THE Constant Communicant A DIATRIBE Proving that Constancy in Receiving THE Lords Supper Is the Indispensible Duty of Every Christian By AR. BURY D. D. Rector of Exon. Coll. in Oxford Canon Apostol IX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whoever of the Faithful enter and hear the Scriptures but stay not out prayers and Communion ought to be Excommunicated as disturbers of the Church Socrates Hist Lib. V. Ca. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For whereas All Churches through the world on the Sabbath day in every revolution of the week celebrate the mysteries they of Alexandria and they of Rome upon a certain ancient Tradition have refused so to do OXFORD Printed by LEON LICHFIELD Printer to the University for STEPHEN BOLTON 1631. TO The Most Reverend Father in God WILLIAM By Divine Providence Lord ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY Primate of all ENGLAND and Metropolitan And one of His Majesties most Honorable PRIVY COUNCIL c. May it please your Grace MANY great miracles do the Romanists pretend to be frequently wrought By the Holy Sacrament of the Altar but none so admirable as what their ancestors wrought Upon it For what more wonderful than This that a particular Church by colour of a Tradition should prevail with All other Churches throughout the whole Christian world to reneg That Constancy which was universally practised as indispensible for more than 400 years That from Dispensing they should proceed to Discouraging and therein so prevail that those who have freed themselvs from their many other gross abuses cannot from This but still believ our Lord more honored by Forbearing his Table than by Frequenting it In opposition to this Vulgar error I have in my narrow Sphaere used all other endeavors but with so litle fruit that I must either sit down in despair or fly to the last remedy Writeing which beside the advantage of fastening conviction better upon those few that ly under My inspection may extend it to as many others as shall bring my papers under Theirs But here also I meet great discoragements I see that many worthy persons have of late be'n as careful to exhort to the Performance of the Duty as to Worthiness in it but with no better success than those first messengers who 's kind Invitations brought nothing to the Lord of the Fest but variety of excuses If therefor I would conform either to the Parable or to Reason I must proceed to rougher means compell by force of irrefragable arguments the unwilling and resisting world and by all cogent proofs assert a Truth which by Many ages was never Doubted by More generally Denyed by Ours somtimes Affirmed but never that I know clearly proved viz. that it is every Christians duty to be a Constant Communicant And this I have do'n with Such evidence that I fear not any mans confutation yet with litl hope to see the Table furnished with guests For alas what can a poor Enchiridion do toward subduing such an error double armed with Prejudice in the Vnderstanding and Partiality in the Affections fortified with long Possession defended by the Priests and beloved by the Peopl I must therefor be unfaithful both to the service I have undertaken and to Your Grace's right should I either expose it naked and unsheltered to a Cold Advers world or seek any other Patron than your Grace For as this Sacrament hath a double aspect so hath your Grace a double right to it's protection As it is the greatest exercise of Love and duty to our Lord by your Eminence in Piety As it is the Principal office of Church-worship by your eminence in Power Ecclesiastical By the former every good christian may claim common with your Grace in most of the following pages but by the Later your Grace hath a peculiar jurisdiction over some particularly a PART III. Chap. 1. Sect. 4. those wherein I have justified the Constitutions of our Church as doing what in such unhappy circumstances is possible for retriving Primitive Constancy Could I say as much for the Practice But be it never so defective it cannot hinder us from justifying our Church as well as St. Paul himself For his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is no less generally mistaken for a derogation from That very obligation to constancy which he employed it to prove indispensible than is the three times in every year which our Church defines as the Least that she can tolerate in the Peopl for the most that she expecteth from the Priests who therefor think themselvs exactly conformable if they minister it just so often and no more though without any care either Before-hand to exhort the people to Receve it or Afterward to reprove them if they Neglect it which yet they cannot avoid seeing them generally do being so taught and accustomed during our confusions and still biased by their sloth or worse What may be allowed for the untractableness of the people under our present Distractions is not for Me to determin But that those very Distractions which now toss us between two such parties whereof the One first robbed the Sacrament of Constancy and the Other strippeth it stark naked of All Performance ly on us as a just punishment for our compliance with them is plainly enough to be discovered without any rude intrusion into God's secrets For Constancy in This Office is apparently the most effectual means to unite us as being both by it's own nature most serviceable thereto and by its singular interest in our Lord's Person singularly intitled to his Blessing I therefor conceve it no impertinent disturbance of those great cares wherewith your Grace is too much molested if as a kind of Church-warden-general I make humble presentment of that defect in Parochial Churches especially which your residence in Cathedrals hath hindered you from discovering bicause those Officers who ought to be eyes to your Grace and our other Fathers in God are themselves blinded with the vulgar error Whereof we saw a pernicious experiment in the days of your Grace's immediate predecessor when a General enquiry made upon these Questions 1. How many inhabitants in your Parish 2. How many refuse to join in Communion with the Church proved abortive bicause those who refused to communicate in This Principal office were not noted as refusing to join in Communion with the Church which had they ben the necessity of compulsory means would have appeared so evident that we had not now be'n in danger to have our nineteenth Article urged against us to disprove our being a True Church I know my self chargeable with a double great boldness first in fronting these Papers with your Grace's name and then in the account I make for it But when I first engaged in the work I resolved not to do it by halvs and I think I might better have omitted the better half than This way of advantageing the whole And since your Grace is so well known eminent for zeal in redressing whatever you shall find to need it I have
