Church of Rome as well as by us for one Essential part of the Priestly Mission and accordingly made use of by them in their Ordination So that either this Sacrament may be reiterated or the Character divided and one part conferr'd at one time the other at another all which is contrary to their own Principles or else the Apostles were not ordain'd Priests when they received the Holy Eucharist but when our Saviour here breathed upon them and both by his Action and his Words plainly expressed his Mission of them I say not to insist on any of these things either we must look upon these words to relate to the whole Church to the People as well as to the Priests and then to be sure they cannot have either the Effect or Signification that they herein attribute unto them or else it will remain that there is no Divine Command at all entituling the People to any Right to this Holy Sacrament For if our Saviour spoke to his Apostles as Priests if he not only took the Bread and the Cup and consecrated them as a Priest himself but also distributed them to the Apostles as Priests and bad them Take Eat and Drink as Priests then are not the People no not by Cardinal Bellarmin's consequence at all concerned in any part of this Institution which the Priests only by virtue of this Command are obliged to continue and consecrate offer give receive all by themselves and to one another as Christ and his Apostles here are supposed without the rest of the Disciples and as Priests to have done To pass by therefore this Interpretation both so lately invented and so weakly established set up to support that bold attempt of depriving the People of one half of the Communion and that upon such Principles as in the natural consequence of them rob them of both I go on to the other Point I have proposed and shall now take leave somewhat more largely to insist upon Viz. II. To shew what indeed it was that our Saviour here commanded his Apostles and in them all of us to do in Remembrance of Him And to this end it will be necessary that we distinctly to consider these Two things First What we are to understand by the Phrase Do this Secondly What it is to Do this in Remembrance of Christ First What we are to understand by the Phrase Do this I answer That if we take these words as they lye before us in the first and most obvious Form of a Command they will then imply a Commission hereby given to the Apostles and in them to the whole Church to continue this Holy Sacrament by an Ordinance for ever as a Solemn Memorial of that Death and Passion which he was now about to undergo for us When God was pleased by a wonderful Deliverance to bring up the Children of Israel out of the Land of Egypt we read in the Twelfth Chapter of Exodus That the same Night in which he did it he commanded them to kill a Lamb and eat it after a solemn manner with bitter herbs and unleavened-bread and to continue every Year by a constant repetition of that Sacred Ceremony the Memory of that Deliverance which he had wrought for them In like manner our Saviour Christ being now to fulfil that Redemption wâ—ereof the other was but a Type and Representation takes care for a Solemn Memorial to be continued of it in all Ages of his Church to the End of the World He institutes another and better Supper and the Observation whereof should not only be the Commemoration of his Delivering us but to the worthy Partaker of it the application also of all the Benefits of it He takes Bread blesses it and breaks it He takes the Cup and blesses it and distributes both to his Disciples and then in the words of the Text bids them also do the same in Remembrance of Him That as the Jewish Church had by their Paschal Feast hitherto kept up the Memory of God's once delivering their Fathers from the destroying Angel in the Land of Egypt so should we from henceforth by this Feast of Eucharist continue the remembrance of that infinitely greater and better Redemption which he was just now about to purchase by his own Death upon the Cross for us And this is no doubt the first and most proper design of these words But now Secondly If we consider them not only as a Command but as they are a Direction to inform his Apostles first and then us how we should celebrate this Holy Sacrament they will then add thus much to our former Account namely that we have here not only in general a Command to continue the Memory of the Death of Christ in this Holy Sacrament but moreover an Instruction also after what manner we are to do it That as our Saviour Christ here took the Bread blessed it and brake it and gave it to his Disciples saying Take Eat this is my Body which was given for you As he took the Cup blessed it and gave it to them saying Drink ye All of this so should those who now minister in Holy Things when they stand at the Altar and set forth the Death of Christ in this Sacred Memorial of it after his Example and in Obedience to his Command in like manner take and bless and distribute these Sacred Elements to all those who partake with them in this Sacrament * As the Apostles received first the Bread then the Cup too at his Hands so should all they who supply the place of the Apostles at our Tables receive both the one and the other of these after their Example * And whosoever he be that celebrates this Holy Feast in any other manner than the Blessed Jesus did and has given us a Command to do it he therein both departs from the Example of our Saviour and violates the design of his Precept who not only in that particular manner as so many of the Holy