prevail with some honest but less thinking Men to forsake our Communion And I shall only mention those which concern the Rites and Ceremonies of our Church and all that I shall at present do here shall be to answer some hard Words and ill Names which are given to our Worship and shew how ignorantly and injuriously they are applied to the Church of England Such are these Will-Worship Superstition Idolatry Popery These are hard Words which very few People understand and therein the great force of the Objection lies as will appear from a particular examination of them First Will-Worship Now when Men charge the Church of England with Will-Worship they generally understand such a Worship as is not commanded by God but is originally owing to the Will and Invention of Men. Now this I absolutely deny that there is any such thing as Will-Worship in the Church of England The Worship of the Church of England consists in publick Prayers and Praises in reading the Scriptures and expounding them to the People and instructing them in the great Articles of Faith and Rules of Life in singing Psalms and administring the Supper of our Lord and such like Exercises of Devotion All which are expresly commanded in Scripture and therefore cannot be Will-Worship in this Sence for they are not the Inventions of Men but the Institutions of Christ. It is true there are some Circumstances and Ceremonies of Religious Worship used and enjoyned in the Church of England which are not commanded by God but these are no parts of Worship and therefore not Will-Worship We do not think wearing a Surplice to be an act of Worship nor expect to please God by any external Dress or Habit but we think it a decent Garb for those to use who minister in holy things We do not think kneeling at the Sacrament to be an Act but a Posture of Worship as it is of Prayer and therefore not kneel to the Bread and Wine but receive them kneeling as expressing that Reverence and Devotion of Mind which becomes such a mysterious Worship and as a Posture suitable to those Prayers which in the Act of receiving we put up to Heaven The Cross in Baptism is not designed as any act of Worship to God but as a visible Profession of our Faith in a crucified Saviour it is not a dedicating and covenanting Sign which respects God but at most an engaging Sign which respects the Church and therefore is not an Act of Worship much less Will-Worship To institute any new Kind or Species of Worship is certainly unlawful as to make any new object of Worship whether it be a visible representation such as a Picture and Image or invisible Beings as Angels and deisied Men a numerous company of whom are worshipped in the Church of Rome or any new Acts of Worship such as frequent Washings Purgations Sacrifices Pilgrimages c. But the Circumstances and Ceremonies of Religious Actions which are no where determined by God may and must be determined either by our own Prudence or by the Prudence of our Governours without the least suspicion of Will-Worship because they neither are nor are designed for Acts of Worship But we must observe further that this Word Will-Worship is found but once in all the Scripture and some very wise and learned Men question whether in that place Will-Worship be condemned by the Apostle as an ill thing the Words are these Which things have indeed a shew of Wisdom in Will-Worship and Humility and neglecting the Body not in any honour of satisfying the Flesh For they observe that Will-Worship is joyned with two other very good things Humility and neglecting the Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies external Severities and Mortifications to keep down the Body and bring it into Subjection not to pamper it with high Nourishment nor to make Provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof which seems to be the meaning of what follows not in honour in satisfying the Flesh for Honour as St. Hierom observes signifies taking Care of and making Provision for it So that we may as well say that Humility and bodily Severities Strictness and Austerity of Life in suppressing all the Motions of Lust and the least inclinations to sensual Pleasures are forbidden or censured by the Apostle as that Will-Worship is for there is as much appearance of his condemning one as t'other And besides this the Apostle says that these things have a shew of Wisdom in Will-Worship c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now we expound this to signify only a false appearance of Wisdom yet that supposes that Will-Worship and Humility and bodily Severities are in themselves good things and parts of Religious Wisdom when other things which are not good gain a Reputation of Wisdom by being like them for that which makes these things to have a shew of Wisdom is that they are mistaken for Will-Worship Humility and neglecting the Body And therefore according to this way of expounding the Words by Will-Worship we must understand voluntary Worship which answers to Free-Will-Offerings under the Law which were not commanded by God but yet were very acceptable to him when Men do something more than God has expresly commanded and deny themselves those Liberties and Enjoyments which God allows in order to some Spiritual End to refine and purge their Souls that they may arrive at more perfect attainments in Goodness And there is so much to countenance this Interpretation that all the Superstitions in the World do deceive and abuse Men and pass for excellent attainments in Religion under the shew and appearance of voluntary Worship and Free-Will-Offerings of doing something more