GOod Morrow , Neighbour Parishioner , 'pray which way are you travelling this Morning ?

Good Wits , they say , will jump sometimes , and so I see will good intentions too , for my design was to make you a visit this Morning .

I thank you , good Mr. Pastor , for your kind intentions , and 'pray let not my meeting with you divert them .

I am not willing to lose the end of my Journey , nor would I have you lose yours ; and therefore when I know whether my going with you , or your going with me , will better serve the design of us both , I shall readily comply with either .

I do not know , Sir , what your design in coming to me may be , though I am well assured it must be good and kind ; but mine in coming to you , was not only to pay my respects , but to receive a kindness from you .

I thank you for your Civility , and if it be in my power to answer your desires , you may rest assured that I will not be wanting in my endeavours . You have nothing to do therefore but only to make known what kindness that is which you expect from me .

That which I have to desire of you is a matter of great moment . It is the greatest kindness that I can desire of , or expect from , any one in this World.

The greater the better , provided it be but in my power to do it , and therefore 'pray be free to let me know it .

Sir , You are placed here , by the appointment of Divine Providence , as my Spiritual Guide , to instruct me in the true Worship of God , and direct me in the right way to Heaven and Happiness . I am to presume that your Lips preserve Knowledge , and therefore at your Mouth I am to enquire for it . Your work , I know , is very great , and your charge weighty ; you stand charged with the Salvation of all our Souls . But as your concern is great , so ours cannot be little ; Our Souls lie at stake , it is our Salvation that is endeavoured , and therefore it is certainly our duty to do what we can in order thereunto ; which if we refuse or neglect to do , all your endeavours , though never so great and good , will , as to us , prove vain and fruitless . I very well know , that if you faithfully discharge your duty , you may thereby please God , and save your own Soul ; but if we in the mean time neglect ours , notwithstanding all your diligence , we may perish , and our blood will be upon our own heads . These thoughts for some time have very much troubled me , and I have long considered with my self , what was best for me to do ; at length I found that all my hopes of happiness , both here and hereafter , did depend upon my Religion , and that if I did not piously and devoutly serve and worship God , I could have no reason to expect either his blessing and protection in this World , or to have any part in that blessed state in the World to come . Now seeing Religion is a thing of so mighty concern to the Sons of men , there can be nothing surely , the knowledge whereof ought more to be desired and endeavoured . I have oftentimes therefore had it in my thoughts to wait upon you , and to desire your direction and instruction therein ; and though hitherto something or other hath always prevented me ; yet finding of late one main duty of our Religion , in a more than usual manner pressed upon us , and believing that it did require our most sober thoughts , and serious considerations ; this did revive and heighten my resolution of waiting on you ; But when I heard in publick your pious and charitable Declaration to all your People , how ready and willing , nay how glad you would be to spend your time , in setting their minds right in this great affair ; I was thereby so encouraged , that I was impatient of any delay ; and upon that very account , and for that very end , I was now coming to wait on you .

And for this very end , I was now coming to visit you ; and I hope that good God who hath inspired us both with the same thoughts , will bless both our designs , and make that communication we are now about to enter upon , to be in the end of great comfort and advantage to us both . But this place not being altogether so convenient , I will desire you to walk to my House , where we will retire into my Closet , and being there sequestred from all noise and disturbance , we may calmly and quietly debate between our selves , whatsoever is thought fit to be propounded by either of us .

I thank you , Mr. Pastor , for your kind offer and invitation , and do willingly accept of it ; and I do assure you , that I come with a mind void of all passion and prejudice , ready prepared with all humility and meekness to receive such wholesome instructions as I hope to receive from you .

I am glad to find you in so good a temper , and that you have so great a sense of Religion and the duties of it . This gives me good hope , that before we part , we shall both of us have occasion to bless God for this meeting .

I am of that opinion too , Sir , and to that end do make it my hearty Prayer to God , that he would be pleased to give his blessing to what we go about .

Well , Neighbour Parishioner , you are heartily welcome , and the more welcome , because you now visit me upon so pious and so religious an account . And though you tell me , that at this time you expect a kindness from me , yet I most freely acknowledge , you do me the greatest kindness imaginable . For , you give me an opportunity to do good , and to do it in that place and station which God hath appointed me . 'Pray therefore sit down , and consider with your self what you have to propound ; be free in it , and confidently expect all the sober satisfaction I am able to give you .

