revenge God's Quarrel against the Idolaters of the Golden Calf and to give themselves to that peculiar and extraordinary Service and express their Zeal for God's Glory beyond all other People 2. Things And these are said to be consecrated when they are set apart to be used in an holy Place for religious Purposes as the Silver and Gold and Vessels of Brass and Iron the Israelites should find in Jericho are commanded to be consecrated to the Lord Josh. 6. 19. i. e. They shall be brought into the Tabernacle or place of publick Worship and there used in Divine Service and no where else 3. Times and Days Of this sort were the Festivals of the Jews which were set apart for publick Meetings to worship God and to perform the Duties requisite and the Offices of the publick Liturgy Ezra 3. 5. 4. Places And such we find often set apart for God's publick and private Worship as Jacob did Bethel Gen. 28. 18 19 22. And Solomon and the Children of Israel dedicated the House of the Lord 1 King 8. 63. i. e. They did solemnly set that House which Solomon had built apart for celebrating the publick Worship of God in that place II. Nor is the Conseration of a Thing a bare Setting it apart for an holy Use but it imports also to do this with suitable Rites and Ceremonies particularly with Prayer and Praises Which external Performance may influence the Senses of Spectators and cause greater Veneration and Reverence So the Temple of Solomon was consecrated with Thanksgivings and Supplications and offering Sacrifices 1 Kings 8. 22 62 63. And the Seventy Elders Numb 11. 17. were consecrated by Imposition of Hands as Ministers are ordain'd at this day and Maiâ—onides adds with a solemn Song or Hymn and these words I lay my Hands upon thee and be thou therefore ordained to this Office or Dignity or Imployment Aaron's Sons were in like manner consecrated by being anointed with Holy Oil the Ingredients of which we have exactly set down Exod. 30. 30 34 35. And this Way of Consecrating we find imitated and transcribed by the Heathen Nations who did run out into strange Superstitions and extravagant Ceremonies in their Consecrations of Things as Dan. 2. 5. where Nebuchadnezzar's Golden Image being to be consecrated all Persons great and low are ordered to appear at the Sound of the Cornet Flute Harp Sackbut Psaltery Dulcimer and all kinds of Musick c. And these exorbitant Ceremonies in Consecrations of Things are very much kept up in the Roman Church which seems to have transcribed Heathenism into Christianity Indeed Prayer and Thanksgiving were the most ancient Concomitants of Consecration And these Constantine used at the Dedication of Constantinople having sent for this purpose to the Fathers of the Nicene Council to assist at the Solemnity And having built a stately Church at Jerusalem and adorn'd it with Gold Silver and Precious Stones the Bishops assembled in the Council of Tyre were called in by Supplications and Psalms to consecrate the Building or to set it apart for a standing Place of Publick Devotion III. All the Vertue that can be supposed to be in Consecration may be reduced to these three Particulars 1. The Thing consecrated puts us in mind of something great sublime and magnificent such as God is or something which is nearly related to him And so much we may guess from the Consecration of Aaron and his Sons the History of which we have set down at large Exod. 29. There was scarce a Ceremony used about them in their Consecration but was and may be referred to some higher Thing They were to be wash'd with Water which was to put them in mind of the Purity and Innocence that was to attend their Lives and Profession Their rich Coat they were to wear suggested to them their Fruitfulness in all good Works The Breast-plate and Ephod that were put upon them signified their Spiritual Knowledge and Sincerity The curious Girdle about them was an Emblem of that Truth and Veracity they were to study The Bonnets upon their Heads represented the Graces of God's Spirit they were to be adorn'd with The Mitre and the Crown upon Aaron's Head prefigured the Royal Priesthood of the Son of God which was to appear in the World The Anointing Oyl that was to be poured out upon him and his Sons told them that they must be Spiritual Men and mind the Things of the Spirit and that in their Consecration they were to lay their Hands upon the Head of the Bullock and the Ram that were to be offered shewed that though they were exalted above other Men yet they were sinful Men had need of Confession and Deprecation of God's Judgments due to them for their Sins For in laying their Hands upon those Beasts they laid as it were their Sins upon them and that Death and Misery themselves have deserved And the same may be said of the Elements of Bread and Wine when they are consecrated in the Eucharist The Consecration puts us in mind of higher Things than Bread and Wine and suggests to us something more noble and more glorious which we are to fix our Thoughts upon 2. Consecration directs to a greater Esteem and Veneration of the Consecrated Thing Not an Esteem which proceeds to Adoration for that would make it Idolatry but such an Esteem whereby we raise our Thoughts and have no such mean and low Conceits about the Thing as before we had when it was not yet set apart for an holy Use but look upon it as representative of something more valuable And therefore Belshazzar and his Nobles incurred the Displeasure of God because they look'd upon the Vessels of the Sanctuary as common Utensils Dan. 5. 