any be will pass from the obediently negligent Subject to the impertinently busie Law-maker who having not Required but Supposed the Action neither Found nor Made any ground for the Supposition It forbids the benevolence it begs For thogh it threaten No guilt of disobedience to the Omission it doth to the Performance While we may ly safe in our Neglect we run a great risk in our Officiosness For he that Omitteth the Performance disobeyeth no command therefor cannot incur any guilt nor deserv any punishment but he that upon such terms approacheth the Holy Table is already gilty of contemt towards the threatnings denounced against Unworthy recevers bicause he needlesly exposeth himself to them and to com safely off had need of more Piety in the Performance than we can Yet discover of Wisdom in the adventure V. IF WE can suppose the Apost'l so regardless of our Saviors command yet sure he had more kindness for his OWN ARGUMENT than to use such solicitos endeavors to destroy it and for his own Credit than to furnish the Corinthians with a Plea whereby they might non-suit his Charge He was sure a better Disciple both to Gamaliel and our Lord than to use such endeavors as by the ordinary rules of reasoning must depose both his own Discours and our Lords Command from all power But such is the unavoidable consequence of the merely Suppositive sens of those important words For it is obvious that the Corinthians Might and therefor supposable that they Would plead thus for themselves We are sufficiently sensible that as often as we eat This bread and drink This cup we shew forth the Lords death and consequently that whoever eateth This bread and drinketh this cup unworthily is guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. But in these our ordinary Fests which thou so severely reprovest we have nothing to do with This bread nor This cup. We Fest indeed as often as we meet in the Church but without any Intent and we conceve without any Need to eat This bread or drink This cup. We intend to do what all Nations agree to be the proper manner of worshipping God This is the Vniversal notion of mankind in that so common Rite of Sacrificing The Votary therefor offereth his beast that he may become a guest to his God thereby at once Receiving and Expressing a confidence that he is propitious to him And thogh our Lords great Sacrifice of himself have made it needless to shed any more blood by way of atonement yet is that so far from any reason that we should lay aside Festing with Sacrificing that it is a very good one why we should take it up if it had never be'n used before since now we have much greater reason to rejoice in the Communion to which God inviteth us But that in all our Fests we should be obliged to celebrate the Lords Supper since himself hath not expressed it we understand not For either he intended we should receive it only at the same Fest whereat he Instituted it which was the Passover or els he left it wholely to our discretion to receve it as often as we should think convenient Now that we intend not to do it in our ordinary meetings thy self seemest to understand For thou declarest when ye come together it is not to eat the Lords Supper Is it not we own it we plead it It is not to eat the Supper and how do we Profane it when we do not eat it When we do Eat it if our behavior be irreverent we must confess our selves guilty for we submit to thy rule As often as we Eat This bread and Drink this cup unworthily we are guilty but it thence followeth not that we are so as often as we Fest together in the Church It is hard to say whether such a plea were more obvios to the Apostl's Observation or Destructive to his Argument It was therefor infinitely necessary he should answer it and we find no other Answer to it but in these words nor any other Use of Those words but for such an Answer This is sufficient to perswade us so to interpret them that the Argument be not Defective nor Themselves Impertinent But to fasten such a Gloss upon them as shall make them not only Useless but Pernicios and the Argument not only naked of so necessary a defence but irrefragably retorted against the Author is perhaps a greater abuse to Them than the Corinthians profaneness was to the Lords Supper VI. FOR a close of this troublesom dispute let us impartially ballance the rival senses upon This enquiry which of all others is most important viz. which of them affordeth better satisfaction to a pious soul conscientiously enquiting how often he is obliged to receve the Holy Communion A question wherein there are many things doubtful but none more than This Whether it more Deserve or Need to be answered 1 The One sens offereth full satisfaction by shewing us a Certain Mesure to which we must conform And though the change long since made in the Manner of celebrating Church Festivals seem to have confounded it yet if we once know what it was at the time of the Institution we may and must so accommodate the never decaying Reason to the Change as still to answer the first Intention For if the Corinthians were therefor obliged to Eat the Lords Supper in All their Church meetings bicause they Fested in them All in One manner so are we bicause we also Fest in them All in Another manner Since the Manner of Publik worship the Church upon competent reasons may alter but the Institution of our Lord indispensibly closing All Church Fests with his own Supper No human power may abolish at least not in point of the Obligation though possibly invincible necessity may dispense with Actual performance at som times So by This account the clear answer will be That the Church must offer the Holy Sacrament as often as she can persuade the peopl to receve it and every person is so often obliged to receve it as the Church Officers shall offer it and Both the Church and every person oght to come as neer as possible to doing it every Lords day and every Holy day i. e. All days of Church Fests 2. But the other Sens for want of a Standard will pack us off with an answer more Delusory than the Collier's If we ask How often must I do this in remembrance of Christ it will answer As often as you eat This bread and drink This cup If we then ask How often must I eat This bread and drink This cup it will answer As often as you do it in remembrance of Christ This I say is more delusory than the Collier in two respects 1. Bicause it was possible to know what the Church believed Publik Confessions Canons of Councils c. All of them independent upon the Collier or his Faith and all know'n to the Catechist But Here we have No
