people in the Templ vers 20. And in the last verse we find their obedience such that daily in the Templ and in every house if the Translation speak truth they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ But the Greek speaketh as before In conformity to the Angels command they preached to the people in the Templ that they might Convert the yet Unconverted and they did the same and more in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to confirm those that were already Discipled Thus far we have found fair Probabilities Now I add a Demonstration not heeded by the above-named Learned Authors Hitherto we have found it in the singular number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but upon cogent reason we shall find it in the plural Acts 20.20 St. Paul having convened the Disciples of Asia thus justifies himself to them I have kept back nothing from you but have preached publikly and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may now be more tolerably thogh not exactly translated from house to house Now I demand any colour of reason for this change of number other than This plain one Asia was a large Province There were Therein divers Churches in divers Cities and it was proper that every City should have it's proper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and consequently the Apostle must there preach as from City to City so from Hous to Hous But Hierusalem was no more than One thogh perhaps greater than two or three Cities and required no more but One so it were a great Meeting-house and There breaking of Bread might well be celebrated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in one Domo As certainly therefor as the Plural number signifieth more than the Singular and a Large Provnice needeth more Meeting-houses than a City and the Apostl changeth numbers in conformity to the need so certain it is that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must signifie such a House as is appropriate to such a Meeting and such an Exercise V. 4. THE TIME when this was do'n is severally stated one way for Hierusalem and another for remoter Churches 1. At Hierusalem the Apostles and Brethren continued Daily in breaking of bread as well as in supplication and prayers but it was not could not be so in other places Hierusalem was the Metropolis There the Apostolik College kept their constant residence they deserted their Secular calings devoting themselves entirely to the propagation of the Gospel preaching in that Mother-city and thence issuing their Emissaries and Orders to other Churches There all that believed were together and had all things common sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need Acts 2.45 and 4.35 This was no more than necessary that those who had nothing but their hands might not be compelled to imploy them with their time for their bodily maintenance and in consequence hereof when all the Believers were impoverished in Particular and their common stock spent then must they be maintained by Contribution from Other Churches whom their Emissaries had converted to the same Faith receiving Carn I things in exchange for Spiritual things 2. To These Churches therefor another life was necessary Being to minister not only to their Own necessities but to those of the now poor Saints at Hierusalem they were caled to Work as well as to Believ To his Corinthians our Apostle prescribeth that in what ever caling any man is caled he therein abide 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Gods name and to the Thessalonians That if any one would not Work neither should he Eat Yet as the poor Saints must have a Portion of their Goods so must God have of their Time The Law had directed to the Seventh day Upon that day they Might and they Did join with the Jews in their Sabbath Devotions in their Synagogs as the Apostls did at Hierusalem in the Templ But for This holy Supper That Day was for the same reason no less unfit than That Templ What therefor we said of the necessity of another Place is no less true concerning another Day necessary to be consecrated to this Anti-Jewish office And what Day more proper than the Next not only nearest in Time but superior in Work On the Seventh day God rested from his work of Creation and fested Himself in the complacency he receved from the vieu of its perfection But upon the First day our Savior triumphed in the accomplishment of the to Him harder and to Us happier work of our Redemtion And as this Office was to take it's time after Reading Preaching and Prayer as we shall see more anon so was it congruos that it should succeed the Sabbath consecrate by the Law to those Offices The next day therefor as every way fittest is set apart for this Greater Mystery in memory of our Saviors Passion and Benefits This we find expresly declared Act. 20.7 Upon the First day of the week the Disciples came together to break bread 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for breaking breads sake And for this reason was it stiled the Lords day as appropriate to the honor of His Person Rev. 1.10 And in aftertimes the day of Bread Chrysost Hom. 5. De Resurrect And since we cannot better manifest our Love to him than by charity to his members and this Supper was both an Emblem and a Means of mutual Love therefore must it be attended with Liberality to the Poor recommended specially at this time by our Apostl to the Corinthians as before to his Galatians exhorting that Upon the First day of the week every one should lay by in store as God had prospered him 1 Corin. 16.1 2. And for this constantly attending Offertories sake no less than for the influence they had in promoting mutual love among the Communicants were these stiled Fests of charity under which character St. Jude mentions them as the ordinary exercise of all visible Members of the Church which els had not be'n so obnoxious to the Spots he complains of Yet so incorrigibl was the General sensuality that by Tertullians time they were relapsed into the same profaneness with that reproved in the Corinthians the Fests forgot their relation to the Lords Supper and a while after were banished out of his Church For som Ages did the now dead Sabbath ly in state not as still in force by vertu of the Law which it self was dead but in charity to the Jews in order to whose more probable conversion Christians complyed with them as far as lawfully and conveniently they Might and they Might so in All offices of Natural religion as in their Templ so on their Sabbath thogh the Sanctity of Both were equally abolished But with This difference that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were without any Positive Command honored by the Jews as so many Chappels of ease even while the Mother-templ stood and therefor were not by the Apostl's first consecrate to this office But the Lords day was never sanctified by the Jews nor upon any other account by the Apostls but adaequately for this Duties sake which gave it both Holiness and Name nor as Successor but Superior to the Sabbath And
be a Communion what do we more plainly than condemn the Private ones as carrying a Contradiction in the very Terms and the Publik ones as carrying One or More in their Performance For they plainly contradict both the word Communion when there are no Communicants and our Lords Command while in One Element they Dispense and in the Other Prohibit what He commanded Yet still they do well in the Thing thogh ill in the Manner in this very particular deserving to be owned a true thogh corrupt Church V. 3. AND what if we now reckon the Junior Fathers among our Adversaries yea Those very Fathers by name whom we but now found vouched as telling us That the custom of daily Communions continued in some Churches until their days What such Fathers or other credible Writers say of the Doctrines or Customs of the Churches of Christ in their own days we think our selves obliged to believe upon their credit And upon that account we doubt not but This custom of daily Communicating who 's foot-steps remained in Those times wherein they wrote was derived as Catholik from the preceding and if themselves Depart or Detract from what they have so witnessed to be Catholik what can we do better than distinguish the Doctor from the Father and judge his Opinion by his Testimony Whether St. Augustin have so do'n and consequently how far his authority is to sway us in the present Question we cannot take a better way to find than by transcribing his own words the consequences whereof were he alive to see he would doubtless lament His Discours is in his 118th Epistle in these words among others Som will say that the Eucharist is not to be receved every day If you ask why he tells you bicause som days ar to be chosen in which a man may live more purely and continently that so he may com to so great a Sacrament more worthily bicause he that eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks damnation to himself On the other side another says If thou hast received so great a wound and contracted so violent a disease that such remedies ar to be deferr'd every such man ought by the Authority of the Bishop to be removed from the Altar and put to penance and by the same authority be reconciled For this is to receve unworthily Then to receve when a man should be doing penance and not according to his own pleasure offer himself to or withdraw himself from the Communion But if his sins be not so great as to deserve Excommunication he ought not to separate himself from the daily Medicine of the Lords Body Between those possibly a man may determine the question better if he admonishes that men should abide in the peace of Christ But let every one do what according to his Faith he piosly believes ought to be do'n For neither of them dishonors the Body and Blood of the Lord if they in their several ways contend who shall most honor the most holy Sacrament For Zacheus and the Centurion did not prefer themselves before one another when one receved Christ into his house and the other said he was not worthy to receve him under his roof That by this Discourse we may undarstand what was St. Augustin's Opinion and how far we are to be determined by it it will be requisite that we consider 1. The State of the Question And 2ly His Determination of it 1. In Stating the Question we ar to observ 1. The Question it self And secondly The Practice of the Church at That time 1. The Question it self is extremely different from Ours So different that we may very well subscribe to the Fathers determination It is Whether the Eucharist be to be receved EVERY DAY or some days to be chosen wherein a man may live more purely c. Now we pretend not to EVERY DAY But believ that the Lords day was purposely consecrate and afterward other holy days were added and that every such day hath its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 set aside to the purpose expressed by St. Augustine That a man may therein live more purely and continently that so he may come more worthily to so great a Sacrament If therefor This great Fathers Arbitration which was bounded to Every day be stretched to the modern Question which exceedeth All bounds nothing will be so questionable as This Whether the injury we do the Fathers Discurs or That we do our Lord's Institution be the greater of the two 2. The Practice of the Church for which the Question was calculated was extremely different from Ours and That in two respects 1. In point of Worship For at Thar time the Holy Communion was daily administred by the Priests at least in great Cities and daily received by the devouter part of the peopl Som saith St. Augustine himself Daily communicate in the body and blood of the Lord some receve upon certain days in some places it is offered every day without intermission in som only upon the Sabbath and the Lords day in some upon the Lord's day only 2. In the point of Discipline which in Those days excluded the most scandalous both from the Communion and publik Prayers but This by the sentence of the Bishop This as it is plainly intimated in St. Augustin's above-recited words so is it more plainly expressed by St. Chrysostom in These words Art thou not worthy of the Sacrament nor Communion thou art not then worthy of Prayer Thou hearest the officer standing and proclaiming Whoever of you are in Penance be go'n If thou be one of those that are in Penance thou must not communicate For he that doth not communicate is in Penance Why then doth he say Be go'n you that cannot pray and thou impudently standest by and art not such but one of them that can communicate In which words of St. Chrysostom two things appear very considerable 1. That those who were excluded from the Holy Communion were no less so from publik Prayer which by the above-recited account of Justin Martyr began at the Communion Service 2. That it was not left to every mans private Caprice or Conscience to Com or Forbear But every one must com if he were not under Penance by the Bishops sentence VI. HITHERTO we have heard St. Augustin as a Father discursing in the Early stile a uestion suitable to his own time We ar now to hear him as a Doctor determining the Question by his own Reason And we are to observ 1. The stile he speaketh in And 2. The Determination he giveth 1. His stile is not definitive Doth not give his Sentence but his Opinion yea not his setled Opinion but his staggering unfledged Sentiments Doth not Impose upon our Belief but Propose to our Examination Between these saith he possibly a man determine i. e. No man hath yet so determined nor can I say that any man may but I offer it to consideration In This he speaketh most like a Father that he confesseth himself Not
legacy so serviceabl both to his own honor and his Churches happiness yet so unkind as to clog it with such condicions as must render it Inaccessibl to the Most Tormentive to the Best Dangeros to every Single person Mischievous to the Church in general and Necessary to None whereas by a plain determination of his will inforced by his Command he might have prevented all Inconveniences and promoted all Good effects Had it not be'n better that the Christian World had never heard of it than suffered so many mischievs by it What Fires hath it kindled What blood hath it drawn What wounds hath it made in the authors Mystical body more grievos to him than those it commemorateth of his Natural What member which it hath not tormented What Church what Person hath escaped its mischievous influence And on the other side Where ar its good fruits Where is that Church Where is that Person that can in these last Ages boast of any so great benefits obteined by it as may in any proportion pretend to recompence so many and great mischievs The Conclusion reflecting upon the whole I. All reduced to three questions Qu. 1. By what Authority do we depart from Constancy By that of the Church of Rome II. No Doctrine hath so much Popery as This. III. Qu. 2. With what Success 1. By loss of Constancy we have lost tolerabl Frequency IV. 2. By too much advanceing Reverence we have made it mischievos 1. To the honor of our Lord 2. to the peace of his church V. Qu. 3. Upon what Need No such danger as is feared of loss of reverence or if there were any it is much outweighed both by prudential and conscientious considerations VI. The Reverence which is due to the Sacrament is not such as belongs to Gods Decrees which require our Forbearance but such as belongs to his Laws which require our Performance MAY not so many and great abuses make This holy Sacrament ashamed as the Prophet is described in Zachary of it's Commission May it not say of the wounds in its hands These ar the wounds wherewith I have be'n wounded in the house of my friends They ar indeed but in the Hands not in the Heart destroy not its Being but leave it such an one as Epicurus allowed God incomprehensibl in Majesty Glory and Idleness exalted as much above our Concerns as our Understandings but wounded in the Hands maimed and pained unserviceabl and troublsom to the Church in General and every member in Particular And This in the house of friends Reverence for it's mysteries Zele for it's honor Care for it's service by being wise overmuch and righteous overmuch Wise overmuch even wiser than our Lord himself and Righteos overmuch even more than can well stand ether with the nature of a fest or the frailty of mankind By spinning our Lords institution to such fineness as robbeth it of it's strength and straining the Apostl's discours to such rigor as maketh the duty impracticabl By practising upon the body of Christ as Empiriks do upon those of their patients against all Rules and often without any Need. Yes 't is even so The Sacrament they say was grow'n Plethorik it must therefor bleed away somthing of Constancy for preservation of Reverence and these ar the wounds it receved from the hands of Chyrurgeons exerciseing Phlebotomy But 1. By who 's Prescription 2. With what success 3. Vpon what need ar questions so important that it may be worth our labor to sum up all that we have said or can be said into those three enquiries 1. By who 's Prescription What Doctor durst presume thus to practise upon the Body and Blood of the Lord contrary to his own Institution Were we to answer by conjecture we should not long deliberate but we have better evidence than bare suspion even as good as can be wished the testimony of an Historian beyond exception who could neither dare to impose upon the world nor could himself be deceved in matter of Fact notoriously known even to the most ignorant We have already heard from Socrates who made an end of his History in the year of our Lord 441. and shall now again more heedfully take his report Whereas saith he All Churches over the whole world on the Sabbath days in every week celebrate the Mysteries they of Alexandria and Rome upon som ancient Tradition refuse so to do But the Egyptians who ar neighbors of the Alexandrians and the inhabitants of Thebais do indeed meet on the Sabbath but partake not the Mysteries after the manner of Christians for after they are filled with all manner of meats about evening they offer and receve the Mysteries And again in Alexandria on the fourth day and that which is caled the preparation-day the Scriptures ar read and the Teachers interpret them and all things belonging to a meeting ar performed except the celebration of the Mysteries As the first clause of these words speaketh the Holy Sacrament constantly celebrated every Sunday so doth the last witness the same for every other Holy-day for by observing it as a singularity in the Church of Alexandria that their weekly Lectures were defective for want of This he plainly supposeth it notorios that it was celebrated every where els in all Church-assemblies And concerning the Sundays-Sacrament we must observ 1. The Church of Alexandria was but Accessary and that of Rome Principal For as the former furnished the later with her Corn so was her self filled with the Wealth and Merchants of Rome for who 's sake she complyed with her customs But the voisinage who had no such tentations liked not the trade but refused to consent to their own Metropolis in so gross an innovation Yea they thence took such jealosie as to stand the more stifly to such other customs of their Ancestors as all the rest of the World thoght fit to be changed Nor indeed could they well justify the One without the Other For if they refused to reneg constancy for This very reason bicause their Ancestors practised it then could they not deny the consequence which was pressed upon them that they must upon the same reason stick to the ancient but now generally disused circumstances which made it the close of a Fest 2. The Evidence whereon This innovation was founded was not derived from Scripture or Reason or any other competent Topik but a pretended Tradition a private Tradition a Tradition whispered to the Church of Rome and her Zany of Alexandria so close in the ear that it could not be heard by any other Church equally Apostolik not more contrary to the practice of the rest of the World than to the very Nature of Tradition which cannot be but Universal 3. The vantage they have since made of This invention hath made it plain that they therefor wer thus industrios to advance this Sacrament obove all other offices of Worship that they might thereby advance both their own Church above other Churches and their Priests
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
more evident when we consider that he is no less careful to speak of the Bread in the same Jewish stile caling that also by its traditional â—lame For the Jews throughout their Misna and Talmud call this part of their Tradition by the same Name as doth the Apostle in this place and whereby it is still knowen in the New Testament They call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Phrase cannot be more exactly translated than by The breaking of the Bread Yea this is so expressive with them that it is diverbial to stile the head of the family from this office and the whole performance by one word This you may plainly discover by what the lerned and laborios Doctor Castel in his Heptaglot Lexicon saith upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rabb Fractor Sic dicitur Pater familias q. in convivio primus frangit panem s cibum illumque benedicit distribuit convivis sec illud 1 Sam. 19.13 Hinc Phrasis illa in N. T. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 III. LEt us now observ how the Apostle treateth these parts of the Lords Supper under these their Proper names and we shall find still more proof of his respecting This tradition He caleth That the cup of Blessing but he doth not call This the bread of Blessing and why not Two Evangelists more expresly note that our Lord blessed it and the third agreeth with our Apostle that he gave thanks before he brake it On the other side he caleth This the bread which we break but doth not stile That the cup which we distribute yet doth our Lord speak it more plainly of the Cup than of the Bread Take This and divide it among your selves Other reason for this duble difference of stiles we cannot Find and Better we cannot Desire than This that as our Lord borrowed both Parts of his Institution from the Jewish tradition so did the Apostle both their Names Again the Apostle keepeth to the Jewish stile in the Cup saying You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils but in the other part he quitteth the name of Bread changing it for Table and saying You cannot be partakers of the Lords Table and of the Table of devils And for this he had sufficient reason if the Greeks did not what we find no reason to believ they did consecrate Bread as they did Wine in All yea or Any of their Fests but if we quit This reason we shall hardly find another Yet again The Bread had the First Place both in the Jewish Tradition and the Lords Institution yet ver 16. he giveth the Cup precedence Why doth he thus cross his hands as old Jacob did preferring the Cadet before the First born What 's the reason were his eyes dim or his choice irrespective By no means For we shall again find him in the same partiality and upon the same reason because the Cup was more serviceable to his Argument than the Bread In This place it better demonstrates the inconsistency between the Church of Christ which blessed it and an Idols Temple which did not and in That it better distinguisheth a Fest which requireth the Lords Supper from a common Supper which doth not Yet must not the Bread be so deposed from its primogeniture as to be left without its blessing Thogh the Greeks custom had no rival for it yet our Lords Supper hath need of it and must not be maimed of the one half equally necessary to His Table thogh not to the Apostles argument Thogh therefor he cannot now as in the Cup oppose Name to Name yet he doth Thing to Thing Table to Table and under that stile payeth the Bread the same Justice thogh not the same Deference as he doth the Cup. Look we now which way we will we meet clear evidence Direct in the so careful caling each Element by its proper Name and Collateral in the no less careful Transplaceing them suitably to the aspect they had upon his Design yet doing right to the Institution and Tradition by mentioning the Bread as necessary to These thogh not to That IV. WHat more can be Expected yea What more can be Desired must we prove not only that here are the same Names but the same Person too This is do'n 8.15 16. I speak as to the wise men judge ye what I say 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 Can now any thing be plaine could any Lawyer or Grammarian more clearly and properly have expressed that the same bread and cup whose names he had thus translated from Hebrew to Greek were by our Lord translated from the Jewish Tradition to his Own Institution Are not Those the same with These I cannot pretend any stronger Proof but I shall endeavor to Illustrate it by a Custom of our own in our accademical Fests hitherto unaccounted V. OUr predecessors have no less exactly translated the name of the Jewish cup into English than hath the Apostle into Greek What They caled Blessing the Table We call Saying Grace and This answereth That in Both senses Praying or Praising Imploring a Blessing upon the Meat before we eat or returning Thanks for it after we have eaten Our Grace-cup therefore deriveth its Proper Name from St. Pauls Cup of Blessing by exact translation of the word And this same Cup hath a Sirname derived from the Same original by another Apostle In Acts 20. we find the Primitive Churches met every first day of the week to break bread And 1 Cor. 16.1 Upon this day they made their contributions to the poor so joining their Charity to the Lords Mystical Body with their Honor to his Natural which St. Jude so highly approveth as to denominat those meetings Fests of charity J whence our Ancestors have given this Grace-cup its Surname the Cup of Charity as used in those Fests of Charity I wish they had be'n as careful to preserve the significance as the ceremony and the duble name But if from These we may learn That we find Characters legible enogh to inform us The Cup of Blessing and our Grace-cup have Both the same Name the same Mater the same Circumstances after Grace after Washing in such order that not one of the Guests can be past by It 's the Last action before rising requireth the same Number three at least We find that however the remoter Churches met the First day of the week to break bread yet the Apostles at Jerusalem did it daily and Religios Fraternities think themselves obliged rather to take their paterns from the Apostolic College than the Graecian Churches as our Church requireth more constancy in Collegiate and Cathedral Fraternities than Parochial When the Governors of the Church upon urgent nenessity changed the Season for the people who were not to be trusted after Supper
