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A62123 An answer to all the excuses and pretences which men ordinarily make for their not coming to the Holy Communion ... by a divine of the Church of England. Synge, Edward, 1659-1741. 1697 (1697) Wing S6375; ESTC R1735 15,409 38

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AN ANSWER TO ALL THE EXCUSES AND PRETENCES Which Men ordinarily make for their not coming to the HOLY COMMUNION Fitted for the Meanest Capacities And very proper to be given away by such as are Charitably Inclined Price 3 pence By a Divine of the Church of England The Second Edition Corrected LONDON Printed for Richard Sare at Gray's-Inn-Gate in Holborn 1697. AN ANSWER TO All the Excuses and Pretences which Men ordinarily make for their not coming to the Holy COMMUNION A Certain man made a Luk. 6. c. great Supper and bad many And sent his Servant at Supper time to say to them that were ●idden Come for all things are now rea●y And they all with one consent began ●O MAKE EXCVSE c. ●he design of this Parable is to repre●●nt the manner of Gods dealing with ●●e people of the Jews upon their re●●cting the Faith of Christ and refusing to embrace the Gospel The Apostles of Christ who were the Servants of God were sent and commanded in the first place to Preach the glad tidings of the Gospel to them and to invite them to come and partake of that Blessing and Happiness which was offered them by God through Faith in and Obedience unto his Son Christ Jesus But they generally having their hearts wholly in a manner addicted to the Love of this World had no inclination to receive so pure and Spiritual an Institution and did not only themselves reject but also persecuted others for embracing the Christian Profession despising and treading under foot the Son of God and counting the Blood of the Covenant wherewith they should have been Sanctified an unholy thing and even doing despight unto the Spirit of Grace which would have wrought upon their hearts in order to their Conversion As therefore the Man in this Parable who made the Supper was offended with those who did not come when they were Invited and therefore wholly Excluded them from his Table and sent his Servant to call others in their room as you may find it in the latter part of it So did Almighty God cast off the People of the Jews upon their obstinate rejecting of Jesus Christ giving them up to be destroyed and scattered by the power of the Romans And commanded the Apostles to go out into all parts of the World to gather a Church and a peculiar People unto him from among the Gentiles But my present aim in Reflecting upon this Parable lies clear Another way namely to represent and reprove those Excuses and Pretences which so many men do make for their gross neglect of the Holy Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ notwithstanding that God by the Mouth of his Ministers does so frequently call and earnestly invite them thereunto And indeed this matter is in so lively a manner represented in the whole design of it that I think it is scarce possible to draw a more exact Parallel For here In the first place we have Almighty God making a Supper for us for the feeding and nourishing of our Souls in Vertue and Piety through the Passion and Death of our Saviour Christ Jesus which he has appointed for ever to be commemorated by our Eating of this Bread and Drinking of this Cup in Remembrance of him To this Supper we are not once only but often bidden by the frequent Admonitions and Exhortations of God's Ministers addressed unto us that we should come and be partakers of this Holy Communion And as the Guests who were invited in this Parable had framed some weak and impertinent excuses for their not coming One had bought a piece of Ground another five Yoke of Oxen and a third had Married a Wife none of which things needed to have hindered them from accepting of the good man's kindness Just so we when from Month to Month and from Year to Year we continually turn our backs upon God's Holy Table have yet some sort of pretences wherewith we endeavour to satisfie our Consciences and to excuse this gross and scandalous neglect of which we are Guilty That our Saviour Christ Jesus died for our Sins that it is only for the sake of his Merits and Sufferings that we can hope for Pardon and Eternal Life at the hand of God That before his Death he left this command with all that should be called by his Name that they should Eat of this Bread and Drink of this Cup in remembrance of him whereby we are obliged to shew forth his Death untill his second coming And lastly that this ordinance is the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ or in other terms the means whereby we do Communicate in the Benefits of that Sacrifice which Christ offered and in the merits of that Death and Passion which he underwent in his Body and by the sheding of his Blood for us and consequently that the Receiving hereof if duly performed is not only our duty but also a great advantage and benefit unto us All these things I say are so universally owned by all who profess Christianity that I need not offer any thing for the proof of them or any part of them But then surely one would think that when men who are thus perswaded do so often and for so long a time absent themselves from this ordinance there must be some insuperable difficulties and obstacles in their way which it is beyond their strength or power to remove or else that they would never at the same time both neglect their Duty and forego their Interest And yet I doubt not but to make it appear as plainly as any thing can be that there is nothing which we can at any time pretend as a hinderance of our coming to the Holy Communion but what either is really or ought to be no hinderance at all or else is such as it is in our power by that grace and assistance which God never denies to those who seek it wholly to remove and put out of the way To come to the matter then and that I may proceed in an orderly method I shall reduce all the impediments which men do ever alledge for their not coming unto the holy Communion to these Five heads that is to say either First that they are Sinners and therefore dare not come or Secondly that they are so continually engaged and taken up with Business that they have not time to prepare themselves for it or Thirdly that when they do endeavour to prepare themselves they find they cannot do it as it ought to be done or Fourthly that having formerly received the Communion they find themselves never the better for it and therefore think it to no purpose to come again or Lastly that they are not well satisfied with the manner of Celebrating Administring and Receiving this Ordinance in our Church and therefore cannot joyn with our Congregations in it Nor is there I think any thing that can be urged by way of Excuse for not coming to the Holy Communion but what I shall