Declaration or Canon which pretends to oblige 'till our own voluntary Act do it 2. The Collier was not the same person with the Church He might possibly differ from her or if he did Not then might a further question join them Both together and by asking How do both thou and the Church believe call him to a determinate account of his Own and the Churches Faith But here This bread and This cup are supposed to be a mere Periphrase of the Lords Supper differing only in Syllables and not at all in Signification It is therefor impossible that ony one can Do This which he would never have do'n had not our Lord commanded it and not remember That Command which must be the adaequate reason of the Action and it is no less impossible to remember the Command without remembring the Author These are so far from separable by any Forgetfulness that they cannot be made so by any Endeavor And therefor it must be extremely frivolos if the Apost'l should so solemnly press this as reveled by our Savior That as often as we eat his Supper we must eat his Supper Again the entire question is compounded of Both terms For we ask not separately How often must we Do This as a distinct question from How often must we set forth our Lord's death But join Both in This question How often must we so do This as thereby to set forth our Lord's death Had the Collier be'n thus Catecised he could not have escaped either confessing his ignorance or giving account of his belief But here the clearer the Question the more unsatisfying the Answer When different expressions are made different things they may pretend to mesure each other but when they are joined together as parts of one whole Suppositive duty then we have no mesure at all Yea Those very words which pretend to give us an exact one rob us of one that with som Latitude might have served the turn For without them we could not have doubted as now we do whether we are under the obligation of an absolute Command or no as well to the Thing as to the Manner nor be'n put to such hard yet unprosperous shifts to make our Lords Institution and the Apostl's Discourse worthy their Authors CHAP. IV. Objections answered I. The First Objection That the Tradition may be novel answered 1. By mater of fact II. By passing judgment upon it No necessity of difference in point of frequency between the breaking of bread before meat and Grace-cup after it 2. If the Jews Antiquities be against us we may reject their authority III. 3. Seeing a party of them are on our side we may well prefer that party above the opposite So great an agreement as is between them could not be 1. From Chance IV. 2. Nor the Jews conforming their custom to Christs Institution because it is incredibl they should have such 1. care 2. or wit V. Another Objection That we must have Fests or no Sacrament adjourned VI. A Third Objection That the Jews used their Grace-cup in their Houses not their Synagogs Answered by six steps VII The last Objection The universal silence of all Ages Answered 1 By shewing reason why both Primitive and Later ages should be silent and 2. by shewing that the best critiks have observed it HAVEING thus ballanced the two pretenders and found the One not only Serviceable but Necessary and the Other not only Unserviceable but Prejudicial both to our Lords Institution and the Apostl's Argument I might with corage proceed on in the remains of my journy But sensibl how many prejudices he must encounter who shall in so awful a subject oppose the stream and unable to prophecy what might rise in Other mens minds I communicated what I have above written to two or three pious and learned Friends requesting them to favor me with their Censures and Objections that I might either answer them or submit to them Two Objections I have by that means obtained which I think requisite to Answer 1. THE FIRST OBJECTION saith that The Custom referred to is in many particulars novel and by which we cannot judge of the practice of the Jews in our Saviors days This strikes at the very heart and must be carefully warded I shall therefor first examin what is to be found of the Jews Opinions in the case and then consider what judgment is thereupon to be made 1. The Jews think the Practice so far from novel that they think it as ancient as it's occasion the disbanding of the Camp in Joshua's days and the consequent impossibility of the whole Nations bringing their daily offering to the publik place of Sacrifice This we have found in Dr. Castel upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where he intimateth that the people must tary for Samuel 1 Sam. 9. because he was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this seemeth confirmed by Jonathan's Targum which is elder than our Lords Institution and paraphraseth the word which signifieth Blessing by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence perhaps our Latin Pars which signifieth Breaking But my learned Objector doth not impute novelty to the whole but many particulars and adviseth me to consult the Misna in Berachoth I have do'n so and thereby find reason enogh to suspect the Jews care or felicity in preserving their Antiquities but not enogh to suspect mine own Hypothesis Indeed I find them treat the Bread and Wine much like the Apostle They speak much more of the Later than of the Former and it is not for a running vieu to discover what difference they put between them The 7th chap. of Berachoth beginneth thus Three eating together are obliged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word is proper to This exercise and its derivatives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie the meeting which Elias thus describeth Three or more sitting at Supper among whom one as the father of the family or som venerable Rabbi if such be present as a guest is obliged to pray and bless the Table with an audible voice as is said Psal 34.4 Magnificate Dominum meum Magnificate there are Two at least Mecum there is the Third if there be only Two ether of them prayeth privately by himself Here and in most other of their Writeings they speak indifferently of the whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if we com more distinctly to enquire what interest the Wine hath above the Bread we shall find nothing certain but what Shulch Aruch tells us That they are divided into three Opinions 1. Some say the Wine is so necessary to consecrate a meal that thogh a man eat single if he can get no Wine he must rather fast than eat without it indeed he is not obliged to fast more than one day 2. A second opinion is That the Cup of Blessing is not at all necessary be the number of guests never so many 3. A third sort say with our Leo Modena that it must not be omitted if there be three And
