DRINKING

IN

REMEMBRANCE.

OF THE

DEAD

BEING THE

Subftance of a DISCOURSE

Deliver'd to the

CLERGY of the Diocese of Cork,
On the Fourth of November, 1713.
By the Bishop of that Diocefe. Peter Brown
And Publifh'd at their Unanimous Request.

*

LONDON:

Printed for and Sold by H. CLEMENTS, at
the Half-Moon in St. Paul's Church-Yard.
M DCC XV.

(Price Six-pence.)

DI

Of Drinking in Remembrance of the DEAD, &C.

T

HE Queftion I am now to fpeak to, is this:

Whether Drinking in Remembrance of the Dead, excepting only in Remembrance of Jefus Chrift, is an Action in it felf Sinful, now under the Gospel? And whether the Cuftom of Drinking in Remembrance of • Departed Monarch, is fo in particular? Aff.

I fhall, by way of Preface, only observe to you, That were it not for the Power and Prejudice of a Cuftom which has lately prevailed, thro' much Inadvertency and Want of a pious Zeal and fincere Concern for Religion, in the Hearts of Men, it wou'd be look'd upon as a very needlefs Work, to go about to prove the Affirmative of this Question.

Had we liv'd in any other Age fince Chrift, the very Propofing of it wou'd have startled all good Chriftians. They wou'd immediately fay, I was going about to demonftrate a felf-evident Truth, which no body doubted; I fhou'd have met with no other Return, but, Who denies it? A 2

And

own the late great Deliverance thefe Nations have had from Popery and Arbitrary Power, muft likewife acknowledge our late Sovereign, of Glorious Memory, to have been the Happy Inftrument in the Hand of God for bringing all that to pafs. And one way of expreffing our Gratitude to God, is, by an Honourable Remembrance of thofe by whom his Bleffings were convey'd to us. So that if we fet up Statues, erect Trophies, raife Pyramids, ring Bells annually, and magnify him in Encomiums, Difcourfe and Hiftory, I fee nothing in all this finful in the Nature of the Thing; tho' it may become accidentally fo; as particularly, when any thing of this is done with a difloyal or factious Design.

Nor, 4thly, Whether drinking fuch a Health is a Sacrament? or whether it is done Sacramentally? But whether the very Action it felf of Drinking, applied to the Memory of the Dead, is made Sacramental? For if the Action it felf is made Sacramental, then the Confequence is clear, that it must be a horrid Abufe of it, to prophane it to any civil or common Ufe. As clear, as that if a Houfe is dedicated to God, we cannot apply it to common Ufe without Prophanation and Sacrilege; only with this Difference, That the Defecration of the former, is a Guilt of a much deeper Dye, and of a more abominable Nature.

Nor, 5thly, Whether we may remember any abfent Friend, or our Sovereign, by wishing them Health and Profperity when we drink, as the Cuftom is? This may be innocently

done;