that loves us as he doth his own Life and our most noble Benefactor who has so infinitely obliged us and done such Kindnesses for us as we are not able to express He is our true Friend who espouses our Interests as his own and is sensible of all our Wants and pained in all our Afflictions and rejoyces in all our Joys and seeks to make us share in his own Happiness and would part with any thing he has to please us nay give his own Hearts Blood in any Case which were worth the while to do us a Kindness He is our most noble Benefactor who has done us such Kindnesses as are beyond all Expressions having procured for us the Favour of God the Help of the Spirit and the assured Hope of Eternal Happiness when all these seemed irrevocably lost and no ways attainable by us and when he could not gain them at a less Rate than by laying down his own Life for the Purchase And these are Endearments which pass all Imagination they are such Arguments to a reciprocal Love and Kindness as cannot be withstood by any Man So that having received all this Love from him we musts needs return the small Tribute of Love to him again or else we should be the unworthiest of any Persons living And this is one Temper which is necessary to a worthy Remembrance of so kind a Friend and so noble a Benefactor as we have of our Blessed Saviour We must love the Thoughts of him and be most kindly affected towards him or else we shall shew our selves utterly unworthy of him 2 ly We must Remember him our most Noble Benefactor and the Favours he has done us with Joy and Gladness This is a Temper very necessary in us when we would worthily Commemorate the Receipt of Benefits For when we rejoyce in them we shew what Rate we put upon them and how much we are pleased in them and how happy we think our selves in that Love which bestowed them on us And this will make the Person that conferred them think them well placed and please himself in what he has done concluding that we who are so sensible of a Kindness when 't is shewed us are worthy to receive one And therefore the Scripture calls all good Men who have received most â—nvaluable Benefits to Joy and 〈◊〉 Reâ—oyce in the Lord O ye Righteous 〈◊〉 the Psalmist for Praise is comely for the Vpright Psal. 33.1 And this we all ought to shew when we Commemorate those Blessings which our Blessed Saviour has conferred upon us He has got all those things for us which our Hearts can wish no less than the pure and perfect Joys of Heaven and Eternal Happiness and these he has taken the hardest Pains and been at the greatest Cost to compass laying down his own Life for them rather than he would suffer us to go without them And this we ought not at any time to think of without Joy and Gladness When we reflect upon so great Love and such inestimable Benefits 't is most fit and reasonable we rejoyce over them that thereby we may shew forth how happy we think our selves in them And our Blessed Lord may well think he threw them away upon us and repent that ever he bestowed or took such pains for them if after all he sees us insensible of what is done and still as cold and unaffected as if we had received nothing So that if we would worthily Commemorate the Receipt of so great Happiness we must do it with joyful Hearts and chearful Looks and an open shew of Gladness as we are told the Disciples did in the first Days who as St. Luke says continued daily in the Temple and breaking Bread eating it with Gladness of Heart Act. 2.46 3 ly We must Remember him our most Noble Benefactor with grateful Resentments and hearty Thanks for all his Kindnesses particularly for that of his Dying for us In Thankfulness are implied two things 1 st A grateful Acknowledgment of the Gift and a Praising him that gave it 2 ly A Readiness and Endeavour according to our Power to requite it It implies a grateful Acknowledgment of the Gift and a Praising of him that gave it For when we receive an undeserved Benefit it is very fit that we let the Donor know we are sensible of it and understand very well both our own Happiness in receiving and his Kindness in bestowing it We must give him the Praise of his Beneficence and express a Sense of our own Obligations For if we fail in this we shew either that we contemn his Gift and set no value on it or that we think it onely a Tribute to our own Desert so as that we are not beholding to him for it or that we would be independent and are too proud to be obliged by it all which had they been known to him before-hand would have made him and all men judge us most unworthy to receive it It implies also a Readiness and Endeavour according to our Power to requite it For Love should engage Love and the Kindnesses which are done us oblige us upon all Opportunities to do the same again To encourage Benefits and bestowing Favours we ought to take care that they who gave them never have any just cause to repent of them and to let them see that if we had the Power and Opportunity we would do as much for them For Kindnesses should be a sort of Loans which upon any fit occasion are to be repaid back to him who shewed them that so all Men may be encouraged to abound in them and never be hindred by a fear lest afterwards they should be offended with themselves for having bestowed them And if any Man is either so stupid or so proud that he will take no notice of them nor endeavour afterwards to requite them by the consent of all he is unfit to be dealt with in this generous way of Love and is utterly unworthy to receive them Thus doth Thankfulness imply both an affectionate Acknowledgment of the Gift and Praising him that gave it and also a Readiness and Endeavour according to our Power to requite it And this we owe in the highest Measure to our Saviour Christ and must be sure always to pay him when we Commemorate the inestimable Benefits which we have received from him We must not remember the great Things he has done for us in delivering us from Eternal Death and gaining us the Favour of God and the Joys of Heaven when it cost him no less than his own Hearts Blood for the Purchase without affectionate Resentments and Mouths full of Praise and a fixt Readiness and Resolution of Mind to make what small requital we are able in our Zeal for his Service and our Kindness to his Brethren whom he looks on as his own Members resenting any Good that is done to them as if it were done to himself Mat. 25.40 And this Duty of Thankfulness is a most especial