but adaequately for this Duties sake which gave it both Holiness and Name nor as Successor but Superior to the Sabbath And this is worthy our consideration not only for the Sacrament's sake but the Day 's too VI. FOR to derive the LORDS DAY from the fourth Commandment as it is Inconvenient upon other accounts so is it Mischievous upon This that it looseneth its relation to This office for who 's sake alone it was dignified as with the assemblies of the Saints so with it's title of the Lord's day Nor is such an opinion consistent with the practice of the Primitive Church which for several ages celebrated Both the One for the Jews sake the Other for the Sacraments which therefor we ought to celebrate as constantly at least as we do That day which cannot be duly bicause it needs not all be sanctified without it Were this as carefully heeded as in Scripture it is plainly declared in Reason duly accounted for and in the Primitive times publikly practised both the Lords Day and His Supper would have escaped Those Losses which Both of them suffer by their separation the One rob'd of it's greatest Honor the Other of its very Being For as it is higher Honor to the Day to be acknowledged an Evangelical Substance than a Legal Shadow and to be celebrated with this office than without it so is it not only Less Honorable but More Destructive to this Holy office to be spoiled both of the acknowledgement due to it from the Day so preferred by it's interest and of Safety from that Neglect which could never have befallen it while the Day it self is sanctified if that Sanctification were acknowledged to relate to this Performance Those therefor who ar zelos for the honor of the Day are for it's sake obliged to consider whether any Sport or any Lrbor can be so pernicious a desecration of it as the Omission of this Sacrament who 's celebration was the sole reason of the sacredness both of the Day it self and of its Eve which of the two hath the greater interest in the Fourth Commandment as being the same Seventh day which Gods peopl celebrated as thereby consecrated yet had not retained any difference under the Gospel from common days but in order to the better preparation for the Sacrament to be receved the Lords day following and upon That account differenced not by Festing but by Fasting And since necessity may drive to Mean condescensions I beg now not only for the Lord's sake but for the Lord's day's sake for That day's sake in who 's behalf so many complaints ar made not only To our Governors but Against them I beg that those who ar so zelous to have the Day restored to its due honor would do their part to restore this Sacrament to its due celebration whereby the Lord's Day with his Person would be better righted than by Sabbatizing with Rigot more than Jewish but with Worship less than Christian Let us now spell all together The Exercises accompanying this constant breaking of Bread Were they not Holy The Phrase expressing This exercise Is it not proper The Place Was it not consecrated before The Time Was it not consecrated purposely What then can be answered to the Apostls demand The bread which they brake was it not the Communion of the body of Christ Or to Our inference that they were as constant in the Holy Communion as in Common Prayer CHAP. VI. The Practice of Antiquity I. The constant Practice of Christ's Church in it's best ages proved by one evidence of each kind viz. 1. Canon the 9th Apostolik II. 2. One Father Justin Martyr 3. One Historian Socrates The Church of Rome under pretence of Tradition innovated against the Church Universal III. 4. Enemies of each kind 1. Protestants IV. 2. Papists V. 3. Junior Fathers particularly St. Augustin whose words are recited wherein we must distinguish between Father and Doctor As Father he stateth the question The question and the practice of the Church both in Doctrine and Discipline very different beeween St. Augustin's time and Ours VI. As a Doctor he determins the question 1. His stile very different bicause his Opinion is opposit to all other Fathers 2. His determination reacheth not Our question Yet have later ages caght at his wonds and strained them beyond his intentions with unhappy success His Syncretism rectified FROM Scripture I am now to descend to Humane Writers to examin whether by Them we find the Practice of the Primitive Churches agreeable to That of the Apostls I. AND now I feel somthing like a Tentation to imploy my Servitor to collect what the Fathers the Eldest especially have writen on This subject and then stifling my Reader with a multitude of Quotations purchase my self at Both their costs the name of Well read in the Fathers and Councils c. But corage Reader I have no more such a Design than my Subject such Need Where none contradicts One competent witness of Each kind may very well claim the belief of any indifferent person and with More I will not troubl you I shall therefor produce but One ancient Canon One Father One Historian and One Enemy of each party 1. Of CANONS I account Those most Ancient which have usurped the title of Apostolical thogh many of them bewray themselves unworthy of it We have reasons more than enough to decline their Authority but None to except against Their Testimony concerning Mater of Fact such as is the Publik practice of the Visibl Church at the Time of their Date which is Therefor certainly Ancient bicause not certainly known since having no Councel to father them they must needs be elder than Any Of Those Canons the 9th thus briefly and plainly delivereth the opinion we ar pleading for All the faithful which enter the Church and hear the Scriptures but do not stay out the Prayers nor receve the Holy Communion ought to be excommunicate as disturbers of the Church To This so clear evidence I know nothing capabl of being opposed unless perhaps the word faithful be supposed to exclude All but such as deserv the highest sens of That title But it is sufficiently know'n that That comprehensive word conteineth All but Catechumens and Penitens All others as visibl Members of Christs Body being in Those days honored with That stile And that it signifies no otherwise Here the words themselvs sufficiently evince For This title is allowed to Those very Persons who at the same time ar censured as worthy of Excommunication Nor can the Last clause be taken so copulatively as if Those passed uncensured who stayed out Prayers thogh they receved not the Holy Communion For This was lookt upon as the greater crime of the Two The Councils of Antioch and Bracara required that such should be driven out of the Church and St. Chrysostom bitterly chides them saying If thou stand by and dost not Communicate thou art wicked thou art shameless thou art impudent And we shall presently
