whose immediate service Religion is will not only offer the Sacrifice of Fools but of somthing worse not only defeat the end and acceptance of their worship but turn it into guilt and an argument against them 2. It is not only a service of Religion but the highest and most solemn service of it so it hath been alwaies accounted in the Christian Church and for that reason she hath used to consummate and end all others with it it is her most august and Solemn Sacrifice the great and chief rite of Prayer and her most devout and solemn Eucharist and expression of praise And let me add if it may signifie any thing with this Generation it is the only band and testimony of our full communion with the Christian Church our Baptism admits us into the Church gives us a right to all the priviledges and blessings of it and our going to Church and ingaging into the standing Services of Religion may procure us the Name of Christians and cause the World to repute and take us for such but it is this Holy Sacrament that makes us to be in full Communion with Christs Church It is a vain thing for Men to say they are no Papists no Sectaries c. they are Protestants of the Church of England when they do not communicate in Sacraments with her they may be of any Church or of no Church for all they do without this and for any thing I know to the contrary they do as actually cut off themselves from the communion of the Church by the neglect of the Holy Sacrament where they may have it as they can do so by Heresie Apostacy schism or can be cut off by the highest censures of the Church herself This is a thing that ought to stick fast upon some Mens thoughts for if there be no Salvation out of the Church of Christ and those be not in this Church that do not join in her communion and those do not do this who do not communicate in her Sacraments then some Mens conditions must be very hazardous and then we may assert the necessity as well as duty of the Holy Sacraments in order to Mens Salvation the necessity I mean of them where they may be had Nay I know not why I may not say more viz. that the neglect of this Holy Sacrament doth as really forfeit Church membership as the want of Baptism doth hinder it and those that live and dye amongst us without receiving the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper are no more true members of our Church than they that dye unbaptised those that have been admitted into the Church and come not up to the terms of its communion may forfeit that membership as truly as they who were never admitted into it cannot pretend to it For though Men may enter their names into a society yet unless they submit to the Laws and usages of it they will neither be accounted members of it nor suffered to injoy the immunities and priviledges thereof 3. I add it not only is and hath ever been accounted the highest service of the Church but that in which we are thought to have a nearer access unto and a more intimate communion with God than in others I do not urge its being so lively and visible a representation of that which is the most affecting meditation in Christian Religion and that upon this reason the Apostle tells the Galatians that Christ had been set forth before their Eyes and Crucified among them Gall. 3.1 though that alone were argument enough to ingage Men to all reverence in it But I argue it upon another reason namely that herein we are admitted to the Table of the Lord where we not only feed with him but feed upon him we eat his Flesh and drink his Blood we partake of him and are incorporated into him we are made one with him and he with us we dwell in him and he in us as our Church speaks I do not here undertake the dispute about Transubstantiation that hard word and that worser thing which the Church of Rome hath taken upon her to teach as an article of necessary faith contrary to the nature of a Sacarament to the plain sence of Scripture to the doctrine and beliefe of the Primitive Church and Fathers of it and to the common sence and reason of all Mankind It is a doctrine that came forth with the doctrine of their infallibility and methinks 't was very fit those two monsters should be born together to let the World see how Gigantick the faith of a Romanist is and I will say those that can believe the infallibility of their Popes after so many instances of their having erred and contradicted one another may believe the doctrine of transubstantiation contrary to all and the plainest evidences of things that it is possible for Mankind to have But I am not for admitting dispute or controversie into this discourse and therefore let that Doctrine pass as a thing more monstrous and abhorrent to humane reason than any that is to be met with even in the Pagan Poetick Theology And yet notwithstanding all this I add and still assert that we do as truly and to all real effects partake of Christ in the Holy Sacrament as if we did literally eat his Flesh and drink his Blood our advantage is as real and true by the one as it could be by the other The Church of England is for a real presence of Christ in the Holy Sacrament but it is that real presence which the Primitive Church and good Fathers of it were for and meant when they spake to that purpose viz. a real Spiritual presence a conferring all the great effects and benefits of his Body and Blood as truly as if they themselves were actually present there A Spiritual presence is as real a presence as a Bodily and the effects and benefits of Christs Body and Blood are real things too So that the Body and Blood of Christ may be said to be really and truly there where all the effects and