than God has enjoyned them whereby they think they so highly merit of God as to obtain the pardon of their Sins and become his peculiar Favourites Thus the Pharisees thought to do by observing the Traditions of their Fathers by their frequent Washings Purifications Fastings and Tything even Mint and Cummin Thus the Papists do by their Fasts Pilgrimages and Penances but the mistake is that this is but a false appearance of Wisdom because tho at first it looks like the noble generous Worship of Free-Will-Offerings yet it is not so For tho under the Law Free-Will Offerings were not commanded which had destroyed the Nature of a Free-Will Offering yet there are directions given what such Persons shall offer to God in case they do offer at all and in particular that there shall be no blemish in it which signifies that this voluntary Worship must be confined to such Instances as we know are acceptable to God and therefore when Men spend their Zeal in some voluntary Superstitions which cannot please God such things have only a shew a false appearance of Wisdom in voluntary Worship because tho their Worship be voluntary and so far commendable yet they do not make a wise choice of the Acts of Worship do not worship God in an acceptable manner And this is
for our sins this is represented to us by Bread and Wine that he was Flesh and Blood as we are that bread of life which came down from Heaven to give life unto the world This is a great and stupendious Mystery which the Angels themselves desire to pry into the lowest condescension of eternal love but the highest advancement of humane nature above the glory of Angels into a union with the Deity it self How should our Souls triumph in God-man a Saviour of our own race and stock and with a litle variation sing the Song of the Blessed Virgin My Soul doth magnifie the Lord and my Spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour for he hath regarded the low estate of our nature for behold from henceforth all generations even the Angels themselves shall call us blessed for he that is mighty hath done great things to us hath magnified us hath greatly exalted us and holy for ever blessed and glorified be his name How zealous should we be to advance his name and praise who debased who humbled who emptied himself and made himself of no reputation for our sakes when he suffer'd so low a debasement by becoming man and hath so greatly exalted us by it does it not become us in this holy Feast to advance his name to sing his praise to publish his con descending love and with a greater passion and wonder adore the Deity cloathed with our nature how should our hearts leap within us when we see such a visible representation of an humble and incarnate Deity when we see that mysterious bread and Wine which represents to any eye of Faith a God Incarnate a God cloathed with Flesh and Blood a God in the nature and subject to all the sinless weaknesses and infirmities of a man Oh amazing and surprizing sight which does as much puzzle our passions as our faith and is as much too big for our love and joy and wonder as it is for our finite and narrow understandings and yet oh how pleasant it is to be lost in the contemplation of such love and condescension as this to find an object too big for our highest raptures and ecstasies of devotion where we launch out beyond the sphere of words and thoughts and are swallowed up in silence and wonder This is one great design of the Lords Supper that we may celebrate the praise and glory of an Incarnate God 3. The Lords Supper is the proper worship of a Crucified Saviour for here we see his body broken and his blood shed for our sins it is a Feast upon the Sacrifice of the Cross wherein we visibly declare and profess our Faith in a Crucified Saviour and return him our joyful praises for his great love in dying for us here we offer up our selves Souls and Bodies to him as the purchase of his blood Souls fired with zeal and devotion and transported with a passionate admiration of his dying love a love without any bounds or measure without precedent or example a love stronger than fear or shame or death a love which had no cause but it self which did not find but make its object which pitied us when we did not pity our selves which suffered such hard such unsufferable usage from the hands of sinners to deliver them from those punishments which they had deserved from God and can we do less than love him who hath loved us first than live to him who hath died for us and give up our selves to be governed by him who gave himself a ransom for us Blessed Iesus thou hast conquered thou hast captivated us by thy astonishing love we are thine we give up our selves to thee take the intire possession of us we lay our selves and our dearest concernments at thy feet use us as thou pleasest we have no greater ambition than to serve thee and to advance thy name and glory whether in life or death riches or poverty honour or disgrace we will follow thee whither soever thou leadest us though it be to the Cross and through the valley of the shadow of death and will rejoyce that we are accounted worthy to suffer shame for thy sake and account the reproach of our Lord greater riches than all the treasures of this world Nay in this holy Feast we do not only admire and praise his dying love but extol his power and conquest over death that he was dead indeed but is alive and hath the Keys of hell and death Our Lord is risen again and become the first-fruits of them that sleep and now in the death of our Saviour we see the eternal conquest of death and the grave for