the Holy Sacrament which their minds may have entertained upon the reason of them CHAP. II. Having in the former Chapter cleared the true sense of these words I proceed in this to the second general that I proposed to draw some general Conclusions from them which may be proper to be considered in the present case and to which I shall reduce as to so many heads what I intend further to say in this discourse the Collections that I purpose are these three that follow 1. That eating and drinking unworthily in the sense of this place is a thing hardly to be committed by Christians in this age 2. The supposed danger of eating and drinking unworthily is not a sufficient reason for Men to abstain from the Holy Sacrament upon 3. The true purpose of this place is to deter Men from irreverence and rudeness in eating and drinking in the Holy Sacrament and ingage them to that devotion and reverence that becomes them that do discern the Lords body These are three material Collections proper to be considered by all scrupulous persons in this case and therefore I shall endeavour to the utmost of my power and skill to discourse them with that plainness and evidence that they require and deserve I begin with the first eating and drinking unworthily in the sense of this Text is hardly to be committed by Christians in this age In order to the clearing the truth of this Collection it will concern me to do these following things 1. Shew what this eating and drinking unworthily was and wherein this sin of these Corinthians did consist 2. Consider the Circumstances that all Christians now are in which set them almost above the possibility of being guilty of it 3. I shall inquire what can be counted eating and drinking unworthily in proportion to this 4. And consider in the last place whether these also be not almost incompetent to Christians especially to any that are concerned in our present case SECT I. IN order to my discharging the first thing undertaken I shall need but to repeat a little of what I said in the explication of this Text and this phrase in it Not discerning the Lords body is certainly the Key to the meaning of eating and drinking unworthily and by considering the one we may come to the understanding of the other and by examining how the case stood with these Corinthians we may easily understand both By their not discerning the Lords body the Apostle means their not considering that this was an immediate service of Religion and that the morsel of bread which they did eat and glass of wine that they did drink were Sacramentally the very body and blood of Christ they put no difference between these sacred Symbolls of our Lords body and blood and common food and drink nor shewed greater reverence in eating and drinking the one than doing so to the other they ate in Gods House just as they did in their own and made no distinction between this and a common meal Yea and which is something worse yet they did this not only thus irreverently but in intemperance and downright drunkenness for so he tells them vers 21. One is hungry and another is drunk How this monstrous disorder happen'd among them hath been hinted already and may more fully now by giving a short account of the ancient practice of the Church in this matter Now that briefly stood thus the Holy Sacrament was usually prefaced unto by a publick feast of Charity which is called in antiquity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Love-Feast to which you have frequent reference in the New Testament to this Feast every one contributed and brought some portion according to his ability of which all feasted lovingly together reserving some portion for the Holy Sacrament which they always celebrated in the close of this Feast Now this grand profanation of this Holy Service happen'd thus instead of feeding lovingly all together of what was thus brought by all each one fed singly upon his own portion by which it came to pass not only that the poor had little or nothing to eat but the rich had too much which brought them to excess and even to plain drunkenness one is hungry and another drunk in which sad condition approaching to the Table of the Lord they were very unfit to consider the sacredness of it and very unlike to pay that reverence that was due to it That both these things contributed to their not discerning the Lords body and in consequence of that eating and drinking unworthily we may fully satisfie our selves by considering the Apostles dealing with them in the latter part of this Chapter where he falls upon this Argument For because they were so grosly ignorant in the reason and design of the Holy Sacrament he explains that fully to them from Verse 22d to the 27th acquainting them with the Author reason and purpose of this institution that it was an immediate service of Religion instituted by Christ himself just before his suffering and instituted to no meaner a purpose than to be a solemn rite of commemorating his death which should be used in his Church till his coming again to judgment For I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you that the Lord Jesus in the same night in which he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he brake it and said Take eat this is my body which is broken for you this do in remembrance of me After the same manner also he took the cup when he had supped saying This cup is the New Testament in my blood this do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew the Lords death till he come And because through their scandalous intemperance preceding they so horribly profaned this service therefore he shews them both the sin and great danger of it and presseth them to a serious care to reform it as you may see in the 27 28 29 and 30th Verses Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examin himself and so let him eat of this bread and drink of that cup. For he this eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself not discerning the Lords body For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep For if we would judge our selves we should not be judged In which words it is plain he refers to this scandalous abuse of theirs aggravating both the guilt and danger of it in words as high and dreadful as could well be thought on that thereby he might bring them to a dread of it and to the use of those means which he prescribes in order to the reforming of it This in short was the eating and drinking unworthily that the Apostle so sharply taxeth and God