Blessings of them are really bestowed and the Church of England doth truly say that they are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper when all the real benefits and effects of them are taken and received by them This I am pretty well assured is all that the Primitive Church and Fathers meant by the real presence and this is sufficient both for our faith and comfort too and while we are satisfied and assured of this we neither need more nor are obliged to puzle our selves about any further questions Now this surely is such an argument and obligation to reverence and devotion in this service as can never miss effect upon them that entertain the thoughts of it For if we do thus discern the Lords Body and take the Bread and Wine in the Holy Sacrament not only to be the signs and symbols of our Lord's Body and Blood but in a Sacramental
sense the very Body and Blood themselves and by the grace and blessing of God upon them to convey to us all those effects and benefits which the very Body and Blood and our feeding upon them could do Then certainly we cannot but pay all possible adoration to Christ when we partake of them nor partake of them without the profoundest reverence that our Souls are capable off And as I may well think that those who can be rude irreverent and profane when they partake of these Holy Symbols would be so to Christ were he visibly and corporally present so I may safely say that upon the same reasons that we would pay respect and reverence to our Lord were he so present we may and we should pay it when we partake of those things which he hath instituted and commanded us to observe as representations and memorials of him The truth is the argument in this case is rather too great than any way defective and upon every good Heart the effect must be according It can scarce fail of running our devotion into rapture and our reverence into extasie and transport to consider that the great God should put such an honor upon poor creatures not only entertain us at his own Table but give us his own Sons Body and Blood and all the blessed effects and benefits of them to feed upon Lord what is Man that thou art so mindful of him or the Son of Man that thou so regardest him and what name is bad enough for that Man whom such love and condescension such Majesty and such Blessing will not engage and strike into the profoundest reverence and devotion when he actually communicates in the Blessed Pledges of them all CONCLUSION ANd now I have brought this discourse to its designed conclusion and have little more than to beg of God that it may have at least some part of that effect upon Men that was designed in it I do think a scruple of this nature necessary to considered and I have endeavored to satisfie it as well as I can and I hope no Man will blame the undertaking how defective soever he may think the performance to be Is it not great pity that any scruple should keep Men in a total negligence of a necessary duty and cause them to think themselves innocent in it Is it not a strange thing and lamentable that Men should lye under such fatal mistakes as to think themselves at liberty whether they will obey the last dying command of their dear Lord or that their love and homage to him can consist with a constant disregard of it Is it not pity that Men should be easily perswaded to slight that which is so mighty advantageous to all the great purposes of the Spirit and Salvation and in which the greatest kindness and honour is offered to Men that God can put upon them Is it not pity and a shame that so many should call themselves Christians and of the Church of England too and yet neglect that which is the highest duty of Christianity and the great band of communion with the Church Is it not a shame for a Church to be without Sacraments or for that Church to have members that never communicate in them If any things in the World can be pitiable these things are so And if any thing can be necessary it must be to consider what that thing is that is the great cause of them Now this I would fain hope is a fear that Men have taken up upon the reason of what is said in these words I would gladly hope that it is neither obstinacy in some nor carelesness in others that keeps them from the Holy Sacrament but only fear and scruple in all fear of coming unworthily and incurring that Damnation that is threatned by the Apostle to all that do so come If this be the case of Men they are really pitiable and it is for the sake of them that this discourse hath been undertaken in which I hope somthing hath been offered that may be considered to good purpose and Men may find their account in 1. For first Men by attending to it may understand what the notion of eating and drinking unworthily is and upon what reason the Apostle chargeth the Corinthians with it viz. their not discerning the Lords Body their being drunk at the Lords Table as well as their own and putting no difference between these and common things and that no Christians now can be guilty of the like Sin but by somthing that sets them as far from discerning the Lords Body and paying due respect to it as they were 2. And secondly by considering this Men may perceive both how far they themselves are from the Sin and how little they need to be afraid of the same danger if they find that by the grace of God they are secured from the one they may confidently hope that his mercy will secure them from the other 3. They may hence also learn what a reasonable measure of knowledge devotion and care will most certainly set them above all possibility of this unworthiness and of that damnation threatned to