hardness of the peopl's hearts In so corrupt an age we may not stand upon our Lords In the beginning it was not so but yield to his Suffer it to be so now I therefor urge no more but this That it is the duty of every Minister to labor with his people to com constantly and to offer the Holy Communion as often as he can prevail with them to receve it Against this so complaisant Assertion bicause St. Augustin's out-running followers have not only opposed his Let every one do what he thinks best but preferred the Centurions aw before Zacheus's reception therefor must this doubl Error be encounter'd with a doubl Question 1. Whether our Lords Do this take not away our liberty to forbear it 2. Supposing we had liberty to do what we believe best whether it were not better to do it frequently than seldom 1. Our first Question must be Whether our Lords Do this leave us any liberty to forbear when we think it better In this Enquiry we must distinguish between Laws Moral and Positive II MOral Laws ar written in the fleshly tables of the heart whose yielding nature may take impression from the various occurrences of life Those Laws as they ar Dictated by Reason so must they be Interpreted by it and bend to the several requires of the subject matter For the Philosopher cannot so fix the bounds of Vertu but that in many cases the Determination of a Prudent man is necessaty to distinguish it from Vice But God wrote his Positive Laws in Tables of Stone whose rigor was uncapabl of yielding Of such Laws the Will of the Law-giver was the Only Reason and must be the Only Mesure We must do Just so no less nor no more nor no otherwise Reason hath here nothing to do but to deny it self to have the least power to Dispens or Derogate or Commute or any way Decline from the express voice of the Law Uzzah could not then plead the appearance of necessity or the evidence of his good meaning when the danger of the Law was greater one way than that of the Ark was the other way To this surpose ler us reflect upon what we have already observed that our Apostl vouched our Lord's authority that so he might assert both the Truth and Importance of what he delivered For we cannot now deny the Truth without affronting the Apostl's veracity nor the Importance without disparaging our Lord's wisdom for the One must be said to take great care for a subject of no valu or the Other report a falshood We have seen som danger that our Lord's mind might be mistaken as if he either intended to consecrate none but the Paschal Supper or valued the whole office at no higher rate than he used to do outward performances We need no other evidence that the Corinthians might probably believ This than the commonness of This belief now notwithstanding the Apostl's indeavor to confute it in both its members by This declaration which plainly discovereth how much our Lord valued this office how often we must perform it and how litl power we have to abate any thing of it For these reasons he doth not plead here as before in another case of outward decency Doth not appeal to Their Judgments nor offer his Own saith not as cap. 10. I speak as to wise men judge you what I say nor as chap. 7. I give my judgment This say I not the Lord but quite contrary This say not I but the Lord and the consequence is Neither I nor an Angel from heaven must be believed against the Revelation Neither I nor an Angel from heaven much less a mans own humor can any way relax the Obligation Grant therefore now that the Observation be as Tru as the Subject is Unhappy suppose Frequence bring danger of Cheapness must we therefor presume to make it Scarce No doubtless If we will needs hear Reason it will tell us that our Lord knew this as well as We It was so Before and In and Ever Since His days as it is in Ours How then dare any one judge That a sufficient reason to hinder him from Doing this which our Lord judged not so to hinder him from Commanding it Doth not such an one declare himself both Superior and Wiser If thou judg the Law saith S. James thou art not a Doer of the law but a Judge I may add Thou art not only a Judge but an Unjust one if thy sentence rob the law of it's due so much more so by how much greater care our Lord took to have it duly paid III. HE therefor that breaketh This which is not the Least of our Lords Commandments and teacheth men so must be weighed in others scales than those of St. Augustine Not compared with the modest Centurion or forward Zacheus but with the most Disobedient Rebel and the most Unworthy Communicant and even so will be found more inexcusable than the worst For he that Doth This however unworthily payeth Somthing of obedience owneth our Lords Authority is easily Convinced of his Crime But he that saith he needs not do it doth not only deny the Law to have power over himself but assumeth to himself power over the Law and renounceth all Need and therefor all Benefit of Repentance He that Disobeyeth the Kings Law may be a Felon but he that setteth up an Opposit Authority is a Rebel and declaring himself as all Rebels do a most Faithful Subject is thereby the more Unpardonabl He that doth this unworthily is guilty of the body and bloud of the Lord he dishonoreth his Person and that in his Humanity but he that Renounceth any Obligation to do it is guilty of his Crown and Dignity Deposeth him from his Throne and affronteth the Majesty of his Divinity and his pretence of Reason for disobedience whether it be Reverence or his Teachers Authority or what ever els it be it is a Rival to obedience and it 's plausibl Pretences make it so much the more properly Rebellious This perhaps may seem too Severe I grant it nor do I believ our Lord judgeth according to such Rigid mesures but Rigid as they ar they ar Just and may be urged against the Doctrines thogh not against the Persons For if the Preformance be bound upon us by a Positive Law of Christ and Forbearance only by my Own or my Teachers Reason If I prefer This abve That and Justifie my doing so what is this but to say I will not have That but This to reign over me We may not therefor without manifest Deposing our Lord pretend any thing Equal to his Authority but if we will decline our obedience to This Command we must fetch our Warrant from That alone as dispensing with us in such cases as we oppose to our obligation IV. AND this Warrant must be as Express as his Command and it must be either a Countermand or a Dispensation 1. A Countermand may be either Express or Implicit If
