which has been instituted to give that state the most appropriate and completest expression and satisfaction which an act of devotional service can supply. The entire result of redemption is comprehended in the Lord's flesh and blood, which are His Divine goodness and truth, from and by which He accomplished the redemption of mankind, and from and by which He redeems us from all iniquity, and with which He feeds the souls of those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, even that righteousness which He, as to His humanity, became by acts of redemption. These Divine principles of goodness and truth, which include the whole of the Lord's redemption, are presented in the bread and wine of the Holy Supper; for these are the natural correspondences and bases of the two Divine essentials of the Lord's humanity, of which the Lord said, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, ye have no life in you' (John vi. 53). Those, therefore, who have a deep sense of the Lord's love and mercy in their redemption, and who have, as a necessary consequence, an ardent desire to honour and obey Him in all things, and to enter into communion and conjunction with Him as the Author of all blessing, need no pressure from without, but have only to yield to the impulse of their own affections to draw near to the Lord through that ordinance which He has consecrated as a medium of access to Him and of conjunction with Him.

But all have not this deep sense and ardent desire: therefore the constraining power of inward affection is not in all cases sufficient of itself to overcome the inertia of the natural mind, and even the more active opposition it sometimes offers to the promptings and purposes of the inner man. Indeed some of the opposing forces assume the form of reasons and conscientious scruples.

In the New Church we are privileged to enter intellectually into the doctrine of faith; and even the most sacred things are brought within the scope of our reason. There are, however, two kinds of reason-natural and spiritual. On spiritual subjects natural reason starts from the negative, and spiritual reason from the affirmative, side of the question; because natural reason looks at it from without, which is the region of appearances, and spiritual reason looks at it from within, which is the region of realities. Those who look at the sacraments from without cannot see what spiritual benefit an infant can derive from the sprinkling of water upon its face, or what spiritual benefit an adult can derive from eating bread and drinking wine. Of course no member of the New Church will reason in this negative

way; but some may not have penetrated so far on the affirmative side as to have seen clearly the Divine reasons in which these ordinances originated and the purposes they were intended to serve, and to have removed the obscurity produced by underlying appearances which, for the most part, are fallacies, and of which it is difficult entirely to divest ourselves.

It is one of the principles of the New Church doctrine that nothing is complete till it comes into ultimates, and that then only has it actual and permanent existence. This is true of the things of worship as well as of life, and eminently so of the two sacraments of Baptism and the Holy Supper. When the carnal dispensation of the Old Testament was succeeded by the spiritual dispensation of the New, although the ceremonial law, as an elaborate system of outward observance, was abolished, its essential elements were retained. All its ceremonial washings were gathered up, in a concentrated form, into the ordinance of Baptism, and all its meat and drink offerings into the ordinance of the Holy Supper. When the Church thus rose from the dead (for the spirit of Christianity was contained in the literal form of Judaism) its resurrection was like that of man who, when he rises from the dead, throws off the gross material body, but retains what may be regarded as its essential principles or elements,—something from the purest substances of nature, which forms the cutaneous covering of his spiritual body, and becomes the basis of his existence in the spiritual world. Something like that which took place also with respect to the ceremonial law took place with respect to the moral law. As all the ceremonials of the ritual law were gathered up into the two sacraments of Baptism and the Holy Supper, so all duties of the moral law were gathered up into the two commandments of love to God and love to the neighbour; with this difference, however, that the moral law, in its original form, remains in force, though it is all fulfilled in the law of love, for love is the fulfilling of the law. The two sacraments of Baptism and the Holy Supper are as necessary to the existence of the Christian Church as the whole ceremonial observances of the Levitical law-the purifications and sacrifices-were to the existence of the Jewish Church; and the observance of the Christian sacraments is as much a duty and necessity to the Christian as the observance of the ceremonial law was to the Jew. The observance of the ceremonial law was a principal means of preserving the Jewish Church and people, and through them the human race, in connection with heaven. The devout observance of the ritual law kept them in a state of

external sanctity, in which, through the medium of simple spirits who regarded the external only, they were able to have connection with the angels. The devout observance of the Holy Supper by the Christian has the effect of bringing him into consociation with the angels, not through intermediate spirits, but directly; for he is enabled to be in a holy state both internally and externally, so that he has not only connection but consociation with the angels, and, through them, not only communion but conjunction with the Lord. And this holy state is greatly exalted, and consociation with the angels is rendered more intimate, by the inward sanctity with which he is able to regard the ordinance itself. When the sacrament is partaken of without any further idea than that the bread and wine represent, or even that they are or contain, the flesh and blood of His crucified body, the angels can have consociation with the sincere and devout communicant by virtue of the connection which exists between the spirit and the letter, they being in the spiritual and he in the literal idea of the Lord's body and blood. But when the communicant has the true spiritual view of the whole subject,-when he knows that the Lord's flesh and blood are those not of His crucified but of His glorified body, which are goodness itself and truth itself; that these are truly the meat and drink of the soul; that the bread and wine of the Holy Supper are the symbols of these Divine principles of spiritual life; and that the acts of eating and drinking are correspondences of the appropriation or active and actual reception of the Lord's goodness and truth into the will and understanding;—when he knows further that the Lord is entirely present in the Holy Supper with the whole of His redemption, and that He opens heaven to those who approach it worthily, there is not only a correspondence but a unity of thought and affection between angelic and human minds during the administration and celebration of the Lord's Supper. Yet it is not by merely reflecting on the Divine ordinance, which we can do at any time, that its proper effects are experienced, but in its actual reception, on the ground that all effects are produced in ultimates,-for there the Divine ordinance is in its fulness, in its sanctity, and in its power.

