it or so grosly irreverent and careless as not to consider it for had they done either much more both they could hardly have been guilty of such profaneness or of eating and drinking unworthily as they did And that is what I would say in this period that whatever the sense of eating and drinking unworthily is in this place the discerning the Lords body will secure men from it and this I shall endeavour to make plain in these following considerations 1. The not discerning the Lords body is here made the reason of their eating and drinking unworthily this I have cleared already to be the reason both of the sin and punishment too from whence it is plain that discerning the Lords body would secure from both for if men eat and drink unworthily because they do not discern the Lords body then if they do discern it they will not eat unworthily for the old rule is true in morality as well as nature and will hold in this instance as well as others take away the cause and the effect will cease 2. But Secondly this appears clear in the nature of the thing for there is a direct and immediate vertue and power in discerning the Lords body to cause in men all those qualifications that render them meet for this service and sufficiently secure them from eating unworthily as the Corinthians did yea and from doing so in any sense like unto them For First in general if men discern the Lords body they will presently perceive that this is a most sacred solemn service of Religion and not any ordinary thing and by this will not only be admonished of that reverence and devotion that it ought to be performed with but strongly induced to it Men naturally have some sense of reverence and aw upon their minds when they are addressing themselves to devotion and when they ingage into the services of Religion And so they will have here also when they consider what a solemn service of Religion this is and hath always been esteemed to be in the Christian Church and truly they can hardly be otherwise if they have any sense of Religion or any dread of the Almighty upon their Spirits And Secondly if men discern the Lords body here so as to understand the special reason of this institution that it is to commemorate the mighty love of our Lord in dying for us that it is to be a religious solemn representation of his meritorious bitter death and passion for our sins they will find that it will even naturally beget in them repentance and faith and joy and charity and thankfulness and a very high sense of the love of God and Christ towards poor sinners These are the highest and meetest preparations for the Holy Sacrament and those qualifications that fit us for the receiving of it and the death of Christ is the highest argument and most powerful means of effecting these in men that God Almighty hath to offer or can use with them The Apostle seems to count it irresistible and such a one as cannot miss of effect upon men that consider it 2 Cor. 5.14 The love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then all were dead c. And truly if Men do thus judge if they do seriously reflect upon the transcendent and amazing love of Christ in dying for the salvation of sinners it will even constrain them to repentance and faith and love almost whether they will or no if the grace of God be irresistible in any argument of the Gospel it is certainly so in this and I will adventure to say it is so far so here that those are monsters of Men or they do not consider things as Men that can resist and defeat the effect of it So that the Holy Sacrament being so sensible a commemoration of this death the very visible representation of it the evident crucifying of Christ before our eyes as the Apostle speaks Gal. 3.1 the true discerning of it and of the Lords body in it will be of the same effect to produce all these things in us I appeal to the experiences of good men for the truth of what I say let them tell you what a mighty efficacy they find in the Holy Sacrament to this purpose and how powerfully they feel their hearts moved to these things by it and truly if we consider the natural causality of things we shall be inclined to think it almost impossible it should be otherwise let us consider them a little singly 1. As for repentance whether it imply sorrow for sin a sense of its mighty evil and danger and a resolution against it or all these together as indeed it doth what can effect this in me if the Holy Sacrament do not can I see the Lords body broken and his blood poured out as I do in the Holy Sacrament for sin and to make the great attonement to the divine justice for sin I say can I see this without a sorrowful reflection upon my own sins which had a hand in this suffering Or can I doubt what a mighty evil sin is which could not be expiated by a meaner sacrifice than the death and suffering of the Son of God or of how dangerous and insupportable effect that punishment must be which the Son of God could not bear without horror and astonishment without fainting and death or lastly can I consider all this without some resolution and purpose to reform from sin and to beware of that whose consequences and issues I see to be so dreadful and insupportable I am sure I cannot consider these things but they will have some effect upon my mind and I am sure if they have not I do not duely consider them 2. And as for faith whether it respect the gracious declarations or kind promises or terrible threatnings in the Gospel or all