care and indeavour constantly is to be understood by all as far as the subject will bear In the pursuit of what I intend I mean by Gods help to proceed in this order 1 I shall discourse with all convenient brevity and plainness the Nature and design of the Lords Supper and 2 Give the General Reasons to inforce the Duty under which head I shall apply my self to two sorts of Refusers viz. Those that neglect 1 on the account of pure carelesness and stupidity and 2 Those that stand off upon the score of mistakes of Conscience In treatting with the former I shall shew that their obstinate refusal takes off all pretence they can have to Christianity and puts them into the state of Infidels and Heathens yea into a worse condition than that of meer unbelievers As to the other sort viz. The dissatisfied in Conscience I shall consider their Reasons against Communicating with us according to the way of our Church and shew that they are no justifiable grounds why they should refuse to join with us in that solemn part of Christian worship CHAP. II. I Begin with the First The Nature of the Lords Supper Concerning this there hath been an infinite diversity of opinions and disputes The effects of which differences have been much Noise and many Tumults Schisms and Wars with a vast heap of mischiefs and calamities to the Christian world I shall not therefore trouble you with any thing of needless controversie or notion on this argument but state it so far only as it relates to practice And I shall take all I have to say about it from the Word of God the best Rule to guid us in the Enquiry And if disputing men would have been content with its declarations in this matter all the trouble and mischiefs had been avoided But this hath been the misery some govern their thoughts of this Holy Institution by corrupt and novel Traditions and others by meer vain and arbitrary phancies Yea Those who have been right in the main have yet so mingled the plain truth with allusions and spoken of it in such a phantastical and uncertain way that ordinary understandings have been confounded and those that are for down-right sence without the mixtures of imagination have not been able to tell what to make of that which they heard described in such a phanciful and various fashion This particularly hath been my own case I had heard men preach so humoursomely and so diversly about the Sacrament So much out of their own heads and so little out of the Oracles of God That I was quite bewildred and lost and come at last to that pass that I knew nothing at all of it which ignorance and confusion of thoughts was the natural effect of such discourses For when men once ramble in the way of phrases metaphors and conceits as they loose themselves so they perfectly dazzle and amaze those others whom they should instruct I therefore betook my self to the plain expressions of Scripture concerning this matter In them I found an easie account in the nature and design of this divine Ordinance And whither shall we go to enquire after it but to the words of Institution themselves These I shall consider first and then gather together those other passages of Scripture which tend to the further explication of it 1. The words of Institution are Mat. 26. Take Eat This is my Body v. 26. and Drink ye all of it For this is my bloud of the new Testament v. 27. 28. To which is added in the Gospel of St. Luke Do this in Remembrance of me Luke 22. 19. These words I shall severally explain and then infer from them what is the nature and design of the holy appointment Take Eat This is my Body and This is my Bloud Here I take notice That Body and Blood do not relate to the bread and wine But to the actions Eat and Drink as appears plainly in the Original ' This not this bread and this wine are my body and bloud but this Sacramental eating and drinking of it In this Christs body and bloud viz His Incarnation and sufferings are represented to us And yet by a Figure The consecrated Elements may be call'd his body and bloud also so the Form at the eating the paschal Supper was This is the bread of affliction which our Fathers did eat in Egypt Not the very same but a Memorial of it and the State of bondage from which they were deliver'd Thus 1 Cor 10. 3 4. Manna is called spiritual bread and the Rock spiritual drink and that Rock Christ Not that they could possibly be so in the Letter but they signified that spiritual food and were tokens of Christs Prefence And thus the Sacramental Bread and Wine may be call'd his Body and Bloud that is Figures and Representations of them and that not barely of his sufferings but as the Father notes of all the Misteries of the Incarnation which are signified and included Thus anciently the Elements were call'd Figures Symbols Images sensible things instead of spiritual and we know 't is in common use to call the Picture by the name of that it represents as this is a man and that an Angel So that there is no ground for the Doctrine of Transubstantiation in these words as the Roman Church pretends But I wave disputes and come to the next expression to be consider'd This is the New Testament or Covenant in my Bloud viz. The Sign and Seal of the Covenant made in his Bloud a Covenant wherein God ingageth to bestow on us pardon of Sin and eternal Life and we promise faithful and sincere obedience Thus in the eldest times Eating and Drinking were Covenant Rites as we may see in the compacts between Isaac and Abimilech Gen. 26. 