Country accordingly His General design we cannot mistake Nothing can be plainer than This that it is to convince the Corinthians of their guilt in profaning the Lords Supper but the Medium whereby he prosecutes this charge is both Generally and Grosly mistaken and since this is the Mother error whence all our Neglects on One hand and all our Earnestness on the Other and all our Disputes on All hands proceed it cannot be too plainly exposed and thogh it be troublesom yet must we crave the Reader to undergo a labor so necessary that without it he cannot understand what the Apostle meaneth throughout his discourse We too hastily believe that he endeavoreth to prove no more but this that our Lords Person was concerned in all the abuses of his Supper taking it for granted that they knew how his Supper was concerned in Those Meetings which he reproved Whereas the more we consider it the plainer we shall find that his Direct and Immediate endeavor is to prove the Later supposing the Former as self-evident upon the first notice of our Lords Institution So the case of the Corinthians toward the Lords Supper was much like the Apostles Own toward the High Priest Acts 23.4 5. They that stood by said Revilest thou Gods high priest Then said Paul I wist not brethren that he was the high priest For it is written Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people He reproveth the Corinthians as the By-standers reproved Him Profane you the Lords Holy Supper And supposing them likewise to excuse themselves in the same manner by saying We wist not that it was the Lords Holy Supper for we cannot but know That must be celebrated with reverence he argueth in such manner as to convince them of what they seemed either not to Understand or not to Own II. THE understanding of This will give us great light towards discovery of every step and that this is true we may the better perceve if we proceed by these Enquiries 1. Whether this might not be the Corinthians case 2. What might become the Apostle to do in such a case 3. How doth the Apostles procedure suit with such a Supposal 1. This might very well be the Corinthians case For 1. Possibly they might suppose that our Lord pointed at the Bread as Paschal not as Festival and consequently preferred not Every Fest but only the Passover to this honor and for This there are appearances of reason not contemtibl 1. He chose the Passover for the Season of his Institution and embraced it with such expressions of Affection as seemed Proper to That Particular solennity saying With a desire have I desired to eat not this Supper but this Passover 2. This above All other Fests best Prefigured his death while Future and was therefor most fit to Commemorate it when Past 3. The Jews said of the Lamb This is the BODY of the Passover and our Lord seemeth to allude to it saying This is my BODY 4. The Jews distributing the Paschal Cake said THIS IS the Bread of affliction c. and our Lord distributing the Bread said THIS IS my Body c. And at That time having newly filled their minds with phrases proper to the Season it is very probable that they might receve our Lords words in such a sens 2. And probably such an error might proceed from want of a proper form of Words to accompany the celebration One of the best Doctors our Church can bost of authoriseth me to say That such a Form of words however Useful is not indispensibly Necessary Our Lord enjoined none and we find not that his Apostles either Practised or Taught their Disciples any and it was prone for the Corinthians to slide into an error concerning That cup which carried no Inscription to declare its contents Certainly from hence came that which Tertullian complains of in his days That Fests of Charity were celebrated in the Church without the Lords Supper and from hence came our loss of the meaning which is the Soul of our Grace-cup And on the contrary the Jews with the Mater retene also the meaning of their Tradition because both the Bread and Cup are accompanied with such a Form of words as will not suffer it to be lost 3. And possibly they might look upon the Whole as a mere outward Performance For knowing how litle fondness our Lord had toward Such exercises they might thence infer that he left it in Their choice to Perform or Omit it as Themselves should judge convenient and their Partiality to their beloved riot might incline them both to Entertene such an opinion and Improve it Our Lords Supper must strike some Aw into their unwilling minds Commanding not only Sobriety but Devotion And how unwelcom such a check must be to the Corinthian humor and consequently how willing they must be to free themselfs from it if we know not already we shall anon Thus far we have considered Probabilities we come now to Certainty 4. Whatever they Really believed it is Certain they might Pretend that they believed our Lords Supper unconcerned in Those Fests which the Apostle thus reproved and the very Possibility of such a Pretence no less required a confutation than a Real profession of such a Belief which requireth us to consider as our next step III. VVHat might become the Apostle to do in such a case If it were but Possibl for them to believ so Himself hath taught us that he ought to suppose they Did For Charity thinketh no evil but hopeth All things believeth All things Since therefor This was much better than Knowingly and Willingly to affront our Lord in his Representative This must in Charity be supposed And Prudence agreed with Charity rather to seek out Excuses for them than to expose them to the Vttermost He was to deal as Sweetly and Obligingly as possibl so to endear Himself and the Gospel to them Praise them as much as possibly he might Reprove them no more than Needs he must and Excuse them when he could not Justifie them And this as it sweetened the Reproof in appearance so did it more bitterly aggravate the Crime if their own consciences upbraided them as uncapabl of such an excuse Since the Guilt must needs be Great which to the Reprover appeared Incredibl Nor could any Inconvenience on the Other side dissuade such a procedure This way he might meet with them at All turns If they wer Really mistaken he might Rectifie their Judgments if they wer not he might Baffl their Pretences and Both waies Reprove their Misdemeanors rescuing our Lords Supper from Profanation if they intended to celebrate it and his Commands from Neglect if they intended it not and Himself from any appearance either of Severity towards Them or Coldness towards our Lords Supper IV. 3. HOW doth his Procedure suit with such Supposals If we carefully observe we find that the former part agreeth very well with them and the later part will agree with
this last Opinion seemeth fairly intimated in the Berachoth it self if well interpreted For in the eighth Chapter reckoning up the differences between the houses of Shammai and Hillel they thus express the last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which words may be thus translated There cometh to them Wine for the Poscaenium and there is there no other but That very Cup The house of Shammai say he blesseth first for the Wine and afterward he blesseth for the Meat But the house of Hillel say he blesseth for the Meat and afterward he blesseth for the Wine In which words is plain that all agree that there is Wine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we observed them to stile that After Supper 2. That there is but one cup for the whole company and 3. That the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 blesseth for them All. But Zohar in Exod. p. 280. speaketh full to our purpose and nameth the Cup by his proper name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Cup of Blessing was not used unless when there were Three because of the mystery of the Three fathers which blessed and so there is no need of the Cup unless there be Three The Reason is most Rabbinical i. e. most ridiculous but the Authority is reputed great because most ancient and the words are most pertinent and conclusive to our purpose plainly expressing how much they stood upon the Cup of Blessing and what number it required II. UPON This account of mater of Fact it will not be hard to pass judgement which I shall come to by steps 1. WHETHER in our Saviors days they put such difference between Bread and Cup is not necessary for us to determin for the Apostl's Argument will go as strongly thogh perhaps not altogether as gracefully without it since his partiality to the Cup may otherwise be fairly accounted for 1. Because we have seen from other pens that the Greeks understood the use of the Grace-cup but we meet no such foot-steps of their Breaking of bread and it was reason the Apostl should rather bild his inferences upon a custom which they knew than upon One which they knew not 2. Because Bread was never distributed After any Other Supper but only the Paschal and was Then attended with a form of words sounding much like that which our Lord used in his Institution Since hence appeared som danger lest the Corinthians should mistake our Lords meaning it was fit the Apostl should clear it which he doth almost as plainly as if he had said You know the custom of closeing a Fest with a Cup of blessing and you may know the custom of the Jews distributing a Cake after the Passover and probably you may think our Lord intended that his Supper should be mesured not by the Cup which was used after All Fests but by the Bread which was so used only after the Passover But I tell you I have receved from the Lord himself that you must celebrate his Supper as often as you drink the Grace cup. Here is ground enogh for his Argument and all its turnings and we may safely spare the trouble either of enquiring or contending for the equal or unequal frequency of the ordinary Bread 2. WERE the Jewish Misna or Talmūd directly against us in som material particulars it were more reasonable to reject their Authority than so Necessary and so Exact a Key That we may see the reasonableness of This assertion it will be fit to ballance them 1. If the Jewish Doctrines in maters of their dearest Law be apparently changed from what they were in our Saviors days we oght to suspect their care not to have be'n greater towards a Tradition Let us then compare what our Lord said with what their Talmud now saith The Gospel informeth us Luke 14.5 that our Lord spake to the Pharisees and Lawyers saying Which of you shall have an Ox or an Ass falen into a pit and will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath day And they could not answer him to these things Which yet they might have do'n if their then Doctrines had be'n agreeable to those of the Talmud which forbiddeth to pull him out but alloweth to carry meat to feed him and if need be straw to support him in the place And accordingly Munster furnisheth us with a pertinent story out of the Saxon Annals A Jew saith he fallen into a Jakes on the Sabbath would not be draw'n out but have meat brought him thither which the Bishop hearing of required that the same honor should be paid to the Christian Sabbath so the poor Jew suffered two days penance for the Talmud's swerving from ancient practice I pretend not to equal any evidence with the Gospel It is sufficient that I hence infer that we may not argu from their Present customs to their Ancient so as to reject any probable light especially when so confirmed as we are by som of their own Rabbies III. 3. SEEING so great a party of them so state their Tradition as most exactly jointeth with the Apostl's discours we have great reason to believe Them to be in the right This not as an arbitrator between the dissenting Rabbins but in defence of my Hypothesis from my worthy Friends Objection I thus confirm from the exact agreement which I found between the Apostl's Argument and That Custom so stated This Argument must proceed from Chance from the Jews accommodating their Custom to our Lords Institution or from our Lords accommodating his Institution to the Jewish Custom It was not from either of the Former Therefor it was from the Last That the Division is adaequate needeth no proof For Ether it must be by Chance or it must Not since there can be no midl between the two ends of a Contradiction If it were Not by chance then ether That Custom must conform to This Institution or This to That For they cannot meet unless Mahomet go to the Mountain or the Mountain com to Mahomet The Assumtion I thus prove by parts 1. It cannot proceed from Chance Such a concurs of so many and so crooked particls can be no more imputed to undiscerning chance than can the meeting of the letters in the discurs it self Chance may do one thing well as a blind man may shoot a Hare but he cannot shoot multitudes without missing one When a FINE is levied in Court the Chirographer writeth two Copies at a competent distance in the same Parchment In the space between them he writes two or three letters then he cutteth the Parchment in the middle indenturewise so as to divide those Letters leaving either indenture som part that upon any occasion the conterparts compared together may by so many agreements vouch either for the other There happened a question between three parties concerning the conditions of a Fine levied time out of mind Two of the contenders produce for proof of their pretences common Parchments attested only by their Fathers The third produceth an Indenture of Fine transmitted to
Remote Churches on the Lords 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 4th Commandment cannot be worse profaned than by neglect of This office to which it oweth it's sacreduess HITHERTO I have labored to serve the Learned and the Inquisitive the Able and the Willing to search both the ground of our Lords Institution and the Apostl's discourse concerning it which reciprocate such light to one another that I hope every such Reader is fully satisfied both in Conscience and Curiosity But there ar many other who ether understand not such work or will not suffer the fatigue whom I shall now endeavor to fit with less troublsom Discourses It is much easier both to Understand and to Attend the the process of an History than that of an Argument and the sens of Mater of Fact as it is more Obvious so is it generally more Potent than That of Mater of Right What therefor I have hitherto be'n proving to have be'n our Lord's and Apostl's mind concerning our obligation to constancy I shall now authorise by the suitable Practice of All the Apostl's and Primitive Churches In This Chapter I shall search the Scripture for the Former and in the following I shall look into humane Writers for the Later In This Chapter let us vieu the Scripture and see the strange unhappiness of This Subject We might well hope to ' scape all disputes concerning Mater of Fact when the witness is infallibl what can we need more but to hear him Yes we need understand him too and as in the Apostl's argument we have found difficulty bicause those expressions which were familiar to His age are worn out in Ours So the same difficulty still pursueth us in the very History We must not only vieu what is written but we must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Search and Examin and that carefully too what is meant when report is made even of Mater of Fact But we have This comfort that as the troubl will be now less so will our discoveries be more various and at every step we shall meet somthing worth the no great labor of the inquiry Two things will be worth our observation 1. How careful our Lord was to recommend his Institution and how backward the Apostls were in Apprehending his meaning 2. How diligent the Apostl's were in Obeying his will when well informed concerning it 1. It is worth observing be it but for our own justification that notwithstanding our Lords care to instruct them the Apostl's themselves were as hardly broght to understand his mind in his Institution as we ar now And it is more particularly observable that Those endeavors which he used to recommend it to their affections met the same success as we have seen follow those very words of the Apostl whereby he endeavored to prove the necessity of constancy Our Lord's care to recommend it appeareth especially by two Actions 1. His timeing the Institution Secondly His care to mind them of it while fresh in memory 1. He chose the fittest Time for the Institution The Apostl observed it and we shall anon find another occasion more fully to consider how observable it is that it was the Last night and That wherein he was betrayed and the Evangelist is careful to commemorate with what affection he embraced That Passover for This very reason bicause it was the most proper for This Institution But That dismal night however seasonable to endear it to Future times was least so for it's publication to the Present It was natural that the dreadful Tragedy then impending should so confound both their Apprehensions and Memories as utterly to rob them of all other consideration but of their Lord's and their Own dangers leaving them no power to regard the at-such-a-time-scarce-considerable action To cure This inconvenience he applyeth a contrary remedy and that speedily II. HIS Resurrection was matter of as great Joy as his Passion was of Grief or Fear and he makes That an opportunity to remedy the Other After his Death they met together not to Fest but Fast bicause the Bridegroom was taken from them the news of his Resurrection must give them the garments of gladness for the spirit of heaviness and invite them both to turn their Fasting to Festing and to close their Fests with his Supper as he had both very Carefully and very Lately commanded He therefor contriveth a way whereby he may at once assure them of the truth of his Resurrection and the meaning of his Institution The story we meet in Luke 24.13 which bicause we as litle heed now as the Apostl's did then will require som Animadversion Finding Two Disciples traveling together to complete the necessary number himself makes a Third He joins himself to them discourses with them gives them sufficient opportunity and occasion to observ his countenance his voice his meen and whatever els he might be know'n by But these it seems were Disciples in extraordinary not such as ordinarily conversed with him and they knew him not so perfectly as to discover him in such circumstances He suppeth with them and having by his discourses manifested himself a Rabbin takes the office of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Breaker and performs it not in the Accustomed but his Own New form points not so much to the Bread as to his own Body and thereby so manifested his Person that immediatly they knew him This gives us an Hypothesis suitable to all the Phaenomena of the story otherwise unaccountable and if our eyes be withholden that we no more know his Meaning now than the Disciples did his Person by the way let us look how we shall answer these questions How came their eyes to be opened 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in or by the breaking of the Bread more than by all his other appearances You say he might discover himself When and How he pleased True but the question concerneth not his Power but his Will which governs that Power and is it self governed by his Wisdom We therefor further demand Why he that Could do it in what circumstances he pleased should Chuse to do it in These rather than any Other This say you is a saucy question we are not to call our Lord to account for his actions But may we not be bolder with his servants his Disciples and Evangelist Let us then inquire concerning them Why were the Disciples so careful to report This very Circumstance Why the Evangelist so punctual to record that they reported not only the Thing but the Manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How or in what manner he was knowen to them by the breaking of the Bread Here meet an unaccountabl Will of our Lord choosing This very Manner of discovering himself the no less unaccountabl Care of the Disciples reporting This Manner and of the Evangelist recording both the One and the Other Must All this be imputed to a fortuit concurs without
this is worthy our consideration not only for the Sacrament's sake but the Day 's too VI. FOR to derive the LORDS DAY from the fourth Commandment as it is Inconvenient upon other accounts so is it Mischievous upon This that it looseneth its relation to This office for who 's sake alone it was dignified as with the assemblies of the Saints so with it's title of the Lord's day Nor is such an opinion consistent with the practice of the Primitive Church which for several ages celebrated Both the One for the Jews sake the Other for the Sacraments which therefor we ought to celebrate as constantly at least as we do That day which cannot be duly bicause it needs not all be sanctified without it Were this as carefully heeded as in Scripture it is plainly declared in Reason duly accounted for and in the Primitive times publikly practised both the Lords Day and His Supper would have escaped Those Losses which Both of them suffer by their separation the One rob'd of it's greatest Honor the Other of its very Being For as it is higher Honor to the Day to be acknowledged an Evangelical Substance than a Legal Shadow and to be celebrated with this office than without it so is it not only Less Honorable but More Destructive to this Holy office to be spoiled both of the acknowledgement due to it from the Day so preferred by it's interest and of Safety from that Neglect which could never have befallen it while the Day it self is sanctified if that Sanctification were acknowledged to relate to this Performance Those therefor who ar zelos for the honor of the Day are for it's sake obliged to consider whether any Sport or any Lrbor can be so pernicious a desecration of it as the Omission of this Sacrament who 's celebration was the sole reason of the sacredness both of the Day it self and of its Eve which of the two hath the greater interest in the Fourth Commandment as being the same Seventh day which Gods peopl celebrated as thereby consecrated yet had not retained any difference under the Gospel from common days but in order to the better preparation for the Sacrament to be receved the Lords day following and upon That account differenced not by Festing but by Fasting And since necessity may drive to Mean condescensions I beg now not only for the Lord's sake but for the Lord's day's sake for That day's sake in who 's behalf so many complaints ar made not only To our Governors but Against them I beg that those who ar so zelous to have the Day restored to its due honor would do their part to restore this Sacrament to its due celebration whereby the Lord's Day with his Person would be better righted than by Sabbatizing with Rigot more than Jewish but with Worship less than Christian Let us now spell all together The Exercises accompanying this constant breaking of Bread Were they not Holy The Phrase expressing This exercise Is it not proper The Place Was it not consecrated before The Time Was it not consecrated purposely What then can be answered to the Apostls demand The bread which they brake was it not the Communion of the body of Christ Or to Our inference that they were as constant in the Holy Communion as in Common Prayer CHAP. VI. The Practice of Antiquity 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 beeween St. Augustin's time and Ours VI. As a Doctor he determins the question 1. His stile very different bicause his Opinion is opposit to all other Fathers 2. His determination reacheth not Our question Yet have later ages caght at his wonds and strained them beyond his intentions with unhappy success His Syncretism rectified FROM Scripture I am now to descend to Humane Writers to examin whether by Them we find the Practice of the Primitive Churches agreeable to That of the Apostls I. AND now I feel somthing like a Tentation to imploy my Servitor to collect what the Fathers the Eldest especially have writen on This subject and then stifling my Reader with a multitude of Quotations purchase my self at Both their costs the name of Well read in the Fathers and Councils c. But corage Reader I have no more such a Design than my Subject such Need Where none contradicts One competent witness of Each kind may very well claim the belief of any indifferent person and with More I will not troubl you I shall therefor produce but One ancient Canon One Father One Historian and One Enemy of each party 1. Of CANONS I account Those most Ancient which have usurped the title of Apostolical thogh many of them bewray themselves unworthy of it We have reasons more than enough to decline their Authority but None to except against Their Testimony concerning Mater of Fact such as is the Publik practice of the Visibl Church at the Time of their Date which is Therefor certainly Ancient bicause not certainly known since having no Councel to father them they must needs be elder than Any Of Those Canons the 9th thus briefly and plainly delivereth the opinion we ar pleading for All the faithful which enter the Church and hear the Scriptures but do not stay out the Prayers nor receve the Holy Communion ought to be excommunicate as disturbers of the Church To This so clear evidence I know nothing capabl of being opposed unless perhaps the word faithful be supposed to exclude All but such as deserv the highest sens of That title But it is sufficiently know'n that That comprehensive word conteineth All but Catechumens and Penitens All others as visibl Members of Christs Body being in Those days honored with That stile And that it signifies no otherwise Here the words themselvs sufficiently evince For This title is allowed to Those very Persons who at the same time ar censured as worthy of Excommunication Nor can the Last clause be taken so copulatively as if Those passed uncensured who stayed out Prayers thogh they receved not the Holy Communion For This was lookt upon as the greater crime of the Two The Councils of Antioch and Bracara required that such should be driven out of the Church and St. Chrysostom bitterly chides them saying If thou stand by and dost not Communicate thou art wicked thou art shameless thou art impudent And we shall presently