1 2 3. And thus it is in the Holy Sacrament After Consecration the Elements require an higher Esteem than before they being now no more common Bread and Wine but representative of the highest and most spiritual Food imaginable 3. Consecration commands a very serious Use of the Consecrated Thing and at the same time forbids all Lightness Frothiness Inattentiveness and Careless Thoughts And this seems to be a Principle of all Civiliz'd Nations in the World who have in all Ages required greater Devotion in the Temple than in the Market-place And the ancient Idolaters that worshipped their Gods in Groves intimated no less since those Groves caused a kind of Darkness which Darkness they thought might over-awe the Worshipper into greater Seriousness and Devotion And the same may be applied to the Eucharist The Elements being consecrated the Consecration ought to infuse very serious Thoughts into our Minds call them away from the World and meaner Objects and prompt us to devout Ejaculations to a severe Attention and to a suitable Admiration of the Bounty Wisdom and Goodness of God who appears to us in this Sacrament with all the Charms that make Souls in love with Holiness And all this is but suitable to the End of our coming to this
take him for their Saviour whether he will or no Though he hath protested that he will say to those who would not do the Will of his Father which is in Heaven I know you not depart from me ye Workers of Iniquity yet these very Persons will lay hold on him and will be saved by him in despight of him and therefore do not only assemble with other Christians under the Cross at the holy Table and there pretend to take him to their Comfort as well as the best of them but on their Death-beds too after they have abused him by their carnal and sensual Lives lived like his Enemies lean upon him depend upon him lay hold on his Merits support themselves with his Sufferings and stay themselves on him as if they were resolved he should not shake them off This is a Rudeness that admits of no Excuse Not but that he is ready enough to refresh those that lay hold on him as they should do but where Men's Hearts remain unsanctified unholy unresolved to walk in the Light as he was in the Light unaffected with the Love of God untouch'd with a Sense of Sin there to hope and be confident they shall be saved by his Merits is to make Christ a Patron of their Sins and an Encourager of Hypocrisie and to charge him with a Lye as if contrary to what he hath so often affirmed asserted repeated and confirmed by Miracles too not those that have followed him in the Regeneration but those whose Hearts and Lives were never changed shall sit upon Thrones when the Son of Man shall sit upon the Throne of his Glory Mat. 19. 28. III. From hence it is evident that to take Christ for our highest and chiefest Good a Man must believe there is something to be got by him which the World cannot give and beyond all that the World can afford And this Belief must not be slight or superficial but a Belief that considers the Consequence and Importance of this Truth not a Belief of Speculation but a Belief that rouzes the Soul from her Slumber A Man that doth not heartily believe that the greatest the best the choicest Satisfaction flows from the Possession of this Treasure will never labour or toil or put himself to Trouble to get Possession of it So that if ever we take the Lord Jesus according to the Rules laid down in the preceding Discourse so as to accept of him upon his Terms to appropriate him to our selves and to hold him fast we must sit down and in cool Blood consider whether that Bliss and Happiness is to be found in him which the Scripture speaks of and to weigh that Happiness how far it transcends all other Felicities and Comforts of this World end not to rest till we are fully persuaded of the Truth and Reality of it And this Persuasion will in a manner force and compel us to take him so as with the Merchant in the Gospel to sell all we have for that inestimable Pearl The PRAYER O Jesu My All my Sun my Light and the Glory of my Soul Who hast taken upon thee the Form of a Servant that I might be taken into the Number of the Kings and Princes of the other World I have too long entertain'd my self with the Pleasures and Vanities of the World and the uncertain Shadows and Images of Carnal Satisfactions I see I see there is that in thee which counter-balances and out-weighs all that the World can call rich and excellent and beautiful They that enjoy thee walk in Light