Life for the better looks as it were for a new Sacrifice for Sin and since he will not be purged from his known Sins by the Blood of Jesus which hath been already spilt if he hath any hopes of being purified from his Sin in order to the obtaining of Eternal Happiness seems to desire a more effectual Death of that great Mediator which may against his Will drag him away from his sinful courses and thereby would have Christ suffer and be kill'd again and consequently makes himself guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. 4. He that Eats and Drinks unworthily kills the Lord Jesus You will say This is impossible Christ being in Heaven and incapable of any such Act of Violence No more could Saul if you understand it according to the Letter persecute him after he was glorified yet the voice that came to him in his way to Damascus said Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Act. â— 4. The same may be said of an unworthy Receiver he cannot strictly speaking kill the Lord Jesus yet being unwilling to venture upon a change of Life under all the Abjurations of a bleeding Redeemer that stubborness is Death to Christ as God said to the Jews Ezek. 6. 9. I am broken with your whorssh Heart So may the Saviour of the World cry to the Communicant that comes to remember his Death and will not die to his known Sins Thou piercest thou woundest thou killest me by thy obstinate and refractory temper as we say of a tender Father that the ill course his disobedient Son takes is death to him because it is as grievous to him as if one should attempt to take away his Life The unworthy Receiver by being loth to conform to the Rules of the Gospel in his Practices even while he beholds as it were Christ Crucified for his Sins does an Act so unworthy so disrespectful so injurious that it is as much as if he made attempts upon his Life nay he kills the preventing Grace Christ affords him and slays the good motions whereby Christ lives in him Christ is said to be in us as we are Christians and the unworthy Receiver being desirous and willing to maintain and keep his darling Sins doth thereby drive Christ out of his Heart and kill him in his own Soul for Christ and Love to a sinful Life are inconsistent and incompatible things These destroy his Life in the Soul and therefore in this Sense also the unworthy Receiver makes himself guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. 5. He that eats and drinks unworthily consents to the Murther the Jews were guilty of when they killed the Lord of Life and approves of that barbarous and inhumane Act and therefore is guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. He is supposed to consent to that Murther that is not sorry for if And how can he be sorry for it that is not sorry for his Sins which were the principal Cause of it The unworthy Receiver being supposed to be one that doth not heartily shake hands with a sinful Life and is loth so to renounce his known Sins as to tear them from his Heart we cannot imagine that he is heartily sorry for them for his Sorrow hath not those Effects which Godly Sorrow is said to have 2 Cor. 7. 11. For this same thing when ye sorrowed after a Godly sort what Carefulness it wrought in you Yea what clearing of your selves Yea what Indignation against Sin Yea what Fear i. e. of offending God! Yea what vehement Desire Yea what Zeal Yea what Revenge The Tree is known by its Fruits And if Sorrow for Sin must be discovered by such Effects and these Effects appear not in the Communicant as he cannot be thought to eat and drink worthily so in not being sorry for his Sins he doth not appear sorry for the Murther the Jews committed upon the Body of our Saviour his Sins being the Cause of that Murther And doth not this look like Consent or Approbation of that Murther You will say How can any Man be sorry for Christ's Death when that Death is our greatest Comfort and what Consolations the pious Soul feels it feels by virtue of that Death Shall a Man be sorry for that which God had ordain'd appointed and design'd for the Relief and Redress of our Misery If Christ had not died we had been ever wretched and unhappy and must have looked for no Friendship from above and therefore to charge Men with being guilty of his Death because they are not sorry for it seems to be both against Scripture and Reason Is any Man sorry for a Treasure he finds in the Field Or sorry for an Estate that falls to him by the Decease of a Relation Or sorry for an Act of Oblivion which a gracious Prince imparts to Offenders whereof himself is the Principal But to this the Answer is very easie for the Benefit of Christ's Death and the Mercy God intended Mankind by it must be carefully distinguished from the Instrumental Causes whereby Christ was brought to his Death which were partly our Sins and the barbarous Cruelty of the Jews The Benefit that came by the Death of Christ a Christian most certainly ought not to be sorry for but hath reason to rejoyce in Day and Night But that he was so inhumanely murther'd by the Jews and that our Sins were such abominable things in the Sight of God that to expiate them God was moved to give up his own Son to the lawless Rage of those cruel Enemies this requires our Grief and Sorrow That the Jews did commit a very heinous Sin in crucifying Christ is evident from St. Peter's Discourse or Sermon to the Murtherers Act. 3. 