Pen-men have set forth to us establish'd this Sacrament Himself but in the words of my Text has expresly commanded us to continue it for ever in the same manner in which he established it Do this in Remembrance of Me. But here therefore let me not be mis-understood For when I say that our Saviour Christ in my Text commanding his Apostles to do this in Remembrance of him did not only in general command them to perpetuate the Memory of his Death by this Holy Ordinance for ever but did moreover direct them after what Manner they should do it I do not mean to signifie thereby that we ought to look upon our selves to be so tied up to the Example of Christ as not to be at liberty to depart in any the least Circumstances from that first Celebration of it For then we must never administer nor receive this Holy Sacrament but after Supper in a private Chamber or upper Room to Men only and not to Women and those just twelve
come frequently too When you shall begin effectually to perceive the Benefit of your Communicating in the still new encrease of Piety and Holiness in all your Actions When being full with a constant Sense of the Love of the Blessed Jesus here set forth to us you shall find it to be the Desire and Longing of your Souls to come often to this grateful and pleasing Declaration of it When in a Word being accustomed to consider the Blessings and Advantages of that New Covenant our Blessed Master has sealed to us in his Blood and here offers to renew with us in this Sacrament you shall wish if it might be every Day to repeat it and think you can never enough declare your Desires of being admitted into the Conditions and Advantages of it And thus have I offered to you what I suppose may suffice for the full Explication of the Words before us And from the Account of which we may now easily see What is the true Nature and Design of this Holy Sacrament Namely that it was instituted by our Saviour to be a Sacred and Solemn Memorial of that Death and Passion which he underwent for us and of the great Benefits and Advantages which accrue to us thereby That as by the Paschal Feast among the Jews God perpetuated the Remembrance of his preserving them from the destroying Angel first and then delivering them from their Egyptian Bondage and engaged them to a constant annual Return of Joy and Thanksgiving to Him for so great a Blessing So by this better Passover should we in like manner keep up for ever in the Church a lively and affectionate Commemoration of that better and more glorious Preservation which our paschal Lamb the Lord Jesus has by his own Blood obtained for us and set forth to the whole World that grateful and vigorous Sense which we have of so wonderful and blessed a Deliverance Now this being the true meaning and Design of this Holy Sacrament we may from hence see How great and dangerous the Mistakes are which some have run into concerning it with reference both to Faith and Practice For 1. If this Sacrament as we have before shewn was instituted as a Memorial of the Death and Passion of our Saviour Christ It is then plain That it is not our very Saviour Christ Himself neither in the State of his death nor in any other that is here presented to us There have been in the Church since the time of Paschasius Radbertus one of the first considerable Innovators that we meet with in the Doctrine of this Holy Eucharist among others two different Opinions concerning the Real or Corporal Presence of Christ in this Sacrament and both maintained with no small contention at this day One That the Bread and Wine are converted into the very Natural Body and Blood of Christ so that nothing of the Bread and Wine themselves at all remain but only in shew and appearance which is what they called Transubstantiation the other That the true Substances of the outward Elements the Bread and the Wine do indeed remain but that the very Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ are in an extraordinary and supernatural manner joyned to them so that in the Communion of them we do together with the Bread and Wine receive the true Body and Blood of Christ into our Mouths truly and really present which they call Consubstantiation Now however the latter of these be much the more pardonable Error of the two as neither doing any Violence to our Senses which evidently tell us That what we see and receive in this Sacrament is certainly Bread and Wine nor contradicting the many Passages of Scripture which declare to us the same thing yet are they both very great Mistakes The natural Body of Christ being not capable of existing in more Places than one at the same Time nor to be divested of the inseparable Properties of a Body such as Extension of Parts Space Figure and the like in which the very Nature of a Body as it is distinguished from a Spirit does consist But these Opinions do not only involve a plain Impossibility in the very Nature of the Thing it self but moreover do carry a manifest Incongruity to the Nature and Design of this Institution For if the End of this Holy Sacrament were as our Text shews to be a Remembrance of Christ a Sign and Figure of his Body broken and of his Blood shed for us then certainly as in all other Cases the Sign must be different from the thing signified so here the Sacrament of Christ's Body is not his Body but the Memorial of it the Sacrament of his Blood is not his very Blood but the Figure and Representation of it And thus these latter Words Do this in Remembrance of Me become the best and clearest Interpretation of the former