and the Darkness trouble them not O take my Soul and reform it Take my Will and rectifie it Take my Understanding and eradiate it with thy Beams Take my Affections and inflame them O let me not take Shadows any longer for Realities Take me into thy School and teach me Teach me how I may be thy Disciple Teach me how I may be satisfied with thee alone Teach me how I shall take thee for my Head my Governor and the Regent of my Soul Take care of this poor miserable Sinner Take thou the Government of my Heart It is thine thou hast bought thou hast redeemed it thou hast paid the Ransom Take me Captive by thy Love Free me from the Prison of my Corruptions that I may be fit to be taken into the Number of such as have washed their Robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb and stand for ever before the Throne of God and serve him Night and Day in his Temple Amen CHAP. XI Of these Words This is my Body whether they import a Transubstantion or Consubstantiation and how the Bread is Christ's Body and how Christ's Body may and is to be eaten The CONTENTS Transubstantiation a new and monstrous Doctrine The Fate that attended Berengarius for denying it The Impossibility of it shewn in several Particulars Consubstantiation an Opinion as groundless as the former The History of it The Arguments the Lutheran Churches make use of confuted The true Sense of these Words THIS IS MY BODY What it is to eat Christ's Body Many Rhetorical Expressions in the Fathers concerning this holy Sacrament which are not to be taken literally The same Expressions made use of still but to be understood according to the Analogy of Faith The same Way that Man was lost the same Way he must recover The crucified Body of Christ represented in this Sacrament a Motive to many excellent Duties The Prayer I. THIS IS MY BODY What Stirs and Differences these few Words have caused in the Christian World especially since the Eighth Century is unknown to none that is versed in Ecclesiastical History The Modern Church of Rome as they place Consecration in these Words so to establish Transubstantiation they take Sanctuary at this Expression Transubstantiation a Word not known till the Year of our Lord 1112 when Stephen Bishop of Autun first invented it and afterwards confirm'd by Pope Innocent III. in the Lateran Council in the Year 1215 is at this Day the Darling Doctrine of the Church of Rome A Word first brought in by Passion and Ignorance defended afterwards with blind Zeal and at last established and turned into an Article of Faith by the pack'd Council of Trent A Word which long ago would have been banish'd and rejected but that it happen'd to be owned by Men who will rather hazard all than acknowledge themselves in an Errour A Word which that corrupted Church at this Day fights for and anathematizes curses and damns to the Pit of Hell all that dissent from their Sense and Meaning in that barbarous Expression What they mean by Transubstantiation is sufficiently known viz. A Conversion or Change of the whole Substance of Bread in this Sacrament into the Substance of Christ's Natural Body immediately upon the Priest's speaking these Words This is my Body as soon as the last Syllable am in the Latin Words Hoc enim est Corpus meum is pronounced by the Priest If
in the Church under whose Government they live to revenge themselves many times will poison the Doctrine make Proselites and resolve to become great by doing mischief since they cannot be so by lawful means To such persons we owe the Heresies of Marcion of Novatus of Arius of the Donatists and others and it 's no more than what St. Paul hath told us long ago for the time will come when they will not endure sound Doctrine but after their own lusts shall heap to themselves Teachers having itching Ears 2 Tim. 4. 3. And to this purpose St. Peter 2 Pet. 2. 1 2 3. But there were false Prophets also among the people even as there shall be false Teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable Heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction And many shall follow their pernicious way by reason of whom the Truth shall be evil spoken of and through covetousness shall they with feigned words make Merchandize of you c. III. Nor hath the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper fared better than other Religious Institutions for this in all Ages hath had its share in the abuses of foolish Men and while they forgot to fix their Eyes upon the Spiritual Nature and design of it have entertained gross and carnal apprehensions concerning it The Corinthians very early abated in their esteem and reverence of it as appears from the latter part of 1 Cor. 11. The Pepuziani and Collyridianes Hereticks suffer'd their Women to administer this Holy Sacrament The Ebionites used Water instead of Wine in imitation of the Athenian and Heathenish Sacrifices which were therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sober and without Wine The Montanists Cataphrygians and Gnosticks proceeded to that tremendous