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conscience_n heaven_n hell_n worm_n 1,015 5 11.0094 5 false
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A34902 Advice to communicants for necessary preparation and profitable improvement of the great and comfortable ordinance of the Lords Supper that therein true spiritual communion with Christ may be obtained, and the eternal enjoyment of God sealed / by Robert Craghead ... Craghead, Robert. 1695 (1695) Wing C6791; ESTC R32371 116,968 168

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we know clearly provoketh God to give us no more light since we improve not what we have CHAP. 3. Self-examination required of all before Partaking THe second inference is that the Sacrament of the Lords Supper being the Communion of Christ● Body and Blood to the believer then all who● partake are oblidged to prepare for so great a Blessing particularly to examine themselves before they eat I shall therefore by the Lords help First Giv● some reasons why this Examining a mans self must no● be omitted 2. Answer some objections made against it 3 Shew the manner how it ought to be performed And in the last place Point at these heads wherein we are chiefly to examine our selves before we partake For the First The reasons why every man should examine before he eat are these First It 's expresly Commanded 1 Cor. 11. 28. Let a man examine himself and so let him eat Here is no exception of one by another and therefore we should make none It 's not said let a poor ignorant man examine himself but men of knowledge need not it 's not said let a man examine himself the first time he receives only but whensoever he is to eat let him examine himself Therefore the neglect of this one Duty will render a man guilty before God take care how ye enter the work if ye go out of the road in the beginning of the way you shal not easily know where to fall into it again 2. The transaction betwixt Christ and partakers of the Lords Supper is of the greatest importance for a mans soul for either he shal be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord by unworthy receiving or be blessed with the Seal of God for his eternal happiness if he truly receive Christ Therefore previous examination is most necessary 3 It 's Gods great mercy to our souls that he requireth this Duty of examining our selves and therefore should not be lookt upon as a burden but a mean for preventing our ruine for if after examination you find your selves in the bond of iniquity and in the broad way to the Pit It 's your mercy to know it before you feel it Can you in cold blood think it adviseable that the Pit be your first wakening When the unquenchable flames of Gods wrath are about you are ye resolved to understand the state of your soul no other way Can this be the way of Wisdom Can you approve it And if you cannot in your own conscience approve it but knows it to be a sinful and dangerous neglect Why then will you take a young Hell in your breast to the old Why do you prepare such a gnawing Worm as this will be That here is a man who never had so much regard to Heaven or fear of Hell as to enquire which of them he was going to On the other hand if after examination ye shal find any thing of true Grace the least grain of that fine Gold tried in the Fire though covered with much rubbish if any love of Christ and holiness though but as a smoaking Flax would not the comfort aboundantly compense thy pains canst thou deny it If Christ hath given thee grace is it not worth the looking on that thou mayest at least give him thanks for it Search therefore diligently for thou knowest not the many blessings that may attend a conscientious Examination Psal 119. 59. I thought upon my ways and turned my feet to thy testimonies 4. We are naturally inclined to flatter our selves in our iniquity Psal 36. 2. He flattereth himself in his own eyes And if we could to deceive and flatter God with our lips And therefore are obliged to make a diligent search lest we vainly think we stand in need of nothing when we are wretched and naked Rev. 3. 17. We may think that we live and have a name that we live and yet God find us Dead Rev. 3. 1. What woe of woes what a costly delusion to the poor Soul if still among the Dead and at last under the second Death and the poor man has no more to say but I thought I was alive in my Soul and many others thought so of me I thought that I might be as welcome to the Lords Table as any Christian was there I thought my self more upright than many of them my heart said so to me I many times thought their many Prayers Whinings Groanings Doubts and examining themselves was either but Hypocrisie or vain Labour But now iniquity hath found me out cannot now have one hour for the Work I despised night is come I cannot now see how to work Night is come without hope of a Morning Be wise then as to your latter End for the time is at hand when men will need no Examinations you will be all at a point in a few Years and eternally fixed in your Lot 5. If people will not be at pains to examine themselves before a Communion they will easily neglect it at other times and so are apt to live out of this Duty while they live when men become so impudent as to face the Lords Table not observing his Direction and the manner how to approach it the Direction being perremptory But let a man examine himself So that albeit there be a reluctancy to this profitable Duty yet this should constrain to it as we would not profane the holy things of God and when people make Conscience of it though the Sacrament be in its own nature a confirming Ordinance yet this previous examination hath been signally blessed of God being the very time and mean of awakening many out of their secure sleep in their Sins I know many at this day now exemplary in Holiness who can declare that preparation for Communions in their younger years was the very time their hearts were first engaged to Christ and his ways 6. Some without due examination take up an opinion that they have no grace no Title to Christ or his Table and so deprive themselves of that benefit This opinion was not the result of serious Examination but rather a temptation to obstruct both their Duty and Mercy and this becometh both a Sin and snare to them a Sin because they have not followed Gods Directions in knowing the very state of their Souls and a sna●e being thereby barred up from their spiritual good therefore this Self examination is most necessary every way Notwithstanding of the many clear and ponderous Reasons for this examining before Partaking of the Lords Supper yet some object against it as First I know my souls condition so well already that I am resolved not to Communicat an● therefore it would be to me but an unprofitable toil and therefore I will leave that Work to such as intend to receive Answ By what Rule can or dare ye resolve not to partake before ye take the way of Gods appointment to examine first and then determine Is it not just with God to leave you to your own