Cup and gave thanks saith St. Luke But of This Cup because it concerned not the Lords Supper St. Paul taketh no notice When they have done eating he distributeth a little of the wine saith the Rabbi Our Lord took the Cup when he had supped saith St. Paul After supper saith St. Luke saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THIS signal cup THIS closing cup c. Could we have Expected yea could we have Desired greater resemblance Are not the Mater the Actions the Seasons All circumstances the same And do not All these agree as exactly with the Apostl's Argument and All its Clauses as with our Lords Institution The very first sight discovereth such Resemblance as manifestly declareth Relation and rhe more exactly we vieu the more shall we discover nor would we doubt the One were the proper issue of the Other did not the Parentage appear too Mean and too long Concealed V. WHAT must the adorable Sacrament of the Altar which hath so long exercised the highest devotions of devoutest Souls must this inestimable Sacrament fall to so low a meanness as to own a poor ordinary Feasting-cup for its Original And must all the Admirable Mysteries which contemplative Souls have so Long and so Much venerated must they All dwindle into a mere Representative of That death which the Evangelists have as plainly set forth by Words as This can do by Figures And shall we believe that so many good and learned Men who have so carefully studied it should be so much deceived and the Christian world at last after almost 1700 years be obliged to we know not whom for information To such erronios purpose may Those declame who use to judge of the truth of the Sun-dial by their Watches and I shall answer them by a story Codrus or some such brave Prince the night before he sacrificed his life for his people delivered into the hands of his chief Officers a Cabinet telling them he therein bequeathed them his very heart and requiring them publicly to produce it in every Assembly as a lasting Monument of his death It contained his directions for its use legible enough throgh its Christal covering but much more if opened with its annexed key They receved it with all due reverence and while the memory of their so deserving King was yet fresh they constantly obeyed his command But after some ages as their love cooled toward his Person so did their regard to his Legacy Which the Officers lamenting and endeavoring not only to restore it to its due reverence but to advance it higher told the people That however incredible it might seem they must believe what their dying Lord told them viz. That in this Cabinet he left them his very heart which therefore they must adore as his Royal Person And lest by opening it any one might therein find the Kings plain directions they laid aside the key and then omitted the use of the Cabinet it self except only upon extraordinary seasons pretending that too frequent use sullied it When many considering and considerable Persons complained that they were brought the back way to the same contemt as former ages were condemned for a certain Officer of a midle rank knowing the Kings directions could not otherwise be legible sought about till he had found the forgotten key and upon tryal finding it exactly to answer every ward brought it into public vieu pleading that such a concurs of lock and key in so many wards could not be fortuit and seeing Some key must necessarily be had they who refused This must be obliged to produce a Better And because the metal was objected against as base brass or iron no way suitable to the richness of the Cabinet and the Jewels therein contained he fell to scouring it from that rust wherewith Time and Neglect if not Design 〈◊〉 covered it and finding it pure Gold turned that Objection Against its worthiness into an Evidence For is And thinking that All cavils must be abundantly answered by a duble ocular Demonstration he turned it round in the lock shewing that all its parts were as well suited to all the wards thereof as its matter was to the worth of the Cabinet it self What success this had with the people my Author doth not inform me but this proceeding seemeth so genuine that I shall follow it First I shall shew that the Jewish Tradition was fit for the honor of a Sacrament Secondly That it exactly answereth our Lords Institution And thirdly That it serveth every syllable of the Apostl's Dissertation CHAP. IV. I. No more dishonor to This than to the other Sacrament to be derived from a Jewish Tradition This Tradition more worthy than That II. In what sens our Lords Table is an Altar Were our behavior at Table more pious the Sacrament need not be ashamed of such a relation III. Our Lords form of consecration derived from the Jewish Forms both Festival and Sacrificial THAT it is a dishonor to This Sacrament to ow its original to a Jewish Tradition can ill be objected by those who make no such scruple against Baptism which yet deriveth its Institution from the same Author and its Extraction from the same Family That had lost its Key almost as long as This for an Age hath not past over us since it was found among the same Jewish rubbidge yet are we not ashamed to expound those Evangelical