dividing it among the Jews, so is cutting it among us.-2. Cutting the bread represents his body being wounded with nails and thorns, and a spear as much as breaking. But however that be, it is agreed by all of us, that the bread may be cut almost through, to render the breaking it regularly more convenient and easy, as is usually practised in our churches.

4. The words of the institution should be certainly pronounced, or words of much the same sense, at the distribution of the elements, viz. This is the body of Christ, or this is an emblem or figure of the body of Christ, &c. and this cup is the New Covenant or New Testament in the blood of Christ, or a sign and seal of the New Testament, or of the New Covenant, in his blood, which was shed for many for the remission of sins. But it is by no means necessary to say always the very same words. For, it is certain, this ordinance was celebrated or performed by our Saviour but once, and yet the several evangelists differ in their relation of the words used by Christ; and St. Paul, in his account of it, differs from them all. Therefore it is evident, that the spirit of Christ in writing the New Testament, never designed to confine us precisely to one set of words, or the same phrases, but only to the same sense. Yet further:

5. The elements must be distributed that all may partake: But whether the pastor must distribute them to the hand of every communicant; whether the deacons, who serve tables, may distribute them, or whether they may be distributed throughout the congregation by the communicants from hand to hand, this is not any where determined certainly, and is no evident part of the institution itself, and I think it may be practised any way.

In the last place, a table-gesture was the mode in which Christ administered, and his disciples did first receive this ordinance; and I think a table-gesture is the most proper to represent a supper, or a religious feast and holy communion. But I dare not say, this is so much an instituted and necessary part of the ordinance, that it cannot be profitably celebrated without it. God forbid, that I should pronounce this sacrament null and vain to all the foreign protestant churches, most of which receive it standing, or to the English episcopal church, who receive it on their knees! And let it be remembered, the Jewish tablegesture was very different from ours, and yet we have changed it for sitting.

But as for some other of the circumstances which first attended this ordinance, it is impossible that they should be necessary to our constant and repeated celebration of it. Does any christian think it necessary, that this sacrament should never be administered but in a large upper room? Is it not lawful nor valid, if performed in a little room and on a ground floor? Again, our Saviour administered this ordinance to twelve persons,

who were all men, and just after another supper; but can any man think that we must never administer, but where there are just twelve men to receive it, and that no woman must ever partake of it; and that we must always eat another supper before we receive this?

Yet further, what christian ever thought it necessary, that it should be performed on the same day of the week, that is Thursday, and on the same day of the month too, as it was first instituted, that is the thirteenth or fourteenth of March? Then i can be celebrated but once in five or six years, when the same day of the month happens on the same day of the week. And I believe, we all think it necessary to receive it oftener, that on the fourteenth of March only, even if that could possibly fall on the Lord's-day every year. Yet again, if the Lord's-supper must be always administered in the evening, it cannot be always at the same hour of the day as we compute our hours in England. The evening hour or sun-set, which is six o'clock in March and September, will be complete night in December, and complete day in June. And thus if we receive the Lord's supper every month, it will be sometimes perfect day, and sometimes perfect night, if we keep to the same hour in which our Lord administered it. Besides, St. Paul did not celebrate this ordinance always in the evening. See Acts xx. 7. He continued his preaching at Troas till midnight. Then Eutychus fell down asleep, was taken up dead, was restored to life, and after all this they broke bread, and continued in discourse till break of day. And the primitive christians often celebrated this sacrament "horis ante lucanis," that is, "before break of day," as the ancients inform us, most probably for fear of being disturbed by their persecuting enemies. Thus the conveniency of performance must determine the season or hour of administration, as well as the place and other circumstances.

I confess it is usually called the Lord's-supper, because it was in the evening that Christ instituted it, just after the Jewish passover, which was a supper; but let it be observed, that supper was a very considerable, if not a chief meal, in many countries in those days, as dinner is now amongst us. Therefore, if we may change the posture of leaning at table into sitting upright, because it is our present table-posture, why may we not as well change supper time, which was their chief meal, for the season of our chief meal, that is at noon? Especially since we cannot find that the precise time is made any part of the worship itself, or has any holy or religious signification in it. Let us stand fast then in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and not be entangled with yokes of bondage; Gal. v. 1. nor impose hours snd seasons upon ovr consciences, which we cannot find the word of God has imposed, but which Christ has left indifferent to the free choice and conveniency of his churches.

DISCOURSE III.

The Holiness of Places of Worship, considered in a Sermon at the opening of a new Meeting-house, October 20th, 1737.

Exod. xx. 24. In all places where I record my name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee.

THESE words were spoken to Moses at mount Sinai, and sent by him to the nation of Israel, just after the great God had pronounced the law of the ten commandments from heaven in lightning and thunder: And while the people lay under awful impressions of this fiery law, God takes further care to secure the honours of his own name and worship, and to appoint some of the earliest modes and ceremonies of it. Verses 23, 24. Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall you make to you gods of gold: An altar of earth shalt thou make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt-offerings and thy peaceofferings, and I will meet thee and bless thee. But before I come to explain or improve this promise, I ask leave to make these three remarks on the connexion of these words with the context.