30. and between Iacob and Laban Gen. 31. 44 46. So that the Sacrament is not a bare Sign but 't is the Seal of Gods gracious Covenant made with us in his Son Do this in Remembrance of me It hath always been usual to commemorate and remember Benefactors and great Mercies by Feasts and Festivals The Heathens had their Feasts in memory of their Heroes And the Passover a Type of this Supper was appointed to preserve the memory of the Israelites deliverance out of Egypt Exod. 12. 14. The Lamb was eaten with bitter herbs to commemorate the bitterness of their servitude the Red Wine was a Remembrance of their bloud which Pharaoh spilt and the unleavened bread to remember them that they carried such out of Egypt at their departure and thus our blessed Saviour hath appointed this holy Rite to imprint upon us the memory of what he hath done and suffered for us that we might not forget our Deliverance by him from a bondage greater than Egyptian And now from these main passages thus explain'd 't is easie to infer That The Sacrament of the Lords Supper is a Memorial Feast appointed for a solemn Remembrance of Christ our
have communion with such Yea they are commanded to have no fellowship with them Ephes. 5. 11. and to come out from among them 2 Cor. 6. 17. For the answering this I propose these things to be considered 1 Hast thou taken the Method of our Saviour Matth. 18. 15. with the sinner from whose communion thou thinkest thou must withdraw Hast thou privately told him of his faults Hast thou admonisht him before witnesses Hast thou told the Church If so thou hast done and he persist still in his wickedness he will no doubt be legally excluded from Christian Communion and so the foundation of thy doubt will be taken off 2 How art thou sure when thou seest those thou callest wicked come to the Sacrament that they do not repent of their wickedness and come to the holy Ordinance to beg pardon for their sins and strength against them How dost thou know that they are not come to bind themselves by deep resolutions and sacred vows to a spiritual warfare and a new obedience Their coming makes profession of such designs and resolutions and how dost thou know that that profession is insincere Hast thou a way of prying into the heart But the man returns to his sins as soon as he hath done and hence thou wilt say thou knowest his hypocrisie This indeed were something if it could be certainly foreseen but how he will demean himself after the Sacrament thou canst not foretel This may have more effect upon him than former Sacraments have had This I say may be and charity thinketh no evil but believeth all things hopeth all things 1 Cor. 13. or if it now again prove otherwise it is no certain evidence that the man onely made pretence and shew he might then mean and design truly and well but temptations and his lusts were too strong for him and carried him away against all his endeavors and resolutions 3 Thou performest other sacred duties in which thou remembrest Christ and hast communion with God in the company of evil men Thou joynest in hearing and publick prayers with such and why mayst thou not be present at the Sacrament with them If it be pretended as a reason of difference That hearing the Word and Prayer are converting Ordinances but the Sacrament is not so I ask thee then whether thou meanest by converting a turning men from open Infidelity to the Profession of the Christian Faith and the owning of Christian Virtues or onely the turning those that profest this Faith and Religion before to the practise of them If thou intendest the former the Sacrament indeed is no converting Ordinance nor are the Word and Prayer ordinarily used for such purposes among us where the Gospel is already generally profest And thou dost not bear the company of the wicked of which we speak in the places of publick worship upon any such expectation But if by converting ordinance thou meanest as is most likely such a one as God useth as a means to cause men professing the name of Christ to depart from iniquity to turn from sin to holiness and from the power of Satan unto God I see no reason why any should think or say that the Sacrament is no converting Ordinance If it be not either 't is because the Sacrament is no proper means or because God will not concur by his Grace with it Neither of these can be said with any shew of