the Gentiles took part in the spiritual blessings of the Jews. Hence we have such expressions as the following : participa- tion of his Son, 1 Cor. 1, 9 ; participation of the Spirit, 2 Cor. 13, 13. Phil. 2, 1 ; participation of the ministry, 2 Cor. 8, 4; of the gospel, Phil. 1, 5 ; of sufferings, Phil. 3, 5. Of course the nature of this participation depends on the nature of its object. Participation of Christ is sharing in his Spirit, charac- ter, sufferings and glory ; participation of the gospel is parti- cipation of its benefits ; and thus participation of the blood of Christ is partaking of its benefits. This passage affords not the slightest ground for the Romish or Lutheran doctrine of a participation of the substance of Christ's body and blood. When in 1, 9 it is said, "We are called into the fellowship or participation of his Son," it is not of the substance of the God- head that we partake. And when the Apostle John says, " We have fellowship one with another," i. e. we are (Kotvoivoi) partners one of another, 1 John 1, 7, he does not mean that we partake of each other's corporeal substance. To share in a sacrifice offered in our behalf is to share in its efficacy ; and as Christ's blood means his sacrificial blood, to partake of his blood no more means to partake of his literal blood, than whenit is said his blood cleanses from all sin, it is meant that his literal corporeal blood has this cleansing efficacy. When we are said to receive the sprinkling of his blood, 1 Pet. 1, 1, it does not mean his literal blood.
The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ ? That is, by partaking of the bread we par- take of the body of Christ. This is but a repetition of the thought contained in the preceding clause. The cup is the means of participation of his blood ; the bread the means of participation of his body. The body of Christ cannot here mean the church, because his blood is mentioned in the same connection, and because in the institution of the Lord's supper the bread is the symbol of Christ's literal, and not of his mys- tical body. To partake of his body, is to partake of the bene- fits of his body as broken for us. Which we break. This is in evident allusion to the original institution of the sacrament. Our Lord " took bread, and having given thanks, he brake it and said. Take, eat ; this is my body which is broken for you." 1 Cor. 11, 24. The whole service, therefore, is often called the " breaking of bread." Acts 2, 42. 20, 7. The custom, there- fore, of using a wafer placed unbroken in the mouth of the