17 18 19. For though God hath decreed that Death as an Expedient to reconcile Man to himself and decreed not to hinder the Jews in pursuing their wicked Designs and Purposes but to make that Death an Antidote against Everlasting Death yet that doth not excuse the Jews from the Guilt of Sin in killing of him whose Cruelty God was resolved to turn to the Good of all true Penitents and sincere Believers nor a Christian from an hearty Sorrow that his Sins were the deserving Cause of it So that a Christian may at once rejoyce in Christ's Death and be sorry for it rejoyce in the unspeakable Mercies procured by it and be sorry that those stubborn Wretches did with that Cruelty dispatch him or rather that his Sins did arm those desperate Sinners to put the Lord of Life to death for the Jews could have had no power to murther him but that the Sins of Mankind crying aloud for Vengeance enabled them and gave them Strength and ministred Occasion to do it So that he that is not heartily sorry for his Sins is not heartily sorry that the Jews did murther him and therefore the unworthy Receiver not being heartily sorry for the Sins he hath lived in consents to that Murther of the Jews and upon
of the Ordinance is praising him that lives for ever and ever fall down at the same time rejoycing at the blessings and the Manna which falls down from Heaven on the Children of Men so that here we may cry out as the Patriarch did of Bethel How dreadful is this place The Preceding Considerations reduced to Practice I. THIS Sacarament being a Feast prepared by the Greatest Prince for his Servants those Servants must needs be inexcusable that refuse to give their attendance here I do not deny but their may be just excuses and lawful causes of our absence such as Sickness Weakness Faintness and Distempers Pains Aches and some sudden Accidents and Disasters which will not suffer us to fix our thoughts on so reverend an ordinance but these hapning against our Wills and importing no wilful neglect God bears with us under such circumstances but to act as if we did not hear our Master call and to suffer the World to put a stop to our coming to be so enamoured with our Profits and sensual Satisfactions as not to think our selves concerned in the Duty to refuse approaching because we are loath to be at the pains of searching our Hears and trying our ways to neglect coming because we are loath to sequester our Thoughts from sublunary Objects and to part with our Sins to absent our selves because we relish the enjoyments of this life before this Celestial Food this is to slight what God esteems and to spurn at the greatest Mercy this is to thrust away Salvation as if it were worth nothing and to â—ndervalue the pains God takes to bring us to himself and what God must think of such Scorners I need not tell you for your selves may guess except you believe God to be a Stone or Stock how he must resent it and one would think it should cause some sad thoughts within you if you believe what he saith 1 Sam. 2. 30 They that love me I will Honour but they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed II. When the Church invites us to this Feast we must suppose that our Lord himself makes an Address to us as it is in Matth. 22. 4. Behold I have prepared my dinner my oxen and my fatlings are killed and all things are ready come ye to the Marriage This Holy Ordinance is the Marriage Feast which declares our being joyned to the Son of God the King immortal invisible blessed for evermore Hearken therefore O daughter and consider forget also thine own People and thy fathers house so shall the King greatly desire thy beauty for he is thy Lord and worship thou him This Feast requires suitable Garments not Tyrian Purple not Persian Silks not that outward adorning with broider'd hair or gold or pearl or costly array but the ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit which in the sight of God is of great price A Garment of Sackcloath is a more glorious sight in the eyes of him who is the Master of This Feast then all the bravery of the tinckling Ornaments of the Daughters of Sion and a Contrite Heart invites his gracious aspect and this the Primitive believers were so sensible of that before their coming to this Feast they humbled their Souls with Fasting and as course and uncomely as this Garb appears to sensual Men yet He that is the lofty and Holy one who inhabits Eternity hath declared his liking and approbation of it For to that man will I look that is of an humble a and contrite Spirit and trembles at my word Es. 66. 2. Es. 57. 15. We read of a Garment of Praise too Es. 61. 3. a Garment which the Angels of Light are adorned and deckt withal a Garb so pleasing that the Eternal Father smiles on them and it smells sweeter than that of Esau God like old Isaac takes notice of it and blesses them St. Paul understood this and wore it constantly Hence it is that we find him so liberal in praising the Cross of Christ with this he seems always transported and he seldom talks of Christ without Raptures an object upon which he though he could never say enough Being rapt up into the Third Heaven he had heard the melodious voices of the four and twenty Elders and the new Song they sung to the Lamb that was slain Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the Seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation Rev. 5. 