it 4. And fourthly by considering that it is their necessary duty and the mercies and compassions of God as great and ready to pardon the common infirmities of humanity in this as in any other Services of Religion they may learn to slight and surmount all their fears in this as they do in them and to come with as much chearfulness sense of duty and hopes of divine acceptation in this as in others 5. This discourse may be of some use to the directing and encouraging Men in their preparations for this Holy Sacrament and not fright them by the labour difficulty length of time and curiousness of preparation that some have accidently done The effect of all which should be the ridding Mens minds of those unreasonable and superstitious fears that they have too generally taken up in prejudice against the Holy Sacrament and addressing themselves conscionably and chearfully unto it And I have nothing more but to beg them to give it this effect to take heed that they shut not their eyes against clear light that they pretend not scruples to keep them in the neglect of a known necessary duty and that they cherish not those scruples and wilfully retain them against all reasonable ways of satisfaction there is not a worse nor a more dangerous temper of mind than this and he that considers that for this cause God gave up the Heathen to a reprobate sence to vile affections and left them at last to follow things which reason and nature did abhor had need to fear transcribing the same temper of mind lest he succeed in the same dreadful punishments It were certainly much better to look upon our scruples of this sort to be as they really are diseases of our minds and be as desirous and ready to have the cure of them as we are of the diseases of our Bodies to give God Almighty thanks whose providence orders us these helps for the one as well as the other That so as the Apostle speaks both he that sowes and they that reap may rejoyce together The one for that they are satisfied and relieved and the other for that God hath honoured him so far as to be an instrument in it Which I pray God almighty grant may be the issue of all at last Amen FINIS
danger of doing it amiss will not excuse the neglect of it And this I advise all scrupulous and timorous persons in this case to possess their minds in the first place with the steddy and serious belief of as a thing that will go a great way towards silencing all their exceptions against coming to the Holy Sacrament where scruples and fears may at any time arise in their minds let them remember this is a necessary duty and it will be a good answer to them all I may sin in coming to the Lords Table but it is my necessary duty to come I fear I shall eat unworthily but God hath expresly commanded me to eat What then What shall I resolve to stay away I am sure that is to sin against a plain command of my Lord and to neglect that which he hath made my necessary duty What then shall I do Why the way is plain and the solution is easie I will resolve by Gods grace to do my duty and endeavour with his help to do it as well as I can this is the true conclusion from these premisses and the only safe way to take in this case For if it be a necessary indispensible duty it must engage our care to do it and to do it as well as we can it s being necessary must ingage our obedience and care to do it and the danger of doing it amiss must ingage our utmost caution and care to do it as well as our poor power will enable us The possibility of doing it amiss will not excuse our neglect of it only it should ingage our utmost heed that we do not contract a guilt nor incur a danger by any voluntary failing or wilful carelesness in the doing of it CHAP. V. The second Consideration that I named as an Argument for the Truth of our Collection is this The possibility and guilt of doing this service of our Religion is no greater than of doing others amiss which yet we count necessary to be done and our selves do keep up the exercise of THis will be a considerable addition to the former and I shall endeavour to drive it to an issue by an induction of several dependent propositions 1. Men are as incident to failures in doing other duties of Religion as in doing this every whit as apt to do them amiss as they are to do this so I will instance in the two most stationary and common I mean prayer and hearing Gods word we are as subject to failures in these as we are in this and if we consider ourselves shall soon confess we are so The truth is the thing is too evident and others may see it as well as our selves I am not very willing to enter upon this theme because I would not indulge to any thing that may but look like reflection but certainly if any will but observe our common carriage in the Church both at Prayers and Sermon he will be tempted to think our zeal and devotion is but small nor our selves very much concerned whether we discharge these duties as we should or no. Those that so commonly set themselves to gaze and look upon others as if they had no other errand hither but to see how others are dressed and who is the finest and those on the other hand that lay themselves down to sleep and perhaps can sooner do it in Gods house than in their own Surely both these sorts are far enough from that devotion and zeal that serious and close application of mind that all the services of Religion should be performed with and need not be told how grosly they fail of discharging these services of Religion as they ought If I might be allowed to argue from plain evidence and matter of fact I think I might cast the odds on this side and adventure to say that men do