by death he hath destroyed him who had the power of death that is the Devil and delivered them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory thanks be to God who hath given us the victory through our Lord Iesus Christ at this holy Table we feast on the spoils of death this is that bread which giveth life to the world by putting an end to death and becoming the principle and earnest of Immortality Glory be to this mighty conquerour whom all the powers of darkness could not detain prisoner this is our crucified Lord who died with scorn and ignominy but rose again with glory and power we do not eat the Sacrifices of the dead but feed on a living Saviour So that you see the Lords Supper contains in it self or is admirably fitted to all the parts of Christian worship which is no more than expressing that in words and actions which is represented by visible signs in this holy Feast we cannot beg of God the pardon of our sins or any blessings which we want either Temporal or Spiritual but in the merit of that Sacrifice which is here represented the proper subject of Christian praises and thanksgivings is the work of our redemption and the worship of an Incarnate and Crucified Saviour must relate either to his great humility and condescension in becoming man his great love in dying for us or the glory of his resurrection and that power to which he is now advanced at the right hand of God all which is either signified or represented in the Supper of our Lord and therefore that question how often we should communicate at the Lords Table is easily answered by another how often we are bound publickly to worship God and our Saviour Christ for the Lords Supper being instituted by our Saviour as a sacred and venerable rule for worship for so I must beg leave to call it for want of a more proper name and fitted to all parts of Christian worship ought to be as often repeated as we worship our Saviour and publick worship is very lame and imperfect without it For if it be urged that it is sufficient to pray to God in Christs name and to praise him for that wonderful manifestation of his goodness in all the
eat and especially the Paschal Lamb which was a Type of Christ and that eating did in a Legal sense unite the Sacrificer and the Sacrifice and convey its vertue and efficacy to him I say hence Christ instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood i. e. Bread and Wine to be eat and drank as the symbols and signs of his Body and Blood and a Sacramental conveyance of all the merit and purchase of his death to his sincere Disciples who feed on him and therefore the Bread and Wine are called his Body and Blood because feeding on the Bread and Wine is ordained by him instead of his Body and Blood and that eating Bread and drinking Wine in obedience to his Institution and in remembrance of his Death and Passion does to all intents and purposes as much entitle us to the Merits Atonement Reconciliation and all the blessings of the New Covenant purchased by his death as eating the Flesh of the Sacrifice did the Iews to the vertue of that Sacrifice whereof they eat And since Faith in Christ is made necessary by the terms of the Gospel to an interest in his Sacrifice the symbols of Bread and Wine serve as well or better for this holy Feast than his natural flesh and blood would do for here is room for the exercise of faith we do not see the body of Christ broken and his blood shed nothing appears to our bodily senses but Bread and Wine but by an eye of faith we see him hang upon the Cross and bleeding for our sins and thus we feed on his Sacrifice eat his flesh and drink his blood Bodily eating cannot make us partakers of Christ but as the Institution of our Saviour has united the vertues of his Sacrifice with the elements of Bread and Wine in this holy Supper which makes it as much his body to all the real purposes of a feast upon a Sacrifice as if it were his natural body and blood in as proper a sense as ever the Iews did eat the Paschal Lamb which is all the Church of England means by the real presence So then we by faith eat the body of Christ and drink his blood when together with our bodily feeding on the Sacramental Bread and Wine by faith we feed on the merits of his Sacrifice And this must needs convince us how necessary it is to communicate at the Lords Table as well as to believe in Christ if we would partake of the merits of his Sacrifice for this sacramental Bread and Wine is his body and blood that is has the merits of his Sacrifice annexed to it by his own Institution and as under the Law it was not enough to offer a Peace-offering unless they eat of it so neither will the Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross be of any value to us unless we feed on it in this holy Supper not only by Faith but also by a bodily eating of those Sacramental elements to which he himself has annexed the merits of his Sacrifice To feed on the Sacramental elements without faith is no more than to eat so much ordinary Bread and to drink common Wine and to believe on Christ without feasting on his Sacrifice cannot without uncovenanted Grace apply his merits to us for it is evident that Truth in its own nature cannot give us an interest in the merits of Christ for how does my believing that Christ died for sinners convey the merit of his death to me nay though I believe that Christ in particular died for me this does not actually make his merits mine but only in the performance of such conditions and in the use of such means as he hath appointed for the application of his merits to particular persons