of a previous fast, or a subsequent day of thanksgiving.

But the matter is decisively settled by the twenty-first chapter of the confefsion, which treats of religious worship. In section V. “ the "due administration and worthy receiving of "the sacraments," are clafsed with reading the scriptures, preaching and hearing the word, and singing of psalms; and are declared to be, equally with them, "parts of the ordinary religious worship of God;" whereas "soleinn "fasts and thanksgivings" are clafsed with religious" oaths and vows," are declared to belong to "special occasions," and are thus entirely separated from any immediate connection with the Lord's supper. There is no getting over this. You must either pronounce the Lord's supper an extraordinary duty, or public fasting and thanksgiving ordinary ones; and in both cases, you overthrow the doctrine of the confefsion. It is needlefs to say more; the contradiction is direct and full; nor has the most ingenious sophistry one subterfuge left.

It is, therefore, a stubborn fact, however illy it may be received, that the Lord's supper, dispensed without fast-day, thanksgiving-day or week-day sermon, would comply not only with the spirit, but with the letter of that very

directory, which we ourselves have solemnly approved, as being substantially founded in the word of God; and that our present sacramental fast and thanksgiving days are in open hostility with the decision of that system, which we hold up to the world as exhibiting our genuine faith. And yet the least attempt to lay any of them aside, that is, to act up to our own avowed principles; to conform to that order which we profefs to believe according to the divine will, is reproached as innovation and defection!!

But if these days are so destitute of every just authority, how were they introduced? Like all other unwarranted rites-by stealth. 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. This is the ordinary progrefs of corruption. The readiness with which men leave divine appointments for their own fancies, is proportioned to their reluctance in leaving their own fancies for divine appointments.

But in whatever manner the sacramental fasts and thanksgivings came into use, they are clearly of modern date. We have already

seen that no traces of them can be found in the apostolical churches, or in those of the reformation. Their existence in Scotland, is certainly later than 1645, as is manifest from the directory for worship, and from the act of the General Assembly quoted above*. It even appears that there was no fast-day as low down as the year 1657, ten years after the adoption of the confefsion, and twelve after that of the directory. It is not denied that weck-day sermons had sometimes been preached after the communion. That glorious one of the renowned JOHN LIVINGSTON, from which near five hundred persons reckoned their conversion to God, or their establishment in his ways, was delivered on a Monday after the sacrament, in 1630. But these were entirely occasional; and the event at the kirk of Shots was "the more remarkable, that one, after much reluctance, by a special and unexpected providence, was called to preach that sermon on the Monday, which then was not usually practised +."

It is also true, that in 1657, although the fast-day had not yet come into fashion, ser

*P. 67.

12mo.

FLEMING'S fulfilling of the Scripture, vol. I. p. 400.

vices accompanying the communion were enormously multiplied: But this was with many, and very justly, a source of serious discontent. As the account is little known, and may be useful, the chief of it is here given from Dr. Erskine's Difsertation, as he took it from the author of "Dan in Beersheba*." "The General Assembly, in the year 1645, did establish an order for preventing confusion in the celebration of the sacrament, with which the whole church were satisfied. Yet, since our divisions, our difsenting brethren† have taken up a new and irregular way of dispensing the holy supper, whereby they have turned it either into a theatrical pomp, or into the Popish error of opus operatum. They have a great many ministers afsisting them; six or seven; nay, sometimes double that number, whose congregations are generally left destitute of preaching that day. Every day of their meeting, viz. Saturday, the Lord's day, and Monday, (N. B. They had then no fast-days) many of these ministers do preach succefsively one after another; so that three or four, or sometimes more,

*This writer's authorities are two books published in London, 1657, and entitled, Uldericus Veridicus, sive de Statù Ecclesia Scoticana, and A True Representation of the Rise, Progress, and State of the Divisions in the Church of Scotland.

+ It refers to the dispute between the resolutioners and protestors.

do preach at their preparation, and as many on the Monday following. And on the Sabbath, sometimes three or four preach before they go to the action, besides those who preach to the multitude of the people who cannot be contained in the church. Never before were there so many sermons in any church in so short a time. These practices, as they are a clear violation of the order unanimously established in the church, and do occasion great animosity and alienation of simple people against those ministers who will not imitate those irregular courses; so uninterested observers perceive a clear design in all this, so set up themselves as the only zealous and pious people worthy to be trusted and followed in our public differences: which if it be not an injury to that sacred ordinance, and an improving that which should be a bond of unity and communion, to be a wedge to drive and fix a rent, let the judicious and sober judge*." How far some of these reflections are applicable to our own circumstances, is left to the reader. But as to the narrative, it may not be unworthy of remark, first, that the whole church was satisfied with the order established by the Afsembly in 1645: that is, without either fast or thanksgiving days.

ERSKINE'S Diss. p. 282, 283.