not so commonly fail in doing this duty as they do in others I never yet saw a man sleep at the Holy Sacrament or need to be awaked when the Holy Symbols were to be administred to him Men are then generally serious and thoughtful earnest and zealous and closely intent upon what is before them So that if we may judge by appearance and plain fact the Service of the Holy Sacrament is performed with fewer failures than other services of Religion commonly are but if upon experience we find that Men fail as commonly in other services of Religion as this it will serve my turn at present Let me beg a Man to consider himself well and then to give me in the sum of his own experience whether he do not find himself as incident to failings in other services of Religion as this How hard a matter doth every man find it to keep his heart close to God and his thoughts from rambling abroad even when he is upon his knees in prayer who is there so intent and servent in spirit upon whom some vain and wandring thoughts do not break in even in the time of his most solemn devotion It is the common complaint of all good men and I never yet discoursed with the best man of this case who did not bewail it Or where is the man that so reveres the Word of God and is so awfully and religiously intent upon the hearing of it who is not many times diverted by idle thoughts and vain avocations and sallies of mind and who sees not that there are but few that can hold out watching with Christ one hour I am very confident I shall have experiece on my side and ready to subscribe to this truth that men are really as incident to failures at other times as this and find it as hard a matter to pray or hear Gods word so as they should and so as to have hopes of divine acceptation in doing of them as it is to do so in the Holy Sacrament yea perhaps as I said before much harder And as I dare appeal to common experience so I think I can produce some good reasons for the truth of this observation For first the aids and assistances of Gods good spirit and grace are as ready for us and may as reasonably be expected by us in this service of Religion as any others So that if we cry out as S. Paul did who is sufficient for these things and declame never so tragically and passionately upon our own utter inability to do any thing that is good yet we may encourage and comfort our selves with the hopes of the divine grace that is ready to assist us and can be sufficient for us and that in this service of Religion as well as others or if there be any difference it may be in this it may be more ready and plentiful than in others for upon the same reason that S. Paul calls this a drinking into the same spirit 1 Cor. 12.13 upon the same may men expect more plentiful effusions of that spirit in this than in other ministries of Religion And Secondly there are the
of their Religion since they are as apt to transgress and offend God in them as in this 2. This cannot be a good reason because it is much better and safer to do a duty as well as we can though we sin in it by not doing it so well as we should than wholly to neglect it and not endeavour to do it at all This is so evidently true that the universal reason of mankind will readily subscribe to the truth of it it is much better to do a duty as well as we can than not to essay it at all so that should we sin in doing our duty amiss and provoke God in strictness of justice to punish us yet we should sin more heinously and more grievously provoke him by wholly neglecting and disregarding that duty altogether You need but consult your own breasts for this you would much rather the children or servants c. should do what you command them though they do it imperfectly and amiss than that they should not go about to do it at all and you can much more easily pardon their errors in executing your commands than endure that they should wholly slight them and disregard what you give them in charge It argues some respect to God and some sense of a mans obligation and duty to do what he hath commanded though he do not do it so well as he should and perhaps might but it is next to extremity of profaness to neglect his duty altogether under a pretence that he cannot do it so well as it ought to be done and certainly God will bear rather with a bungler in his service than a neglecter of it and pardon an honest endeavour though attended with many failings much easier than him who never tries nor endeavours at all It is our happiness and comfort that God hath assured us he will deal with us by these measures and accept or reject mens performances by these rules of grace and mercy for so he hath assured us in the old Testament that he will not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoaking flax and so the Apostle hath let us know in the New that if there be first a willing heart an honest endeavour to do as well as a man can it shall be accepted according to what a man hath and not according to what he hath not Now this must needs be a mighty encouragement and comfort to us and sufficient to set us right in this matter to make us think it much better and safer to do our duty as well as we can though we be too sensible that many errors attend our doing it than to sit down in a total disregard of it SECT III. 4. OUr own confession and practice is evidence also in this case as we do not count this a good reason to abstain from the services of Religion upon so we do act contrary to it whatever errors and failings attend mens holy things yet generally they keep up the practice of them the sense of sin or guilt in doing them seldom prevails upon them to that degree