see that none could stay out the Prayers but they must be at least by-standers at the Communion Or if any thoght to avoid them Both they were not thereby excused as appears in the case of the Alexandrians for when many of them after reading of the Gospel went away John surnamed the Alms-giver then Patriarch followed them out of the Church sharply reproving them telling them He came to administer the Eucharist to them and never giving over his importunity till he brought them back to the Holy Table Even those who were go'n out of the Church as resolved not to Communicate and therefor certainly both Unprepared and Unworthy did he promiscuously even compel And This zele of so Eminent a Prelate might I vouch as my second Topik since he cannot be denied the title of a Father of the Church But I urge not This however Venerable Authority further than as Expositor of the true meaning of the now mentioned Canon since by the shifts the People made to avoid the Letter by not staying out Prayers and the importunity the good Prelate used to recal them both to Prayers and Communion we may best Avoid any Evasions that our Modern Teachers may use who in Reverence to the Sacrament fright the vulgar from it and Justify my self in my professed endeavor to compel them to it And from the first Testimony thus cleared I com to II. 2. ANcient FATHERS among whom Justin Martyr shineth with great lustre He florished in the midl of the Second Century and is so Clear and so Particular that his words may serv as well to Describe as to Prove the Practice of Those days consonant to the Apostls This excellent Father having before described the other Sacrament and to its Description added what the Church constantly did to its Celebration That of the Lords Supper proceeding afterward to giv a Several account of This he thus reporteth its Constant Revolution And That day which is caled Sunday there is a meeting of all that dwell in Town and Country and the Reader having do'n his office the President makes an Oration wherein he exhorteth the people to imitate such goodly things Then we all rise and pray and as I have said at the end of prayers Bread Wine and Water are brought forth and the Prefect again poureth out with all his might Prayers and Praises and the people answereth aloud Amen And there is a distribution and communication made of those things over which thanks have be'n given to every one that is present but to the absent it is sent by the Deacons But those that are wealthy and willing contribute what they see good c. These words do so exactly suit the Practice of the Church to her above-recited Censure that I know not what Light can be Added or what Evasion Pretended if we consider how expresly they declare 1. That this was Every Sundays exercise And that it was not confined to the Sunday appeareth by what he had said before in the description of the Other Sacrament whereof he made This a certain attendant without declaring that it was do'n only upon Sundays 2. Every Christian was thoght obliged to Communicate every Sunday at least bicause the Church-officers were appointed to cary the Holy Supper even to the Absent 3. They mingled Water with the Wine This we may very reasonably believ to have be'n do'n in Conformity to the Jewish Tradition which forbiddeth the Cup of blessing to be otherwise celebrated For so the Misna in Berachoth endeth the 7th Chap. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They bless not for the Wine until Water be put to it This Action they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mingling of the Cup as they do the other the Breaking of the Bread 3. The third sort of testimony promised was an HISTORIAN I might plead performance of That promise by the now recited words of Justin reporting Mater of Fact But that you may see this was no short lived practice I shall further offer you the testimony of a profess'd Historian that wrote about the midl of the fifth Century Socrates in lib. 5. cap. 21. describing the differences between several Churches in their Rites thus speaketh concerning the Subject now in question Althogh All Churches All the world over in every week on the Sabbath day celebrate the Communion yet the Alexandrians and Romans upon an ancient Tradition refuse so to do But the Egyptians which dwell near Alexandria and in Thebais celebrate also the Communion on the Sabbath but receve it not after the manner of other Christians for after they have Fested and filled themselves with sundry meats in the Evening making the Offering they Communicate in the Mysteries Behold here a Testimony as full and as clear as can be expected from an Historian yea from a Witness for he nether speaketh by hear-say nor transcribeth other mens Writings of former ages but reporteth what himself certainly knew of the Universal practice of the whole Christian World at the time of his Writing And for our better satisfaction let us consider 1. That He should say the Sabbath was the day of Celebration whereas Justin Martyr puts it upon the Sunday can make no objection The analogy between them having given the One the name of the Other in our own days 2. Whereas the Egyptians Fested first and Communicated in the Evening after they had Fested themselves this may well be taken for a continuation of the Primitive practice in their Fests of Charity banished at That time out of other Churches bicause of rhe abuses they suffered from the Intemperance of the Peopl 3. Concerning the singularity of the Roman Church 1. It is not hard to reconcile Socrates with St. Hierom who saith That in His days there remained plain foot-steps of daily Communions in That Church which also continueth true in Our days without any contradiction to our Historian She hath still evident Foot-steps of more than Daily Communions yet no Face of so much as Weekly It seems that even in Socrates's days they had put it in Maskerade 2. We see what right That Church hath to ingross the title of Catholik It is one contradiction to confine so large a Word to any One part of the World and it is a Greater to confine it to That part which was singular as differing from All besides the Alexandrian Church 3. We find what pretence that Church hath to equal her Traditions with the Scripture since Universality is essential to a Tradition and here she pretendeth One unknown to the whole Christian World But most pertinently to our present purpose 4. We see whence we are to derive the neglect of Weekly Communions When the Roman Church got the Power to impose her own Singularities upon All other the Ambition to usurp the title of Catholik as if she were not only the Head but the Whole and the Confidence to set up her Inventions as authentik Traditions then must the Universal Practice of All the Christian World be
swallowed up and our Lord's Institution be lost in a private Tradition and an unintelligibl Mass but in the Beginning it was not so 5. The result of all is That the Doctrine of liberty from obligation to constancy in the Lords Supper is Popery most properly so caled both in the Mater and the Derivation in the Mater as differing from the Church Universal in the Derivation as proceeding from no pretence of Scripture at first thogh it be otherwise now but from Tradition of their own making contrary to Tradition worthily so caled and Scripture carefully examined Whoever therefor desireth a Thorogh Reformation from Popery and Popish Superstitions let him not spend his zele about litl Ceremonies and Circumstances but imploy it in service of the most Sacred and most properly Christian office which needs be rescued from utter abolition by the Practices of Rome never more grosly superstitious than in This Subject III. 4. THE Fourth sort of Testimony is That of ENEMIES Those that appear such to the Constancy we assert may be reduced to one of these three Glasses viz. 1. Protestants 2. Papists 3. Junior Fathers Among PROTESTANTS and Abov all others I therefor apply my self to the excellent person above praised bicause I know no other that hath asserted any thing so distinctly as to be capabl of an answer This admirable Person finding the Evidence of the best Antiquity That of the Apostl's and Primitive Fathers undeniable endeavoreth ro Evade what he findeth necessary to Confess 1. Concerning the Former we have heard him say True it is the Apostls did indefinitely admit all the faithful to the Holy Communion but they were persons wholely enflamed with those Holy Fire which Jesus Christ sent from Heaven to make them burning and shining Lights c. And then he spends a whole Page in such a Character as one might think intended for the Apostls themselves did not the question necessarily cast it upon the Faithful and then too one might think that word must be taken in its most rigid sens for the Elect. But was there a Judas among the twelve chosen by our Lord himself and not One unworthy among the thousands of Disciples whom the Apostls indefinitely admitted St. Jude describeth not Such Saints sure where among other black characters he brandeth them with This that they are spots in their fests of charity and as litl doth he blame the officers of the Church for admitting them St. Paul too I take it doth not describe Saintly conversation in those Church meetings for whose debaucheries he reproveth not the Pastors for Admitting such Persons but the Peopl for Committing such Leudness yea and So reproveth them as not to Excommunicate them for their domestik riots but to require them however unworthy in their persons to come but in a manner more worthy Had the Scriptures be'n silent we must have be'n very tame if without any evidence we had believed that All Christians in that better then Golden age deserved so great an Eulogy but after such contrary Evidence we have nothing better to do than to pity such an excellent Person so enslaved and hardly used by an Opinion that putteth him to seek but alloweth him no shifts from such insupportabl Evidence Another Confession with it s annexed Evasion concerns the Ancient Fathers in these words St. Hierom and St. Augustin tells us That even until their days the custom of receving every day remained in the Churches of Rome and Spain And all the ancient Fathers exhort to a frequent Communion But just as Physitians exhort men to eat the best and heartiest meats not the sickly and faint but the strong men and the healthy All the ancient Fathers exhort to a frequent Communion This is more than can well stand with his own positions which discorage the generality from it yet falls as much short of truth as Frequent doth of Constant for we shall presently meet som of them exhorting not only to Frequent but Daily Communions Yea so certainly did the Primitive Christians make This not only their Constant but their Principal exercise in All their meetings that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which primarily signifieth no more than a Meeting became the diverbial word for the Lords Supper in exact conformity to St. Luke's stile who saith They meet to break bread and the footsteps of the phrase remain as plain yet as much corrupted as do those of the Office among the Romanists who express their Church-meetings by Going to Mass As certainly therefor as the Papists make the Mass the Principal exercise of their Publik worship so certainly did the Primitive Christians make the Lords Supper the principal of Theirs the very phrase confirming their express testimony of this truth They exhort men he confesseth but evades the consequence by adding they do it Just as Physicians c. whereas it is undeniable that They exhorted as the Apostls admitted All Indefinitely and until we are shewen that they excepted any besides Catechumens and Excommunicates we must not clip their indefinite Exhortations with unwarrantable Limitations derived from no other reason but their serviceableness to our Hypothesis IV. ANOTHER Class of Adversaries ar the Papists who yet no less manifestly Preserv than Contradict the Primitive Practice For That very Church which obligeth not the Peopl to receve but at Easter only That very Church in whose magnified Synod at Trent a Caveat was entered not to derive even That anniversary obligation from our Lords but the Churches command That very Church to This very day so Prescribeth as to Out-do the constancy of the Primitive Som may think it too much that I have from the Acts of the holy Apostles taken the Lords Supper for the reason of the Disciples meetings the first day of the week But none sure can doubt that with the Papist to go to Church signifieth the same as to go to Mass but to go to Hear Mass is such an errand as the first ages never went upon While they admit the people only to hear or see Their Hoc est corpus meum is an egregiosly and Both words of St. Paul may be applyed to such a Mass To the people belongs This is not to eat the Lords Supper To the Priest As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you shew forth the Lords death And both the One and the Other forsake their Duty and their Patern while they pretend to stick to them Thus the ruins of a beautiful Structure may at once evidence its amplitude and confess their own rubbidge no way answerable to the beauty it formerly served We need not therefor be ashamed of this kind of proof as if we too much honored the Church of Rome in owning her Practice for an evidence of the Primitive We take it not as the Testimony of the Honorable but as a Confession of the Guilty when we make use of their Own words as an evidence against the Speakers practice When we say every Mass ought to
who com not So often At least must be punishee as Non-conformists those who com not much Oftner thogh they fall not under her Discipline do under her Reproofs as we com now from hearing We can no more infer Three times a Year sufficient for the Communion bicause the Church doth not punish those who come so often than Once in a month to be sufficient for Divine Service because the Law punisheth not those who com so often Rules of Government have mesures different from Rules of Devotion Our Church seemeth to have taken her mesures from the Council of Agatho and Eliberis which declare That those who do not communicate on the Fests of Nativity Easter and Pentecost are not to be accounted Catholik She manifestly declareth her judgment to agree with what we have all this while be'n proving Not every Sunday but almost for every other Holy day she hath appointed a preparative Vigil that we may examin our selvs with Fasting and Prayer and every Festival hath its proper Communion Service to be read at the Time and Place of the Lords Supper Just in the same circumstances as Justin Martyr hath described the practice of the Church in His days when the Reader and Preacher have do'n their offices when the Catechumens are dismissed with the Benediction of The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ c. Then doth the Priest go to the Holy Table accompanied in Collegiat Churches and Chappels with one or two assistants There to read the Communion Service every Holy day throughout the year V. LET us now suppose a Priest of ether party about to read the Communion Service at the Holy Table declaring what he believeth to be the Churches meaning in that office and it will not be hard to judge which of the two will best deserv her thanks He that will make her satisfied with his three times in a year must speak to this purpose Behold hither am I com'n in conformity to the Customs of the Primitive Church and the Constitutions of our own The first Churches celebrated the Lords Supper every Holy dry and Ours ordaineth the Communion Service to be read every such day in the same circumstances After the Benediction with an Offertory at the Holy Table Here am I and my brethren ready to assist me to communicate to you and with you If any Isaac demand Here is the fire and the wood but where is the Lamb Here are all other requisites but where is the Bread and Wine Know that our Church doth as litl intend a Communion as Isaac did to be Sacrificed She doth not indeed affront your sences by Consecrating the Elements without Communicating them as doth the Church of Rome but she is no less willing to withold them from you She is content you should communicate thrice every Year that the memory of the Institution be not quite lost but would have you mannerly and modest not constant and importure guests com by such intervals as may becom the awe due to so venerable a Mystery not with such constancy as may signifie familiarity with it For however our Lord intended and the Apostls and best ages of the Church conformed themselvs to his Intentions that his Supper should be the constant office in every Church meeting yet experience hath proved such Constancy prejudicial to its Honor and therefor our Church hath taken this midl away constantly to do somwhat in obedience to the Lords Institution yet to forbear the complete office in reverence to his body and blood that as plenty hath made it cheap so scarcity may advance its value To this purpose must such an one speak that will father such an opinion upon the Church But he that pleads for constancy may borrow a better speach from St. Chrysostom who complains Here we wait and none com or from St. Augustin who expostulates What cause is there O hearers that ye see the Table and com not to the Banquet Yea or from her Own Exhortation now mentioned which assisted with her Rubrik prescribing to the Priests once every week at the least will complain not only of deserting the Table when furnished but of Discoraging the Ministers from furnishing it as constantly with the Holy Fest as they do with the Office which supposes it For thus may such an one speak Here we attend in conformity to our Lords Institution the Practice of the Primitive Church and the Injunctions of our Own to communicate with you the Lords Supper We do not indeed bring forth the Bread and Wine bicause it is too manifest that in so doing we must either expose them to contemt by not using them at all or use them our selves alone The choice is hard and the Church of Rome hath chosen the Later but without escaping the Former For how can That be caled a Communion as by the Apostl it is where One takes all to himself or how is the holy Supper rescued from contemt when all but one are idle spectators not vouchsafing to be guests at the divine Supper Our Church hath taken the best cours that in so great a streight she could to avoid Both sides of the inconvenience That our Lords body blood may not be so exposed she forbids us to celebrate the Communion unless there be a competent number to communicate and to avoid loss of any opportunity she directs those who intend to communicate that they signifie their readiness by sending their names in convenient season to the Curate By the One she provides that the Fest be not dishonored for want of Guests and by the Other that the Desirous be not hindered for want of the Fest And lest this omission of bringing Bread and Wine should be mistaken for an intimation that it is not our duty to receve them she hath provided that upon Every Holy day we be put in mind of our Obligation Yesterday Eve was consecrate to Fasting and Prayer for This very purpose that we might thereby prepare our selvs to receve the Holy Supper this day And now that the Common Prayer is ended and the rest of the people who are not capable to communicate ar dismissed with their blessing according to the practice of Christ's Church in the best ages we com up to the holy Table in this its proper place and season to read the Communion-service that you may understand there oght to be a Communion joined with This Service if you would not be wanting to your duty in receiving it You know we dare not adventure to expose the holy Viands without giving you a weeks warning nor dare we give you such warnings as Frequently as we desire much less as Gonstantly as we ought bicause we sind you too backward to entertene even Those too rare Invitations which we give you But that you may see with what regret we submit to That necessity you thus put upon us Our Church is careful clearly to intimate how much more she Wisheth than she Dareth to Command What reason
of their Meeting but in That of their Festing yet his in thrice repeated charge he doth not lay his accusation against These but against Those especially vers 20. When ye com together in one place it is not to eat the Lords Supper From which words especially if helped with the now mentioned clause of ver 26. it plainly appeareth that it Then was and Ever must be the duty of All Christian Churches to celebrate the Lords Supper when ever they meet in his House Otherwise the Corinthians must be unjustly arraigned as Criminal having broken no Obligation God forbad Perjury in This stile Thou shalt not take in the Hebrew it is Thou shalt not lift up the name of the Lord thy God in vain The Phrase is bilt upon their then Custom of lifting up the hand in the name of God Our form of Swearing is not by lifting up the hand above the head but perhaps by bowing down the head to the hand yet no man pretends the power of the Law abolished with the Ceremony it seemeth bilt upon since the Obligation dependeth not upon the variable Circumstance of Swearing but the indispensibl Connexion between our Oath and Truth Just so it is here This Institution relates to Festing as That Law did to lifting up the hand This requireth that our Lords Supper should accompany All our Church-meetings as That doth that Truth should accompany All our Oaths and the Church may be as Innocent and the Obligation as Firm after the One alteration in the manner as after the Other And 't is worth our observation with what temper she hath ever proceeded that in the Great Changes she found Necessary to make the Sacrament might not lose its right It seems not an Accidental but Substantial circumstance That This should be Instituted In and After Supper and consequently that it should be Celebrated in the same Season necessary both to answer its Title the Supper of the Lord and the Tradition whence it was taken Yet to celebrate it before day appeareth by the unquestionable testimony of Pliny to have be'n the practice in Trajan's time But That Persecution which Necessitated did thereby Justifie so Great a variation They wer denyed the use of their Public Churches if they had Any their malicios enemies watched all opportunities to mingle their blood with their Sacrifices Either therefor they must do this before day or not at all This was a great Change but no Robbery for the Sacrament lost not so much as its Name by it but still continued to be caled the Lords Supper That change the Emperors Persecution made necessary and a worse Persecution made a Greater one no less so The unbridled luxury of the people turned it from the Supper of the Lord to a Fest of Bacchus and it seemed impossibl to rescu it from that wors Metamorphosis but by turning it from a Desert after Supper to a Break-fast in the Morning III. AND thogh this seemed a Greater change than the Former as taking away not only the Season of the Supper but the very Nature of a Fest yet was the Church careful to save the Institution harmless The Day first consecrate to This office still enjoyeth the title of The Lords day and of a Fest Four Councils declared it heretical to Fast and many Canons forbad to Kneel upon That day it is honored with a Preparatory Vigil and a Communion-Service and every Other Holy day if they be not expresly consecrate to Festing enjoy the same honor and title of Festivals And why I pray' now why all this care Why so great a Soloecism to Fast upon our Lords day Was he indeed as the Scribes and Pharisees charactered him a riotos person and a Wine-bibber If He were yet certainly St. Michael and all Angels ar not nor wer All the Saints so John the Baptist came neither eating nor drinking St. Paul was in fastings often and many other Saints are honored for their very Abstinence How can it be congruos that the Angels should delight in That whereof they are by Nature Uncapable or the Saints in that which by Grace they Shunned But granting this Why then must their Eves be Fasting-days What strange meetings of Contradictions are these That they who in their lives loved and practiced Fasting should after their deaths delight in Festing and yet their very Festing-days be honored by a Fasting Usher Suppose This be only a Preparative To what purpose such a bedel Must we Therefor Fast upon the Eve that we may have the better stomach to the following Fest There must questionless be som Better reason and what Better can there be than what we ar now observing viz. the constant Practice of All mankind and particularly of Christians celebrating the worship of God with Festing not abrogated but thus improved that the Supper of our Lord might be it self a Spiritual Fest attended with a Corporal one and ushered with a Vigil the One proper for its genuine Celebration the Other for our Preparation to it Nor hath the Apostls argument suffered more by this change than our Lords Supper the only difference is this That before it concluded by Enthymem and now by Syllogism While the custom continued of Eating this bread and drinking this cup in Every Meeting the conclusion without more ado followed Ergo He that eateth this bread and drinketh this cup unworthily is guilty But now it requireth the assistance of an Assumtion which Then was the Apostl supposed would Ever be self-evident viz. that as often as they met together they ate this bread and drank this cup. And thogh the 27th verse seemeth to have lost its force bicause we do not eat that bread and drink that cup as the Corinthians then did yet the 20th still retaineth its strength and we ar guilty of the same charge of so coming together as not to eat the Lords Supper thogh we are not to be convicted by the same medium IV. AND if any Claus in the Apostls whole Dissertation teach us That charge must needs do it None of the rest can teach us point blank but only compass and by Analogy with those sensual Debaucheries against which they were leveled It can not now be said one is hungry and another is drunken nor can any other of those Characters fit us by which the Apostl describeth the profaneness he impeacheth But we think our selfs obliged by Analogy to infer that as their Sensual unworthiness made them guilty where they abused a Sensual Fest so any Spiritual unworthiness will make Us so if by it we profane a Spiritual one and for this Analogical reason we must examin our selfs c Now if this seem obliging in point of Worthiness much more must it be so in the Performance it self For he disputeth for That not only by Analogy but Point blank We find no Reproof because no Mention of any but Sensual or Schismatical unworthiness in the Corinthians but Express and thrice Repeted inculcation of their Meetings as
THE Constant Communicant A DIATRIBE Proving that Constancy in Receiving THE Lords Supper Is the Indispensible Duty of Every Christian By AR. BURY D. D. Rector of Exon. Coll. in Oxford Canon Apostol IX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whoever of the Faithful enter and hear the Scriptures but stay not out prayers and Communion ought to be Excommunicated as disturbers of the Church Socrates Hist Lib. V. Ca. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For whereas All Churches through the world on the Sabbath day in every revolution of the week celebrate the mysteries they of Alexandria and they of Rome upon a certain ancient Tradition have refused so to do OXFORD Printed by LEON LICHFIELD Printer to the University for STEPHEN BOLTON 1631. TO The Most Reverend Father in God WILLIAM By Divine Providence Lord ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY Primate of all ENGLAND and Metropolitan And one of His Majesties most Honorable PRIVY COUNCIL c. May it please your Grace MANY great miracles do the Romanists pretend to be frequently wrought By the Holy Sacrament of the Altar but none so admirable as what their ancestors wrought Upon it For what more wonderful than This that a particular Church by colour of a Tradition should prevail with All other Churches throughout the whole Christian world to reneg That Constancy which was universally practised as indispensible for more than 400 years That from Dispensing they should proceed to Discouraging and therein so prevail that those who have freed themselvs from their many other gross abuses cannot from This but still believ our Lord more honored by Forbearing his Table than by Frequenting it In opposition to this Vulgar error I have in my narrow Sphaere used all other endeavors but with so litle fruit that I must either sit down in despair or fly to the last remedy Writeing which beside the advantage of fastening conviction better upon those few that ly under My inspection may extend it to as many others as shall bring my papers under Theirs But here also I meet great discoragements I see that many worthy persons have of late be'n as careful to exhort to the Performance of the Duty as to Worthiness in it but with no better success than those first messengers who 's kind Invitations brought nothing to the Lord of the Fest but variety of excuses If therefor I would conform either to the Parable or to Reason I must proceed to rougher means compell by force of irrefragable arguments the unwilling and resisting world and by all cogent proofs assert a Truth which by Many ages was never Doubted by More generally Denyed by Ours somtimes Affirmed but never that I know clearly proved viz. that it is every Christians duty to be a Constant Communicant And this I have do'n with Such evidence that I fear not any mans confutation yet with litl hope to see the Table furnished with guests For alas what can a poor Enchiridion do toward subduing such an error double armed with Prejudice in the Vnderstanding and Partiality in the Affections fortified with long Possession defended by the Priests and beloved by the Peopl I must therefor be unfaithful both to the service I have undertaken and to Your Grace's right should I either expose it naked and unsheltered to a Cold Advers world or seek any other Patron than your Grace For as this Sacrament hath a double aspect so hath your Grace a double right to it's protection As it is the greatest exercise of Love and duty to our Lord by your Eminence in Piety As it is the Principal office of Church-worship by your eminence in Power Ecclesiastical By the former every good christian may claim common with your Grace in most of the following pages but by the Later your Grace hath a peculiar jurisdiction over some particularly a PART III. Chap. 1. Sect. 4. those wherein I have justified the Constitutions of our Church as doing what in such unhappy circumstances is possible for retriving Primitive Constancy Could I say as much for the Practice But be it never so defective it cannot hinder us from justifying our Church as well as St. Paul himself For his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is no less generally mistaken for a derogation from That very obligation to constancy which he employed it to prove indispensible than is the three times in every year which our Church defines as the Least that she can tolerate in the Peopl for the most that she expecteth from the Priests who therefor think themselvs exactly conformable if they minister it just so often and no more though without any care either Before-hand to exhort the people to Receve it or Afterward to reprove them if they Neglect it which yet they cannot avoid seeing them generally do being so taught and accustomed during our confusions and still biased by their sloth or worse What may be allowed for the untractableness of the people under our present Distractions is not for Me to determin But that those very Distractions which now toss us between two such parties whereof the One first robbed the Sacrament of Constancy and the Other strippeth it stark naked of All Performance ly on us as a just punishment for our compliance with them is plainly enough to be discovered without any rude intrusion into God's secrets For Constancy in This Office is apparently the most effectual means to unite us as being both by it's own nature most serviceable thereto and by its singular interest in our Lord's Person singularly intitled to his Blessing I therefor conceve it no impertinent disturbance of those great cares wherewith your Grace is too much molested if as a kind of Church-warden-general I make humble presentment of that defect in Parochial Churches especially which your residence in Cathedrals hath hindered you from discovering bicause those Officers who ought to be eyes to your Grace and our other Fathers in God are themselves blinded with the vulgar error Whereof we saw a pernicious experiment in the days of your Grace's immediate predecessor when a General enquiry made upon these Questions 1. How many inhabitants in your Parish 2. How many refuse to join in Communion with the Church proved abortive bicause those who refused to communicate in This Principal office were not noted as refusing to join in Communion with the Church which had they ben the necessity of compulsory means would have appeared so evident that we had not now be'n in danger to have our nineteenth Article urged against us to disprove our being a True Church I know my self chargeable with a double great boldness first in fronting these Papers with your Grace's name and then in the account I make for it But when I first engaged in the work I resolved not to do it by halvs and I think I might better have omitted the better half than This way of advantageing the whole And since your Grace is so well known eminent for zeal in redressing whatever you shall find to need it I have
