they must also believe that his omnipotence can accomplish the great work which we admire and adore in the Sacrament of the Eucharist; and again, believing as they do, the Holy Catholic Church, they must necessarily believe that the doctrine expounded by us, is that which was revealed by the Son of God.
But nothing contributes more to light up in the pious soul that spiritual joy, of which we have spoken; nothing is more fertile of spiritual fruit, than the contemplation of the exalted dignity of this most august Sacrament. From it we learn how great must be the perfection of the gospel dispensation, under which we enjoy the reality of that, which under the Mosaic Law was only shadowed by types and figures. Hence St. Denis, with a wisdom more than human, says that our Church is a mean between the synagogue and the heavenly Jerusalem, and participates of the nature of both. [1] The perfection of the Holy Catholic Church, and her exalted glory, removed only by one degree from heaven, the faithful cannot sufficiently admire. In common with the inhabitants of heaven, we, too, possess Christ, God and man, present with us; but they, and in this they are raised a degree above us, are admitted to the actual enjoyment of the beatific vision; whilst we, with a firm and unwavering faith, offer the tribute of our homage to the Divine Majesty present with us, not, it is true, in a manner visible to mortal eye, but hidden by a miracle of power, under the veil of the sacred mysteries. How admirably does not this Sacrament, also, display to us the infinite love of Jesus Christ to man! It became the goodness of the Saviour not to withdraw from us that nature which he assumed for our sake, but to desire, as far as possible, to dwell permanently amongst us, at all times strictly verifying the words: " My delight is to be with the children of men." [2]
Here the pastor will also explain to the faithful, that in this Sacrament are contained not only the true body of Christ, and all the constituents of a true body, but also Christ whole and entire - that the word Christ designates the man-God, that is to say, one Person in whom are united the divine and human natures - that the holy Eucharist, therefore, contains both, and whatever is included in the idea of both, the divinity and humanity whole and entire, the soul, the body and blood of Christ with all their component parts all of which faith teaches us are contained in the Sacrament. In heaven the whole humanity is united to the divinity in one hypostasis, or person, and it were impious, therefore, to suppose that the body of Christ, which is contain ed in the Sacrament, is separated from his divinity. [3]
The pastor, however, will not fail to observe, that in the Sacrament all are not contained after the same manner, or by the same efficacy: some things, we say, the efficacy of consecra-