these can I doubt the truth of any of these when I see the son of God die to confirm it can I question whether God be gracious and ready to forgive sin when I see him exposing his own Son to death that he may with honor do so can I doubt his promises to all penitent sinners when I see the truth of them sealed in his Sons blood or can I think that the divine threatnings of wrath and vengeance against all impenitent wretches will not most certainly be executed on them when I see God inexorable to his own Son and letting him suffer and die rather than permit sin to pass unpunished In a word the whole Covenant that God hath made with man the new Covenant of grace and mercy which the Gospel is the joyful publication of is here as it used to be of old ratified and confirmed by blood and the blood too of the Son of God which is such an assurance and confirmation of its truth as can never fail us and beyond which our faith cannot desire a greater 3. And then as to a mighty sense of the
the Holy Sacrament which their minds may have entertained upon the reason of them CHAP. II. Having in the former Chapter cleared the true sense of these words I proceed in this to the second general that I proposed to draw some general Conclusions from them which may be proper to be considered in the present case and to which I shall reduce as to so many heads what I intend further to say in this discourse the Collections that I purpose are these three that follow 1. That eating and drinking unworthily in the sense of this place is a thing hardly to be committed by Christians in this age 2. The supposed danger of eating and drinking unworthily is not a sufficient reason for Men to abstain from the Holy Sacrament upon 3. The true purpose of this place is to deter Men from irreverence and rudeness in eating and drinking in the Holy Sacrament and ingage them to that devotion and reverence that becomes them that do discern the Lords body These are three material Collections proper to be considered by all scrupulous persons in this case and therefore I shall endeavour to the utmost of my power and skill to discourse them with that plainness and evidence that they require and deserve I begin with the first eating and drinking unworthily in the sense of this Text is hardly to be committed by Christians in this age In order to the clearing the truth of this Collection it will concern me to do these following things 1. Shew what this eating and drinking unworthily was and wherein this sin of these Corinthians did consist 2. Consider the Circumstances that all Christians now are in which set them almost above the possibility of being guilty of it 3. I shall inquire what can be counted eating and drinking unworthily in proportion to this 4. And consider in the last place whether these also be not almost incompetent to Christians especially to any that are concerned in our present case SECT I. IN order to my discharging the first thing undertaken I shall need but to repeat a little of what I said in the explication of this Text and this phrase in it Not discerning the Lords body is certainly the Key to the meaning of eating and drinking unworthily and by considering the one we may come to the understanding of the other and by examining how the case stood with these Corinthians we may easily understand both By their not discerning the Lords body the Apostle means their not considering that this was an immediate service of Religion and that the morsel of bread which they did eat and glass of wine that they did drink were Sacramentally the very body and blood of Christ they put no difference between these sacred Symbolls of our Lords body and blood and common food and drink nor shewed greater reverence in eating and drinking the one than doing so to the other they ate in Gods House just as they did in their own and made no distinction between this and a common meal Yea and which is something worse yet they did this not only thus irreverently but in intemperance and downright drunkenness for so he tells them vers 21. One is hungry and another is drunk How this monstrous disorder happen'd among them hath been hinted already and may more fully now by giving a short account of the ancient practice of the Church in this matter Now that briefly stood thus the Holy Sacrament was usually prefaced unto by a publick feast of Charity which is called in antiquity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Love-Feast to which you have frequent reference in the New Testament to this Feast every one contributed and brought some portion according to his ability of which all feasted lovingly together reserving some portion for the Holy Sacrament which they always celebrated in the close of this Feast Now this grand profanation of this Holy Service happen'd thus instead of feeding lovingly all together of what was thus brought by all each one fed singly upon his own portion by which it came to pass not only that the poor had little or nothing to eat but the rich had too much which brought them to excess and even to plain drunkenness one is hungry and another drunk in which sad condition approaching to the Table of the Lord they were very unfit to consider the sacredness of it and very unlike to pay that reverence that was due to it That both these things contributed to their not discerning the Lords body and in consequence of that eating and drinking unworthily we may fully satisfie our selves by considering the Apostles