'till they have a little better strengthened their good resolutions and tempers than to venture presently upon that service which they may abuse and profane by being false to the resolutions they take up and the promises which they make in it This is the case and to the scruple taken up upon it I return these three things in answer and satisfaction to it 1. That every man ought indeed to be true to his vows and promises as near as he can and when he hath taken up such a resolution and given his faith to God he ought to perform it and to do his utmost to stand to it It is certainly a dreadful fault to play fast and loose with God almighty to promise and never take any due care to perform what a man doth promise there is not a sadder instance of a loose careless trifling spirit than to be prodigal in our promises and niggardly in our payments of them to be forward upon all occasions to promise great things to God what reformed what good men we will become and be but yet to be regardless and careless afterwards whether we be such or not and never to apply our selves in earnest to make good what we have promised and to put our good purposes in execution 2. But yet Secondly a mans doing thus afterwards doth not make his Communicating in the Holy Sacrament to be eating and drinking unworthily in any proportion to what is intended in this Text. His having received the Holy Sacrament may aggravate the guilt of his after failure but that subsequent failure doth not so affect his precedent communicating as to render it eating and drinking thus unworthily if the purpose of the mind be then serious and sincere his receiving the Holy Sacrament is far enough from being unworthy or faulty and as I said his failing afterwards doth not affect it all But then do I consider what I say can that purpose of mind be sincere and serious which afterwards is not put in execution doth not a mans failing afterwards to make it good shew that he was perfidious and an hypocrite in making of it why no I say it doth not a man may be in earnest and sincere in making a promise and taking up a resolution and yet possibly fail of making it good afterwards his failing afterwards is no argument that he was not in earnest when he made it it is argument indeed of his carelesness and irresolution but it may arise from a thousand reasons besides his falsehood or hypocrisie when he made it Many a man in the time of affliction and sickness for example makes fair promises to God what he will be and what he will do if God please to spare him and this I doubt not really and in earnest and with a sincere purpose of mind at that time to be or to do as he promiseth and yet afterwards that sense of things may wear of and that purpose of mind abate and that specious promise may come finally to nothing but this is not because the man was not then really in earnest but because afterwards he is careless and trifling and easily led away with temptations that interfere with his former promise and purpose of mind And so I doubt not it may be and too often is with men when they come to the Holy Sacrament their pious purposes for that time may be sincere and in earnest and yet afterwards wear off and come to nothing 3. And therefore Thirdly I affirm a man in this case doth come with one great qualification which should attend his communicating in the Sacrament i. e. a purpose of repentance and reformation and which will most certainly secure him against all possibility of eating and drinking unworthily in the sense of this Text or any like it So that instead of staying away for fear that he should change his mind afterwards he ought I think the rather to come that he may not do so the great reason certainly lies on this side seeing there is not any better course that he can at present take to fasten his good purpose and to secure it of effect than this for by this means he will make his promise more solemn and affecting upon himself cause it to stick the deeper and closer upon his own thoughts and receive that grace most infallibly from God which if he be faithful and true unto his pious resolution will continue and he may be enabled to act according to the intention of it SECT VI. 4. I Add now a fourth thing worthy to be considered in order to our satisfaction in this inquiry viz. that whatever the sense of eating and drinking unworthily is in this Text or whatever men can think to be like it discerning the Lords body will secure them from it What discerning the Lords body means I have shewed already and I need repeat very little of it again it means these two things First putting a difference between the consecrated Elements and common Bread and Wine the looking upon the Holy Sacrament as an immediate duty and service of Religion and consequently performing it with that devotion and seriousness that reverence and respect that men use to shew in other services of Religion the want of this was the cause that made the Corinthians to eat unworthily and provoked God to punish them with sundry diseases and death as he afterwards tells them they did not make any difference between this and a common meal in their own Houses they did not take it to be any peculiar act of Religion they came intemperate and drunk to the Lords Table and therefore to be sure were far enough from that reverence and devotion that so sacred a service ought to have been performed with Secondly discerning the Lords body means something more not only to look upon this Holy Sacrament as a solemn and immediate act of Religion but as the Sacrament and immediate representation of Christs body i. e. his body broken and slain for the sins of the world and the Communicating therein to be the commemoration of his death and partaking in the blessed effects of it to look beyond the Elements to that which they are designed to signifie and Sacramentally are to look upon the bread not as common bread but the substitute of Christs body and the wine not as ordinary wine but the figure of his blood and so regarding the whole service both as the most devout and solemn commemoration of Christs death and passion for the expiation of our sins and partaking as truly and effectually in the benefits and blessings of his body and blood as if we did eat and drink that very body and blood themselves This is the great end of this service and the reason of our Lords institution of it and to discern the Lords body is to understand it so and look upon it as such which it is most certain these Corinthians were far from doing either so ignorant as not to understand the reason of