as to cause them wholly to intermit and lay aside the care of them Those men that are most conscious to themselves of their errors in hearing Gods word or in praying to him yet think it their duty to come to Church and joyn in the publick service of it esteeming it much better to do somthing of their duty than nothing at all and judge it a lesser guilt to err in the manner of doing their duty than wholly to neglect all doing of it I appeal to our common practice these are the measures that we act and judge by in all other instances we do not think we may safely neglect our duty because we fear we shall do it amiss nor do we think our selves discharged from the services of Religion upon a fear of sinning and offending God in the doing of them SECT VI. NOw from all these premisses the Conclusion methinks should follow very plainly viz. that since this equal sense of danger and guilt in doing other services of our Religion amiss doth not detain us from doing of them that therefore it ought not to do it in this In the doing other duties and services of Religion men do so far surmount the fear and danger of sinning in them as to keep up the regular and unconstant practice of them they do not suffer these fears so far to prevail upon them as to cause them wholly to cast off the care of them but they judge it much better to do somthing of their duty than nothing at all and a much less degree of guilt to do their duty though they fail in it and fall short of that exactness and care that it should be done with than to sit down in the total omission of it to live and die in the neglect of it as I fear a great many of men do in this Now in these cases men judge aright and have both the universal reason of Mankind and their own minds to acquit them therein and certainly they do choose the much safer side of the question I ask then why they should not proceed by the same measures in our present case why the same reason that is so evident to us and so effectual upon us in all other cases should not be equally so in this I wish men would soberly consider things and judge righteous judgment and not make differences where there are really none I told you before it 's an ill sign when men are scrupulous only on one side and when that reason which prevails so easily upon them in one case shall not at all affect them in another in such a case it is plain mens wills and passions make the difference and not their judgments And to deal plainly I am afraid it is just so in our present case men have no mind to come to the Holy Sacrament and therefore let every little shadow of a reason keep them from it it is not because they have any true arguments against it but because they have no inclination to the thing it self This I take to be the main reason why all our reasonings with men in this matter are so insuccessful they encounter prejudices and contrary passions which too commonly are obstinate and blind and men will not be perswaded to quit them no not when their reasons are convinced and all their exceptions and arguments satisfied It is not in this case only that men believe with their wills and affections more than with their judgments and choose or refuse things not as they have true reason and argument for them but as they have inclinations to or prejudices against them The main fault of mens being more careless to come to the Holy Sacrament than to other ministries of Religion lies in their wills more than real judgment otherwise the same measures would be observed in both and the arguments that prevail with them to act regularly in one case
worthily as they should and yet it is too notorious that this fear of damnation doth not restrain them from them It is a hard saying but it is too true those very men that are so very scrupulous and so very fearful of damnation in this yet appear openly regardless and proof against all fear of it in other things wherein it is as reasonable and necessary to be feared There are too many men on one hand that can live and persist obstinately in plain Schism allow themselves in rebellions and the most factious courses opposing government speaking evil of dignities pride and uncharitableness judging and rash censuring of their brethren fraud and hypocrisie injustice and knavery and all sorts of such spiritual vices as these without the least remorse And I would to God I could not say as truly that there are too many on the other hand that will allow themselves in open debauchery make no conscience of raillery and profaness of intemperance and uncleanness of whoredom and drunkenness and that cursed humour of Swearing which hath obtained so among us to the shame of the Nation and for which it mourns There are too many I say of both sorts that live without any apprehension or fear of damnation in these things who yet when invited to the Holy Sacrament or reproved for the neglect of it seem wonderful scrupulous and fearful of damnation if they should come to it and think to excuse the neglect of one with their fears of the other which they always plead in vindication of it Now I appeal to the reason of all men whether this be fair and honest dealing or whether it be not plain collusion and subterfuge were there any true reason to fear damnation here which yet I have shewed there is not yet men were not just and fair in pretending so much fear of it in this and yet surmounting so easily that fear in others I have told you before in this discourse often and I shall have occasion to tell it you again that it 's a bad sign to see men scrupulous only in some few things and there is not a plainer mark of an hypocrite than to be shie