9. and he could not have a better Pattern And now that we speak of Garments that make us welcome Guests at this Table we must not forget the Garment or Ornament of good Works which St. Paul takes notice of 1 Tim. 2. 10. These are the Shining Robes our Souls must be ambitious of these adorn our Profession charm spectators attract followers and are apt to make People in love with goodness and what is more change us into the same Image with the Author and Finisher of our Faith whose province and imployment was going about and doing good as we are told Act 10. 38. and consequently this cannot but be a proper Ornament to appear in at this Banquet And of this nature is the white Garment we read of Eccles. 9. 8. or the Garment of Innocence and Purity whereby we hate the Garment spotted by the flesh and keep Consciences void of offence toward God and toward Man In these Garbs we may boldly shew our selves at the Table of our Lord and expect the same welcome that the Spouse received in the Canticles Cant. 4. 10 11. How fair is thy love my Sister my Spouseâ— how much better is thy love than Wine and the smell of all thine Ointments than all Spices Thy Lips O my Spouse drop as the Honey-comb Honey and Milk are under thy Tongue and the smell of thy Garments is like the smell of Lebanon The PRAYER O Holy and merciful Saviour merciful beyond example who treatest me as thy Child hast prepared a Table for me and made my Cup run over Be thou my Shepherd let me want no Grace no Mercy no Assistance that 's necessary for me in the prosecuting of mine Eternal Happiness Dress me with thy Robes adorn me with the Ensigns of thy Favour Let me rejoyce at the Supper thou hast prepared for me Teach me to entertain thy Call with gladness Let me see clearly what thou hast prepared for them that love thee Thou knowest my stubborn and lazy Heart rouze it from its slumber melt it by the fire of thy love breath upon these dry Bones and they shall live Let me not with Esau prefer a morsel of Bread eaten in secret before my Birth-right to Eternal Glory Let me consider thy Condescension in inviting such a Wretch to sup with thee Let not the evil examples I see before me be any temptation to me Uphold me by thy right hand Let me dread thine anger and count it a greater disgrace to be
the Honour of the true God which the Pagans did to their false and imaginary Deities Yet see the abuse of these Feasts of Charity 1 Cor. 11. 22. especially in the Church of Corinth in the days of the Apostles For St. Paul being busie abroad partly in Planting partly in Confirming Churches the richer sort of the Christians at Corinth began to think it below them to admit the poor to that Familiarity as to eat with them in these charitable Collations and therefore either prompted by their own Pride or encouraged by some false Teachers that had Mens Persons in admiration because of advantage would indeed send the Meat and Drink they had prepared to those Oratories or places of publick worship but when they came they superciliously separated themselves from the Poorer sort and ate and drank by themselves and so freely that many of them became drunk and in that condition had the hellish impudence afterward to come to the holy Sacrament If they left any thing at these Feasts the Poor might take it and make the best of it if not they were forced to go away hungry and too often discontented So early grew this abuse and though in Process of time these Feasts were used after the Eucharist and in many places in Church-yards at the celebration of the Memories of holy Martyrs at the Dedication of Churches and at the Funerals of holy Men and Women yet nothing could keep out Intemperance and Excess and Disorders for which reason the Church at last thought herself obliged to abolish and put them down which was done accordingly by the Council of Laodicea in the Year of our Lord 364. by the Council of Carthage in the Year 419. and by the Council of Constantinople in the Year 692. II. Whence Abuses of Holy things arise is no hard matter to guess for 1. We find them spring from an Itch of Novelty Men not contented with the plain and simple Truths God hath vouchsafed to Mankind are strangely tickled with new things which are often called Refinings or Improvements of old Truths under which plausible name they are easily swallowed down Hence rose the various Idolatries in the World that it became as modish to invent new Gods as it was to invent new Fashions in Cloaths and Habits Adam no doubt deliver'd the notion of one Eternal invisible God Creator of Heaven and earth and the decent worship of him to his posterity This notion being become common and stale the succeeding Ages thought themselves obliged to invent something new and counted it more gay and glorious to worship the Creator in the Creature and seeing the Sun and Moon and Stars that they were the brightest Monuments of God's Power they easily fell into the Worship of those Luminaries till the more brutish among the People adored them as Gods indeed and this novelty once broach'd one God brought in another and as Men were still fond of Novelties so they went on and fell a Worshipping deceased Hero's and Princes in whom the Image of the Supreme Deity resided and who had been famous for some notable exploits or benefits and from hence they still went on even to the Worshipping of Trees Herbs Plants Beasts Crocodils Fishes and creeping things one Age still thinking to out-do the other in new inventions of objects of Worship till it came to pass that those were counted most Religious that Worshipt the greatest number of Gods as the Athenians who had more Gods than any one City besides of which the Apostle takes notice Acts 17. 