your earnest desires of it, as well as if ye did receive it; and would make up the great losses you sustained in your spiritual estate for want of it, some other way. But blessed be His Great Name, this is not your case; for He in His good Providence hath so ordered it, that you live in a place where this Holy Sacrament is actually celebrated every LORD's Day, and may be so, if there be occasion, every day in the year. Our Church requires the first, and hath provided for the other, by ordering that the same Collect, Epistle, and Gospel which is appointed for the Sunday, shall serve all the week after; and by consequence the whole Communion Service, of which they are a part. And therefore, unless you receive it, and receive it often too, you will live in the gross neglect, if not in a plain contempt of CHRIST's command; as you will one day find to your shame and sorrow; for how well soever ye may otherwise live, this one sin is enough to ruin and destroy you for ever. "For," as St. James saith, "whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." (James ii. 10.) And therefore, whatsoever else ye do, if ye do not this, but offend in this one point, you are liable to all the punishments that are threatened in the Law of GOD. Neither is there any way to avoid them, except you repent, and turn from this as well as from all other sins.

And that ye may not think that the receiving of this Blessed Sacrament only now and then, as perhaps two or three times a year, will excuse you from the imputation of living in the neglect of CHRIST'S Command; I desire you to consider how the Apostles themselves and the Primitive Christians understood it. Which they sufficiently declared by their practice. For when our LORD was gone to Heaven, and had, according to His promise, sent down the HOLY SPIRIT upon His Apostles, and by that means brought into His Church about three thousand souls in one day, it is said of them, that "they continued stedfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers," (Acts ii. 42.); and of all that believed, it is said, that "they, continuing daily with one accord in the Temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, (ii. 46.) Where we may observe, first, that

by breaking of bread in the New Testament, is always meant the Administration of the LORD's Supper. Secondly, this they are said to have done, kar olкov, from house to house, as we translate it; or rather in the house, as the Syriac and Arabic versions have it, and as the phrase kar' olkov is used by the Apostle himself, Rom. xvi. 5. 1 Cor. xvi. 19.; that is, they did it either in some private house, where there was a Church, or more probably in some of the houses or chambers belonging to the Temple, where they daily continued. Thirdly, as they continued daily in the Temple at the hours of prayer, to perform their solemn devotions there, so they daily received the Holy Sacrament, and ate this spiritual food "with gladness and singleness of heart." This being indeed the chief part of their devotions, whensoever they could meet together to perform them. Especially upon the LORD's Day, as the HOLY GHOST Himself informs us, saying, "And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, being ready to depart on the morrow," (Acts xx. 7.); where we see, they did not only break bread, or administer the Sacrament of our LORD's Supper upon the first day of the week, which we, from St. John, call the LORD's Day; but upon that day they came together for that end and purpose. It is true, St. Paul being to go away next day, he took that opportunity when they were met together for that end, to give them a Sermon. But that was not the end of their meeting together at that time. They did not come to hear a Sermon, though St. Paul himself was to preach, but they came together to administer and receive CHRIST's Mystical Body and Blood; which plainly shows, that this was the great work they did every LORD's Day; and that they came together then on purpose to meet with CHRIST, and to partake of Him at His own table. And seeing that the Law itself required, "that none should appear before the LORD empty, (Exod. xxiii. 15.); therefore St. Paul requires, that upon the first day of the week, when Christians thus met together to receive the Sacrament, "every one should lay by him in store, as GoD prospered him, for pious and charitable uses," (1 Cor. xvi. 2.) And hence proceeded that custom which is still continued in our Church, and ought to

5

be so in all. That whensoever we appear before the LORD at His own table, we, every one, according to his ability, offer up something to Him, of what He had bestowed upon us, as our acknowledgment of His bounty to us, in giving us whatsoever we have, and of His infinite mercy in giving Himself for us.

