Administration of them The best Men now being oftentimes the most Unfortunate and the most Profligate Miscreants the most happy in the Enjoyments of the Good things of this Life Either therefore we must deny that there is a God altogether or that the world is Govern'd by Him Or we must say that he is not Just and Good and therefore minds not what becomes of those that are so which is in effect to say he is not God Or else that he is Impotent and Ignorant either does not know how things pass here below or tho' he does know yet is not able to redress them and this again destroys the very Notion of a God which includes an Infinite Perfection in Power and Knowledge no less than in Goodness and Justice Or lastly If there be a God and that God does take care of the Affairs of men and is Good and Just and has such a Knowledge and Power as we say he has then it must remain that there shall be a future Judgment in which all these uncertain irregular Dispensations of his Providence as they appear to us shall be cleared and set right and the Good and Bad receive the just recompence of what their Actions here have deserved Seeing then we cannot with any reason doubt either that there is a God or that this God is Just or that his Providence does indeed superintend over the Affairs of the World and yet 't is plain that things now are not order'd with so exact a Justice as a Divine Providence does require It must remain that neither can we with any reason doubt but that there is to be a Judgment to come in which God will make a perfect Demonstration of his Goodness and Justice to every man according to what he has done in the Body and of which our Consciences as we have before shown shall then render a most exact account Which being so I shall not need say much to shew II dly That then it cannot be doubted but those who live Wickedly now must expect to be hereafter in a most wretched and deplorable condition This is the plain indeed the necessary Consequence of the foregoing Reflections For if the very End of this Judgment be as we have said to make a great and Eternal Demonstration of God's Justice in his Dispensations towards the Children of men then in the words of St. Paul Rom. ii 6 He must render to every man according to his works To them who by Patient Continuance in will doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality Eternal Life Tribulation and Anguish upon every Soul of man that does Evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile For there is no respect of persons with God If the present Administration of Affairs in this Life be not exactly according to the strict rules of Equity and Justice God permitting the Righteous man to struggle under the Pressures of an Adverse Fortune and the Wicked and Vngodly to Prosper in their Wickedness yet may this be very well Reconcilable with his Justice both because he may have other excellent Ends to serve by such an Irregularity and for that he has yet an Opportunity remaining in his hands abundantly to recompence all the sufferings of the One and to Punish all the Wickedness of the Other And instead of concluding from these Promiscuous events now that God is not Just or does not regard the Affairs of this World that he knows not neither understands how things pass here below nor has power sufficient to Govern them as in Justice he ought to do I have already shown that we ought rather to infer That this Life is only a State of Tryal that the great time of Retribution remains in another World when all these Irregularities shall be set right and the Goodness the Justice the Power of God be made known in a most severe and exact Sentence which shall then pass upon every man in the day when he shall judge the World in Righteousness But if God not only suffers the Wicked to Flourish now but shall hereafter also let them go Vnpunish'd if he permits them to enjoy the Fruits of their Sins in this present World and will take no Care to avenge himself upon them in the next How then shall the Judge of all the Earth do right Or what is there more remaining whereby to justify God in his doings who thus apparently connives at Sinners and neither asserts his Cause in their ruine here nor will call them to any account for all their Wickedness hereafter It remains therefore that as certainly as that God is Just and therefore must some time or other render to every man according to his works the Sinner shall one day receive a dreadful Sentence of Horror and Misery from that God neither whose Knowledge he can escape nor whose Power he is able to withstand Who sees all his most secret Villanies now and will hereafter bring him to Judgment for them But now what or how great that Punishment is which remains for Sinners in the other World this is what we cannot pretend by any Natural way of Reasoning precisely to define And yet thus much I think even our own Reason may suggest to us I st That it must be some very great Punishment which a long Life of Sin and Impiety and that too heightned with all the Aggravating Circumstances of being committed against Knowledge against the checks of our Consciences to the contrary it may be against Vows and Resolutions of doing better nay possibly against many special means and methods of God's Providence to bring us to Repentance must deserve and therefore in all probability shall receive 2 dly That as there are different Kinds and Degrees of Sinners now All men do not rise up to