This is my Body which is given for you and shew that we are to interpret it after the same manner as when we read in the like kind of Speaking in the Old Testament This is the Lord 's Passover i. e. the Memorial of that Action when the Angel passed over the Houses of the Children of Israel and destroyed them not when at the same Time he slew the Egyptians But here it may be asked Do we then exclude Christ altogether from this Holy Sacrament and leave only an empty Sign a meer ceremonial Remembrance of him and no more God forbid Nay but I dare say We esteem Christ to be no less present tho' in another manner than they Inasmuch as in this Sacred Ordinance he communicates Himself in the Benefits of His Passion in a more especial manner to every faithful Receiver of this Blessed Sacrament and makes the Bread which he eats and the Wine which he drinks become not indeed by any such needless and absurd Change as we before mentioned but by Grace and Blessing by his divine Power and Spiritual Communication his Body broken and his Blood shed for us to all the Effects of Piety and Justification The Elements are not altered they continue not only after the Consecration but in the very receiving of them the same they were before Bread and Wine without any bodily Substance besides either veiled under those Appearances or received together with them But by Faith at the same Time that we take these into our Mouths we take Him also whom they represent into our Souls Not as bringing Christ from Heaven but raising up our Minds and our Hearts to that Holy Place where he is we unite our selves to Him and have all the Benefits of his Death and Passion communicated to us for the Forgiveness of our Sins for the increase of his Grace and Favour to us here and to be at once both the surest Earnest and the most effectual Means to bring us to everlasting Happiness hereafter This is that real but divine and spiritual Presence of our Saviour in this Sacrament which we firmly believe and which secures
to be seduced from the right Faith he may deserve indeed to be pitied now but I fear he will hardly be hereafter excused But it is not sufficient to secure our selves against this danger He that will be constant in his Religion as he ought to be must see 2 dly That he be not too apt to entertain an ill Opinion of it For if it be Obstinacy on the one hand not to admit of any Conviction thò never so clear and reasonable it is certainly a great Weakness on the other to be affrighted at every shadow of an Argument and to put it in the power of every little Disputer to prejudice us against our Religion because one who is its professed Enemy rails against it and pretends it is a very ill One He would I believe be thought a very credulous person indeed who should begin to stagger and fall into a trembling thô he saw himself upon plain and even Ground because a bold and fanciful man is very positive that 't is a precipice And doubtless that Man is no less to be pitied that is frighted for fear he should be in the wrong thô he has the undoubted Authority of Scripture and Antiquity nay and even of Sense and Reason too on his side as often as every Common-place Trifler shall think fit to run over his division upon the Church the Antiquity Succession Infallibility of it and without either Modesty or Proof call us Hereticks If Men have Reason on their side if they have Scripture for what they say let them on God's Name produce it We are always ready to consider and to submit to such convictions But otherwise to think to perswade us that we are in utter darkness when we see the Sun shining in our faces That we must be damned for not believing that what we see and tast and know to be but a bit of Bread is not the Body of a Man That they are not Infallible who are actually involved in the grossest Errors In a word That our Church had no being before Luther every Article of whose Faith is founded upon the Authority of the Holy Scriptures and has been professed in all Ages of the Church from the Apostles to this day this is certainly one of the most unreasonable things in the whole World and what ought not by any means to stagger our stedfastness And now having secured our selves on both these sides it only remains to preserve our Constancy 3 dly That if at any time any Arguments should be offer'd to us that may deserve our regard we then be sure to give them that due and wise Examination that we ought to do It is a very great Weakness and indeed a very great fault in many persons that if at any time they begin to doubt in their belief of any part of their Faith which they have been taught to profess they presently abandon their own Guides and run for satisfaction to those who are the professed Enemies of their Religion From henceforth they hear nothing but what is ill of their Church they are taught more and more to suspect the way that they are in and then 't is odds but a very little examination suffices to make them leave it This is certainly a very great fault and will one day prove of very dangerous consequence What such persons may think of changing their Religion I cannot tell but sure I am our greatest Charity will hardly enable us to entertain any very comfortable Opinion of them Nor are they such as those that we either say or believe may be saved notwithstanding the errors and corruptions of that Church with which they Communicate He that will make a safe change from one Religion to another must not think it enough to enquire into one or two points and having received a satisfaction in