A PLEA FOR THE Holy Sacrament: BEING An Attempt to Rescue it from some Late Profanations in CIVIL MATTERS.  
In a LETTER to a Member of Parliament. By a LAY-HAND.  
Licenced, March 25, 1689. JAMES FRASER.  
SIR, March 20th, 1688/9.  
IT hath been one of the most successful Stratagems of the Apostate Prince of Darkness, to Ruin men's Souls by those very means which were ordained for their Salvation; and this Policy of his appears in no Instance more evident, than in the Methods he has taken to make the Eucharist a means of Destruction; while by unworthily Receiving, Men eat and drink damnation to themselves. 
* 1 Cor. 11.29.   
Hence his faithful Servants, the Authors of that Mystery of Iniquity, Popery, have made Transubstantiation a Test of their Catholism, burning and damning Men for being Men; that is, for using their Sense and Reason: With one hand robbing us of the Holy Sacrament, and its proper Uses; and with the other, presenting us with a piece of Pageantry, and requiring our Adoration of a senseless Idol.  
The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was Instituted by our Blessed Saviour, in Remembrance of himself, and as a bond of Union among his Followers. 'Tis the peculiar Right of such who by sound Faith, well digested Knowledge, and some Experience of the Comforts and Pleasures that Result from a Good Conscience, and Holy Conversation, are made to long for further Degrees of Conformity to the Will of God, clearer Manifestations of the Divine Love, and more evident Signs of the Soul's Recovery from its fallen state.  
The Motives to come to it ought to be from within, or else from above, and not from beneath; and the Things to be obtained by it, aught to be increase of spiritual Blessings, and not of outward Emoluments.  
Blessed is that Nation where the Government can find men otherwise fitted for Public Employments, whose use of this Sacrament appears by their Conversations, to proceed from such Principles; and surely he who loves the Commemoration of the 
* 1 Rev. 5.  Prince of the Kings of the Earth, in this way of his own Institution, has an excellent Qualification to Recommend him to those Vicegerents of that Prince, who desire and design to promote his Interest.  
But Sir, to give a plain Answer to your Question, I am of Opinion, That it is at least inconvenient, to impose the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper on every Man that executes an Office in Public Administrations; and that among others, for these Reasons:  
1. The Ordinance was Instituted to other Ends; and I know not when the Warrant was signed by our Saviour, to use it to such a purpose— 'Tis his Great Seal, and ought not to be put to any Commissions but his own.  
No Man who is fit for it, needs a Law to bring him to it; all the Soldiers of the 
† 〈◊〉 Heb. 10.  Captain of our Salvation are 
‖ 110 Ps. 3.  Volunteers; and on the contrary 'tis certain, that he that needs a Law to bring him to it, is not fit for it.  
3. If this Test be established, 'tis the Duty of all Men in their respective Places to keep from Offices, all that are guilty of Swearing, Drinking, Whoring, and the other parts of a profane Life, which are obvious to common observation; for those things evidently unfit Men to receive the Sacrament: And if the Government should permit no Man to be in any Office that drinks to excess, or mispends his time in tippling, that uses to swear in common discourse, or whose Life otherwise appears vicious, what multitudes of places would be empty, which are now well filled for the Public Interest? And yet what a Cruelty would it be to any vicious Man, to put him under a necessity of Profaning the Sacrament, by putting him into Office— For it is most certain, that not only every Man that lives in the Practice of any known Vice, but every Man that lives not in a daily endeavour to perform his Covenant made in Baptism with the most Blessed Trinity, aught to keep far from the Sacred Table.  
