without impediment and that there is nothing left in their Souls to oppose their duty Whereas bad people in a quite contrary way give admission to those scruples and doubts into their minds with a secret pleasure and having entertained them let them rest and take up their lodging there very willingly because they will plead their excuse they fancy for not doing their duty and be a defence to their lazyness Worldly mindedness and other naughty affections In short Doubts and Scruples never arise in good mens minds without grief nor stay there without much trouble and therefore they long to be rid of them and are glad when they are discharged because they hinder the performance of their Christian Duty but bad men not only listen to them willingly but embrace them as welcome Guests which they cherish and never part withal without difficulty and some sort of inward displeasure because they desire the Worldly Spirit that is in them should not be left without all excuse but have something to say for it self when it is pressed by the force of Religion against its inclinations Search and try your selves by this mark and the Lord give you a right judgment in all things for Jesus Christ his sake In whom I remain Your Faithful Servant S. Patrick Discourse I. THE NECESSITY OF Receiving THE Holy Communion THE neglect of the Holy Communion of Christ's Body and Blood was so general and so long continued in the late distracted times being laid aside in man whole Parishes of this Kingdom for near twenty years together that in some Ages of the Church it would have been interpreted a downright Apostasie from Christ and a renunciation of the Christian Faith And though blessed be God since the Happy Restauration of his Majesty to his Throne and the settlement of the Church upon its ancient foundations it hath not been so generally neglected yet it is not so much frequented as it ought to be No not upon such great and solemn dayes as this when we are assembled to commemorate that stupendous Grace which our Lord purchased for us by his pretious Blood and bestowed upon his Church in sending the Holy Ghost the Comforter to be a Witness of his Resurrection and Exaltation at God's right hand and to confirm us in the belief of all that he hath taught and appointed in his Church For we content our selves only with the Common Prayers and I wish I could say that they are duly attended and with the Sermon and then turn our backs on that part of the Divine Service which is properly Christian and consequently is above all other most acceptable unto Christ and unto his Holy Spirit Which I shall therefore at this time press upon your Consciences as a means to revive that ancient Devotion wherewith such Festivals as this was kept which now alas is wanting among us And I shall do it from those words of St. Paul 1 Cor. xi 26. wherein he recommends this duty unto us upon this particular account that as oft as we eat this Bread and drink this Cup we do show the Lords Death till he come In which words it is easy to observe these three practical truths The two first whereof are plainly supposed and the other is affirmed and enjoined I. The first thing here supposed is that it is a Christian Duty to eat this Bread and drink this Cup here spoken of that is to receive the Holy Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood II. The second is that it is a Christian Duty which ought to be often performed And then III. It is here plainly asserted that when it is performed the thing designed in it and which we ought to aim at is to show the Lord's Death till he come The last of these will be sufficiently explained in the handling of the other two viz. the Duty and the Frequent repetition of it unto which I shall confine my Discourse And of the first at this time I. THat it is a Christian Duty incumbent upon every one of us to eat this Bread and drink this Cup that is to receive the Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood This is supposed in the words Which are not to be understood as a mere permission that we may do this if we think good and when we think good but as a command of something we ought to do For when he tells us what it is we do when we eat this Bread and drink this Cup in which we show forth Christs Death it plainly implies that it must be done and is not left to our choice whether we will show forth the Death of our Lord or no. Of which more anon when I have laid some other things before you which will convince you if they be considered of the Obligation that lies upon you to the serious performance of this Duty And for our clear and orderly proceeding I shall cast my Discourse into this method I. First I shall show you that there is a plain institution of this Sacrament and a command that it should be received And then II. Secondly I shall show from the practice of the Apostles after â—hat time when they first received it with our Saviour that it was no temporary command but of Everlasting Obligation III. Thirdly That there is more â—han their practice to interpret the meaning and obligation of this command IV. Fourthly That in this Discourse of St. Paul to the Corinthians there are evident proofs of the necessity of its performance V. Fifthly That the very Text shows the same by the end for which it was instituted VI. Lastly That all these reasons are exemplified by the practice of the Universal Church of Christ I. And first let it be considered that this Holy Sacrament is a Divine Institution Ordained Commanded and required by Christ Himself Who the same night that he was betrayed took Bread and blessed it and brake it and gave it to his Disciples and said Take eat this is my Body And he took the Cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying Drink ye all of it For this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins Matth. xxvi 26 27 28. Here is as manifest an Institution of this Sacrament and as formal a Command to take and eat and drink what Christ then gave as can be contrived in words Unless they be plainer which we read in other places for the Institution is recorded by the two next Evangelists St. Mark and St. Luke and here again in this Chapter by St. Paul Which two last named say that our Saviour added these words in the Institution of this Sacrament This do in remembrance of me Luk. xxii 19. 1 Cor. xi 24 25. Which enjoin this duty by as express a Command as those of old Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy And Honour thy Father and thy Mother Which may henceforth be blotted out of the number of the Commandments if we take this to
