Of the Sacrament of the LORD'S SUPPER in Generai.

THE Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is an Ordinance of the Gospel, appointed by Jesus Christ to preserve in christians a perpetual remembrance of his death, and to make them partakers of the benefits of it.

Concerning this institution, it is requisite that every christian be well instructed upon the Six following heads: which consisting, 1. of things to be KNOWN; and, 2. of things to be DONE; the explanation of them will be more clear and distinct, if we accordingly divide them into these two parts.

PART I.

I. What is the nature and design of the institution of the Lord's Supper?

II. What are the obligations which christians lie under to receive it?

III. How groundless the pretences are, upon which so many excuse themselves from coming to it.

PART II.

IV. What preparations are requisite to make us fit and worthy partakers of the Lord's Supper.

V. How we are to behave ourselves in receiving of it.

VI. What is to be done by us after we have received it?

PART I.

SECTION I.

Of the institution of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

The institution of this sa

crament best explained by the institution of the passover

THE sacrament of the Lord's Supper being an institution of our Saviour CHRIST, the true knowledge thereof must be sought for in the holy scriptures: especially in the New Testament, which contains the history of our Saviour's sufferings, and of the covenant that GOD made with mankind in his blood.

But inasmuch as this ordinance of the christian religion, was not only instituted at the time of holding the Jewish passover, but was in some measure taken from it, and doth in many respects bear a relation to it; therefore in order to a clearer understanding of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, it will be necessary to premise somewhat concerning the institution of the Jewesh passover. For this reason, I will first, by way of introduction, give a

brief account of the occasion, manner,and design of instituting the Jewish passover ; and then I will apply that account to the institution of the Lord's Supper, and by that means lead the reader to a full and distinct knowledge of this institution.

As to the occasion of instituting the Jewish passover; we read in the xiith chapter of the book of Exodus, that when GOD was about to deliver the children of Israel out of their bondage in Egypt, and to the end Pharaoh might let them go, had determined to slay all the first born of the Egyptians; he commanded by the hand of Moses, that in the evening of that night in which he meant to do this, every house of the children of Israel should slay a lamb without blemish, and take of the blood, and strike it on the posts of their houses, that it might be a token to the destroying Angel not to slay the first-born in any of the houses where the blood was seen. Which slaying of the lamb, if it was for the redemption of their first-born as it seems to have been, was very agreeable to the end and design of expiatory sacrifices from the beginning; wherein GOD was pleased to accept the blood of beasts for the lives of men, and which he

had done most remarkably in accepting a ram for the life of Isaac, when Abraham was about to offer him in obedience to his command.

When the lamb was slain, and the blood stricken on the posts of the houses, it was eaten by the family (as peace-offerings, and sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving, were afterwards ordered to be ;) and what remained was burnt with fire, and none of it kept until the morning; which also was afterward ordained by God as a rule in all peace offerings for Thanksgiving. Lev. vii. 15. And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiv ing, shall be eaten the same day that it is offered; he shall not leave any thing of it until the morning. And withal it was eaten with unleavened bread, (which is heavy and unsavoury) and with bitter herbs; both of them in token of the hard bondage which they had endured in Egypt.

At the same time that God enjoined all this to be performed in the night on which they were to be delivered, he commanded that the same should be observed and repeated by them, for a perpetual ordinance as long as they continued a People, Exod. xii. 24. Ye shall observe

B