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A58940
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A sacramental-question concerning assurance how far necessary to a worthy communicant, practically answered, in a sermon, preparatory to the Lord's-Supper, Saturday, March 2, 1699/1700.
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J. S.
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1700
(1700)
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Wing S223A; ESTC R7898
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20,918
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72
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A Sacramental-Question Concerning ASSURANCE A Sacramental-Question CONCERNING ASSURANCE How far Necessary to A Worthy Communicant Practically Answered in a SERMON Preparatory to The Lord's-Supper Saturday March 2. 1699 1700. LONDON Printed by J. Brudenell for John Fawkner at the Talbot on the Bridge 1700. TO THE READER HAving reason to believe the following Discourse was of some Vse to several who heard it to comply with their Desire and in hope of doing good to Others it is now Publish'd If it be objected That the Stile is too Negligent and Copious and the same things express'd over and over in different Phrases and sometimes the same repeated which may be well enough in Preaching to a mixt Auditory but more exactness should be used in Printing I have only to say That I apprehend the same Pulpit Stile will best answer my End as to the Service of those for whom I principally intend it May I find Mercy of the Lord to be Faithful whose I am and to whom I am devoted If any are brought upon their Knees seriously to bless God for what they Heard or shall now Read I shall more heartily Rejoyce in it than to have the Approbation and Applause of all the Witty People upon Earth who have not Wisdom enough to know themselves and consider their latter End and prepare for Death and Judgment which cannot be without seeking to Jesus Christ as the only Redeemer and Saviour of Sinners to reconcile us to God and save us from Wrath to come His Grace and Mercy and Love is above all we can think Oh be Humble and Thankful adore Him and admire His rich free and glorious Grace but abuse it not J. S. London April 17. 1700. A Sacramental-Question concerning ASSURANCE How far necessary to Worthy Receiving 1 Cor. XI 28. But let a Man Examine himself and so let him eat of that Bread IN this Verse you have it plainly suppos'd That 't is a Christian's Duty to partake of the Lord's-Supper The manner of the Performance is regulated but the substance of the Duty is presuppos'd viz. to Do this in remembrance of Christ He ought to eat of this Bread and drink of this Cup and shew forth the Lord's Death this way only take heed not to rush hastily without previous Self-Examination â— That solemn Preparation is necessary to the right performance of this Duty may be argued from the Instance given of one special part of that Preparation The due Examination of our selves Let a Man examine himself and so let him eat of that Bread 'T is a Christian's Duty to partake of this Solemn Ordinance He must not do it rashly and unpreparedly And it is one special Part of necessary Preparation to Examine himself Quest. But some will be ready to say I have Examin'd my self and endeavour'd to know the true state of my Soul but I cannot come to a Determination Whether I have Sacramental Graces in truth and am partaker of Life from the Spirit of Christ or no and consequently how is it my Duty to come to this Ordinance for Spiritual Nourishment After all my Examination I cannot positively conclude that I am in a state of Grace at least I have many Doubts and Fears I have no Certainty no Assurance of my good Estate towards God May I nevertheless come Is it my Duty while I have so many Doubts and Difficulties unresolv'd and am so far from full Assurance and Joy This I shall endeavour to Answer by considering how far Assurance is necessary to our Worthy Receiving You will have my Thoughts of it in the following Particulars Answ First That in the diligent use of God's appointed means it may ordinarily be known Whether you have truly Repented of your Sins and do unfeignedly Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ And so whether you are sincere in your Christian Profession or no. By Self-Reflection and comparing your selves with the Word of God endeavouring to prove your selves and making use of the Assistance of Books and Ministers with Prayer to God to enable you to discern the true state of your Case you may ordinarily come to the knowledge of your selves and your Spiritual Condition I speak not of the grosly Ignorant or of such as live at that rate of Licentiousness that they cannot but know they are Impenitent or may easily know it on a little Reflexion but of such as doubt and have some reason for it Secondly He that endeavours not to know the true state of his Soul that with a prepared Heart he may joyn with his Brethren and Fellow Christians at the Table of the Lord liveth in continual Sin He that will not endeavour to come Worthily and accordingly Examine himself that he may be dispos'd and fitted for this Ordinance he continueth to disobey an Order of Christ 'T is not enough to say you have no Assurance or are afraid to come without it that will not excuse you from Sin Many keep off on such pretences lest they should Eat and Drink Unworthily and so Sin But consider not the Sin and Danger on the other hand of staying away upon such grounds as will not excuse them before God Consider therefore what is the faulty cause of your Ignorance of your selves and of your true state towards God Is it not Sloth and Carelessness Negligence and Remissness Earthly Cares or the Hurry of Worldly Business And if the doubts of your Sincerity arise from a faulty Cause you must not plead those Doubts as a sufficient Excuse for not coming to the Lord's Table There is a faulty Carelessness in some good Christians that they do not observe and record the Workings of God's Spirit upon their Hearts and so the time of His Love is not taken notice of nor remembred To allude to what God says to Ephraim Hos xi 3. When Ephraim was a Child I taught him to Go taking him by the Arm but he knew it not did not observe it You must reflect enquire and consider what God hath wrought in you and done for you Whether you have been brought humbly to acknowledge your Sin with Shame and Sorrow and Self-abhorrence seeing your need of Christ and His Grace have been perswaded thankfully to take hold of the Covenant to accept the offered Mercy of the Gospel and yield your selves to be the Lord's We lose much of our Comfort for want of bringing our Doubts to a Determination and this through Laziness Sloth and Carelessness 'T is true the want of Assurance will not argue a Man under the Power of Unbelief but it shews the Weakness of Faith and we ought diligently to clear it up whether we are in the Faith and whether Christ be in us or no and whether with all our Hearts we love Him Which for the most part may be known as well as our Love and Affection to Persons and Things in other Cases If we reflect and bethink our selves we may ordinarily know that we Love Are you not willing that Christ should be your