"Baptism is an introduction into the Church, and the Holy Supper is an introduction into heaven." But are none introduced into the Church except by Baptism, or into heaven except by the Holy Supper? Let us hear what the Writings say upon these subjects, and then endeavour to form a sound conclusion. We are not at present so

much concerned with their teaching on the subject of Baptism; nor is there so much need to press it on the attention of the Church; for Christian parents seldom fail to present their children to the Lord through Baptism, while some fail to present themselves to the Lord through the Holy Supper. But the same principle underlies both, and there is a connection between them that it is of some importance to attend to. "These two sacraments are as it were two gates leading to eternal life. By Baptism, which is the first gate, every Christian is initiated into the doctrines which the Church teaches from the Word respecting the future life, all which are so many means to prepare him and conduct him to heaven. The other gate is the Holy Supper, through which every one who has suffered himself to be prepared and led by the Lord is introduced and admitted into heaven. There are no other universal gates but these." It is those, then, who, having entered the Church through the gate of Baptism, have been instructed in the doctrines of the Church, and have afterwards suffered themselves to be prepared and led by the Lord, who are introduced into heaven through the gate of the Holy Supper. But it may seem to be inconsistent with the teaching of the Writings themselves, as well as with sound reason, to suppose that the Holy Supper is the only universal gate of introduction into heaven. The Author, in his chapter on the subject in the True Christian Religion, states that in the Holy Supper the Lord is present, and opens heaven to those who are born of Him, that is, who are regenerate (728), and that none approach the Holy Supper worthily but those who are interiorly conjoined with the Lord, and those only are interiorly conjoined with Him who are regenerate (726). But is not regeneration or the new birth sufficient of itself to introduce us into heaven without any external ordinance? The truth appears to be that regeneration effects interior conjunction with the Lord, and that the Holy Supper effects exterior conjunction also. And as conjunction is not complete or secure until it is both internal and external; so neither is regeneration itself complete or secure till we have sealed it by the solemn act of self-consecration to the Lord our Redeemer and Saviour, which He requires of us in the injunction to meet Him at His table, and there partake with Him of His Last Supper. Hence we are instructed in the Writings that the Holy Supper "is a signing, sealing, certifying, and witnessing, even before the angels, that its worthy receivers are the sons of God, and moreover is a key to a house in heaven, where they are to dwell to all eternity."

There is a simple but striking statement on this subject which bears an indirect but powerful testimony to the importance of this Divine ordinance. 66 Such," our Author says, as die in their infancy or childhood, and so do not arrive at an age capable of approaching the Holy Supper worthily, are introduced into heaven by the Lord through Baptism." How singular that this fact should be so carefully recorded. And does it not teach us that those who do arrive at an age capable of worthily approaching the Holy Supper are introduced into heaven only through that holy ordinance? It is not indeed to be concluded that all who do not enter through this gate are of necessity excluded from heaven; but it is undoubtedly to be inferred that those who do not avail themselves of this gate of introduction deprive themselves, to some extent, of the Divine protection and blessing which this holy sacrament was intended to secure, and remain on the threshold when they might have entered in at the door, laying up for themselves, when they pass out of this world, some painful discipline before they can be actually admitted into the kingdom of heaven.

But that the Holy Supper is necessary as an introduction into heaven is not left to be inferred, but is plainly and positively declared. "The true ground and reason why the Holy Supper is, to worthy receivers, a signature and seal that they are the sons of God, is because the Lord is then present, and introduces into heaven those who are born of Him, that is, who are regenerate. That the Holy Supper effects this is a consequence of the Lord's being present even as to His Humanity; for the Lord with the whole of His redemption is present in the Holy Supper: therefore He says of the bread, 'This is My body,' and of the wine, 'This is My blood.' He consequently admits at such times the worthy receivers into His body, which consists of, and is formed by, heaven and the Church. While man is being regenerated the Lord is indeed present with him, and preparing him by His Divine operation for heaven; but that he may be actually admitted he must actually present himself to the Lord; and as the Lord does actually present Himself to man, man must actually receive Him,-not, indeed, as He hung upon the Cross, but in His glorified Humanity, in which He is present: and the body of this Humanity is Divine good and its blood is Divine truth, which are given to man, and by which he is regenerated and is in the Lord and the Lord in him; for eating and drinking, as acts performed at the Holy Supper, are of a spiritual nature. From a right perception of these truths it