come to Church draw neer unto the holy Communion Will you so saith the Apostle No first Cleanse your hands yee sinners and purge your hearts yee double-minded As if hee should say never think of drawing neer unto God or setting foot on this holy ground and handling those holy mysteries of Christ unlesse thou first purge thy heart and cleanse thy soule from all thy filthy lusts and cursed corruptions lest otherwise thou coming in thy sinnes with thy uncleannesse on thee and so receiving unworthily thou eatest and drinkest thine owne damnation as our English translation hath it damnation to thy selfe and not to another No God forbid that thou shouldest by thy unworthy coming eate and drink condemnation to another for thou that art a child of God and comest unto the Table of the Lord with repentance and a sound measure of preparation though others that sit in the same pew with thee for their prophanesse eate and drink their own damnation yet thou shalt be sure to receive the seale and assurance of thy reconciliation and salvation with free acceptance of God through the Lord Jesus Christ for every man shall bear his owne burden Reas 4 The last Reason is in regard of the end of the Sacrament which is Christ also For as he is the efficient materiall and formall cause so Christ is also the finall cause of the Sacrament So it is in the 26. verse As oft as you eate of this Bread and drink of this Cup you shew forth the Lords death untill he come Not that Christ may be eaten with the teeth or corporally received in the Sacrament or as if he were there productively or transubstantially as the Papists say no the Apostle shewes that the end of the celebration of this Sacrament is for to shew forth the death of Christ untill he come Object I but say the Romists unlesse we eate the body and drink the blood of Christ really and not the consâ—crated bread and wine how can any man by this unworthy communicating eate and drink his own damnation and make himself guilty of the body and bloud of Christ Answ I answer a man cannot bring this guilt upon himself by eating a peece of bread or drinking a cup of wine but the Apostle hath an answer so fitted for this as that all the Papists in the world shall never be able to gainsay and therefore I pray you to mark it for he hath joyned these two verses together As oft as you eate of this bread and drink of this cup you shew forth the Lords death till hee come Wherefore whosoever eateth this bread or drinketh this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and bloud of the Lord even for this cause because it is the shewing forth of Christs death till hee come Therefore if thou eatest and drinkest unworthily comming in thy sinnes and resolvest to goe on in them that as thou wert proud before thou camest to the Sacrament so thou art still as thou wert cholerick angry and impatient before so thou art still as thou wert luke-warme and dead-hearted in Gods service before so thou remainâ—st stiâ—l remember I pray thee that as oft as thou hast come unto the communion in those thy sinnes thou hast made thy self guilty of the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ Therfore I beseech you to look to it and in time to repent and pray with the Prophet David Ps 51. Deliver me from blood-guiltinesse O Lord even from the blood of thy Sonne left one day it bee laid unto thy charge and required straitly at thy hands For for this cause many are sick among you and many weak Vse 1 Is it so then that the Lord doth so severely punish the unworthy receivers of the Sacrament Take notice I pray you then from whence commeth all sicknesse weaknesse and mortality and the reason why the Lord doth send so many kind of sorrowes crosses and miseries upon men namely because of the unworthy receiving of the Lords Supper So saith Mr. Calvin why doe you wonder to see such warres and rumours of warres that there is so many bloodsheds so many Townes and Cities ruinated and so many Countries sacked and depopulated so many calamities come upon the Churches abroad so many plagues and scourges to over-run Christendome at this day is not the cause plain enough men come unto the Table of the Lord carelesly and unworthily And beloved we shall never see the Lord take away his judgements here from the earth untill we betake our selvs to a more diligent and holy receiving of the Sacrament For this very cause there are so many strange diseases amongst us never formerly known or heard of untill these dayes as the French Pox the English Sweat as they call it that even the Physitians themselves are blunted at them and as Peter Martyr well observes hence are all diseases as plagues pestilences which were late amongst us dropsies bloody Flux Agues Apoplexies Convulsies burning Feavers and impostumes c. and all for this cause One man hath fallen into a Feaver and we wonder at the cause whence he took it but in truth the communion hath cast him into his Feaver and the Lord will avenge himself on him for the same Another is sick and he thinkes that a cold hath brought it upon him but it is the unworthy receiving of the Sacrament that is truely the cause of it A third man dieth before his time even in his full strength before in the course of