swallowed up and our Lord's Institution be lost in a private Tradition and an unintelligibl Mass but in the Beginning it was not so 5. The result of all is That the Doctrine of liberty from obligation to constancy in the Lords Supper is Popery most properly so caled both in the Mater and the Derivation in the Mater as differing from the Church Universal in the Derivation as proceeding from no pretence of Scripture at first thogh it be otherwise now but from Tradition of their own making contrary to Tradition worthily so caled and Scripture carefully examined Whoever therefor desireth a Thorogh Reformation from Popery and Popish Superstitions let him not spend his zele about litl Ceremonies and Circumstances but imploy it in service of the most Sacred and most properly Christian office which needs be rescued from utter abolition by the Practices of Rome never more grosly superstitious than in This Subject III. 4. THE Fourth sort of Testimony is That of ENEMIES Those that appear such to the Constancy we assert may be reduced to one of these three Glasses viz. 1. Protestants 2. Papists 3. Junior Fathers Among PROTESTANTS and Abov all others I therefor apply my self to the excellent person above praised bicause I know no other that hath asserted any thing so distinctly as to be capabl of an answer This admirable Person finding the Evidence of the best Antiquity That of the Apostl's and Primitive Fathers undeniable endeavoreth ro Evade what he findeth necessary to Confess 1. Concerning the Former we have heard him say True it is the Apostls did indefinitely admit all the faithful to the Holy Communion but they were persons wholely enflamed with those Holy Fire which Jesus Christ sent from Heaven to make them burning and shining Lights c. And then he spends a whole Page in such a Character as one might think intended for the Apostls themselves did not the question necessarily cast it upon the Faithful and then too one might think that word must be taken in its most rigid sens for the Elect. But was there a Judas among the twelve chosen by our Lord himself and not One unworthy among the thousands of Disciples whom the Apostls indefinitely admitted St. Jude describeth not Such Saints sure where among other black characters he brandeth them with This that they are spots in their fests of charity and as litl doth he blame the officers of the Church for admitting them St. Paul too I take it doth not describe Saintly conversation in those Church meetings for whose debaucheries he reproveth not the Pastors for Admitting such Persons but the Peopl for Committing such Leudness yea and So reproveth them as not to Excommunicate them for their domestik riots but to require them however unworthy in their persons to come but in a manner more worthy Had the Scriptures be'n silent we must have be'n very tame if without any evidence we had believed that All Christians in that better then Golden age deserved so great an Eulogy but after such contrary Evidence we have nothing better to do than to pity such an excellent Person so enslaved and hardly used by an Opinion that putteth him to seek but alloweth him no shifts from such insupportabl Evidence Another Confession with it s annexed Evasion concerns the Ancient Fathers in these words St. Hierom and St. Augustin tells us That even until their days the custom of receving every day remained in the Churches of Rome and Spain And all the ancient Fathers exhort to a frequent Communion But just as Physitians exhort men to eat the best and heartiest meats not the sickly and faint but the strong men and the healthy All the ancient Fathers exhort to a frequent Communion This is more than can well stand with his own positions which discorage the generality from it yet falls as much short of truth as Frequent doth of Constant for we shall presently meet som of them exhorting not only to Frequent but Daily Communions Yea so certainly did the Primitive Christians make This not only their Constant but their Principal exercise in All their meetings that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which primarily signifieth no more than a Meeting became the diverbial word for the Lords Supper in exact conformity to St. Luke's stile who saith They meet to break bread and the footsteps of the phrase remain as plain yet as much corrupted as do those of the Office among the Romanists who express their Church-meetings by Going to Mass As certainly therefor as the Papists make the Mass the Principal exercise of their Publik worship so certainly did the Primitive Christians make the Lords Supper the principal of Theirs the very phrase confirming their express testimony of this truth They exhort men he confesseth but evades the consequence by adding they do it Just as Physicians c. whereas it is undeniable that They exhorted as the Apostls admitted All Indefinitely and until we are shewen that they excepted any besides Catechumens and Excommunicates we must not clip their indefinite Exhortations with unwarrantable Limitations derived from no other reason but their serviceableness to our Hypothesis IV. ANOTHER Class of Adversaries ar the Papists who yet no less manifestly Preserv than Contradict the Primitive Practice For That very Church which obligeth not the Peopl to receve but at Easter only That very Church in whose magnified Synod at Trent a Caveat was entered not to derive even That anniversary obligation from our Lords but the Churches command That very Church to This very day so Prescribeth as to Out-do the constancy of the Primitive Som may think it too much that I have from the Acts of the holy Apostles taken the Lords Supper for the reason of the Disciples meetings the first day of the week But none sure can doubt that with the Papist to go to Church signifieth the same as to go to Mass but to go to Hear Mass is such an errand as the first ages never went upon While they admit the people only to hear or see Their Hoc est corpus meum is an egregiosly and Both words of St. Paul may be applyed to such a Mass To the people belongs This is not to eat the Lords Supper To the Priest As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you shew forth the Lords death And both the One and the Other forsake their Duty and their Patern while they pretend to stick to them Thus the ruins of a beautiful Structure may at once evidence its amplitude and confess their own rubbidge no way answerable to the beauty it formerly served We need not therefor be ashamed of this kind of proof as if we too much honored the Church of Rome in owning her Practice for an evidence of the Primitive We take it not as the Testimony of the Honorable but as a Confession of the Guilty when we make use of their Own words as an evidence against the Speakers practice When we say every Mass ought to
