one Man's Temper be made the Standard of another Man's Devotion? I think that for general Use, Forms of Prayer cannot be too chaste in their Composition; and our Reformers were of the fame Mind. For look into the Book of Common Prayer, and what will you find? Why every Thing that is folemn and grave, but none of those rapturous Expreffions which are to be met with. in many private Compositions. The Reason was, not that our Reformers wanted a Spirit of Piety, but they saw plainly, what every wife Man fees, that to feel Extafies and Transports in Devotion is not the Turn of every Man's Temper. But this amounts to a Confeffion that God may as acceptably be served in a more fedate Way; and this I will venture to say, that if there be any Degree of Warmth which a ferious Use of these Prayers cannot raise, it is fuch a Degree as Man may be without, and be never the worse Christian. I would not be understood as condemning all other Forms in a private Way; I would only give a Caution (as I said) against those Mistakes, which very good Persons are sometimes apt to run into by the undue Use of them. Men should confult their particular Tempers and Constitutions in the Choice of fuch Books, as they do in the Choice of their natural Food, and be content with a plain and fimple Diet when the Stomach will not bear high Sauces.

One Caution should never be forgotten, which is, that we ask all Things in the Name of Christ, or in Truft upon his all-fufficient Sacrifice. I have before observed to you, that Chrift hath commanded us thus to pray; and therefore he that does not pray after this Manner, does not pray as a Christian ought to pray. It is not always necessary that this Circumstance should be expressed; but in Mind and Intention it always ought to be. It may seem strange, perhaps, that in the Lord's Prayer we are not taught to afk in the Name of Christ. The Reason is, that this new Manner of praying was not to take Place till after the Death of Christ. HITHERTO (fays our Saviour) ye

have asked nothing in my Name - AT THAT DAY ye shall ask in my Name. John xvi. 23. At what Day? Why after my Death and Refurrection; for this he had been speaking of just before. A little while and ye shall not see me, and again, a little while and ye shall fee me. Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the World shall rejoice; and ye shall be forrowful, but your Sorrow shall be turned into Joy. This shews that the Circumflance of praying in the Name of Christ, was founded upon the Confideration of his Death, * by which having discharged the Office of our High Priest on Earth, he was to enter into the Heavens to appear in the Prefence of God for us. To this the Apostle alludes, Heb. iv.14. Seeing then we have a great High Priest that is paffed into the Heavens - let us come boldly to the Throne of Grace, that we may obtain Mercy, and find Grace to help in Time of Need.

From the Duty of Prayer, I now pro- of the LORD'S ceed to the Participation of the Sacra- SUPPER. ment of the Lord's Supper, the End of which is thus fet down by St. Paul, 1 Cor. xi. 23, 24. The Lord Jefus, in the fame Night that he was betrayed, took Bread, and when he had given Thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat, this is my Body which is broken for you, this do in Remembrance of me. After the same Manner alfo he took the Cup, when he had fupped, Jaying, This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood, which (as our Saviour's Words are, Matt. xxvi. 28.) is shed for many for the Remission of Sins; This do, as oft as ye shall drink it, in Remembrance of me.

From hence it appears, that the End of the Infti. tution of the Lord's Supper, is the Remembrance of Chrift as the Saviour and Redeemer of the World; or the Remembrance of Christ under the special Character of one, who by his Death hath obtained for us Remiffion and Reconciliation with God. And this (by

* Ignoratus erat i le precandi mos, & vim fuam præcipuè accepit ex obedientiâ Christi in morte præstica, Grotius.

the Way) yields a good Evidence backward, that the Blood of Chrift is a real Propitiation; for confidering it only as a Testimony or an Example, the Sacrament might have been appointed in Remembrance of all the Martyrs that ever should be, as well as in Remembrance of Christ. If you say that Chrift was the Founder of our Religion, and therefore had this Diftinction paid him; this Answer will not serve. For the Sacrament was appointed not to thew forth Corif, but to thew forth the Death of Chrift: And why his Death, I ask, but because there was a Virtue and Efficacy in his Blood, which there is not in the Blood of common Men? We must now, therefore, enquire what this Remembrance means, or how much the Act of eating and drinking at the Lord's Table implies: And this we may learn from the Words of St. Paul, 1 Cor. x. 16. The Cup of Blessing which we bless, is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ? The Bread which we break, is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ? The Apostle's Intention here, was to diffuade the Corinthians from Idolatry. My dearly beloved, flee from Idolatry, ver. 14. What Sort of Idolatry this was we understand from ver. 27, 28. If any of them that believe not bid you to a Feast, and ye be disposed to go, whatever is fet before you eat, afking no Question for Conscience Sake. But if any Man Jay unto you, this is offered in Sacrifice unto Idols, eat not, for kis Sake that sherwed it, and for Confcience Sake. This was Idolatry; eating of Things that had been offered to Idols, in Company with Idolaters in their idolatrous Feasts. For the Manver of those Sacrifices was, that when Part of them had been confumed upon the Altar, as the Idol's Portion, those who offered them fat down with their Friends, and feasted upon the reft. This was shewing a religious Respect to the Idol, and so intended by the Offerers; just as a Man shews a civil Respect to his Neighbour, when he eats and drinks at his Table. And the Act had the same Conftruction in all, who, understanding the Meaning and Intention of these Feasts, were Partakers of them, though they themselves themselves sacrificed not. They joined in an idolatrous Act, and in so doing were guilty of Idolatry.