that so he may be a worthy and welcome Guest in it and all of them This Repentance will restore him to the Favour of God and gain him acceptance with him and then he is fit for this and for every other part of Gods Worship and may worthily joyn in them And by this it appears who is unworthy of this Feast and what he must do to fit and prepare himself for it Every man that is Impenitent is an Unworthy Communicant but if he will Repent and Amend his ways he will find no difficulty in other Duties which make up a Believers worthiness but may then be a worthy and welcome Guest whensoever he has a mind to come to it And thus I have done with the Second thing I proposed namely to shew wherein lies the worthiness of Eating and Drinking at this Feast which I have stayed the longer upon because both the irreverent approach of some men to it and the scrupulous abstaining of others from it do both take rise from this head so that it well deserves to be carefully Explained and clearly Stated And the Result of all that I have said upon this Point is this When we come to Eat Bread and Drink Wine at the Lords Table in remembrance that Christ dyed for us and in Confirmation of the New Covenant which his Death procured us and in Ratification of a League of Love and Friendship with all our Neighbours we must be careful devoutly to Exercise and Act over these Tempers We must remember our Dying Lord with Honour and Love and Joy and Thankfulness and Resignation of our selves both Souls and Bodies to his Service and humble Sense of our own unworthiness and Detestation of our Sins which caused his Sufferings We must confirm the New Covenant which his Death purchased in consenting heartily to the Terms of it Repenting of all our Sins and Faithfully promising that intire Obedience which is required in it and then Believing that for Christs sake we shall be saved by it And we must Confirm a League of Love and Friendship with all the Christian World in laying aside all Envy and Hatred and forgiving those that have injured us and making just amends to those who have been wronged by us and giving Alms as our Ability and our Brethrens necessity requires and so being in Peace and Perfect Charity with all Persons If we are able to grasp so many particulars in our minds and to act them all over duly and as we ought at this Exercise it may be fit to Solemnize this Feast in all these instances of Virtue But if either our minds would be lost and burdened or our Devotions enfeebled by the Number of these particulars 't will yet be fit at least to express our selves Joyfully and affectionately Thankful for his kindness especially in Dying for us and Resign up our selves both Souls and Bodies to his Service and Repent of all our Sins making him Faithful Promises that we will amend all our Faults particularly those which oftest win upon us and shew our selves in perfect Peace and Charity with all Persons All these whilst the Bread and Wine are in preparing or whilst others are Communicating they who have Books to suggest Thoughts or are able to supply them out of their own minds may exercise by themselves And they who cannot as also they who can may exercise them in joyning fervently with the Churches Prayers all these Duties as we have seen being so well led on and exemplified in the Communion Service Wherein because there will be some interruption whilst others are Communicating that that time may not lye idle upon their hands I think it very adviseable for them to joyn heartily in the Prayer which is made at the offering of the Bread and Wine to their Brethren as they will be sure to do when it comes to their own turn if their Devout Zeal is not otherwise taken up by the Psalm which at their Pastors Discretion is wont to be Sung at that time for the employment of those who have done Receiving These Virtues being in us and at the time of Receiving being thus exercised by us both in our own private or at least in our Devout Concurrence with the Churches Prayers make a worthy Communion And this no man who pretends to Religion ought to Complain of or think an hard Imposition For all these Duties which are necessary to a worthy Communion are as necessary to make every one of us a Good man or fit to Dye or to go to Heaven they are as necessary to a worthy Prayer Thanksgiving Vow or any other Act of true Religion and are not necessarily required in more intense Degrees and transporting Measures in this than in other parts of Worship and Devotion These things then are necessary to a worthy Receiving and no Good man can complain that they are so since they are equally necessary to all acceptable Goodness to all comfortable Hopes and to every other Ordinance to all the parts of Worship and Religion and to Gods being pleased with us in every thing that is either the Duty or Priviledge of a Christian. And as the Presence and Exercise of these Virtues makes us worthy of the Communion so doth the absence of them but especially of Repentance of all our known Sins which is the thing if any that will be wanting and which is the cause why others are Impenitence as we saw being at the bottom of all Unworthiness make us unworthy and most unwelcome If we continue Impenitent in many or in any one known Sin we are indeed unworthy to Communicate but then withall we are as unworthy to be thought Good men to go to Heaven to say our Prayers to make Vows or to have any Dealings with God in any other Actions of Religion And the way for any Wise man in that Case is not to take up with abstaining from the Communion for he ought as much to abstain from Prayer and Praise and every other Office of a Christian God being pleased with him in none of them but forthwith to Repent and Abandon such ill Course that so he may be a welcome Guest and worthy to partake of them And thus having endeavoured to give some help to all those who desire worthily to Communicate by shewing what is the meaning of Eating Bread and Drinking Wine in the Blessed Sacrament and wherein lies the worthiness of doing it I shall proceed now in the third Place to exhort and press men on to it by shewing them how much it is every good Christians Duty to frequent it and how great the Benefits are that come by it which should make them seek to it of themselves were it not commanded of which in the next Part. PART II. CHAP. I. Of the Duty of Communicating The Contents To Communicate is a Duty incumbent on us as appears 1. From the obliging import of the Command about it This Command of Christ shewn and several Notes added which greatly recommend and
