Page:Brief inquiry into the origin and tendency of sacramental preaching-days (1).pdf/14

Rh persuaded, the charge will be found but too easily made out.

To profane a religious ordinance is, either to render it contemptible in the eyes of men, or to apply it to purposes for which it was not designed. Now, in both these respects, the Lord’s Supper is greatly profaned by this unscriptural system.— It is rendered contemptible in the eyes of all thinking men, whether religious or otherwise.

Contemplate for a moment the scene of a country Sacrament Sabbath. 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; the ordinary number in some places will not do; the publicans hire their neighbours’ houses, and employ waiters to sell their spirits: every window presents some significant mark, to indicate what is going on within. Think of the bustle, the confusion, the noise, that this state of things must create: not to speak of the drunkenness, the quarrelling, and even fighting, that sometimes ensue: think on these things notoriously true, and say, can this be a religious ordinance, a Christian institution? Is it not much more like a popish carnival, than a gospel ordinance? In fact, it is undeniable, that the scenes of a country Sacrament have furnished a late profane wit with materials sufficiently appropriate for his ‘Holy Fair.’ What a degrading, what a contemptible view, do