of his Christian duty as much as hearing the Sermons of the Apostles and Prayers I am loth to spend the time in going about to prove against vain Cavillers that by breaking of bread is here meant this holy action of receiving the Communion and not their bare eating together But to give full satisfaction in that matter let it be briefly considered First that breaking of Bread is here placed in the midst between other holy actions preaching fellowship or communicating to one anothers necessities and prayers and therefore in all reason must be concluded to be it self of that nature not a common but an holy action And besides secondly their eating at a common Table if it be at all mentioned in this Chapter Acts ii under the phrase of breaking bread is spoken of v. 46. and therefore not intended here No nor there neither I shall show hereafter for even in those words also they continued daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking bread from house to house or at home c. the breaking of bread belongs to the holy Communion And to put all out of doubt thus the Syriack an ancient Translation understands it expresly turning it thus in the Eucharist As it doth also Act. xx 7. Vpon the first day of the week when the Disciples came together to break bread Paul preached unto them c. that is when they came to receive the Eucharist saith that Translation which was a part of their Lords days work nay the principal part for this was the thing for which the Disciples came together and not merely to hear the Apostle preach And who can give any reason why it should not be so now as it was then when in familiar speech it was as usual with them to say they would go to Church to receive the holy Communion as it is with us to say in these days we will go to Church to Prayers or to hear a Sermon III. But more than this not only the practice of the Apostles and first Believers after they were divinely inlightned by the Holy Ghost expounds the meaning and the obligation of this Precept to be perpetual but Christ himself showed it so to be after he went to Heaven and was exalted at Gods right hand For appearing to St. Paul to make him one of his Apostles and in order to it revealing himself and the whole Christian Religion to him which he gave him commission and authority to preach He declared this to be a part of his Will and a piece of his holy Religion For I have received of the Lord saith he in this Chapter v. 23 24. c. that which I also delivered unto you that the Lord Jesus the same night 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 saying This is the New Testament c. Observe here an evident proof that what our Lord did with his Apostles at his last Supper he intended should be done by them and by others when he was gone For sending one who was not then with him nor had any knowledge of him while he was on Earth to preach his Gospel he gives him particular instructions about this matter to take care to see this done in remembrance of him So St. Paul who was the man to whom he appeared and gave a special Commission after he went to Heaven avows to the Corinthians in this place telling them that he delivered nothing to them but what he had received of the Lord and what he delivered to them was this that they should do what the Lord Jesus had done with his Apostles in remembrance of him This he received from him that is it was of the Lords Institution and to be practised by his order and special command and therefore called the Lord's Supper v. 20. When ye come together into one place this is not to eat the Lord's Supper Where it is called the Lord's Supper not because it was eaten by the Lord with his Apostles for at that Supper the Corinthians were not present nor was that now done in this place where they came together but because it was instituted by the Lord both then when he eat that Supper with his Apostles and now again when he appeared to St. Paul and required him to see this practised in the Churches which he converted And accordingly was now practised in this Church at Corinth to whom this Discourse of St. Paul is directed IV. In which we find many things more to prove this to be a necessary Christian Duty which was the fourth head mentioned in the beginning I shall single out two which will make it evidently appear to all unprejudiced minds I. The first is very remarkable that the Apostle takes a great deal of pains and spends a great deal of time in showing the manner how the holy Communion ought to be celebrated among them Which he would not have done if this had not been a necessary duty incumbent on them by vertue of Christs Command and a Divine Institution Do but consider this I beseech you and be at the pains to ponder at your leisure how serious earnest and laborious the Apostle is here in this eleventh Chapter of his Epistle to make the Corinthians sensible by a long Discourse about it after what manner they ought to approach to the Table of the Lord reproving their scandalous behaviour at the Communion directing them how to reform it and make a due preparation to receive the benefit thereof And then tell me or rather tell your selves was there any cause for a reasonable man to write so much to show how and after what manner the thing should be done if the very doing of the thing had not been necessary and under the obligation of a Command Can the manner and way of doing an action be matter of duty and yet that action it self be no duty at all Or can a man of common sense be very solicitous in giving directions how men should order themselves in a place and about a business into which they may never come but let it alone Can the Apostle be supposed to say so and so you ought to eat this Bread and drink this Cup and yet there be no command tying them to eat it and drink it at all And so and so you ought to prepare your selves to partake of Christs Body and Blood and yet after that preparation they might chuse whether they would do the thing for which they were to be prepared Surely we cannot imagine the Apostle to have had so much idle time to spare nay to be so impertinent as to busy himself in ordering the circumstances of an holy action if the action it self had not been a necessary nay a very weighty duty and of exceeding great moment which therefore he was highly concerned and took due care
Wine but to represent the shedding of the Lords Blood by those wounds he received for our sake And for what end do you eat that Bread and drink that Cup but to shew that we are made one with him and have Communion with him in his Death and Sufferings This is the general end of this Sacrament gratefully to commemorate the Death of Christ to show express declare and publish his Death for us and our interest in it in plain and significant actions Which not being performed in obedience to his Command the Faith which we profess in him doth but condemn us of shameful infidelity to him As for the particular ends of it they are as many as the uses are which we can make of his Death and Passion Wherein whatsoever love God the Father showed unto us in giving his dearly beloved Son to die for us whatsoever kindness God the Son expressed in offering himself freely unto the Death and making himself a Sacrifice for our sins and whatsoever confirmation God the Holy Ghost hath since given us of this love and this kindness it is all here commemorated Whatsoever worship honour and service is due to our ever blessed Redeemer and most bountiful Benefactor it is all here acknowledged and after a most peculiar manner and with a special respect to him performed Whatsoever strength we can derive from our Feasting with Christ upon his Sacrifice and from the oblation we make of our selves Souls and Bodies unto him with most powerful Prayers and Thanksgivings whatsoever comfort we can enjoy in Communion with God and in Communion with his Church whatsoever Peace we can have in renewing our Covenant of Friendship with him in remission of sins in receiving the power of the Holy Ghost in the hopes of eternal life in all holy intercourses between Heaven and us all this is to be expected and may be obtained in the Celebration of this Holy Sacrament And therefore as this one thing the Annunciation or publishing