Numerous Expensive and Laborious Jewish Precepts so that out of Natural Equity and to shew our Thankfulness for such a gainful Exchange we ought most readily to observe it The Jews were loaded with a Number of Troublesome and Expensive Rites which had no Goodness discernable in themselves nor any thing but the Revelation made by Moses to recommend them to their Consciences Such as the forbearing Swine and several sorts of Flesh the washing of their Bodies upon their touching of any Dead Persons and upon any Corporal Vncleannesses the bringing Offerings and Sacrifice of Fed Beasts at return of Thanks and for Propitiation upon any Offences and many other cumbersome and costly Rites which the Apostle calls the Law of Carnal Commandments Heb. 7.16 and 9.10 and weak and beggerly Elements Gal. 4.9 which were given them not because the things deserv'd it but only that they might be kept imploy'd as useless Exercises are to Children to hinder them from more hurtful Work and so were suited only to the Infancy and Non-age of the World Gal. 4.3 But from all this Burden of Ceremonies under which as St. Peter says they and their Fathers groaned and were oppressed Act. 15.10 by the coming of Christ we are most graciously delivered For he has abolish'd in his Flesh i. e. by his Death wherein he gave his Body for us the Law of Commandments contain'd in Ordinances Eph. 2.15 He has blotted out the hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us hedging in the Church within the Jews and excluding all us Gentiles and took it out of the way nailing it to his Cross Col. 2.14 All this Law of Jewish Ceremonies he has abrogated and procured us a compleat liberty and exemption from it injoining us only thâ—se two cheap and easie Rites of Baptism and the Lords Supper instead of it And if any man has but Common Ingenuity and will return Equitably for what is done and much more if he has any grateful Resentments for so valuable an Exemption he must needs submit with all Thankfulness to this gainful Exchange and Imposition and run to it with as much forwardness as any man would to pay Twelve pence in full Discharge of twenty pound 3 ly It was his Dying and last Command he gave it the very Night before he suffered The same night says St. Paul in which he was betray'd he took Bread and said Take eat this do in remembrance of me 1 Cor. 11.23 24. And this had it come only in the Nature of a Request and not with the Authority of a Command must needs have made it of greatest Power with us For it is great Inhumanity and shews an hard Heart to deny the last Suit of a Dying Person though he were a Stranger to us and base Ingratitude and a Falsification of all Friendship to throw back the last Request of a Dying Friend especially if he is before hand with us and has done much more than his Request comes to for our sakes and the greatest aggravation of all Disobedience to sleight the last Will and Words of our Fathers or Masters or others that have Right over us and Power to Command us And therefore since our Blessed Lord who came upon Earth for no other end but to do us Service yea even to lay down his Life for our sakes after all the Pains and Cost he has been at for us left this as his last Will and both intreated and injoyn'd at parting that we should eat and drink in Remembrance of him if we have any shame we cannot and if we profess any Duty we dare not and if we have any Love for him we will not neglect it but come to it out of mindfulness of our gone Friend and Departed Lord as oft as we shall have opportunity so to do 4 ly It was thought by Christ a Command so material that when St. Paul received his Commission to Preach the Gospel it was by name inserted and particularly specified and this special Designation of it shews that he was more than ordinarily concerned for it I have received of the Lord says he or by his Revelation when I was call'd by him that which I also delivered unto you as from him namely that the same night he was betrayed he took Bread and said Take eat this is my Body which is broken for you this do in remembrance of me 1 Cor. 11.23 24. 5 ly It is a Command which as the Scripture plainly intimates without great danger to our selves cannot either be unworthily kept or neglected Without very great and apparent danger to our selves we cannot come Vnworthily to the Sacrament For he that eats and drinks unworthily says St. Paul eats and drinks Damnation to himself 1 Cor. 11.29 And without a like danger we cannot neglect or keep back from it Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man says our Saviour and drink his Blood ye have no Life in you Joh. 6.53 This the Ancient Church as is well known understood generally of eating his Flesh in the Holy Sacrament which is the great Reason they give for that Practice so common among them namely why Infants are to be Communicated And of this there is great cause to understand it For 't is hard to think of any thing that can support such full Expressions as eating of his Body and drinking of his Blood besides eating Bread and drinking Wine in the Sacrament which he calls his Body and his Blood when he institutes it Mat. 26.26 27 28. And besides in this very place he directs us to his Body Crucified and given for the Life of the World to shew the Eating relates to it as so represented which is no where done but in the Eucharist I am the living Bread says he which whoso eats shall live for ever and the Bread which I will give i. e. to be eaten is my Body Crucified which under that Notion is represented only in the Sacrament or my Flesh which I will give for the Life of the World And except ye thus eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of the Son of Man ye have no Life in you Joh. 6.51 52 53. This Discourse indeed of eating his Flesh in the Sacrament was before the Sacrament it self was instituted But so was his Discourse of Baptism to Nicodemus before Baptism was appointed for the standing Rite whereby all Mankind should be Christned Joh. 3.5 And so was his Discourse to the People of the Death he should dye by being lifted up before he was Crucified Joh. 12.32 33. And so was his Discourse of raising up the Temple of his Body after it should be destroyed before he was raised from the dead Joh. 2.19.21 And so in this very place was his Discourse of giving his Flesh for the Life of the World which they understood not before he suffered more than they did this Sacramental eating of it before the Sacrament was appointed Joh. 6.51 Our Saviour spake several