an equal pitch of Wickedness nor begin so soon nor continue so long in their Evil doings nor it may be have it in their Power to do so much mischief as other Sinners do so in all reason we may believe that there shall also be different degrees of Punishment suitable to all these and some be condemned to a much more Severe and intollerable infliction than others To both which remarks I cannot tell whether I may not add 3 dly That seeing the Soul is a Spirit in its own nature capable of Immortality having neither any dependance on the Body nor being exposed to any of those Casualties that are the Causes of the Corruption of all other things which we see Decay and Perish here and there being no Declaration any where made to us that it is the Will of God ever to extinguish them after they are gone out of the Body We may I think have some cause to fear whether our Souls being capable of an Eternal existence the Puishment also which in that last Judgment they shall be doom'd to may not be for all Eternity And all this the Principles of Natural Reason and the Dictates of our Consciences direct us
their progress in Piety and that is a Principle of Compliment and Good Breeding When they neglect their duty it may be do that which they know to be contrary to it but yet rather than be thought rude and precise rather than they will disturb Company or be markt out as singular they will do as others do and so disobey God for fear of disobliging men That this is a Case which very often occurs in the method of our present Conversation in the World is not to be denied Now then consider I beseech you what the Contest here is and what the issue most certainly will be God and Man are the Parties concerned and the question is Whether your Duty towards him or your Civility towards the other ought to preponderate Whether you should go to Heaven with a few singular out-of-fashion Christians or for company sake take the broad road tho you know that it leads to Eternal Damnation And now when the choice is so plain methinks it should be no hard matter to persuade men to despise such a Principle as this To convince them that their Salvation is a concern of too great importance to be submitted to these formalities and that 't is to push the Compliment a great deal too far to be damned rather than be thought ill bred But 3 dly A Third Device whereby the Devil oftentimes endeavours to hinder mens progress in Religion is by filling their minds with groundless fears and scruples as to their Eternal Salvation It is a matter of sad Consideration to think what discouragements many Christians labour under in the discharge of their duty who either wanting a Capacity to receive a satisfaction or indulging a close and melancholly disposition so long till they are at last incapable of any live in doubts and fears and perplexities of mind and it may be by degrees wholly cast off all thoughts of Religion since they cannot find any peace or satisfaction in it Now tho such troubles as these may much more easily be prevented before they arrive than removed after yet there are ways to encounter even this Device too of our Enemy and to render it of no force to hinder our Piety To which end 1 st If any fears or scruples of this kind arise in your minds examine your selves and see whether there be any real grounds or foundation for them Whether your lives have been such as may give you just cause to apprehend your selves in danger of losing your souls If there be nothing of this kind which you can discover to support such fears then consider with your selves that the tenor of God's Threats and Promises is very plain and easie to be understood That he will never condemn any man in another world but for living in a disobedience to his Commands in This. That our duty is clear and express and that Conscience when sincerely examined will not fail to tell us whether we do truly fulfil it or no. And therefore that as St. John says Beloved if our heart condemn us not then have we confidence towards God But should the case be otherwise should you find your selves in never so dangerous a course of sin yet still 't is in your power by God's Assistance to deliver your selves out of it And then There is mercy with God that he may be feared So that be your state at the present never so dangerous yet if you will even now lay hold upon his Mercy if ye will yet repent and return unto the Lord your God and confess your sins he is faithful and just to forgive you your sins and the blood of Christ shall cleanse you from all unrighteousness But now 2 dly If your Case be dubious and neither these nor any other reflections are able to give you that satisfaction you desire yet should not this move you to give way to the Tempter but rather should engage you to set your selves the more diligently to this work to call in some Spiritual Guide to your assistance and if upon a sincere opening of your state to him neither can he find out any grounds for your fears and scruples your doubts and your apprehensions you ought then to labour by all means to possess your Souls in Peace and to conclude That these Terrors are only the Devices of the Devil to discourage you in your duty not any real causes for doubt or despair And yet 3 dly Thô neither by these nor any other means you should ever be able totally to overcome these difficulties yet ought not this to make you ever the less careful of going on still in a serious discharge of