thence taken encouragement to believ you would much more easily pardon such a Presumption than such an Omission I therefor humbly recommend not so much these Papers as their Sacred subject Our Lord's Institution and our Churches Constitutions to your Grace's protection as I do your Grace's Person and pious Labours to that of Almighty God who that He be pleased to make your Grace a glorious Instrument of His service in This World and a more glorious partaker of His rewards in a better is the hearty Prayer of Your Graces most humble and Dutiful Servant A R. BVRY THE CONTENTS Of the whole I. WE are not at liberty to Receive or Refuse the Lords Supper Proved by 1. Scripture which must be regulatly examined PART I. Chap. 1. 1. Our Lord's Institution wherein 1. The word THIS pointeth at som singular Bread and Cup. Chap. 2. This singular Bread and Cup hunted out and found in a Jewish Tradition Chap. 3. No dishonor to the Lords Supper Chap. 4. This origination more plainly proved from 1 Cor. 10. Chap. 5. 2. The word DO requireth Performance PART III. We may not omit it without warrant Chap. 2. Our obligation ceaseth not thogh Church festing be not the same Chap. 2. 3. The END PART IV. The Livree of a Christian Chap. 1. Appropriate to our Lord's Person with signal marks of his favor Chap. 2. Serviceable to our own interests Chap. 3. 2. The Apostl's Explication PART II. His primary design was not to assert the Reverence but the Constancy due to the Lords Supper Ch. 1. The Clause as often as examined by several Phaenomena Chap. 2. The vulgar interpretation examined Chap. 3. Objections answered Chap. 4. 3. The Examples of other Apostls and their Churches Chap. 5. 2. The Practice of Antiquity Chap. 6. 3. Answers to Objections PART V. Deference paid to former Ages and the Sacrament Chap. 1. Concerning Unworthiness Chap. 2. Concerning Self-examination Chap. 3. Allegories of a midl nature between Reason and Scripture answered Chap. 4. II. Were we at liberty Reason would perswade us to Frequency The very Being of the Sacrament must not be hazarded Chap. 5. Distant Communions Useless for Conversion of Sinners Too much Aw Vexatious to the Godly Pernicious to Peace and Charity THE CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS THE INTRODUCTION Shewing it necessary to enquire how often we are obliged to receive the Holy Communion I. The seeming impossibility and real necessity to add to what hath be'n already written concerning the Lords Supper II. A double Objection slighted yet answered and turned to a double plea. The former concerning the dignity of the Sacrament III. The other concerning the deference due to Antiquity A short retrospect upon the several stages of our departure from it How later Fathers departed from the first The Papists from the Fathers IV The Reformed Churches from the Papists The Moderation of the Church of England blamed by the Non-conformists who dissented heretofore in One extreme and now in Another V. Our own Divines of the last age less justifiable than those of the present who do better yet not enough VI. The sum of the account A request for rigid examination and its reason An example of noble Ladies An advertisement to the Reader PART I. Concerning the Particle THIS Pag. 1. CHAP. I. The Scripture cleared from the scandal arising from our contentions by shewing the true cause and cure I. The Sacrament of the Lords Supper highly esteemed by our Lord and all his Churches In later Ages many differences of Opinions concerning it II. Not the number only but mater of the differences scandalos to the Scripture both toward Papist and Jew III. The blame removed from the Scriptures to the Doctors IV. The Papists best perhaps silenced by our claiming the literal sens in the Wine as they do in the Bread Our own Divines neglect the former part which yet is the Head of the Apostl's discourse V. The regular way to understand his meaning Two Suppositions taken upon trust with engagement VI. The whole Discourse Paraphrased VII The whole Argument Analysed And reduced to Logik form The great Limbs more minutely to be dissected in four considerable Members And all to be closed with an answer to what is said to the contrary CHAP. II. Of the Necessity to fit the word THIS with som singlar Bread and Cup. Pag. 18. I. The difference of our Lords stile towards this Bread and Wine from That towards litl children II. This subject requireth the clearest expression III. The Particle THIS most considerable IV. Grammar and Logick In Logick it is considerable 1. As a singl word a Demonstrative must have somthing for its object precedences Every word must be answered by som Idea V. 2. As the subject of a Proposition The meaning of the Predicate must be mesured by the capacity of the subject Offers at the import of the word rejected 1. That Individual 2. The whole kind 3. Somthing indeterminate 4. The Action CHAP. III. The singular Bread and Cup hunted out and found Pag. 28. I. Customs of that time and place to be enquired 1. The Custom of Festing in publik worship fitteth the Apostl 's Argument but not our Lord's Institution II. 2. The Passover fitteth our Lord's Institution but not the Apostl's Argument Three incidental remarks upon the Jews Paschal form III. A Jewish custom pitch't upon exactly fitting both our Lord's and the Apostl's words IV. An Objection answered with a story CHAP. IV. Pag. 37. 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 CHAP. V. Pag. 44. I. A plainer proof from Chap. 10. From the sameness of names In the Cup the Greeks aped the Jews The Apostle stileth the Cup of the Lord the Cup of blessing which is a perfect translation of the Heb ew name II. The breaking of Bread a Jewish phrase III. Some Phaenomena not salvable but by this Hypothesis IV. He expresly telleth us that each part of the Jewish Tradition by name is a part of our Lord's Supper V. An Illustration from our Grace-cup VI. A Sacrament What PART II. Concerning the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CHAP. I. The Apostl's design was not to assert Reverence to the Lords Supper Pag. 55. I. The Apostl's proper design first to be enquired into II. Three steps 1. What might be the Corinthians case III. 2. What might becom the Apostl to do in such a case IV. 3. How doth the Apostl's procedure agree with such Suppositions 1. The former part very well agreeth with them V. 2. The later part necessarily requireth them Proved 1. Negatively He did not design to assert Reverence due to our Lords Supper precisely taken The subject of the
Faithful to the H. C. but they were persons wholely inflamed with those Fires c. and so goes on describing them in such Characters as may very well fit the Apostles themselves but how ill Some if not Most of their Communicating Disciples is too manifest in a certain reproof whereby one of the Apostles themselves charges them with such Debaucheries at the Lords Table as had been inexcusable at their own yet doth not therefor Excommunicate thogh he vehemently Reproves them As long as there was any hope to prevail his Successots labored in the same contention for This Cup of the Lord against That of Bacchus but at last dispairing of success and thinking it better to submit to an Inconvenience than a Mischief changed the Primitive manner of Church-meetings from Feasting to Fasting as upon another kind of necessity they had do'n the proper Season from Evening after Supper to Morning before Day well considering that however ill a Fasting Feast or a Morning Supper might sound yet those or any other Solaecisms were less grievous than such Profaneness as otherwise appeared equally Unavoidable and Intolerable And as they changed the Circumstances of the Celebration so did they the Stile of their Writings from exhorting to Constancy which in those days appeared unquestionable they transplanted all their endeavors into pressing Reverence which they saw too much wanting Wherein that they might answer the then urgent necessity they put all their strength to bow the stick the opposit way spake such glorious things as dazeled the understandings of the Readers and advanced the Sacrament from their Contemt first to their Admiration and thence to their Fear So that which in St. Paul's time was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Chrysostom's was made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was a pretty large stride and soon followed by another For Shunning naturally follows Dreading the people quickly grew willing to avoid if possible the terrible duty which in a while they so deserted that the Priest was left alone without Communicants Nor were the People more willing to keep a distance from the dreadful Table than the Priests were to enclose it to themselves So in super-conformity to our Lord's Institution and his Churches practice the Priest celebrateth the Holy Supper in all Church-meetings and upon worse accounts often without any and in compliance with the Peoples Superstition and their own Interest they dispense with them for Communicating which was another large stride In another Age they widen the useful distance between themselves and the people with a further stride They pass from Dispensing to Forbidding not the whole indeed but a full half And thus at last taking from the people the Need to do any thing and the Power to do more than half they are gotten so far from Primitive Doctrine and Practice that they have rob'd the People of their Right The command of its Power and the Instituion not only of its Power but its Nature The Cup is metamorphosed from a Cup of Eucharist to a Cup of trembling the Performance from a Communion to a Spectacle the Institution from a Command to a Prohibition and the Bread which at first did and still ought to knead all Christs Members into one bread and one body crumbles them into almost innumerable and utterly irreconcilable divisions IV. FOR many who are willing to be freed from an Obligation are not so to be rob'd of a Right and the corruptions of Rome being now so swollen and suppurated that they could no longer hold from breaking Most if not All the Reforming Churches equalled the People with the Priests as in their Right to the Cup so in their Obligation to receive it Nor doth the Church of England put any other difference between them but only in her hopes concerning their Obedience To the Priests therefor from whom she apprehended better hopes she Enjoyneth but to the People she only Recommendeth constancy in the performance By the former keeping up her claim by the latter yielding to Necessity which yet she would not so far do as to leave even the People at liberty but enjoyneth That three times at least in every year which by her Injunctions to rhe Priests she more than intimateth desireable at least once in every week This moderation toward the People the Nonconformists heretofore complained of For Mr. Gartwright the chief opposer of the Liturgy in Q. Elizabeth's time and the Author of the Altare Damascenum the most violent censurer thereof in King James his time would have all who are in the Churches Communion forced to receive the Lords Supper condemning them who abstein out of fear as guilty of Superstition and not to be born with and had more authority for This than other of their complaints But the Melancholy proper to that Sect would neither permit them to tarry long in That Extreme nor stop till they came to the other For they now take up for Piety That fear which their predecessors condemned for intolerable Superstition While they had the Sceptre they laid aside the Holy Table as useless to any other purpose but That of bringing their people to examination when upon restitution of our Government there appeared danger of restoring this Institution to it s abolished power they moved in a publick Conference that the Rubrike which requireth every Parishioner to Communicate at least three times in every year might either be wholely left out or so curtailed as to enjoyn no more but this That the Communion should be celebrated three times in every year provided there were a competent number to receive it Which to hinder they employ their utmost diligence For even those among them who yield it lawful to conform in our other offices of Pubick Worship will by no means do it in This. V. NOR are our own Divines those of the former Age I mean altogether free of this humor Whether out of deference to the later Fathers or an opinion that the Obligation being self-evident needeth not be pressed or a conceit that Aw conduceth more to the advancement of Godliness or for whatever other reason plain it is they have been more industrious to advance the honor of this Institution by our Fear than by our Obedience For they make the Conditions of worthiness so strict and the Obligation to the performance so slack as if they designed to fright us from the one and free us from the other depending doubtless upon our Church-Rubrikes and Constant Practice for prevention of the inconvenience and not intending to deal with the Sacrament as some say our Rich the 2d was dealt with after his deposition served a la royale with store of costly Dishes his Esquire taking the Essay and all other pomps of Grandeur but not permitted to tast any thing and so destroyed with Hunger and Ceremony But to those who since the Restoration have written on this subject we must not deny our just acknowledgement that as there is greater need so have they used greater
half proved by the very first glance upon the Text. 2. That in All their Church Fests they honored some Special Bread and Cup with Special ceremonies the Cup ever closing the Fest This will require a fuller Examination Upon these two Suppositions the Apostles Argument otherwise unintelligible and All his Expressions whereof some must be otherwise impertinent will appear most Clear Rational and Unanswerable By their help therefore I shall make a duble dissection of the Words by a Paraphrase and of the Argument by an Analysis VI. THE Paraphrase must take in the 20th Verse bicause all the rest hang to it 20. When you come together therefore into one place this is not to eat the Lords Supper 21. For in eating every one taketh before other his own Supper and one is hungry and anothor is drunken 22. What Have ye not houses to eat and to drink in or despise ye the Church of God and shame them that have not Shall I praise you in this I praise you not 23. For I received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you that the Lord Jesus in the same night in which he was betrayed took bread c. 25. 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 26. For as often as ye eat this bread This bread and drink this cup you do shew forth the Lords death c. 27. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But let a Man examine himself and so let him eat of This bread and drink of This cap. 29. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself not discerning the Lords body 33. Wherefore my brethren when ye come together to eat tarry one for another 34. And if any man hunger let him eat at home When you meet in that publik place appointed to Gods Worship your behavior is such that you cannot be thoght to celebrate the Lords Supper For whereas the whole Fest oght to be common to all the Communicants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you on the contrary in that foregoing Supper which the Lords is to close eat every one his own Supper apart so that one taketh more than Temperance alloweth and another less than Nature requires If your debauchery be such that you cannot forbear drunkenness it were less intolerable to practise it in private in your own houses than thus impudently to affront the whole Church and insult over them who have neither houses nor such plentiful provisions I said indeed verse 2. I praise you that you remember me in all things and keep the Ordinances as I delivered them to you But in this which is an Ordinance of the first Magnitude I must make an exception In this I do not cannot praise you For this Tradition I received not as I did the rest from my fellow Apostles but from the Lord Jesus himself and since you seem ether to have forgotten or mistaken it I again repete it That the Lord Jesus in the same night wherein he was betrayed being a Festival one took Bread c. After that same Festival manner also he took the closing Cup in its proper time viz. after Supper saying As often as ye drink this Cup in this manner do it in remembrance of me and not as you have hitherto do'n it For by this Institution This Bread and This Cup is so advanced above its former dignity that it is consecrated to a representative of our Lords death and as such is to be honored and that to the end of the world so that neither you nor any other Christian Church shall ever be at liberty to use it otherwise Wherefore this bread and cup are now no longer your own but the Lords and who ever useth them in a manner unworthy of that Relation is guilty not only of Intemperance but Sacrilege as abusing not common Bread and Wine but the thereby represented Body and Blood of the Lord. But remember that it is the proper character of a Man to examin his own actions Do so in This consider what you do and act sutably to your rule Let not the fear of so great a guilt fright you from your Duty but from your Irreverence For he that doth it in a manner unsuitable to its relation provoketh our Lord to anger as leveling His Flesh with that of a Beast and His Blood with that of a Grape putting no difference but treating the one in the same rude manner as he doth the other Wherefore when you come together to your Church Fests entertain you one another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you that are able communicate your meat to those who have none of their own But let no man either eat or drink immoderately in Gods House if he be given to appetite let him rather satisfie it in his Own By this Paraphrase well understood and duly heeded we shall not fail of the Apostles meaning in the whole and every Particle provided we handle them regularly which I shall now do by a Logical Analysis of the Argument VII BY the Rules of Reasoning we must First consider the Conclusion intended to be proved and Then the Media imployed to that End mesuring These by their serviceableness to That The Conclusion is the charge of Profaneness in the Corinthians relating to our Lords Supper This animates and This must interpret every word and therefore requires to be it's self most carefully heeded And one might think a litle heed sufficient since it seems impossible either to Overlook or Mistake it He doth not only plainly lay it down but thrice inculcate it And since in every proposition the Quantity is highly considerable we must carefully observe that he doth not accuse them as guilty of misdemeanors in Some more than Other meetings but in All alike Had he charged them as guilty in Some special meetings wherein the Lords Supper was more especially concerned we had then understood that it was not concerned in All assemblies as such Or had he charged them as Profaning the Lords Supper in All meetings without heeding whether it were concerned in them or no if in Those meetings they were at liberty to have celebrated or omitted it they might excuse themselves by saying they intended it not in those particular ones But because they Never met in the Church without Festing and in All such Fests they were obliged by Christs command to celebrate his Own he therefore blameth their Fests Universally and that in such language that thrice varying the Phrase he still further cleareth his meaning Verse 17. Your coming together is not for the better but for the worse Their coming together Indefinitly if it be not plainly enough equivalent to an Vniversal is more clearly made so by ver
18. When you come together in the Church where the more general coming together is so appropriated to the Church that the indefinite when must be equivalent to whensoever as yet more plainly appears by ver 20. When you come together into one place it is not to eat the Lords Supper This is the extract of the whole charge That when they came together into That holy place which was set apart for Gods worship they so behaved themselves that what they did could not be taken for the Lords Supper A charge which now adays we should not decline and why should the Corinthians more than we We acknowledg might they not say yea we plead it We cannot be said to Eat the Lords Supper and what then therefore we cannot be said to Profane it This might have be'n an evasion as Effectual as Obvios if the Lords Supper were not concerned in Those very same meetings which he so Described and Reproved i. e. in All. This therefore is the sum of his Charge and it must be the Design of his Reasoning to prevent any evasion not to be do'n but by proving That in All their meetings the Lords Supper was Therefore Abused because it was Concerned in them All. Let us now consider by what Media he proveth it At the 23d vers he beginneth his evidence appealing to our Lords Institution explained by a Revelation In recital whereof it is most considerable that in reporting the consecration of the Cup he addeth words not mentioned by any of the Evangelists nor by himself in That of the Bread For none of Them say that our Lord said of the Cup Do this as often as you drink it nor doth Himself say that our Lord said of the Bread Do this as often as ye eat it The Reason of this difference we shall have a fitter time to enquire hereafter At Present we must not neglect to observe That as he is very careful thus to Insert these words so is he immediatly to Resume them and settle them as the Foundation of his whole Argument For upon this Supposition that our Lord preferred This Bread and This Cup which was constantly used in All Church-meetings to such an Office that whether they Considered it or no yea whether they Would or no it must set forth his death Then and not otherwise will All his Inferences follow that the abuse of This bread and This eup reach That body and blood which they so represent And lest This should fright them not only from the Abuse but the Use too of This bread and This cup to prevent so great an inconvenience he is careful to warn them that it is no less crime to disobey our Lords Authority than to Profane his Supper They must first examin themselves to prevent the One and then Eat this bread and drink this cup to avoid the Other And having thus secured the duty both in the Thing and the Manner he binds it by Threatnings to the end of the Chapter These are the great Limbs of this Body This the Process of the Argument Thus doth it answer his own character The body is fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth Not one joint too little or too much not One loose Expression not One word Impertinent or Unserviceable every part hath its mutual consent with every other part and its office of Serviceableness to the whole which also is complete without any the least defect His Charge made good in its whole Latitude The Corinthians convicted All Evasions barred The Crime displayed rhe Danger discovered the Duty inforced the only Safe way set forth and the Fear of deserting it prevented And because some require not only Logik force but Logik form too This is the formal Process of the Argument Those who so come together that they cannot be said to eaet the Lords Supper com together for the worse You so com together ver 21 22. The Proposition which alone needeth it he proveth by words purposely inserted in his recital of our Lords Institution ver 25. and resumed ver 26. As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye shew forth the Lords death which Proposition signifieth nothing unless helped with this Assumption As often as you come together in the Church you eat this bread and drink this cup. And by assistance of this Assumption the whole is made unanswerable This fundamental Assumption then Deserveth and Requireth our utmost care I shall therefore most diligently observe it And for greater clearness shall transpose the Apostles words reading them Thus This cup as often as you drink do it in remembrance of Me. And so we find these considerables 1. A certain special cup pointed at by the Demonstrative THIS 2. This cup made a standard whereby we must measure our performance 3. The Performance which we must mesur by This standard 4. The end for which we must do it And having thus stated our obligation by examining the Apostles discourse I shall examine what is said to the contrary by our late Divines who not heeding the Standard and mesuring the duty by a good but unfit one have defeated both our Lords design and their own too CHAP. II. Of the Necessiâ—y to fit the word THIS with somâ— singular Bread and Cup. I. The difference of our Lords stile towards this Bread and Wine from That towards litl children II. This subject requireth the clearest expression III. The Particle THIS most considerable IV. Grammar and Logick In Logick it is considerable 1. As a singl word a Demonstrative must have somthing for its object praecedances Every word must be answered by som Idea V. 2. As the subject of a Proposition The meaning of the Praedicate must be mesured by the capacity of the subject Offers at the import of the word rejected 1. That Individual 2. The whole kind 3. Somthing indeterminate 4. The Action OUR Lord after his last Supper treated Bread and Wine with such kindness as at another time he did little Children He took them up laid his hands upon them and blessed them But with This great difference that of Those he favored the Whole kind Suffer said he little children to come to me Little children indefinitely i. e. Any little children whatsoever and gave a Reason comprehensive as the Precept For of such is the kingdom of heaven Whereas Here he preferreth not Bread and Wine indefinitely nor speaketh a word of their Fitness for the honor recommendeth not either of them as Such but as This i. e. Not the whole Genus nor any Other Species but only This i. e. This singularly Proper cup. So great a difference in his Expression must needs proceed from a suitable difference in his Intention In the Former case his Words plainly declare his meaning That as often as Any parents or other friends desired to bring Any Children to him for his blessing his Disciples should admit them whoever they wer And had he now meant as