barbarity in this Sacrament that they took a Child of a year old and pricked it with Pins and Needles and drew a considerable quantity of Blood from it which Blood they mingled with the Meal or Flower of which they made the Sacramental Bread The Child if it dyed after these Torments was counted a Martyr if it survived them they gave it the respect and veneration of a Priest and all these horrid practices came merely from hence because they stupidly thought that real Blood was necessary in this Ordinance Some other Villanies they committed which modesty bids me to conceal The Artotyritae another sort of Hereticks made use of Bread and Cheese in this Sacrament and to this they were led by a fancy that because the first Inhabitants in the World offered to God the First Fruits of the Earth and particularly the Milk of their Sheep and Kine they were obliged to do so too The Messaliani made this Sacrament an indifferent thing and gave out that it neither promoted nor hindred Man's Salvation an Error which the Quakers have taken up at this day Nor were they only profess'd Hereticks that committed these abuses but the Popes of Rome by degrees brought in abundance of needless Ceremonies whereby this Plain and Heavenly Ordinance was very much corrupted Pope Alexander about the Year of Christ 115 ordered what was indifferent before that Wine should be mixt with Water in this Sacrament and that no other Bread should be used but unleaven'd Bread that Holy Water mingled with Salt should be consecrated before the Eucharist that the Communicants after they had receiv'd might be sprinkled with it Sixtus about the Year 125 ordered that no Nun or Women should touch the Holy Vessels or the Cloth of the Communion Table Hyginus about the Year 140 enjoyn'd that the Sacrament of the Eucharist should ever be used and celebrated at the Dedication of Churches Soter about the Year 163 that no Bishop or Priest should taste of any thing before the Communion but abstain from all manner of Food before they administred or received Urban about the Year 230 ordained that no other Vessels should be used at the Communion but either Golden or Silver ones if the Church were poor then Pewter should be made use of Felix about the Year 277 ordered that the Eucharist should be celebrated no where but in a consecrated place Sylvester who lived about the Year 324 gave command that the Altars on which the Sacrament was celebrated should be of Stone Syricius about the Year 383 that no married Priest should celebrate or administer the Eucharist Innocent about the Year 410 gave order that the Names of those who had given Alms at the Communion should be rehears'd and proclaim'd in the Church at the celebration of this Mystery and that even Infants should be brought to communicate in this Sacrament Zosimus his Successor enjoyn'd that the Deacons while the Sacrament was administring should have their Hands covered with a Linen Cloth Thus Superstition came in by degrees and while the People were taught an external Veneration of the Sacrament they neglected the fruits of Repentance which the Worthy receiving should have produced in them There was an ancient Custom in the Christian Church at the Communion to rehearse the Names of Martyrs and their Glorious Actions and the Miracles they had wrought both alive and dead from hence by degrees crept in the unhappy practice of Invocation of Saints and Martyrs in the Eucharist and this being once allowed of the Doctrine of Purgatory beginning to spread about St. Austin's time and more universally about the time of Gregory the Great Men fell into an Opinion that by the Eucharist their Names that were gone into Purgatory being rehears'd their Souls might be delivered out of Purgatory some thought that even the Souls of the Damned were in some measure reliev'd by this unbloody Sacrifice And nothing is more common at this day in the Church of Rome than to say Masses for Souls in Purgatory a Doctrine they prove from the infirmities errors and corrupt opinions of some of the Fathers but which the Scripture doth not speak the least syllable of Into such abuses hath the World run by deviating from the simplicity of the Gospel And that which must be matter of grief and sorrow to all good Men is that this Sacrament which was intended as the Bond of Peace is made the Ball of Contention and the Engine of Division the motive to Hatred and the fire of Wrath and Animosities For this the Lutherans write Invectives against the Calvinists and the Papists against both and that which should have united all Men's Hearts makes them hate one another mortally and no other reason can be assigned for it but Mens Pride and Passion and their other Vices Who doth not tremble that reads the History of the Gunpowder-Treason in which the Sacrament was without a Metaphor made the Covenant of Blood and the Conspirators united by it to be bold and resolute in this Enterprize Not to mention other abuses of sensual and carnal Men too frequent among us that can engage themselves in this Ordinance to follow their Master's steps and notwithstanding these Engagements live like Swine