nature he hath ended halfe his dayes but the cause is unworthy comming to the Communion which hath taken hold of him and cut off the thread of his life Many there be that expound these words in a spirituall sense Many are sick and weak and many are fallen asleep that is to say many have their consciences seared and their hearts hardned c. and this is true also that because men come unpreparedly they have their hearts hardened and their consciences seared and their soules plagued with many spirituall plagues But it is as true also in temporall judgements thou hast had many afflictions and much sickness laid upon thee but thank thy self for it namely because thou hast come unworthily unto the communion thou hast had much weaknesse in thy body which hath cost thee much mony and weakned thy estate but thy unholy comming unto the Sacrament is that which thou mayest thank for it Thou hast been reproached and contemned and endured much shame but take notice of it that it proceeds from the fore-going cause and that is a speciall reason why the Lord hath brought these and many other evils upon thee Thou canst say the commandements for the most part by rote but thou didst never know the mystery of this one commandement Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain Beloved the Communion is one of Gods own names and how many thousands are there in the world that take this
Minister after Minister to instruct them in the knowledge of my wayes I laboured to convert them and to bring them home unto my self and to work better thoughts in them but still they are a people that walk after their own thoughts that provoke me continually unto my face There is never a thought of thine but it is in the verse face of God both thought and imagined But some man may say I think of God and of Christ of faith and repentance and of calling on God of mending of this and that course I think of death and of my last account and every foot I have holy thoughts in my mind But beloved give me leave I pray you for to speak something unto you which it may be may stick by you while you live I will propound these foure things and distinctions unto you which I will use First what doest thou think of God and of heaven then tell me whether thy thoughts be injective thoughts into thy heart or thoughts raised by thy heart for there is a great deale of difference betweene thoughts injected and thoughts raised God casts good thoughts into a godly mans heart which being fit soyl it fructifies and brings forth fruit Again God casts good thoughts into a wicked mans heart but because his heart is not sanctified and therefore no fit soyl to harbour in they die and vanish God casts in and they cast out God casts in again and they cast out again therefore if thou hast good thoughts examine and try whether they be thoughts raised from thy heart or no see whether thy heart be a renewed heart a sanctified an holy heart fit to bring forth good thoughts every day Beloved a wicked man may have a thousand good thoughts and yet go to hell in the midst of them all God cast a good thought into the heart of the King of Babylon to go against Judah and Jerusalem for to punish his people for their sins and to avenge himself on them for the breach of his Covenant but what saith the text Reas 1 Howbeit he thought not so Isa 10. No his only ayme was how to get honour how to inrich to enlarge his territories and to bring down the Nations under him and to make his name and fame to be spread and declared through all the world So God casts many good thoughts into many a wicked mans heart to repent and to leave his drunkennesse his pride his swearing and whoring to be holy and religious howbeit he thinks not so but he thinks how to eate and drink how to be proud and haughty how to be rich and great in the world how to be vain and licentious yea thy thoughts are vile and vain all the day long Oh that men were wise truly to understand this the want whereof is the cause why many thousands go to hell and are damned for ever I will make it plain to you A wicked man reasons thus with himself I confesse and it is true I sinne every day against God and sometimes drink a pot with my friend though sometimes I let fall an oath and am overtaken in my infirmities yet I thank God he hath sanctified my heart for I think of God and of Christ and I oft call upon his name and let my thoughts run on good things God and heaven are many times in my mind and I am sorry when I do amisse and the Lord hath blest me with a large portion of outward things Besides I see these and these signes of grace in me and therefore I think my case to be happy And thus securely they live and so they go on and so they die and so go to hell and perish for ever and ever Here is the misery of it many think of God and of Christ of death and of their last account of heaven of hell of faith and repentance of leaving sinne of crucifying their lusts and practising of holinesse Now men think that their thinking of these things is a part of their discharge when indeed they are Additions to and peeces of their talents which increase their judgements God casts in a thought of repentance of holinesse of the remembrance of death and last account Dost thou