Guinny and say This you shall have if c. he wold do him injustice if he gave him a Shilling instead of it pretending he meant not by the word THIS any determinate coin nor would Any arbitrator judge but he must pay what the constant import of the Phrase called for i. e. what to sense the piece appeared to be worth which Cajus pointed to by the word THIS The case is the same on both sides as it must not signify Less so must it not More but just the same as the sense to which it is shewen takes it for If Therefore to All senses it appear Bread the Demonstrative will not make it Any thing else it will leave it its Proper Nature of Bread and Add to That Nature some Enclosure from the Common to exclude All Other but THIS only 4. That our Lord pointed Not at the Elements but the Action is the concept of a greater than Bellarmine of our Church which he bildeth upon the Grammatical disagreement of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But it is contradicted by the Other Element for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth more necessarily require that the Demonstration should be applyed to the Cup than the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can forbid it to be applyed to the Bread And the two Elements being joined in the same interests often help one another in the interpretation of what is not equally expressed but must equally be implyed as equally belonging to Both. Nor can we abstract the Action from the Subject but must take the whole complex together This Action Thus performed with THIS Bread and THIS Cup. For our Lord first Declared what THIS IS before He Commanded us to DO THIS We cannot therefore perform the Action until we know what is the Necessary Mater because the Action is confined to THIS bread and the Common nature of bread is determined to THIS only with exclusion of All Other and That before the Action hath passed upon it I have I doubt tired my good Reader with this dry kind of reasoning I come now to another kind of evidence probably more Satisfactory certainly less Troublesom If I can shew som special Bread and Cup that shall exactly fit both our Lords Institution and the Apostl's Comment thereupon This probably may be more persuasive than Any Logical Demonstration whatsoever that there Must be such an One let us therefor try if such can be found CHAP. III. The singular Bread and Cup hunted out and found I. Customs of That time and place to be enquired 1. The Custom of Festing in publik worship fitteth the Apostl's Argument but not our Lord's Institution II. 2. The Passover fitteth our Lord's Institution but not the Apostl's Argument Three incidental remarks upon the Jews Paschal form III. A Jewish custom pitch't upon exactly fitting both our Lord's and the Apostl's words IV. An Objection answered with a story VVHEN Grammar and Logik can discover nothing to us but our Want and thereby set us upon the indispensible task of enquiring after the Extraordinary Bread and Cup honored above All Other both by our Lord and Apostle but cannot direct us one step in our way to find them Whither shall we go but to History the last interpreter of Those sayings whose Obscurity is derived only from That dust wherewith time hath covered them It is the very frequent fate of many a good Speech and the very Sound sheweth it so of This that their meaning dependeth upon the Customs of remote Time and Place for which they were Calculated and with which alone they are to be Retrived Let us therefor put our selvs in the Corinthians Place and Time and enquire into their Publik assemblies if possibly we may therein meet satisfaction I. FESTING in Gods Publik worship was Then and before that time so Universal to All Nations and Religions that it may seem derived from the light of Nature But that it was the Practice of the Apostles and their Coaetaneos Churches the book of their Acts sufficiently declares and that it was so in the Church of Corinth the Apostles reproof must necessarily suppose both in his Charge wherewith it is Ushered and his Evidences wherewith it is Proved And This alone can give us a good account of that solemn and otherwise insignificant ver 26. whose Implicit meaning is only thus to be Explicated As often as you Eat this Bread which in All your assemblies you constantly Eat and Drink This Cup which you also Constantly Drink you shew forth the Lords death by vertue of that Institution whereby I have declared to you by revelation from himself he Consecrated them to That use By this light as the Importance of That vers so its Connexion both with the preceding and following and its irrefragable Force toward his design manifestly appear not leaving One syllable Obscure or Unserviceable in the the whole Dissertation BUT thogh it suffice for the Apostles Argument it doth not for our Lords Institution We hereby find To what state our Lord had preferred it but not From what And we are obliged to enquire out such a Special bread and cup as may answer This in our Lords hand before ever his Church had celebrated it or Himself commanded them so to do If we understand it to signify no more nor less but a Fest it cannot be denied that Eating bread was but another phrase to signify Festing and the Expression will concur with the Apostles Argument to say That our Lord by This Institution commanded that as All of All Religions consecrated All their publik Feasts to the honor of their several Gods so should His own Worshippers consecrate All Theirs to His own memory Did this sens agree as well with the Actions and Words of the Institution as it doth with the Apostles Comment thereupon I know not why it should be refused But bread in That stile must signify the Whole Supper All the Viands as well as the bread and wine for in customary speaking Eating bread signified eating flesh fish and what ever els was provided whereas our Lord took the bread brake and distributed it leaving the rest of the Provisions untouched the while And beside the Bread he took the Cup also and that After supper was ended pointing to This no less solenly than to That which in common speaking comprehended it And all the while the Paschal Lamb was not honored with the least Touch of his finger or Word of his mouth II. 2. THE Paschal Lamb Well remembred Did then our Lord point at This not as A Supper but as The Passover Let us consider He imbraced This Passover with the greatest affection With a desire said he i. e. wirh a vehement desire have I desired to Eat This Passover with you before I suffer and immediatly as declaring his reason proceeded to this Institution And what could more fitly represent his death when Past than That which most lively prefigured it while Future If beside
this the Jews in their Passover used our Important This in such a Form as did no less plainly prefigure this Institution than the Sacrificed Lamb did the death of the Author then must it seem reasonable that he chose that Form with the same affection that he did that Season and if so then must we mesure our Lords This by that of the Jews makeing the resemblance an evidence that the One was the issue of the Other Let us therefore to the Jewish rituals The Law of Moses requireth Unleavened Bread and for That reason to This day they honor Bread with many ceremonios solennities Before In and After Supper Particularly they break a Cake into two unequal parts The greater part the Master of the Fest hideth under a cushion there to be kept safe till the end of Supper Then doth he solenly bring it forth distributing it among the guests and saying This is the bread of affliction which your fathers ate in Egypt whoever is hungry let him come and eat of the Paschal Lamb. And have we not now found our so much sought for Singular bread exactly answering what This bread is more than any Other bread Do not All features exactly concur The Season the Mater the Form of words All Circumstances the same This is so plausible that to this very Day thogh not for this Reason many look upon the Passover as the Predecessor of the Lords Supper and consequently the Standard of our Performance Many think that women have no right to the Lords Supper because they had none to the Passover and which is more proper to our present purpose that we are not obliged to receve it but at Easter only because That was celebrated only at the same season And that the Corinthians were of this Later opinion the more we consider it the more probable will it appear but most manifest that the Apostle hath utterly confuted it For he first reproveth them as profaning the Lords Supper not in their Paschal only but their Ordinary meetings and then convinceth them that it is concerned in them All whereby the Former error is also destroyed unless its Patrons will exclude all women not only from the Lords Table but his House too The Paschal bread therefore ' though it exactly answer our Lords Institution yet can it by no means agree with the Apostles gloss and we must not rest till we meet an answer for All Phaenomena as well in the One as the Other YET have we not lost our labor For as the Chemist ' thogh he miss his great Secret often findeth his cost and labor well paid by some profitable Experiment so we ' thogh we meet not full Satisfaction in our main enquiry meet somthing worthy Observation 1. That since our Lord in the same Circumstances used the same Word we ought to understand him in the same Sens. And therefor This bread must be our Lords body just so and no otherwise but so as the Pascal cake celebrated to this day by the Jews is the very bread which their Fathers ate in Egypt 2. That since This in the Jewish Passover pointeth at a Singular remarkable piece of bread distinguished from All others of the Kind by its Proper circumstances wherein it is to be eaten therefore This in our Lords Institution must likewise point at some Special bread known by the Circumstance of eating it from All ordinary bread 3. Thogh we have not hereby found what are the proper Marks whereby we may know This from Common bread yet we have the Way wherein we are to seek it For since there is no other defect in the Paschal but This that it answereth not the Apostles dissertation which reproveth their Ordinary Fests it must needs concern us to enquire into the forms of their Common Fests if possibly we may therein find not only such a Special bread but such a Special cup too as may answer both our Lords design and his word This in his Institution and the Apostles explication too whereby he proveth them concerned not only in the Passover but generally in Church Fests III. 3. LET us therefore again to the Jewish Ritual Behold at the very first Step we receve such light as leaves Nothing unsatisfied but our Wonder that the Jewish Rabbins should be better Commentators upon our Lords and his Apostles words and discover more to us of the Original Nature and Design of our great Sacrament than All the Christian Doctors who so long and so much have labored to honor it with their explications Because they are short and full take the words of Leo Modena a modern Rabbin and to remove all doubt of his veracity you shall find the same said by Buxtorf in his Syn. Judaica so that you cannot doubt of matter of fact equally testified by two such witnesses as you are secure agreed not to deceve you After they are sat down they say for the most part the 23d Psalm and afterward the Master of the house taketh a loaf of bread and saith a benediction over it which having do'n he breaketh it and giveth to each person about the bigness of a great olive and afterward every one eateth as he pleaseth and so the first time that every one drinketh he saith a benediction When they have do'n eating they wash their hands and take their knives from off the table because say they the Table representeth an Altar upon which no iron tool was to come And if they be three or more that eat together then doth one of them command a glass to be washed and filling it with wine he taketh it up from off the table saying with a loud voice Sirs let us bless His name with whose good things we have be'n filled After this the master of the house blesseth it and prayeth for peace and having so do'n he giveth to each of them a little of That wine which he hath in his glass and he himself also drinketh of it and so they rise from the table The Necessity considered which lieth so hard upon us to find some Special Bread and Cup which may equally answer both our Saviors and Apostles THIS we may justly upon That single account require any Dissenter to admit of This or shew us a Better But the Resemblance considered we may challenge him not only to shew a better Tally to our Lords Institution but any Pictur better answering the life Yea upon supposition that we were allowed to Forge what we pleased we might challenge him to Invent any Hypothesis that may more exactly answer all the Phaenomena both in our Lords Institution and the Apostles Dissertation to the least tittle Mark I pray you After they are sat down the master of the house taketh a laaf of bread saith the Rabby Our Lord distributed The bread when he had given thanks saith St. Paul as they sat at meat saith St. Luke Then for the Cup. The first time any one drinketh he saith a benediction saith the Rabbi The Lord took the
as between These Which must double the probability of the relation seeing it carieth apparent marks not of Father only but Grandfather too not only of the Tradition but the Rite of Sacrificing whence that Tradition was derived LET us then consider The Institution-Supper as it was Festival so was it Sacrificial more particularly it was Paschal i. e. a Fest of unleavened Bread And Bread was and still is therein honored with a solen Distribution and these words This is the bread of affliction which your fathers ate in Egypt Do you not perceve the air of our Lords Form This is my body which is given for you If not observe that of the Cup. Moses when he sprinkled the blood of the sacrificed Heifer upon the Peopl recordeth himself to have said Behold the blood of the Covenant which the Lord hath made with us the Apostle reciteth it This is the blood of the Testament or Covenant which the Lord hath enjoined you The One of these Forms is not more like to the Other than Either of them is to our Lords This is the blood of the New Testament or Covenant that is shed for you And 〈◊〉 we doubt This to be a copy of That Can we doubt but This pointeth at That as its shadow now to disappear Neither the Jewish stile which caleth their Table an Altar nor the Christian which caleth this the Sacrament of the Altar can desire a more honorable approbation than these words of our Lord give them manifestly owning That Jewish Phrase for the Parent and This Christian one for its Issu This resemblance of the Sacrificial Form added to the other of the Festival Mater what is it but the Scripture-way of naming considerable persons that we may not know Joshua the son of Nun more distinctly than we may this Festival Ceremony the issu of that Sacrificial CHAP. V. I. A plainer proof from Chap. 10. From the sameness of names In the Cup the Greeks aped the Jews The Apostle stileth the Cup of the Lord the Cup of blessing which is a perfect translation of the Hebrew name II. The breaking of Bread a Jewish phrase III. Some Phaenomena not salvable but by this Hypothesis IV. He expresly telleth us that each part of the Jewish Tradition by name is a part of our Lords Supper V. An Illustration from our Grace-cup VI. A Sacrament What NEVER did Talies more exactly agree than do This Institution and That Tradition both in Substances and Circumstances Yet shall we be content to let all this pass for Accidental and the Evidence thence derivable for Incompetent if we confirm it not by a Demonstration as full and unanswerable as the Subject can bear or the most Sceptical person require Suppose a Prince had be'n long lost and his Friends had met with a person of Princely deportment carrying in his countenance all the features and in his voice the perfect tone of the lost Prince This must certainly make them full of hopes that it was the same and what greater satisfaction would they desire than This that som credibl person of his retinu should giv in his clear Testimony that it was so And what clearer testimony could any such person give or how could he more effectually express it than by naming him by his proper name and declaring that this Person â—â—â—med was the Prince they desired If therefor we find the Apostle call the Lords Supper in each Element by the very same names as the Jews did each Mater in their Tradition and then declare them to be the Communion the one of his Body and the other of Blood I might hope the evidence capable to silence all doubts Look we then back to the 10th Chapter and observe his motions and expressions His Design there is to dissuade his Corinthians from communicating with Heathens in their Idols Temples His Medium for this he there taketh from the same Topik as he doth here for the reproofs of their misdemeanors in the Church As Here the Lords Supper is inconsistent with Intemperance so is it There with Idolatros Fests There is saith he implicitely the same relation between the Church of Christ his Table and his Cup with Us as between the Temple of the Idol his Table and his Cup with Them These are the Characteristiks of an Idolater as Those are of a Christian and therefor you cannot use them Both bicause you cannot at once be of Both families In pressing this Argument he so manageth each part of the Lords Supper as may best answer the Customs of the Heathen from which he is to dissuade them That they used any benedictions of Bread is nether manifest nor probable because not so suitable to the Greeks humor which ran all upon Drinking But their Closing-cup is so evident that they who above all Nations in the World were excellent at Both Speaking and Drinking could not find a word more expressive of Drunkenness than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it were the inseparable attendant of Sacrificeing And that in their other Fests they aped this Tradition as in their Sacrificing they did the Law appeareth by what we find in many of their Poets and other Writers I mention only the Scholiast who seemeth litle more than a Translator of the last claus of our Rabby 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The custom was to offer drink to the good daemon when the Table was about to be taken away This doth the Apostle so lay hold on as to express in their own abominable stile therein opposing Name to Name as expresly as he doth Cup to Cup caleth That by the Name themselves had given it the Cup of Devils for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is only the diminitive of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And thereto opposeth the Cup of the Lord by the very same Name which the Jews in the above-mentioned Tradition knew it by For this I urge as most considerable that to this day they call their closeing Cup 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which it is not possible to translate into Greek more exactly than the Apostle hath do'n by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Strength or at least the Evidence of the Argument dependeth upon the Sameness of the Name whereby he here pointeth at the Cup no less yea perhaps more plainly than we have seen him do in the next Chapter by his Demonstrative This and I think it not easy to find a third way wherein he could have more clearly have do'n it No properer way of determining an Individuum than either to call him by his proper Name Peter or John c. or by pointing at him and saying This man Thus do these two Arguments mutually enlighten each other and Both concur to make it manifest that the Cup of Blessing in the 10th Chap. and that pointed at by the Demonstrative This in the 11th Chapter are the same with that which the Jews honored both in the same Circumstances and by the same Name too II. AND this will be yet
they recompenced the thus injured Season with a succedaneos Sacrament in the Grace-cup as the Jews did their unattended Temple with a succedaneos Sacrifice in the Tradition The concurrence of two such Names evidently derived from the same Cup no less remarkable than that of all other circumstances dubleth the evidence All this may well justify a challenge to the gainsayer either to accept of This or produce a better Yea perhaps it might be urged that we cannot avoid but that we must own either the cup of the Lord or the cup of divels there being no other imaginable Original for the unaccountable Grace-cup Yet as I will not disparage the Table in our Chappel by equaling it with That in our Hall so neither will I my better Evidences by leveling them with a mere Conjecture how ever Probable I therefor take it not as we may suppose it delivered down by our Ancestors but as it is still practised among our Selvs not as a Proof of a pios custom in the Churches of Christ but as an Illustration of his Own meaning Suppose we then that our Lord should again visit the Earth convene a Council truly General make a publik Fest declare his great satisfaction in the Opportunity and then in its proper Season and with all due Circumstances take the Grace-cup and deliver it about with the same Words as he did that in his Institution saying This is c. would we then doubt but by the Particl This he pointed at That Cup so in his hand under the long knowen character of a Grace-cup If This would not put us out of doubt let us further suppose that our Lords chief Secretary should profess that he had to him declared his meaning and that this unexceptionable person should not only describe the Grace-cup by its proper characters but even it by its proper name and in plain words tell us that the Grace-cup which we drink is the Communion of the blood of Christ Would any one now doubt but the Grace-cup so Circumstanced and so Named and so pointed at must be the peculiar cup of the Lord which must cary its old Constancy to a new Dignity If this amount not to Full Evidence yet sure we cannot deny it to be more then Half and then the Civil Law will allow us to bring a Suppletory The Bread then joineth its Evidence with this of the Cup. In our Lords Institution it holdeth the same Place as in the Jewish Tradition In the Apostles Argument by loss of its Place it is advanced in Power for by its Deposition so alloyed it appeareth that thogh rhe Apostles Argument were yet was not our Lords Institution complete without it for which there can be no other reason given but this that it was an equally Necessary part of the Tradition whence the whole Supper was derived Let us therefor carefully compare them What Lineaments what Feature what Meen what Motion is there in the Tradition that is not answered both in our Lords Institution and in each of the Apostles Arguments What Family can shew a Son so lively resembling both Father and Grandfather what Artist a Picture more exactly representing the Original what Wisdom less then that of the wonderful Counsailer could have invented a Rite more perfectly setting forth the Tradition it copieth the Passion is commemorateth the Benefits it exhibiteth c. I do not upon all these Evidences crave your Sentence There remain other necessary Enquiries to be made We have rejected the Passover because it answered not the Apostles Argument thogh it better did so our Lords Institution we must bring them to the same Test and if it agree not with every title confess all our hopes vain and labor lost VI. VVHICH yet I am so secure against that I cannot forbear to anticipate the Observation That this notice must silence a multitude of trifling troublesom questions concerning the definition and qualifications of a Sacrament For Both This and its Twin Sacrament upon examination confess themselvs nothing els but Jewish Traditions sublimed by our Lord to Evangelical Commands requiring all Christians to wear them as badges of his service as we shall have another occasion more fully to discover And from this we may well take occasion to warn som too zelos persons that they need examin whether there be as good agreement between their own Spirits and that of our Lord as we have found between these two Cups The Jews were no less zelos of Moses's Law in opposition to the Gospel than any Papist can be of his Superstition in opposition to Reformation Our Lord as much abolished Legal Ceremonies as our Reformers did Popish He as much declared against the Traditions of the Scribes as our Church doth or needeth to do against Superfluos Ceremonies Yet behold he was so far from refusing their Customs for This only reason because they were Theirs that for This very reason he chose them He could doubtless have invented som other rite for Matriculating Disciples no less proper than that of Baptism and som other for Commemorating his death than This of the Grace-cup yet did not disdain to borrow Both his Sacraments from those implacabl Enemies of his Person and Gospel while he abolished all those Divine Ordinances that prefigured Both Leaving us an example so to shun what is prejudicial as to retain what may be serviceabl and make our adversaries practice a reason not to Fly but Embrace it PART II. Concerning the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CHAP. I. The Apostl's design was not to assert Reverence to the Lords Supper I. The Apostl's proper design first to be enquired into II. Three steps 1. What might be the Corinthians case III. 2. What might becom the Apostl to do in such a case IV. 3. How doth the Apostl's procedure agree with such Suppositions 1. The former part very well agreeth with them V. 2. The later part necessarily requireth them Proved 1. Negatively He did not design to assert Reverence due to our Lords Supper precisely taken The subject of the 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 Determiminate Bread and Cup. The Argument reduced to a Syllogism HAVING thus found our Key as Fit as Necessary to unlock our Lords Institution we may with the better corage prove it upon the Apostl's Discours concerning it Wherein as there are More and som of them cross Wards so if it answer them All in All their turnings we shall have so many the More Evidences that it is the tru one That we may work regularly it will be necessary in the First place to Enter it in due manner i. e. begin with a right understanding of the Apostles proper Design whereto every word is to be serviceable For it is no small help to a travailer to know which way his journies end lies and to cast the