of Christs Death and our relation to him is the general end and these comforts these establishments in Faith and Hope and love and obedience are the particular ends of this Institution So all these lay a strong obligation upon us duly to observe it unless we be content to renounce our interest in Christ who hath made this the most solemn badg and authentick mark of our Christianity and the great means of conveying to us the benefits of his Death and Passion as well as a pledge to assure us thereof And this one argument alone taken from the end of its Institution is sufficient to convince us that this Sacrament was intended by Christ to be continued in his Church till he come as my Text speaks that is till his last coming to judge the World for till then it will be useful nay necessary for all these holy ends which I have briefly named And whosoever he be that hopes for mercy at that dreadful day without the careful performance of this duty is a presumptuous person and vainly expects it because he lives in the neglect of the very best way of preparing himself for that great account which must then be made of all our actions VI. But now let us suppose that the words of the Institution had been so ambiguous that they might possibly if we had had no further explication of them have been thought to be limited to that particular feast which Christ did eat with his Disciples and extended no further yet the practice of the Apostles and the practice of the Church in the Apostolical times and in all succeeding times ever since which are the best Interpreters of the Scriptures do expound the words to be a lasting Institution and an Institution of such moment that it ought to be most punctually observed And did not Christs own Apostles think you understand their Masters meaning when he instituted this Sacrament Or if they had not understood him then would they not afterward have understood him when the spirit was so plentifully poured out upon them that they discovered the greatest secrets even the thoughts and designs of mens hearts Hath the universal Church in and after those times and during all Ages since lived in an error and taken up an unnecessary practice or made too much stir about it and been too busy and officious in it Was there not in this very Church of Corinth as the Apostle shows in the next Chapter a miraculous abundance of miraculous gifts the spirit of wisdom the spirit of knowledge the spirit of faith the gifts of healing of working miracles of prophesying of discerning spirits of divers kind of tongues of interpretation of tongues And could not all those gifts all those spiritual powers and supernatural assistances inable them to understand the words of Christs Institution Was not that indeed the true Age of the Spirit Were they not infinitely more inlightned than any can pretend to be now or hope to be hereafter And could they not discover by their illuminations if it had been true that which some vain Enthusiasts dream of that where there was such plenty of the Spirit there was no need of such outward Ordinances as the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Could they not see this so clearly and be so sensible of it as that they should not have been so much concerned as they were about the practice of this duty in that Church if there was no need of it or our Saviour never intended it should be of much moment Nay as that they should not have with such danger to themselves as I noted before have repeated it in their Church if our Saviour never intended any such repetition Surely these things carry such evidence in them that to add more light in so clear a case would be as we say to hold a Candle to the Sun And therefore I shall here make an end of my proofs supposing I have said rather too much than too little in this argument and that you stand fully convinced the Celebration of this holy Communion is not only of divine Institution to be used by the Church in all Ages but must of necessity be duly practised by us if we hope to be saved And if that be true hearken then I beseech you what follows thereupon I. What shall we then think of those who live in the constant neglect of it Suffer me to propose this single plain question to you Whether the willful continuance in any known sin be not a damnable State A state of direct opposition to our Saviour and consequently a state wherein there is no Salvation Can this be denied and it is as undeniable that a constant neglect of a known Precept of Christ a Precept so universally owned so universally practised as you have heard in the Church of God is a wilful sin What is it else or what can make a sin willful but acting against a clear knowledge and conviction and means and opportunities of doing otherways Consider of
and one Soul that they never celebrated the Communion as we learn from Justin Martyr his first Apology but they sent it to those Believers who were absent particularly to those whose bodily infirmities kept them from the publick Assemblies that they might have Communion with the Church and it might appear by their partaking of the same Bread that they were one Body with those who were present And here let me briefly tell you that this Rubrick or Rule ought in reason to be the rather observed as it will hereafter in this and other Cathedrals that the people who live near or come upon occasion thither may have frequent opportunity to Communicate with the Mother Church Where anciently Christians were very desirous to receive this holy Sacrament as oft as they could that they might testify there was but Vnum Altare one Altar as they called it one Christian Society and Communion unto which they all belonged and with whom they were in Union Particular Parishes in the Diocess being not distinct Churches but parts and Members of one Church which is the Mother Church from whence they all in ancient time did originally spring For so we find in the Monuments of the Church that a Bishop and his Clergy having made Conversions in some considerable part of a Country there they seated themselves and from thence spread the Gospel into neighbour places who all lookt upon themselves afterward as depending upon that one prime place as a stream upon a Fountain which they owned by communicating there with the Bishop and his Clergy as oft as it was possible for them so to do Thus it is apparent by the History of the Acts of the holy Apostles that the very first Preachers of Religion began in Cities and afterward carrying the glad tidings of the Gospel into the adjacent Towns and Villages those Towns and Villages lookt upon themselves as but one Church with that City and thither repaired as oft as they could to testify their unity therewith Especially at the high Festivals when anciently there was such a multitude came to receive that in some places the Church could not contain them So we learn from a Letter of Leo the First Bishop of Rome to Dioscorus Bishop of Alexandria in the Fifth Century where he advises him that when any great Festival makes the Assembly more numerous and there meets together so great a Company of Believers that one Church cannot contain them there is no question but the oblation of the Sacrifice must be renewed when the first company is gone and the Church is filled again with the presence of a new Assembly Epist 81. And St. Austin tells us in the famous Epistle before-named that the Thursday