wherein he is to be remembred 1 Cor. 11.24 And so 't is also in St. Luke where the Words are Peremptory for the Apostles administring and so answerably for the Peoples receiving it without any intimation of the eating it self being indifferent and uncommanded which that Evangelist would not so unwarily have expressed if Christ had so intended it And our Lord shew'd us not only that he has commanded this Sacramental eating but that he has commanded it as a necessary thing when he tells his Hearers that except they thus eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of the Son of Man they have no Life in them Joh. 6.53 And this necessity of it is further manifested from the necessity of the Passover among the Jews which answered to it for at every Return of it they were to be cut off from Israel whosoever presumed to omit it Exod. 12.15 And if there were no express Command for it yet are the things we are call'd to in it all of that obliging Nature and such necessary Duties that without Sin they cannot be declined By all which as we have seen this Sacramental eating and drinking is evidently proved to be a plain Duty and under a peremptory Commandment When therefore in this place the Apostle says of our drinking of the Cup Do this as often as ye drink it he doth not intimate that we may do it as seldome as we please or as if it were under no Law or express Precept He uses the words as often not because 't is an Arbitrary Act and there is no Duty in it but because though it be a Duty we have not always opportunity for it and so cannot always be performing it For as has been shewn there is a Command to Communicate and that as all other Affirmative Laws binds us to it at all times when a fit occasion is offer'd When we eat and drink in the Sacrament we must remember Christ and when we have an opportunity to eat and drink in it we are obliged to it as the Jews we saw were to the Passover which answered to it who were to be cut off from Israel when at any time they omitted it So that to Communicate is no Arbitrary Act but an indispensable Duty and peremptory Command still And since it is thus necessary a Duty in every grown Christian to come to the Holy Sacrament it must needs be a great and dangerous Sin in any of us when we neglect and abstain from it We must not think it an indifferent thing but make Conscience of keeping off from the Holy Communion as we do of keeping off from Prayers of Swearing doing Wrong being Proud Incontinent or Drunken For it is expresly and straitly forbidden by God as well as they and we incur his Anger and till we repent and do so no more cannot regain his Favour when we are guilty of any of them A neglect of the Lords Table therefore is a Sin which although God may excuse in those good Souls who because of their over-high Veneration for it and Fear of their own Vnworthiness to partake in it in the honesty of their Hearts think they ought not to come to it Yet will he not excuse in them when they are better inform'd and much less in others who neglect it because they are careless of it or too Wicked and Impenitent to receive it He may excuse it I say in those Good Souls who in the honesty of their Hearts through Ignorance or Error were held back and because of their over-high Veneration for it and fear of their Vnworthiness to partake in it thought they ought not to come to it An innocent Ignorance or mistake of an honest mind may plead our excuse before God in this as well as in other Duties For in all of them Christ has such a Sense of our Infirmities as that he can have Compassion on the Ignorant and those that err or are out of the way Heb. 5.2 So that if after an upright indeavour to be rightly inform'd in it some Good Minds shall happen to mistake their Error will not be imputed It may be through the loose Discourses of some or the general Practice of the World who by being so seldom at it seem to set lightly by it they think themselves not obliged to it Or again through the extream Rigidness of the Discourses of others who require such extraordinary things to it as very few have attain'd they think themselves always unworthy and unprepared for it and that they should sin and eat their own Damnation in it But if they fall into these mistakes about it which make them abstain from it after an honest indeavour to be rightly inform'd about it their Ignorance may plead their Excuse and make their Neglect to be connived at God will not account it to them as a sin because they knew it not but were mistaken For in this as well as in all other Cases to him that knows to do Good and doth it not to him 't is Sin Jam. 4.17 But though God may bear with this neglect of the Sacrament in Good men whilst they are thus innocently misled Yet will he not excuse it in them when they are better inform'd and much less in others who neglect it because they are careless of it or too Impenitent to receive it He will not excuse it even in them when they are better informed Their only plea for their not doing of this Duty is that after the best search they could make they did not know they were bound to it or that with safety they could perform it and when once their Understanding is inlightned this plea is removed so that afterwards they can find no relief at all from it They abstain then when they know if they are truly Penitent they might and ought to come and that abstinence is wilful and unless they repent of it and amend it will end in their Condemnation For to him that knoweth to do Good and doth it not to him 't is Sin Jam. 5.17 And much less will he excuse it in others who are careless of it and too Impenitent to receive it If they are hindred from the Lords Table out of Slothfulness or are unworthy of it by Reason of their Impenitence those are not their Excuse but their own Damning Fault and they must expect to bear the punishment of it To tell God I did not come to the Sacrament because I would not Repent is to tell him I would not come and promise to be Good because I was resolved to continue Wicked and that is a very odd way of excusing it Impenitence is no excuse but a most damning Sin and therefore if we have no other cause to give why we did not come we must needs be liable to Condemnation If any of you therefore who shall peruse this Treatise have refused Gods invitation formerly and have kept back from this Feast by what I have here said you may see your Fault and