and I see no reason why men may not as well hope to be saved without holiness by Christ as without eating his flesh and drinking his blood in the Sacrament for holiness will not save us without the merits of Christ and I know not how we should come by the merits of Christ but only in such ways of dispensing conveying and applying them as he himself has appointed and he has appointed no other ordinary way but this mysterious Supper Hence the Apostle tells the Corinthians The Cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ the bread which we break is it not the Communion of the body of Christ what does he mean by the communion of the blood and of the body of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the meaning is very plain that hereby we partake in the body and blood of Christ that is in the efficacy of his death and passion and if we could do this any other way or without it it would be a useless Sacrament as most Christians seem now to think it is and therefore I doubt not but our Saviour in that mysterious discourse in Iohn 6. had respect to this holy Feast though not then instituted when he tells them Verily verily I say unto you except ye eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood ye have no life in you Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day for my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him The only objection I know against expounding this of eating the flesh of Christ and drinking his blood in the Lords Supper is because the Feast was not then instituted and therefore neither the Iews nor his own Disciples could possibly understand what he meant now there are several very plain and easie answers to this as 1. our Saviour said a great many things to the Iews in his Sermons which neither they nor his own Disciples could understand when they were spoke though his Disciples understood them after he was risen when the Holy Ghost brought those things again to their remembrance and the event had expounded them such we may reckon whatever concerned his death and resurrection and spiritual kingdom 2. They might as well understand this discourse of eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood as they could what he immediately before told them I am the living bread which came down from heaven if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever and the bread which I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world For they understood as little what it was to give his flesh for the life of the world and how this made his flesh to be that living bread as what it was to eat his flesh and to drink his blood for they both signifie the same thing and these words last quoted do plainly prove that he respects the Eucharistical Feast when he speaks of his eating his flesh and drinking his blod for we must eat his flesh only as considered as the
bread of life which came down from Heaven and his flesh is bread considered as given for the life of the world and therefore to eat his flesh and drink his blood must signifie the Sacramental eating of it as the memorials of his death and passion 3. Suppose we should understand this eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the son of man of feeding on Christ by faith or believing yet they could understand this no better than the other it is plain they did not and I know not how they should for to call bare believing in Christ eating his flesh and drinking his blood is so remote from all propriety of speaking and so unknown in all languages that to this day those who understood nothing more by it but believing in Christ are able to give no tolerable account of the reason of the expression Now if this place in St. Iohn be meant of the Lords Supper as I do not in the least doubt but it is our Saviour has made it as necessary to us as we think eternal life to be for he has expresly told us except ye eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood ye have no life in you We must not indeed expound these words to such a sense as to make the Sacrament necessary even to Infants themselves as St. Austin did who therefore administred the Eucharist as well as Baptism to Children which was plainly contrary to the nature of it for it must be eaten with Faith or else it is not the body of Christ to the receivers and God does not make any ordinance necessary to those who are under a natural incapacity nay a moral impossibility will excuse this when men are desirous to communicate in all our Saviours institutions but have no opportunity to do it for God will dispense his grace in extraordinary ways to all well disposed minds when his providence denies those which are ordinary but those who wilfully neglect the ordinary means of grace have no reason to expect those which are extraordinary how God will deal with those who are guilty of such neglects not out of a contempt of his institutions but out of ignorance of their necessity or a superstitious awe and reverence for them I will not determine Having thus proved that we cannot in an ordinary way partake in the benefits and blessings which Christ hath purchased by his death but by a Sacramental eating of the body and drinking the blood of Christ to make you still more sensible of the infinite hazard and danger of this neglect I shall briefly consider what those blessings are which we partake of at the Lords Table and which we cannot expect any where else And I shall name but these 1. The pardon of our sins for this was the purchase of Christ's death he died for our sins and expiated them with his own blood and therefore we may