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this ordinance with which the Diffenters are chargeable, and of curing them of their unfcriptural and fuperftitious notions concerning it. We well know, that you judge the commemoration of the death of Chrift as an atonement or facrifice for fin, to be no part of the defign of the Lord's Supper, because this notion of his death you deny to be a true one; and if there had been nothing in the texts you have produced as the only ones relating to this ordinance, which feemed to favour this notion of the death of Chrift, you would have had a plaufible reafön for declining to take notice of it. But feeing this idea of it is fo commonly entertained by communicants, and they think they have fo ftrong an argument for it in the very words of the inftitution, it is exceedingly ftrange, that you fhould not have attempted to remove an opinion fo irrational as this must be in your efteem, by giving the true fenfe of those words which I have juft referred to, which tend fo much to confirm it, and which, according to you, are fo generally perverted; as you could not but know what the fenfe commonly put upon them is: and you could not overlook the paffage, because you have transcribed it, as one of those by which our notions of the Lord's Supper are to be formed. Some of your readers, perhaps, may be fo uncandid as to conjecture, that it was the wifeft way to take no notice of the words which I fpeak of, becaufe you could not eafily give them a fenfe confiftent with the general language of the New Teftament, without admiting a doctrine which you have discarded from your creed. Let me defire you, Sir, to read these words again with impartiality, and fay whether they do not contain fomething fo like it, as that plain and artlefs Chriftians might eafily be fupposed to think it a fcripture-truth, and intimately connected with the Lord's Supper.

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But there is another view in which this ordinance has been confidered, which you have not merely omitted to mention in your account of the defign of it, but which, in another part of your work, you have excepted against, viz. as a fign and feal of the covenant of grace. Not to mention this, in fpeaking of the nature and end of the ordinance, appears to me as unaccountable an omiffion as the other, fince this is as exprefsly afferted in the very words of the inftitution as the former. But to fpeak of this as fuperftitious (which you do in a fubfequent paffage) is more aftonifhing, fince it appears to my reafon exceedingly rational as well as fcriptural. But to pass over those words of the inftitution which are the foundation of this notion of it, in abfolute filence, and not hint at any meaning, is highly unpardonable. The words which I refer to are thofe of our Saviour to his disciples, when he gave them the cup. This,' fays he (according to Matthew) is MY BLOOD OF THE NEW TESTAMENT' or Covenant. Or (as Mark has it) THIS IS THE NEW TESTAMENT (or Covenant) IN MY BLOOD. Upon this paffage, in connection with many others, is grounded that notion of the Lord's Supper which I have juft now mentioned, as a fign and feal of the covenant of grace. This you are pleafed (p. 50) to call Superftition, as it is reprefented in the Articles of the Church of England, and in the Affembly's Catechifm, which, by the way, you uncandidly, (and I will take upon me to fay, falfely) call," the Standards of Faith in the "Church of England and among many Diffenters." I know no Proteftants who have any standard of faith but the Bible. And I am quite at a lofs to fee what there is fuperftitious in either of the paffages which you have quoted from either of thefe forms of doctrine. For a vindication of the twenty-fifth article: of the church, I refer you to Mr. VENN's piece, in which I think he has given a very rational and fatisfactory

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Factory one. The answers in the Affembly's Cate chifm, I will undertake to vindicate from your charge. A Sacrament is defined to be "An holy ordinance "inftituted by Chrift, wherein, by fenfible figns, "Christ and the benefits of the new covenant are re"prefented, fealed and applied to believers." And the Lord's Supper is faid to be "A facrament where"in, by giving and receiving bread and wine according to Chrift's appointment, his death is fhewed "forth, and the worthy receivers are, not after a σε corporal and carnal manner, but by faith, made. "partakers of his body and blood with all his bene"fits, to their spiritual nourishment and growth in 4 grace." The sense of both these anfwers feems to me plainly contained, or at least deducible, from the very words of our Lord himself. This (i. e. the bread) is my body my body this (i. e. the wine) is my blood of the new covenant, or the new covenant in my blood. To what could our Lord be fuppofed to refer in fpeaking of the new covenant, but to that which is fpoken of in the Catechism, and which is commonly called the covenant of grace. This phrafeology I know is puritanical, but it is truly fcriptural, and even separate from that confideration appears to me the fittest that could be used to exprefs that new and most gracious compact into which God has condefcended to enter with penitent finners that believe in his Son; which he has revealed in the gospel, and in which he has folemnly engaged to bestow upon all fuch perfons pardon and falvation. Of this covenant Chrift is represented in scripture as the Mediator, and his blood as the feal. It is exprefsly called the blood ' of the covenant.'* Now let me afk any reasonable perfon, in what fenfe the Wine in the Lord's Supper can be called the new covenant in Chrift's blood, or his blood of the new covenant, if it be not fuppofed the emblem of that blood of Jefus by which the co€ 2