a just cause lascivious desires and appetites and revengeful actions c. have so severe a Sanction annexed to them if they be cherished and lov'd is this because the less they are the sooner and the more easily they are avoided and therefore it must argue strange aversion from God not to oblige him in so small a thing and that Men after they have enter'd into this solemn Covenant at the Table of the Lord may be allur'd and enticed by Temptations and perswaded to allow themselves in known Sins both great and small and thereby null the Covenant we have no reason to question since Experience is beyond all Witnesses in the World 7. The only Plank left us after the Covenant is thus broken and null'd to swim out of the Gulph of perdition and to regain God's favour is confess'd on all hands to be true and deep repentance and particularly a Repentance attended with Fasting Alms and great future Self-denials In the stricter Ages of Christianity especially in the Second and Third Centuries it was very much question'd whether a Person who had solemnly and deliberately entr'd into a Covenant with God either in Baptism or in the Lord's Supper if afterwards he fell into some of these three Sins Adultery Murther or Idolatry was capable of regaining the favour of God promis'd in this Covenant The African Churches especially were very stiff in this point yet the more moderate allow'd of a Second Repentance reckoning the first to be that which had been made by adult Persons in either of these Sacraments and the second if after a new fall or wilful precipitation into any of these crimes he rose again with very great purposes and resolutions but if a Man fell again into any of these Sins after the Second Repentance they look'd upon the Third as impossible Others though they did not exclude the Persons thus fallen totally from the possibility of God's favour and Salvation in case he repented either the Second or third time yet did not think fit to receive him again into the Communion of the Church and this which the African Fathers look'd upon only as a thing convenient Novatus enrag'd it 's like because he could not be made a Bishop improved into absolute necessity which made his followers exclude all such Persons as were fallen after their first Repentance into any of these Sins from their Communion That which gave occasion to this Doctrine was their too rigid interpretation of some places in Scripture particularly that of Heb. 6. 4 5 6. and the other 1 Joh. 5. 16. which places are to be understood rather of a malicious denying the Faith and forsaking the very Profession of Christianity and turning Jew Heathen or Infidel than of the aforesaid acts of Sin The Roman Church was the first that receiv'd such sinners after a tedious and laborious Repentance into their Communion again for which Tertullian expostulates with the Bishop of Rome and accuses him of Rashness imprudence and breach of the ancient Canons However since the Apostle himself 2. Cor. 2. 7. received the incestuous Person into the Communion of the Church of Corinth and desired the Corinthians to do the like after a sufficient demonstration of his Repentance after such falls into wilful and habitual Sins be sincere and true exemplary and laborious that there is just hopes such a person may renew his Covenant get a Title again to the promises of it and be readmitted to God's Favour and Complacency But then 1. This Repentance ought to be speedy To live long in such Sins after the first wilful breach of this Covenant is dangerous hardens the Heart gives the Devil greater power over the Soul and the Person thus sining knows not but he may be given up to hardness of Heart and to reprobate mind in which condition he may be snatcht away by Death and haled to the great Tribunal 2. Such a Person must not make a trade of Repenting and sinning for if he fall often into the same Sin and still pretends to repent it s a sign the Repentance is counterfeit his love to God fickle and unsincere his resistances of God's Spirit strong and the inward Man left without a Guard to secure it against the assaults of the Devil 3. Upon this new Repentance greater watchfulness than ordinary must be used and the Penitent must become a gainer by his Sins i. e. the dreadfulness of his fall must help toward the great exemplariness of his Life and the Sins he hath lived in must make them dread them more than ever A very signal growth in Grace must succeed his Fall and the Ball having been struck against the ground must now rebound the higher His time must now be redeem'd and he that hath been so careless must now double his diligence He must therefore love much now because he expects much should be forgiven him and his greater fervor in Religion is the best demonstration of his unfeigned return from his Apostacy The Preceding Considerations reduced to Practice I. IT must needs be great presumption for Men and Women to enter into a solemn Covenant