If these fort of Answers would not have preserved a few from a Total Excifion, and Dying for his Sacrilegious Profanation of GOD's Ordinance, by doing fomething in his own House which had a Likeness only of what was appointed for the Worship of the Sanctuary; is it not then worth while for good Chriftians to confider, whether the very fame Set of Arguments will be of greater Force in their Mouths to excufe their daily drinking in an Honourable, Living, or Grateful Remembrance of their Abfent Friends or Benefactors, if this have any Likeness or Refemblance of that Holy Ordinance now made the most Solemn Part of Chriftian Worship. If it is faid here, there was an Express Law forbidding that fort of Profanation to the Jews, but there is none forbidding the Like to Chriftians; then fay I, He who will not be Convinced by Confidering, that the Moral Import and Reafon of that Law holds. ftronger under the Gospel, than under the Jewish Difpenfation, muft go on to practice every Day of his Life, without any Remorfe, that very thing under the Gospel, which in the Judgment of GOD was of a Profane and Sacrilegious Nature under the Old Law.

If the Case of Drinking to an honourable Remembrance of Abfent Living Friends in General, lies thus level to every Capacity without any Force or Straining; how can we fufficiently admire the yet more glaring and utterly indefenfible Érror of thofe, who practice a daily Drinking to the Glorious and Immortal Memory of a departed Monarch; and ftrongly impregnate the Minds of their Children with it, long before they are made acquainted with Drinking in Remembrance of their true SAVIOUR? How is it to be accounted for that this Custom fhou'd prevail fo univer fally thrô Two Nations, that it fhou'd be espoused with more Zeal than Men fhew for any Article of Faith or Practice; and abetted with Rage and Fury; even to branding of all who decline it, thô upon a Principle of Confcience, with Ingratitude towards Go D, and Disloyalty to their Living King? And that it fhould find no fmall Number to enter the Lifts for its Defence in Print both of Clergy and Laity? I leave this unparalelled Inftance of the Power of Prejudice and Prepoffeffion to byafs the Judgments of Men againft the natural Tendency of free and difinterested Reafon, to be the Wonder and Aftonishment of Pofterity. II. Another

II. Another Thing which fhews the Evil of Drinking in a Loving, or Grateful, or Honourable Remembrance of our Abfent Friends whether Dead or Alive, is that this Custom is derived from the Heathen, and ferved them to all the vileft Purposes of Sin and Wickednefs. Of this we have a clear and full Account from many. * Apuleius tells us exprefly, that They used to Drink in Remembrance of the Dead, and particularly of their Fellon-Soldiers, in golden Cups. And Stuckius inveighs against the Wickedness of Chriftians who in Imitation of them ↑ Glory in Drinking Healths in Honour of the DEAD, as well as of the LIVING. Nay to that Height of Extravagance were fome of them Tranfported by this Custom, that They Spared neither God nor his Saints, but impiously abufed even their Names in their Monftrous Healths.

* Poculis aureis Memoriæ Defun&torum Commilitonum Vinum Libantes Metam. lib. 4. p. 132. + Pro Dignitate atq; Sanitate cùm præfentium tum Abfentium, Mortuorum pariter atq; Vivorum fe bibere jatitant. Stuckius Antiqu. Convival. Lib. 3.

SNe Deo quidem atq; San&tis parcunt;-illorum quoq; Nominibus ad Cyclopicas illas Propinationes impiè abutuntur. Stuc. Antiqu. Conviv. p. 362,

That it was the conftant Custom of the Heathen to Drink in an honourable Remembrance of their Gods and departed Heroes, and likewife of their Abfent Living Friends, we every where meet with. The Ancients, fays Urfinus, in their Healths ufed to Drink a certain Number of Cups to the Honour of their Gods. And the Ancient Græcians in their Meals were used by Appointment to Drink Three Cups to the Honour of their Gods; The first to Mercury; the next to the Graces; the third to Jupiter the Saviour. * Stuckius tells us that It was the Cutom of the Ancients in their Healths to drink off a certain Number of Cups in Honour of their Deities, or their Friends, or Miftreffes § Bulingerus fays it was their Cuftom to

Bibere folebant veteres in Deorun honorem certum numerum Cyathorum in fuis Propinationibus. Et Græci quidem veteres in Cœnis tres Crateras in Deorum Grati am funt foliti ftatuere; Primum Mercurio, alterum Gratli, tertium Fovi Servatori. Urfin. de Triclin. pag. 325..

* Antiqu. Conviv. lib. 1. pag. 357. Solebant Veteres cum in Deorum, tum in Amicorum & Amicarum honorem atq; Gratiam certum Cyathorum numerum in fuis Propinationibus exhaurire.

§ De Conviv. cap: 40. Bibebant Amicorum memores. Græco more bibere eft, cum Cyathis mero plenis primo Deos, deinde Amicos fuos nominantes toties merum bibere quoties Deum & charos nominatim vocant. Their Custom was Ut fingulos Vini Cyathos fub fingulorum Deorum, aut chariffimorum hominum nomine apponi jube

rent.

Drink in Remembrance of their Friends. And that accordingly to Drink after the Manner of the Græcians is for Men to name fome one of their Deities or Friends over their Liquor, and then drink it off. In Order to the Performance of which, They had distinct Glaffes of Wine for every Deity or dear Friend they were pleased to remember by Name. They named, fays Baccius, the Names of thofe Friends for whofe fake they drank, nay tho' they were ABSENT. And Pitifcus in his Alphabetical Collection of Antiquities, hath a Number of Quotations to fhew how it was the conftant Custom of the Heathen to Drink in Honour of their Friends as well ABSENT as PRESENT, by that Means to renew and refresh the Memory of them.

*

To this Cuftom there are many Allufions in the Heathen Poets, as that of

+De Conv. Antiq. lib. 4. cap. 2. Nominabant & Amicorum Nomina etiam Abfentium in quorum Gratiam biberent.

* Bibere in Amicorum, cum Præfentium tum Absentium Gratiam veteres folebant, ad illorum memoriam inter bibendum recolendum & renovandum. Pitifc. Lexic. Antiq. Vol. 1. pag. 174. Where the Reader may meet with many Quotations out of Heathen Authors to this Purpofe.