RELATING TO MEMORY HEALTHS

Pouring malt liquor upon the ground in remembrance

If instead of drinking in remembrance of him, CHRIST had by express and positive institution appointed Pouring wine upon the ground for the same purpose; would you then pour wine upon the ground by way of Remembring any other other person whatsoever, absent or departed?

That which shews the aptness of the Supposition, I make use of is, that both Drinking, and Libation, or pouring wine upon the ground, were commonly among the Heathen performed in honour of their Deities; in a grateful remembrance of their Benefactors, and departed Heroes; for the Health of their Kings and Emperors; and to the Success of publick and private affairs, as is fully shewn in the late book upon Healths above-mentioned.

But now under the Gospel, the Action of drinking in Remembrance, and not that of Libation, is by the Wisdom of GOD made choice of, to express our grateful and thankful commemoration of CHRIST; it is adopted into Christianity for the worship, the most solemn worship of the true GOD. Whether he had appointed the one or the other, our obligation to the performance had been the fame; and if he had appointed Libation, all the arguments we should have used with respect to the Sacredness of the action; the consequences drawn from applying it to civil use; the horror we should have conceived from any misapplication of it to a meer man, are all now applicable to the action of Drinking in Remembrance, which CHRIST hath made choice of, and actually appointed; and therefore ought to touch our consciences as feelingly.

On that supposition, pouring wine on the ground would have been the Sacramental action; and the performance of it by way of Honour, or Praise, or Thankfulness, or Remembrance in the mind, would have been the most solemn act of Divine worship; and to be performed with the fame concurring action of the mind and with that intent or purpose, to none by CHRIST, as GOD: And therefore performing that Action in Honour, or Gratitude, or Remembrance of any absent or departed Friends or Benefactors, you would pronounce Profane, Sacrilegious, and Idolatrous.

The above is from John Floyer's "Question I" in his "Letter to a Reverend Gentleman" previously discussed here at Drinking Healths.

The gist of it is, memory healths, whether in the form of raising a toast for a loved one who has passed, or pouring malt liquor on the ground in the name of dead homies in the ground, are sacrilegious because they are a form of false idol worship.

Given this, he despairs terribly that the practice of drinking healths has caught on with Christians at all:

Now do but transfer with me the same reasoning and language to that other action of drinking to any of these purposes, and then we shall alike wonder how Healths should ever have obtained so generally among Christians; however they might prevail among Turks, and Jews, and other Infidels.

Nonetheless, he is still very aware of the common doubts people might express of his opinion. He next addresses those in two "Objections" to his own argument and further responds to those with his own retorts. We will take a look at these objections and responses in a future posts.