Confideration.

1. It is a direct Act of Difobedience against Christ's plain and peremptory Command. 2. It proceedeth mainly from an evil Conscience. 3. It is a most injurious Sin against a Mans own Soul.

1. IT is a direct Act of Difobedience against Christ's plain and peremptory Command. Concerning the Inftitution of this Mystery, these four things are very obfervable. I. That the Command about the Celebration of it, is as ftrict and Imperial, as any other Law whatsoever, that is about things which are of a moral nature, and of Eternal Obligation. Take and Eat, faith our Lord, Matth. 26. and Do this in remembrance of me: So St. Luke delivers it, Luk. 22. Now this runs in as commanding a Style,as that Precept doth,. Matth. 4. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou ferve: And. as the other Precepts run, Matth. 19. Thou fhalt do no Murder, Thou shalt not commit Adultery, Thou shalt not Steal, Thou shalt not bear falfe Witnefs, Honour thy Father and Mother, and, Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy felf. I do not here compare. Thing with Thing, a Ceremony with Morality, but one Command with another: And seeing all of them are equally as plain and peremptory on the one hand, as they

are

are on the other, it neceffarily followeth, that though the nature of the thing it felf doth not, yet the Command doth bind us to Obedience in one point, as well as in the reft; the Divine Law being Authoritative, and the Will of God being Obliging in fmaller, as well as in the more weighty matters. 2.This Command touching our receiving the Bleffed Sacrament, is one of those new Laws which are strictly and properly called Chriftian Precepts. Thofe Everlafting Duties of Godliness, Righteoufnefs, and Sobriety, tho' Chrift did Adopt them, and make them a part of his Law, yet we cannot call them the peculiar Laws of Jefus Chrift, because they were enacted and written in Mens hearts from the Beginning, and they are common to Chriftians, and Jews, and Heathens alfo. But the Law touching this Sacrament is perfectly an Evangelical Command; and the Obfervation thereof is a direct and immediate Profeffion of our Discipleship, and of our Faith in him, and Love to him, who came to take away the Mofaical Rites, whereby Jews were diftinguifhed from other People; and inftituted this Solemnity as a fœderal Rite of his own, to be the outward Mark and Cognizance of a Chriftian. 3. It is obfervable, that Chrift gave no plain and

nofitive

pofitive Command about this matter, till his. Laft Supper, and just before the time of his Departure; to fhew unto us (as St. Austin hath fomewhere noted) that the Obfervation of this Solemnity, ought to be had in very Venerable and Lafting Efteem. Because nothing is more Natural to Men, than to remember and value the Injunctions of a Dying Friend, whose Laft Commands are apt to leave a deep impreffion upon our Minds, and a continual warmth upon our Affections. There fore, though our Bleffed Saviour, intended all along to Inftitute this Ordinance, yet he was pleased to poft-pone the Inftitution of it, and to referve it until his Death, to put his Church in mind of the vaft Importance of this Myftery, that the might fet and Devote her felf to the Religious Observation of That, which the had Received at the Hands of her Dying Lord, as the laft Request and Pledge of his fincereft Love. To which we may add in the 4th place, That this Myftery beareth an immediate and near Relation to Christ himself, because it is the great and standing Memorial of his Philanthropy. This Character he himself hath fet upon it, that it is the Annunciation of the most Marvellous Love that he could fhew unto the World; This do in remembrance of me. Lord!

Lord! were there not a thousand other Arguments of his Love to us, from his Nativity to his Crofs? What were all his Sermons, Miracles, Sufferings, but fo many Declarations and Monuments of his Goodness, to perpetuate the Memory thereof to all Ages? And yet, we fee, he appointed this Ordinance, to be in remembrance of him Chiefly and Principally. Here we do moft Solemnly Commemorate the Incomparable Greatnefs of his Love; we do Publickly own and Declare it; we Proclaim and Publifh it before God and Man. So that now by all this put together, the Neceffity. of Receiving this Sacrament doth plainly appear. For to deny this Neceffity, is no other than tacitely to deny, that we are to observe Chrift's Laws; to refuse Obedience, is in effect to deny him to be our Lord; it is to caft off our Livery, and to renounce our Profeffion; to despise this Memorial of his Philanthropy, is to render our felves the most Infenfate and Unthankful Wretches, that are as willing to have the Memory of his Love Dye, as the Jews were to have Him Expire upon the Cross.

I am fure, in the Primitive and Pureft times of Christianity, Men accounted it a great Act of Religion, and a main Expreffion of their Affections to the Holy

Jefus

Jefus,to Celebrate this Mystery very often; nay, they looked upon this Solemnity, as a neceffary part of their conftant Wor.. fhip; without which, the reft of their Services were imperfect and lame. Religion began to be Decrepit and Cold; when the Custom of Receiving a few times in the year, ftole into the Church of Christ. For not only in the Apostles time, but for a long time after, Chriftians were wont to Address themselves to the Lord's Table, every Lord's day, as evidently appears out of Justin Martyr, St. Cyprian, Jerome, Auftin, and fome more of the Ancients; nay, in the Synod at Antioch, it was Decreed; That all fuch, as at any time met together in the House of God to hear the Scrip tures, fhould be Excommunicated if they Stayed not to Receive the Holy Communion. Devotion, which now is, as it were, vanish'd into Smoak, in those times fhined in a mighty Flame; The Hearts of Men were on fire, and their Zeal was Active and Sprightly in this particular, because they reckoned it a neceffary piece of Religion. I confefs, the Practice of the Church, is not that which maketh a thing Neceffary: Yet 'tis a fair and ftrong Argument of its Neceffity, as being a good Comment upon our Lord's Command. The continued Practice of the Church

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