“ ALL in this country bear the name of Christians, and acknowledge the truth of the Bible; yet there is reason to fear, that the revelation of God is in general completely mistaken: Christianity commended as containing an admirable system of morality, while the foundation of this morality is entirely overlooked. Love to God and men is universally acknowledged to be a duty; but men disobey God, and injure one another, from the strength of their passions, in the indulgence of which they endeavour to obtain happiness. ”

“ Without affection to Jesus Christ, he will tire of his Supper. Without a principle of spiritual life, he will count spiritual worship intolerable; the more spiritual, the more intolerable; and the holy communion, the most intolerable of all. His soul will loathe the heavenly manna, and by degrees he will drop off. ”

“ Hence they endeavour to make the most and the best of things as they are. Indeed, when men prove to a demonstration, that the Lord’s Supper was for ages a weekly institution with the followers of Christ, with what grace can they insist, as Randal, and Erskine, and Brown, and others, have done, on a reformation that would only carry it to three or four times a year! There is something so incongruous in it, that thinking men rather let it alone altogether, than lay themselves open to the charge of such inconsistency. ”

“ The Bible lays the axe to the root of human corruption. It informs us, that so far as the present life is concerned, our doom is fixed; that, in consequence of sin, sorrow, disappointment and death are our lot in this world: and that we may as well expect to stop the sun in his course, as to escape them. ”

“ They originate, perhaps in accident; they are continued without design; the popularity of a name recommends them to respect; one imitates another: and thus, or ever we are aware, they glide into the worship of God, and usurp the dignity of his institutions.” And again, “It seems evident that they crept into the church by degrees; that custom regardless of the reason of things, and equally tenacious of the wrong as of the right, transmitted them to posterity; and that undistinguishing habit, and the belief of the cradle, have numbered them with the ordinances of Jesus Christ.” ”

“ We need not wonder that the Reformers, with all their influence, could not carry their reformation, on this head, to any thing like the Bible pattern, or to what they themselves saw to have been the primitive practice: when we consider that multitudes embraced the reformed doctrines, who gave no evidence of conversion to God, and that all who became Protestants, were admitted to fellowship with the Protestant churches. ”

“ Does the love of Christ in giving himself to die for sinners, constrain you to live not to yourself but to God? if so, happy are you. Your trials will soon he over, and you shall enter into the joy of your Lord. ”

“ The system of preaching days has put the Lord’s Supper out of its place, in point of solemnity and importance.
The Lord’s Supper is a very solemn, a very important ordinance; but that it is so in a manner or in a degree peculiar to itself, is without proof in reason or in Scripture. What Paul says to the Corinthians on this subject, (1 Epistle chap. xi) arises not from any peculiar solemnity in this ordinance, but from the manner in which they prostituted and profaned it. All the ordinances of the Lord are solemn and important, and to profane any of them is highly criminal. ”

“ Brown:— ‘Whether is it grace or corruption that most affects to add human devices to God’s worship to make it more splendid than Christ has left it? May not persons be as really guilty of popery, by doating on the splendid pomp of divine ordinances, that consists in the variety of days, sermons, and ministers, as by doating on the variety of fantastic ceremonies used in the popish mass? ”

“ But this system tends to the profanation of the Lord’s Supper in another, and a still more serious light: it becomes the grand means of prostituting it to carnal, unrenewed men.
The Lord’s Supper is intended for those only who are his disciples; who love the Lord Jesus, who feel interested in his death, and who therefore can remember that death with those grateful and pious feelings that are suited to the exercise, pleasing to God, and profitable to the soul. ”

“ But ah! if this be not the case; if your mind be engrossed with earthly objects; if the love of sin be unbroken in your heart, you have cause to tremble. That Jesus, who once died for sin on Calvary: who came meek and lowly, and having salvation will shortly come in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory to consume all who disregard his authority, and who preferred the enjoyment of the vanities of time and sense to the glorious prospect of inheriting his kingdom. ”

“ Though we meet with acts, almost innumerable, civil and ecclesiastic, enacting— enjoining— ordaining various things relative to religion, yet we look in vain for an Act of Parliament— of Assembly— of Synod or of Presbytery, enjoining that the administration of the Sacrament be attended with routine of preaching-days. ”