find thy heart never the better and holier by them Then know it is only Gods haunting of thy heart and Gods calling upon thee and Gods inviting thee unto repentance to leave thy sinnes to come out of thy deadnesse and formality to prepare for thy death and judgment and therefore I say if thy heart now think not so if thy heart do not repent beleeve and grow more zealous and thou art not drawn the neerer to God I say then that the more of these good thoughts that thou hast had the greater thy doome will be if thou hast had ten thousands of them if they have beene onely Gods haunting of thy heart think thou then now of grace of God of thy poor soul which is not bettered by them nor made holy then know they are peeces of thy talent and it doth make thy torments in hell the greater Secondly thou hast good thoughts but the question is whether they be fleeting or abiding thoughts Many think of God of grace of heaven of the word of God and when they heare a Sermon they will think of God but these thoughts though they come into their minds yet they go away presently they are in and out at an instant in a trice they passe away and are gone Beloved there are two kinds of vaine thoughts 1. vaine because the substance and matter of them is vain and so all worldly thoughts are vain 2. or else for their want of durance and lasting and so are all thoughts of heaven of God and grace and of Christ it they vanish away they are all vain thoughts though they seeme otherwise Haer what God saith Gen. 6.5 God saw that the wickednesse of man was great upon the earth and all the imaginations of the thoughts of his heart were only evill continually all the imaginations great is the emphasis of this word all all the thoughts yea all universally are only evill continually But you will say unto me Doth not a wicked man think that there is a God why that is a good thought doth he not think that this God is to be observed and worshipped why this is a good thought doth he not think that sin is to be forsaken that is a good thought doth he not think of heaven and of Christ how then are their thoughts only evill and that continually I answer because all the thoughts of a wicked mans heart are vaine that is vanishing thoughts not vaine for the matter which sometimes may be good and holy but vaine because they soone vanish away thoughts that come and tarry not that leave no impression in their hearts behind them these are all vaine thoughts according to that of the Apostle The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise that they are vaine 1 Cor.
house as you walk abroad in the fields as you are employed in your callings or about any holy duty God seeth all thy thoughts what is going in and what is comming out there is never a thought in thy heart but God sees it how then can thoughts be free God will weigh the thoughts of men Prov. 16.2 Beloved what a fearfull day will that hee when God shall take his Scales and weigh no mans bodies and estates for then it may bee that rich men and fat and grosse men will out-weigh them that are better but he will take mens thoughts and weigh them hee will weigh their soules he will take mens good thoughts and put them into one scale and their bad earthly carnall and unprofitable thoughts into another scale and to try which weighes heaviest Now if thy earthly and sinfull thoughts weigh heaviest then down thou goest into eternall damnation Secondly as thoughts are not free from Gods knowledge so are they not free from Gods Word for Gods word can meet with them for it is lively and mighty in operation and is a descerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart Hebr 4.12 Doth the word of God discern the thoughts of mens hearts Then much more doth the God of this Word and therefore how can thoughts be free Thirdly and lastly they are not free from the condemnation of hell and damnation I am hee saith God that searcheth the hearts and reins and I wil give to every one of you according to his works or as some translations have it according to your thoughts Rev. 3.23 Now if God will so severely punish thoughts take heed then how thou tetainest any evill thoughts I should here give you some means in the use that so you might rid your selves from vain thoughts Means 1 First love the word of God if ever thou wilt come out of them prize the truth of God and labour to get thy mind and thoughts to beâ— set on better things and then the thoughts of the world and all vain things will vanish away This course the Prophet David took Psal 119.113 I hate vain thoughts but thy Law do I love How came it to passe that he hated vain thoughts namely by loving Gods Law if he had not loved Gods Law and those excellent things therein and set his heart on them hee could never have hated vain thoughts The way then to break of thy league with vain thoughts is to be in league with good thoughts Dost thou complain of vain thoughts in prayer in hearing the word in receiving of the Sacraments and art thou stuffed and filled with them that thou canst not think upon God and holy things thou dost here by bewray thine own rottennesse and corruption And therefore know that if thou lovest the Lord and his Word and didst set thy thoughts upon him