blessed it and brake it and gave to the Disciples saying take eat this is my body And he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying drink ye all of this for this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins Here it is plain the Sacrament is instituted by our Saviour and delivered to his Disciples with a command to eat and drink of it and you meet with the very same words Mark 14.22 23 24. In S. Luke the matter is something plainer where it is not only instituted by our Saviour as the others relate it but a command given for their doing it likewise after his death in remembrance of him Luk. 22.19 And he took bread and gave thanks and brake it and gave unto them saying this is my body which is given for you do this in remembrance of me And that it was not a command that injoyned the doing of this at that time only S. Paul shews clearly in 1 Cor. 11.23 24 25 26. where it is observable that he speaks of it as a thing which our Lord charged him also with as well as the other Apostles For I have received that of the Lord which I also delivered unto you that the Lord Jesus in the same night that he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he brake it and said take eat this is my body which is broken for you this do in remembrance of me after the same manner also he took the cup when he had supped saying this Cup is the New Testament in my blood this do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me for as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew the Lords death till he come I beseech men to consider what is said in all these places and then to say if any thing can be plainer if there ever was or could be a more plain command than this is do this in remembrance of me if this be not an express command never any was such and if we may disobey this at our pleasure I know not why we may not disobey all others as well 2. It is not only a command a positive institution that relies only upon the will and authority of Christ commanding it but upon a very great and good reason and is recommended upon an argument that shews it to be eternally reasonable and becoming Not only do this as S. Matthew and S. Mark speak but do this in remembrance of me as S. Luke and S. Paul relate the matter which the latter repeats again as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye shew the Lords death till he come These words make it to relie upon a reason that is both becoming and obliging also even until the final coming of our Lord to Judgment for nothing can be more reasonable and fit in it self than to keep up in the Christian Church the solemn and most grateful remembrance of Christs death and they that can think otherwise are unworthy to share in the benefits of it Besides the instituting of it to this end makes it perpetually obliging also I mean to the end of the world and as long as there shall be a Christian Church in it for so long it will be fit to keep up the memory of it and this reason will not only hold but improve and grow stronger in every succeeding age and period of the world in which the sense and memory of it will be in danger to expire and wear off so that every such age will rather have greater than lesser reason to keep up this solemn commemoration of it 3. To these intimations I may add one thing very considerable to our purpose from the practice of the Apostle and the circumstances of his discourse in this Chapter a learned Man hath taken notice of them before me so that I shall but just name them First that the Apostle takes so much pains to instruct the Corinthians in the right way of Communicating in the Holy Sacrament and to reform the profanation of it that they were guilty of Now can any man reasonably think that he would have done this if he had not looked upon it as a necessary duty tied upon Christians by Christs own command and institution Certainly no he that gives direction how to do a duty supposeth the obligation and necessity of it or else he speaks to little purpose And as that great Man speaks can any man think the way and manner of doing an action to be a duty and yet that action it self no duty this is not supposable And we may be sure the Apostle would never have spent so great a part of this Chapter in directing how to eat and drink how to order and prepare themselves for it but that he looked on it as a duty necessarily incumbent on them nor be so impertinent as to concern and busie himself in directing the circumstances of an action which was not necessary to be done but arbitrary and at their pleasure whether to do it or no. The second circumstance is what I observed before that he did this even when the Corinthians run a very great hazard and incurred a grand guilt by their profanation of this service and coming so unworthily to it Certainly had the Apostle looked upon this as any thing less than a necessary duty he would have gone another way to work with them he would have discoursed to them at another rate and have told them it were much the better and safer way to stay away from the Sacrament than incur so great guilt and punishment by coming so unworthily this would have been the advice that a great many Men now according to their principles would have given to them and indeed do give themselves and others too But it is evident the Apostle speaks not one word to this purpose nor knew of any warrant he had to do so he had no authority to grant them any indulgence or licence to stay away though they were apt to come so very unfitly He was to recommend it as a necessary duty and to press the serious and becoming observation of it but he had received no warrant from the Lord to dispense with that observation he would have them to look upon the Sacrament as a necessary standing service of their Religion to count it their duty to eat and drink and his province was only to direct them how they might do it acceptably and not to their condemnation These Considerations are sufficient to convince all Christians that this is a plain necessary indispensable duty instituted and intended by our Lord to be a standing service in his Church 'till his second coming to judge the world And its being so becomes one very good argument to our present purpose and a good foundation to superstruct the truth of our observation upon for that which is necessary must be done and the
