Lawfulness of a Customary, Solemn, and General Practice of a HEALTH openly Maintain'd, and Defended; nay, Boafted of, and Glory'd in; and all this obftinately and wilfully, and against full and clear Information of the horrid Nature of it. Thofe, and fuch like Inftances, as they are fmall, they have a fmaller degree of Guilt, and pafs without Notice as having no ill Confequences; and as carrying their Excufe along with them from the Ignorance, or Inadvertency of the Perfons who do them. But when any Thing of this Nature comes to be General and Habitual; to be abetted and defended with Argument, and Fury; in a very Remarkable and Publick Inftance; and loaded likewife with circumftantial Guilt, it is a great and a crying Sin.

This is likewife a full Answer to that Hypo critical Evasion of fome, who cry they don't drink this Health to Perpetuate the Memory of K-W-m; for that wou'd be horrid indeed, even in a Lay man, much more in a Clergy man. Wou'd it fo? Then pray what is PERPETUATING? Is it not doing it first in fingle Acts, and then repeating of them? And that which is a Sin to be often done, may it be done at all knowingly and wilfully? He who does it once, does it for that time; he who does it frequently, and habitually Perpetuates the Memory of K-Wm for fo long as he perfifts; he who continues it for his Life, has Perpetuated it as long as he cou'd; and if Pofterity does not follow his Example, 'tis not to be imputed to him that it was not Perpetuated to the End of the World. It has been Perpetuated for ten

or

or a dozen Years already; and if the Iniquity of it had not been laid open, it wou'd have been Perpetuated at leaft till another Revolution.

There remains one difficulty to be got over yer; the more formidable, because it arifes from a difturbance given to weak and tender Confciences by that unlucky Discourse of mine. Before that came out, the Health went down fmoothly; they neither faw, nor intended any harm by it; and meant no more than an hơnourable Remembrance of K-Wm, and a Tryal who they were that lov'd his Memory, and who did not; and but for me, they might have continued it ftill without Scruple. And fo they would do yet, notwithstanding all I can fay, if the Scruple were groundless: But it is fo well grounded, that all the Reasoning and Sophiftry in the World will never remove it out of the Mind of a Perfon who has the true Fear of God before his Eyes; who has the faving of his Soul in Profpect, and does but look towards Heaven. I appeal to the Confciences of fuch who perfift in this Practice, when they attend to thofe Words in the Prayer of Confecration apply'd to the Wine, Do this as oft as ye fhall drink it in Remembrance of me, whether their Hearts does not fecretly reproach them for having ever drank in Remembrance of a departed Monarch? There is fuch affinity and likenefs in the Action of drinking in Remembrance of one, and the other, that it is hardly to be avoided,and can never be reconciled to the Peace of their Minds. If he that doubteth is Damned if he eateth, because he eateth not of Faith. i. e.

with

with a full Perfuafion of the Lawfulness of it; furely it holds much stronger in this Cafe of drinking in Remembrance of a departed Monarch fince the former is spoke of a doubt relating to our ordinary Food; but this arifes from the Inviolable Nature of the bleffed Sacrament, and that Refemblance and Affinity it bears to it. If there is a SCRUPLE, this is Inducement enough to forbear, and to chuse that fide on which there is no Scruple; efpecially when there is no Neceffity or Obligation to the contrary. If they take this Opportunity of informing their Confciences, as they are bound to do, they will have no farther Scruple; and their Minds will be eafy from a full Conviction of the horrid Nature of that Health. But if after all that has been faid, it fhould ftill remain; I must tell them, that a fcrupulous Confcience is better than a Prefumptuous one ;jand as we must not Nourish our Doubts and Scruples, without Grounds, fo we must never Act against them.

Having now done with the Argument, I cannot close this Difcourfe, without making that Application to the Errors and Miftakes of People of very different Perfuafions, which occurs to my Mind in the Writing.

I. And first, We may obferve how that O pinion in the Church of Rome, of the real change of the Elements into the Body and Blood of Chrift, utterly deftroys the Nature of this Sacrament; by defeating the main Design and Intent of its Inftitution; which was the RememI

brance

brance of Chrift, i. e. the Celebration of his Memory as departed this World, and having 'gone to the Father; There to remain till he come to Judge the World: But this takes away all that Remembrance, and fubftitutes an immediate Adoration of him, not only as bodily prefent; but fenfibly, and visibly. And that which faftens this monftrous Abfurdity upon them, without Evafion is, that this imaginary Change of theirs, cannot be into that very Body which was Nail'd to the Crofs, and fubject to all the Infirmities of Nature, Sin only excepted; fince there is no fuch Body of his in Being now; but into that Body which was afterwards chang'd into a State of unconceivable and invidible Glory. So that they have made this Sacrament a Symbol and Representation not of Chrift's Humiliation; but of his State of Exaltation in Heaven; quite contrary to the very words of the Inftitution, and to the Reason given for it, For hereby ye fhew forth the Lord's Death till be come.

II. From hence it is Plain, how much more inexcufable the Presbyterians, and other Separatifts are in drinking this Health, To all that Love and Honour, &c. than other People. This bearing a yet greater Refemblance with their Manner of Celebrating the Communion than hath been yet mention'd; they affecting much the fame Familiarity and Freedom in this, which they do at their ordinary Meals; fitting, nay even at the Thanksgiving before it, and handing the Cup from one to the other. So that I have

but

but too much Reafon to retort that Charge upon them, That it is They who Prophane the Holy Institution of the blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Holy Fefus, by publishing to the World, that it is of the Nature of an Health drank in common Converfation. And it is juftly to fear'd that this Irreverend way of Receiving the Holy Sacrament, has given occafion to the Enemies of our Religion, to Blafpheme it under the Character and Title of a Health.

But that which makes this Obfervation bear upon them, with double weight, is, that Eating and Drinking in Remembrance of Chrift is the moft profound and exalted Act of Divine Worship; Inftituted for that purpose; and ever accounted fo by the whole Chriftian Church; nay, even by themselves in their Confeffion of Faith, Cap. 21. where they allow this Sacrament to be a Part of Religious Worship. And how then are they condemn'd out of their own Mouths, who do not perform it as fuch, in a Pofture of Adoration? who decline making their Obligation to God on their knees; and refufe to accept the greateft and most complicated Bleffing which Heaven can beftow, with a return of Praise and Thanksgiving, in the greatest outward Signs of Reverence and Veneration they are able to exprefs?

III. This Remembrance of Chrift being Commanded to be perform'd by an outward, vifible, bodily Action, fhews the fatal Error of the Quakers, who utterly Renounce this Inftitution;

I 2

+ See Englishman. Numb. 50,

who