thou wouldst never have them so much employed about such base things Secondly if ever thou wouldst rid thy heart of vain thoughts especially when thou art in holy action thou must goe unto God by prayer there is no greater bridle to restrain a man from vain thoughts then this consideration that hee is to goe to God I speak not this to the men of this world Carnall men who can rush into Gods presence hand over head without any fear or reverence they can set upon any duty without any preparation but I speak it to the godly man whose heart dreads and stands in awe of God Wilt thou let thy mind rove and run all the day on worldly things how then wilt thou call upon God Dost thou not know that this is the cause of thy dulnesse thy deadnes and wandrings of thy heart when thou art about any good duty namely because thou sufferest thy heart to be lashing out and roving abroad on the world all day no marvell if it keep his haunt at night and therefore thy heart being vain God will never hear thy prayer Job 35.13 God will never bear vanity Comest thou to God with a vain prayer God will never hear it Comest thou with a vain eare to the hearing of the Word God will never hear it or with a vain heart to the Sacrament God will not regard it Lay this seriously to thy heart if ever thou wouldst have thy heart to the duty thou art about busie thy mind upon good things for if thy heart be accustomed to vain and worldly things all the day it is no marvell if it returne to its haunt again at night Thirdly consider that you have not so learned Christ It is the Apostles argument Ephes 3. consider then what you have learned of Christ hath Christ taught you so hath Christ taught you such a love and given you such a liberty that you should love the world more then him and imploy and bestow all your thoughts wholly in seeking after vain things Hath Christ taught you such a faith as this Hath Christ taught you such a repentance as this to have your thoughts more upon the world then upon Christ to repent of sin and yet never forsake sinne Have ye so learned Christ Hath he not taught you such a faith as purifieth the heart such a sanctification as cleanseth the soul and the minde such an obedience as bringeth every thought into subjection unto himself Therefore if now thou shouldst still retain thy vain dead earthly and carnall thoughts it is not to learn Christ Christ teacheth thee no such doctrine nor giveth thee any such licentious libertie but thou learnest of the Devill and of thine owne heart for all evill and vain thoughts arise from these three heads First from the variety and abundance of the thoughts of the world which our Saviour calls the cares of this world Seconly from the fountaine of corruption in mans heart the heart of man being alwayes like a sink naturally running with filthinesse or like a living quickset alwayes bearing so is it with the heart of man alwayes imagining vain thoughts Thirdly from the damned malice of the Devill and his fearfull suggestions and temptations both within and without the Devill is fitly called a tempter and trier for by these suggestions and temptations he feels and tries mens hearts and thereby knowing to what they are most inclined and which way they are soonest overcome accordingly he fits his temptations for to intrap them Now these thoughts are infinitely variable according to the constitution place quality passions affections and conditions of men as of the poor man in his beggery of the rich man in his abundance of the Minister in his calling of the Magistrate in his and so of all other men Now the whole world is not able to fill the heart how then shall we number the thoughts of it But for the better understanding we will rank them into these four heads to show how thoughts become vain 1. Materially mens thoughts are vain when the matter of them is vain 2. Formally when though for the matter they are never
as if thy own hand in thy own person had been imbrued in his bloud Now we know it is a horrible sin to be guilty of the bloud and murther of an ordinary man yea of a very rogue how much more is it a great and fearfull sin to be guilty of the body and bloud of the Lord Iesus Christ the onely and etrnall Son of God yet comest thou to this holy Communion and bringest no lesse then the guilt of the body and bloud of Christ upon thy soule Reas 3 The third Reason is taken from the wofull wrong and injury that man brings upon his own soule that comes unpreparedly without examination of himself in the 20. verse he eateth and drinketh his own damnation that is he maketh him selfe guilty of and liable to the same vengeance that the crucifiers of Christ had inflicted on them Good had it been for that man saith Christ of Judas if that he had never been born So may I say Good had it been for that man and that woman if they had never been born who come unworthily unto rhe Table of the Lord for when they eat of that Bread they eate their owne bane and when they drink of that Cup they drink their own damnation Vse 1 Then cometh he to make some uses of this point and first he condemns those that as they come so they goe away from the Sacrament no more holy no more gracious then before but as they come in their sins so