them for they have sometimes Doubts and no Assurance nor will their present State allow it and yet they will adventure Oh beware how you misapply and misimprove to your own Destruction what hath been said for the Encouragement and Support of Sincere Christians under Doubts and Scruples Weakness and Temptations Let such consider the Guilt they contract and the unspeakable Hazard they run by professing to belong to Christ's Family and so partaking of His Supper as Living Members of His Body while they are secret Enemies unto Christ in Heart and Life and hate to be reform'd Such are Guilty of His Body and Blood they joyn with the Murderers of JESUS whose Death they pretend to shew forth His very Blood will cry for Vengeance against their Hypocrisie and sink 'em under more dreadful and intolerable Wrath. They of all others Eat and Drink their own Damnation who thus wilfully prophane the Ordinance and take the Name of GOD in vain by pretending Love to CHRIST to serve some little Secular turn and be thought better than they are while they Live in secret allow'd Wickedness in stated Enmity and Rebellion against Him I may say of the Worthy or Unworthy Receiver as Solomon did of Adonijah 1 Kings 1.25 If he be a Worthy Man not a Hair shall fall from his Head but if Wickedness be found in him he shall Dye If you come to the Lord's Table humbly and penitently in Obedience unto Christ in such a manner and for such holy Ends as He hath appointed you shall meet with Welcome you shall be feasted with the fat things of His House you shall partake of the Treasures of His Grace and receive of His Fulness But if you come without Sorrow for Sin and without Resolution against it if you come Impenitent and Unreformed without Desires and Purposes and Endeavours to forsake Sin and subdue Corruption and be devoted to God c. You increase your Guilt you harden your Hearts the more you receive a Curse instead of a Blessing and will be more under the Power and in the Possession of the Devil And You shall dye for 't unless Soveraign Grace do timely prevent it by your Repentance and Conversion I cannot speak with too much Terror to such But Secondly There be Others Humble and Sincere Weary and Heavy-laden Contrite and Broken in Heart who have many Doubts and yet much Love who Fear and Tremble if they come and yet fear to tarry away There are many Such who need this Encouragement They have the Call of Christ to remember His Dying Love their Duty is plain They ought to make an Adventure of Faith as Peter when unlikely to take any Fish yet at Christ's Command let down the Net with astonishing Success Or as the Disciples said to the Blind Man Be of good Comfort Arise for the Master calleth thee Mark x. Let Faith in the Authority of Christ bring you to Remember His Death this way If you obey the Precept you don't know the Success as to Comfort Is there no Encouragement in the Invitation Let him that is a Thirst come and Who Ever will let him come and take of the Waters of Life freely Rev. xxii Are not sensible weary thirsty Sinners invited Therefore Lord I 'll not exclude my self I am one of them surely there may be Mercy for Me among the Rest however Unworthy and Vile I am The Invitation is not to such as are Worthy but Thirsty We come to Him that we may partake of His Grace and receive more of the Spirit of Holiness according as we need it And here I would not forget the Case of Those who are in Doubts because they have had a Religious Education and by the Restraining Grace of God and the Precepts instill'd into them by their Parents and Ministers they have liv'd unblamably in the World as to their outward Conversation They are afraid all their Religion is the Fruit of Education only and not of Special Grace And they are further doubtful concerning themselves for want of feeling those Pangs of Sorrow and Bitter Repentance which they hear and read others have had in their Conversion to God who have been reclaim'd from a Prostigate Life They apprehend on that account that they may be still Strangers to the great Change by Regeneration and the New Birth On the one hand I wish they would look to it that it be not really the Truth of their Case that they have indeed proceeded no further than a good Education may carry a Man which too many I fear do Rest in Yet Others there are who have had a Religion Education and by God's Blessing on it have had Early Experience of the distinguishing Grace of God They can't say precisely when they were Born again but can discover the Effects of it in Heart and Life These should not be discouraged on that account Nor for want of those Terrors which the Repentance and Conversion of Some is accompany'd with Early Contents who seek the Lord and serve Him from their Youth commonly escape such Terrors We find not that 't is true of All. If the Spirit of Christ hath wrought such a Change in your Judgment Choice Affections Conscience and Life as will make up the Character of those that are Sanctify'd you should not be uneasie and perplex'd for want of knowing when this Change was first made you may know a Man is Alive tho' you know not when or when he was Born And what if you cannot say those things concerning the Time Manner Antecedents and Concommitants of your Conversion from Sin to God that Others it may be can say who had great and presumptuous Sins scandalous and notorious Abominations to Repent of which God never suffer'd you to fall into Such are not sufficiently sensible of the Blessing of a good Education and what a Mercy it is to be sav'd from such Terrors It may be some of the Best Christians in all this Nation are of this Sort who may sometimes fear they have gone no further than Education without the saving Grace of God may lead ' em But if you can prove your Sanctification by the real genuine Fruits of it And that there is such a Change of Heart and Life wrought it matters not that you know not the exact Time You are certain Corrupt Nature could never incline you to love God and be devoted to Him to hate Sin and watch against it and to take Heaven for your Portion and Christ for your Saviour This Change must be from the Divine Spirit however Early Gradual and Insensible it seems to have been Effected If you find the Image of God upon your Souls and the real Fruits of the Spirit in Heart and Life tho' you never were acquainted with the Throws and Pangs and Terrors that introduce or accompany the Conversion of others you have Reason to be Thankful and not be discourag'd on that account Your great Business now should be to walk Circumspectly and to live more