case of lighter Losses and Indignities it equally obliges us in Trust for others as in our own Business Where 't is no Duty indeed and a Suit is not a Sin but only a Defect and Diminution as it is in the Case of greater injuries there is a Difference and tho it were commendable still to refrain in our own Case yet 't is not in theirs In the former Instances to forbear is a necessary point having an express Precept for it and necessary things may be done for them by those that represent them without their own consent and approbation But in these Cases where 't is no sin to forbear is no necessary Duty but a voluntary Act And it is no part of our Trust to perform voluntary heights and unrequired Generosities at their cost but if ever these be done they must be left to themselves when by making it a matter of their own choice they themselves may have the Virtue and the Reward of it So far then as the putting up an injury without a Suit is no Strict Duty but only a Free-will Offering and a Voluntary Act it must not be done in their Case tho in our own it were much to be commended But when Patience is a Duty and Suits are sinful whether it be their concern or ours it matters not for both are equal We must be faithful to our Lord and observe the Duties of Patience Peace Forgiveness and all other Laws of God in acting for others as well as for our selves so that when there is no justifiable Ground of Suit we must abstain from it whether it be for Publick or for Private ends whether our Charge or we that are concerned in it And this I have noted for the use of those who I think are greatly out in this point For there are several that would or at least pretend thy would bear much in their own Business who will bear nothing at all and yet think they are not litigious in commencing Suits for every trifle when they are in Trust for others But as some Suits are thus unlawful because they are upon an unjustifiable Ground so when the Grounds are good are others unlawful 2. Because they are carried on by a sinful management A Suit at Law is a very dangerous state and has strong Temptations to several sins accompanying it And if when there is just Cause for it any of these are incurr'd in the management it is our Sin still and we shall be put to answer for it To shew what these are and when Suits are unlawful upon this account I observe that when we have an Action against any Man we must for all that look upon him as our Neighbour and love him as our selves paying him all that Justice Peace and Charity which is due to all Persons And this is hard to do when Men persue any controversies wherein their Interest is concerned especially when they are Publick and if they do not succeed the Eyes of the World look on to see them worsted as it is in Law-Suits For then Conquest is the end that is ordinarily sought and in prosecution of that Mens Passions generally are ingaged and both these are opposite to the Love of others and seek only to please our selves and so push us on to transgress this great Law of Charity in several instances For where Conquest is the end there is much Emulation and Strife to gain it and where Envy or Emulation and Strife is saith St. James there is confusion and every evil work Jam. 3.16 And where Passion is high and Anger is once moved there a Law of Love is not like to be observed for as the same Apostle says the Wrath of Man worketh not the Righteousness of God Jam. 1.20 And since Law-Suits generally have both these attending them they do too often lead the Litigants God knows into many breaches of Justice Peace and Charity towards each other particularly into these following If their Cause is bad they use delays to tire out their Adversaries they feign Pleas to gain time for themselves and insist upon Punctiliâ—s in his Proceedings wholly forreign to the merits of the Cause to make him begin all afresh and hunt out all Reserves of Law to prolong the Suit and suspend the Sentence And this besides its being most opposite to Love and Brotherly-kindness and being a course most uncharitable and vexatious is also a most unjust thing being a doing wrong as far as in them lies and endeavouring what they can to put an hindrance and stop to Justice And whether it be good or bad they generally incur many Sins in pursuit of it and fall into sundry instances of Injustice and Vncharitableness to succeed in it They have a longing desire to overcome and to have the Verdict pass for them be it right or wrong which is coveting other Mens Goods against the Law of the Tenth Commandment Exod. 20.17 And this disposes them to Judge all in Favor of their own Right and to fret and murmur when they have lost the Verdict and to suspect if not complain of Injustice in the Judge and Jury who were concerned in it against the plain Duty of Patience Reverence to Governours and meek submission under Judgment They watch their opportunity to take Advantage of their Adversaries over-sight or to bring the Tryal on at a time when he doth not expect or is unprepared for it which is not only against the great Law of Charity that as St. Paul saith seeks not her own at others Mens hurt 1 Cor. 13.5 but also against Justice which forbids Defrauding or going beyond our Brother in any matter when we can Over-reach and Out-wit him in it 1 Thess. 4.6 They suggest False Pleas or supply Circumstances out of their own Heads in favour of their Cause and when a little more would do it stretch beyond the Truth to ech out an Evidence and make the matter fall to serve their purpose which is clearly against the Duty of Simplicity and speaking the plain Truth with our Neighbour They have an inward hatred against their Adversaries which makes them envious when any good especially in the Process of the Cause befalls them and glad when any ill has happen'd to them and apt to surmise ill things of them and defame them as often as they can find a fit occasion and to watch all opportunities of being Revenged on them and to burst out into Anger and exasperating Carriage Strife and Variance Clamour and bitter Words against them upon any the least Provocation all which are directly contrary to the Great Duty of Love and Charity which rejoyces with them that do rejoyce and weeps with them that weep which suffers long and is kind which thinketh no Evil which renders Good for Evil which puts away all Bitterness and Wrath and Anger and Clamour and Evil-speaking with all Malice and ingages us so far as 't is possible and as much as in us lies to