Now seeing the Apostles themselves, and such as they first converted and instructed in the faith of CHRIST, usually received this Holy Sacrament every day in the week, and constantly upon the LORD's Day; it cannot be doubted, but that they looked upon themselves as obliged by CHRIST's command to do so; and that when He said, "Do this, as often as ye do it, in remembrance of Me," His meaning and pleasure was, that they should often do it, so often as they met together to perform their public devotion to Him, if it was possible, or at least upon the LORD's Day. And as this was the sense wherein the Apostles understood our SAVIOUR's words; so they transmitted the same together with the Faith, to those who succeeded them. For Tertullian, who lived in the next century after the Apostles, saith, that the Sacrament of the Eucharist, "in omnibus mandatum à Domino, etiam Antelucanis cœtibus," was commanded by our LORD, to be celebrated in all Christian assemblies, even those which were held before day, (Ter. de cor. mil. cap. 3.) And before him Pliny the Second, who was contemporary with St. John, in the account he gave of the Christians' manners to the Emperor Trajan, saith, among other things, "that they were wont upon a certain day, to meet together, before it was light, and to bind themselves by a Sacrament, not to do any ill thing," (Plin. Ep. 1. 10. cap. 97.) Which can be understood only of the Sacrament of the LORD's Supper, as administered and received by them upon the LORD's Day. And Justin Martyr himself, who lived in the next age after, in the Apology he wrote to Antonius Pius in behalf of the Christians, giving a particular account of what they did in their public congregations, saith, that τῇ τοῦ ἡλίου λεγομένη ἡμέρᾳ, upon that which is called the day of the Sun, or Sunday, all Christians that live either in the cities, or in the country, meet together; where they hear the writings of the Prophets and Apostles read, and an exhortation made to them; and then they having all joined

together in their common prayers, bread and wine is brought and consecrated, or blessed by the President or Minister; and distributed to every one there present, and carried by Deacons to such as were absent. Καὶ ἡ διάδοσις καὶ ἡ μετάληψις ἀπὸ τῶν εὐχαριστηθέντων ἑκάστῳ γίνεται. And the distribution and participation of the consecrated elements is made to every one, (Just. Mart. Apol. 2.) And this food, saith he, καλεῖται παρ' ἡμῖν Euxapioría, is called by us the Eucharist. From whence it appears, that in these days, every one that was at Prayers and Sermon, received also the Holy Sacrament, at least upon the LORD's Day. None offered to go out until that was over; or if they did so, they were cast out of the Church, as not worthy to be called Christians: as appears from the Apostolical Canons made or collected much about that time, or soon after. One whereof runs thus, Πάντας τοὺς εἰσιόντας πιστούς, etc. All believers that come to Church, and hear the Scriptures, but do not stay to join in the Prayers, and the Holy Communion, ought to be excommunicated, as bringing confusion into the Church, (Can. Apostol. 9.) It was then, it seems, reckoned a great disorder and confusion for any to go out of the Church, as they now commonly do, until the whole Service, of which the Communion was the principal part, was all over; and if any did so, they were judged unfit to come to Church, or keep company with Christians any longer. This was the discipline of the Primitive and Apostolic Church. This was the piety of the first Christians: and it continued in a great measure for some ages, as might easily be shown. But this may be sufficient at present to prove, that the Apostles and Primitive Christians did not think that they observed our Lord's command in the institution of this Holy Sacrament aright, by receiving it only now and then. For, as they would never have done it at all, but only in obedience unto that command; so in obedience to that command, they took all opportunities they could get, of doing it; at least they never omitted it upon the LORD's Day. But upon that day, whatsoever they did besides, they always did this in remembrance of what their Great Lord and SAVIOUR had done for them. And if we desire to be such Christians as they were, we must do as they did. We must,

after their pious example, observe our LORD's command, by eating this bread, and drinking this cup as often as we can; lest otherwise we lose the benefit of that death He suffered for us, by our neglecting to do what He hath commanded in remembrance of it.

What effect they [my arguments] will have upon those that hear them, I know not; but fear that it will be much the same that reason and argument usually have upon the greatest part of mankind; that, very little, or none at all. But for my own part, when I seriously consider these things, I cannot but wonder with myself, how it comes to pass, that this Holy Sacrament, instituted by CHRIST Himself, is so much neglected and disused as it is, in a place where His religion is professed and acknowledged to be, as really it is, the only true religion in the world. And after all my search, I can resolve it into nothing else but the degeneracy of the age we live in, and the great decay of that most Holy Religion among us. I am sure, from the beginning it was not so. For some ages after the Establishment of the Christian Religion by CHRIST Our Saviour, so long as they who embraced it gave themselves up to the conduct of that HOLY SPIRIT which He sent down among them, and were inspired by it with true zeal for GOD, and inflamed with love to their ever blessed REDEEMER, SO as to observe all things that He had commanded, whatsoever it cost them; then they never met together upon any day in the week, much less upon the LORD's Day, for the Public Worship of God, but they all received this Holy Sacrament, as the principal business they met about, and the most proper Christian service they could perform. And it is very observable, that so long as this continued, men were endowed with the extraordinary gifts as well as the graces of God's HOLY SPIRIT, so as to be able to do many wonderful things by it; yea, and suffer too whatsoever could be inflicted on them for CHRIST's sake. But in process of time men began to leave off their first love to Him, and turn His religion into dispute and controversy; and then as their piety and devotion grew cooler and cooler, the Holy Sacrament began to be neglected more and more; and the Priests who administered it, had fewer and fewer to receive it, until at length they had some