the Holy Eucharist. "For 'a bone of Him,' it saith, 'shall not be broken.' But that which he suffered not on the Cross, this He suffers in the oblation for thy sake, and submits to be broken that He may fill all men." Hereby He seems as well to teach us that the great Act of his Passion then began; then, as a Priest, did He through the Eternal Spirit offer Himself without spot to God; then did He "consecrate" Himself (53) before He was by wicked hands crucified and slain (54); and all which followed, until He commended His Blessed Spirit to the hands of His Heavenly Father, was one protracted, willing Suffering. Then did He begin His lonely journey where there was none to help or uphold, but He "travelled in the greatness of His strength;" then did He begin to "tread the wine-press alone," and to "stain all His raiment ;" then to "wash the garments" of His Humanity "with" the "Wine" of His Blood (55); and therefore does the Blood bedew us too; it cleanses us, because it is the Blood shed for the remission of our sins (56). And this may have been another truth, which our Lord intended to convey to us, when he pronounced the words as the form which consecrates the sacramental elements into His Body and Blood, that that Precious Blood is still, in continuance (57) and application of His One Oblation once made upon the Cross, poured out for us now, conveying to our souls, as being His Blood, with the other benefits of His Passion, the remission. of our sins also. And so, when St. Paul says, "The cup of blessing

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