live peaceably with all men Lastly They Love to be vexatious and cut out work for their Adversaries deferring a Tryal several Terms for no other end but to make them throw away both their Mony and Pains in attending to prevent a Surprise or putting them to prove needless things which influence not the merits of the Cause or insisting on every fetch of Law that may be an hindrance in their way though 't is no way necessary to the main business or studying other mischievous Arts of creating them trouble and being vexatious which is absolutely against the Loving of our Neighbour as our selves and having a Brotherly-kindness and doing Good as we have opportunity to all Persons and is that very sin which St. Paul mentions and which he expresses by wickedness or mischievousness i. e. a studying to do mischief and make work for others Rom. 1.29 Thus to mention no more are all these Prolongations of Suits and delays of Justice these Covetous Desires and Acts of Impatience these Arts of Circumvention and going beyond our Adversaries these deceitful Suggestions and Falsifications in Pleadings these mischievous and vexatious ways this Hatred Envy Evil-speakings and Surmises Anger Bitterness Strife Clamour Revenge c. which are so ordinarily the Concomitants of Judicial Causes most unlawful and forbidden things so that whensoever we have any Suits depending we sin in them if any of these intrude and mix with them A Judicial Controversie that is begun upon a Justifiable Ground will not be innocent if 't is carried on by so unjustifiable a management And therefore to clear our Consciences in all Legal Tryals we must take care not only that after all other means of righting our selves have fail'd the Suit be Commenced for a thing of weight which is a justifiable Ground but also that it be pursued in all this Justice Charity and Peace which makes a justifiable management For 't is not enough that the Cause be good unless the manner of maintaining it be good too This I must confess is an hard Point because in managing a Suit we are in the way of so many sins and meet at every turn with strong Temptations which must needs very much indanger us For all the way these sins lye before us so that unless we have a constant care we shall step into them They generally serve our ends and set on the cause so that we are still under a Temptation to them And what through our own Interest and the desire of Conquest what through the opposition that is made unless we are very Circumspect our Passions will be ingaged and then more or less we shall be hurried into the Commission of them So that if no Suit be innocent where the Ground is good except all these sins be avoided in the management it will be a very hard thing may some say to sue innocently and appeal to Courts at all This indeed is very true and I am ready to confess so too For though some even-temper'd men who are endowed not only with great goodness but also with great Discretion and Government of themselves may do it with some ease and not find it very difficult yet are those men very few in Number who are so well set out and qualified for it But ordinarily it is a very difficult task and there is great danger of offending God attending it For I think there is hardly any thing that shews more the Conduct and Goodness of a man than to be able to keep innocent whilst he is put upon contending and so to manage a Suit or other Contest as that when he has done his own Conscience shall have no cause to accuse or condemn him for it But then the effect of this can be nothing else but that men be very slow in coming to it and very Circumspect in all they do when in a thing of weight after other means have been tryed in vain they cannot avoid it It must make them slow in coming to it I say and this besides its quitting them of the hazzard will I believe make also for their ease for they will generally find less difficulty in bearing Loss than in keeping innocent whilst they seek Judicially to repair it But when the thing is of so great weight that a Suit cannot well be avoided it must make them very Circumspect and Watchful over themselves all the time it is going on lest they incur any of these sins in pursuit of it The greatness of their Care must answer to the greatness of the Danger so that they must resolve to set a strict Guard upon themselves in suing or else not venture to begin any Suit at all And thus it appears that although in it self a Suit at Law be an innocent thing yet when 't is either begun upon an unjustifiable Ground or carried on by a sinful management it is not innocent but defiles the Conscience of a Christian. It is our sin and we must account for it when we seek Revenge by it or Reparation of a thing so small as cannot bear it or of a weighty matter by delays of Justice Falsifications Vexatious Arts or any other Instances of Injustice or Vncharitableness which is a sinful way of managing it When this is the state of it there is a great offence in it and whilst that lasts it deprives us of the Favour of God and ought to exclude us from the Holy Sacrament whereas were it free of these there would be no hurt in it nor any Cause at all why a good Soul should be hindred by it As for this Hindrance then whereby Devout minds are oft-times with-held from coming to this Feast viz. their being ingaged in a Law-Suit we see now at length what weight is to be laid upon it and when indeed they ought to be hindred by it For if there are no Damages to be expected in the Cause but we sue only for Revenge or if when there are they are so small as will not bear a Suit but ought to be a matter of Forgiveness or if when the Loss is of that moment which would justifie a Suit we transgress any instances of Justice or Charity in managing the Process our Suit is our sin which will not be forgiven us till we shew Repentance When 't is unlawful upon the unjustifiableness of the Ground we sin in it till we put an end to it and when upon some particular Injustice or Vncharitablness in the way of management we sin in it till that particular is Corrected and Amended And so long as we are Impenitent in either of these we are unfit for the Holy Sacrament since no man who allows himself in any sin is worthy to partake of it But then we are equally unfit to Pray or perform any other Religious Service or hope for the Forgiveness of our Sins and Eternal Happiness because as I have formerly observ'd Justice Peace and Charity and other Virtues are equally necessary in all these Cases If