with God in this Sacrament and not to consider the weight and importance of it Christian when thou enter'st into this Covenant with the Holy Trinity thou solemnly obligest thy self that as thou hopest for Heaven and Happiness as thou hopest for Pardon and Salvation as thou hopest to have thy Sins wash'd away with the precious Blood of Christ thou wilt take Christ's Yoke upon thee endeavour to be humble and meek as he was learn of him and die to the World crucifie thy Lusts and Affections fight against the vanities of the World and labour to conâ—orm to the great example of that Saviour that spilt his dearest Blood for thee Either thou understandest what this engagement means or thou dost not If not how darest thou touch the Sacred Elements with polluted Hands If thou understandest it and art not firmly resolv'd to take care to perform what thou promisest so solemnly how dost thou think to escape the Judgement of God Art thou afraid of breaking a solemn promise made to a Prince and great Man whose Smile or Frown can either help or prejudice thee much and art thou not afraid of violating thy Engagements to the great God of Heaven What dost thou make of God Dost thou take him to be some Heathen Deity that hath Eyes and sees not Ears and hears not Dost thou oblige thy self to be his Subject and dost thou turn Rebel His Child and become a Prodigal His Confederate and conspire against him with his Enemies Dost thou take him for thy Lord and wilt not thou do what he saith If these thy unfaithful dealings with thy Lord and Master be enter'd into Gods Book of Accounts as certainly they are and the black Roll shall at last be open'd and read in thine Ears dost not thou think what Terror Amazement and Confusion thou wilt be in O Sinner There is no jesting with
that Account makes himself guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. Our Church therefore in her Confession before the Sacrament obliges all those that come to receive to say We do earnestly repent and are heartily sorry for these our Mis-doings Now he that is heartily sorry for his known Sins will watch and strive against them and take heed he doth not through Carelesness rush into them again which the unworthy Receiver not being from the Heart resolved to do involves himself in that Guilt we speak of The Preceding Considerations reduced to Practice I. HEre I cannot but take notice of the great Errour of the First Council of Toledo celebrated about the Year 400. after Christ which made a Canon that he who had no Wife but instead of a Wife a Concubine ought not to be kept or debarred from the holy Communion provided that he content himself with one Concubine and add no more 'T is evident that such a Conjunction is Filthiness and Uncleanness condemned by the Apostle Gal. 5. 19. Marriage it is not and Carnal Copulations without it are mere Fornications as we see Heb. 13. 4. And therefore such Persons if admitted to the Communion could not but eat and drink unworthily Nor doth it mend the matter that Leo I. Pope of Rome approved of that Canon for that only shews that Popes are as fallible as other Men nay more subject to mistake as they are very jealous of their Riches and Grandeur and Temporal Interest Bellarmine to excuse this Fault alledges that by Concubine in that Canon was meant nothing but a lawful Wife only married and taken without a Portion or publick Solemnity But this Conjecture must be false because both in the Civil and Canon-Laws Concubines are Persons distinguished from lawful Wives and but a better Name for Whores And as that Concil did very ill to admit such Persons that were known to live in such Sins to the Sacrament so they did as ill to prohibit Ministers Widows if they married again or took a second Husband the use of the Communion as if an honst Marriage were more scandalous than Fornication And though a Bishop or Pastor of the Church is ordered by the Apostle 1 Tim. 3. 2. to be the Husband of one Wife yet how doth it follow from thence that his Widow when he dies must never marry again II. There is a great difference betwixt Receiving unworthily and being unworthy to receive Every Man that thinks himself unworthy to receive these Mysteries is not therefore an unworthy Receiver Alas If we go to the Worthiness of the Person that comes to this Table Who of us can be said to be worthy to come before so holy so jealous so great a God Or Who of us is worthy of that incomprehensible and diffusive Love represented to us in this Ordinance If we reflect on the marvellous Purity of the Divineâ—Nature Who of us can be thought worthy to approach it The best of us have reason to cry out at the sight of that Tremendous Holiness Unclean Unclean There are few of us who have not reason to complain to use the Words of Thomas de Kempis that they are yet so carnal so worldly so unmortified in their Passions so full of disorderly Motions of the Flesh so unwatchful over their outward Senses so often entangled with vain Thoughts and Fancies so vehemently inclined to external