Heb. x. 29. xiii. 20.

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venant of God's grace was ratified and confirmed. cannot conceive of any other poffible sense than this, and this appears an highly rational one. But what

ufeful purpose is this emblem defigned to answer, unless it is to be confidered as a standing memorial in the church to the end of time, that the covenant of grace is confirmed and unchangeable, and that according to it those who repent and believe in every nation and age of the world may hope for juftification and eternal life. And for what end is it that the bread and wine are to be received by every member of the church, if not to reprefent their receiving and applying to themselves the bleffings of the covenant, or in other words of the fame import, their receiving Chrift and partaking of his body and blood for their fpiritual nourishment. It is in thefe laft expreffions, I fuppofe, that the fuperftition you speak of is chiefly contained. But need I to remind Dr. Priestley that they are metaphorical expreffions, and fuch as Chrift himfelf has thought proper to ufe? The particular vindication of them, however, will better fuit a fubfequent part of the work, in which I may have occafion to confider others near a-kin to them which you have excepted against.

To conclude this letter: what I have been endeavouring to prove is this, that the design of the Lord's Supper on GOD's part is, to afford us a perpetual memorial of Chrift in his feveral characters and offices, particularly of his death, and this more efpecially as a facrifice for fin, and as a feal of the covenant of grace; on which account the Lord's Supper itself may be confidered as a fign and a feal of the bleffings of that covenant to all who comply with the requirements of it; or, in other words, to all who believe and repent. So that the bleffed Jehovah, who was offended by the fins of men, may be confidered as addreffing himself, in this ordinance to all the worthy receivers of it, in fuch language as

this:

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this: "Come unto me, and be ye faved. I, even "I, am he that blotteth out your iniquities. I have "laid help upon one that is mighty: I have found "a ranfom. Who is he that fhall condemn? Chrift "has died. See here the lively memorials of his "death. This bread is the emblem of that body of "his which was broken for you: this wine, of his "blood which was fhed for many for the remiffion "of fins. By that blood my covenant of mercy was fealed. In giving you this wine, I prefent you with a folemn token of this truth, that with me there is mercy and plenteous redemption, and I "alfo feal the bleffing to all who are disposed by faith "to receive it." If this be fuperftition, it is fuch as is patronized by one whom, I fhould imagine, you would not hesitate to admit among the number of rational divines, I mean Dr. TAYLOR, the late profeffor of divinity at Warrington. His paraphrafe on the words of our Lord on delivering the cup, is as follows: "This cup of wine is a reprefentation of "the New Teftament, covenant, grant of favour, "or deed of gift, which God of his infinite mercy "hath freely beftowed on a finful perishing world, "and which is founded in the merit of my blood. "Our Lord exprefsly tells us, that his blood (or "perfect obedience) represented by the wine, is to be "confidered as ftanding in relation to the New Te"ftament, or covenant of grace; and confequently, "in this refpect, is to be confidered as the object of joy and exultation." After explaining this, he goes on to add, "This is the delicious wine, the rich cordial of which we drink in the Lord's Supper. And all these ineftimable bleffings God be"tows with all the affection and tenderness of a "father to his children, with all the kindness of a "friend to the objects of his love. To finners, to "the greatest of penitent finners, he gives liberally; "he pardons abundantly; and hath appointed this "ordinance

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