before Easter the numbers of the people were so great in some places that the Sacrament was celebrated both Morning and Evening whereas on that day the custom was to celebrate it only in the Evening Which as it shows the wonderful decay of Devotion among us in comparison with ancient times so reproves that grand error which is now crept in among us even among well-disposed people in many such places as this Where the people imagine that if they Communicate in the Parish Churches of the City where they live they need take no notice at all of the Cathedral there No they rather indeavour and sometimes with a factious kind of zeal to advance the credit of their Parish Churches in opposition to that great Church from which they all flowed and on which they still depend This is quite out of the way of ancient Religion which taught men to bear the greatest regard to the Mother Church where the Principal Pastor of their Souls was seated and thence called the Cathedral and to desire with him immediately to communicate as oft as they had opportunity or could conveniently For to do otherwise was in effect to throw off all respect to him or very much to neglect him and his See and was lookt upon as the principle and beginning of Schism by breaking the unity of the Church and in time led men to that pestilent fancy which now very much prevails that every Parish Church in the Diocess is a distinct Church which hath all power within it self VI. We therefore who are Priests and Deacons placed in a Cathedral should above all others be willing nay desirous to comply with the Order of our Church now recited and not easily admit of any cause as a reasonable excuse for our forbearance For let me further acquaint you that after the people contented themselves with receiving every Sunday at least still the Priests and the Deacons and such as were not intangled in secular business continued the ancient custom of receiving the Communion every day This we learn from Micrologus and Walfridus Strabo before-mentioned and the old Book of Divine Offices in Cassander and from Rhegino who lived not much above seven hundred years ago In whose Book of Ecclesiastical Discipline we find this memorable record that if any Priest or Deacon or Sub-Deacon or any other of the Clergy being in a City or a place where there was a Church did not come to the daily Sacrifice he should not any longer be accounted a Clergyman if upon reprehension he did not amend And can we think it unreasonable then to be tied unto less which is to attend upon this Sacrifice as it may be truly called in many respects every Lords Day at the least We should rather think it an honour and high priviledge that we may wait upon him so oft at his Altar and look upon our selves as bound to do him honour who hath so highly honoured us by restoring this Commemoration of him in his Church as near as we can to its primitive perfection VII And as a motive to it let me now proceed to tell you that when Christian People grew less frequent in receiving the holy Communion this neglect was attended with a great decay of holyness and good manners As when they grew less devout they grew more negligent in this holy duty so this negligence produced great sloth and carelessness in all the other duties of a Christian Life For becoming less sensible of their obligations to their Lord and Master Christ who bad them thus remember him they became unmindful of the rest of his Commands by forgetting this which was intended for the making of a perpetual Sacrifice of their Souls and Bodies to him As we may be convinced by observing what a wide difference there is between the first Christians and us in these dayes that is between them who had Christ continually in their thoughts and us who seldom remember him Then their thoughts were in a manner wholly imployed in contriving how to get to Heaven and now all our thoughts are how to get as much as we can in this present uncertain World Then they had but one Soul in the whole body of Christians and we are so many men so many minds Then they would
people might bring their offerings more freely though they did not receive together with him And they magnified his operation so much till at last it brought forth this prodigious conceit that he held the very natural Body and Blood of Christ in his hands after the Consecration Which fancy obtained the more easily by the help of the Wafers now mentioned which having neither the form nor figure of Bread nor being like any sort of food used in the World served to banish out of peoples minds the thoughts of any such thing as Bread which they received in the Holy Communion See here again how men have spoiled our most excellent Religion by neglecting the constant practice of it For this Doctrine of transubstantiating the Bread into the very natural Body of Christ is the more absurd because in reality there is not so much as true Bread presented unto the Priest to transubstantiate if such a feat could possibly be wrought For the best Christians after these Wafers were introduced lookt upon them as unfit for consecration being unworthy of the name of Bread and not being at all broken and therefore did ad Christum Ecclesiam nihil pertinere not at all belong to Christ or his Church as Bernoldus a Priest of Constance adventured to speak in the Eleventh Century For he is that ancient Writer whom Cassander mentions as the Expounder of the Roman Order and commends as a pious prudent person and well skilled in the Ecclesiastical Traditions excepting only the indignation he expressed at the reducing of the oblations of Bread for the use of the Sacrifice into this form of Wafers much different from the form of true Bread which he called therefore in contempt mites of nummulary oblations being in the form of little pieces of money and ascribes to them an imaginary shadowy lightness which deserve not the name of Bread they are so thin and inveighs against them in more and sharper words than these which Cassander in his Book of Liturgicks cap. 27. saith he thought it not expedient to transcribe in that place But what he hath transcribed abundantly shows how wise and good men resented this change in the Sacrament by reason of which the Divine Service and the Religion of the Ecclesiastical office as that Author speaks was much every way confounded IV. Lastly This very thing hath turned the holy Communion in that Church into a propitiatory Sacrifice offered up to God both for the quick and the dead Which hath proved a most horrible abuse having no other original than that now named the people 's not communicating but leaving the Priest alone at the Altar Who being loth to lose the oblations as well as the peoples Company began to speak very high things of the saving efficacy which from this action of the Priest alone redounded even unto those who did not Communicate with him Which opinion being once received as a popular conceit men gave money freely and abundantly for private Masses out of a perswasion that thereby they should procure remission of sins both for themselves and for others both for those alive and those who were dead By which things I hope you see the great mischief of neglecting the holy Communion which hath even undone the Christian World for it hath spoil'd Christs holy Religion and turned it into quite another thing by most gross depravations of it Which have had this effect even upon