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TO THE

FIFTH EDITION.

The flattering Reception which has been given to this little MANUAL, and the rapid and extensive Sale which it has experienced, having rendered it necessary to publish a FIFTH EDITION, the Author cannot refrain from expressing his satisfaction at the distinguished encouragement which it has received.

And if the following Pages have been, in the least degree, conducive to any PRACTICAL EFFECT, by establishing the Observance of this Sacred Ordinance, this BoUNDEN DUTY and SERVICE, in the Understanding, as well as in the Heart, he shall consider himself as amply recompensed in the reflection, and that his time has not been misemployed, and that "his labor has not been in vain."

Ipswich, Nov. 30th, 1825.

PREFACE.

The arguments, advanced in the following pages, are intended to correct those Mistakes, and to remove those Scruples, which Christians too generally entertain concerning the LORD'S SUPPER, and by which they are witheld from coming to it as often as they ought; and consequently to induce them to a more frequent Communion, and to bring them to a more familiar Converse with their Lord and Master. I should hope, therefore, that if men are really satisfied that the celebration of this duty requires no arduous and laborious task, no exalted heights of piety; if every difficulty and every unreasonable fear be removed from their conscience, and the way be made plain and easy; that then every one, who has any sense of the value of his Religion, and of his Obligations to its Founder, will omit no OPPORTUNITY of making this acknowledgment which is indispensibly required of him, and of partaking of this most comfortable and heavenly Repast.

The numerous" GUIDES, COMPANIONS, and PREPARATIONS," which have been at different times published to conduct the Communicant through the longlabored formality of Examination, Contrition, Repentance, and Newness of Heart, all which, they have

laid down as absolutely necessary to prepare him for the worthy Participation of this Rite, have been justly complained of as too tedious, too extended and too enthusiastic; and have served to confirm and strengthen those discouragements to the performance of this Duty, which were unthought of by Him who made it a duty, and therefore will be wisely removed by those, who wish either to practice it often, or to understand it in its original obligation. Men should be invited to so wholesome and improving a duty, instead of being restrained from it; and every latitude and room should be given to bring them to an exercise, which is so well calculated to send them away better men, and better christians; they should be bid repeatedly to taste and see how gracious the Lord is," and how much better in every moral capacity and every divine disposition the man will be, who improves his acquaintance with Him, and visits Him frequently at his Holy Table. I will venture to pronounce, that the Institution of the Lord's Supper, when represented in this light, will produce infinitely more good in the world, than as it is commonly partaken of by men, after a long and tedious process in all the offices of mortification, contrition and penance; who, perhaps, from that moment think of it no more, and imagine that they have completed every thing that is expected from them, or that the Institution can possibly require.