I once more heartily thank you , Mr. Pastor , both for your welcome , and the freedom you give me . I have indeed much to say , and more than I think will be convenient at this time . I confess I am too too ignorant of my Religion , and therefore should be very desirous to be instructed in all the principles of it . But this I am sensible is a great work , and will require both more time , and more consideration than this occasional meeting and discourse will admit of . That therefore which I shall now confine my self to , and desire to be instructed in , is that great Ordinance which you now invite us to , I mean the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper .

My good Neighbour , There is nothing either in this particular , nor in any other part of the Christian Religion , which at fit times and due seasons I shall not be always ready to instruct you in , to the utmost of my small abilities . But since you confine your self to one only instance at present , What is it , I pray , that you scruple at , or desire to be better instructed in as to that particular ?

Sir , You have of late invited us to this great Feast , and that with all the earnestness imaginable ; you have told us , that it is a duty incumbent upon us , and that by vertue of a divine command , you have endeavoured to make out the great and indispensible necessity of it . And I do find that our Governours both in Church and State , by their Sanctions both Civil and Ecclesiastical , do , what in them lieth , to enforce this command , and exact from us the performance of this duty . Now , Sir , for my own part , I must ingenuously acknowledge , that I cannot conceive what design or interest you can have to impose a lie , a falshood upon your people ; to tell them that it is commanded by God , if it were not really so ; especially when I consider that the sacred Records are in the hands of all men ; and if it were not so , the folly and falsity of such an assertion might easily be detected . Nor can I believe , that either God would command it , or our Governours exact our compliance with , and obedience to that command ; if it were not a thing both necessary , good and fit to be done . But , Sir , we have been of late times taught by other Ministers , that though it be a duty , yet it is a dangerous one ; who have so represented the thing unto us as the most frightful Mormo , and the greatest Bugbear in the World ; who have given it such a Character ; and put it into such a dress , as if they had designed thereby not to allure and invite , but to deter and affright men from having any thing to do with it . This I confess hath very much puzled my mind , and not only mine , but that of many others , who I hope are very honest and well-meaning Christians ; This hath raised such a storm in the minds of men , as hath made them so staggering and unresolved ; so fearful to do what perhaps they are satisfied they ought to do . To take off this fright therefore , and restore my mind to a calm , quiet , and peaceable temper again , I desire you would inform my judgment in the true nature and notion of this holy Sacrament .

That I have of late , with great earnestness , invited you to this holy Feast , and perswaded you thereunto , as to a duty that is absolutely and indispensibly necessary by vertue of the institution and command of our blessed Saviour . And that our Governours both in Church and State have taken cognizance of the great neglect of this duty , and are at this time very desirous to reduce men to a right understanding of this great Ordinance , and a reformation of their practice touching the same , is all of it very true . But notwithstanding their care , and our endeavours in obedience both to God and them ; yet we find people very averse thereunto , mighty unwilling to do their duties , though it be their greatest concern so to do . And probably this their backwardness may proceed from that very reason which you mention , viz. the inconsiderate rashness , and intemperate zeal of some , who in the times of confusion have usurped the Office of the Ministery , and either out of design , or for want of understanding , or both , have put such a frightful character upon this holy Ordinance , as hath unsetled and distracted the minds of many well-meaning Christians . How much these men have to answer for , who by this means have broken the Communion , and disturbed the peace of the best reformed , and most flourishing Christian Church in the whole World , they themselves will one day find . But I am glad to find you so well inclined , as to desire to have your Judgment better informed , that being the only true way to settle your mind , and restore it to a calm , quiet and peaceable temper again .

To satisfy therefore this your so just and godly desire , I shall endeavour with all plainness to acquaint you with the genuine and true notion of this holy Sacrament ; but in order thereunto , it may be convenient that in the first place I give you some account of Sacraments in general .

Sacraments are either properly or improperly so called .

