The Preceding Confiderations reduc'd to Practice.

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HE holier any thing is that is abused, the greater the Crime. When Belfhazar, Dan. 5. 1. was refolved to be drunk, had he made himself a Beast by drinking out of common Cups, though the fin had been great, and against Nature, yet it might have pafs'd unpunifh'd here, as other Villanies are; but when nothing would ferve his turn, but to drink his Reafon and his Wits away, out of the Bowls of the Sanctuary, and to add Profanation of the Veffels of the Lord's Houfe, to all his Crimes, this alarm'd the Divine Vengeance immediately; and rather than not fhew his Difpleasure, God thought himself oblig'd to be at the charge of a Miracle, which caus'd the fatal Hand upon the Wall, and the King's Overthrow follow'd within a few Hours after: And if the abuse of confecrated Veffels rais'd fo great a Storm, what muft the abufe of confecrated Reafon, and Duties, and Mercies do? Sirs, your Reason is a confecrated thing; God hath fet it apart for his ufe, that you should confider and contrive how to get a share among the Blessed hereafter: If you abuse it, and will let it ferve you for no other end, but to teach you how you may grow rich and great, and fill your Bellies with hid Treafures,will not God vifit for thefe things? and will not his Soul be avenged on fuch Perfons? Your fignal Mercies and Deliverances are confecrated things; God hath fet them apart, to put you in mind of your Gratitude, to teach you Submiffion to his Will, and to walk humbly with your God; if after thefe you are careless, and live as regardless of your Duty as you did before, will not God reckon with you one day for fuch abuses ? Should a poor Man take the Cordial you fend him, and fling it upon a Dunghil, how would you réfent it? and can God like it, do you think, to fee how like Madmen you tear off the Clothes he gives you, to cover. your Nakedness; to fee you live the reverfe of his De

figns, to see you fight against him with his Mercies, and as it was in the cafe of the Daughter of Jerufalem, Ezech. 16. 17. to see you take the fair Jewels of Gold and of SAver he hath given you, and make to your felves Images of Men, and commit fornication with them?

II. One great abufe of his Holy Sacrament, is, to fanfic, that like a Spell, it will charm Sin out of your mortál Bodies, fo that you need be at no trouble to mortifie it. The Sacrament indeed confers Grace, But it is objectively, as it contains very great Motives to a lively Faith, and Hope, and Charity, and it confers Grace too, as a caure without which Grace would not be convey'd, because God hath promifed in his Ordinance to be prefeht, and as the Dew of Hermon, or as the Dew defcends on the Mountains of Sion, fo here the Lord command's his Bleffing, even Life for evermore : But ftill it doth not confer Grace Phyfically, as if the mere ufe of it would make you Favourites of Heaven, and Children of his Love. It's Phyfick indeed, which will work a Cure, but then the Perfon that makes ufe of it must be qualified for it, muft bé fenfible that he is fick, and willing to be cured of his Spiritual Difeafes, and then God will look upon him, as a Father, and manifeft himfelf to him; look upon him, as a kind Phyfician, and make the Medicine effectual to him; look upon him, as a Friend, and take him into his Bofom, and fay to him, as it is Ef. 49. 8. In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of Salvation have I helped thee; and I will preferve thee, and caufe thee to inherit the defolate Heritages.

III. The abufes committed by fome in this Sacrament, muft not tempt us to neglect the ufe of it. If the abuse that others have been guilty of, were a fufficient excufe to ftay away, we might as well argue, that Meat, and Drink, and Clothes, and Books, and Learning, may not be used, because ill Men have perverted the harmlefs defign of them. We fhould count that Man a fool, that should refolve, becaufe a Man of fuch a Profeflion

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hath cheated him, therefore he will never deal with a Man of that Profeffion again; or because fuch a Perfon, who pretended to ftrictnefs of Religion, hath plaid the Knave with him, therefore he will never truft a Religious Man again: The fame abfurdity would he commit, that from the abuse that others have run into, in the Holy Communion, fhould refolve to abftain from it; for this would be as much, as to refolve to be mad, because others are, and have been fo. God hath furnish'd us with Faculties and Powers, to difcern the Drofs from the Silver, and the Tin from the purer Metal, and we have his word, to guide us in diftinguishing the ufe, from the abuse; and as the temperate Man ftill drinks Wine, though thousands in the World still pervert the ufe of that Creature; fo a good Chriftian can fee no rational difcouragement from coming to this Table, though fome have made it their bane, and turn'd it into their own destruction.