unworthiness in Prayer as Those by unworthiness in Communicating Is our Lord Man only is he not God also Is he God of the Sacrament only is he not of Prayer also Is preparation therefor necessary for That only is it not equally necessary for This This were enogh But it is further considerabl that the case is very unequal on both sides For whereas unworthiness is more objected in bar to the Lords Supper the Scripture hath spoken much more against it in relation to Prayer For we shall hereafter find a more proper occasion to observ that the Apostl here reproveth not the unworthiness of the Person but only of the Performance Upbraideth not the Corinthians with any other sins but only such as are committed against the Lords Supper it self and in the manner of its celebration Doth not say the Lords Supper is turned into sin if the Communicant be guilty of Other sins But Solomon Prov. 15.8 saith expresly The Sacrifice of the wicked is sin and again chap. 21.27 The Sacrifice of the wicked is abomination David Psal 50. expostulateth in God's name that they presume to tread his courts and take his name into their mouths and the Prophet Isa 4. describeth God sick of his own Ordinances bicause unworthy persons celebrated them Jeremiah and Amos speak the same language So that if we take our mesures from Scripture we find much greater reason to examin our selvs and upon sens of our personal unworthiness to forbear Prayer than the Lords Supper Whence then this so gross partiality Why should we take That unworthiness as a Prohibition from This duty which we think not one from the other Were the truth duly considered it would appear that the difference lieth not in the greater or less sacredness of the Duties but our own greater or less Sens of their Benefits It is not Reverence but want of Appetite not Fear so much as want of Love that keepeth us at distance Pretendedly Reverential and Really Neglective Why do we not els use either the same Reverence or the same Boldness toward Both Both equally require Worthiness and Both equally require Performance with This difference that in the One we remember the Lord in the Other our Selvs But in Both we rob God of his due thogh in several kinds In the Lords Supper we own Preparation and There we deny Frequency In Prayer we own Frequency and there we deny Preparation so the One we Perform unworthily and the Other we Forbear unworthily and wipe our mouths and say we have do'n no wickedness Say not I plead now for Irreverence in the Communion or Forbearance of Prayer No! Religion is not to Compound with our Corruptions but to Destroy them will no more connive at Unworthiness in Prayer for fear lest Gods Throne be as much Deserted as his Table than at Unfrequency in Communicating for fear lest Irreverence should be as rude with his Table as his Foot-stool There is no necessity that we perish either by Poison or Starving By DO THIS we ar not Invited only but Commanded so to Honor our Lord as to Fest our own Souls CHAP. III. The Obligation ceased not upon the change of the Manner of the Festing in the Church but must be accommodated thereto I. The Apostle hath prevented such a consequence by saying our Lord appointed us to do this 'till he com II. The adequate mesure of our doing this is not Eating but Meeting in the Church As change of the ceremony hindereth not Perjury from being a sin Nor doth change of the season hinder us from stiling it a Supper III. The Church careful to preserve the memory and title of Festing IV. The Apostl's argument holdeth by vers 20. more for the Thing than for the Manner wherein we cannot now be guilty as the Corinthians were V. The Equitable and Moral sens of the Argument accommodate to the present manner of Church-meetings VI. Distinguish between yielding and justifying BUT there is yet another way Obligations without either Countermand or Dispensation from the Author may fall by the sinking of the Ground they ar bilt upon Upon the death of our Parents we ar no longer obliged to honor their Persons but only their Memories and upon this account all that we have said seemeth to free us from any other duty towards This Institution but that of speaking and thinking honorably of it For if This be bilt upon a Festival Tradition then will the Apostl's declaration of our Lords will oblige Us to do This as often as They did That His argument must be good against the Corinthians and All other Churches that might irreverently Fest in the Church But when the Council of Laodicea banished Festing thence they sent This Sacrament into the Same banishment with it This we cannot deny since the Apostl hath so declared it an inseparabl Adjunct to That but still an Adjunct which therefor must accompany its Subject whether in Life or Death We must do This as often but only as often as we do That which Now we never do This Objection deserveth our Answer not so much for its dangerosness as for the occasion it ministereth for a more clear stating our duty in accommodation to so great a change And to cut off at one blow all its power we must observe that the Apostl hath prevented it by an express claus added to vers 26. which shews This not to be Mortal as ar our Parents we must shew forth his death not only while Festing continueth an Ecclesiastical exercise but till he come Whereby he putteth it out of the Churches reach in point of Duration as before he had do'n in point of Constancy He had proved it to be our Lords Constitution not to be omitted in any of their Church Fests bicause They must do This as often as they drank That Grace-cup And that this humor might not fall upon another part he further tells them That thogh they should omit the very Grace-cup it self yea those very Fests which it must attend or what ever other way they should invent All must be unable to free them from the Immortal obligation which they had as litl power to Abolish as to Intermit since it must equal the World in Duration as well as their Fests in Constancy This therefor though a positive Law is no less Indispensibl than a Moral and the Church hath as much power to Dispens with the Law against Murther as with This whether by sapping the Foundation or battering it with a Contrary doctrine II. EITHER therefor That Council which forbad Festing in the Church was Heretical and then future ages must restore it by postliminium or else the adequate foundation of this duty was not Eating but Meeting in the Church And that This later is the case we have the Apostl's clear Intimation at least if not his express Declaration For however at That time their Festings wer as frequent as their Meetings and on the other side their Misdemeanors were not in the manner