stay away and not receive at all But that they may not be kept back by this hindrance I shall observe to them these three things 1. That they ought not to be forward in judging any others unworthy lest they be mistaken in it 2. When some who as they have great cause to think are unworthy do receive yet ought not that to hinder them from it 3. If it happen that any are really Scandaliz'd at the sight of such as are notoriously Wicked or have done any wrong to their Neighbours either in word or deed upon complaint made in the Congregation they are to be suspended from the Holy Table and denyed the Sacrament 1. I say they ought not to be forward in judging any others unworthy to communicate lest they be mistaken in it For every Penitent Man who is fully Resolved to leave all his Sins is really worthy to receive the Sacrament and whether the Person they think unworthy be so resolved or no is very hard for them to judge since no Man can see into anothers Heart and only God and his own Soul are privy to it When he comes to the Lords Table every Communicant professes to Repent and promises to lead a New Life thenceforward and when he solemnly declares he is thus resolved 't is hard for another Person who cannot see into his Soul to say he is not but is still impenitent Tho all Good Men therefore may be free in judging of themselves yet ought they to be very wary how they pass a Judgment on the unworthiness of others They must not be forward to pronounce of it because 't is hard for them to know it so that when they give Sentence against their Brethren in this point 't is venturously done and they are liable to be deceived in it 2. When some others who as they have great cause to think are unworthy do Receive the Sacrament yet ought not that to hinder them from joyning in it Our Business should not be to move Questions and Disputes about the preparedness of others but to be careful duly to prepare our selves and when once we are sitly qualified for it we ought to come whether they be so or no. Their unworthiness will have all its effect upon themselves but will not hinder our acceptance nor ought to put us by from doing both our Saviour and our own Souls this Service To shew this I shall observe these three things 1. If the company of ill and unworthy Persons be a sufficient hindrance it would equally have hindred our Saviour Christ and the Primitive Christians 2. It ought not only to hinder us from the Communion but also from being Members of the Christian Church and Profession But 3. One shall not bear anothers but every Man his own Burden so that if not we but only they we unworthy we are safe and may freely come and they alone are to be debarred from Receiving 1. If the Company of ill and unworthy Persons be a sufficient hindrance it is not so barely unto us but would equally have hindred our Saviour Christ and the Primitive Christians For when our Lord eat hiâ— own Supper it was not with a Select Company of worthy Receivers but with a mixt multitude of Saints and Sinners Thus he found it in the Jewish Passover for all the Congregation of Israel both good and bad were to eat of it and none but Foreiners and hired Servants were excluded from it Exod. 12.45 47. And the like mixture of Guests he allowed when he instituted this Feast instead of it For in great likelyhood Judas who as the Scripture says was a Thief and the Son of Perdition was one of the twelve that Communicated with him Mat. 26.20 25 26. Luc. 22.20 21. And in the first times all Christians as I have shewn who came together to pray to God met also to receive the Holy Sacrament that being then a constant part of their Publick Worship The Number of Communicants in those Days was the same with the number of Christians or Baptized Persons for all Men then met in the Communion who were made Members of Christs Mystical Body the Church by Baptism and were not cut off again by Excommunication as St. Paul plainly intimates when he says of all those many who make up the one Body that they are all partakers of that one Bread 1 Cor. 10.17 and of all those who have been Baptized into one Body that they have been all made to drink into one Spirit 1 Cor. 12.13 So that their Communions as well as ours were mixt Assemblies which were made up of worthy and unworthy Receivers and therefore if other Mens unworthiness ought to be our hindrance it should also have hindred our Blessed Saviour Christ and his Apostles and the Primitive Christians who if this be a good Reason for it should all have forborn the Sacrament because Judas a lost man and other unprepared and unworthy Persons met also with them at the same time to partake in it 2. If the Company of unworthy Persons be a just impediment from the Communion it ought to hinder us also from being Members of the Christian Church and Profession For the Church it self is a mixt multitude of fit and unfit of holy and unholy Persons It is compared to a Net wherein Fish of all sorts are caught both good and bad Mat 13.47 48 to a Field where both Wheat and Tares spring up and wherein both must grow together till the Harvest v. 24 25 30. All Christians are not such as their Saviour Christ was and such as their Religion requires they should be and therefore if we refuse to share in any holy thing whilst some unworthy Persons pretend to it and will not joyn in any Act or State wherein ill men participate we must not only shun the Communion but cease also to be members of the Church or Profess the Christian Religion Nay I might add further since all Communities have some Corrupt Members and in every Body of Men there are some Vicious as well as Godly Persons if we decline all Society and fellowship which has ill Men to partake in it we must not stop in avoiding the Communion and leaping out of the Christian Church and Profession but if we run on so far as this Principle will lead us become Out-Laws to Families Townships Kingdoms yea to all Mankind 3. One shall not bear anothers but every Man his own Burden so that if not we but only they are unworthy we are safe and may freely câ—me and they alone are debarr'd from receiving God will not punish one Soul for anothers fault or be angry at this because that Person has deserv'd it But every Man shall stand or fall by his own Work and either be approved or â—â—jectâ—d as it prepares him for it Let every Man prove his own Work saith the Apostle for every Man shall bear his own Burden Eph. 6.4 5. So that if we take care to come worthily our selves