your duty Nay on the contrary it ought to make you the more zealous and diligent in the performance of it A man that lives here all his life in such perplexities if yet he fulfils that obedience and practices that repentance which God requires may nevertheless be saved at the last But he that upon any of these grounds neglects this tho he goes on never so securely and comfortably in his evil way shall certainly fall into ruin and destruction in the end And since such fears as these arise from an apprehension that we do not live so well nor serve God so sincerely as we ought to do the best means when all is done to remove them is if it be possible to out-live even our own apprehensions and to serve God so truly and heartily as not to be able to doubt but that we shall find a reward for it at his hands I shall add but one thing more in this Case 4 thly and it is this Be not discouraged nor think your Faith imperfect or your Religion vain because you find your selves still attended with some fears and anxieties about your future state St. Paul not only allows this but exhorts us with his Philipians To work out our own salvation with fear and trembling To be without all concern in a matter of such moment were to be stupid and insensible rather than religious And when we come to appear before Christ in Judgment we shall be sentenced not according to our own Opinions or Apprehensions of our selves whether good or evil but according to the Sincerity of our Lives to the Extent of our Charity and to the Truth of our Repentance And all these supported and made perfect by the Merits and Satisfaction of a most Gracious and Merciful Redeemer who will pity and pardon beyond what we are able to express or to conceive But 4 thly And to conclude this Point The last Device by which the Devil in these days especially has endeavoured to hinder our Piety is by turning that Zeal into Strifes and Disputes about Religion which ought to have been employed on the Practice of it For indeed were we now to enquire what the great demonstration of all our Zeal is both in the Priests and the People what other account should we be able to bring back than this That they are
neither more nor less and lying along with our Heads in one anothers Bosoms as the Apostles now did and which I suppose no Christian of whatsoever Church or Persuasion he be does at all think himself obliged to do But my meaning herein is this That in those things wherein the Nature of this Holy Sacrament consists and which the Holy Scriptures have recounted to us on purpose to direct us in the Celebration of it in those we are not to depart from our Saviour's Institution nor to presume to set up our own Innovations as the Council of Constance has most presumptuously done in opposition to and even in defiance of our Blessed Lord's Appointment To receive the Holy Sacrament in this or that posture with such or such particular Ceremonies these are things wholly foreign to the Nature and Design of this Blessed Sacrament and therefore such as may in different places and Ages be different And every Christian ought to comply with what is used and prescribed in that Church with which he communicates But for those things in which the very Nature of this Holy Sacrament is concern'd for such parts as constitute the integrity of it and serve the more lively to set it off as a memorial of the Death and Passion of Christ and which therefore we must look upon our Lord and Saviour to have sealed with his express Command Do this In these I say we are to keep close both to the Example of our Saviour and to the Command of the Text and when he has distinctly instituted this Holy Supper in Two Kinds not dare to command Men under the pain of an Anathema to believe that One alone is sufficient And this may suffice for the Explication of the former part of my Text What it is we are to understand by that Phrase of my Text Do this I go on Secondly to enquire Secondly What it is to do this in Remembrance of Christ. It is I think agreed on all hands That the Design of our Saviour in this Command was to set forth the great End of his Instituting this Holy Sacrament viz. That it was to keep up in our own Minds and set forth to others a solemn and lively Remembrance of his dying for us and of the great Benefits and Advantages that accrue to us thereby And however it be pretty hard to reconcile this plain Design of this Institution with what those of the other Communion now make to be the main business of it namely to be a true and proper Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of the Living and of the Dead in nothing differing from that upon the Cross but only in the manner of the Oblation A remembrance being ever of things absent from not present with us and the same Sacrifice very improperly said to be a Type or Memorial of it self yet so clearly is this design of this Holy Sacrament here declared to be for the remembrance of Christ's Death and Passion that they have chosen rather to encounter all these Absurdities than to adventure to deny what our Savior has so very plainly delivered as the End of this Institution But though it is not therefore to be doubted but that the Intention of our Blessed Lord in this Command was to oblige us by such a Solemn Ceremony as this to continue the Memory of his Death yet we are not therefore to think that all we have to do when we come to the Holy Table and attend on this Great Memorial is simply