us who are called Reformed that they have rooted out the principal part of Gods Service from among us and made it lame and imperfect For the Church of Rome having retained the custom of celebrating the Communion every day but turned it into a Sacrifice for the quick and the dead though none but the Priest partake of it this is the use which the Enemy of Mankind hath tempted us to make of their abuses to perswade our selves that so long as private Masses are abolished we need not trouble our selves to be frequent in the Celebration and Communion of the Eucharist Now this is even according to the hearts desire of our grand Adversary the Devil who can be content with such a Reformation as this while we retain the very root and foundation of all the abuses which we have reformed viz. Negligence in frequenting this Holy Sacrament Which I hope we shall be careful also to reform at last if men will but lay to heart such things as I have laid before their Eyes Which let us see that though the particular time of communicating be not named in Christs Institution yet that is no argument we may take our own time for it and do not offend God so it be done some time or other but quite contrary that our Lord intended it should be performed at all times when we assemble for Divine Service Thus the first and best Christians understood it thus they practised and transmitted this practice unto Posterity who for some Ages continued it and though it be not continued till these times yet we are forced to acknowledge that the remembrance it importeth as that excellent man Mr. Thorndike speaks is so proper so peculiar to the profession we make that our Assemblies never look so like the Assemblies of Christians as when it is celebrated But are really naked without it or at least want the Crown of that Service for which we assemble that most excellent piece of Service which is peculiarly appropriated to the worship of our blessed Lord and Saviour By the neglect of which the love of God and the love of one another is deplorably decayed and the Christian Religion also so depraved that they who reformed it in many things have not been able to restore it to its integrity And therefore now that God hath put it into the heart of our pious Metropolitan to call upon us and enjoin us to live more strictly according to the Rules and Orders of our Religion by celebrating the holy Communion at all our more solemn Assemblies I hope none of us will be any longer disobedient and refractory to so godly a motion but rather forward to comply with the Command of God and of our Governours It may not be in the power of man perhaps so to command the occasions of this World as that all should be always disposed to communicate yet in so great a number as here come together to worship God there cannot but always some persons or other be found who are not so encumbred but they may be fit if they please to receive the holy Communion with us Certain I am it ought so to be and what ought to be may be and will be if the reason upon which it depends be duly considered If it be not so that for want of persons disposed to communicate the holy Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood cannot be celebrated every Sunday it is a wilful neglect for which nothing can be alledged but too much love of this World which arises from too little a sense of the
people Consider then in what disposition do you think you stand for Society with Christ in Eternal Life and Bliss in the Heavens if you are not disposed to have Communion with him in this holy Sacrament here upon Earth What likelihood can you fancy of having His Company there if He cannot have your Company here That which keeps you from the one will exclude you from the other I mean those things whatsoever they be that make you unmeet to partake of his Table at present will make you unmeet to feast with him in his Heavenly Kingdom hereafter The terms of admission unto both are the same for he that duly partakes of the holy Communion hath an earnest given him of Everlasting Bliss and therefore there cannot be different terms of exclusion but the very same also That is those sins which exclude men from the Kingdom of Heaven are they which exclude them from the pledge and earnest of it in this holy Sacrament And those sins which do not shut the gate of the Heavenly Kingdom against them cannot be a bar to their receiving the Sacrament Satisfy your selves what those sins are of both sorts and you will withal satisfy your selves that you are not unfit to come to the holy Communion unless you be unfit to enter into Heaven and if you be unfit for that I do not see how you can rest satisfied if you have any care of your Souls till by becoming capable to be received thither you become capable to be entertained at the Lords Table For which every sudden passion every rash word every sin that is committed by surprise against the setled purpose of our Souls and serious indeavours will not make us utterly unfit because such things will not shut us out of Heaven But those gross those deliberate and habitual sins that bar the Door of Heaven against us are the same that put a bar against our coming to the Lord's Table and the same that keep us from partaking of that are they that will keep us from being partakers of the other And therefore resolve what it is fit for you to do the matter being come to this short issue that if you are not fit for the Lord's Table neither are you fit for Heaven if you hope you are so fit for Heaven that you shall not be thrust out of it then are you not unfit for the Lord's Table Why then do you not come thither when you cannot stay away without acknowledging that you have no interest in Christ and his Eternal Love So the ancient Doctrine was as we learn from St. Austin who in his first Book concerning the deserts and remission of sins Cap. 24. tells us that in his Country they called Baptism SALVATION and the Sacrament of Christs Body by no other name than LIFE from an ancient and Apostolical Tradition as he thinks whereby the Churches of Christ hold for certain that no body can attain either Salvation or Life in the Kingdom of God without Baptism and the participation of the Table of the Lord. Which none can gainsay is thus far true that we know of no other gates but these Christ hath appointed no other to let us into his Kingdom and that they who are unworthy to partake of the holy mysteries of his Kingdom cannot be worthy to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven it self VI. If obstinacy as he speaks a little before in that Book did not knit its stubborn sinews against the force of evident truth I might here make an end But some still persist in their exceptions and say if we be not unfit yet we fear we are and how shall we free our selves from these fears and jealousies which extreamly disturb our minds and put us into such disorder that we cannot compose our selves for the holy Communion In the last place therefore I answer to this by asking a few plain and easy questions upon which if you will Examine your selves you will soon arrive at satisfaction Do you not make profession of Christianity Do you not believe what that Religion teaches Do you not indeavour impartially to practice according to that belief Do you not discern or distinguish the Lord's Body that is make a difference between this holy food and other meat and drink Do you not