dealing with them in the latter part of this Chapter where he falls upon this Argument For because they were so grosly ignorant in the reason and design of the Holy Sacrament he explains that fully to them from Verse 22d to the 27th acquainting them with the Author reason and purpose of this institution that it was an immediate service of Religion instituted by Christ himself just before his suffering and instituted to no meaner a purpose than to be a solemn rite of commemorating his death which should be used in his Church till his coming again to judgment For I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you that the Lord Jesus in the same night in which he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he brake it and said Take eat this is my body which is broken for you this do in remembrance of me After the same manner also he took the cup when he had supped saying This cup is the New Testament in my blood this do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew the Lords death till he come And because through their scandalous intemperance preceding they so horribly profaned this service therefore he shews them both the sin and great danger of it and presseth them to a serious care to reform it as you may see in the 27 28 29 and 30th Verses Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examin himself and so let him eat of this bread and drink of that cup. For he this eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself not discerning the Lords body For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep For if we would judge our selves we should not be judged In which words it is plain he refers to this scandalous abuse of theirs aggravating both the guilt and danger of it in words as high and dreadful as could well be thought on that thereby he might bring them to a dread of it and to the use of those means which he prescribes in order to the reforming of it This in short was the eating and drinking unworthily that the Apostle so sharply taxeth and God
'till they have a little better strengthened their good resolutions and tempers than to venture presently upon that service which they may abuse and profane by being false to the resolutions they take up and the promises which they make in it This is the case and to the scruple taken up upon it I return these three things in answer and satisfaction to it 1. That every man ought indeed to be true to his vows and promises as near as he can and when he hath taken up such a resolution and given his faith to God he ought to perform it and to do his utmost to stand to it It is certainly a dreadful fault to play fast and loose with God almighty to promise and never take any due care to perform what a man doth promise there is not a sadder instance of a loose careless trifling spirit than to be prodigal in our promises and niggardly in our payments of them to be forward upon all occasions to promise great things to God what reformed what good men we will become and be but yet to be regardless and careless afterwards whether we be such or not and never to apply our selves in earnest to make good what we have promised and to put our good purposes in execution 2. But yet Secondly a mans doing thus afterwards doth not make his Communicating in the Holy Sacrament to be eating and drinking unworthily in any proportion to what is intended in this Text. His having received the Holy Sacrament may aggravate the guilt of his after failure but that subsequent failure doth not so affect his precedent communicating as to render it eating and drinking thus unworthily if the purpose of the mind be then serious and sincere his receiving the Holy Sacrament is far enough from being unworthy or faulty and as I said his failing afterwards doth not affect it all But then do I consider what I say can that purpose of mind be sincere and serious which afterwards is not put in execution doth not a mans failing afterwards to make it good shew that he was perfidious and an hypocrite in making of it why no I say it doth not a man may be in earnest and sincere in making a promise and taking up a resolution and yet possibly fail of making it good afterwards his failing afterwards is no argument that he was not in earnest when he made it it is argument indeed of his carelesness and irresolution but it may arise from a thousand reasons besides his falsehood or hypocrisie when he made it Many a man in the time of affliction and sickness for example makes fair promises to God what he will be and what he will do if God please to spare him and this I doubt not really and in earnest and with a sincere purpose of mind at that time to be or to do as he promiseth and yet afterwards that sense of things may wear of and that purpose of mind abate and that specious promise may come finally to nothing but this is not because the man was not then really in earnest but because afterwards he is careless and trifling and easily led away with temptations that interfere with his former promise and purpose of mind And so I doubt not it may be and too often is with men when they come to the Holy Sacrament their pious purposes for that time may be sincere and in earnest and yet afterwards wear off and come to nothing 3. And therefore Thirdly I affirm a man in this case doth come with one great qualification which should attend his communicating in the Sacrament i. e. a purpose of repentance and reformation and which will most certainly