and fearful of sin and damnation in some lesser things but venturous and regardless of it in others that are perhaps far greater It was this which our Saviour so often charged upon the Pharisees and for which he so sharply condemned them as a pack of fulsom errant hypocrites and men had need to look to it for they will draw upon themselves the same imputation if they be of the same temper and practice If the fear of damnation therefore influence you in this one let it in Gods name do so in other instances that are more gross and obvious If the fear of damnation in this be true and sincere it will do this for damnation is still the same thing and equally to be dreaded but if it do not it is plain you use it as subterfuge and artifice you proclaim your own insincerity and hypocrisie in it and the excuse it self not only aggravates but becomes part of the crime I have added this Consideration only ex abundanti and to argue with some men even upon their own pretences and if they will honestly reflect upon it it will hardly fail of some effect on them but to others that are really scrupulous and fearful of damnation upon every failure to receive the Holy Sacrament so well as they should and argue their fears upon the reason of this Text to these I say the former Consideration will be sufficient since it is not this eternal damnation that the Apostle means in this place And let me add that if eternal damnation be not threatned to the Corinthians here who so shamefully and grosly profaned this holy service much less is it presently to be feared by those who receive it as well as they can though not so well as they should if so extream gross and scandalous a profanation be not threatned with it surely every small failure needs not fear it CHAP. VII I advance now to the fourth Consideration which I proposed for the truth of our present Collection viz. That whatever sin or guilt there is in eating and drinking unworthily there is the same yea there is greater in not eating and drinking at all THe truth and reasonableness of this relies upon a reason that I have made good already and that is that eating and drinking in the Holy Sacrament is a necessary indispensible duty tyed immediately upon all Christians by the command of their Lord and that upon a reason which will ever have effect upon all those that have any love and respect to him yea which will still improve and in every age grow stronger and stronger I shall not and I hope I need not resume this argument because I have discharged it pretty well already and therefore shall little more than give in the heads of what hath been more fully represented 1. First Then I have observed that the command for this duty is as positive and express as any command for any other duty either is or can be and this we shall be satisfied of if we look into the story of it's institution This is related by three Evangelists and almost in the very same words Mat. 16. from 26. to the 29. Vers As they did eat Jesus took bread and blessed it and brake it and gave to the disciples and said 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 The same you have also in the other two Evangelists S. Mark Cap. 14.22 23 24. Verses and in S. Luke also Cap. 22.19 20. Verses in all which places our Lord doth not only Addminister this Holy Sacrament himself but expressly commands them to do so likewise Do this in remembrance of me This that you have seen me do do you take care to do also after that I am gone from you in which words it is plain that our Lord institutes this and enjoyns it to be a standing service in his Church and to be observed and practised by all the members of it For First The Apostles were at this time Christs little flock the first fruits of that Church which he was going to plant in the world and it is plain in the story that he administred it to them all And Secondly If we are to respect them here peculiarly as Apostles whom he designed to be the first and chief Pastors and governors of the Church the argument is equally concluding still for making it their duty to Consecrate and Administer the Holy Sacrament he doth make it the duty of others also to partake of it and to have it administred to them And if we take in part of the Ecclesiastical story to this Acts the second Chapter at the latter
end we shall see that the Apostles did thus understand this Command of their Lord and did practise accordingly as soon as ever they had gathered the face of a Church for they continued in breaking of bread as well as in prayer and as constant and daily in one as in the other This must needs be to our great satisfaction in this matter Our Saviour did institute and command this service to be in his Church and his Apostles understood him so and accordingly did practise it and keep it up as a standing Service in the Church as soon as ever they had gathered one and the members of this Church continued daily in the observance of it as well as prayer from all which if any thing can be plain this is so that Christ intended the Holy Sacrament to be a constant standing Service in his Church and that the Apostles and Primitive Christians did accordingly observe and keep up the practice of it and this too as carefully and constantly as the publick Prayers And if this be not enough to evince it to be every Christians duty to observe it yea to observe it as well as any other publick Service of the Christian Church nothing is and nothing can be so And since we are engaged again on this Subject let me add S. Paul's representing of this matter to the same purpose 1 Cor. 11.23 24 25. I have received of the Lord that 