forward to make any thing eating and drinking unworthily which I have reason to believe the Apostle did not intend so I will not be hasty in agreeing with them that do unless I be very well satisfied that the Analogy is true and that the circumstances in both cases be the same 2. Another thing that I would have observed here is this that nothing can be eating and drinking unworthily in analogy to what the Apostle means here but that which argueth or infers as great an irreverence to this service and as gross a profanation of it as this of the Corinthians made them guilty of Their eating and drinking unworthily consisted in this and therefore if men make any thing else to be eating and drinking unworthily like them they must prove the same or as great irreverence and profanation to be in it If they can find any other thing which equally hinders men from discerning the Lords body or yielding any more respect to the sacred Symbols of it than the Corinthians did then I will yield that that may be allowed to come within the guilt of eating and drinking unworthily that the Apostle here refers to This is that Key that lets us into the Apostles meaning in this Text and opens to us his sense of eating and drinking unworthily and therefore if men will use it to any other things they must see that the wards exactly agree or else it will do no more service to them in this cause than a common Key will do towards the opening a Lock which it never was fitted for The Corinthians did eat and drink unworthily because they did not discern the Lords body and therefore those that do eat and drink unworthily like them must as little discern the Lords body as they did This is the rule that we must proceed by in this case if we will conclude rightly concerning any other thing it must be something that sets men as far from discerning the Lords body and renders them as unfit or unable to shew any becoming respect to it as this disorder of the Corinthians did them otherwise it is not eating and drinking unworthily in proportion to them in this the Analogy must truly hold or else all our deductions will miserably fail SECT IV. HItherto we have been smoothing the way and so far I dare say we have gone upon sure ground but now we must advance to a more uncertain and slippery path and to that in which the difficulty pincheth most 3. And that is the third thing proposed viz. to inquire what can according to this rule of proportion be admitted to be eating and drinking unworthily as these Corinthians did what it is that can hinder us from discerning the Lords body and paying that reverence and respect to it in the Holy Sacrament that men ought to pay as that disorder and intemperance of these persons did them This is the main question and the resolution of it will set us pretty well to rights in this difficulty There are but two things that after my best considering of this question I dare pitch upon to bring into any comparison with this unworthiness of the Corinthians and they are these gross ignorance and wilful resolved impenitence I name these two because I think I can make the correspondence to hold and I name no more because I cannot see that Analogy to hold in any others Upon the reason of one of these men cannot and upon the other they will not discern the Lords body and therefore in both cases are as far from any due respect and reverence to it as the Corinthians were I shall consider them distinctly and examin them upon this reason of not discerning the Lords body 1. Gross ignorance I mean it in the great principles of Christian Religion especially in that great mystery of our redemption by Jesus Christ when men understand little or nothing of Christs coming into the world or of the reasons of it or that bitter suffering and death that he underwent for us When they know not what the reason of this institution was or what our Lord would have signified in it If any adult Christian be thus grosly ignorant and being so communicate in this service I do not know how to excuse him from eating and drinking unworthily as the Corinthians did for it is plain in this case he cannot discern the Lords body He will look upon the Elements but as common Bread and Wine he will not consider that they are the Symbols of Christs body and blood and that the breaking of the one is to signifie the breaking of Christs body on the Cross and the pouring out of the other the shedding of his blood for our redemption and that our communicating in these is communicating in the blessed effects and benefits of both He doth not know that by this solemn rite of Religion he is to commemorate with gratitude and transport the amazing love of his dying Lord and that in this he may expect those communications of divine grace that shall strengthen and refresh his soul as really and truly as his body is by the Bread and Wine And being thus profoundly ignorant in these things such a man will eat that morsel of Bread and drink that Wine but just as these Corinthians and their fellow Grecians used to do the like in the end of their feasts as a Concluding Morsel and as a Grace Cup in token of that love which was amongst the ghosts for so they used always to end these their conventions And just like them he will be far enough from apprehending any thing of Religion and Mystery to be in it and consequently to that far enough from that devotion and reverence that becomes every Communicant in this service This was the reason why converts in the ancient times of the Church were usually kept in the rank of Catechumens for some time and competently instructed in the principles of Christian Religion before they were admitted to full Communion and to this service and this is the method that the Church of England proceeds in to this day to have all baptized persons Catechised and competently instructed in their Religion and thereupon Confirmed before she admit them to the Lords Table And by the way I would to God that this were so carefully kept up and practised as it should be and then we should have but little reason to fear any mens such gross ignorance or communicating unworthily upon the reason thereof 2. The other thing that we may allow to be the cause of eating and drinking unworthily in proportion to this of the Corinthians is resolved wilful impenitence In this case it is as plain the Analogy doth hold or indeed exceed rather and the not discerning the Lords body is alike in both cases a resolute impenitent wretch doth as little discern the Lords body as the Corinthians did and besides that doth despight to it instead of shewing forth the Lords death he comes to avow it instead of