22 23. 2. Another cause of these abuses is an Opinion That God is pleased more with the Externals than the Internals of Religion an Opinion which Men are very apt to slide into because they find the Internal Devotion is troublesome and requires intention of the Mind and mortification of the Affections and the other is more easily performed To this Original the Corruptions that did over-spread the Jewish Church owe their rise who in despight of all the Warnings of the Prophets to the contrary laid the stress of their Piety on the strict observations of their Sabbaths new Moons Sacrifices Phylacteries and legal Purifications This gave Mahomet occasion to corrupt Religion for knowing what would please the sensual inclinations of Men he craftily drew People away from the Internal Worship and Consecration of the Souls and Affections to the Supreme Being and taught them to place all Devotion in these five external Acts of Worship Saying their Prayers five times a day keeping the Mouth Ramasan giving the hundredth part of their incomes to Pious uses Washing before Prayer and making a Pilgrimage if possible to Mecca And thus the Church of Rome at this day comes to deviate from the true Religion not only by adding new Articles of Faith to the antient Creeds but by turning the whole Worship of God in a manner into Ceremonies and external Services Saying so many Ave-Maries visiting such a Saint's Shrine Processions offering Wax-Candles to the Virgin Praying by Beads undergoing Penances c. 3. A Third cause of these abuses is a mistake of Fancy and Passion for true Religion and Revelation From hence have come all the barbarous attempts of Pretenders to the true Religien against Magistrates and a well setled Church and State From hence have risen all those Enthusiastical conceits both in this and former Ages whereby the Gospel it self hath been in danger of being overthrown From hence come those rude and undigested Notions of Hildegard Bridget Catharine of Siena Teresa St. Francis and others in Popery who by their Dreams and Visions have sought to establish the erroneous Doctrines of the Roman Church From hence it was that the Messaliani of Old pretended and made People believe that upon a Man's Regeneration or being purged from Sin the Devil and his Angels came out of his Mouth in the shape of Swine To say no more in Men and Women whose notions of Religion are crude and undigested and who are made up of a strong Fancy and stronger Passions Religion must needs run into Wild-fire and pervert the simplicity of the Gospel 4. A Fourth Cause is suiting Religion to our own Humours Lusts and Interest The Tartars therefore embraced the Mahometan Religion and rejected the Christian because the former gave greater liberty to the Flesh. This made the Heathens invent to themselves Deities that were favourers of their Vices And from hence it was that in the Primitive Church Basilides Carpocrates Valentinus the Nicolaitans and Archonticks denied the necessity of a Holy Life because they loved to wallow like Swine in the Mire and in all probability upon this ground it was that Hymeneus and Philetus as the Apostle informs us 2 Tim. 17 18. affirm'd and gave out that the Resurrection was already past because they were loath to be called to an account for their evil lives 5. False Teachers and turbulent Souls are another cause Discontented Men because they cannot be Great or Rich or have their Will
Judge and he that thus condemns himself judges himself IV. The third act of Judging our selves is to inflict Judgments upon our selves By which I do not mean maiming or wounding our selves or cutting off an Arm or a Leg or whipping our selves but inflicting such Judgments on our selves for the Sins we have been guilty of and so often fallen into as are neither hurtful to the Body nor unprofitable nor prejudicial to the Soul but serve rather to bring the Soul into an excellent temper These Judgments though the design of them is to meliorate the Soul yet they are in a great measure to be inflicted on the Body because the Body tempts the Soul to great extravagancies and by presenting a thousand pleasant Objects to her leads her into Nets and Snares and Dangers The Judgment therefore must be laid upon that part which is the tempter and that being under restraint the Soul may more freely move toward her Center God blessed for evermore It 's true naturally no Man hates his own Flesh but cherishes it and makes much of it but Grace and the Gospel teaches us to treat it with greater rigour To be too fond of the Body in St. Bernard's sense is a Charity which destroys Charity a Mercy which is full of Cruelty for this is to serve the Body in order to kill the Soul Is this Charity