to remember or call to mind the Sufferings of our Saviour No this is not sufficient to answer either the meaning of this Command or the design of this Institution The word in the Original which we here render Remembrance is very emphatical and imports not a bare calling to mind but a renew'd Commemoration It regards the Affections of the Heart as well as the Action of the Mind In a word it denotes not so much a private Remembrance as a publick and solemn Commemoration when in our Apostle's Phrase ver 26. we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 annunciate and shew forth to others at the same time that we thus call to mind our selves the Lord's Death and that with all those pious motions and resentments that befit so excellent and so advantageous a Remembrance To know therefore what it is that our Saviour here requires of us when he bids us to do this in Remembrance of Him two things will be necessary to be considered by us First What it is that we are to remember or shew forth when we come to this Holy Sacrament Secondly In what manner and with what Motions and Affections we are to do it And First let us examine What it is that we are to remember or shew forth when we come to this Holy Sacrament Now this in general St. Paul here tells us is his Death ver 26. that is that bitter Death and Passion which he was just then about to undergo for our sakes when he established this Solemn Memorial of it For says he as often as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup ye do shew forth the LORD 's Death till his coming But because a bare Remembrance of the Death of Christ without any farther Consideration either of the cause and manner of it or of those infinite Advantages which accrue to us thereby will afford but a very imperfest Memorial to us We must therefore for a full discharge of this duty and to raise up in our Souls those suitable resentments we ought to bring to this Holy Administration take a farther and more particular prospect of it And consider First What our State and Condition was that obliged our Blessed Saviour thus to die for us Secondly What that Death Passion was which he underwent for our sakes and has therefore commanded us to remember in this Holy Sacrament Thirdly What the Benefits are that accrue to us thereby And First To do this in Remembrance of Christ will engage us to call to mind what our State and condition was that obliged our Blessed Saviour thus to die for us For however we were by Baptism wash'd from all the Guilt and delivered from the Punishment of our Original Pollution and admitted into the Covenant of Grace and made Heirs of the Promise of Eternal Glory yet we are not therefore to think our selves ever the less concerned when we come to this Holy Sacrament and shew forth that Death of the Lord by which our very Baptism it self was consecrated into a laver of Regeneration there to call to mind that wretched State in which we once were and must for ever have lain had not the Blessed Jesus given himself up unto Death for us I should indulge too much your Curiosity in an Argument of this moment should I enter on that vain Speculation which the School-men first started and has since been made the Sport and Diversion of our Modern Scepticks in Religion Whether God could not otherwise have provided for
to us all the Blessings and Advantages which the others can hope for from their ungrounded and unwarrantable Opinion of a natural and corporal participation of Him 2. From this Account of the Design and End of this Institution it follows in the next Place What an Abuse they have made of it who from a Remembrance of a Sacrifice turn it into a Sacrifice it self and instead of esteeming this Sacrament a Memorial of that offering Christ once for all made for us suppose Him to be again as truly and properly offered in it as ever he was tho' not in the same manner that he was once upon the Cross. I shall not now insist so long upon this Point as to shew not only how contrary such an Opinion is to the express Authority of Holy Scripture which declares That Christ was to be offered once for all that by his once offering himself for us he has perfected for ever them that are sanctified and much more to the same purpose in the ixth and xth Chapters to the Hebrews but how derogatory to the Honour of our Saviour whether we consider his former Sufferings or his present Glory This is plain that if the Design of this blessed Sacrament were as our Text declares it to be a Remembrance of our Saviour's dying for us then it is not a new offering of Him there being nothing more absurd than to say of the same thing that it is both the Memorial of what was done many Ages ago and the very same thing again done in Memorial of its self 3. From the same Principles it will follow That if this Holy Sacrament be no more than a Remembrance of our Saviour Christ that then certainly those must have very desperately abused it who pay to it that Honour and Worship that they would do to our Saviour himself were his true and natural Body there present I need not say any thing to prove what the Superstition of the Church of Rome is as to this Matter They here freely own it themselves and censure us for not joyning with them in the same Service They elevate their Host in the Mass for the People to adore it They have instituted a solemn Feast every Year to be observed in Honour of it They dedicate religious Societies thereunto they