A Sacrament improperly so called is , when the word is used in a large sence for any sacred rite , or religious duty . And thus both the Jewish and Christian Writers use the word ; for , those , who have been conversant in the Writings of the former , tell us , that many of their sacred Rites are by them called by that name . And those who have narrowly searched the Records of the ancient Fathers since the Institution of Christianity have observed , That all or most Articles which are peculiar to Christian Faith , and all or most duties of Religion , containing that which sense or natural reason cannot of it self discern , are by them commonly called Sacraments . And in this sence the Church of Rome , instead of her seven Sacraments , may reckon seventy , or seven-score , or more if she please .

But there are Sacraments properly so called , when in a restrained sence we apply the word to some few principal divine Ceremonies , and then it imports in every such Ceremony two things , viz. The substance of the Ceremony it self , which is visible : and somewhat else which is more secret , in reference whereunto we conceive that Ceremony to be a Sacrament .

Of this latter sort we now understand the Word , and of this kind we meet with two only in the Old Testament , viz. Circumcision and the Passover ; and correspondent thereunto we find two only in the New Testament , viz. Baptism and the Lord's Supper .

The Word , Sacrament , is variously taken , and according to the different acceptations of it diversly defined .

Sometimes it is taken for the sign only , and then it is stiled , A visible sign of invisible grace .

Sometimes , it is taken for the thing signified only , and then it is called , The free mercy of God offered to us in and by Christ .

Sometimes it is taken for the whole , viz. both for the sign and the thing signified , and the whole action thereabout ; and then it is said to be , A Testimony confirming by an external sign the wholesome promises of God to Believers , and as it were engraving them in their minds .

All which is compendiously delivered to us in our Church-Catechism , in Answer to that Question , What meanest thou by this Word Sacrament ? The Answer whereunto is this , I mean an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace , given unto us , ordained by Christ himself , as a means whereby we receive the same , and a pledge to assure us thereof .

From all which it appears , that there are four Conditions requisite in every Sacrament properly so called , the want of any of which will overthrow the whole notion and nature of it .

1. It must be of divine Institution . For , being a Seal of a divine promise of Eternal Life , and such spiritual Grace as none can give but only God ; It cannot be instituted either by the Apostles , or holy Angels , or any other but only God. And therefore our Church , when she defineth a Sacrament of the New Testament , maketh this a necessary part of her definition , that it is ordained by Christ himself . Hence is it , that the Evangelists , when they relate the History of the Institution of this Sacrament , are so careful to mention the Author and Instituter of it . And St. Paul perswading the Church of Corinth to a due and orderly Celebration of this Sacrament , is careful to acquaint them , That what he delivered unto them , he had received from the Lord , 1 Cor. 11.23 .

2. It must have some visible sign . For , Sacraments are therefore used , that by visible signs we may know and comprehend Heavenly and invisible things ; and therefore our Church in her definition of a Sacrament , calleth it , An outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace .

3. It must have a divine Promise added to the sign , that so the thing signified may be united therewith . The promise must import spiritual grace here , and Eternal Life hereafter . Which Promise is as it were the Soul of the Sacrament : for , as man consists of Body and Soul , so a Sacrament consists of a sign and thing signified . And this is the inward and spiritual grace mentioned in the Definition .

4. It must be given to the whole Church as a perpetual sign , viz. as long as the outward form of the Church instituted by God shall continue . For , the Law concerning the form of outward Worship being changed , the use of those Sacraments which were instituted during the continuance of that form , is also changed . So the Sacraments of the Old Testament are not now used in the New , because the external Form of God's Worship is now changed . So likewise Anointing , the gift of Miracles , &c. though they were given to the Church of the New Testament , yet because they were neither given to the whole Church , nor for perpetuity , they cannot properly be called Sacraments .

These are those four Conditions , which ought jointly to meet in every Sacrament properly so called . For , Whatsoever wants a divine Institution , a visible sign , a divine promise added to that sign , and a coaeval duration with the external Form of God's Worship in that Church to which it is given , cannot properly be called a Sacrament .

This short account of Sacraments in general , I thought fit to premise , looking upon it as a good preparative for the better understanding of the true notion of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper in particular .

I heartily thank you , Mr. Pastor , for the pains you have taken in thus clearing the way . You have furnished me with a better notion of Sacraments , than I had before ; and thereby given me so great satisfaction , that you shall not need to bespeak my attention hereafter . I beseech you therefore , since you have well dispatched the notion of Sacraments in general , that you would now proceed to that of the Lord's Supper in particular .