saith he to tender the Body and to neglect the Soul To caress the Handmaid and to let the Mistress starve Let no Man think that for being thus merciful he will ever obtain mercy So that the Flesh and Body are to be treated as a wild or unruly Horse if we curb him not he will give us a fall Our Bodies are greater Enemies than we are aware they are friends too but the hurt they do too often to our Souls shews they are greater Enemies than Friends and therefore the Fathers do so often call the Flesh the Grave of the Soul a Prison where we are held Captive and a Dungeon where we sit in Darkness The Platonists used to say that our Souls deriving their Original from Heaven are sent into this World to shew forth the Praises of God here on Earth as the Angels do in Heaven but the Body the Soul is in is a kind of Inchanted Castle in which the Soul through the flatteries of the Flesh forgetting too often her nobler Extraction is diverted from her glorious Designs and debased to vile Employs And to this purpose Seneca That the Body is the weight and punishment of the Soul lying heavy upon it ready to link it and putting Shackles upon her if Philosophy do not make a Reformation The Body therefore being such a treacherous Servant must feel the effects of our Justice as it hath been the great instrument of the Sins we have committed that it may be more modest in its Desires And accordingly we find that good Men in all Ages when they have sate as Judges upon themselves to shew their detestation of the Sins they have been guilty of have inflicted Judgments on that part which is most sensible of any thing that is uneasie not out of any ill will to it for it is God's Creature but to preserve both Body and Soul unto Salvation So David punish'd himself for his Sins sometimes by mingling his Drink with Weeping Psal. 102. 9. Sometimes by making Sackcloth his Garment Psal. 69. 11. Sometimes by weakening his Knees with Fasting and Prayer Psal. 109. 24. Sometimes by making his Bed swim with Tears Psal. 6. 6. Sometimes by great acts of Self-denial as overcoming Shimei ' s Malice with Patience and Meekness 2 Sam. 16. 10. And delivering him that without cause was his Enemy Psal. 7. 4. And keeping Fasts and Humiliation Days for the recovery of those that were his Enemies Psal. 35. 13. Sometimes by lying all Night upon the Earth or Floor 2 Sam. 12. 16. Sometimes by rising at Midnight to praise God Psal. 119. 61. So the Penitent Publican punish'd himself by a violent smiting his Breast Luke 16. 13. So Mary Magdalen punished her self by washing the Feet of the Lord Jesus with her Tears and wiping them with the Hair of her Head Luke 7. 37. So Zacheus punish'd himself by giving the halfe of his Goods to the Poor and by fourfold Restitution Luke 19. 7. So St. Paul punished himself by keeping under his Body and bringing it into subjection 1 Cor. 9. 27. By making himself a Servant to all that he might gain the more 1 Cor. 9. 19. By labouring Day and Night that he might not be chargeable to the Church 1 Thess. 2. 9. By denying himself in Marriage 1 Co. 9. 5. So Daniel punished himself for his own and his People's Offences three Weeks together by eating no pleasant Bread by avoiding Flesh and Wine and forbearing to anoint himself Dan. 10. 2 3. So the Primitive believers punished themselves by various Self-denials in the Pleasures Satisfactions and Recreations of the Flesh and of the World thereby to express their Anger either against Sin in general or against some particular Sins they had run into But the most usual Judgment that good Men have ever inflicted on themselves as a Testimony of their Displeasure against themselves for offending God hath been Fasting and Prayer or chastening their Flesh by frequent Fasts spent in deprecations of God's Judgments and in other exercises of Humiliation and when Men have said to them Why are you so cruel as not to spare your Flesh They have answered We spare or use it as we do the Earth which we plough and cut with Coulters that it may bring forth more Fruit. V. This judging our selves in all its acts is certainly very pleasing to God especially before we come to the Holy Communion else St. Paul would never have told us in the passage mentioned in the beginning of this Chapter that by doing so we do put a stop to God's judging of us So that we have reason to believe that God upon our accusing our selves or humble Confessions stops the mouth of the Accuser of our Brethren which is open against us who this is we may learn from Rev. 12. 10. even the Devil who brings severe Accusations against us before God night and day and as he wants neither Wit nor Malice to do it so we have an instance of it in the History of Job Chap. 1. Ver. 9. Where appearing among the Sons of God whether wrapt up in a dark Cloud or in the form of an Angel of Light is not said but among the Angels that gave an account of their Negotiations here on Earth to God he appear'd and as those Ministring Spirits were commending Job for his exemplary Virtue so he displeased at the fair Character immediately seeks to blast and sully it by aspersions and misconstructions and thus we must suppose he deals with other persons that have the same inclinations to Virtue for those Examples are recorded in Scripture not only to tell us what happened just at