I. As the preface to those ten commands which God spoke to the people in thunder was this, I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the house of bondage; Exod. xx. 2. therefore hear and obey; so the preface to those following commands which he sent to them by Moses; verse 22. was this, I the Lord your God have talked with you from heaven, therefore attend and practise. A God of such mercy and of such Majesty, who brings his people out of a long and painful bondage, and then pronounces his own laws in fire and thunder, ought to be heard and obeyed by sinful feeble creatures. Divine Majesty and divine mercy united, carry with them a powerful demand of attention and obedience.

II. As the blessed God begins his orders to his people by his own voice, with securing his own honour and worship in the first and second commandments; in the same manner he begins his message to them by Moses, by a sort of explication or comment on these two first commands; Ye shall have no other gods with me, or besides me; no gods of gold or silver: and ye shall worship me by sacrifices upon an altar made of earth. Though God was just going to direct them to build a glorious tabernacle with altars of brass and gold, yet, while ye are in this moving and travelling state, before I have built me a house or

mansion to dwell in, ye shall worship me, saith he, upon an altar of earth, such as may be easily set up or took down without expence of time and money: This shall be more acceptable to me than altars of hewn or polished stone, with all the ornaments and fineries which you can contrive. It is God's own appointment of the forms and instruments of his own worship, that makes that worship acceptable to him, whether the materials be of earth or gold.

III. When God had briefly mentioned this matter of duty to the people, he adds a rich promise of grace. In all places where I record my name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee. St. Paul observes; Eph. vi. 2. that honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land, is the first commandment with a promise, and a few hours and minutes after that command was given, this order to worship God according to his own appointment, was sent to them; and it may be properly called the second commandment with promise; and a glorious promise it is indeed, of the presence of God with his people, to encourage to an exact and punctual performance of all his institutions in their worship.

Now let me take a short survey of these words of promise, and explain them briefly in general terms. By God's recording his own name, we are here to understand, his appointing any thing relating to his honour by his own authority, or his giving some notice how or where he would be worshipped by men ; what place he has fixed, or what forms of adoration he hath stamped with his own name and authority: And wheresoever these his institutions are celebrated in all their appointed forms, there the name of God is recorded. By his own coming to his people, which he has here promised, we must understand, his favourable discoveries of himself to those who worship him in the place and manner which he ordains: and this he has often done by some signals of his own gracious presence with them. He will let them know that he approves them, favours them and resides amongst them. By his blessing his people, he intends to signify, that he will not only accept the worship which is paid to him according to his own appointment, but he will make their attendances upon him effectual for some blessed ends: He will bestow those blessings of the covenant of grace, which are sought for by his people in their attendance on his worship.

Now that we may raise such meditations from these words as may suit our present purpose of beginning to wait upon God in a new erected place of worship, permit me to lead your thoughts along in order by the following propositions :

I. "That God who has ordained his own worship, together with the special modes and forms of it, has often in ancient times appointed the particular place of his worship, on single or

special occasions." It was while Adam tarried in paradise after his fall, and before he was driven out of the garden of Eden,. that he was doubtless taught and required to offer sacrifices of beasts; for since flesh was not then appointed to be eaten, what could it be but the skins of beasts which were offered in sacrifice, out of which God made coats or garments for him and his wife? And hereby paradise itself, where the first sin was committed, was the appointed place for that sort of worship by sacrifice, by which the first typical atonement should be made for sin. But it does not appear that there was any continuance of that appointment more than for one season of worship: For our first parents were quickly driven out of that delightful garden. Noah, when he came out from the ark, at the order of God, upon mount Ararat, where the ark rested, there he offered sacrifices, and that doubtless by divine appointment; for the Lord smelled a sweet savour in them, and gave him a promise that he would not again curse the ground; Gen. viii. 20, 21.

It was by the special appointment of God, in a certain spot of the land of Canaan, that Abraham sacrificed to God a heifer, a goat, and a ram, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon, and divided them asunder; and there God condescended to pass between these pieces, under the emblem of a smoking furnace and a burn. ing lamp, and made a covenant with his servant; Gen. xv. 9—17. It was also upon mount Moriah that Abraham received orders from heaven to offer his own son Isaac as a burnt-offering, and there he received a further blessing from the Lord, and the promise of the great Messiah to be derived from his seed, in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed; Gen. xxii. 2, 17, 18. It was at mount Sinai, that God ordered the nation of Israel to worship him, when he had brought them forth from Egyptian bondage; Exod. iii. 12. and again he appointed the "young men of the seed of Israel, to sacrifice oxen unto him under the hill, with an altar and twelve pillars, and made a covenant with the people;" Exod. xxiv. 5-8. So in following times, Gideon, and Samuel, and David, under inspiration, were required sometimes to offer particular sacrifices, and pay solemn worship unto God, in places different from the general orders which were given to all Israel for the public worship of the nation; otherwise, they would not have dared to have done it, nor would their sacrifices have been accepted, by such evident and illustrious testimonies from heaven, as some of them received. These few instances make it evident, that God sometimes appointed a particular place for his own worship.

II. "Though the great God prescribed to several persons the particular spot of ground on which he would be worshipped on single and special occasions; yet when he appointed any special place for his own worship in the solemn returns of it at stated