allegories Regeneration New birth New creature Old man and New man c. by the Jewish Rituals which speak them more than Allegorical effects of Baptism upon Proselytes NOR is This Sacrament barely Equal but much Superior to That both by Natural and Positive Law For the Jewish Baptism was a mere naked Ceremony Significant indeed of the purity required in the person which received it but neither Derived from it nor Effective of it But This Festival solennity did not only Represent but really Exercise and Improve and 't was its self the issue of true Piety Their affectation of Ceremonies might for ought appeareth in Scripture be all the reason which moved Them to Baptise their Proselytes but to bless God for his Benefits is a worship acceptable to God above all burnt-offerings and sacrifice though instituted by himself as appeareth in the 50th Psalm where he rejecteth Those and approveth This saying He that offereth me praise he honoreth me And if even under the Law much more under the Gospel must such a Service be acceptable which carrieth in its countenance such fair Characters of the Divine Nature And as it hath more of Gods Image so hath it of his Superscription more Authority from Positive as well as more Dignity from Natural Law That Gods people should Baptise their Proselytes the Law of Moses took no care but that they should acknowledge his Bounty in feeding them it made special provision For Lev. 17.3 we find it thus written What man soever there be of the house of Israel that killeth an ox or lamb or goat in the camp or that
Proposition ver 26. is not the Lords Supper but This Bread and This Cup. The Praedicate is utterly useles and wors toward such a design VI. 2. Positively The Proposition pointeth at som Determinate Bread and Cup. The Argument reduced to a Syllogism CHAP. II. Concerning the Clause AS OFTEN AS Pag. 70. I. The unhappiness of this Clause II. The true sons of the words mesured by parallel precepts III. Serviceable remarks 1. With what care the Apostl recordeth this Claus IV. 2. With partiality he treateth the Cup. V. The justice he doth the Bread joining it with the Cup in his deductions VI. The Conclusion with an Objection answered CHAP. III. Concerning the Vulgar interpretation of as often as pag. 85. I. The Distinction between Suppositive and Absolute stated because made the mesure of obligation II. The words of the Author set forth and III. Examined IV. The merely suppositive sens enervates our Lords Command And V. The Apostl's own Argument VI. The two senses ballanced in order to Conscience CHAP. IV. Objections answered pag. 100. I. The First Objection That the Tradition may be novel answered 1. By mater of Fact II. By passing judgment upon it 2. No necessity of difference in point of frequency between the breaking of bread before meat and Grace-cup after it 2. If the Jews Antiquities be against us we may reject their authority III. 3. Seeing a party of them are on our side we may well prefer that party above the opposite So great an agreement as is between them could not be 1. From Chance IV. 2. Nor the Jews conforming their custom to Christs Institution bicause it is incredible they should have such 1. care 2. or wit V. Another Objection That we must have Fests or no Sacrament adjourned VI. A third Objection That the Jews used their Grace-cup in their Houses not their Synagogs Answered by six steps VII The last Objection The universal silence of all Ages Answered 1. By shewing reason why both Primitive and Later ages should be silent and 2. by shewing that the best critiks have observed it CHAP. V. Mater of Fact recorded in Scripture pag. 117. I. A transition to Mater of Fact Not so easily understood as might have be'n expected Two things considerable 1. The Backwardness of the Apostl's in Understanding our Lords mind 2. The means which our Lord used to recommend it unprosperos The night of Institution by its terrors II. Our Lord's conversation with the two Disciples in the way and at Emaus so ordered as to discover the meaning of his Institution as well as the truth of his Resurrection ineffectual upon a contrary reason Their ignorance 'till the coming of the Holy Ghost III. The second observable Their diligence in obeying our Lord's will when discovered That by their breaking of Bread must be meant the Lord's Supper appears by 1. The exercises accompanying it 2. The Phrase expressing it IV. 3. The Place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must signifie the Meeting house where the first Christians held their Conventicles for fear of the Jews V. 4. The time The Apostl's a d Brethren at Hire daily The Remote Churches on the Lo d's day VI. The first day of the week consecrated to this office and for that reason stiled the Lords day dishonored by derivation from the Fourth Commandment cannot be worse profaned than by neglect of this office to which it oweth its sacredness CHAP. VI. The Practice of Antiquity pag. 131. I. The constant Practice of Christ's Church in it's best ages proved by one evidence of each kind viz. 1. Canon the 9th Apostolik II. 2. One Father Justin Martyr 3. One Historian Socrates The Church of Rome under pretence of tradition innovated against the Church Universal III. 4. Enemies of each kind 1. Protestants IV. 2. Papists V. 3. Junior Fathers particularly St. Augustin whose words are recited wherein we must distinguish between Father and Doctor As Father he stateth the question The question and the practice of the Church both in Doctrine and Discipline very different between St. Augustin's time and Ours VI. As a Doctor he determins the question 1. His stile very diffident bicause his Opinion is opposit to all other Fathers 2. His determination reacheth not Our question Yet have later ages caght at his words and strained them beyond his intentions with unhappy success His Syncretism