them embrace all the rest at a venture for their sakes but he must pass distinctly through every Article in debate He must enquire not only whether the Church of which he is at present a Member be not mistaken in some points it may be there is no Church in the World that is absolutely free from all kind of Error But whether those mistakes be of such a consequence that he cannot communicate any longer with it on the account of them When this is done the greatest difficulty will still remain to examine with the same diligence every Article of that other Church to which he is tempted For else thô he should have reason to forsake his own Church he will yet be but little advantaged if he goes to another that is as bad or it may be worse than that If there he should find the most part well yet so that there are but any One or Two things so Erroneous as to oblige him to profess what he thinks to be false or to practice what is unlawful even this will be sufficient to hinder him from reconciling himself to it And in all this there must be a serious and diligent and impartial search There must be no prejudice in favour of the One or against the Other no desire that the Truth should be on this side rather than on that In short nothing must be omitted whereby he might reasonably have got a better Information And to all this Care there must be added fervent Prayer to God for his assistance He who falls away from his first Faith on any lesser convicton than this can never excuse himself from a criminal lightness in a matter of such concern And for him that sincerely does this I shall for my part be content that he should leave the Church of England whenever he can be thus convinced that any other but especially that the Church of Rome is a safer way to Salvation And this may suffice to have been said to the first particular What that stedfastness in Religion is to which our Text exhorts us I go on 2 dly to shew II. Upon what Motives it was that the Apostle here stirred up the Christians to whom he wrote and that I am now in like manner to exhort you to such a stedfastness Now these our Text reduces to this One General Consideration That they both understood their danger and were expresly forewarn'd by his Epistle how careful it would behove them to be to arm themselves against it Ye therefore Beloved seeing ye know these things before Beware And doubtless it is not only a great security but ought to be also a great engagement to such a vigilance to be thus expresly forewarned of our danger And he who either neglecting or despising the Admonition suffers himself to be seduced from his own stedfastness must certainly be utterly inexcusable both in the sight of God and Man for his Inconstancy But that which will aggravate this neglect yet much more is the consideration of those Motives by which the Apostle here cautions them to Beware and which therefore I must lay a little more distinctly before you Now such
but One God and one only Mediator between God and Man Christ Jesus But our New-Masters are not thus content They set up if not more Gods yet I am sure more Objects of their Religious Worship more Mediators than one and teach men to address their Prayers more frequently through the Merits and Intercession of their new Advocates to whose Patronage they have committed themselves than through His who is the true Christians only Advocate Christ blessed for ever * Christianity forbids us to make any graven Images the likeness of any thing in Heaven above to Bow down before it and worship it These false Prophets set up their Images in every Church and bow down to the work of their hands For this end they consecrate them with many Abominations And however some think fit to dissemble it yet others speak it boldly out as the Doctrine of their Church That the very same Religious Worship is to be given to the Cross of Christ that is paid to Him that suffered upon it * Christianity commands us to pray in a tongue which the Church understands that so the unlearned may be able to say Amen at our giving of thanks Our New Guides direct men to pray in a tongue which to be sure the people do not and which sometimes even the Priest too that officiates understands as little as they * Christianity is a Religion that teaches men to be meek and humble not to think of themselves above what they ought to think but when they have done all to say they are unprofitable servants But our new Teachers have not so learnt of Christ. They know a little better how to value their own performances Instead of saying they are unprofitable servants they teach men to value themselves on the account of their Merits to look upon Heaven to be but an equal recompence of their Piety nay yet more that they may live so as to make God a Debtor to them beyond all the Glories of Eternity and to merit a Crown both for themselves and others * In short for there is indeed no end of the contradiction Christianity commands us to take bread to bless it and break it To take Wine bless it and pour it out and eat and drink at the Holy Table in remembrance of that Death and Passion which our Blessed Saviour once for all underwent upon the Cross for us But what now do our new Instructors They tell us here is neither Bread nor Wine to be eaten or drunk that they are I know not how converted into the very Natural Substance of Christ's Body and Blood That he was not offered up once for all but is here again as truly offered as ever he was upon the Cross That thereby a new Expiation is made for the Sins both of the dead and