than what you have received let him be accursed When our Lord himself hath so reveled his mind All the inhabitants of Earth and Heaven should they combine are nether to be believed against the Revelation nor obeyed against the Command And to what purpose such a Revelation and such a Vouching If These words do not Streighten the obligation they will be but Impertinent if they Slacken it they will be Worse They can no other way answer the Care bestowed upon them but by inforcing constancy in the performance IV. 2. MY next Observation is the Partiality wherewith the Apostle treateth the Cup which alone is honored with these considerable words Somthing of This Partiality we have already observed in his Argument against the Cup of Devils which added to what we are now considering will duble the weight Describing the Institution he giveth the Bread its due Place but as cold a Treat as possible Affordeth it not so much as the common articl but without welt or gard speaketh in the slightest manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and describeth our Lord as equally slighting it not stiling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but Indefinitely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much less giving it the power to mesur the performance But coming to the Cup ver 25. He useth it with much more deference himself and reporteth our Lord to have used the same Partiality He saith indeed that our Lord took the Cup 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the Equality must relate to the Tradition which it equally honored not to the Circumstances wherewith it self was honored not in Like but in Higher manner 1. He expresseth the exact Season After Supper and This in exact conformity to the Jewish stile which useth to fix a character of emphasis upon the Cup After Supper As we find most properly to our purpose Berach cap. 7. ver 6. Wine is broght to them in the midl of the meal they bless severally every one by himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For That After meal one blesseth for them all Where that prefix ל payeth deference the Wine After Supper as to Wine of note But this is not payed to Bread because none but the Paschal Cake was distributed After Supper and had our Apostle spoken of That in the same stile he had intimated that which he endeavoreth to confute viz. that our Lords Supper was successor to the Passover 2. He honoreth it with an emphatical Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. Then he describeth our Lords partiality who did not speak of it as of the Bread with a simpl 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but more emphatically 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. Nor Indefinitely This is my blood as of the Bread This is my body but with an Explication fixing his meaning This is the New Testament in my blood 5. And above All the important 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is industriosly put upon the Cup and denied to the Bread Let us now reflect He First reciteth the consecration of the Bread and he could no otherwise matter of fact obliged him to it as appeareth by the uniform testimony of all the Evangelists which spake any thing of it Yet he prefaceth the consecration of the Cup with the note of conformity In like manner also In which form of speaking it is Not unusual to omit in reciting the later what had be'n expressed in the former the very phrase excusing because manifesting the Ellipsis used merely to avoid the tediosness of repetition But it is contrary both to Reason and Practice that any thing should be omitted in the Former and understood in the Later and therein expressed by such a conforming Phrase when This cannot find in That any likeness What the Reason of this strange method is we shall the better discover if we observ Another care which seemeth to cross This. He is very punctual in reciting the difference of Time between the consecration of the One and the Other Our Lord took the Bread when he had given thanks and the Cup when he had supped His Argument wold have go'n more Smoothly thogh not so Strongly if in the common way of speaking he had made the later every way like the former But how could he avoid this cross Should he give the Cup the precedence he must then misreport matter of Fact Should he then apply these mesuring words to the Bread that he might speak of the Cup in like manner also He must then have confounded his Own argument For the mesuring clause must have signified either too much or too little too little if this should point at the Paschal Bread too much if to the Ordinary For since of All Fests the Passover was most prefigurative of our Lords Death and he delivered rhe Bread with such a form of words as manifestly alluded to the Paschal cake if to such peculiar suitableness with That Season and That Form he had added These words also Would not the Demonstrative have pointed to the Bread as Paschal and consequently would not these words have required us to mesure our performance of the Lords Command by that of God to Moses And would not this have cleared the Corinthians from any profanation of his Supper except only in the Easter Communion But if these words had be'n applied to the Bread as blessed Before Supper then must they have signified too much For they would have comprehended not only every Fest but every Private meal They would not be a Rubrike for Publik worship in the Church but Advice for Private manners at home they would neither require Fest nor Communion nor distinguish the Church of God from the meanest Parlor Possibly to Prevent certainly to Remove both sides of mistake and to convince the Corinthians of their obligation to close neither All their Private nor Only their Paschal but All and Only their Festival Suppers with our Lords he So describeth the Institution that it appeareth probable that our Lord distributed the Bread at the Beginning and more so that he did it before the End of Supper but manifest that the Cup he delivered at its proper time And since the Cup was the Adaequate character of a Fest to the Cup only must the power be given which these words import Let Any one giv Any other tolerabl account why the Apostl should thus deprive the First-born of the Blessing which naturally belongs to it and I must confess my self to have lost a great evidence of the Relation between our Lords Institution and the Tradition whence I endevor to prove it derived There are too many who have need to consider another honor to which our Lord preferred the Cup above the Bread He said not Eat ye All but said Drink ye All of this Whether This difference wer occasioned by Judas 's Presence when That was distributed and his Absence when this was so is not so plain as it is that it falleth very cross to the Laws of That Infallible Church which denying the people the Cup takes away
the better half of our Lords Supper and the Whole of the Apostl's Argument which cannot out-live this lose but would not have be'n wounded so mortally by That of the Bread V. 3. MY last remark is that in the Deductions which which himself draweth from our Lords purposly recited Institution he payeth to the Bread joint honor with the Cup which he had denied it for no other reason but only for its unserviceableness to his Argument Those Deductions ar ushered with ver 26. For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye shew forth the Lords death till he com 1. Here we see he applieth These relative words to Both elements whereas in recital of our Lords Institution he had not at all applied them to the Bread And this contrary to that know'n rule which forbids the Conclusion to infer more than was conteined in the Premises Hereof what other account can there be given or what better desired than the Tradition offereth In the former verse he was to state our Lords mind reveled to himself concerning Frequency And thereof the Cup was the only Standard because That alone distinguished Festival Suppers from Common But in This he is to describe the Supper it self wherein the Bread hath right not only to be joined with it but to be preferred before it Had he now excluded the Bread he must have intimated concerning It what som without any such color declare concerning the Cup that it were needless bicause the Supper were complete without it But by this care he preventeth any such concept 2. He addeth another Claus not mentioned in the Institution 'till he com thereby either to obviate an evasion in point of Duration if possibly the Corinthians might pretend to shift from his reproofs by supposing the Obligation worn out or to strengthen the command by shewing how great esteem our Lord had for it as extending it to all times future as well as present 3. But the most remarkable is this that the Imperative is changed to the Indicative A change so Considerable and otherwise so unaccountable that our glorios Dr. Hammond thinketh it not to be made The Greek is indifferent to both but in the Imperative there appeared a grain of sense and none at all in the Indicative For if in the Subject of the Indicative proposition we see no other difference between This Bread and Cup and and any Other Bread and Cup but what our own actual Consecration hath advanced it to if this stile be only a Periphrase of the Lords Supper differing therefrom only in Syllables then will the Proposition tell us no news at all Every child will without its help understand that as often as we eat This bread and drink This cup upon no other reason but this that we may thereby shew forth our Lords death we shew forth our Lords death And that the Apostl should so carefully bring a candl to shew us the Sun seemed no way probable to our learned Doctor But if the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be read Imperatively not ye do but do ye then may there be so much of reason in the Precept as there is of possibility to do otherwise For look how much danger there is that we may do this without shewing forth our Lords death just so much need there is of Caution and just so much reason will there be in the Command which hath no other use but to prevent such danger whereas in the Indicative as there can be no possibility of error since the very naming of the Subject makes the Praedicate self-evident so can there be no reason for the Proposition Yet all this while if there be Any at all there can be â—ut a very small difference for the Performance containeth the End almost as necessarily as the Subject doth the Praedicate it is almost as hard to do this without shewing forth our Lords death as it is to doubt whether we oght to do it or no And all that can be gotten by the change is this that upon supposition of the Reverence which every one will certainly pay our Lords Person the command enjoining an action in remembrance of our Lords death will by consequence mind them of doing it with such Intentions But be the gain litle or great we must quit it because the word FOR which ushereth the declaration necessarily requireth the Indicative mode Had it be'n an Illative wherefor or therefor the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had be'n indifferent to the other mode Therefor do ye had be'n all as proper as Therefor ye do But the Causal FOR will by no means indure any other than an Indicative It s proper office is to confirm our Belief or instruct our Understanding not to command our Will No Author ever speaks so nor will our Ears indure such an incongruos sound so that our excellent Doctor must lose on one hand whatever he may seem to gain on the other and he will reap but small thank from the Apostle by delivering him from a supposed Solaecism in Logik and casting him upon a real one in Grammar I say it is but a supposed Solaecism in Logik and That supposition is grounded upon our inadvertency For grant once that our Demonstrative This and our Relative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 point to some praeviosly singular Bread and Cup and immediatly we discover a sens so far from trifleing that probably it will appear too severe certainly most worthy of so great an Apostle most serviceable to his Argument and most worthy our utmost consideration For thus will it convince the Corinthians It is in vain for you to pretend that you do not celebrate the Lords Supper in Those your intemperate meetings FOR I have so recited our Lords Institation that you may plainly perceve it to be his meaning that as often as you drink This cup which he Then consecrated and which is the same with that wherewith you close All your Church Fests you must do it in remembrance of Him FOR he hath not left it in your power to make his Supper Concerned or Unconcerned by celebrating it as often or as seldom as you please in such meetings yea or to choose which way you will be guilty whether of Disobedience to his Command by Omitting the duty or of Contemt to his Person by Doing it unworthily FOR he hath inlayed it upon All such Fests so inseparably that thogh you would you cannot take Any of them without it FOR YOU DO whether you intend it or no whether you will or no notwithstanding any contrary Intention You Do you cannot but Do what he hath thus made not only Unlawful but utterly Impossible for you to Omit It is not only a Command obliging you but an Institution necessitating you and you cannot avoid the Actual doing it if you avoid not All Church Fests FOR as often as ye eat This bread you eat That whereof our Lord said This is my body and as often as you drink This
cup you drink That whereof he said This is my blood And taking this for the sens of the 26th vers the necessity of the 27th and all that follow immediatly appears For if they be so Much and so Unavoidably concerned then whoever eateth This bread and drinketh This cup unworthily must needs be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord who hath so made Those the representatives of These that whether we receve them or no will make no difference in his imputation because the Relation dependeth not upon Our admittance of them for such but upon His own Commission constituting them for such So that in the recess by intending to Omit the Lords Supper you make your selves guilty of breaking his Command which obligeth you to Do it without escaping the other guilt of Unworthiness since his Institution hath made his body and blood concerned in all the abuses you put upon This bread and This cup. SINCE therefor this 26th vers cannot be Imperative because Grammar requireth the Indicative mode always to follow the causal FOR And since it cannot be Indicative if This bread and This cup in the whole comprehension signifie nether more nor less than the Lords Supper because then in their formal concept they will necessarily import setting forth his death and Logik requireth that the Praedicate in every Proposition should bring somthing of news concerning the Subject But if we fit the Demonstrative This with its necessary Object and the Relative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with its necessary Mesure then will the Proposition carry Weight enough to lay it as a foundation for all the Deductions which the Apostl bildeth upon it and Light enough to shew the use of every syllabl in his Argument and Force enogh to convict the Corinthians beyond all possibility of reply To doubt now whether we will accept so Serviceable yea so necessary an Hypothesis is no other than to put our selvs into a very hard streight For we shall be obliged either to accuse the Apostl of transgressing the plain rules of Grammar and Logik yea and of Justice too in charging the Corinthians with the greatest Crime without sufficient evidence or else to produce som Other Hypothesis of our own which shall be at least equally serviceabl towards clearing his discours from such great defects And while the adversary deliberates upon so hard a choice I proceed to examin that Other Sens shall I call it which alloweth our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No ground to Build or so much as to Stand upon CHAP. III. Concerning the Vulgar interpretation of As often as 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 THAT in so doing I may escape both the Task of setting a tolerable countenance upon an opinion so generally receved and the Suspicion of representing it disadvantageosly I conceve it most Convenient if not absolutely Necessary to exhibit it in the words of its Patrons Patron I should say For among the Many that entertein it I know but One that hath put himself to the charge of affording it any means of Subsistence by cloathing it with any proper Rules or nourishing it with any Proofs But it is Such an One as may pass for a Multitude One that may not be named without Reverence One of the greatest Ornaments and Pillars of our Church One who professeth to fit every subject with its proper Rules and Mesures and therefor One whom we may believe to have said the utmost in behalf of his Opinion This singular Person puts it to the question Whether our Lords words in This Institution amount to a Command And thogh his interest persuaded him to have Affirmed it yet the sound of These words and inadvertency to the Custom we suppose them to relate to engaging him for the Negative embarrased him in difficulties inextricable from which because he struggles to free himself by help of the distinction between Suppositive and Absolute I shall first state That distinction and Then try what service it can do in the present question A Suppositive Command Obligeth just so as a Suppositive Proposition Declareth viz. nothing else but a Connexion or Disjunction between the Parts An Absolute Proposition may be true though its Subject have no Being and so may an Hypothetical one though its Antecedent have no Truth And as a Hypothetical Syllogism Absolutely concludes Nothing without help of an Absolute Assumtion so doth not a Hypothetical Command oblige to any thing without the help of som Positive addition Hypothetical necessity is therefor consistent with Absolute liberty because the Obligation must derive half its power from the yet undetermined Position E. G. If my Father should have laid upon me this Suppositive Command As often as you go to London go by land This would not oblige me either to the Journy or the Manner By staying at home I should have be'n as obedient as by a hundred tedios Journies But if my Inclinations or Bisiness should call me to the Journy then by vertu of the Command joined with the Urgency of my Business wer I obliged to go not by Water but by Land Such a Command would by no means have amounted to Get you a hors and away Nor can a Suppositive Command amount to such an Absolute Precept as Let a man examin himself and so let him eat But the utmost that so civil a word could amount to is this If you are pleased to eat then is it necessary you examin your self This is the true state of a Suppositive Obligation It leaveth us at full liberty thogh it expose us to be rob'd of it by som Absolute Proposition following And how impossibl it is to reconcile the Wisdom of our Lords Institution with the Weakness of such an Obligation cannot better be discovered than by the succesless attemts of so habile an Undertaker whose words I com now to examin wherein I beg the Readers just charity to believ what I most seriosly protest that it is not without great reluctancy I engage in so unwelcom an office toward a person to whom I am so much obliged and nothing but faithfulness to so great a Subject should compel me to expose the words of him whom all good men are obliged to honor His Rule is The Institution of a Rite or Sacrament by our Blessed Savior is a direct Law and passes a proper obligation in its whole integrity This one would think is as plain as heart can wish but the Gloss quite mars the Text for thus doth he endeavor to bend his Rule to his Conceptions and Other Writings concerning This Holy Sacrament THIS Rule can relate but to one instance that of the Holy Sacrament of Christs body and blood for although Christ did institute two Sacraments yet that
any be will pass from the obediently negligent Subject to the impertinently busie Law-maker who having not Required but Supposed the Action neither Found nor Made any ground for the Supposition It forbids the benevolence it begs For thogh it threaten No guilt of disobedience to the Omission it doth to the Performance While we may ly safe in our Neglect we run a great risk in our Officiosness For he that Omitteth the Performance disobeyeth no command therefor cannot incur any guilt nor deserv any punishment but he that upon such terms approacheth the Holy Table is already gilty of contemt towards the threatnings denounced against Unworthy recevers bicause he needlesly exposeth himself to them and to com safely off had need of more Piety in the Performance than we can Yet discover of Wisdom in the adventure V. IF WE can suppose the Apost'l so regardless of our Saviors command yet sure he had more kindness for his OWN ARGUMENT than to use such solicitos endeavors to destroy it and for his own Credit than to furnish the Corinthians with a Plea whereby they might non-suit his Charge He was sure a better Disciple both to Gamaliel and our Lord than to use such endeavors as by the ordinary rules of reasoning must depose both his own Discours and our Lords Command from all power But such is the unavoidable consequence of the merely Suppositive sens of those important words For it is obvious that the Corinthians Might and therefor supposable that they Would plead thus for themselves We are sufficiently sensible that as often as we eat This bread and drink This cup we shew forth the Lords death and consequently that whoever eateth This bread and drinketh this cup unworthily is guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. But in these our ordinary Fests which thou so severely reprovest we have nothing to do with This bread nor This cup. We Fest indeed as often as we meet in the Church but without any Intent and we conceve without any Need to eat This bread or drink This cup. We intend to do what all Nations agree to be the proper manner of worshipping God This is the Vniversal notion of mankind in that so common Rite of Sacrificing The Votary therefor offereth his beast that he may become a guest to his God thereby at once Receiving and Expressing a confidence that he is propitious to him And thogh our Lords great Sacrifice of himself have made it needless to shed any more blood by way of atonement yet is that so far from any reason that we should lay aside Festing with Sacrificing that it is a very good one why we should take it up if it had never be'n used before since now we have much greater reason to rejoice in the Communion to which God inviteth us But that in all our Fests we should be obliged to celebrate the Lords Supper since himself hath not expressed it we understand not For either he intended we should receive it only at the same Fest whereat he Instituted it which was the Passover or els he left it wholely to our discretion to receve it as often as we should think convenient Now that we intend not to do it in our ordinary meetings thy self seemest to understand For thou declarest when ye come together it is not to eat the Lords Supper Is it not we own it we plead it It is not to eat the Supper and how do we Profane it when we do not eat it When we do Eat it if our behavior be irreverent we must confess our selves guilty for we submit to thy rule As often as we Eat This bread and Drink this cup unworthily we are guilty but it thence followeth not that we are so as often as we Fest together in the Church It is hard to say whether such a plea were more obvios to the Apostl's Observation or Destructive to his Argument It was therefor infinitely necessary he should answer it and we find no other Answer to it but in these words nor any other Use of Those words but for such an Answer This is sufficient to perswade us so to interpret them that the Argument be not Defective nor Themselves Impertinent But to fasten such a Gloss upon them as shall make them not only Useless but Pernicios and the Argument not only naked of so necessary a defence but irrefragably retorted against the Author is perhaps a greater abuse to Them than the Corinthians profaneness was to the Lords Supper VI. FOR a close of this troublesom dispute let us impartially ballance the rival senses upon This enquiry which of all others is most important viz. which of them affordeth better satisfaction to a pious soul conscientiously enquiting how often he is obliged to receve the Holy Communion A question wherein there are many things doubtful but none more than This Whether it more Deserve or Need to be answered 1 The One sens offereth full satisfaction by shewing us a Certain Mesure to which we must conform And though the change long since made in the Manner of celebrating Church Festivals seem to have confounded it yet if we once know what it was at the time of the Institution we may and must so accommodate the never decaying Reason to the Change as still to answer the first Intention For if the Corinthians were therefor obliged to Eat the Lords Supper in All their Church meetings bicause they Fested in them All in One manner so are we bicause we also Fest in them All in Another manner Since the Manner of Publik worship the Church upon competent reasons may alter but the Institution of our Lord indispensibly closing All Church Fests with his own Supper No human power may abolish at least not in point of the Obligation though possibly invincible necessity may dispense with Actual performance at som times So by This account the clear answer will be That the Church must offer the Holy Sacrament as often as she can persuade the peopl to receve it and every person is so often obliged to receve it as the Church Officers shall offer it and Both the Church and every person oght to come as neer as possible to doing it every Lords day and every Holy day i. e. All days of Church Fests 2. But the other Sens for want of a Standard will pack us off with an answer more Delusory than the Collier's If we ask How often must I do this in remembrance of Christ it will answer As often as you eat This bread and drink This cup If we then ask How often must I eat This bread and drink This cup it will answer As often as you do it in remembrance of Christ This I say is more delusory than the Collier in two respects 1. Bicause it was possible to know what the Church believed Publik Confessions Canons of Councils c. All of them independent upon the Collier or his Faith and all know'n to the Catechist But Here we have No