rectified PART III. Concerning the word DO CHAP. I. We must answer such a Command no otherwise but by Performance Pag. 149. I. The cause of our disobedience to this Command too much Fear II. We may not commute Doing for any other service III. The reason why som think best not to do this often and their appeal to the Church of England IV. The Church vindicated V. The two opposite opinions personated The Vniversity Statutes the best comment upon the Churches Rubrike The Greek Church in great Churches celebrateth the Holy Communion every Sunday and Holy day VI. Those who omit the Communion it self greater Non-conformists than those who neglect the Communion Service CHAP. II. We may not omit This duty without warrant pag. 164. I. Necessity may be complied with A doubl question II. Difference between Laws Moral and Positive The Apostl's vouching our Lords revelation a proof of the valu of the Sacrament Fear of cheapness no reason why we should make it scarce III. Omission compared with unworthiness IV. Our Warrant must be either Countermand or Dispensation V. Defect of preparation no Dispensation VI. All other Duties in the same danger CHAP. III. The Obligation ceased not upon the change of the Manner of the Festing in the Church but must be accommodated thereto pag. 174. I. The Apostle hath prevented such a consequence by saying our Lord appointed us to do this 'till he com II. The adequate mesure of our doing this is not Eating but Meeting in the Church As change of the Ceremony hindereth not Perjury from being a sin Nor doth change of the season hinder us from stiling it a Supper III. The Church careful to preserve the memory and titl of Festing VI. The Apostl's argument holdeth by vers 20. more for the Thing than for the Manner wherein we cannot now be guilty as the Corinthians were V. The Equitable and Moral sens of the Argument accommodate to the present manner of Church-meetings VI. Distinguish between yielding and justifying PART IV. Concerning the End In Remembrance CHAP. I. It is the badge of a Christian pag. 183. I. This the only rite whereby we honor our Lords Person Three Considerations 1. Every Religion distinguished from Every other by som proportion This Nature taught the Heathen and Gods Law the Jews II. The New Testament contracteth the multitude of Jewish rites to two whereby Christians ar known as the Knights of the Garter 1. By a rite of admission III. 2. By continual wearing the badge IV. Those distinguishing rites must be highly valued It was mortal to a Jew to omit any of them and to a Heathen to wear them V. This wors in
consequently the Institutions built upon them will differ as much as a Castel in the Air and a Castel upon a Rock I wish I could deny that it is in the mater of the Sacrament as in the mater of Marriage in This unhappy respect That Many frighted with the troubles of the Married state refuse to engage in it and More frighted with the difficulty of coming worthily and the danger of coming unworthily refuse to com to This. But then in this respect again it is Not in the mater of this Sacrament as in that of Marriage for when the Disciples said If the mater be thus with a wife it is not good to marry our Lord granted the consequence and advised those that could receve Eunuchism should receve it But we never find our Lord or any Apost'l say of the Sacrament He that cannot receve it worthily let him forbear it nor did our Apost'l close his severe threats with saying Let a man examin himself and so if he find himself unworthy let him forbear But in both the one and the other without any if absolutely oblige us to the performance All men are not Alway obliged to receve the Sacrament This is very modestly but withal very warily and wisely expressed for had he spoken all he must have marred all his rule would have inferred no man is at any time obliged For mere suppositive necessity is on all hands agreed to be perfect liberty since a counter-supposition in the other scale equally true by counter-poising annihilates its weight For the Institution being in order to certain ends and in the recipients certain capacities and condicions required by way of disposition The excellent person had said 11. 2. An Institution obtains the force of a Precept according to the subject matter and to its appendent relations Let that Rule be translated hither we need seek no further for an answer For the End of This Institution is such as All men at All times are obliged to serve and by the last recited clause it will follow rhat this must be so far a Necessary Commandment as to remember our Lords death is a Necessary Duty Certain capacities and condicions are required They are so and that not only in order to the Sacrament but absolutely and by their intrinsik necessity It is our Duty first to have them because the Gospel upon other indispensible accounts requires them and then it is our duty to bring them to the Sacrament even by this excellent Persons own rule But if we will speak distinctly Natural capacities are not Required but Supposed and as Marriage was not Instituted for Eunuchs so was not this Sacrament for children or fools But Moral capacities are required by the Moral Law and if they be the Foundation they are also part of the Bilding They were necessary to All men before they were so to Communicants and therefor cannot make This the Less necessary to Any There can be but a Relative and therefor limited command of its reception It must Relate to and be Limited by Those Ends Capacities Condicions and Dispositions and since Relata must be Equal therefor the Performance must neither Exceed nor Fall short but Equal those Limits i. e. we must neither Oftner nor Seldomer nor Otherwise do it than In remembrance of Christ with due Dispositions and all requisite Condicions But Those Condicions thogh they be Limits of our obedience