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their Priefts to drink of it? And, which

SERM. is more confiderable, why did our Lord Jefus Chrift himself command all to drink of the Cup? It is plain both from the Text and from the feveral Accounts of the Inftitution of the Lord's Supper delivered by the Evangelifts, that a Communion of Chrift's Body only cannot be a compleat Eucharift. To that is neceffarily required a Communion both of the Body and Blood of Chrift. Nor can the People receive the Blood of Chrift in the Body, as the Romanifts fuggeft, fince the Euchariftical Bread is Chrift's Body broken, and confequently emptied of Blood; and the Euchariftical Cup is his Blood poured out of the Body. It is therefore exceedingly evident, that a Communion of the Body broken, without the Communion of the Blood poured out, is not a Communion of Chrift's Body and Blood, but of his Body only. Whence it is undeniable that in the Church of Rome the People receive but one half of the Eucharift, and that we do juftly charge their Priests with depriving them of the other half.

Thirdly,

Thirdly, I obferv'd, THAT the Euchariftical Elements are not ordinary Bread and Wine, nor the Lord's Supper a common Meal; but a facred and religious Feast.

2

THAT it is a Feaft upon a Sacrifice, feems clear from the Scope of the Apostle's Reasoning in my Text, and the Verfes following: The Defign of which is to prove the Unlawfulness of eating Things offered to Idols in the Idol Temples; which Practice he charges with Idolatry. My dearly beloved, fays he, flee from Idolatry; I fpeak as to wife Men, judge ye what I fay. The Cup of Bleffing which we blefs, 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, who eat of the Sacrifices, Partakers of the Altar? What fay I then? That the Idol is any Thing, of that which is offered in Sacrifice to Idols is any Thing? But I fay that the Things which the Gentiles facrifice, they A a facria

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SERM,

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facrifice to Devils, and not to God, and I would not that ye fhould have Fellowfhip with Devils. The Apoftle's Argument is plainly this. As Chriftians by partaking of the Bread and Wine in the Eucharift, declare themfelves to be the Worshippers of that God to whom the Euchariftick Sacrifice is offered as a Memorial of the one meritorious and propitiatory Sacrifice of the Death of Chrift; and as the Jews by eating of the Sacrifices offered to the one true God, did acknowledge themselves to be Worshippers of that one true God: fo likewife those who fat down in the Idol Temples, to eat of Things offered to Idols, did by that Rite own themfelves Worfhippers of thofe Idols. Which those who profefs'd themselves Chriftians could not do without the greatest Inconfiftency as well as Impiety. For thofe Idols were the Reprefentatives, not of the true God, but of Devils; who had erected a Kingdom in oppofition to that of the true God; whofe Service therefore was incompatible with his. Wherefore, as the A poftle

1

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Apoftle goes on, ye cannot, i. e. ye cannot confiftently drink the Cup of the XIII. Lord, and the Cup of Devils; ye cannot be Partakers of the Lord's Table, and the Table of Devils. In which laft Words, by the Cup of Devils is confeffedly meant a Cup offered to Devils: Wherefore, by Analogy, the Cup of the Lord muft mean a Cup offered to the Lord. By the Table of Devils, is undoubtedly to be understood the Altar upon which Sacrifice was offered to Devils. Wherefore, by Parity of Reason, by the Lord's Table is to be understood, the Altar upon which the commemorative Sacrifice of Chrift's Body and Blood is offered to the Lord. Accordingly by Clement and Ignatius, Companions of the Apoftles, and by other Writers who lived nearest to their Times; by the earlieft Constitutions and Canons receiv'd by the Church (perhaps from the Apostles themfelves) and by the moft antient Liturgies us'd by the Church, probably from the Time of the Apoftolic Age; the Eucharift is commonly ftyled an Obla

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Oblation and a Sacrifice; and the Euchariftical Elements are directly faid to be offered to God by the Priest upon the Altar. It having been the unanimous Opinion of the whole Primitive Church in the firft and pureft Ages, that the Eucharift is a Sacrifice of Commemoration, even as the Offerings under the Law were Sacrifices of Prefiguration. The Chriftian Eucharift was ordain'd to be a perpetual Memorial and Reprefentation of the one great Oblation of Chrift himself offered once for all, as now past; as the Jewish Sacrifices were appointed to typify it beforehand, and to prefigure it as then to come. Our firft Reformers too, who ftrove against Popery refifting unto Blood, had the fame Sentiments; as the Liturgy compil'd by them, and us'd by our Church in the Reign of King Edward the Sixth fufficiently teftifies.

To partake therefore of the Eucharift, is to feaft not on meer Bread and Wine, but on a Sacrifice; and Sacrifice implies the highest Degree of Confecration; and Feafting thereupon has ever

been