To make them feel the Weight of this Reasoning, the Apostle states a Comparison between these Idol Feafts, the Jewish Sacrifical Feasts, and the Christian Sacrament. The Cup of Blessing which we bless, is it not the Communion of the Blood of Chrift? The Bread' which we break, is it not the Communion of the Body of Chrift? Behold Ifrael after the Flesh, Are not they which eat of the Sacrifices Partakers of the Altar?--I say then, that the Things which the Gentiles facrifice, they facrifice to Devils, and not to God; and I would' not that ye should have Fellowship with Devils. The Amount of which is this; That as eating Bread and drinking Wine at the Lord's Table, is the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ; and as the eating of the Jewish Sacrifices was the Communion of the Jewish Altar; even so, the joining with the Heathens in their idolatrous Feasts was the Communion of Devils, or having Fellowship with Devils. It is supposed that the Act of eating and drinking had the same Meaning in all these Cafes, and that the Christians of those Times well understood what this Meaning was, in Reference to the Christian Sacrament and the Jewish Sacrifices; whence they were led to conclude what it meant as to the Heathen Sacrifices. But the Argument will go backward as well as forward, and we may reason thus; "Whatever was meant by feaft

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ing upon the Heathen or Jewish Sacrifices, the " same is meant by eating and drinking at the Lord's " Table, Respect being had to the essential Points, in "which these several Ways of Worship differ from " each other." Confider then how the Comparifon, will lie. The Christian Sacrifice is Christ once offering himself upon the Cross as an Atonement for the Sins of the World. The Bread and the Wine are, by his own Appointment, his Body and Blood symbolically represented, that is, they stand in the Place of his Body and Blood, and are to be confidered as fuch. Consequently, the eating Bread and drinking Wine at E 3

the

the Lord's Table, precisely answers to the feasting upon the Sacrifices both among the Heathens, and under the Jewish Difpenfation. As therefore the Heathens in their Feasts paid a religious Respect to Idols, and the Jews in their Feasts, a religious Respect to the true God, confider'd under the special Character of their Deliverer from the Egyptian Bondage, so Chriftians, by eating and drinking at the Lord's Table, pay a religious Refpect to the same God, confidered as their Deliverer from Sin and Condemnation by the Sacrifice of Chrift: And what can this amount to less, than an Acknowledgment of their Trust and Reliance upon the Sacrifice of Christ for Pardon and Reconciliation with God?

It appears from hence, that the partaking of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, hath the Nature of a folemn Vow and Covenant, in which we declare our Acceptance of the Salvation offered by the Gospel, through the Redemption that is in Christ fefus, and bind ourselves to a Behaviour suitable to our Profeffion. For he that accepts the Benefits of the Gospel must be understood as accepting them upon the Terms the Gofpel offers them, and these, you have seen, are Repentance and good Works. This is the Purport of the Baptismal Vow, of which therefore every Act of communicating is the Repetition and Confirmation: And in their kind they are both of them very useful Institutions; the one, to givel Evidence of our Faith at first, the other, to give Proof of our constant Continuance in it afterwards. Such publick Professions as these, are not only a good Example to others, but likewife very profitable to ourselves; as folemn Engagements are generally apt to be a greater Curb upon Mens Tempers, than a naked Senfe and Apprehenfion of Truth and Right. He who acts against his inward Perfuafion must know it himself; but he may hope that no Body else may know it, and may have Recourse, whenever he pleases, to the common Plea of Ignorance and Mistake. But he who acts against his own Engagements, has no Excuse to offer. The Engagement