halves; my condition admits not of those middle states of virtue which hold, as it were a mid-way between innocence and guilt; if not a saint, I am a monster; if not a vessel of honour, I am a vessel of shame; if not an angel of light, there is no room to hesitate, I am an angel of darkness; and, if not a living temple of thy Spirit, I must be its profaner. Good God! what powerful motives for vigilance, for self-examination, for circumspection, for approaching thine altars with trembling; for humility, tears, and compunction, while waiting the manifestation of thine adorable judgments! But still, my brethren, it is not enough to communicate in remembrance of Jesus Christ; and in order to retrace his life, it is likewise necessary, and this is the last disposition, to renew the remembrance of his death, and to show him whenever we eat of his body and drink of his blood; and this is what I call a noble faith which leads us to sacrifice.
Reflection IV. — As oft as you shall eat of the body and drink of the blood of the Lord, you will show his death until the kingdom of God shall come. How is this? Literally speaking, his death is shown, because this mystery was a prelude to his passion; because Judas there determined to betray him; because Jesus Christ, eager to undergo that baptism of blood with which he was to be baptized, anticipated its fulfilment, and sacrificed himself beforehand by the mystical separation of his body and of his blood; because the eucharist is the permanent sacrifice of the church, the fruit and the fulness of that of the cross: lastly, because Jesus Christ is there as in a state of death; he hath a mouth, and speaks not; eyes, and uses them not; feet, and walks not. But, my brethren, in that sense the impious, equal with the just man, shows the death of the Lord as oft as he eats of his body: it is a mystery and not a merit; it is the nature of the sacrament, and not the privilege of him who receives it: it is a consequence of its institution, and not a disposition for approaching it. Now, the design of the apostle here is to prevent the abuses, to instruct believers how to eat worthily of the body of the Lord, to explain to them, in the mysteries contained in this sacrament, the dispositions which it requires. There is a way, therefore, of showing the death of the Lord, which should be wholly in our hearts, which disposes and prepares us, which fits the situation of our soul to the nature of this mystery, which makes us to bear upon our body the mortification of Jesus Christ, which immolates and crucifies us with him. Let us resume the reasons we have touched upon, and change the letter into spirit.
First. The death of the Lord is shown, because this mystery was a prelude to his passion. In former times the eucharist was a prelude to martyrdom. From the moment that the rage of the tyrant was declared, and the persecution began, all the believers ran to provide themselves with this bread of life; they carried this precious trust into their houses: death seemed less terrible to them when they had before their eye the beloved pledge of their immor-