the living and thô our Saviour has as expresly commanded both kinds as either yet they declare that one is sufficient for the people to partake of and accordingly they give no more to them Thus you see how very little a Knowlege of our Lord and his Religion will suffice to show that there cannot be any just cause for any one to forsake the Communion of our Church to plunge himself into such an abyss of Error and Superstition as this And then if he be but equally advanced 2 dly In Grace too this will certainly secure him that no base motive no danger or Interest shall be able to prevail with him so to do Let the Seducer display all the seeming advantages of such a change Let him with his Master the Devil set us up upon the high mountain of our own vain imaginations There let him shew us all the Kingdoms of the Earth and the glories of them and to compleat the Parallel let him if he can add too All these things are mine and to whomsoever I will I can give them if thou wilt therefore renounce thy Faith and fall down and worship me all shall be thine By Grace we shall learn to despise them all This will convince us that there can be no true honour in dissembling a mans conscience and prostituting his Soul his Religion and his God to a little present advantage That the Riches of this world are but vanity that the true treasure is in Heaven In a word That the favour of the greatest Monarch is not worth the purchasing if to obtain that we must lose the favour of God for ever Let him shift the Scene instead of all these advantages let him set forth all the dangers that either the Devil can suggest or his own more furious Zeal invent By Grace we shall be able to despise even those too This will teach us that there is a God in Heaven who shall laugh them to scorn and whose Counsel it is that when all is done shall stand That if he pleases to protect us 't is not all their malice that can do us the least injury But that should he either for our Punishment or our Trial expose us to their rage yet still we ought with Moses to esteem the reproach of Christ beyond all the treasures of Egypt and chuse rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season This was the brave resolution of the Saints of old They were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection When Nebuchadnezzar commanded the three Children in Daniel to worship the golden image which he had set up they regarded neither the Majesty of the King nor the Threats of his fiery furnace They told him plainly That they were not careful to please him in that matter that their God if he pleased both could and would deliver them out of his hand But if not yet Be it known to thee O King that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up And the same has been the spirit of our forerunners in the Faith they have overcome all the fiery darts of the Devil whilst that Blessed Saviour who first gave the Command has ever since inspired his followers with strength and resolution to fulfil it Fear not them who can kill the body and after that have no more that they can do but fear him who can cast both soul and body into hell-fire yea I say unto you fear him Here then let us exercise our selves Let us be stedfast to our Faith and that we may be so Let us grow in grace and in the knowledg of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The Seducers amongst us are many they are diligent and watchful by any means to draw us into their Nets and God knows both their Religion and their Arguments are but too much adapted to our Passions and our Interests and may therefore be but too likely to prevail upon us But Ye therefore Beloved seeing ye know these things before beware Behold I have
on that one most just and reasonable Method never to leave our own Faith till we can be clearly and evidently convinced that we have a better offer'd to us in the stead of it and then we shall either free our selves altogether from the Attacks of our Adversaries who seldom care to meddle with honest and understanding Men or I am sure we shall not run any great Hazzard by their Attempts But above all Thirdly Whilst we thus contend for the Faith that was once delivered to the Saints let us be Followers of their Lives as well as of their Doctrine This is that which must save us when all our Disputes will otherwise stand us in no stead To believe aright will do us but small service if we do not live so too And I am persuaded would we but be prevailed with to do this as we ought it would not only most effectually secure us in the Truth but be the most likely means in the World to draw over others to it And indeed what pity is it that a Chureh which has in all other respects so many admirable Advantages above its Adversaries that it is defective in no other mark of being truly Primitive and even in this is less defective than others should not be blessed with this too Consider I beseech you that we rely upon none of those broken Reeds which others lay so much stress upon to make you happy in another Life though you are not upright and holy in this If there be then any concern for your own or your Church's honour if any value for your Immortal Souls if you desire the Blessing of God now and the benefit of his Promises in the World to come if these Motives which one would think should be of all others the most considerable may be allowed to have any influence at all upon you think then upon these things and fulfil ye our Joy in the practice of that Piety whereunto ye are called Be as Good as ye are Orthodox as free from all Corruption in your Manners as God be thanked you are from Error in your Belief Accomplish that great Work which Heaven seems at last to have begun among us And as we are now apparently more concern'd for our Religion than we have perhaps any of us heretofore been so let us go on in well-doing more and more Let us grow in Grace and then we shall also grow in the Knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ till finally we all come in the Vnity of the Faith and of the Knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect Man to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. OF THE Nature and End OF THE HOLY SACRAMENT OF THE Lord's Supper A SERMON Preach'd at St. PAVL's COVENT-GARDEN Decemb. 