in the Maner do not limit our Obligation to the Performance being themselves comprehended in it as antecedently necessary upon the Moral account Les a man examin himself is no less a Command than So let him eat The Disposition it self is a part of the Duty and the want of it is so far from a Dispensation that it is it self a sin But to Them who do receve it the Institution is a perfect and indispensible commandment for the manner i. e. Whoever doth it being not thereto antecedently obliged doth thereby thrust himself upon a very Great but Needless Trouble and Danger For he was under no Obligation till he put himself under one by undertaking an action very Difficult to be do'n Worthily and very Dangerous if do'n Unworthily and that without any Necessity derived from this Institution This is the whole that the most Excellent person and Only Patron could make of this ungrounded sens of those Relative words And as I said before of the whole question that we need no other than a due understanding of this One discours of the Apost'l because we have no other Scholiast upon our Lords Institution so say of This member of the question We need look no further for a due discovery of this ungrounded Interpretation than the unhappiness of this most Excellent Person since among the multitudes that have be'n seduced by it no other hath attemted to put a regular countenance upon it and This in effect doth but warn every considering person to so bear the performance i. e. to destroy the Supposition he bilds upon And if this be the Best that its Best patron can make of it what is the Worst we find the words twice and in either place most studiosly mentioned In recital of our Lords Institution they are carefully inserted and authorised In the Argument thereupon bilt they are solicitosly resumed and setled as the Foundation let us see what work they make in either place IV. THIS interpretation enervates our LORD'S COMMAND This we find abundantly acknowledged It is Only from These words Thus understood that we com now from hearing a Rare person degrade it from a Command to an Institution such a poor Institution as may complain with its great Author it hath not a place where to lay it's head It doth not Command our obedience but Beg our benevolence and begs also with David's curse in desolate places and which is yet wors in places laid desolat by it self for it self forbids us to give it the entertainment it begs It enervats our Lords command because it cancelleth our obligations By doing nothing we shall be as obedient as by our most active diligence For if the Command let us for once beg That title be purely Relative If it do not Absolutely enjoyn the Performance it self but only a Commensuration between It and the Maner than is it no more obeyed when Both are equally Performed than when Both are equally Neglected He that never doth this at all doth it no oftner than he doth it in remembrance of Christ and therefor as often as he doth it he doth it to That end The Commensuration is no less exact when Both have the Most and when Both have the Least yea when Both have Nothing at all And well may that be denyed the title of a Command which is Performed by Neglecting But what title will be due to it 's great Author If he that doth Nothing may Obey he must do somthing Less than nothing that Commands because he pretends to do somthing and all the guilt of the neglect if
can you imagin for her putting so great a difference between her Injunctions to the Priests and those to the People By our Lords Institution ether the People are not at all obliged or they are cqually so with the Priests Why then should Three times in a year be sufficient for the One and no less than Every Sunday for the Other There can be no other reason but This that thogh there be not more Due yet there is more to be Hoped from the Priests From them therefor she requireth that when they have opportunity they communicate every Sunday At least And how much more they might and would do better to exceed that Least This Communion-service plainly declareth whereby our Church keepeth up the claim to that constancy which in the Primitive Church was practiced of closing every Church-jest with the Lords Supper Would you duly heed it you could not miss either the Churches Doctrine concerning your duty or opportunities to perform it She hath plainly enogh shew'n her Readiness to perform Her part and Your obligations to do Yours Try us Try us by the way she hath directed Signifie your willingness by sending us your names and if you then have not as many Communions as Communion-services let the whole blame lie upon us But while on the Churches part there are such Invitations and on Your part such neglects She may well take up St. Paul's self-justification Your blood be upon your own heads I am clean Such must the Languages be of those that on either side shall pretend the Church of England's authority and if it can be questionable which of the two is the better Expositor of her Rubriks possibly it cannot be put to a better Umpirage if it need any then that of our University And by her Statutes the Communion-service is never read in the University-Church without a Communion nor the Common Prayer without them Both. These Statutes have added Holy days of Our own to those of the Church but still with conformity to This rule We begin every Term as with Common Prayer so with the Communion Nothing therefor can be more apparent than the sens of the University which sure you cannot think ignorant of the Churches Doctrines And it may be worth som consideration that this is the practice of the Greek Church to this very day in their great Churches For thus saith the Learned Mr. Smith an ocular witness At such solemnities the holy and august Sacrament is alway celebrated and that with great pomp and ce emony and indsed is not