understand the ends for which it was appointed What can hinder you then from partaking of the Lords Body if therein you intend those ends Here is a sure and infallible Test unto which if you bring your selves you may try thereby whether you be fit or no to have Communion with Christ in this holy Sacrament and determine the case with such certainty as to be no longer perplexed with doubts and fears about it 1. The first of these questions need not be long considered for by receiving Baptism and being present at the Prayers where the Creeds are openly owned you make a profession of Christianity and therefore you are thus far fit and have a right and title to come and make this profession still more solemnly at the Table of the Lord. 2. The second also is soon resolved whether you believe with your heart what you profess with your mouth For these doubts and fears which you have lest you should receive the Communion unworthily and thereby incur the divine displeasure suppose Faith in Christ as the Lord and Judge of the World and that you look upon this as one part of a Christians Duty which ought to be performed with care and great circumspection 3. The third also need not cost you much labour for by reading over the rules of life delivered in the Gospel and comparing your manner of life with them you may be satisfied whether you impartially indeavour to practise according to your belief That is do you not willingly rest under any habit of sin which excludes from this Sacrament as they do from Heaven but make it your serious business to break them all Then you ought to use this means among others which God hath appointed and call upon him for his aid without which nothing can be effected in this sort of Supplication for weaknesses bewailed and indeavoured daily to be reformed do not exclude us from either of them But they rather require our diligence and constancy in the receiving this holy Sacrament that we may grow strong in the Lord and in the power of his might Which we therefore want because we neglect this means of obtaining it or are possessed with such vain fears as quite damp that Faith which should be exercised in the use of it 4. For which fears there is no cause when you are thus qualified provided also you discern the Lords Body in the holy Communion that is consider what that Bread and Wine imports which you see upon the Table of the Lord what they signify and represent unto you and what spiritual grace is imparted to you by their means which your very Catechism teaches you is the Body and Blood of Christ which are
should be duly performed II. To which add this consideration that had not this been a divine Institution and the practice according to it a duty incumbent on them it is not to be conceived that the Apostle would have suffered the Corinthians to have run so great a hazard as they did by the rude manner of doing that action if they might innocently have omitted it and without any guilt not have done it at all Nor would the Corinthians themselves have been so unreasonably cruel to their own Souls as to have incurred the dreadful danger of Damnation and Death by an unprepared participation of this Sacrament if they could have satisfied themselves that it was no duty to participate or not of such consequence but that it might with safety be let alone He that eateth and drinketh unworthily saith the Apostle eateth and drinketh damnation to himself and for this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep That is the divine judgment being passed against you hath seized on you and struck many of you with sicknesses others with infirmities aches and pains and some with Death for your riotous eating of the Supper of the Lord. Doth it not concern you then unless you be content to lie still under this scourge of God till you be all cut off to be better advised and not expose your selves in this manner to the wrath of God which it is plain by terrible Executions is more than kindled against you Now unto what course doth he direct them that they might avoid these Judgments Doth he advise them to abstain from the Holy Communion for fear of prophaning it to forbear to come to the Table of the Lord lest there he stretcht out his hand against them and gave them their Deaths wound This had been the shortest and the safest way according to the ignorant resolutions men make in this present Age to prevent the danger of Damnation unto which the Apostle no doubt would have charitably directed them if he had not known that the thing it self was a duty and such abstinence from it a sin He could not otherways have refrained when he beheld the Sword of Divine Vengeance thus hanging over their Heads and many already lie bleeding under it being strucken down to the ground by Sicknesses Plagues and Death he could not I say in this lamentable case have abstained from calling to them with the greatest earnestness and compassion saying why do you thus venture your Souls and Bodies to destruction Why do you not rather stay away and wholly forbear to approach to the Table of the Lord where you are in danger to be undone for your unworthy receiving the sacred pledges of Gods love But we hear no such language because the Apostle had not thus learnt Christ nor thus received of the Lord. Who commanded and expected that they should not abstain from the Sacrament as the manner now is but come to it net rudely indeed as they did but in an holy decent and prepared manner Which it had been in vain to discourse of if it would have been as well or would have sufficed to abstain from the act of receiving This was an invention not thought of in those early dayes when they took themselves not to be Christians if they did not frequent the Holy Communion as St. Paul proves they were not good Christians if they did not take care to come in an holy manner unto it That 's the thing to which he presses them and the only way he knew of to avoid Damnation Abstaining from the Communion would not secure them but let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup ver 28. Not to eat and drink of that holy food he could not give them a licence He had no such authority but lay under an obligation to enjoin the doing of the thing and to press it earnestly as a duty that could neither be safely omitted nor practised without serious Examination of themselves that they might not come together to condemnation v. 34. To come together for this purpose to eat and drink that Bread and that Cup there was a necessity their only care was that it might not be to condemnation Which things being well considered do convincingly demonstrate that this is not only a duty but a weighty duty strictly enjoined and not to be omitted no not in that Church where the profane doing of it had brought down Death and destruction upon them from Heaven V. The same is evident from the end for which our Lord instituted this Sacrament and commanded us to receive it which is the publication of the Lords Death till he come That 's the meaning of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye do show you do publish the word signifies and tell it abroad you profess this and declare it to all the World that Christ died for you and is Lord over you having purchased you by his blood and that you own him so to be and are the Servants and Worshippers of that Jesus who gave himself to be Crucified and to die for you This is the general