observe that we do not only eat the body of Christ in this holy Feast but we drink his blood the blood of expiation the blood of the Covenant which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel now this was never permitted the Iews to eat any blood much less the blood of the Covenant which was sprinkled about the Altar to make Atonement nay we feed in this holy Supper on a Sin-offering nay that great expiatory Sacrifice whose blood was carried into the Holy of Holies which the High Priest himself was not allowed to eat of to which the Apostle alludes in the Epistle to the Hebrews We have an Altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the Tabernacle for the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the Sanctuary by the High Priest for Sin are burnt without the Camp i. e. no body was suffered to eat the flesh of the Sacrifice on the great day of expiation which was a general atonement for the sins of the whole Congregation not so much as the High Priest himself but their bodies were burnt to ashes Now the death of Christ upon the Cross was peculiarly typified by that great expiatory Sacrifice whose blood was carried into the Holy of Holies as he had discoursed at large in the ninth Chapter and plainly refers to here wherefore Iesus also that he might Sanctifie the people with his own blood suffered without the gate This is the Sacrifice we eat of to which he plainly refers in what he adds by him therefore let us offer the Sacrifice of praise or the Eucharistical Sacrifice which is the Lords Supper to God continually that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name but to do good and to communicate forget not for with such Sacrifices God is well pleased which refers to those oblations for the relief of the poor and other religious uses which were always made at the Lords Table Now what is the meaning of this that we are allowed to drink of the blood of the Sacrifice and eat the flesh of the great Sin-offering and Propitiatory Sacrifice which the High Priest himself under the Law was not allowed to touch I say what is the meaning of it but to exhibit and convey to us the full and perfect remission of all our sins in the blood of Christ. So that we eat the flesh of an expiatory Sacrifice and drink the blood of atonement and thereby partake of that pardon and expiation which was made by Sacrifice and if we were sensible what the guilt of sin is and what will be its punishment we should not fail frequently to come to this holy Table to renew the pardon of our sins in the blood of Christ. 2. Another fruit of Christs death which we receive at the Table of our Lord is the assistances of his grace and Spirit and the communications of a divine life to us Hence our Saviour tells us he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him which signifies such a close and intimate union whereby we receive the communications of his own life and spirit from him and therefore all Christians are said to be made to drink into one Spirit which signifies the communications of the divine Spirit at this Holy Table the whole Gospel administration is called the Ministration of the Spirit as being accompanied with a divine power much more this divine Feast wherein we become one with Christ eat his flesh and drink his blood as members of his body of his flesh and of his bones as St. Paul speaks and it is impossible the Spirit of Christ should be separated from such an uniting ordinance as makes us members of his body 3. By eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ in this holy Feast we have a pledge and earnest of immortality So our Saviour expresly tells us Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day As the living Father hath sent me
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that you may become Christians and enter into our Society and truly our Fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Iesus Christ. And therefore the Sacrament of Baptism is our admission into the Christian Church that is gives a right to all the Priviledges of Christian Communion for we are baptized into one Body and the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is expresly called the Communion it is that common Table which all Christians have a right to The Cup of Blessing which we bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ the Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ For we being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread It is essential to the nature of the Lord's Supper that it is a common Feast of which all Christians partake for it signifies not only our Union to Christ but our Union to one another in the same Body for which Reason the Reformed Churches universally condemn the private Masses of the Church of Rome where the Priest receives by himself and truly private Devotions when they thrust out publick Worship are much of the same nature So that the very Institution of a Church the Example of the Primitive Christians and those Sacraments of our Religion which our Saviour has instituted as the Badges of Christianity and the Conveyances of Spiritual Life and Grace may convince us how necessary Christian Communion and Publick Worship is if we will be the Disciples of Christ and we are expresly commanded by the Writer to the Hebrews Not to forsake the assembling of our selves together But we may consider farther that Christ has instituted an Evangelical Priesthood the publick Ministers of Religion whom he has commanded to instruct his Church to feed his Flock to pray for his People and to bless in his Name to whom he