only a necessary but the principal part of the Festival And that we may not mistake as if this were spoken only of the Principal Fests he saith afterward upon another occasion In the great Churches the Priests celebrates the Sacrament upon the solem Festivals and upon Sundays and at other times upon occasion In the obligation of the Peopl also they com not behind but advance a step further than our Church for saith the same Author The Laiks ace obliged to receve the Blessed Sacrament four times a year With which law of their Church they most readily comply none omitting it especially at Christmas or Easter unless hinder'd by real and urgent necessity In order to their better preparation the preceding Fests i. e. the four Lents fore-spoken of are appointed and observed VI. AND let me provoke the otherwise-minded to Emulation Will they own such Ministers for Conformists if such there be as for many Months and perhaps whole Years together Omit to read the Communion-Service will they not think it the duty of the Church-wardens to Present and of the Bishop to Punish such as Disobedient to the Churches Orders and Mutilators of her Offices Why then must They Escape Presentment yea why must they pass for the best Church-men who for Months and perhaps whole Years together omit either Offering or Receiving That Communion which That Service professeth to celebrate and so by Neglecting the One Expose the Other Let those now who bost themselves the tru Sons of the Church shew themselvs such not by much Talking but Studying her Thoghts yea her Declarations A good son will act not only the express Commands but the Inclinations of his Parent he will Enquire and by all competent indications Search and where there are manifest tokens that More is Desired than Expressed will do not only what the Command makes Necessary but whatever such Indications shew to be Well-pleasing Since therefor the Church so plainly intimateth that she Recommendeth More then she dares Command how can Those pretend themselves her affectionate Sons who do not only Neglect to comply with her so clear Intimations but downright Disobey Those Commands which she plainly imposeth as Necessary to her Communion Where is now that zele for the Church Have we no better way to shew it than by contending for a Vesture or a Gesture Do we think her such a coquet as to prefer a Ribon or a Lace before her Necessaries I speak not this to justifie any Neglect or Disobedience toward the slightest Injunctions of our Governors but by comparing the weightier maters of the Law with tithing mint and cummin to prove that Those who ar earnest to have these things do'n oght not to leave the other undo'n I might further urge that Those ar the worst sort of Non-conformists who not only Deny Obedience but Slander Those very Constitutions which require it and so make themselvs not only Disobedient children but False accusers for they can hardly avoid that dubl character who both refuse to communicate with her in This of all others most sacred and solen office and accuse her as accessary to That very Disobedience which themselvs practice no less against Her Injunctions than our Lords But it is not my business to accuse my brethren further than is necessary to the vindicating of my mother which I hope I have abundantly do'n so as to be secure from having her Name abused to the protection of an Error so Opposite to her Constitutions CHAP. II. VVe may not omit This duty without warrant I. Necessity may be complied with A duble question II. Difference between Laws Moral and Positive The Apostl 's vouching our Lords revelation a proof of the valu of the Sacrament Fear of cheapness no reason why we should make it scarce III Omission compared with unworthiness IV. Our warrant must be either Countermand or Dispensation V. Defect of preparation no Dispensation VI. All other duties in the same danger HAVING thus do'n right to our Church I now com to do it to the Question which is not the same in Our days as in St. Augustin's It is nor whether we ought to receve every Day but Whether we ought to do it upon every opportunity How frequent those Opportunities ought to be it is not the Peopl's business to enquire nor mine to determin It must needs be as necessary for the Officers as for the Constitutions of the Church to yield to the invincibl
unworthiness in Prayer as Those by unworthiness in Communicating Is our Lord Man only is he not God also Is he God of the Sacrament only is he not of Prayer also Is preparation therefor necessary for That only is it not equally necessary for This This were enogh But it is further considerabl that the case is very unequal on both sides For whereas unworthiness is more objected in bar to the Lords Supper the Scripture hath spoken much more against it in relation to Prayer For we shall hereafter find a more proper occasion to observ that the Apostl here reproveth not the unworthiness of the Person but only of the Performance Upbraideth not the Corinthians with any other sins but only such as are committed against the Lords Supper it self and in the manner of its celebration Doth not say the Lords Supper is turned into sin if the Communicant be guilty of Other sins But Solomon Prov. 15.8 saith expresly The Sacrifice of the wicked is sin and again chap. 21.27 The Sacrifice of the wicked is abomination David Psal 50. expostulateth in God's name that they presume to tread his courts and take his name into their mouths and the Prophet Isa 4. describeth God sick of his own Ordinances bicause unworthy persons celebrated them Jeremiah and Amos speak the same language So that if we take our mesures from Scripture we find much greater reason to examin our selvs and upon sens of our personal unworthiness to forbear Prayer than the Lords Supper Whence then this so gross partiality Why should we take That