secure him against all possibility of eating and drinking unworthily in the sense of this Text or any like it So that instead of staying away for fear that he should change his mind afterwards he ought I think the rather to come that he may not do so the great reason certainly lies on this side seeing there is not any better course that he can at present take to fasten his good purpose and to secure it of effect than this for by this means he will make his promise more solemn and affecting upon himself cause it to stick the deeper and closer upon his own thoughts and receive that grace most infallibly from God which if he be faithful and true unto his pious resolution will continue and he may be enabled to act according to the intention of it SECT VI. 4. I Add now a fourth thing worthy to be considered in order to our satisfaction in this inquiry viz. that whatever the sense of eating and drinking unworthily is in this Text or whatever men can think to be like it discerning the Lords body will secure them from it What discerning the Lords body means I have shewed already and I need repeat very little of it again it means these two things First putting a difference between the consecrated Elements and common Bread and Wine the looking upon the Holy Sacrament as an immediate duty and service of Religion and consequently performing it with that devotion and seriousness that reverence and respect that men use to shew in other services of Religion the want of this was the cause that made the Corinthians to eat unworthily and provoked God to punish them with sundry diseases and death as he afterwards tells them they did not make any difference between this and a common meal in their own Houses they did not take it to be any peculiar act of Religion they came intemperate and drunk to the Lords Table and therefore to be sure were far enough from that reverence and devotion that so sacred a service ought to have been performed with Secondly discerning the Lords body means something more not only to look upon this Holy Sacrament as a solemn and immediate act of Religion but as the Sacrament and immediate representation of Christs body i. e. his body broken and slain for the sins of the world and the Communicating therein to be the commemoration of his death and partaking in the blessed effects of it to look beyond the Elements to that which they are designed to signifie and Sacramentally are to look upon the bread not as common bread but the substitute of Christs body and the wine not as ordinary wine but the figure of his blood and so regarding the whole service both as the most devout and solemn commemoration of Christs death and passion for the expiation of our sins and partaking as truly and effectually in the benefits and blessings of his body and blood as if we did eat and drink that very body and blood themselves This is the great end of this service and the reason of our Lords institution of it and to discern the Lords body is to understand it so and look upon it as such which it is most certain these Corinthians were far from doing either so ignorant as not to understand the reason of
blood of the Lord. But whatever that expression may seem to imply it doth really signifie no more than the expression in this Text that I am all this while considering it means only this in plain English that such persons are guilty of a great disrespect and dishonour to the body and blood of Christ of which the Bread and Wine in the Holy Sacrament are the representatives and Symbols for a profanation of these reflects upon him whom they represent and was ever interpreted and thought to do so The sense is well expressed in this Text not discerning the Lords body i. e. not considering what a sacred and venerable thing they represent and signifie and therefore using them with as little respect or religious regard as men do common bread and wine in their own houses This I have shewed the Corinthians did and something worse and the truth is the guilt of such a gross profanation cannot well be represented in too terrible a phrase So that still for any thing either said in this Text or that can reasonably be deduced from the phrase of it my argument stands firm viz. that there is no greater punishment threatned to a failure in this than may be dreaded upon the like failure in other services of our Religion Damnation signifies here only divine judgment and punishment at large and there is no reason to restrain it only to that tremendous punishment in hell Yea there is that plain in the context which is evidently against that sense of it for when the Apostle had spoken of damnation here he presently instanceth in temporal inflictions being sick and weak and falling asleep all which he not only calls being chastened in this world but being chastened that they should not be condemned with the world And then consonantly to this the eating and drinking this damnation to a mans self signifieth no more than exposing a mans self and becoming obnoxious to these punishments and chastenings of the Lord. These things I think are plain sufficient to make out the truth of my argument and in consequence of that to shew how much wide of the Apostles meaning here those men argue that talk so dreadfully of everlasting damnation being eminently due to every failure in mens receiving the Holy Sacrament and that they stand accountable to God for a greater sin and an higher profanation of Religion in this then they do by