it or so grosly irreverent and careless as not to consider it for had they done either much more both they could hardly have been guilty of such profaneness or of eating and drinking unworthily as they did And that is what I would say in this period that whatever the sense of eating and drinking unworthily is in this place the discerning the Lords body will secure men from it and this I shall endeavour to make plain in these following considerations 1. The not discerning the Lords body is here made the reason of their eating and drinking unworthily this I have cleared already to be the reason both of the sin and punishment too from whence it is plain that discerning the Lords body would secure from both for if men eat and drink unworthily because they do not discern the Lords body then if they do discern it they will not eat unworthily for the old rule is true in morality as well as nature and will hold in this instance as well as others take away the cause and the effect will cease 2. But Secondly this appears clear in the nature of the thing for there is a direct and immediate vertue and power in discerning the Lords body to cause in men all those qualifications that render them meet for this service and sufficiently secure them from eating unworthily as the Corinthians did yea and from doing so in any sense like unto them For First in general if men discern the Lords body they will presently perceive that this is a most sacred solemn service of Religion and not any ordinary thing and by this will not only be admonished of that reverence and devotion that it ought to be performed with but strongly induced to it Men naturally have some sense of reverence and aw upon their minds when they are addressing themselves to devotion and when they ingage into the services of Religion And so they will have here also when they consider what a solemn service of Religion this is and hath always been esteemed to be in the Christian Church and truly they can hardly be otherwise if they have any sense of Religion or any dread of the Almighty upon their Spirits And Secondly if men discern the Lords body here so as to understand the special reason of this institution that it is to commemorate the mighty love of our Lord in dying for us that it is to be a religious solemn representation of his meritorious bitter death and passion for our sins they will find that it will even naturally beget in them repentance and faith and joy and charity and thankfulness and a very high sense of the love of God and Christ towards poor sinners These are the highest and meetest preparations for the Holy Sacrament and those qualifications that fit us for the receiving of it and the death of Christ is the highest argument and most powerful means of effecting these in men that God Almighty hath to offer or can use with them The Apostle seems to count it irresistible and such a one as cannot miss of effect upon men that consider it 2 Cor. 5.14 The love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then all were dead c. And truly if Men do thus judge if they do seriously reflect upon the transcendent and amazing love of Christ in dying for the salvation of sinners it will even constrain them to repentance and faith and love almost whether they will or no if the grace of God be irresistible in any argument of the Gospel it is certainly so in this and I will adventure to say it is so far so here that those are monsters of Men or they do not consider things as Men that can resist and defeat the effect of it So that the Holy Sacrament being so sensible a commemoration of this death the very visible representation of it the evident crucifying of Christ before our eyes as the Apostle speaks Gal. 3.1 the true discerning of it and of the Lords body in it will be of the same effect to produce all these things in us I appeal to the experiences of good men for the truth of what I say let them tell you what a mighty efficacy they find in the Holy Sacrament to this purpose and how powerfully they feel their hearts moved to these things by it and truly if we consider the natural causality of things we shall be inclined to think it almost impossible it should be otherwise let us consider them a little singly 1. As for repentance whether it imply sorrow for sin a sense of its mighty evil and danger and a resolution against it or all these together as indeed it doth what can effect this in me if the Holy Sacrament do not can I see the Lords body broken and his blood poured out as I do in the Holy Sacrament for sin and to make the great attonement to the divine justice for sin I say can I see this without a sorrowful reflection upon my own sins which had a hand in this suffering Or can I doubt what a mighty evil sin is which could not be expiated by a meaner sacrifice than the death and suffering of the Son of God or of how dangerous and insupportable effect that punishment must be which the Son of God could not bear without horror and astonishment without fainting and death or lastly can I consider all this without some resolution and purpose to reform from sin and to beware of that whose consequences and issues I see to be so dreadful and insupportable I am sure I cannot consider these things but they will have some effect upon my mind and I am sure if they have not I do not duely consider them 2. And as for faith whether it respect the gracious declarations or kind promises or terrible threatnings in the Gospel or all these can I doubt the truth of any of these when I see the son of God die to confirm it can I question whether God be gracious and ready to forgive sin when I see him exposing his own Son to death that he may with honor do so can I doubt his promises to all penitent sinners when I see the truth of them sealed in his Sons blood or can I think that the divine threatnings of wrath and vengeance against all impenitent wretches will not most certainly be executed on them when I see God inexorable to his own Son and letting him suffer and die rather than permit sin to pass unpunished In a word the whole Covenant that God hath made with man the new Covenant of grace and mercy which the Gospel is the joyful publication of is here as it used to be of old ratified and confirmed by blood and the blood too of the Son of God which is such an assurance and confirmation of its truth as can never fail us and beyond which our faith cannot desire a greater 3. And then as to a mighty sense of the