they goe away in their sins they came drunkards and they goe away drunkards they came worldlings and they goe away worldlings they came mockers and they goe away mockers they came in theit wrath anger malice deadnesse hypocrisie and luke-warmnesse and so they go away still never the better but living in them as they did before As in the 17. verse You come together saith the Apostle not for the better but for the worse Whereas if they would have come worthily they should have gone away the better they should have received more grace and holinesse â—o walk with God more power and strength against sin and corruption yea the Lord would have ratified and confirmed his Covenant with them whereas living in contention and not coming with preparation they grow the worse by the Sacrament The Corinthians thought that the Apostle would have praised them for their coming to Church and receiving the Sacrament Shall I praise you in this saith the Apostle I praise you not Vse 2 Secondly He makes an use of terror against all those that dare come in their sinnes unto this holy Sacrament of the Lord for that man that commeth in his sinnes unto the Table of the Lord 1. though he may think he receives the communion yet he doth not for this is not the Table of the Lord but the Table of Devils It is true thou receivest the Sacrament of the body and bloud of Christ hut yet comming in thy sinnes thou receivest not his body and bloud as of a Saviour to save thee from thy sinnes Indeed thou receivest the body and bloud of Christ sacramentally but it is as the Iudge to condemne thee unto the pit of destruction for thy damned Impudency in coming so unworthily unto this holy Sacrament For that man cannot eate the body of Christ that is not a member of Christ therefore thou must be a limbe of Christ if ever thou wilt receive worthily 2. If a man come unto the Sacrament and come in his sinnes he cometh to his own destruction for though it be a sweet banquet for to refresh an humble and weary soule and to make it walk more cheerfully in the wayes of God all the dayes of his life yet he that commeth unto it in his sinnes and receiveth it in his uncleannesse speedeth thereby his own damnation and receiveth it as his viaticum to hell The Apostle compares Baptisme to the red Sea 1. Cor. 10. from which place Chrysostome saith that as the red Sea was a way for the Israelites to passe through to Canaan so it was as a grave to swallow up the Egyptians to their destruction So the Lords Supper is as a grave or open pit whereby many plunge themselves into eternall destruction but as a chariot to the godly to carry them to heaven Vse 3 Thirdly by comming in thy sinnes thou makest thy self liable to Gods temporary plagues and judgements as appeares in my Text For this cause many are sick and weak among you and many are fallen asleep For this cause which is not oneâ—y a note of conclusion but of the cause For this cause namely because they examine not themselves but come in their sinnes and receive it unworthily One man hath a disease in his body that he liveth not out halfe his dayes another sick and weak neer unto death a third is fallen asleep Wherefore why saith the Apostle for this cause of receiving unworthily the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Vse 4 Fourthly for instruction that because the people of God as well as wicked men are guilty of unworthy comming to the Lords Table therefore he exhorts them that if they would not have the Lord judge them that they would judge themselves as in the 31. verse For if wee would judge ourselves we should not be judged of the Lord. If we would sit down and search our own hearts and trie our own spirits and pry into our bosomes and out with our old corruptions and unclean lusts and enter into a new covenant with God of holy walking before him for after time if we would thus judge and condemne our selves and mortifie our sinnes comming with grace unâ—o this holy banquet then we might come with comfort unto this blessed Sacrament assuring our selves that wee shall escape the judgment of the Lord. For those of the Corinthians whom God struck with sicknesse weaknesse and death it was to instruct others that are well and in health that they venture not to enter upon these holy mysteries with unholy hearts and unclean hands Vse 5 Fifthly he concludeth with a use of exhortation in the 33. and 34. verses Wherefore brethren when ye come together to partake of the holy Communion tarry one for another As if he should have said Away with all your disorders and come not with a temporall but with a spiritual appetite provide not thy teeth but thy heart for these dainties for this is not a feast for the body but for the soul therfore away with all your disorders and unseemly coming unto thiâ— blessed Sacrament take heed and repent of this sin among you and of all other sins which you know your own consciences to be guilty of and so come unto this holy communion Now the verse that I have read to you is a part of that use of terror which the Apostle makes against the unworthy receivers of the Sacrament and it contains Gods severe hand and judgment against those that come unworthily wherein note three things First the cause of their