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 often as ye drink it in remembrance of me This S. Paul and the other Apostles were all that our Lord immediately and by himself consecrated and appointed Pastors and Governors of his Church and 't is well worthy of observation that he gives this in charge equally to both and takes care that S. Paul should no more go out uninstructed in it than his own immediate Apostles but that he should set up the practice of it among the Gentiles as well as they in the Churches of the Jews i. e. in plain terms that all both Jews and Gentiles that should embrace his Religion should equally practise this as a standing and constant Service in the Christian Church and it is certain that both these Churches did accordingly observe and practise the same SECT I. BUT then lest it should be thought a temporary transient institution only which was to continue only while the Apostles lived or some little time after as some few other things were Therefore I observed in the second place the reason with which this institution of Christ is backed and what our Lord hath declared to be the great end and purpose of it now this is expressed in these words in remembrance of me this do in remembrance of me which reason doth clearly shew this precept to be no temporary one only but to be even morally and perpetually obliging 1. I think I may say morally for the pious grateful devout and joyful remembrance of our Saviour and of his great love in what he undertook and underwent for our sakes is an instance surely of moral justice and as indispensibly and everlastingly due from us as gratitude is to a great benefactor or any instance of natural Religion is to God and certainly he that thinks otherwise dishonours and disparageth this love and makes himself for ever unworthy of it If ever any love were worthy to be remembred if ever any thing that God did for man deserved and might in justice challenge our highest gratitude and praise this certainly doth and I would to God that some men would remember this and remember this too how they can hope for the benefit of it and yet neglect to remember it and to remember it by that which himself hath appointed to be the solemn rite of that commemoration 2. I said perpetually obliging too and this I say now not only upon the former reason that its end is a moral good and what is morally good is unalterably and eternally obliging but I speak it upon a particular respect to the reason of its institution which is so far from wearing out that it will improve upon our hands and grow stronger in every succeeding period of the Church than other there will always be the same reason to remember the love of our dying Lord for that love will always appear the same and the benefits of it will continue the same too so that the reason of this service will in every age continue the same But there is another Consideration which will make it to improve and grow stronger and stronger for time is a grand consumer and waster of things and the memory of the greatest kindness and blessing in a long tract of time is apt to decay and wear off of mens minds so that the further that men live off from the time of our Saviours passion the more danger they are in of forgetting it and the more need they have of something to fix it the more deeply and indelibly upon their minds So that this reason will still improve and we therefore that live at this distance of sixteen hundred years from it had need to be more observant of this institution to refresh our memories than they that lived but a very few years or days after it and so every age that shall succeed us will have more need still till the final dissolution when the Lord shall come as S. Paul speaks when we shall see him whom we now commemorate and have all our pious acts of remembring him superseded by the blissful vision of and attendance upon him for ever SECT II. I Might take in some other Considerations to add to the strength of these all which combine to render this precept more effectual and obliging if it were possible than the former I will little more than just name some of them First This was the last institution of our dying Lord and the thing that he gave us in charge just when he was going to suffer and die for us Secondly It is the peculiar precept of the Gospel and that which may be more truly called the command of our Saviour than any other And Thirdly it is plain and easie to be obeyed not in the least chargeable or burthensome as some such institutions before were nor in any measure more difficult than any other service in our Religion is But I will not enlarge upon these here because I have done it formerly in another place and in truth I only mention them and what hath preceded on purpose to make good the ground of my present Argument to let men see that it must needs be a sin and to convince