other and from any thing in the bare word or use of it in Authors sacred or profane we cannot restrain it to eternal damnation only because it is used by them to signifie temporary chastisements and punishments as well as that and therefore as in other like cases we use to find out the sense of an Author when he useth words of an indefinite signification by considering the circumstances of the discourse in that place so we must do here fix the sense of this indefinite word damnation by considering the circumstances of the Apostles discourse in this place Which if we do I have shewed secondly that we shall soon find the Apostle doth not use the word damnation here in the terrible dreadful sense of it nor intend eternal damnation in hell by it and consequently that men argue amiss and wide of the Apostles sense that fix that dreadful meaning upon it There are two things plain in the context to warrant me in this assertion First that the punishments inflicted for this crime are plainly temporal And Secondly that they are said to be inflicted on purpose to prevent this final damnation First all the punishments that he instanceth in are plainly temporary this you may see evidently in the following Verse for this cause many are sick and many are weak among you and some are fallen asleep This sin of yours hath provoked God against you and he hath inflicted several judgments upon you for it sundry sorts of diseases as our Church speaks rage amongst you and some are actually cut off by them Where you see there is not a word of eternal damnation in hell nothing like it nor any thing that can be interpreted to that meaning only sicknesses and diseases and at most death and that you may not think it means eternal death or spoken of as a preface to it as it is to all those that are finally damned it is expressed by the mild and gentle phrase of falling asleep a phrase that is always used in holy Scripture in a good sense for the death of good men and men capable of mercy and not of those upon whom the wrath of God abideth and whom he will turn into hell Secondly all these punishments are spoken of as medicinal inflicted by way of commutation and on purpose to prevent this final damnation this is plain from verse 30 31. for if we would judge our selves we should not be judged but when we are judged we are chastned of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world The plain meaning of all which is this you might by judging and calling your selves to account for this sin prevent Gods punishing of you with these judgments and his inflicting of them though it be just and justly due to so great a miscarriage yet it is in his mercy to bring you to reform this error and to prevent the being further punished for it Where these two things are very plain First that these punishments were as almost all the divine judgments in this world are purely medicinal i. e. intended to amend and reform those vices in them that suffered them and in them that beheld them they were not wrathful excisions and revengeful cutting men off in their sins without all hope of pardon or space given for repentance and amendment as God sometimes deals with great and notorious offenders sore sicknesses lingring diseases and great weaknesses wherein they had time to recollect themselves and amend their faults and over and beside had a Preacher sent on purpose to instruct them in these things And Secondly that where the wrath fell heaviest and the judgment proceeded furthest even to death it self yet even there that death was in commutation and the merciful justice of God satisfied with it so as to proceed no further in punishing we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world From both which observations it is plain that temporal punishments are all that the Apostle instanceth in or relates unto in this place and these without any the least reference to eternal damnation Yea these plainly in opposition to it exchanges for it and means finally to prevent it These things I think sufficient to our understanding the meaning of damnation in this place and that it signifies only Gods judging men and punishing of them with some temporary afflictions in this world so that though the word damnation do signifie and in some places of Scripture intend damnation in the worst and most terrible signification of it yet it doth neither intend nor signifie it in this place and therefore they that so understand it and argue from it do both these quite beside the sense and meaning of the Apostle in it SECT II. BUT there is another expression here that startles some men and will need explication and that is eating and drinking damnation to himself by this some ignorant people think that something extraordinary is certainly signified and some such meaning intended as if a man were more accessary to his own damnation or more immediately damned himself by this miscarriage than by any other sin To drink damnation to a mans self sounds harshly and is a terrible saying and no man needs be blamed for being unwilling to damn himself And truly by the way I heartily wish every man were so in all other cases as well as this but why men should be shie and fearful of damning themselves in this instance and not in others or why they should think they do it in this more than others I understand not In order to the giving satisfaction in this I shall first explain the phrase and secondly shew that it intends not to signifie any greater or more immediate influence upon a mans damnation in this than in other sins Thirdly to which I shall desire may be taken in what I have said before that no greater guilt is said to be contracted in this than in many other sins 1. As for the phrase of eating and drinking damnation to a mans self it is but a common phrase and intends no more than exposing a mans self to the wrath of God and making himself obnoxious to divine punishments I have shewed already what damnation signifies in this place and what the Apostle refers it unto viz. not eternal damnation in hell but external corporal castigations and afflictions in this world And then eating and drinking damnation can signifie no more than exposing a mans self to those punishments and provoking God to inflict them upon him So that in the true intendment and reference of it in this place it doth not respect eternal damnation at all nor is there any reason that I know of to dread it more in this than other transgressions and sins The form of speech is but answerable to those well known and often used phrases in other places of Scripture O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self And why will ye die O house of Israel c. in which