their miscarriages in other duties and services of it SECT III. WEll but because it may yet be objected against the purpose of this argument that whatever the minute and prime signification be yet eating and drinking unworthily cannot but be accounted a great sin highly affrontive to the body and blood of our Lord and therefore a high provocation of God and a fault that he may most justly punish with eternal damnation Therefore I proceed to the second thing that I proposed on this argument that whatever the meaning of damnation be in this place yet men do not deal fairly in urging it against coming to the Holy Sacrament or staying from it upon that reason And this I shall endeavour to make good upon these two reasons amongst others First because if it should mean eternal damnation yet it is not threatned to every degree of eating and drinking unworthily but only to that gross and monstrous doing this that the Corinthians were guilty of And Secondly because this damnation doth not restrain men from other sins which they must acknowledge to be as damning as this 1. The first of these I need but just name because I have insisted upon it largely already here I shall only add two short Considerations further relative to this matter First That it is not fair dealing with Scripture to extend the signification of it beyond the proper intendment and meaning or to take a liberty of frighting people with the danger of eating and drinking unworthily upon every failure when the Apostle used that phrase only in the case of such a prodigious profanation of the Sacrament as the Corinthians were now guilty of I have already said their miscarriage might well be counted eating and drinking unworthily indeed but therefore to infer that every failure to eat and drink so reverently so fitly and so becomingly as men should is presently eating and drinking unworthily in proportion to them is putting our own sense upon Scripture and judging the things of Religion by our own measures only And Secondly I add that it is unreasonable as well as uncharitable to affright men with danger of the same punishment when they are far enough from the same sin It is Gods prerogative to apportion punishments unto sins and not ours and as much our duty as it is our interest to make a difference there where it is plain the divine mercy doth It is greatly for our comfort and the ease of our guilty minds that we have a God to serve who transacts with us by the measures of a great mercy and an infinite goodness that weighs us not as I observed before by grains and scruples but rates our services and our lives too by the general frame and bent of them and provided we be industrious and honest in the main and sincerely endeavour to do our best will accept them and not be extream and rigorous to mark every thing that is done amiss or every little imperfection that may attend them This is the great comfort and support of our hopes and to rob us of this is certainly a mighty injury and disservice to us and yet this in their proportion they do that alarm and frighten men with danger of damnation upon every little failure in this matter though never so short of that to which it is only threatned I have shewed you it is not an easie thing for any Christian to be guilty of this sin related to in the Text and I verily believe it and therefore why they that are really so far from it yea who tremble at the very thoughts of it should be so amused and perplexed with apprehensions and fears of the punishments due to it I know not I am sure in all other cases men desire we should bend the bough rather the other way and think themselves severely judged and hardly dealt with if we do not and therefore to teach men to believe and fear so in this is to make them sad whom the Lord hath not made sad and to bring an evil report upon the divine goodness yea justice too SECT IV. THe second thing upon which I charge men with unreasonableness in urging the danger of damnation in coming to the Holy Sacrament and pretending to stay from the one upon a fear of the other is this because this fear of damnation doth not restrain them from other sins which they must confess are as damning as this can be There are other sins in which men incur the danger of eternal damnation as really as they can be thought to do in failing to Communicate so
before doth not so much respect any thing to be done by way of preparation to the Holy Sacrament but rather to be added by way of advice how to attone for the Sin of having Eaten and Drank unworthily and to prevent those punnishments that they might expect and fear upon having done so The Apostle had convinced them of their Sin in this and let them know that the judgments which they lay under were the effects of that Sin and having told them in verse 28. how to reform and prevent the Sin for the future he tells them in this how to escape the punishments that were due to it viz. by anticipating God's judging of them becoming Assessors upon themselves and by their own remorse and sorrow inflicting that punishment upon themselves which otherwise they might expect from God this I think is the truest account of this passage and of what the Apostle means in it So that the great matter of preparation that he prescribes in order to their Eating and Drinking fitly and becomingly i. e. worthily in the sense of that word is comprehended under that examination that he adviseth to verse 28. Let a Man examine himself and so