30. 1688. 1 COR. xi 24 This do in Remembrance of Me. THese Words are part of that Solemn Form in which our Blessed Saviour first celebrated the Holy Sacrament of his Body and Blood anâ— establish'd it as a sacred Institution to be continued for ever in his Church in remembrance of that Death and Passion which he was just then about to undergo for it Whether our Apostle recounted the History of this great Institution according to what some of those who were present at the first Celebration of it had delivered it unto him or whether as seems most probable he had received the manner of it by some extraordinary Revelation from our Saviour Christ himself This is plain that what he here reports to them of this matter was no idle Story no vain Account of his own Invention but a true and exact Relation of what the Blessed Jesus then did when in the same night in which he was betray'd he took Bread and when he had given thanks brake it and gave it to his Disciples saying Take Eat this is my Body which is broken for you This do in Remembrance of Me. So that our Text then you see contains a positive Command of our Saviour Christ himself of something which he ordered his Apostles to do with reference to this Holy Sacrament And my business at this time shall be to consider what that was and how far we at this day are to look upon our selves to be concerned in it I shall reduce what I have to offer upon this occasion to these two general Considerations I. Of the false Construction and Application which those of the Church of Rome make of these words Which having done so far as may be necessary to the following Discourse I will then II. Shew what indeed it was that our Blessed Saviour here commanded his Apostles and in them All of us to Do in Remembrance of Him And by that time I have clearly examin'd these Two Points I presume I shall in some measure have laid open the whole Nature and Design of this Holy Sacrament and in that have answer'd the End of these Solemn and Extraordinary Assemblies And first I am to consider I. That false Construction and Application which those of the Church of Rome make of these words It is the Opinion of those of the other Communion That our Saviour Christ here spoke to his Apostles not as the Representatives of the whole Body of the Church but as those whom he was now about to consecrate to the peculiar Office of the Ministry in it And therefore that commanding these To Do This He did at once both command them to continue this Holy Sacrament for ever in his Church and also at the same time invest them with a Power to Consecrate and Take and Distribute it to others as he had done to them To which if we did add their other Notion of this Sacrament viz. that in the Celebration of it there is a true and proper Offering made for the Sins and Satisfactions both of the Dead and the Living we shall then find the full import of our Text according to their sense to be this DO THIS that is Receive the power which I hereby give you of consecrating i. e. of converting these Elements of Bread and Wine into the true and proper Substance of my Body and Blood and having so done Offer them up to my Father as a true and real propitiatory Sacrifice for the Sins and Satisfactions for the Punishments and all other the Necessities of all my faithful Disciples whether they be alive or dead whether they be yet on Earth or gone to Purgatory Such is the Account which those of the Church of Rome give us of these words And in this they are so very confident that they not only Anathematize all those who shall say either that Christ in this Command did not institute his Apostles Priests or that he did not Command that they and other Priests should in like manner offer up his Body and Blood but have also made it the very Form of Ordaining Priests at this day in their Church having delivered the Patin and Chalice into
to us all the Blessings and Advantages which the others can hope for from their ungrounded and unwarrantable Opinion of a natural and corporal participation of Him 2. From this Account of the Design and End of this Institution it follows in the next Place What an Abuse they have made of it who from a Remembrance of a Sacrifice turn it into a Sacrifice it self and instead of esteeming this Sacrament a Memorial of that offering Christ once for all made for us suppose Him to be again as truly and properly offered in it as ever he was tho' not in the same manner that he was once upon the Cross. I shall not now insist so long upon this Point as to shew not only how contrary such an Opinion is to the express Authority of Holy Scripture which declares That Christ was to be offered once for all that by his once offering himself for us he has perfected for ever them that are sanctified and much more to the same purpose in the ixth and