has committed the Power of the Keys to let in or to shut out of the Church Now what use could there be for publick Ministers unless publick Worship were a great and necessary Duty If it were so indifferent a thing whether Christians frequent the Religious Assemblies and continue in their Doctrine and Fellowship breaking Bread and Prayers it does not seem worth the while to have invested Men with such Power and Authority which is of so little use especially since Christianity is so much known and so far spread in the World whereas our Saviour promises to be with his Apostles unto the end of the World which could not be meant of the Persons of the Apostles for they are long since dead but of their Successors who retain their Office and Power as far as is necessary to the present state of the Church And the force of this Argument from the Apostolical Office will be better understood if we consider wherein the Power of the Keys consists which Christ committed to St. Peter and the rest of the Apostles or what is the true ancient Discipline of the Christian Church Now the Power of the Church which is truly Spiritual consists only in letting into the Church or shutting out The admission into the Church is by administring Baptism which they are made the external Judges of who are fit to be received into the Church by Baptism and who not shutting out of the Church is by exercising Censures upon Offenders which consists only in this in removing such Men from Christian Communion either in part or wholly for a time or for ever according to the severity of the ancient Discipline Some were not permitted to come into the Christian Assemblies but lay at the door lamenting their wickedness and begging their Prayers Others were admitted to publick Instructions but not to the Communion of Prayers or at least if they were admitted to the Prayers of the Catechumens those who were publickly instructed and catechised but not yet baptized were not allowed to be present at the Prayers of the Faithful Others were admitted to Prayers but not to the Supper of the Lord. Now all this supposes that Christian Communion is not only a necessary Duty but a great Priviledg since they had no other way of punishing Offenders but by denying them the liberty of Worship in their Assemblies but what would those Men value Church-Censures who make so slight of publick Worship as daily to excommunicate themselves Certainly these Men are greatly mistaken or else the very Office and Authority of an Apostle is a very inconsiderable thing and that dreadful Sentence of Excommunication which was so formidable in the Ancient Church is a very innocent and harmless thing since Men may as well worship God alone as in Christian Assemblies and that they might do when excommunicated or shut out of Christian Assemblies And I observe farther That our Saviour requires of us the publick profession of his Name and Worship which necessarily includes publick Worship Whosoever therefore shall confess me before Men him will I confess before my Father which is in Heaven but whosoever shall deny me before Men him will I deny before my Father which is in Heaven To confess Christ is to own him for our Lord and Saviour not only in words tho too many such there are whom our Saviour will not own will not confess before his Father which is in Heaven but by paying him such publick Homage and Worship as is a visible demonstration that we do own him for our Lord. For thus to confess Christ signifies With the mouth Confession is made unto Salvation for whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved The Christian Church was to be a Visible Society like a City that is set on a Hill or like a Candle placed in a Candlestick to give light to all that are in the House But the Church can never be visibly distinguished from the rest of the World without the publick and visible exercise of Religion and therefore our Saviour exhorts his Disciples Let your Light so shine before Men that they may see your good Works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven which must refer to all parts of Religion and therefore includes Acts of Worship as well as Acts of Mercy and Charity To conclude this Argument It is the acknowledged Duty of a Christian Prince to take care to encourage and propagate true Religion in his Dominions which can never be done without encouraging publick Worship correcting publick Abuses and punishing the neglect or profanation of it for if Mens Religion be confined to their Closets no Man can possibly tell what Religion they are of they may be Pagans Mahometans Papists or Infidels and no Man the wiser if they can but keep their own counsel And therefore if it be the Duty of Magistrates to encourage and reform Religion and yet nothing can fall within his cognizance or under his care but what is publick it is easy to conclude That publick Worship which is the Care of