meaning of this holy action Wherein we publickly own Christ and profess his Religion and give it out to all the World who see what we do that we are his and that we are sensible of it nay glory in it and intend to continue his for ever Now who can have the confidence to call himself a Christian and not think he stands bound thus to own Christ Crucified And therefore he is bound to do that whereby he doth own him which is to receive the holy Sacrament Which as often as we do we show forth the Lords Death and as often as we neglect we do as good as say we are ashamed of him and of his Cross or that we repent of our Christian Profession For if to do this be to show forth Christs Death then not to do it is to stifle and smother it as much as in us lies so that no such thing as the Death of our Lord should be published or known in the World This I am sure is a true consequence and our neglect of this duty will be thus interpreted by our blessed Lord when he shall come to take cognizance of it Why will some say we testify the contrary every time we say the Creed when we make an open and solemn confession of our Faith in him But let such persons observe how they argue in this against themselves For our Lord in whom they profess to believe requires that we should not merely in words though never so express but in plain actions also represent his Death and Passion for our sakes and thereby our high obligations to him That 's the Doctrine of the Apostle in this place For to what end do you break the Bread but to show the breaking i. e. the wounding and crucifixion of the Lords Body And to what end do you pour out the
lay down their lives one for another now we kill and destroy at least hate and bite and are ready to devour one another Then they were for doing all the good they could to others now we are all for our selves and it is well if we be not contriving mischief and doing injuries or ill offices to our Neighbours Then they feared no dangers but now we are unwilling to suffer any thing Then they lived in absolute obedience to the worst of Governours but now we are apt to quarrel with just Authority and to find fault with every thing that is done by our Prince and our Superiours Unto what can we more probably ascribe this difference than to their frequenting and our neglecting of the Holy Communion In which opinion I am not singular for Dr. Jackson I remember sometime Dean of this Church thought it very likely that the Wars of Kingdoms the Contentions in Families the infinite multitude of Law-Sutes the personal hatreds and the universal want of Charity which hath made the World so miserable and so wicked may in a great degree be attributed to the neglect of this great Symbol and Instrument of Charity Which could not but closely knit us together in Brotherly love and affection if the nature of it were duly considered For that is such saith Mr. Calvin in the place before-named as shows it was not intended to be received once a Year only but to be in frequent use among Christians that in a frequent memory they might repeat the Passion of Christ and by that Commemoration support and strengthen their Faith praise the loving kindness of God and cherish mutual Charity among themselves nay give a testimony of that one to another whose Bond they beheld in the unity of the Body of Christ For as oft as we communicate of the Symbol of Christs Body we strictly ty our selves mutually one to another by giving as it were and receiving a token and pledge thereof to perform all the offices of love and kindness so that none of us will do any thing whereby our Brother may receive any harm nor omit any thing whereby we may be helpful to him when his necessities require and our abilities are sufficient VIII And now in the last place I shall further show the great necessity of this duty by representing to you this sad truth that as the seldom Celebration of the Holy Communion was attended with a lamentable decay of holy Living so thereby the Christian Worship it self was no less wofully corrupted and depraved For from hence have risen I can clearly show sundry dangerous corruptions in the Roman Church of which we complain very justly but do not charge upon the right cause I will mention three or four I. First The Priest's communicating alone by himself which in truth is no Communion arose from that gross negligence which I am now perswading you to amend The Church of Rome hath thus far preserved a right notion of the holy Communion as to conceive it to be a part of the daily Service upon which the people as you have heard attended more or less for some Ages But in process of time they growing cold left only the Priests and Deacons to communicate with him that ministred and the Priests and Deacons also growing remiss he was at last left alone Who in some places continued to say all the Prayers and read the Epistle and Gospel and all things else belonging to this Service until he came to the Consecration and there broke off but in other places he ventured to proceed further and consecrated and received the holy Communion by himself alone Which last way of proceeding being found most for the profit of the Priests it grew to be a custom in the Roman Church for the Priest that officiated to communicate alone when there was no Body to receive with him For if there had been no Communion there would have been no offerings and therefore they continued the Communion though there were none to communicate nay multiplied private Masses that there might be as many oblations as ever This is one corruption which hath most certainly sprung from the indevotion of Christian People II. Another as bad or worse is this the giving the holy Communion in a Wafer For the ancient custom being as we read in Honorius Augustodunensis for the several Families in a Town to bring to the Priest the flower with which the panis Dominicus as he calls it the Lords Bread was made or else to join together to bring a Loaf ready made by a common contribution to it which was called their oblation and the Host being for the representation of our Saviours Sacrifice on the Cross when the Church was increased in number but grew less in sanctity as his words are this Loaf dwindled from a great one into a little one according to the small number of Communicants till at last there being no Communicants at all it shrunk up into a Wafer that is a little thin bit of Bread in the form of a small piece of money the people offering such pieces of money in stead of Meal being just so much as the Priest could eat himself when there was no body to receive with him This is the Original of Wafers which still retained the name of the Host after it was no longer the offering of the people nor a representation of Christs Sacrifice these Wafers having brought in this corruption that now there is no breaking of the Bread in representation of the breaking of Christs Body Though it be expresly mentioned in the Institution of this Sacrament where we read that Christ took Bread and brake it c. and is so much belonging to the essence as we speak of the Sacrament that the Sacrament took its name from hence and is called in Scripture breaking of Bread Behold here again what Christian people have done by their indevotion Which hath given occasion to such a considerable depravation as this For St. Paul speaking of this part of the Eucharist calls it the bread that we break 1 Cor. x. 16. and our Lord himself explaining the Mystery of this Bread saith positively this is my body which is broken for you xi 24. Which evidently shows that the Bread ought then to be broken or else it cannot be Christs Body broken for us and therefore that this breaking of the Bread is not such a superfluous thing as the Church of Rome now makes it for the Bread is not broken there but such a part of this Sacrament as without it the sufferings of Christ upon the Cross are not fully represented to us But thus as I said the negligence of Christian People in not frequenting the Holy Communion hath maimed this Sacrament Nay III. The Doctrine of Transubstantiation in all probability came from the same original For the Priest being left alone at the Communion they found it necessary to magnify what he did there as much as it was possible that so the
verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lords Supper 5. Of this therefore you cannot be ignorant and if you believe it and expect it understanding also what your eating and drinking of that Bread and Wine means and for what end you come to the holy Table what can there remain to be done to make you know certainly whether you may partake thereof safely nay profitably or no but only the last thing I mentioned 6. Whether you intend to do there what the Lord Commands and to receive those benefits which he there imparts Not eating and drinking that is as at a common Table to satisfy your hunger and quench your thirst not receiving with the same common spirit and the same unattentiveness wherewith you receive other food but composing your self seriously as at the Lords Table in a holy place where he is present thankfully to Commemorate his Death to partake of that Sacrifice which he offered for us on the Cross to give up your selves Souls and Bodies unto him and to thank him that you have the honour to be his Servants and that he hath purchased you at so dear a rate as with the price of his own most pretious blood to implore the continuance of his gracious and ready help upon all occasions c. If I say with this Spirit and for these and such like ends you approach to this holy Communion you need not have the least fear of being rejected as unworthy Guests but ought to be confident that you shall be welcome to that holy Feast as those that are faithful unto Christ For wanting none of these conditions which are all that can be thought requisite you want nothing to make you fit and prepared to have Communion with Christ in the merits of his Death which is there commemorated Yes will some perhaps further object there may be something still wanting For how came the Corinthians to be so severely punished as we read they were for their unworthy receiving the Communion if these things be sufficient to make men meet partakers of it Do you not think that they had all the forementioned qualifications and yet they did eat and drink their own Damnation I answer No it is most manifest from the very words which mention their Damnation that they were not thus prepared 1. For first they proceeding to partake of these Holy Mysteries at the end of their Feasts of Charity which was a common meal where they eat and drank all together for the maintaining Brotherly kindness among them they so perfectly confounded and blended these two the Holy Feast on Christs Sacrifice and the common Feast on ordinary food one with the other that they made not the least distinction but did eat this holy Bread and drink this holy Wine as they did common meat and liquors not discerning the Lords Body as you read v. 29. of this Chapter This was one horrid sin which they committed not to consider what they were doing for they went to the Lord's Table as if it had been still their own Table and did not distinguish between this Sacred and their ordinary food 2. One cause of which undiscerning spirit which would not let them see the difference was their riot and drunkenness at that Feast of Charity which ought to have been only a sober refreshment They revelled upon that good chear which should only have filled their hearts with love to God the Giver of all good things and to their Christian Brethren and thereby have prepared them to be partakers of a diviner food which followed the other This was another fearful sin of which you read v. 21. where the Apostle saith that as some were hungry at that Feast of Love and Friendship so others were drunken 3. Which leads me to take notice of a third Crime that the rich despised the poor and that in so vile a manner as not to suffer them to feast with them but to separate from them and to eat and drink by themselves and also to eat and drink up all the provision leaving the poor little or nothing For in eating viz. at the Feast of Charity every one taketh before his own Supper and so it came to pass that one was hungry and another drunken 4. Which suggest this further crime consequent upon the former that they turned a common Feast into a private the rich looking upon what they had brought to it as their own Whereas in truth they had no longer any propriety therein now that they were come together into one and the same place ver 20. Where there ought to have been no difference made between one man and another nor any part of the provision lookt upon as continuing any mans own proper food after it was brought thither for the entertainment of all 5. And that was another aggravation of their guilt that they committed all these crimes in that holy place where they assembled for the most holy action of their Religion to commemorate the Death of Christ ver 22. What have ye not Houses to eat and drink in or despise ye the Church of God c. Which question supposeth that they might in their own private Houses have eaten their own Supper alone by themselves or with whom it pleased them to invite but in the House of God and in his divine presence it was intolerable because there they met upon no private but a publick account to thank God for his love in Christ and to testify their mutual love to each other 6. Which they were so far from doing that they did the quite contrary For true love delights to keep others in countenance but they put such to the blush as were in a poor and mean condition and could bring nothing to the common Table but themselves Who were by the Laws of the Feast and by the rules of Charity to have feasted at the charge of the rich and with as much freedom and confidence as if they had brought the provision themselves but were lookt upon with such scorn that it made them sneak like wretched Beggars that were to be content with the scraps which the rich would leave them That 's the meaning of the last words of that Exprobration ver 22. and shame them that have not that is are not able to bring any thing to eat and drink at the Feast of Charity These were the grievous scandals committed in that Church some of them in the very act of holy Communion and all of them in their preparation to it and in the holy place where they were assembled to worship Christ with mutual affection one to another Which therefore brought down heavy judgments upon them as you read ver 29. He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation or judgment as the margin of the Bible hath it to himself not discerning the Lords body Which that it is spoken of the Church of Corinth the next words shew which inform us also what this judgment