there is no such mighty difficulty in it in this sense nor any such long time necessary to the performance of it Every Man doth know or atleast easily may know his one temper and what the general bent and course of his life is what he loves and what he hates and whether Religion be the matter of his care or not a Man can no more be ignorant of his one temper if he will consider than he can fly from himself nor can any great Sins or wickednesses which require a particular repentance scape his notice any more than the visible actions of every day and how then can any Man be a stranger to or need any tedious difficult inquiry and search to know those things which he daily feels and is sensible of I do not at all doubt but that some wicked Men use arts to divert their minds and thoughts from any reflection upon their spiritual condition and study to live strangers to themselves but I am sure there is real difficulty in this and perhaps after all such endeavours their minds will somtimes emerge above their pressures break loose from these sensual restraints and force them to understand their condition whether they will or no it is natural for a Man to understand himself and to reflect upon his own actions and much more easie than to arrive to such a pitch of brutish carelesness insensibleness and inconsideration as to be perfectly a stranger to his one state it is not in this case as it is with a Merchant who may run on and undo himself before ever he know how his accounts stand for his Books lie out of his sight or he may be careless and neglect to look into them but in this case a Mans Books are always open always present and under his view and he must wilfully shut his eyes or look upon them and suspend the natural and even necessary exertions of his mind not to think of them So that whatever examining a Mans self can signifie it can be no very difficult thing nor require much time for the performance of it No wise Man lives without it and no Man of the most ordinary observation and reason can be such a stranger to his own affairs as to need much time or pains in the examination of them The great things of our Souls and what relate to the condition of them are always obvious and plain and there is no great difficulty that I know of relating to this matter but only to bring our minds to pronounce and judg honestly and impartially of them In this I must needs confess there is some difficulty for self-love is prevalent in all Men and they are not very willing to condemn themselves of all things in the world the falling under the reproach and censure of a Man 's own mind is the most irksom and therefore Men study arts and all possible ways to avoid it and in this it is that the deceitfulness of a Man 's own heart doth chiefly if not solely consist But still this difficulty ariseth not from the difficulty of knowing or examining our own state but from the difficulty of being honest and just in judging of it the case is always open and plain but the fault lies in partiality to it and in bribing a false opinion and judgment of it SECT III. ANd now having considered what it is the Apostle prescribes in this case and seen what this examination of a Man's self doth signifie and what little expence either of time or labour is needful for it I proceed to the second thing i. e. to examin the reason of the thing to consider what is necessary to eating and drinking becomingly i. e. worthily in the Holy Sacrament and what that preparation is that is needful in order theirto As for the first what qualifications are necessary to our communicating fitly and becomingly in the Holy Sacrament I mean with what tempers we ought to come and how to behave our selves there when we are come for these I think we need look no further than the exhortations of our Church in the Office for the Communion they are in our Common Prayer Books and I wish every one would often read and consider them they most plainly and fully instruct us in these things I shall reduce them to these four heads 1. Repentance as it includes a hearty sorrow for our sins an humble confession of their guilt to Almighty God and a resolution by the help of his grace to reform for the future from them 2. A stedfast humble faith in God's mercy through Jesus Christ for our pardon and acceptance 3. A grateful sence of God's mighty love to Mankind in sending his Son to die for us with a thankful remembrance of his death 4. Love and Charity to all Men forgiving those that have offended and injured us being reconciled or endeavoring to be so to all that we have offended and bearing love and good will to all so as to be ready and willing to do them good according to our power These contain the sum of all those qualifications with which we should come to the Holy Sacrament Now as these things are absolutely necessary to our being Christians and therefore necessary for us to regard and take care of at all times so there is no more difficulty in them to fright us from the Holy Sacrament than from other services of our Religion If the difficulty of them be an â—â—ception against the Sacrament it is so against Christian Religion in general and we may throw off wholly the one as well as the other upon the reason of it but as their is no great difficulty at all in them nor any reason to accuse Christian Religion as a heavy yoke in requiring of them no more is there any cause to make them an exception against coming to the Holy Sacrament these are the conditions of our being Christians and with the help of the divine grace they are possible and easie too and as easie in order to this service as to any other purpose And then if we inquire how we ought to behave our selves at the Sacrament the same exhortations will direct us in that also which we may reduce to four heads as we did the former 1. A most profound reverence and humility such as becomes creatures when they approach the immediate presence of the great Creator when they ingage into the most solemn and mysterious service of their Religion when they dolefully reflect upon their own unworthiness and demerits and when they humbly supplicate and beg for the pardon thereof and which most certainly becomes all Chistians when they are set in the most affecting prospect of the death and passion of their Lord and Saviour 2. A most affecting exalted joy and rejoycing in Gods mercy and our Saviours love to us who hath remembred us in our low estate given us such reason to hope for his favor and pardon and in this Holy Sacrament lets us