Comforts so negligent of the Ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit so prone to immoderate Laughter and Immodesty so indisposed to Tears and Compunction so strongly inclined to the Ease and Pleasures of the Flesh so dull to Strictness and an holy Zeal so curious to hear News and to see gaudy Sights so slack to embrace what is humble and low so covetous of Abundance so niggardly in giving to pious Uses so close in keeping what Providence hath bestowed upon them so inconsiderate in speaking so unbridled to Silence so loose in Manners so covetous after Gain so greedy after the Meat which perishes so deaf to the Word of God so apt to sit still so slow to labour so watchful to idle Tales so drowsie in God's Service so hasty to make an end of their Prayers so inconstant in Attention so cold in Devotion so undevout in the holy Communion so quickly discomposed so seldom wholly gathered into themselves so suddenly provoked to Anger so ready to take Displeasure at their Neighbour's Actions so prone to judge so severe in Reprehension so jolly in Prosperity so impatient in Adversity so often purposing much Good and yet performing little There are very few of us who have not reason to deplore such Defects as these and then Who can be worthy to feast with the King Invisible Immortal Blessed for evermore But it is God that makes us worthy He will not count us unworthy if we strive against these Errours if we labour to conquer them if we will not be Friends with them if we proclaim War against them if we are resolved whatever we venture to be rid of them if we will not hug them in our Bosoms if we will open the Everlasting Doors and let the King of Glory come in if we will hate what he hates and love what he loves and will continue our Hostility against those Lusts which interfere with his just Right and Prerogative He will not go to the utmost rigour with us He will deal gently with us liker a Father than a Judge To let us go on in our Offences without Remorse or a serious Care to please him he cannot and such is his Holiness that he must not He considers our Frame that we are Dust and therefore will not take advantage of every accidental Miscarriage But he considers withal that he hath given us his Gospel and Everlasting Motives and his Holy Spirit whereby we may certainly master the Corruptions we find stirring in us though not immediately yet by degrees if we are but willing and labour and wrestle and are active and do not suffer our selves to be overcome by Laziness and the Satisfactions of this present World And upon these Terms he is willing to count us worthy Receivers O Sweetness incomparable O Condescention ineffable beyond all that Kings and Princes express to their Subjects What Christian that is acquainted with this Frame this Spirit this humble and tractable Temper this Resolution and this Willingness and that feels these Characters in his Soul can after all this forbear coming upon a pretence of being unworthy Coming to this holy Table with such Purposes with such Designs with such Qualifications let him be confident that his Father his Saviour his Redeemer will bid him welcome This spiritual Frame Christian will make thee worthy Thou comest not to this Sacrament to give God any thing but to receive a Blessing from him Thou comest not hither to contribute any thing to his Happiness but to open thy Mouth wide that he may fill it Thou comest not hither to proclaim thy
molested them and stung them into strange and painful Distempers and most of them perish'd miserably And as it is with other Sacred Things so it is more particularly with the most Sacred Thing of all the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Bishop Morton upon this account tells us of one Booth in his time a Scholar in Cambridge who being Popishly inclin'd yet loth to own it would still receive the Sacrament in our Church and coming one day to the Lord's Table he seem'd to to take the Holy Bread with his Hands and put it in his Mouth but by an easie craft he thrust it into his Pocket and when the Devotion of the Chapel was ended he took the Bread he had hid and threw it over the Colledge Wall But see the pursuing Judgment of God soon after he threw himself over the Battlements of the Chapel broke his Neck and so ended his life St. Cyprian one of the greatest and most eminent Men in the Primitive Church relates that a Girl left by her Parents in time of Persecution to shift for her self and taken up by her Nurse was by that Nurse being timorous and loth to lose her own and the Child's lâ—fe for being Christians carried to the Heathen Magistrate and there made to Eat and Drink of the Bread and Wine offered to Idols and the Heathen Deities This Child afterward her Mother returning was by her conducted to Church and came to the Holy Eucharist with the rest of the Congregation for in those days they gave the Eucharist to Children as well as to adult Persons where St. Cyprian himself was then officiating The Deacon as his custom was carrying the Holy Wine about