happy medium between these two which always is open and should alwaies be taken by Men in this case viz. to do their duty and do all they can to remedy that which would indispose them for it A Man may be sensible of his indisposition and sorry for it he may endeavour and pray against it implore the divine mercy for the pardon and grace for the removal of it and this he should do but by no means sit down under it and neglect so necessary a service of Religion by reason of it I think it much better and therefore should advise a Man rather to go to the Holy Sacrament though some present indisposition were upon him than so far to yield to the one as to neglect the other I am sure a necessary duty ought to be done and it is much better to do it as well as a Man can then wholly neglect it because he is at present unfit to do it so well as he should Now if Men would consider this and remember that they never do well in staying from the Holy Sacrament upon this reason and that they are not innocent in it did they believe that every time they stay away from it they sin in doing so it would perhaps give some check to that liberty which they commonly take in this case and that they ought thus to believe and thus to consider will appear plain upon these two reasons which I but just name because I have considered them already First that the Holy Sacrament is a necessary service of Religion and it is a Christians indispensible duty to partake of it when he may The Administration of the Sacraments is on all hands granted necessary to the being of a Christian Church and the partaking of them necessary to the being a true member of that Church God hath neither left it to our liberty and choice whether we will receive it at all or not nor whether we will receive it at this time and not that it is our necessary duty and it is our standing constant duty at least every time that the Church doth call us unto it So that upon the same reason that Men think themselves obliged to go to Church every Sunday and joyn in the publick Prayers and Service of it and do not count every little indisposition upon them a discharge from it upon the same they ought to think it their duty to go to the Holy Sacrament every time the Church administers it and that every accidental indisposition can no more excuse them from the one than the other for the neglecting it at any time is neglecting a duty and neglecting a duty is a sin and whatever any present indisposition may do towards the extenuating of it yet it can never warrant or justifie the same And that secondly because that indisposition whatever it be is our own only fault This I have proved before whatever indispositions may be upon us whatever it is that we think renders us at present unfit to communicate it is come upon us by our own only carelesness and neglect we should and with the help of God's grace we might live so as to be reasonably fit for this service at any time and it is our own folly and fault if we be not And if this be true it will soon satisfie any Man in this matter unless he be so gross as to think that one sin can excuse another or that a Man's sins not in neglecting that duty which his own folly and vice hath indisposed him for SECT I. ANd now I resume the purport of this fourth consideration which is this Suppose some present indisposition and unfitness be upon a Man and suppose it could be a sufficient excuse for his not receiving the Holy Sacrament yet it would be so but for that own time only speedy care ought to be taken against it and all endeavour used for the removal of it against the next time for continual unfitness can't possibly excuse any Man from it I lay down this against those that are alwaies complaining of their unfitness for the Holy Sacrament and upon that reason stay always from it hoping to be excused in so doing Few things are more common than this and we see it instanced almost every Day there are some careless negligent persons on one hand that care not to come up to the full communion of the Church and there are some disaffected persons on the other that are prejudiced against it but both sides when pressed to the Holy Sacrament have the same plea of their unworthiness ready to make and think to be excused upon the reason of it One sort of Men plead it honestly and upon real scruple but it is to be feared another sort plead it upon design and use it as an artificial excuse against that which they have no mind unto I shall not consider these sorts of people distinctly and separately but apply my self to the removal of this evil and argue the unreasonableness of it upon such considerations as may be proper for the cure of it from what cause soever it may arise 1. And first I desire to know whether such Men count their unworthiness and unfitness a Sin or not and I ask this question because I really fear a great many do not Men talk of their unworthiness and complain of unfitness and I fear count it a piece of humility to do so and an acceptable thing to confess it without ever reflecting sorrowfully upon it as their great guilt and that which they are obliged to reform It 's no new thing to hear some Men declare tragically against themselves and to seem mighty exact in confessing of those Sins which they are far enough from hating or resolving to amend and we know too many that count it enough to confess their Sins without any care to forsake them And I am very much afraid it is so with too many in our present case they call themselves unfit and unworthy for the Holy Sacrament but I do not see them much concerned or troubled that they are so no nor condemning or thinking worse of themselves because of it And therefore to any that pleads this in bar of his coming to the Holy Sacrament I would make this inquiry in the first place whether they look upon this unfitness as a crime as a Sin in them or not and one would be ready to think that Men could never impose so far upon themselves as not to think so and that they must be under some great delusions if they do let us agree therefore upon this in the first place and we shall better go on to what remains this is really a great fault which Men ought to be sensible of and to grieve for and not to look upon with indifferency and unconcernedness much less to value themselves upon 2. Since then it is and ought to be acknowledged to be a Sin and a very grievous fault I desire they will please to consider and