the things that he prescribes in order to it 1. Of the first of these I have given account already and shewed that this crime of the Corinthians which he so sharply taxeth was a monstrous shameful disrespect and irreverence to the Holy Sacrament to which I shall only add that it was occasioned by these two precedent errors and miscarriages First their not discerning the Lords Body Secondly their intemperance in eating and drinking in the love-feast that preceded this Service 1. They did not discern the Lords Body they did not know or they did not consider that this was a solemn service of Religion and that there was a mystery in it they did not understand the reason of its institution that the Bread was Sacramentally the Body of Christ and the Wine in the same sense his Blood that both were to represent his Sufferings and Death and that our partaking of them was religiously to commemorate and gratefully to adore the love of God to sinners therein In plain terms as both the Sacramental Bread and Wine was part of what they had eaten and drank in the love-feast just before so they looked upon them to be still the same and but only a concluding morsel and a grace Cup with which that feast was to be ended for that as we ought to know was the common custom among the Jews and these Grecians too to conclude their feasts with a Loaf or small parcel of Bread of which every one took a little piece and a Glass or Bowl of Wine of which every one drank in token or in pledg of that unity and love that then was and afterwards should continue among the ghests that had then feasted together Now being so ignorant and uninstructed as it seems they were in the reason of the Holy Sacrament they might easily slip into this mistake and knowing that their former feast was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a feast of love and instituted to be a means of creating and continuing love among them they might easily take the Sacramental Bread and Wine being a portion of what they had eat and drank before to be but a tessera cheritatis such a pledge and token of love among them as was used at their other feasts This is the true state of this matter and it gives us one plain account of the irreverence and profanation of the Holy Sacrament which these persons were guilty of and how strange soever the thing may appear to us yet when these circumstances are considered the wonder ceaseth and the reason is plain 2. And yet this was not all nor the worst in this matter for their intemperance was worse than their ignorance and would more fatally prejudice their reverence and devotion intemperance in eating and drinking is the greatest hinderance of devotion possible and plain gluttony and drunkenness utterly inconsistent with it Now this you find the Apostle charging them roundly and plainly with at least the richer sort of them v. 21. one is hungry and another is drunk which though it may seem very strange and one would think incompetent to a Christian yet we have a plain account given us also how this happened For these love-feasts were upon a common stock to which every one contributed his single portion the poor you may well think could bring little or nothing but the rich brought more every Man saith the Apostle according to the ability which God had given And perhaps among these Corinthians than whom no Grecians were more vain proud every one might strive to exceed the other Now hitherto all was tolerably well only bating that some vanity might mingle with these contributions but here was the first fatal miscarriage these richer persons instead of casting in their symbols to the common stock feasted upon their own single portions and having much to eat and drink did eat and drink accordingly and commonly to that excess as to be downright drunk by that time they came to the Holy Sacrament which was always celebrated at the end of these feasts of such a portion of Bread and Wine as was separated out of the publick offertories Now coming to the Holy Sacrament in this sad condition no wonder if they profaned it indeed and shewed so little reverence and regard to it a drunken Man is every way as unfit for devotion as an ignorant Man can be but when Men are both these no irreverence can seem strange that they are guilty of These two things occasioned this terrible irreverence and profanation of the Holy Sacrament that our Apostle chargeth them with and from which these words are intended to reform and affright them for the future and by considering this we may surely collect what the great purpose of them was for as when we know a disease we can guess easily what the design of the Physick prescribed in cure of it is so by considering what the errror and miscarriage of these Corinthians was we may conclude what the design of the Apostle is in these words which he useth in remedy of it and therefore since the great fault of them consisted in their horrible irreverence and want of respect to this service we can assure our selves that what he intended was to reform that fault and bring them to that reverence and devotion that became a service of Religion and that so solemn too as he had instructed them the Holy Sacrament was So that since their eating and drinking so irreverently and profanely was that eating unworthily that he speaks of their doing this worthily would be by communicating with that Religion reverence and devotion that became a service so sacred as that was This I am confident is really the sense of these words and a true account of the Apostle's intent and meaning in them the consideration of which would be a great relief to scrupulous and timorous persons in this case and let them see how much others pervert and they themselves mistake the sense of this Text who conclude every error and miscarriage in communicating to be that eating and drinking unworthily which the Apostle so sharply blames and so severely threatens in these words I conclude by only adding this observation if eating and drinking irreverently and profanely be that eating and drinking unworthily which the Apostle means in this place then eating and drinking with that reverence and devotion that becomes such a service of Religion will set Men above the danger of that unworthiness and if to bring Men to this was the only thing he aimed at then Men do very ill to put other sences upon this Text and to fright themselves and others with the sound of words that do not concern them SECT I. THere is a second thing also I told you to confirm us in this account of the Apostle's meaning here and that is the phrase of the Text both that in which the Sin and the cause and the punishment of it too is expressed 1. The word expressing the Sin is unworthily