4. I know it is objected, that all Men ought to be fit for the Sacrament, and that it will tend much to promote a Good Life, that they be under a necessity to receive it— But let Experience speak— Mens Stomaches have scarce yet digested the Sacraments, which they have profaned, for some Years past, to keep their Places— Men have taken the Sacrament, and betrayed their Country, and ruined their honest Neighbours, taken the Sacrament, and introduced Popery; taken the Sacrament, and murdered Men by colour of Law; and who is there (of a Subject) among the Authors of the Grievances of the Nation, that took not the Sacrament to enable him so to be? Not to mention Persons of better Rank, how many Vintners, Ale-House-keepers, and others of like Profession, have purchased their Licenses at the hazard of their Souls? And I dare appeal to all Men, to whom these Presents shall come, whether within their knowledge any Reformation hath been wrought thereby. Five hundred have refused it for Conscience-sake for one profane Person that has scrupled it. And who, and where is he whose Life hath been Reform by being under this necessity?— But if the universal depravity of men's Manners be compared with the universal attendance that was paid of late at the Communion-Table, what a dreadful Prospect is presented thereby to any considering Mind? If of the Corinthians, who Received unworthily, many were 
* 1 Cor. 11.30.  sick and weak, and some were punished with death, what Desolations would Divine Vengeance make in England, should the same Measure be meted out to us. But,  
5. The Kingdom of our Lord 
* John 18.36.  Christ is not of this world, at least not before the time of the 
* Acts 3.21.  Restitution of all things: And although the good Christian must necessarily be a good Subject, yet a Man whose fitness to receive the Sacrament is known to God his own Conscience, and to all good Men, may be very unfit for an Office in the State; and he may be exceeding fit for a Public Employment, whose unfitness to receive the Sacrament is as obvious. It is an Opinion in this sense justly exploded, That Dominion is founded in Grace; for God has given the 
* Psal. 115.16.  Earth to those Children of men whom he designs not for Heaven. And those 
* Luke 16.8.  Children of this world, who are wiser in their Generation than the Children of Light, are, by reason of that Wisdom, fit to be employed therein. But,  
6. The Generations to come shall call them Blessed, who instead of forcing Men to the Sacrament, use all means Divinely instituted, to make them sit for it.— The Primitive Bishops kept Men Catechumen for a long time, and admitted none to the Sacrament, till they were approved and practical Christians. And if the Inhabitants, and especially the Children of England, were every where made Catechumen by Public Authority, the next Generation may probably fill all Public Employments with Men, who would approach the Sacrament both to the Public Advantage and their own; for the appearances of Divine Providence in the World are now conspicuous, and at all times, (but especially in those days wherein God is pleased more eminently to take to himself his 
* Rev. 1.17.  great Power and Reign) Good Men are Public Blessings. Ten 
* Gen. 18.32.  Righteous had saved Sodom● such a day▪ Laban's 
* Gen. 30. ●7.  Flock increased under Jacob's, and 
* Gen. 39.3.  Potiphar's Affairs were blest under Joseph's Care; but till the Manners of Men be greatly altered, nothing should be avoided more carefully for the Public Interest than ill men's coming to the Sacrament, lest not only the Persons of Men, but the Public should suffer under the Divine Displeasure. 
* Jonah 1.12.  One Jonah may endanger a Ship; and 
* Gen. 19.21.  one Righteous Lot may secure a Town.  
7. I must confess it is difficult to me to find out any plausible Reason for this Device; sure it is not worth a while to make such a Test to secure a disputable Posture, or to tempt all Hypocrites into the Church; for 'tis ten to one that he that comes to the Sacrament because he cannot have an Employment without it, is an Hypocrite; and it is as many to one, but the Protestant that loses an Office, because he cannot receive the Sacrament, is an honest Man, is a true and useful Subject.  
8. It cannot be an equivalent to the aforesaid Dangers that hereby some Papists may be kept from Employment, for he is greatly mistaken that believes the Sacrament to be the strength of the Test; Transubstantiation is the thing which the Papist cannot renounce; for Men are fond of Gods of their own making, but he may well Communicate with the Church, as by the Examples of the late King Charles the Second, Obadiah Walker, and others, is plainly evinced; and the Reason is as plain as the Fact, for he either believes that we have no Gospel-Priests, and takes the Bread and the Wine as common Food: Or if he allows our Priest's power to Consecrate, he may adore the Bread very conveniently upon his knees.  
9 Besides Papists in Disguise are no ways dreadful when they have no Protection or favour from Court. They have been happily discovered in the short time of Father Petre's Ministry, and must never expect to live unknown or unhated in England any more. So that now upon the whole matter, the Sum of what I have offered is this.  
That to make the Sacrament a Test for Civil Offices, is unsuitable to the Institution, Nature, and Ends of the Sacrament, dangerous to the Government, and to the Souls of Men, grounded on no solid Reason, of use only to exclude good Subjects, and wholly insufficient to promote the true Interest of England, which is by all means consistent with Reason and Justice, to promote Union among Protestants, and to exclude Popery for ever.  
I am sensible that I have not impoverished this Subject, the bounds of a Letter allows me only to hint at things, but if you please to object in your Answer against the Arguments here advanced, you will oblige me, for I am a hearty lover of the Blessed Sacrament, a wellwisher to England, easily and willingly vanquished by Reason, a Zealous seeker of Truth, an Expecter as well as Desirer of Peace among all true Christians, and  
Your Humble Servant.   

London: Printed for R. Baldwin, near the Black Bull in the Old-Baily. 1689.