we shall be kindly treated and accepted by him and not any ways prejudiced or frown'd upon for the unworthiness and undue Preparation of other men Thus ought not the sight of some unworthy Persons joyning in it to strike any Terror into us or drive us from the Holy Sacrament There is a great Sin and a great Danger in unworthy Receiveing which is enough to discourage all impenitent unworthy men from offering at it and where the Censures of the Church are held in any esteem and are likely to gain their end through the Awe and Reverence men have for them the Governours of the Church both out of Compassion for their Souls and concern for the honour of this Ordinance may see cause to remove them from it But if neither the Danger of the thing nor any Affectionate and fair Warning nor the enfeebled Hand of Discipline when it is become impotent and of small account through the Number of Offenders who are too strong for it or through the multitude of Schisms and Divisions one party entertaining what another excludes which cuts off all the Force of it If notwithstanding all these I say unworthy men will still press in and presume to Communicate yet is their unworthiness only to themselves but as for others who are truly worthy they have no hurt at all by it they shall not suffer for their Brethrens sins nor are incapacitated by their unfitnesses so that whilst they have no unworthiness in their own Souls they may approach the Holy Table and chearfully receive still But yet further 3. If any should be really scandalised at the Presence of those who are notoriously wicked or who have done any wrong to their Neighbours either in word or deed upon Complaint made in the Congregation they are to be suspended from the Holy Table and denied the Sacrament For this Care our Church has taken in this Case to prevent all those whose wickedness gives publick Scandal and Offence from sharing in these Holy Mysteries If any Communicant says the Rubrick before the Communion-Service be an open and notorious evil liver or have done any wrong to his Neighbour by Word or Deed so that the Congregation be thereby offended the Curate having knowledge thereof shall call him and advertise him that in any wise he presume not to come to the Lords Table until he hath openly declared himself to have truly Repented and Amended his former naughty Life that the Congregation may thereby be satisfied which before were offended and that he hath recompenced the Parties to whom he hath done wrong or at least declare himself to be in full purpose so to do as soon as conveniently he may As for those then who are kept back from this Feast because they see some unworthy Persons are admitted to it my Answer to them in brief is this That they ought not to be forward in judging any others unworthy because 't is hard for them to know it and they are liable to be mistaken in it And that when they have great and plain cause to conclude others unworthy yet ought not that in any wise to hinder them who are truly worthy from coming to it For if the Company of unworthy Receivers were a just Hindrance it would have hindred our Blessed Lord and the Primitive Christians since it lay in their way as well as now it doth in ours it would not rest in with-holding us from the Communion but serve equally to put us by from being Members of the Church or professing the Christian Religion but it is plainly of no force for either of them since one man shall not bear anothers but every one his own Burden But if still any are really scandalised by the Company of such as are notoriously wicked that offenâ—e may be removed when they have a mind to it for upon complaint made those unworthy Persons are to be suspended from the Holy Table and denied the Sacrament An Eleventh Hindrance whereby several persons are kept back from joyning in this Feast is the Gesture which is required to it For though right-gladly they would be admitted to the Sacrament yet they dare not Kneel as the Church appoints all men to do when they receive it Now when any Persons refuse the Holy Sacrament upon this account they have no sufficient Plea or just Excuse from it When our Lord shall ask them at the last Day why they did not Communicate according to his appointment It will be but a bad Answer in them to say it was because they could not sit or use some other Posture which they thought convenient For since he has only required the Thing but has no where injoyn'd the Gesture we are to receive in he will have just Reason to reply to such Men That then it seems they would not do what he bid them unless at the same time they could do that also which he had not bidden nor perform his will unless withall they should be allowed to have their own which justly merits a severe Reproof but is far from being a matter of Commendation But that they may not inexcusably Neglect so great a Commandment upon so weak a Reason for it I would offer to their Consideration these three things 1. Kneeling is no unsuitable Posture in receiving the Holy Sacrament so that if we were left at Liberty we might have enough to justifie our selves in making use of it 2. It is appointed by our Governours whom God Commands us to obey in all Lawful things so that every Good man who is under Authority ought to observe it But if it were not our Duty when Authority has thus required the use of it and it had no Reasons from it self to recommend it but it were much better that some other Posture should be used yet 3. Since it lawfully may be used too tho' not so well as another if men have any due value for and desire of the Sacrament for its sake and rather than miss of it they should at least comply with it 1. Kneeling is no unsuitable Posture in receiving the Holy Sacrament so that if we were left at Liberty we might have enough to justifie our selves in making use of it For the Sacrament as I have already shew'd is a Religious Feast wherein we are set in the Presence of and are concerned with Almighty God and when we have to do with him 't is no ways unfit sure to use such Posture as is Humble and Reverent It is a Feast wherein we receive the greatest Benefits no less than our Saviour Christs Blessed Body and Blood i. e. those Benefits which his Bloody Death procured and when we receive Gifts especially of that infinite Price and from our Betters and Supream Governours it cannot misbecome us to use such Carriage as expresses most Respect and Thankfulness It is a Feast whereat we confirm the New Covenant and solemnly give Thanks and Praise to Christ and pour out many Prayers and Promises to our Heavenly Lord and