unworthiness as a Prohibition from This duty which we think not one from the other Were the truth duly considered it would appear that the difference lieth not in the greater or less sacredness of the Duties but our own greater or less Sens of their Benefits It is not Reverence but want of Appetite not Fear so much as want of Love that keepeth us at distance Pretendedly Reverential and Really Neglective Why do we not els use either the same Reverence or the same Boldness toward Both Both equally require Worthiness and Both equally require Performance with This difference that in the One we remember the Lord in the Other our Selvs But in Both we rob God of his due thogh in several kinds In the Lords Supper we own Preparation and There we deny Frequency In Prayer we own Frequency and there we deny Preparation so the One we Perform unworthily and the Other we Forbear unworthily and wipe our mouths and say we have do'n no wickedness Say not I plead now for Irreverence in the Communion or Forbearance of Prayer No! Religion is not to Compound with our Corruptions but to Destroy them will no more connive at Unworthiness in Prayer for fear lest Gods Throne be as much Deserted as his Table than at Unfrequency in Communicating for fear lest Irreverence should be as rude with his Table as his Foot-stool There is no necessity that we perish either by Poison or Starving By DO THIS we ar not Invited only but Commanded so to Honor our Lord as to Fest our own Souls CHAP. III. The Obligation ceased not upon the change of the Manner of the Festing in the Church but must be accommodated thereto I. The Apostle hath prevented such a consequence by saying our Lord appointed us to do this 'till he com II. The adequate mesure of our doing this is not Eating but Meeting in the Church As change of the ceremony hindereth not Perjury from being a sin Nor doth change of the season hinder us from stiling it a Supper III. The Church careful to preserve the memory and title of Festing IV. The Apostl's argument holdeth by vers 20. more for the Thing than for the Manner wherein we cannot now be guilty as the Corinthians were V. The Equitable and Moral sens of the Argument accommodate to the present manner of Church-meetings VI. Distinguish between yielding and justifying BUT there is yet another way Obligations without either Countermand or Dispensation from the Author may fall by the sinking of the Ground they ar bilt upon Upon the death of our Parents we ar no longer obliged to honor their Persons but only their Memories and upon this account all that we have said seemeth to free us from any other duty towards This Institution but that of speaking and thinking honorably of it For if This be bilt upon a Festival Tradition then will the Apostl's declaration of our Lords will oblige Us to do This as often as They did That His argument must be good against the Corinthians and All other Churches that might irreverently Fest in the Church But when the Council of Laodicea banished Festing thence they sent This Sacrament into the Same banishment with it This we cannot deny since the Apostl hath so declared it an inseparabl Adjunct to That but still an Adjunct which therefor must accompany its Subject whether in Life or Death We must do This as often but only as often as we do That which Now we never do This Objection deserveth our Answer not so much for its dangerosness as for the occasion it ministereth for a more clear stating our duty in accommodation to so great a change And to cut off at one blow all its power we must observe that the Apostl hath prevented it by an express claus added to vers 26. which shews This not to be Mortal as ar our Parents we must shew forth his death not only while Festing continueth an Ecclesiastical exercise but till he come Whereby he putteth it out of the Churches reach in point of Duration as before he had do'n in point of Constancy He had proved it to be our Lords Constitution not to be omitted in any of their Church Fests bicause They must do This as often as they drank That Grace-cup And that this humor might not fall upon another part he further tells them That thogh they should omit the very Grace-cup it self yea those very Fests which it must attend or what ever other way they should invent All must be unable to free them from the Immortal obligation which they had as litl power to Abolish as to Intermit since it must equal the World in Duration as well as their Fests in Constancy This therefor though a positive Law is no less Indispensibl than a Moral and the Church hath as much power to Dispens with the Law against Murther as with This whether by sapping the Foundation or battering it with a Contrary doctrine II. EITHER therefor That Council which forbad Festing in the Church was Heretical and then future ages must restore it by postliminium or else the adequate foundation of this duty was not Eating but Meeting in the Church And that This later is the case we have the Apostl's clear Intimation at least if not his express Declaration For however at That time their Festings wer as frequent as their Meetings and on the other side their Misdemeanors were not in the manner