Declaration or Canon which pretends to oblige 'till our own voluntary Act do it 2. The Collier was not the same person with the Church He might possibly differ from her or if he did Not then might a further question join them Both together and by asking How do both thou and the Church believe call him to a determinate account of his Own and the Churches Faith But here This bread and This cup are supposed to be a mere Periphrase of the Lords Supper differing only in Syllables and not at all in Signification It is therefor impossible that ony one can Do This which he would never have do'n had not our Lord commanded it and not remember That Command which must be the adaequate reason of the Action and it is no less impossible to remember the Command without remembring the Author These are so far from separable by any Forgetfulness that they cannot be made so by any Endeavor And therefor it must be extremely frivolos if the Apost'l should so solemnly press this as reveled by our Savior That as often as we eat his Supper we must eat his Supper Again the entire question is compounded of Both terms For we ask not separately How often must we Do This as a distinct question from How often must we set forth our Lord's death But join Both in This question How often must we so do This as thereby to set forth our Lord's death Had the Collier be'n thus Catecised he could not have escaped either confessing his ignorance or giving account of his belief But here the clearer the Question the more unsatisfying the Answer When different expressions are made different things they may pretend to mesure each other but when they are joined together as parts of one whole Suppositive duty then we have no mesure at all Yea Those very words which pretend to give us an exact one rob us of one that with som Latitude might have served the turn For without them we could not have doubted as now we do whether we are under the obligation of an absolute Command or no as well to the Thing as to the Manner nor be'n put to such hard yet unprosperous shifts to make our Lords Institution and the Apostl's Discourse worthy their Authors CHAP. IV. Objections answered I. The First Objection That the Tradition may be novel answered 1. By mater of fact II. By passing judgment upon it 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 because it is incredibl 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 HAVEING thus ballanced the two pretenders and found the One not only Serviceable but Necessary and the Other not only Unserviceable but Prejudicial both to our Lords Institution and the Apostl's Argument I might with corage proceed on in the remains of my journy But sensibl how many prejudices he must encounter who shall in so awful a subject oppose the stream and unable to prophecy what might rise in Other mens minds I communicated what I have above written to two or three pious and learned Friends requesting them to favor me with their Censures and Objections that I might either answer them or submit to them Two Objections I have by that means obtained which I think requisite to Answer 1. THE FIRST OBJECTION saith that The Custom referred to is in many particulars novel and by which we cannot judge of the practice of the Jews in our Saviors days This strikes at the very heart and must be carefully warded I shall therefor first examin what is to be found of the Jews Opinions in the case and then consider what judgment is thereupon to be made 1. The Jews think the Practice so far from novel that they think it as ancient as it's occasion the disbanding of the Camp in Joshua's days and the consequent impossibility of the whole Nations bringing their daily offering to the publik place of Sacrifice This we have found in Dr. Castel upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where he intimateth that the people must tary for Samuel 1 Sam. 9. because he was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this seemeth confirmed by Jonathan's Targum which is elder than our Lords Institution and paraphraseth the word which signifieth Blessing by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence perhaps our Latin Pars which signifieth Breaking But my learned Objector doth not impute novelty to the whole but many particulars and adviseth me to consult the Misna in Berachoth I have do'n so and thereby find reason enogh to suspect the Jews care or felicity in preserving their Antiquities but not enogh to suspect mine own Hypothesis Indeed I find them treat the Bread and Wine much like the Apostle They speak much more of the Later than of the Former and it is not for a running vieu to discover what difference they put between them The 7th chap. of Berachoth beginneth thus Three eating together are obliged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word is proper to This exercise and its derivatives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie the meeting which Elias thus describeth Three or more sitting at Supper among whom one as the father of the family or som venerable Rabbi if such be present as a guest is obliged to pray and bless the Table with an audible voice as is said Psal 34.4 Magnificate Dominum meum Magnificate there are Two at least Mecum there is the Third if there be only Two ether of them prayeth privately by himself Here and in most other of their Writeings they speak indifferently of the whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if we com more distinctly to enquire what interest the Wine hath above the Bread we shall find nothing certain but what Shulch Aruch tells us That they are divided into three Opinions 1. Some say the Wine is so necessary to consecrate a meal that thogh a man eat single if he can get no Wine he must rather fast than eat without it indeed he is not obliged to fast more than one day 2. A second opinion is That the Cup of Blessing is not at all necessary be the number of guests never so many 3. A third sort say with our Leo Modena that it must not be omitted if there be three And
him by his Father with its counterpart which by I know not what means he had obtained out of the Scriptoire of another Family He applieth the One to the Other sheweth their exact agreement in every word of the Writing every turning of the Indenture and every stroke of the divided Letters and proveth this could not be the effect of any collusion bicause there had ever be'n and still continued a mortal feud between his own Family and That whence he had gotten the counterpart If this be our present Case we are to consider 2 things First the agreement of the Counterparts and 2ly the impossibility of Collusion 1. The Agreement of the Apostl's Argument with the Thus stated Custom we have fully discovered 1. In the Body of the discours in either Chapter In the 10th chap. both Bread and Cup caled by their proper Jewish names and under Those very names urged to be Body and Blood of the Lord. In the 11th chap. the Argument no other way Rational This way Unanswerable many words and Aspects of words no other way accountable This way Necessary the Charge otherwise to be evaded This way Unavoidable In the whole not one word or order of words impertinent deficient or superfluos 2. In the Indenting every reeling step exactly jointed with the answerably crooked process of the Argument No discours in the World so full of odd bizarreries every one this way rendered rational clear and convictive In the 10th chap. the names of Both elements industriosly so Varied as to answer the Jewish stile and so Transposed as to answer the Apostl's argument In the 11th chap. the Demonstrative THIS affectedly inculcated the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inforcedly appropriate to the Cup thogh distributed in like manner with the Bread The Bread honored above the Cup one way the Cup above the Bread another way 3. Letters so cut in sunder that in the Apostl's discours we find but one half not to be read but by supplying the other half from the Tradition THIS without an object 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without a relative look like tails of Letters without heads but by application to This custom becom fairly legible So exact agreement in such strange variety one would think Gods providence here acted the Chirographer managing the Apostl's pen in such a manner that after the death of all Wirnesses and loss or embeazling of all other Evidences we might by this multiplied sutableness be armed against all doubt which either malice or carelesness of the Jews forgetting or corrupting their Tradition might bring upon us IV. 2. THE other part of my Assumtion is that This Agreement could not be the issu of the Jews conforming their practice to our Lords Institution Since the greatest Care maried to the greatest Wit Could not produce such an offspring and the Jews Would not employ ether the One or the Other to such a purpose 1. It were extravagant credulity to believ they Would employ such Care Their very differences concerning the Tradition of their Fathers is abundant evidence that they minded not its agreement or disagreement with our Scriptures And their known zele against our Lord and Apostle is a yet greater one that they would not be more careful to explain the Ones institution and the Others argument than all the Fathers of the Christian Church have be'n Shall we believ their esteem for their Gamaliel so much greater than their hatred of Saint Paul that they should he more than masorically careful to contrive a way whereby to make such a discours worthy the Disciple of their so famous Master Do they so glory in their ancestors crucifying the Lord of Life that they put themselves to great care and cost to adorn the Monument which himself raised to his own memory and That with such Figures as should blazon His great goodness and their great wickedness Were the Jewish Rabbins so much more careful of Christs worship than the Fathers of his own Church that when These had lost the key which must unlock his Oracles Those took the pains to make a new one Whoever can believ this shall never from Them receve the thanks which he shall deserv for such exorbitant charity 2. To believ their Wit capable of finding out such an invention is no less incredible So many wheels so many motions so smoothly and so strongly cooperating so remote from the common practice of All other Nations so suitable to the humor of their own so exactly fitting every titl of the Apostl's discourse and the circumstances wherein it was written was sure above all human Wit to invent Many discoveries appear obvious when made which yet for thousands of years escaped the sagacity of all mankind The very difficulties and odnesses of the Apostles discurs have be'n so far from Smoothed that many of them have not be'n Observed by any Critiks and Commentators and perhaps might not have be'n so now had not their agreement with This key occasioned it It is not to be believed that the Apostl should make the least fals step drop the least syllable that should be impertinent much less that should be mischievos to his design And the account that is to be given of them must equal the sum to a farthing Whoever will suppose the Discours worthy of a reasonabl man much more whoever will suppose it worthy the Holy Spirit if he reject what I offer Let him to his study let him summon together All his faculties let him use as much liberty of invention as he please and if he can find out any Hypothesis that shall so cleverly answer all the Phaenomena erit mihi magnus Apollo Since therefor chance Could not and the Jews neither could nor would conform their practice to our Lords Institution and the Apostl's discurse The conclusion must be That both This and That were conformed to the Jewish practice And I thank my worthy Friend for giving me occasion to confirm what I have said by this Reflection V. ANOTHER OBJECTION saith That if our frequency in celebrating the Lords Supper must be mesured by such a Grace-cup since there can be no such Grace-cup where there is no Fest no more than there can be an end without a beginning or an Adjunct without a Subject it will be as necessary that a Fest should alway usher the Lords Supper as that the Lords Supper should attend every Fest and so the revers of our Hypothesis will no less severely reprove the Universal Church of Christ for Not festing in All meetings than did the Apostl the Corinthians for not honoring the Lords Supper in them All but every particular member of Christ's Church will be blameless though he never communicate in such manner as by his Church-officers he is invited to do since he is to do it only so often as by That Practice whence Christ's Institution was derived he is obliged i. e. only so often as a Fest is to be closed with a cup of blessing To answer such an
or Few or Many In which Question we ar grow'n very much bolder than St. Augustin He Questioned but durst not Determin between Every day and Som days we boldly Determin against Daily yea Weekly yea Monthly Communions but stablish not Any at all III. IT is manifest say som that Scarceity advanceth and Plenty abateth the valu of every thing Those acts of worship which are Frequently are also Slightly performed and since we cannot keep Both we were better quit Frequence than Reverence For we shall more honor our Lord by doing this more Reverently thogh less Frequently Than more Frequently with less Reverence And in confirmation hereof they vouch not only Experience which sheweth that Those very persons who strained hard to enjoy the Common Prayer when it was not to be had without difficulty contemn it now it is truly Common but as we com now from saying the Authority of our Church too as satisfied with three times in a year This is their Opinion and thus they defend it It were heartily to be wished that the Antecedent wer as fals as the Consequent is weak That there wer as litl Truth in the alleged contemt of Common Prayer as there is Reason thence to be draw'n against making the Communion common as That And it were further to be wished that those who thus pretend to hear the Church would better consider her declared Judgment But This conceit grave as it looks with its countenance of Piety and Prudence we have found to be the very same with that in the Corinthians against which the Apostle leveleth his whole Argument And plausibl as it looks with its Countenance of Conformity to the Church we shall find it more guilty of Non-conformity than what is by its patrons condemned as such And so much the more injurious to the Church bicause it doth not only rob her of het Authority but her Innocence as making her Accessary to the disobedience she condemns And since I ow a duty to the Church as well as to the Question I shall not proceed further 'till I have vindicated Her from so great Suspicion and This from so great a Prejudice as by This pretence they suffer IV. CONCERNING the sens of our Church in this Question it is strange that there should be any Doubt much more that there should be any Error so plainly doth she declare it in her Offices and Rubriks relating to this Sacrament preparatory whereto she hath provided two Exhortations the One shewing the danger of Unworthiness the Other of Forbearance answering the doubl charge of the Apostl Let a man examin himself and so let him eat I doubt this is News to Them who most are concerned in it For if they had do'n the Church and Themselvs the right to Read and Consider That Exhortation which she hath appointed to be read when the Minister shall see the peopl negligent to come they must needs be convinced if not how great the Error is yet certainly how litle the Church favoreth it For what can be said to This Invitation In Gods behalf I bid you All All indefinitely and beseech you for the Lord Jesus Christs sake that you will not refuse to come being so lovingly caled and bidden by God himself And again I bid you in the name of God I call you in Christs behalf I exhort you as you love your own salvation What to this Warning Take you heed lest you withdrawing your selves from this Holy Supper provoke Gods indignation against you And again Consider with your selvs how great an injury you do to God and how sore punishments hangeth over your heads for the same What to this Argument You know how grievous and unkind a thing it is when a man hath prepared a rich Fest decked his Table with all kinds of provisione so that there lacketh nothing but the guests to sit down and yet they who are caled most unthankfully refuse to come c. which of you in such a case would not be moved who would not think a great injury and wrong do'n unto him What to the close of all These things if ye earnestly consider ye will by Gods grace return to a better mind for the obtaining whereof we shall not cease to make our humbl peticions to Almighty God our heavenly Father The Invitation is Universal I bid you All. The charge lieth upon All Persons and at All Times For as often as the peopl the peopl in general are Negligent to com so often is the Minister thus to reprove and warn them and there is no limitation to dispens with Any Person or except Any Time Thus thus it is that the Church incourageth us to dispens with our Duty thus she discourageth Constancy in it Thus she setteth up Reverence against Frequency But since Error cannot subsist without borrowing from Truth let us see what appearances there may be of the Churches countenance in the contrary opinion She declareth say they three times in a year to be sufficient But 1. Churches as well as States ar many times necessietated to comply with the ungovernabl humors of the People And what if our Church have do'n in This Subject as Moses did in That of Divorce bicause of the hardness of the peopls hearts chusing a great inconvenience as an escape from a yet greater mischief The indevotion of the peopl is so incorrigibl that she saw too great reason to fear lest if she should exact the constancy due to it she should thereby rather draw contemt then Guests to the Holy Table and therefor lest by requiring All she should lose All thoght necessary to accommodate her self not to what our Savior Requireth but to what she might hope to Obtene This appeareth by the two first Rubriks which caution against exposing the Sacrament if there be not a convenient number to communicate i. e. if there be not the same number which is necessary for the Grace-cup for so is the number expresly determined to three at least And if she thus doubted of Three when it is so Seldom what could she hope if it were Constantly celebrated 2. Where she may Hope more she Requires more She doth not think the Priests more Obliged to communicate but more Likely to be devout and obedient than the People When therefor there is a competent number of such as in Colleges and Collegiat Churches there often is where they cannot want Opportunity if they want not Piety There she requireth not only three times every Year but once every Week and in This requiring of the Priests she doth more than intimate what oght to be do'n by All thogh she forbear to enjoin it bicause of the too justly supposed hardness of the hearts of the generality 3. Nether is she satisfied with This either in Priest or Peopl When she saith it must be thus often At least she doth not declare This to be the Most that is required by our Lords Institution but the Least that can satisfie her Own Discipline Those
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
dishonoring the Lords Supper by their necessary connexion Either therefor we ar quite out of the reach of his Threats bicause we are free from the Character he Reproves or if we ar Not then are we most exposed to That now mentioned bent against their So Coming together as not to eat the Lords Supper since That and only That can literally be charged upon us And since his Cautionary precepts were also levelled against the Sin Reproved they must needs strike more directly upon That Omission wherein we are equally gilty than upon the Unworthiness wherein we cannot be so And that inseparabl connexion between the Churches meetings and the Lords Supper which he so industriosly proveth must needs concern us more than any such kind of unworthiness as he mentioneth Not since That is to continu till the end of the World by our Lords own Institution and This is not condemned but by Our own Reason in consequence of the Apostls reproving another kind of gilt whereof we are uncapabl V. IF therefor we must accommodate the Apostls Dissertation to the change so as to shun the Unworthiness Not expresly forbidden much more must we do so in the Constancy so Expresly and Industriosly enjoyned So that our concern must needs be this As often as the Corinthians ate that bread and drank that cup which our Lord had adopted to represent his body and blood so often they shewed forth his death and therefor whoever did unworthily celebrate That were gilty of profaning This The connexion between their Meetings and their Fests the Apostl did not bicause he needed not mention but That between Them and the Lords Supper he proved inseparabl both as to Intermission and Abolition The former connexion the Church hath changed the later she may not in either of its members We ar therefor and till the Lord com ever must be obliged in All our Church meetings to celebrate the Lords Supper and That in such manner as becometh his body and blood THIS is the Equitabl and Moral sens of the Apostls words which was so Long and Universally paid them by all Ages and Churches preceding and following the change as might create a right even by Prescription but on the other side it hath be'n lost so many Ages that the Contrary Sens pleads Contrary Prescription It is now no less impossibl to reduce the people to Constancy than it was in the time of the Laodicean Council to reduce them to Sobriety and therefor the Officers of the Church now find it necessary to yield to the hardness of hearts callos by time VI. BUT here we must carefully distinguish between Yielding and Justifying Our Church speaketh not one syllabl to Dispens with the strictest Constancy but on the contrary still recommendeth it as often as she can without exposing her Own Injunctions to the Same Contemt from which she endeavoreth to rescu our Lords She doth indeed forbid the celebration if there be not a competent number to communicate bicause if the Holy Table must needs be deserted it is less dishonorable that it be so Without the Supper than With it She therefore leaveth it to the Ministers Discretion how often it shall be offered but she intrusteth their Piety to exhort the peopl to com as often as possibl She is Both ways careful that neither the Willing may want a Communion nor the Unwilling an Exhortation She therefor complieth with the peopl's Neglect no otherwise than did the equally valiant and indulgent Captain with his Armies cowardize he Commanded he Intreated he Exhorted he Reproved but when he could by no means prevail to stop their flight he put himself in their head that they might seem rather to Follow their Leader than Flee their Enemy But as this compliance of the Captain did not justify his Disobedient Troops so neither do the Churches Rubriks justify either Ministers or Peopl that are wanting to the Constancy so plainly Urged by the Apostl Practiced by the Best ages and Recommended by her Self The Sum of all is this Since the Church had no Authority nor no Intention to slacken the Power either of our Lords Command or the Apostls Argument we must therefor still own them to have the same Power now as ever and must accommodate them to our Present meetings as if they still were Festivals not only in Name or Spiritually as we acknowlege them still to be but in Reality and Sensually as at the time of his Writing they were and in the Recess the Obligation is no less indissolubl against the teeth of time and the constitutions of Governments than against any evasions of singl persons But All this the More it Obligeth the Less it Persuadeth It may perhaps Compel us to submit to the Duty but cannot Invite us to Embrace the Favor And our Lord doth not use to Drive us like Beasts we know not Why nor Whither But to Lead us with the cords of a Man with bonds of Love with strong Reason and sweet Allurements the savor of his sweet ointments which so draw loving souls as to make them not only Follow but Run after him And This duty above All others is That way most attractive The Command made Reasonabl by a good End and the End made Amiabl by Relation to our Lord 's own Person as we now com to see in the remaining words In remembrance of me PART IV. Concerning the End In Remembrance CHAP. I. It is the badge of a Christian I. This the only rite whereby we honor our Lords Person Three Considerations 1. Every Religion distinguished from Every other by som proper rite 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 ar 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. 'T is wors in a Christian upon several accounts 1. The Law-giver 2. The Rites VI. 3. The Obligation HITHERTO we have seen nothing but Dry Law the rough Issu of Authority and Will haling us to the unrecommended performance by chains of Compulsion without any gentler Attractives that may Invite our Affections or Persuade our Reason And as the Country hath be'n dry and barren so have the Ways be'n craggy Troublesom to the Best and Unpassable to the Most understandings The Reader must understand the Rules of Reasoning and must be ar no litle pains to mesure the Apostl's discurs by Those Rules We now com to a pleasanter Country and smoother ways From the Apostl's Argument to our Lords which is full of endearments to our Affections and free from difficulties to our Understandings thogh we never sate at the feet of Gamaliel or any other Tutor but Love For whoever loveth our Lord's person can no sooner hear that He is concerned but he findeth abundant
obligation and can easily supersede all others That we may take the clearer vieu of this new Suasory we shall distinctly consider 1. This is the Adequate Rite of Worship whereby we own our crucified Lord. 2. As it is the Monument so it is the Effigies of his Death and its Benefits 3. It is not so appropriate to our Lords Own interest as to forget Ours for even to us it is 1. Easy 2. Pleasant 3. Beneficial I. THIS is the Adequate Rite of Worship whereby we own our crucified Lord. The Critical Tessera The Badge The Livree whereby a Christian is distinguished from Jew Turk Heathen and Atheist All of All other Religions agree in All other offices of Devotion Prayer Thanksgiving Fasting Preaching are All of them Holy exercises but of Natural Religion common to All mankind Only by This ar we distinguished from them All as by our proper Livree given us by our Lord for This very End that we may be known to be His. 'T is true we differ from Jews c. in this that we pray in the Name of the Lord Jesus c. But we are not thereby distinguishable to any but such as Hear and Understand our words This Sacrament is the Universal Character whereby we are known and read of All men whatsoever even Strangers and Deaf thogh the one cannot hear nor the other understand our words by seeing this Action apprehend our Profession That we may the more fully understand the importance which this oght to cary to our care Three Considerations will be useful 1. Nature hath taght all mankind and God himself hath confirmed it That every Religion should have som solen Rite whereby it may be known to the very ey from all Other Religions 2. Those Critical Rites however slight in the Mater are yet to be highly esteemed bicause of That office 3. To this General Reason our Lord hath added Particular marks of his favor towards this Institution 1. Nature hath taught all mankind that Every Religion should be known from every Other by Proper Rites Nature and Reason dictated that Law to the Romans Sacerdotes quae quoque divo decorae grataeque sint hostiae providento They and all other Heathen multiplied Rites as they did Gods so that those who were skilful needed not any further information what was the God than the knowlege of what was the Sacrifice and what the solennities Jupiter's Rites wer different from Pluto's What was thoght acceptable to Venus was odios to Diana Nor would Paâ— be pleased with the Rites of Bacchus And for This Reason was it required as a necessary qualification in a Jewish Ruler who was to receve and judge of an accusation concerning Idolatry that he should be skilful in the Rites of Heathen worship lest he should sentence any one to death who had not worshiped the fals God in his Proper maner For saith Maimonides If any one worshiped Pehor in a manner proper to Mercury or Mercury in a manner proper to Pehor he was guiltâ—â—s But if any one say that as wer the Gods of the Heathen so wer their Rites mere Creatures of human folly and that This concept of the Jewish Doctors was never authorised by any Law of God we cannot but acknowledge that thus much of it God hath authorised That it is fit Every Religion should be known by its proper Rites For He was careful so to distinguish his Own Peopl and Worship Circumcision the Pass-over Sabbath c. are all marked with This Asterisk It shall be a sign between me and you And to This Reason are reduced by the now-named son of Maimon Most if not All the Negative Ceremonials as well as the Positive Many indifferent things wer therefor forbidden to Gods peopl bicause practised by the neighbor Idolaters For how could it beseem the Majesty of a Divine Law to forbid a Barber to round the head or mar the corners of a beard or the Plow-man to sow his land with divers seed or the Weaver to weave a garment of linnen and woolen or the Cook to seeth the Kid in the dams milk or the Gardener to graff upon a strange stock c. Doth God take care for Beards Garments c No doubtless but under those small maters great were hidden Those were Rites of Zabius superstition and God would have His peopl forbear their Ways as well as their Daughters that they might be know'n from Idolaters as well by Negative as Positive distinctions II. NOW whatever is Rational in the Old Law is to be Reteined in the New but Accommodated to the change This therefor hath its distinguishing Rites too yet no more than may consist with the generos liberty to which we ar thereby caled To which purpose St. Augustine speaketh very well upon another occasion Primum itaque tenere te volo quod est hujus disputationis caput Dominum nostrum Josum Christum sicut ipse in Evangelio loquitur leui jugo nos subdidisse sâ—rcina 〈◊〉 Unde Sacramentis numero paucissimus observatione facillimis significatione praestantissimis societatem novi populi colligavit All the multitude of intolerable Ceremonies ar reduced to two the smalest number possibl always practised as necessary in all honorable Fraternities For as in all such Orders the Knight is Once publikly Instaled and ever after weareth som Badge of his Order so hath our Lord ordained concerning the Members of his Church By one Sacrament they are admitted once for All by the Other they ever after Appear his Disciples Of the Former our Lords conference with Nicodemus well understood discovereth both the Meaning and the Necessity And well understood it cannot be without a praevios knowledge of the Practice and Doctrine of the Jews in Baptism But whoever knoweth that they receved Proselytes into Covenant by Baptism and believed that thereby the Heathen soul was taken away and a New one put in his place that in conformity to this Belief the man was said to be New-born a New ceature a New man c. and This so properly that he lost All Relation to his former kinred so as to be thereby free to marry his Mother Sister or Daughter He who considereth this and only He easily understandeth the Reasonableness of our Lords discourse For Nicodemus convinced that our Lord was a teacher com'n from God bicause none could do the wonders that He did except God were with him Yet ashamed to confess this openly bicause of his Fellow-rulers makes his address by Night but This our Lord in the stile familiar to the Doctors telleth him is not sufficient for he must openly take upon himself Baptism the badge of a Disciple Nicodemus not heeding the Rabinical sons of Regeneration wonders at the strange and impossibl necessity of entering again into the mothers womb and our Lord no less wonders at his wonder that being a master in Israel understood not a Precept so familiar and thence taketh occasion to tell him that his Disciples must believe much