let him Eat of that Bread and Drink of that Cup. And therefore this is the great thing to be explained by which we may see what a reasonable measure of consideration and care the Apostle thinks sufficient to this purpose I do very well know and as readily acknowledg that some considerable Men understand this so as to comprehend all that strict and critical examination of a Man's self that may be needful to the understanding exactly the state of his Soul with respect to his Religion Faith Charity c. i. e. whether Men be Christians indeed or not and whether they resolve to continue so whether they have truly repented them of all their Sins both in general and particularly and whether their purposes of reforming from them be real and sincere Yet I think I have reason to differ from them a little in this for whatever may be the meaning of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in other places of the New Testament yet I think it is not the meaning of it in this and by considering wherein the error and guilt of these Corinthians consisted we may pretty well understand the meaning of what he prescribes in remedy of it This I have considered at large already in this discourse and the truth is the Apostle expresseth it plainly enough to be not discerning the Lords Body i. e. putting no difference between this and common bread and therefore Eating with as little Reverence at the Lords Table as they did at their own in their own Houses This was the Sin and by considering that it was so we may easily collect the meaning of that examination which he prescribes against it to be primarily no more than this which I shall borrow the words of a great Man among us to express let every Man among you consider well with himself what a Sacred action that is which he is going about and what a devout and reverent behaviour becomes him that is going to Celebrate the Holy Sacrament which Christ hath instituted to represent and commemorate his own Body and Blood broken and spilt upon the Cross for Man's Redemption This is what the Apostle prescribes as a remedy against that profanation of the Holy Sacrament that they were guilty of and what he thinks sufficient to preserve them from it for the future to consider well what a high mysterious service of Christian Religion it is that the Bread and Wine are therein consecrated into the symbols of our Lord 's own Body and Blood that they are no longer common Bread and Wine but changed into a great mystery and in a Sacramental sence the very Body and Blood of Christ This is discerning the Lord's Body and this is the import of a Man's examining himself that he may discern it and he that doth this can never be guilty of such unworthy eating and drinking as these Corinthians were guilty of for he will see clearly what a mighty respect and deference is due to this service and what a profound veneration and reverence becomes those that eat at the Table of the great God and are admitted to a participation of his own Son 's most Sacred Body and Blood upon this reason Antiquity used to call these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most Sacred and dreadful mysteries and no Man that considers them as such but must put a difference between them and common food and can hardly but partake of with a Sacred dread of Spirit and a most profound reverence and devotion I only add what I undertook this notion for viz. That this self examination is therefore no such difficult thing as Men imagin it to be it is what all Christians know what they can easily consider and what it is indeed the greater difficulty for them not to consider and be affected withal But then suppose that it did imply something more and what some Men as I hinted before do extend it unto i. e. all that examination of a Man's self that is necessary to the true understanding the state and condition of his Soul with respect to his Repentance Faith Charity and the quality of his life First I say I will by no means discourage any one from care of this and setting apart some time for it in order to his eating and drinking becomingly at the Lords Table This is a thing upon many accounts very expedient and fit and especially in order to our understanding with what qualification we ought chiefly to come to this Holy Sacrament which may and ought to vary according to the variable circumstances of our Spiritual condition Besides this examination of a Man's self is a thing highly necessary to the great purposes of Religion and because no time can well be pitched upon for it more fit and proper than when Men are preparing themselves for the Holy Sacrament therefore it may be very prudent to take that time to do it in some time is necessary for it and that time may be as fit for it as any other and those that will so imploy it do well and are by no means to be discouraged But then Secondly I say this examination is but just necessary then as it is at other times for I see not why it may not be thought as necessany to examine our selves and consider what the state of our Soul is when we go to pray and when we go to hear God's word that we may both know what especially to pray for and how to apply that word to our selves as it is when we are addressing to the Holy Sacrament So that whatever it signifies it is no more necessary to the Holy Sacrament than it is to other services of Religion nor ought to fright us from the one any more than it doth from the other And Thirdly I add that surely