and coming to the Child offers her the Cup but finds a strange aversion in her to touch it with her Lips for through a Divine Instinct teaching her that the Cup of the Lord and the Cup of Devils were inconsistent and incompatible she turn'd her Head away shut up her Mouth press'd her Lips together and refus'd it with obstinacy The Deacon however how prudent he was in doing so I shall not dispute using some force upon her poured some drops of the Eucharistical Wine into her Mouth which she had no sooner receiv'd but she fell a vomiting groan'd and sigh'd and as the Father expresses it The Drink sanctified in Christ's Blood broke forth from her polluted entrails And to this purpose he hath another passage of a Woman that kept the Bread of the Eucharist irreverently in a Chest. and when one day she went rudely to open the Chest a Fire flashing out of the Chest did fright her so that she durst not come near it any more All which Examples make it evident that he that Eats and Drinks unworthily Eats and Drinks or may Eat and Drink some extraordinary Temporal Judgment to himself III. It must be confess'd that the expression of Eating and Drinking Judgment is not very smooth and proper yet there is great Truth in the Metaphor and how the unworthy Receiver Eats and Drinks Judgment to himself will appear from the following particulars 1. By eating and drinking unworthily he prepares for some extraordinary Judgment which Judgment he takes and grasps and attracts and pulls to himself as Men do Bread and Wine or Beer when they are going to eat and drink The Apostle Rom. 9. 22. speaks of Vessels fitted for Destruction they fitted themselves for it by their Sins as a Thief by stealing and robbing upon the High-way fits himself for the Gallows or as an idle lazy Servant that neglects his Master's Business fits himself for his Master's Anger So the unworthy Receiver by eating and drinking irreverently and without regard to the Obligations the Sight of Christ's Love and Death lays upon him fits himself for Judgment makes himself ripe for God's Vengeance lays the Wood together and erects the Pile gathers Materials and combustible Stuff for the Fire that will certainly burn him and though he doth not do it designedly and the Judgment comes contrary to his Intention yet as long as he doth that to which such Judgments are annexed he fits himself for Judgment as much as he that will touch Vipers and handle Adders or let a Snake creep about in his Bosom though he may intend no harm by it yet actually prepares and fits himself for Mischief Eating and Drinking imports some Desire after and Delight in the Victuals before us So he that by unworthy Receiving prepares for Judgments seems to delight in Judgment threatned him because he will needs do that which will certainly end in some Judgment or other 2. The unworthy Receiver eats and drinks Judgment to himself by incorporating the Guilt of some extraordinary Judgment with his Soul Eating and Drinking unworthily at the same time he brings Guilt upon his Soul and appropriates the deserved Judgment to himself and as the Sin sticks to him so the Demerits of the Judgment which is threatned to the Sin sticks to him too He eats and drinks unworthily and the Effect it hath upon him is God's Indignation which he swallows with the Food unworthily taken God's Wrath goes along with his Sin and as he takes the one so he doth the other into his Bowels As Poyson and Death go together so unworthy Feeding at the Lord's Table and God's Anger go together and they both mingle with the Spirits of the unworthy Receiver as the Fish at the same time that he swallows the Bait swallows the Hook too and he hath that fastned in him which will be his Death So that Job's Expression is very suitable to the Subject in hand Job 20. 23. When he is about to fill his Belly God shall cast the Fury of his Wrath upon him and shall rain it upon him while he is eating To this purpose David saith of the Israelites in the Wilderness murmuring and speaking against God While their Meat was yet in their Mouths the Wrath of God came upon them So it may be said of an unworthy Communicant While he is feeding at the Table of the Lord the Wrath of God breaks forth against him becomes due to him and is his Portion falls to his Lot and he gets a Title to it We read of Henry VII Emperor of the Romans that he was poyson'd in eating of the Sacramental Bread given him by a Monk This they say was the Fate of Pope Victor II. who died of poyson'd Wine presented to him in the Eucharistical Chalice by his Sub-Deacon And the same is reported of an Archbishop of York that he fell down dead and swelled upon receiving the Sacramental Cup given him by a Priest that bore some Spleen and Malice to him These Men did without a Metaphor eat and drink their Death And though he that eats and drinks unworthily doth not just in the same manner eat and drink Judgment to himself yet the Fate that attends him doth very much resemble the Misfortunes of the other only here is the difference that