set it forth upon their Altars to bless the People there assembled to its Worship If they carry it abroad whether to the Sick or upon the occasion of any solemn Processions they put it under a Canopy born all the while over it Candles and Tapers are carried before it and a Bell is rung all the Way that it passes to admonish all that are in sight of it to fall down and adore it And by all these and many other of their Actions they oblige all Persons to pay the supreme Honour that they give to God to this Holy Sacrament It were easie to shew how dangerous this Adoration is even upon their own Principles whether we consider the Impossibility of their being ever sure that their Host is indeed consecrated as it ought to be or that if it were yet at least the Accidents of the Bread and Wine which are Creatures and yet make up a Part of the Sacrament are by consequence joynt partakers of all their Worship But alas what I have now been speaking shews a great deal more Not only that the Accidents of the Bread and Wine have their Part in being Objects of this Worship but that our Saviour Christ indeed is not at all concerned in it They pay their Adoration to the inanimate Creatures of Bread and Wine and commit an Idolatry not much less gross in the Opinion of some of their own Writers if we are indeed in the Right than those who fall down before a Piece of red Cloth and pay their Adoration to a Tile or a Potsherd But 4. If our Saviour Christ in our Text plainly commanded his Apostles and in them all of us To do that in Remembrance of Him which he had there done before their Eyes if what he required in order to this Commemoration was That we should take Bread and Wine and bless and give and receive these in Memory of his Body which was given and of his Blood which was shed for us it will then follow in the Fourth place That those who do not do this have plainly departed from our Saviour's Institution and do not remember him as they are commanded to do And this alone is sufficient to confute that great Corruption of the same Church in Communicating the People only in One Kind And whatever Pretences they may offer for their so doing had they as just reason otherwise for altering the order of this Sacrament as God knows 't is plain they have not any at all yet this would still remain a perpetual Exception against it That our Saviour here expresly commands them to Do this i. e. that which himself then did in Remembrance of Him Who gave the Wine as well as Bread to his Apostles and repeated the Command after the one as well as the other and not what they should at any time after think fitting to do And these are such consequences as concern others rather than our selves who God be thanked are again delivered from all these Corruptions and have no otherwise any cause to remember them than as they serve to confirm us in our Pure and Holy Doctrine and Practice in this matter and ought to raise up our Souls to a grateful acknowledgment of God's Mercy to us who has freed us from such great and dangerous Errors and in which he still permits so many others to continue But there are yet some other Conclusions to be drawn from the foregoing Reflections and in which we may perhaps find somewhat that will be of a more near and direct concern to us For 5. If our Saviour Christ has here commanded us to Do this in Remembrance of Him that is to come to the Holy Table and receive this blessed Sacrament and make our publick and solemn Acknowledgments to him for his great Mercy in dying for us What then shall we say of those who despising this sacred Ordinance do either totally absent themselves from this Memorial or come but very seldom and negligently to it This certainly must needs be a great fault as it is evidently contrary to the express Command of our Saviour in the Text before us And if we may make any Judgment of Christ's resentment of it either from the Nature of the thing it self or from the severe Punishment God threatned unto those in the Old Testament who should neglect the like Memorial of the Paschal Feast one of the greatest Provocations any Christian can almost be guilty of If we consider the thing it self what does he who despises this Holy Sacrament and neglects to partake of it but in effect despise Christ himself and tread under foot the Blood of the Covenant by which we must be saved And how
can that Soul expect any benefit of his Death and Sufferings for his forgiveness hereafter who now will not vouchsafe so much as to make that common Acknowledgment which every Christian ought of his remembrance of it or shew any sense of his Obligation though we have here so plain and peremptory a Comâ—â—â—d to do it And if we look to the Denuntiations of the Old Testament against those who should thus neglect to joyn in the Jewish Passover and shew forth this remembrance of the deliverance which that Feast referr'd to we may I think have some cause to fear how much greater shall be our Punishment whose neglect is certainly upon many accounts much more inexcusable than theirs If any man says Moses Deut. xii 15 shall eat leavened-bread in that time that Soul shall be cut off from Israel But more expresly Numb ix 3 He that is clean and is not on a journey and forbeareth to keep the Passover even the same Soul shall be cut off from his People Whatever the meaning of that Excision be which God here threatned that People with whether it be that such a one should have no part in