The PRAYER.

Moft Gracious God, who haft given us thine Ordinances for our Comfort and Edification, and directed us how to use them to thy Glory, give me an understanding Heart, and a pure Mind, that they may be a favour of Life unto Life to me. Let me not touch thefe Holy things with unclean Hands, but purifie my Soul, and cleanfe it from that filthiness, which doth fo easily befer it, that I may be fit for thy Divine and Glorious Influences. Lord, without thee. I can do nothing, thou art the Vine, and I the Branch, convey thy Celestial Juice into this withered Branch, that I may ? vive and bring forth much Fruit, and have my Fruit unto Holiness, and the End everlasting Life, through Jefus Chrift our Lord. Amend

CHAP. VI.

Of Receiving the Lord's Supper fafting, and how far it is necellary.

The CONTENTS. 1. Cor. X1.34.

It is a thing not abfolutely necessary, to receive the Lord's Supe per fafting: Several Reasons to prove the Affertion. Yet to receive it fafting, is a thing very convenient, because it quickens Devotion,and is an Act agreeable to the mortifying Profpect of Chrift's Death, and warranted by the Practice of the Universal Church. Total Abstinence from Food that Morning we receive, may be prejudicial to fome Conftitutiens, which must therefore be indulg'd to eat fomething at Home. Cautions and Rules to be obferved in eating before we receive. The Decay of Fufting among Chriftians of this Age, an Argument of the Decay of Chriftianity. To Fafting before we receive, must be joined afterward Ab. ftinence from Sin. The Prayer:

Hat it is not abfolutely neceffary to eat the Lord's Supper fafting, will appear from the following Arguments.

1. Neither Eating nor Abftinence do in themselves commend us unto God, for neither if we eat are we the worfe, neither if we eat not are we the worfe, faith, St. Paul, 1 Cor. 8. 8. It's not the Belly God regards fo much as the Heart, and the Frame of the Soul he ever refpects more than the Bowels; the Pharifee, that lays the ftrefs of his Religion upon an empty Stomach, miftakes the Nature of God as much as the Pythagorean, who fanfies God will be pleased with his chufing one fort of Food before another; Neither the former's abstain

ing from Swines-Flesh, nor the other's averfion from Beans, is an Offering acceptable to him, especially where they stand single, and have no other Vertues to bear them company. God being a Spirit, loves to converse with fpiritual Natures, and fuch are our Souls; and an humble and broken Spirit prevail more with him, than all outward Ceremonies whatsoever. The Jews, Ef. 58. 3. were as much out, when they cry'd, Wherefore have we fafted, and thou feeft not? as those Luke 13. 26. that faid to Chrift, Have not we eaten and drunk in thy presence? One A&t of fincere Contrition, is a more pleafing Spe&tacle to God, than a thousand external Formalities; and doing his Will, a more acceptable Sacrifice than a rueful Face. Fafting hath no intrinsick Virtue, the gracious Afpect God vouchsafes it, is upon the account of fomething within, that looks very lovely in his Eyes, and that is a Confcience sprinkled from dead Works.

2. Chrift's Example is a convincing Argument, that to receive it fasting is not absolutely neceffary. Not only St. Matthew, Matt. 26. 26. but the other Evangelifts affure us, that while Chrift and his Difciples were eating the Passover, or as soon as they had eaten it, he took Bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave it to his Difciples, and faid, Take, eat, c. Had it been a fin to do fo, we may rationally fuppofe, the first Author of this Sacrament would have given no encouragement to it by his Example; and though it's true, that may be fometimes lawful in a Prince, which may be an Error in the Subject; yet our Great Mafter laid afide that piece of State, and appear'd in the Form of a Servant, and became obedient to that Law, he would have his Followers live up to; He did not prefcribe one thing, and do another, but like a watchful General, put his Hand to that Plough, at which he would have others labour; and it's evident enough,that while he and the Difciples were eating, or as foon as they had eaten the Passover, (and confequently they were not fafting) he bid them eat and drink of the Sacramental Bread and Wine, which accordingly they did, and we may be confident he would not have led them into an Error.

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