to communicate often, if they will be entitled to that heavenly Kingdom which our Lord has purchased for us; and that they who obftinately and wilfully neglect or refufe either, and die impenitently in that Neglect or Refufal, will very juftly be difowned and rejected by him, as Perfons whom he knows not; as Perfons, who tho' they may have called him Lord, Lord, yet have obftinately refufed to do the things that he has faid, and therefore as Workers of Iniquity.

But left we should extend this Neceffity too far, and should understand it of all Perfons and all Cafes whatsoever; and left we should be led thereby either uncharitably to condemn others, who nevertheless may in this Inftance be very innocent; or to be dejected or defponding ourselves, in Cafes where there is no Guilt, and therefore can be no Danger; the Church therefore explains her Senfe of this Neceffity of the Ufe of the Holy Sacraments, by faying, that they are only GENERALLY NECESSARY to Salvation.-That is, they are neceffary to thofe, and to thofe only, who have it in their Power to partake of them. Not that our Bleffed Lord, who will judge the World in Equity, will condemn all the Heathen, or others who never have heard of his Name, barely for not partaking of thofe Sacraments which never came to their Knowledge; or that he will condemn innocent Children who die unbaptized, barely for the Wickedness of

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their Parents, in not bringing them to Baptism; but that all we, to whom the Knowledge of these Inftitutions is come, and who have it daily in our Power to partake of them, are indifpenfably obliged to do fo, upon Pain of forfeiting our Title to that Salvation which he has purchased. The Heathen, and others who cannot know the Lord Jefus Chrift, muft be left to their own Mafter, to whom they will ftand or fall; all that we know concerning them is in general this, that where there is no Liberty of Action, there can be no Guilt; and that the Judge of all the Earth will infallibly do right, and will not inflict any Punishment, but in Proportion to the Crimes of the Perfon punished. So that we are not to judge of others, but ourselves, by this Doctrine; and to remember, that OUR future Salvation and Mifery do in general depend upon our obeying all the Commandments of our Lord and Master, of which thefe of the Sacraments are moft plainly some; and that we are therefore utterly inexcufable if we neglect to partake of them. And indeed, as on the one hand those among us, who will not be baptized, have no juft Claim to the very Name of Chriftians, much less to the Privileges of the Christian Covenant, into which they refuse to enter; fo on the other, for those who are incorporated into his Church, and who profess to believe and obey Chrift; for them to live their whole Lives, or great Part of them, in the open Contempt

Contempt of his exprefs Command to partake of the Communion of his Body and Blood, is not to be reconciled with Sincerity in that Profeffion. It is an open Indignity and Affront to our Bleffed Lord, and muft, themselves being Judges, be condemned as highly criminal, fince they allow it to be necessary to obferve his

Laws.

Such is the Neceffity of the Holy Sacraments to Salvation; and in order to explain more clearly what is meant by a Sacrament, we muft proceed to the next Anfwer, wherein it is defined in the following Words:

A Sacrament is an outward and visible Sign of an inward and fpiritual Grace given to us, ordained by Chrift himself, as a Means whereby we receive the fame, and a Pledge to affure us thereof.

So that, befides the Appointment of Chrift, (which, as has been obferved, is necessary to make a Chriftian Sacrament) every Sacrament, if it answers the Sense which the Church of England puts upon that Word, muft likewife confift of two Parts, and must have been ordained by Chrift with particular Views, and to answer certain Ends, which he intended to be answered thereby.-It must confift, first, of an outward and visible Sign; and secondly, of an inward and Spiritual Grace; and it must have been ordained by Chrift, both as a Means whereby we receive this Grace, and as a Pledge 4

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to affure us of the Reception of it.—And confequently any Ceremony, or Cuftom, or Obfervance, which has not fuch an outward and vifible Sign given to it by Chrift, or which has not an inward and spiritual Grace annexed to the worthy Performance of it, or which was not appointed by him on purpose to obtain that Grace; I fay, whatever is defective in any one, or all of these Particulars, cannot be what we mean by a Chriftian Sacrament.--From whence it plainly follows, that the Two we receive are the only Sacraments; and that the Five which the Church of Rome improperly calls fo, are not fuch Sacraments, because not one of them either confifts of thofe neceffary Parts of a Sacrament, or was ordained by Chrift for thefe Sacramental Ends.

Confirmation is a Ceremony which the Apoftles ufed, and is ftill retained in the Church of England, in Conformity to their Practice. But it was not ordained by Chrift, neither has HE given it any vifible Sign, ot affured us of any particular Graces which we fhall receive thereby.

Penance is profeffedly a Part of ChurchDifcipline; in the Exercife of which no outward Sign is appointed by Chrift, nor has he ordained it as a Pledge of inward Grace.

Extreme Unction is only an Imitation, and a very aukward one indeed, of the Practice of the Apostles. They anointed the Sick, in order to their miraculous, but certain Cure;

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and the Church of Rome, on the contrary, orders this only to be done when the judges them to be paft Cure, and paft all Hopes of Recovery. But our Bleffed Lord never gave any Command or Directions about it, much lefs fuch as is necessary to make it a Sacramental Institution.

Matrimony is only a particular State of Life, which the Church of Rome herself allows not to be neceffary to Salvation; and concerning the entring into which our Blessed Lord gave no Directions. And

Orders are the fetting apart of particular Perfons to the Discharge of a particular Office; and though of Divine Appointment, yet can be no Sacrament, because there is no particular Sign given to it by Chrift, nor has he ordained it as a Pledge of any particular Grace. -So that the first three of the five pretended Sacraments are, as the Church well expreffes it, fuch Practices as have sprung of the corrupt following of the Apostles; the other two are States of Life which are allowed in the Scriptures; but neither are to be accounted by us as Sacraments of the Gospel; because they have not the like Nature of Sacraments, with those we call fo; for that they have not any vifible Sign or Ceremony ordained of God.-Whereas Baptifm and the Lord's Supper have every Particular before mentioned as neceffary to a Sacrament: Which we now proceed to fhew

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