dishonoring the Lords Supper by their necessary connexion Either therefor we ar quite out of the reach of his Threats bicause we are free from the Character he Reproves or if we ar Not then are we most exposed to That now mentioned bent against their So Coming together as not to eat the Lords Supper since That and only That can literally be charged upon us And since his Cautionary precepts were also levelled against the Sin Reproved they must needs strike more directly upon That Omission wherein we are equally gilty than upon the Unworthiness wherein we cannot be so And that inseparabl connexion between the Churches meetings and the Lords Supper which he so industriosly proveth must needs concern us more than any such kind of unworthiness as he mentioneth Not since That is to continu till the end of the World by our Lords own Institution and This is not condemned but by Our own Reason in consequence of the Apostls reproving another kind of gilt whereof we are uncapabl V. IF therefor we must accommodate the Apostls Dissertation to the change so as to shun the Unworthiness Not expresly forbidden much more must we do so in the Constancy so Expresly and Industriosly enjoyned So that our concern must needs be this As often as the Corinthians ate that bread and drank that cup which our Lord had adopted to represent his body and blood so often they shewed forth his death and therefor whoever did unworthily celebrate That were gilty of profaning This The connexion between their Meetings and their Fests the Apostl did not bicause he needed not mention but That between Them and the Lords Supper he proved inseparabl both as to Intermission and Abolition The former connexion the Church hath changed the later she may not in either of its members We ar therefor and till the Lord com ever must be obliged in All our Church meetings to celebrate the Lords Supper and That in such manner as becometh his body and blood THIS is the Equitabl and Moral sens of the Apostls words which was so Long and Universally paid them by all Ages and Churches preceding and following the change as might create a right even by Prescription but on the other side it hath be'n lost so many Ages that the Contrary Sens pleads Contrary Prescription It is now no less impossibl to reduce the people to Constancy than it was in the time of the Laodicean Council to reduce them to Sobriety and therefor the Officers of the Church now find it necessary to yield to the hardness of hearts callos by time VI. BUT here we must carefully distinguish between Yielding and Justifying Our Church speaketh not one syllabl to Dispens with the strictest Constancy but on the contrary still recommendeth it as often as she can without exposing her Own Injunctions to the Same Contemt from which she endeavoreth to rescu our Lords She doth indeed forbid the celebration if there be not a competent number to communicate bicause if the Holy Table must needs be deserted it is less dishonorable that it be so Without the Supper than With it She therefore leaveth it to the Ministers Discretion how often it shall be offered but she intrusteth their Piety to exhort the peopl to com as often as possibl She is Both ways careful that neither the Willing may want a Communion nor the Unwilling an Exhortation She therefor complieth with the peopl's Neglect no otherwise than did the equally valiant and indulgent Captain with his Armies cowardize he Commanded he Intreated he Exhorted he Reproved but when he could by no means prevail to stop their flight he put himself in their head that they might seem rather to Follow their Leader than Flee their Enemy But as this compliance of the Captain did not justify his Disobedient Troops so neither do the Churches Rubriks justify either Ministers or Peopl that are wanting to the Constancy so plainly Urged by the Apostl Practiced by the Best ages and Recommended by her Self The Sum of all is this Since the Church had no Authority nor no Intention to slacken the Power either of our Lords Command or the Apostls Argument we must therefor still own them to have the same Power now as ever and must accommodate them to our Present meetings as if they still were Festivals not only in Name or Spiritually as we acknowlege them still to be but in Reality and Sensually as at the time of his Writing they were and in the Recess the Obligation is no less indissolubl against the teeth of time and the constitutions of Governments than against any evasions of singl persons But All this the More it Obligeth the Less it Persuadeth It may perhaps Compel us to submit to the Duty but cannot Invite us to Embrace the Favor And our Lord doth not use to Drive us like Beasts we know not Why nor Whither But to Lead us with the cords of a Man with bonds of Love with strong Reason and sweet Allurements the savor of his sweet ointments which so draw loving souls as to make them not only Follow but Run after him And This duty above All others is That way most attractive The Command made Reasonabl by a good End and the End made Amiabl by Relation to our Lord 's own Person as we now com to see in the remaining words In remembrance of me PART IV. Concerning the End In Remembrance CHAP. I. It is the badge of a Christian I. This the only rite whereby we honor our Lords Person Three Considerations 1. Every Religion distinguished from Every other by som proper rite This Nature taught the Heathen and Gods Law the Jews II. The New Testament contracteth the multitude of Jewish rites to two whereby Christians ar known as ar the Knights of the Garter 1. By a rite of admission III. 2. By continual wearing the badge IV. Those distinguishing rites must be highly valued It was mortal to a Jew to omit any of them and to a Heathen to wear them V. 'T is wors in a Christian upon several accounts 1. The Law-giver 2. The Rites VI. 3. The Obligation HITHERTO we have seen nothing but Dry Law the rough Issu of Authority and Will haling us to the unrecommended performance by chains of Compulsion without any gentler Attractives that may Invite our Affections or Persuade our Reason And as the Country hath be'n dry and barren so have the Ways be'n craggy Troublesom to the Best and Unpassable to the Most understandings The Reader must understand the Rules of Reasoning and must be ar no litle pains to mesure the Apostl's discurs by Those Rules We now com to a pleasanter Country and smoother ways From the Apostl's Argument to our Lords which is full of endearments to our Affections and free from difficulties to our Understandings thogh we never sate at the feet of Gamaliel or any other Tutor but Love For whoever loveth our Lord's person can no sooner hear that He is concerned but he findeth abundant