the World to come as some interpret it or that God would cut him off by an untimely temporal death as others Or lastly which was esteemed by them no small Curse that he should die childless and have his name put out in Israel This is certain that the Denuntiation is very severe and if the Remark of a very learned Rabbin be true almost particular to the thing in hand there being but two of all the affirmative Precepts to which God made this Denuntiation viz. to him that neglected the first Sacrament of Circumcision and this second of the Passover But perhaps it will here be said That this Commination was to those that were clean and near at hand and yet neglected this Holy Institution And therefore ought not to be applied to them with reference to the Blessed Sacrament which we are speaking of who would gladly receive it and have a very honourable remembrance in their hearts of the Death of Christ but alas either they are not clean or are in a journey either they are not prepared or have not the leisure to come to this Table 'T is true indeed God did here restrain the Judgment I have mention'd to such as were clean and at or near to Jerusalem but the rest were not therefore by any means excused and permitted to neglect the partaking of it They had time given them till the next Month to cleanse themselves and to come up to Jerusalem and if they neglected in the second Month to keep the Feast after having omitted it in the first there was then no farther Provision for them but they fell under the Curse of those who neglected altogether to eat of it And this therefore may serve for a useful Admonition as well as full Answer to the Excuses of those who are still pretending they are not worthy to come to this Sacrament or else have not time and leisure to prepare themselves for it If indeed this should chance by any accident to hinder them at this time or on this occasion from receiving of it they ought not therefore to disquiet themselves but to believe that in such a case our Saviour Christ will make the same allowance for this Feast that God did for that other and permit them yet another Month to remove the Obstacle and prepare themselves to come to his Table But if instead of doing this they shall still go on to insist upon these vain Pretences and live so as not to be worthy to receive the Holy Sacrament and continue to live so still without taking any care to put themselves into a better state this will prove an aggravation of their Sin not a lessening of it and their neglect will be but the more inexcusable for being grounded on a reason so contrary not only to the design of this Holy Sacrament but of the whole Christian Religion But Sixthly And to close all The Command of our Saviour in these words we have been so long considering will not only oblige us in the general sometimes to remember his Death by receiving this Holy Sacrament but frequently and oftentimes so to do I have before observed that the word which we here render Remembrance does not imply a bare Memorial but a renew'd Commemoration to teach us that we are often to refresh the Memory of Christ's Death in our minds by this Sacred Solemnity and to repeat again and again the Remembrance of it And though it be pretty hard to say how often a Man ought to receive the Sacrament yet 't is plain he is not so zealous a Christian as he should be that very seldom or never does it We know that in the first Ages of Christianity when Devotion was quick and vigorous and Men had the most sensible impressions upon their minds of the love of our Saviour in giving himself to die for us that then they received it ordinarily every day Insomuch that some of those Fathers who then lived have interpreted this Eucharistical Bread to be that daily Bread which our Lord has taught us to pray for Afterwards as Mens Zeal cool'd so did their frequent Communicating decay in proportion with it At first it fell in some Churches to four in others to three times in the Week and in a little while it came to be the distinctive Devotion of the Lord's days And at last the necessary least proportion established was the three great Feasts of the Year in which our Church still obliges all her Members to partake of it But as he who is in a pure and holy state can never receive it too often so certainly it is a thing than which none would more advance our Piety to labour as frequently as we can to fit our selves for it And since it has pleased God to revive something of the Primitive Zeal among us as to this particular in bringing our Solemn Communions to a monthly course besides other extraordinary occasions of it I do not see what better Exhortation I can leave with you as to this Matter than seriously to advise and earnestly beseech every one of you to examine and prepare your selves then at least to joyn with your Brethren in these Holy returns and not deprive your Souls of the Benefits which are thus graciously offered to you in this great and most useful Remembrance This will indeed both best answer the design of our Blessed Lord in the Text and be the best Application I could even wish you would make of my Discourse upon it But then I must observe that I speak now by way of Exhortation not as necessarily requiring this in Obedience to the Command before us but as the improvement I desire if it were possible you might all make of those Opportunities God is pleased here to reach out to you in order to this End and which I do