reason Not the former for why should not the solemn remembrance of Christ and the consideration of what he hath done and suffered be a means for the killing of sin which he came to destroy and the promoting holiness which he lived and died to advance yea what can be supposed more likely and powerful for the promoting of that blessed purpose why should not the sign and seal of Gods gracious Covenant to give pardon and eternal Glory to all that forsake their sins and live an holy life be a fit instrument to provoke those that understand it to renounce their sins and to devote themselves unto holiness why should not that solemn sacred ingagement that all that know what they do lay on themselves at the Sacrament to endeavor to depart from every known evil and to practise every known duty be a means to oblige them to it Certainly there is nothing that in the nature of the thing seems to be a more likely instrument to convert men from a life of sin to a life of holiness than the sacred remembrance of our Lord at his Table So that if this Ordinance be not converting it must be because God will not concur by his grace in it But whoever saith that speaks what he cannot know and cannot prove he talks without book and against it and is so extravagant in his assertion that it would be folly to attempt the confuting of him This I have said on this occasion not to ingage in a Controversie but to clear a matter of Christian practice And the very root of this Objection lies in this conceit That the Sacrament is not a converting Ordinance For which there is nothing but Phancy and the bare sayings of some mistaken men But now if as I have proved The Sacrament may be and is an Instrument of Conversion Then why should any refrain because evil men are admitted to it 4 If wicked men come to the Sacrament that are not prepared for it their unpreparedness is their sin and they shall answer for it But we ought not therefore to neglect our duty because they have omitted theirs We may and we ought to advise and admonish them to prepare themselves for the Ordinance before they come to it If they will not follow our brotherly admonition we cannot help it we have done what we can to render them more worthy and their sin shall not be laid to our charge To prepare our selves for the holy Communion and to address our selves unto it is that which we are sure concerns us If we neglect 't is our sin and other mens sins will not excuse us Their sinning in one kind should be no reason why we should sin in another There is no reason that we should starve our selves because others take the bread that belongs not to them 5 If we are worthy Communicants and others receive unworthily They have no Communion with us nor we with them They onely eat bread and drink wine but we partake of the mystical body and bloud of our Lord. Our Communion is with the Father and with his Son Iesus Christ and with the Faithful worthy Receivers but the unworthy partake neither with us nor them If an Ape leap upon the Table and eat of the bread where Friends are met at an entertainment Is he therefore a Guest is he one of the Company If writings are to be mutually sealed there among the Friends and that Creature catcheth up the Seal and doth as the Covenanters do is he therefore a party He doth the same action but not with the same
Lord and a Seal of the Covenant that God hath made with us in him Two things then it is principally designed for 1 To Remember us of our Lord and Saviour and 2 to be a Seal of the Covenant of Grace of each briefly 1 'T is for a Remembrance not only of his Person or only of his Sufferings or any other particular part of his Ministry But we are by it required thankfully and affectionately to call to mind All that he hath done and all that he hath suffer'd His Life Doctrine and Laws His Passion Resurrection and Ascension His Victory over Sin Death and Hell and the gracious Covenant that God hath made with us through him These are all included in his Body and Bloud as I intimated before of which the Holy Sacrament is a Sign and Memorial And the remembrance of these which we are call'd to by the Divine Institution is not only some slight and passing thoughts but a solemn and most serious fixing of them upon our minds in order to the inflaming our affections with love and our wills with resolution that we may live answerably to that excellent Religion of the Holy Jesus which we profess 2 'T is the Seal of a Covenant The new Testament in my bloud The Covenant is That God will give pardon of Sin and eternal Life upon the conditions of Faith and Repentance This He seals to us in the Sacrament and assures us that he for his part will make good his Promises and we on ours seal that we will endeavour to perform the conditions So that the Lords Supper is a Sacrament by which we confirm those ingagements we are entred into at Baptism Then our Sureties undertook for us that we should be faithful in the Convenant and in this holy Ordinance we take all those obligations upon our selves and in our own persons promise to act according to them This plainly and in short is the nature and design of the Holy Sacrament concerning which there are some other expressions in Scripture which I shall consider briefly in order to the further explication of the sacred Mystery The chief are these 'T is called 1 The Cup of blessing 1 Cor. 10. 