And if it condemn when put into the Opposit scale what will it do in the Criminal Many plead their very Negligence in excuse for their Disobedience as if they wer therefor Not Guilty bicaus they ar Dubly so I was unprepared saith he And I easily believ it For None duly Prepared will be Absent He had not Examined Himself I know That too For he that hath do'n so must find that Omission of a duty is a Crime I may add he hath not Examined his Obligation for had he do'n so he must have found that the Same Apostl from who 's mistaken words he deriveth his excuse speaketh Imperatively to Both alike Let a man Examin himself and so let him Eat Go to the next Sessions thou trifler Go and There learn if any Offender be quitted upon pleading himself Therefor not guilty of the crime he is endited for bicaus That was the consequent of Another See if a Thief be quitted if he plead he stole bicaus he was Covetos or a Murderer if he plead he killed bicaus he was Malicios Or a Rebel if he plead he Rebelled becaus Ambitios But if neither These nor any Other Malefactors be quitted for pleading One crime in justification of Another then know that for the same reason thou canst not be justified by pleading Unpreparedness in excuse for Disobedience since That is a breach of as positive a Law as This. BUT Unpreparedness thogh it cannot Wholely Justify may in Part Excuse it self It is but a Singl omission hath broken No Other Law but this One. There ar who go higher and plead the Greatest Guilt Charity is the Greatest Command in the Moral and if possibl yet More highly enjoined in the Evangelical Law That is as much a Moral mark of a Discipl as This is a Ritual one For he that said Do this in remembrance of Me said also By This shall all men know that you ar my Disciples if ye love one another Yet som ar so impudent as to plead their very Uncharitableness in barr of This Duty as if they wer therefore innocent bicaus they cast off Both their badges that they may not make One give the Ly to the Other I am not in Charity saith One and to this Another addeth I never will be These ar indeed Unworthy to com to the Lords Table but so they ar to be caled by his Name I wonder not that Such should be afraid to Eat This Bread and Drink This Cup but I wonder that they dare Eat or Drink or Sleep at all much more that they dare Pray in our Lords Name and most of all that they dare do it in his Words For he that saith Forgive me as I forgive while he denyeth to Forgive needeth no other Guilt nor no other Sentence to exclude him not only from This but from the Eternal Supper of the Lord. Under These Three heads com the general Excuses which ar pleaded as hindrances from Performing what Nothing could hinder our Lord from Commanding Business Unpreparedness Uncharitableness The first too slight to be mentioned The second too criminal to be justified The last too gross to be pardoned VI. THERE ar other less General but less Frivolos excuses which cary more appearance of Conscience but not a jot more of Reason as being equally weak upon a contrary account These ar as much too Strong as Those ar too Weak These cannot be just excuses bicaus they ar Easy and oght to be avoyded nor These bicaus they ar Unavoidable For when we seriosly consider that our Lord Therefor chose Such a season that by the Difficulties which himself broke throgh in the Institution he might teach us to yield to None in the Performance we must find it no less unreasonabl to think he would Clog such a duty with Impossibl Conditions than that he would have it postponed to our Slightest Inconveniences For it is irrational to say He valued it so high as to think it worthy his Greatest Care and yet left it so encumbered with difficulties that it must Rarely if Ever be celebrated Those therefor who object such Hindrances as must Freqently if not Constantly occurr and ar as hardly to be Overcom'd as Avoided must needs cast a great blemish upon That wisdom and goodness that should provide such a Costly Fest use such care to sharpen our Appetites bid us with such earnest importunities yet lay such barrs in the way that we may not Tast it Some cannot receve bicaus they cannot do it without communicating with such as they know or at least suspect to be Unworthy These if they want not Charity toward Them whom they so Boldly and perhaps Unjustly condemn certainly want Appetite to this fest For as none but the worst of men ar by St. Jude branded with This character that they ar spots in our Fests of charity so doth the same Apostl declare that such Spots did not hinder the Saints from celebrating the Fests Themselves The truly loving Soul will not disdain to com to Christ thogh incompassed with Publicans and Sinners Som cannot receve it bicaus they cannot do it except they kneel And kneel they cannot not bicaus it is otherwise unlawful but bicaus it is commanded by their governors These manifest their appetite greater to Disobedience than to their Duty Not onely bicaus they chuse to Omit This Duty which the Lord never dispensed with much less forbad but bicaus they make Disobedience to his Officers more eligibl than Obedience to Himself Som cannot receve becaus the Minister is not at least they think him not a Saint These cannot have very great esteem for the Treasure who refuse it bicaus broght in an earthen vessel These and such as These ar the pleas of the Scrupulos wherein they differ no more from the Irreligios than the Coward doth from the Sluggard And as Every one of their pretences hath it's Own Proper weakness so do all agree in this One that they cast an inexcusabl dishonor upon our Lord as Commanding and Endearing a Performance utterly Impracticabl For since he could not but foreknow that in All Ages and Places there would be som spots in the Fest som unworthy Ministers in the Church and Som rules for Publik Worship in every country how can we suppose he should forbid us to Do this if any such Inconvenience should ly in our way How could he be at once so Careful to stablish the Command in midst of so Many and so Great Hindrances and yet so Regardless of the Performance as to require us to yield either to farr Less than Himself struggled with or such as we cannot fail to meet with How easily ar Both Kinds of excuses answered by that One fundamental rule of Epictetus teaching us to know our Duty and Happiness Be careful saith he to distinguish between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What ever is pretended for an hinderance either Is in our power or Not. If it Be ye must Remove