“ In place of eating the Lord’s Supper with the confidence and freedom of children placed around their heavenly Father’s board, they frequently approach with fear and trembling, their minds are possessed with fearful apprehensions of displeasing him, and so incurring his wrath; and their service is thus destitute of enjoyment, and their worship is often attended with a spirit of bondage unto fear,’ unsuitable to their character, displeasing to God, and not a little distressing to their own minds. ”

“ He invites you to true happiness. He promises you indeed neither riches nor honour in this world. He requires you to take up your cross and follow him; patiently to endure, as he did, the sorrows of this life, under the animating assurance of a glorious resurrection to eternal life. ”

“ All others, be they outwardly sober or profane, moral or immoral, are without any right to it, without any just views of it, without any advantage from it, and consequently only prostitute and profane it. But it is notorious, that multitudes, who give not the most distant evidence of conversion to God, will be found seated at the communion table, on the Sacrament Sabbath. Now, to this prostitution of this sacred ordinance, these services greatly contribute. ”

“ Brown of Haddington, accounts, in the following rational manner, for the original deviation from the primitive frequency and simplicity of the Lord’s Supper.— When the church began to share the smiles and support of the Emperor, and his court, multitudes, influenced by carnal motives, thronged into it, and they were easily admitted, though indeed many of them were far from being visible saints. These carnal and court Christians disliked being from week to week employed in self examination, and other preparatory work, or living under the impression of so frequent and solemn approaching to God. ”

“ A number of the neighbouring ministers must attend, to assist— their parishes, or congregations, if Dissenters, are left vacant—should the day be favourable, the bulk of the population of these parishes crowd to the Sacrament; many, no doubt, from, pious motives, but the multitude principally youth of both sexes, for the same purpose for which they would go to a fair or a market.— amusement and diversion, to see and be seen Look at the bustle and confusion which the village presents: the roads, and streets and lanes, crowded with comers and goers all the day long: look at the public houses ”

“ Now, from what is ordinarily said on these occasions, people, even the most careless and irreligious, commonly infer two things— that going to the Lord’s table is an important duty, a duty which it would be very criminal and dangerous to neglect, and which, being performed, will be attended with some special, though mysterious advantage, such as, eating the flesh, and drinking the blood of Christ, &c. ”

“ Nothing was more natural than that the people, who had literally a famine of the word of God, should in those occasions eagerly desire as many sermons as could be afforded; and that those godly men should, as far as possible, gratify them. ”

“ This practice did not originate with the Scottish Reformers, the founders of the Presbyterian system in Scotland. In proportion as professors decay in vital religion, in that proportion do they become fond of external splendour and show— of a multiplicity of ceremonies and holy days, in religion. Accordingly we find, that, as vital godliness declined in the primitive churches, ceremonies and holy-days were introduced and multiplied, till, at length, every trace of the primitive Christian worship disappeared ”

“ Saturday and Monday sermons, were therefore, exceedingly natural, when crowds were collected at the appointed places, on, or before Saturday, who could not retire to their homes till the following week.— It is indeed probable, that such occurrences occasionally at least, took place previously to the height of the persecution which drove them into banishment. While many of their brethren fell in with the prevailing practice, the people would naturally follow those who held by their own beloved system, and suffered persecution for conscience’ sake ”

“ The following Monday is regarded as a day of thanksgiving, to assist in which exercise, two sermons are also preached. Besides, on the Sacrament Sabbath, especially in country places, there is usually an extra congregation, collected from the surrounding neighbourhood, to whom a number of discourses are delivered in rotation, from morning till evening. Few people, however, are aware that this practice is entirely peculiar to Scotland, and that, except among the descendants of emigrants originally from the country, it is quite unknown beyond the boundaries of ancient Caledonia. ”

“ It is more than probable, that they were gradually introduced during the prevalence of Episcopacy, and of the cruel persecution by which it was introduced and established against the general sentiment of the nation, during the first forty years of the 17th century. In the course of this period, many godly conscientious ministers were banished to Ireland, where they preached with great success, and from whence they occasionally visited their native land, to preach to their countrymen. ”

“ He looks for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Here is a lesson which philosophy could never teach. This, says an apostle, is the victory which overcometh the world, even our faith, 1 John v. ”