and I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me This is that bread which came down from heaven not as your Fathers did eat Manna and are dead he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever Where our Saviour gives the reason why those who eat him shall live for ever because he himself shall live for ever though he must die he was to rise again into an immortal life and an eternal Kingdom as the reward of his death and sufferings and therefore this holy Feast is a certain earnest of immortality to those who feed on him and we need not indeed doubt this since it conveys the holy Spirit to us as St. Paul tells the Romans But if the Spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you But possibly some may object that all this which is attributed to the Holy Supper we receive at our Baptism the pardon of our sins the gift of the Spirit and the promise and earnest of immortality for so we are Baptized for the remission of sins and we are baptized as well as made to drink into one Spirit and those who are baptized into Christ have put on Christ and we are buried with Christ by baptism into death that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father so we also should walk in newness of life for if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection Now all this I grant to be true and therefore Baptism not the Lords Supper is our regeneration or new birth we are raised into a new life are renewed and sanctified at our Baptism and have the Holy Spirit bestowed on us as the author and principle of a new life but the continuance of this grace and the daily assistances of the Holy Spirit especially when we have grieved him and made him withdraw from us by our sins depends upon our diligent attendance at the Table of our Lord. It is not enough that a man is born into the world unless he have constant food to preserve his life and thus it is with the new creature and therefore the Supper of our Lord is Bread and Wine the stay and support of life to signifie to us that these supplies of grace which we receive at this Feast are as necessary to our Spiritual life as our daily food is to the support of a bodily life and therefore our Saviour calls himself the bread of life which came down from Heaven of which the Manna was a type and figure now we know Manna was their constant food the only Bread they had which signified that this heavenly Manna is the daily support of our spiritual life and therefore we know the ancient Fathers by our daily bread in the Lords Prayer did generally understand the Sacrament of the Lords Supper which they called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Bread of God All which may convince us from the very nature and reason of the institution that frequent communione are as necessary to our spiritual growth and increase in holiness to repair the decays of our graces and to renew our strength and vigour in serving God and to procure the pardon of sin after a relapse and to call back the holy Spirit when he is withdrawn from us as bread is to keep our bodies in constant repair and did men love their souls as they do their bodies they would no more neglect the Supper of our Lord than their daily food 4. The Lords Supper is the principal part of Christian communion and therefore as necessary as the communion of the Church is to debar any persons from the Lords Table is to shut them out of the communion of the faithful and they are never restored to full communion till they are restored to the communion of this holy Feast while discipline was preserved in its glory and vigour in the ancient Church no Christian durst turn his back upon the Table of our Lord as nine parts in ten now often do indeed they could not well communicate as faithful Christian people without receiving the Lords Supper The Catechumens and Penitents were admitted to publick instructions and to such prayers as were proper for them but they were dismissed when that was done and not admitted to be present at the worship of the faithful who were in full peace and communion with the Church the principal part of which was the Holy Supper Indeed St. Paul attributes the union of Christians in one body to Christ to this holy Feast He calls the Cup the communion of the blood of Christ and the bread the communion of the body of Christ and assigns this as one reason of it for we being many are one bread and one body for we are all partakers of that one bread From whence it is plain that we are united to each other by partaking of the same bread for we are one bread as well as one body which places Christian unity in a joynt participation of this Holy Feast This also unites us to Christ makes us his body because we all feed on his body the Church is his body as being fed and nourished with his body which both shows us how necessary the peace and unity of the Church is to give us an interest in the Sacrifice of Christ for the vertue of his Sacrifice is contained in the holy Supper and this must be celebrated in the communion of the Church and withal how essential this holy Supper is to Christian communion as uniting us all to Christ in one body For shame then let not those men cry out against Schism and Schismaticks who separate themselves from the body of Christ in that part of Christian communion which is most essential to Christianity it is a much less evil not to hear a Sermon together nay sometimes not to pray together than to joyn in all other parts of worship but to break company at the Lords Table where if ever they ought to appear as one body and one bread to set up Altar against Altar is somewhat worse is a greater and more incurable Schism than to absent our selves from the Lords Table but for my part I cannot excuse those men from being Schismaticks who live in an habitual neglect of so necessary a part of Christian communion and could the ancient discipline of the Church be revived such men should know that Christian communion in any religious offices is a priviledge which they do not deserve and which they should not have Having thus explained our obligations to frequent Communion in the holy Supper of our Lord which I judge so plain and evident that no honest impartial Inquirer can resist the evidence of them and of such great weight and moment that no