xth Chapters to the Hebrews but how derogatory to the Honour of our Saviour whether we consider his former Sufferings or his present Glory This is plain that if the Design of this blessed Sacrament were as our Text declares it to be a Remembrance of our Saviour's dying for us then it is not a new offering of Him there being nothing more absurd than to say of the same thing that it is both the Memorial of what was done many Ages ago and the very same thing again done in Memorial of its self 3. From the same Principles it will follow That if this Holy Sacrament be no more than a Remembrance of our Saviour Christ that then certainly those must have very desperately abused it who pay to it that Honour and Worship that they would do to our Saviour himself were his true and natural Body there present I need not say any thing to prove what the Superstition of the Church of Rome is as to this Matter They here freely own it themselves and censure us for not joyning with them in the same Service They elevate their Host in the Mass for the People to adore it They have instituted a solemn Feast every Year to be observed in Honour of it They dedicate religious Societies thereunto they set it forth upon their Altars to bless the People there assembled to its Worship If they carry it abroad whether to the Sick or upon the occasion of any solemn Processions they put it under a Canopy born all the while over it Candles and Tapers are carried before it and a Bell is rung all the Way that it passes to admonish all that are in sight of it to fall down and adore it And by all these and many other of their Actions they oblige all Persons to pay the supreme Honour that they give to God to this Holy Sacrament It were easie to shew how dangerous this Adoration is even upon their own Principles whether we consider the Impossibility of their being ever sure that their Host is indeed consecrated as it ought to be or that if it were yet at least the Accidents of the Bread and Wine which are Creatures and yet make up a Part of the Sacrament are by consequence joynt partakers of all their Worship But alas what I have now been speaking shews a great deal more Not only that the Accidents of the Bread and Wine have their Part in being Objects of this Worship but that our Saviour Christ indeed is not at all concerned in it They pay their Adoration to the inanimate Creatures of Bread and Wine and commit an Idolatry not much less gross in the Opinion of some of their own Writers if we are indeed in the Right than those who fall down before a Piece of red Cloth and pay their Adoration to a Tile or a Potsherd But 4. If our Saviour Christ in our Text plainly commanded his Apostles and in them all of us To do that in Remembrance of Him which he had there done before their Eyes if what he required in order to this Commemoration was That we should take Bread and Wine and bless and give and receive these in Memory of his Body which was given and of his Blood which was shed for us it will then follow in the Fourth place That those who do not do this have plainly departed from our Saviour's Institution and do not remember him as they are commanded to do And this alone is sufficient to confute that great Corruption of the same Church in Communicating the People only in One Kind And whatever Pretences they may offer for their so doing had they as just reason otherwise for altering the order of this Sacrament as God knows 't is plain they have not any at all yet this would still remain a perpetual Exception against it That our Saviour here expresly commands them to Do this i. e. that which himself then did in Remembrance of Him Who gave the Wine as well as Bread to his Apostles and repeated the Command after the one as well as the other and not what they should at any time after think fitting to do And these are such consequences as concern others rather than our selves who God be thanked are again delivered from all these Corruptions and have no otherwise any cause to remember them than as they serve to confirm us in our Pure and Holy Doctrine and Practice in this matter and ought to raise up our Souls to a grateful acknowledgment of God's Mercy to us who has freed us from such great and dangerous Errors and in which he still permits so many others to continue But there are yet some other Conclusions to be drawn from the foregoing Reflections and in which we may perhaps find somewhat that will be of a more near and direct concern to us For 5. If our Saviour Christ has here commanded us to Do this in Remembrance of Him that is to come to the Holy Table and receive this blessed Sacrament and make our publick and solemn Acknowledgments to him for his great Mercy in dying for us What then shall we say of those who despising this sacred Ordinance do either totally absent themselves from this Memorial or come but very seldom and negligently to it This certainly must needs be a great fault as it is evidently contrary to the express Command of our Saviour in the Text before us And if we may make any Judgment of Christ's resentment of it either from the Nature of the thing it self or from the severe Punishment God threatned unto those in the Old Testament who should neglect the like Memorial of the Paschal Feast one of the greatest Provocations any Christian can almost be guilty of If we consider the thing it self what does he who despises this Holy Sacrament and neglects to partake of it but in effect despise Christ himself and tread under foot the Blood of the Covenant by which we must be saved And how