shall not think any thing more probabl than This that wer they now aliv they would change their Stile with the so changed state of the Question and Correct or Confute whatever they have said in abatement of the Obligation to Constancy in the performance For proof hereof I give you the words of the excellent Person whom I have so often created as an adversary To such persons as these he speaks of Neuters in Religion not so bad as to deserv Excommunication nor so pios as to be discernably in the state of grace I can give no other advice but that every one take his mesures of frequency by the Laws of his Church and add what he please to his numbers by the advice of a Spiritual guide who may consider whether his penitent by his conjugation of preparatory actions and heaps of holy duties at that time usually conjoined do or is likely to receve any Spiritual progress And a few lines after To such persons as these the Church hath made Laws for the set times of their Communion Christmas Easter and Witsuntide wer appointed for all Christians that were not Scandalos and openly Criminal by P. Fabianus and this constitution is imitated by the best constituted Church in the world our dear mother the Church of England and they who do not at these times or so frequently communicate ar censured by the Council of Agathon as unfit to be reckoned among Christians or members of the Catholik Church Now by these Laws of the Church it is intended indeed that all men should be caled upon to discuss and shake off the yoke of their sins and enter into the salutary state of repentance and next to the perpetual Sermons of the Church she had no better means to engage them into the returns of Piety hoping that by the grace of God and the blessings of the Sacrament the repentance which at these times solenly begins may at one time or other fix and abide By which and many other words of this admirabl person it appeareth That thogh he denied our Lords Institution to amount to a Command lest the Sacrament by too much Familiarity might lose that Awe which he thoght most useful to make it Powerful yet did he upon other grounds suppose every one obliged to such Frequency as Wise and Pios persons judge most conductive to Godliness which as it was our Lords designe in his Death must needs be the best mesure of our behavior toward it's Representative St. Chrysostom expressly declared This I speak not that you may absent your selvs but that you may com worthily And we may well believ the same to have be'n the intentions of All our pios divines wer there No Other reason for it but This That otherwise Their Own injunctions must be as insignificant as our Lord's For if it be not necessary for us to Receve the Lords Supper neither will it be so to Prepare our selvs in such manner as they prescribe in Order to it And then all those Cautions against Unworthiness and Directions for Self-Examinations may be serviceabl perhaps to other purposes They may be useful to try the truth of our Repentance when upon other reasons we may set our selvs to that work but 'till then may well be laid aside notwithstanding any obligations deriveabl from This Institution Since therefor All obligations but such as ar bound upon us by our Lord and his Apostl ar too weak since contrary to All Expectation as much as All Law we have seen this greatest office of the Church sequestred but not restored with it's Officers Since the declared intentions of our pios Predecessors ar so grossly not onely Disappointed but Inverted that it is generally thoght as much more Safe as more Easie to Forbear the whole than to venture upon such difficulties and Dangers as ly in the way to the performance we may very well believ them so far from fondness toward their formerly Hopeful but now Unhappy opinion that they would be as forward as any of our present Divines to contribute to the remedy which the present state of the Church calls for II. 2. MY secund Protest is That I am so far from any design to rob the Sacrament of its due Reverence that I have already said sufficient to secure me from any such suspicion were I not now obliged to speak such things as look't upon in separation from my task may represent me half a Corinthian But this is the necessary consequence of opposing errors For Truth is usually seated like Vertu between two Extremes whereof whoever opposeth the One must seem to defend the Other The zeal of som Fathers for Aw toward the H. St. is taken as an implicit denial of our obligation to Constancy and then improved to a contrary obligation to Forbearance And while I renounce this Later I may seem to break those bonds in sunder whose Obligations I do not pretend either to Break or Unty but only so far to Slacken that they may not by too streght binding disable us from performing our necessary duty I therefor here invert St. Chrysostom's Protest This I speak not that you may com Vnworthily but that you may com Constantly I dash not One part of the Apostl's cautionary precept against the Other to the destruction of Both no nor put asunder what he hath joined together But I endevor to shew how he hath so fitted the One to the Other that they ar not onely Consistent but Serviceabl each to other For when he yoked Let a man examin himself with let him eat c. there was no strife between them and som ages they drew very lovingly and prosperosly together But after ages made the former draw cross and too hard for the later The Greek Church appointeth a Lent preparatory for every of the four Solemn tides whereon the peopl ar obliged to Communicate And such among our selvs as think it a necessary duty only upon those three great Festivals which ar attended with their Octaves suppose it Ushered with an Octave of preparation But the first ages which celebrated it every Sunday and other Holidays could allow it no more than the ' foregoing Eve I deny not for it cannot be avoided that if we conform to them in the One we must also do it in the Other More than every such Eve the necessity of most mens affairs will not allow nor the constitutions of our Church be satisfied with less Whether this be more agreeable both to the Apostl's mind and the honour of the Sacrament it self than either of the other we com now to consider And first we must see what is said on the other side II. THAT I may here again keep my self from any suspicion of injustice I give you our worthiest Adversares opinion in his Own words First he layeth down This for his foundation No man is fit to Communicate who is not fit to dy And having thereupon raised several completeth all with This coronis The