16. 2 The communion of the Body and Bloud of Christ 1 Cor. 10. 16 and in the duty t is said 3 That we shew the Lords Death 1 Cor. 11. 26. 1 The Cup of Blessing viz. of Praise and Thanksgiving Our Saviour Matth. 26 gave thanks when he took the Cup. The Jews used to conclude their paschal Supper with a Cup of Wine at which time they sung an Hymn and therefore call'd it the cup of praising and blessing And the Heathens also after their feasts had their cups of Praise to their Gods which some take to be the Cup of Divils mention'd by the Apostle I Coa 10. 21. So that by this we are taught to remember our Lord at his Table with praise and grateful acknowledgements And therefore the Ancients from hence call'd the Lords Supper the Holy Eucharist namely a Feast of Thanksgiving and the Solemnity was always attended with an hymn of Praise 2 Communion or Communication of the body and bloud of Christ viz. The Sacrament is a sacred Rite in which God communicates and imparts to all worthy Receivers the Benefits of Christs Incarnation and Sufferings He doth then ratifie confirm and solemnly exhibit them to those that duly attend upon that Divine appointment 3 As often as ye eat ye do shew the Lords death viz. 1 Declare unto men with joy and glorying that we believe he dyed for such purposes and that he hath procured inestimable benefits for us by his Death That therefore we will adhere and stick unto him and that neither death nor life shall seperate us from the love of God in Christ Iesus our Lord. And 2 Imports our shewing and declaring this also unto God and pleading it with him for his pardon and his grace for the sake of that meritorious Passion which we set forth and commemorate These passages fall under the Account I have before given of the Ordinance and shew how we are to Remember our Lord in it and what we may expect in so doing Thus briefly of the Nature and design of the Sacrament I might have run the matter into a large Discourse but I resolve all convenient brevity In what I have said you will find all things that are necessary and essential to the Ordinance For the niceties and disputes that are about it you need not trouble your selves with them But so much of it as I have represented I mean in the substance of the particulars 't is fit you should know And therefore I intreat you especially those of the more ordinary understandings to return back and fix your thoughts a while upon those periods and read them over and again till you have a clear and distinct apprehension of the Subject they explain I know the thoughts of most are very confused and much in the dark about it and while they are so they cannot demean themselves as they ought in the performance of the Duty nor receive those benefits that otherwise they might from it I beseech you therefore not to content your selves with a single and running reading Many Divine Truths will not enter into our minds at first sight or if they do they are gone as soon as they are received Though they are never so plainly exprest yet they many times seem dark till we look again Or though they strike our minds fully yet they pass out of Memory except we reflect and think them over I hope therefore you will do your selves this right And I thus urge you to consideration of my accounts not as if I fancied I had made any discoveries in them which were not made before No These are known things among the Intelligent sort of Christians But I do it because I speak to the meaner and less improved understandings And perhaps from the Representation of the affair which I have given the others also may receive the advantage of a clearer order and method to their thoughts and be deliver'd from many unnecessary and uncertain notions that they have imagined to be of great consequence to be believed and known when either they are not true or not considerable CHAP. III. I Come now to the main thing I design viz. II To urge this great duty which I have thus explain'd and to do what I can to persuade you to the conscientious practice of it Now there are two things that commonly oblige men to action namely Considerations of Duty and of Interest And there are both here in the highest degree to ingage us I shall discourse of each 1 We have the Motive and Reason of Duty and Duty in such circumstances as have the greatest obligation in them A Lord who hath all right to our obedience both by nature and by dear purchase hath commanded us to do this And A Saviour who hath rescued