or in any other grievous crime." Now, as fome of these extend to matters of opinion, &c, if the rule is admitted generally, I am inclined to think few men of understanding, could attend under a conviction of their worthiness: and if they absent themselves, they are threatened with God's indignation. In this predicament, what are they to do? Why the priest tells them-Be'cause it is requifite that no man should come to

the Holy Communion, but with a full truft in 'God's mercy, and with a quiet confcience; therefore if there be any of you who by this means cannot quiet his own confcience herein, but requireth further comfort and counfel, let 'them come to me, or to fome other difcreet and

learned minifter of God's word, and open his grief; that by the miniftry of God's holy word he may receive the benefit of absolution, together with ghostly counsel and advice, to the quietWing of his confcience, and avoiding all fcruple ⚫ and doubtfulness. Though we are here told in a folemn manner, that all the minifters of God's word, are difcreet and learned; I cannot, for the reafons given page 249, think their advice will quiet his confcience, or remove all fcruple and doubtfulness: much lefs can I think it in their power to give him abfolution. If the latter were poffible, and the priest's difcretion could be bought off, as it is in Catholic countries; all obftacles, to the partaking this fupper, would be removed

from

H

from the rich; and they might enter into the kingdom of God, much easier than a camel can go through the eye of a needle. And who are we to believe in this cafe, Jefus or the compilers of this fervice? They tell us- As the Son of • God did vouchsafe to yield up his foul by death C upon the cross for our falvation, fo it is your 6 duty to receive the Communion in remembrance of the facrifice of his death, as he himfelf bath commanded.' But how do they prove this command? Jefus, with his twelve apoftles, were celebrating a Jewish ceremony called the Paffover, upon the evening in which he was apprehended and they were dispersed, and therefore it is now called the Laft Supper. In page 129, 130 and 131, I have given the particulars of this Paffover or Supper, as recorded by Matthew, Mark, and Luke; and the only quotation that can be made from thence favourable to a continuance of this cuftom as a Chriftian ceremony, is in Luke only viz. This do in remembrance of me,' But it must be obferved that this command was given to the twelve apoftles only; there is no direction for their admitting others to this ceremo❤ ny; or even for their own continuance of it.

This do in remembrance of me,' doth not appear to extend further than the present juncture; and even this, is not mentioned by Matthew or John, who were prefent; or by Mark, who is fuppofed to have written under the direction of St. Peter, To this fingle teftimony, of doubtful

meaning the compilers have added after the words -This do-as oft as ye shall drink it-in remembrance of me. And thus it is, mifled by St. Paul, they prove a cominand of Jefus, never given. If the converfation between Jefus, and the people who had feen the miracle of the five loaves and followed him to the other fide of the lake, is quoted from the record of John in his fixth chapter; I allow, eating his flesh, and drinking his blood are terms fimilar to those used by him at the last supper; but it seems they were occafioned by the faid people's mentioning the manna received by their fathers from Heaven, as a proof that Mofes was a prophet. Upon that ambiguous difcourfe and its confequences, I have commented pages So to 84: had Matthew and John, who were prefent at this difcourfe, and at the last fupper, thought that the former alluded to the latter; or rather, that the latter was an explanation of the former; they furely would have no、 ticed fo remarkable a circumstance: they have fo done in many fimilar cafes of less confequence, And as to the laft fupper, we may fuppofe St, John himself thought it of little confequence to future Chriftians, or he would not have paffed it in fo flight a manner; Supper being ended'is all he fays about the matter. It remains now to examine the conduct of the apostles, after the afcenfion, relative to this ceremony; and it must be remembered, this is Luke's account. In the Acts, ch, ii, we are told that St, Peter, with the

eleven,

6

eleven, in Jerufalem, harangued the multitude, and converted-about three thousand fouls, and they continued ftedfaftly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread, ❝ and in prayers.' And all that believed were together, and had all things in common.' And they continued daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, • did eat their meat with gladness and fingleness of heart.' In ch. xx, v. 7, we are toldAnd upon the first day of the week, when the difciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them ready to depart on the morrow, and continued his fpeech until midnight." This is all that is faid relative to this matter, even by St. Luke, in twenty-eight chapters called the Acts of the Apoftles: and I do not perceive wherein this-breaking of bread has the least appearance of a folemn facrament; the body and blood of Jefus, or the cup, are not once mentioned; or that it was done in remembrance of their master. Breaking of bread I apprehend, was a custom in thofe days performed by the mafter of the house, or prefident of the company after faying what we now call grace: Matthew, in ch. xiv, telling the story of feeding the multitude, fays that Jefus took up the five loaves, &c.

and looking up to Heaven, he bleffed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his difciples, and his difciples to the multitude.' And at the fe

cond

cond miracle of this kind recorded by Matthew in his fifteenth chapter, we are told- He took the feven loaves, &c. and gave thanks and brake them, and gave to his difciples, and the difci

ples to the multitude.' By the writings of St. Paul only it appears, that twenty years after the death of Jefus, this ceremony was, or ought to have been used as a folemn facrament. In his ift Epistle to the Corinthians, ch. xi, we find the interpolated words-as oft as ye drink it-introduced into the fpeech of Jefus to his difciples to be the handy work of Paul: here likewise we find other matter, by which our compilers were mifled, with respect to the faid ceremony, viz. For as ' often as ye eat this bread, fays Paul to the Corinthians, and drink this cup, ye do fhew the Lord's death till he come; wherefore whofɑever fhall eat this bread, and drink this. cup of the Lord unworthily, fhall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and fo let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup, for he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himfelf, not difcerning the 'Lord's body.' Were this really the cafe; it would confirm me ftill more in the belief, that this ceremony was never meant to be continued; or at moft, by none but the apostles: as the generality of mankind would, in the performance of it, rifque much more than they could poffibly