Church exercising Punctual Obedience to such a sens We have found our Own Church laboring what she can to retrive the same From Obligations of Obedience we proceeded to the cords of a man Reason we find requireth that the Badge of our profession should be constantly worn and Kindness obligeth us to embrace an office so Endeared as we find This by all incentivs of Love In the whole journy we have not found the least Inconsistence or Impertinence of any One syllabl but every Word and every Order yea every Disorder of words combine to declare This the true Key to Our Lords and his Apostls meaning And I may Boldly Challenge any one of a differing judgment to match This so punctual Dissection with any other that may suit his own Hypothesis with equal exactness but whether they make the least pretence to it or no will clearly appear by the examination of what they pretend the Apostl to have said to the contrary PART V. Answers to the Vulgar opinion CHAP. I. Deference paid to the Former age and to the Sacrament I. Former ages excused for advanceing Reverence when there was no other danger but of Irreverence and stateing preparation in such manner as might best serv Piety Reason to believ that were they now living they would press the Performance as earnestly as they have do'n Preparation II. A Second Protest against robbing the Sacrament III. The Adversaries opinion set forth in his own words whereby almost all the World must be prohibited IV. A Warrant demanded A confession that a good Consequence is Warrant sufficient SINCE it will be very hard if not utterly impossibl to dispute against Doctrines without boldness toward their Authors or to plead against One extreme without seeming to abett the Other before I proceed to the ill-lookt work I think it necessary to enter a dubl Protestation against Irreverence either toward the worthy Persons whom I am to treat as Adversaries or the H. C. which I am to render less Dreadful 1. Concerning the Pios Learned Persons whom I am to oppose thogh Truth will not permit us to embrace their Errors Justice will require us to excuse them bicause they Yielded to the then present Necessity at a time when there was no appearance of danger on the other hand When a City is Inaccesibl on the One side and Assalted on the Other the defendants think themselvs concerned to leav That side which seemeth safe and run to This which needeth their help and thogh many an otherwise impregnabl place have This way be'n lost yet still have the inhabitants be'n rather pitied as unfortunate than blamed as unfaithful The Antient Fathers saw No danger of loseing Gonstancy in this duty but Much of loseing Reverence and ar therefor to be Justified bicause they applied their labors to what appeared most Necessary But the Later Fathers broght That into Question which their predecessors thoght above Any Constancy first was ballanced against Reverence and then made to Yield to it St. Augustin first put the question Whether it wer better to Communicate every day or omit som days that we might do it better upon som Others This question when it first appeared in the World was no bigger than a mans hand thogh now it have overspread the whole face of the sky It grew from days to weeks from weeks to month's and the Church of Rome claims thanks for having made it necessary Once in a Year This abuse was so gross that the Reformers could not but correct but they did it with such aw both toward the Later Fathers and toward the Sacrament it self that they seem to have be'n more careful to speak what they thoght Best than what they thoght Truest To preserv the Sacrament from being swallowed up by the incorrigibl luxury of Their times the Fathers by way of necessary defence asserted the Reverence due to it as the Body and Bloud of Christ and our Pios divines endevor to advance it to a Power suitabl to That Honor a Power of exalting the Spirit of Christ by help of such Examination as must in all reason be That way most serviceable Sure enough our Lord can not but be well pleased that This Representative of his Death should second it in That great and good design for which he suffered it Thogh therefor they saw nothing in Scripture nothing in Tradition yet seeing in Reason great hopes of advantage they thoght best to lay hold on an expression or two of the Apostl's which however otherwise intended might be made of excellent use This way He had spoken of the Danger of Unworthiness and the necessity of Self-examination for avoiding that danger These two well twisted together and well bound on may be of excellent use to draw men to repentance so much the more speedy by how much neerer the time appears of approaching the dread Table And how can this be better do'n than by persuading men that no man is fit to Communicate who is not fit to dye What injury to the Apostl if useful words be not Confined to his Particular intention in that One place but Extended to a greater serviceablness to the General design of All his Labors or what to the Sacrament if it be so Rescued from Danger as to be made Victorios not only over That Intemperance which it suffered at Corinth but all other Sins of what kind so ever Or what to our Lord if the Representative of his Death be made to promote the good ends for which he suffered it This could not seem more Rational than Safe The Commands of the Church made it Criminal Universal Practice made it Scandalous to fail of appearing at the holy Table at least three times in the year and in all appearance the condicions of Preparation might be strained to Any height with as great Safety as Rigor Our Gratios Lord justified Moses for compliance with the hardness of the peopl's hearts in a case which in the beginning was not so The Pios Fathers in former ages had cast Festing out of the Church thogh This Supper wer by our Lords Institution appendant to it and they had removed the Season from Evening to Morning thogh the very title of Supper contradicted And why should not such apparent Advantages on one side yoked with such Security from any Damage on the other make it reasonabl to press Preparation in such manner that those who wer not prevailed on with Other reasons might be awakened by the approach of the Sacrament to betake themselvs to That work which otherwise they would delay till the approach of death When therefor we read what was written twenty or more years since when the Church had not yet lost her Power nor the Peopl their Shame when neither Atheism nor Schism had taught it needless to Obey our Lords last command when that neglect was thoght Incredibl which we now find incurabl let us consider as well the Reasons as the Words of those pios Authors and we
his Design would have Required him to have raised his voice Higher He must have said he that Eateth this Bread and Drinketh this Cup eateth the body and drinketh the bloud of the Lord and not have com'n off with a Cold Indefinite Ellipsis which not expressing in What Measure maketh nothing plain but this that it is in a measure much Inferior and consequently his own argument much Weaker than if he had declared them guilty of contemt to the body and bloud of Christ immediatly by Using Them in such manner as they did This Bread and This Cup. Those indeed who still believ This Bread and This Cup not to be our Lord's Representatives but Himself may justly fear the Unworthiness not only of their Persons however carefully Prepared but of their Worship too however carefully Performed But we who believ them no other than what the Apostl stileth them even Then when he most Studiosly Recommendeth them to our Reverence when upon due Self-examination we find how unworthy We ar to Receve our Lords body and bloud may check our fears by considering how Vnworthy This Bread and This Cup ar to Represent them not doubting but the same goodness which bestowed such honor upon the unworthy elements will pardon and accept of Us if we receve them in a Manner suitable to their Office tho not in a Degree worthy of his own Person Let me not be mistaken I deny not the Reality of Christs presence in the Sacrament When I call This Bread and Cup Representatives I mean not that our Lords body and bloud ar thereby no otherwise Represented than the Kings Person is by his Picture which ar the proper goods of the Possessor and may be treated according to his pleasure or than a King is by a Stage-player which only Imitateth but Shareth not his power But as the King is by his Officer who so Representeth his Person as to Execute his Authority with whom he is tho not Personally yet Politikly present Ratifying whatever he doth in his Name and stead This kind of Real presence our Lord himself promised not to Affright but Incorage us When two or three said he ar gathered together in my name there am I in the mids of them He meant doubtless no less than a Real presence which must needs be most Eminent in Such assemblies as ar gathered together not only in his Name but upon his Invitation And to make such a Promis an argument to fright men away is a strange way of honoring the Author From this dissection of the very words we find them fall very short of the force ascribed to them They no way barr any man from Obedience for want of Worthiness Require not a Legal Worthiness in the Person coming Make not the Person of Christ the Object of the Worthiness required in the Performance And upon the whole make not the guilt of the Unworthy Performance equal to that of Disobedience since This Directly affronteth our Lords Person in his Command That only Indirectly in his Representative III. VVE have said that the Anatomist is not only to vieu the Intrinsic Texture of the part dissected but it 's Serviceablness to the Life to what therefor we have seen of the proper sens of the word we shall add it's aspect upon the Apostls design which will be a Further Evidence that he meant not so much as is generally believed bicause such supposal of Personal worthiness would have be'n 1. very dishonorabl to our Lord 2. very Deferent from that Mesure himself stateth it by and 3. very Unfaithful to the Corinthians he requireth it of 1. It wer a great DISHONOR to our Lord to suppose it possibl that any one can be Worthy yea or com within any Neerer distance than Infinite Unworthiness For Worthiness is Relative signifieth if not Full Equality yet som Proportion between the Merit and the Reward the Fest and the Guest And take which of the Correlates you please you find a Saint reproving the concept To those that fear their Own Unworthiness thus speaketh St. Chrisostom Thou sayest thou art not worthy to Do this neither art thou worthy to Pray c. We may go on neither art thou worthy to Hear So far art thou from being Worthy to take our Lords Body that thou art not Worthy to take His Name into thy mouth so far from Worthy to injoy his Bloud that thou art not so to injoy the light of the Sun the fruits of the Earth or any of those sensual delights which Beasts may Injoy but not Abuse as much as Thou On the other side to those who fear the Greatness of the Sacrament thus speaketh another Saint Thou abstainest from the Blessed Sacrament bicause it is a thing so sacred and formidabl that thou not thinkest thy self worthy of it well suppose That But I pray' who is worthy Is an angel worthy enogh No certainly if we consider the greatness of the Mystery Let us well consider these two Sayings and their Reasonablness and then judge of those so frequent phrases A Worthy Communicant A Worthy Guest c. whereby many unwary persons ar more Scared than with any thing derived from the word of God which never taught us either to think so Slightly of our Lords Bloud or so Highly of our Selvs as to believ it possibl by any endeavors to becom Worthy of it 2. The vulgar sens is very different from that Mesure the Apostl stateth the reproved Unworthiness by He expresly caleth it a not discerning the Lords body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 putting no difference between This which our Lord declared his Own Body and Common bread Our Learned Mede very well confirmeth the Jewish definition of Holiness that it signifieth Separation We Sanctify what we honor with Discrimination and on the contrary we Profane what we use as Common The heavenly vision confirmeth this warning St. Peter from an Error in opinion analogos to this Crime What God hath sanctified that call not thou Common To call Common and Unclean was all one in St. Peters sens and not to discern the Lords body from Common bread is all one as to Desecrate it in St. Pauls And this he so presseth upon the Corinthians as dubly to convince them What saith he Have ye not houses to eat and to drink in or despise ye the Church of God and shame them that have not Possibly he might urge this not as Another Crime but as an Evidence of their unexcusablness in the Former They might perhaps plead Ignorance in That but in This they could not For thogh possibly they might not understand that they were obliged to Discern This Bread as the Lords body yet must they needs know they oght to Discern the Church as his Hous If they knew it not to be Sacrilege to make the Lords Cup an instrument of drunkenness they could not but know it so to make his Hous a Tavern With what partiality do som for som others do not treat these two parts
of the Apostls reproof With what Colossik strides do they reach both sides of Superstition On one side they dread the Lords Supper for want of worthiness in Themselvs on the other side they fear to own any reverence toward Gods Hous for want of worthiness in It How do they rob Peter and cloath Paul make the Lords Hous Common that they may dubly Sanctify his Tabl And all the while the Apostl makes This the Corinthians crime that they discriminated not the Lords Body from Common Bread and This either another Instance or an Evidence of their Profaneness that they discriminated not his Church from their Own houses But I may not now insist upon Any other error than That of the Corinthians which the Apostl saith consisted in This That they So used our Lords Body and his Hous as if they had Both be'n Common He chargeth them not Here thogh elswhere he do with any Other crime but such as Directly and Immediately desecrate the One and the Other and that in This very exercise Taketh no notice of their Other habitual vices confineth his charge to This performance in This place Forbiddeth not to approach either the Lords Table or his Hous bicaus they ar intemperate at their Own Yea he So expresseth himself as if he would even Compound with them indulge them their Domestik debaucheries provided they would forbear them Here. Not that indeed he Justifyeth what he elswhere plainly enogh Condemneth but to aggravate This incomparably Greater wickedness whereof the Sacrilege so Exceedeth as even to Hide the Immorality The Glutton is guilty of the Flesh of his Beast and the Drunkard of the Bloud of the Grape but the Unworthy Communicant of the Body and Bloud of the Lord. To be drunk with Common Wine in a Common Hous is to abuse both Gods Benefits and ones Own Body but to Desecrate the Lords Hous into a Tavern and his Bloud into a Cup of Drunkenness to make That the Instrument and This the Scene of Leudness is a wickedness not only above Drunkenness but even above Sacrilege it self As it hath no Match so it hath no Name If therefor you will not divorce your beloved debaucheries if you will needs be eating and drinking intemperately yet know your Place do not heap Sacrilege upon Lust make not the Lords Hous yea his very Body and Bloud Servants to the leudness they would Check This is the Utmost reach of the Apostls reproof It comprehendeth indeed not only the Lords Table but his whole Hous Yet breaketh not open any Private one Judgeth no Other unworthiness but of This Performance Requireth a Difference not between one Communicant and another but between This and other Places and Suppers and Consequently Forbiddeth not Any Person to Do This which we have found All indifferently obliged to Do but forbiddeth Every one to Do It in such a Manner as shall make That Common which our Lord hath Sanctified IV. 3. THE Apostl must be mortally unfaithful to his Corinthians if upon so urgent an Occasion he did not warn them in Terms as Plain as the Crime if any must be Great I say upon so Urgent an Occasion for a most Urgent one it is Whether we look upon the 1. Lords Supper which he professedly endeavoreth to rescu from Profanation 2. the Argument whereby he laboreth to do it or 3. the Persons to whom he addresseth all 1. He professeth to rescu the Lords Tabl from Profanation and to That End to Close it with such a Rail as shall Fence it from abuse If therefor he leaves that rail so wide as to Admit Such persons as he oght to have kept out he must be dubly and inexcusably unfaithful both to the Lords tabl which he shall so have exposed to dishonor and to All those souls which finding no contrary warning may com to it with as great Sincerity as Danger If I find this the Purlieus of the Corinthians guilt that they Distinguished not the Lords Body then may I be secure of One of those Two Either he who distinguisheth the Lords Body is free from This how full soever he may be of Other Crimes Or the Apostl must be More guilty than the most Unworthy Communicant since professing to shew the True Extent of the Danger he warned them not to distinguish between Persons Worthy and Unworthy but between This and Common Bread Were his words Ambiguos yet must they here cary a sens usual in a case so Important he oght to have Explained how much they must Now signify above what at All other Times and by All Persons is ascribed to them and which can Intend No more but This That every one is obliged So to Distinguish between the Lords Supper and his Own as to shun Those indecencies which ar ordinary in Private Houses 2. He must be no less unfaithful to his Own Argument bicaus contrary to all Reason he must have neglected to strengthen it with the most Considerabl and Obvios Corroboration For if the exclusion of Unworthy Persons wer as agreeabl to our Lords Institution as the Consequence would have be'n serviceabl to his Own Purpose he Might and therefor Oght to have urged it and so put the holy Sacrament at the Greatest and Safest distance from profanation For if none must com to This Table who abuse their Own it will be out of danger of any Other abuse than Desertion If none drink This Cup who is ever drunk with Common Wine it will be secure from Promoting the Drunkenness which it cannot Tolerate If none Partake This Bread who break not Their Own to the hungry there will be no more danger that any one shall be hungry than that any other shall be drunken And since the Apostl was now obliged to speak whatever Truth would permit we ar reduced to This choice whether He wer fals to the Lords Supper his Own Argument and his Disciples souls or whether it be Not Forbidden to every Unworthy Person but enjoined to every one thogh as unworthy as wer the Corinthians to Do this 3. The Persons to whom this reproof is addressed wer such as may induce us to believ that Gods Providence concurred with the Apostl's Words to prevent any possibility of believing what we now dispute against For they wer the Corinthians a peopl of all other the most Obnoxios Proverbially Infamos for debaucheries This City vyed with Sodom as for fulness of bread so for excess of Leudness and dismalness of Destruction Yea so strangely inseparabl was Luxury from every thing of Corinth so much more incurabl than that strange Leprosy of Jewish houses that the very Burning of the City did not Purge but Propagate it The confusion of Metals melted by the raging flames from her multitude of rich Statues made That famos mixture which by the luxurios Romans was preferred above Gold it self as a more precios mater for their drinking cups and to be Supremely Luxurios something of Corinth must contribute Yet was not Leudness conveyed
it but transferreth it to other hands whereas the Covetos robbeth not Himself only but the whole Peopl of his Money and the Money it self of it's Use We therefor grant it There danger that Plenty may abate the price but so doth Fulness bring Cheapness upon the very bread of life yet do we not thence infer that it must be witheld 'till a Famin raise the Market The Dutch in time of greatest glut do not burn All their Spices but save sufficient to keep up the Trade Still I say Former ages saw not the Danger we ly under of losing the Whole Had they seen it we have no reason to doubt they would have be'n as Zelos against Desertion as they have be'n against Irreverence And since we have a Tutor which they had not Experience let us thence learn how dangeros it is to trust our own Wisdom in departing from out Rule III. EVERY step whereby our Predecessors departed from Constancy was an approach toward this Danger And those who first adventured to pass from unworthiness in the Reception to unworthiness in the Recever so as to prohibit scandalos Persons as well as scandalos Behavior opened a Sluce to mischief they thoght not Credibl Yet while the Prohibition was a point of Discipline not of Doctrine while it lay onely upon Individuals not Qualities nor Individuals neither 'till censured by the Bishop so that no man was allowed to do what he pleased but every one Required to com unless he wer cut off from the body of the Church and thereby driven as well from the Lords Hous as his Tabl not to be restored but after long penances and bitter tears and humbl prostrations and earnest prayers all openly and constantly repered at the Church porch for several years there appeared no danger that any one would voluntarily absent himself thinking it indifferent to com or forbear Yea This very Discipline may well be urged as an evidence to the contrary For the Sentence of the Bishop did not Direct what the censured person voluntarily Do but Inflict what he must Suffer And as no Judge Commands any Offender to Execute himself so did none of the Fathers of those times ever require any however scandalos to excommunicate himself which would have be'n look't upon as a dubl Crime viz. Disobedience to our Lords Institution and Invasion of the Bishops Office to whom the power of Excommunication belonged It was not therefor the Doctrine of Those times to teach it Indifferent to any one to Com or Forbear at pleasure but it was their Discipline to deny our Lords Livree to such as by his Stewards wer judged worthy to be Driven out of his house untill by the same Stewards they should be judged worthy to be Restored both to a Capacity and Obligation of communicating in All Offices of his worship But it is too frequent that Wickedness overcometh Law and in process of time and impiety it so Overcame as to take it's full Revenge upon This Discipline Excommunicate it and with it all the power of Those severe words of the Fathers of those times which are to be mesured by it as belonging to none but Penitents i. e. to persons censured and therefor obliged to suffer separation from That Altar to which they had for the time lost their right by a juridical Sentence The sum is this The Discipline of Those times and the Fathers who enforced That Discipline intended not to banish the Communion it self from the Church nor to Impower Any one to separat Himself from her Communion but only to deterr sentenced Persons from intruding upon it and how great a gulf there is between these is sufficiently visibl Yet great as it is we find it jumped over the Rise taken from That Discipline of the Antient Fathers and the well meant desires of the Later who loth to lose so useful a Curb yet unabl to restore the Discipline to it 's long lost power Interpreted the severe sayings of their Predecessors not by the Authors minds but their Own requireing every one to be a Bishop to himself to Excommunicate himself if upon impartial Examination he should find himself Worthy of such a sentence and This unhappily encoraged men to believ that it was in their own power to Judge whether it wer fit to Com or Forbear IV. THIS I say gave the Rise but if we had staid here no harm had be'n done since none but grosly scandalos would appear excommunicabl For such sins stand in a mans Way stare in his Face roar in his Ears are Notorios to the Whole Church and therefor need none of those Schemes whereby we ar directed in our Self-examination to Search for Lurking sins which ar not to be Discovered but by the strictest enquiry And here I cannot but applaud the Wisdom and Moderation of our Church who doth not as som of her neighbors Excommunicate but Warn not such Qualities as the Greater and Less Scandalous and therefor not-upon-such-accounts excommunicabl part of the peopl must upon strict examination find themselvs in som degree guilty of but such Great and Grievos crimes as the guilty persons yea all their neighborhood cannot avoid knowing And such I say she doth not downright Excommunicate but Warn the Difference between which two Censures may be understood by that between her Present and Former Stile Before the Late and Litl alterations in our Common-prayer Book she spake Copulatively Bewail your sins AND com not but now Disjunctively Repent of your sins OR ELS com not By which change that she intends not to leav it to our option as Indifferent whether we will repent and Com or remain impenitent and Forbear we have seen her to have sufficiently declared by another exhortation wherein she clearly censures such a Forbearance to be it self a very Great and Grievos crime Had her best sons followed her Exampl possibly the holy office might have be'n a Gainer certainly it had be'n Safe as from Profanation on One side so from Desertion on the Other and so had every good Christian be'n both from Disobedience and Unworthiness Som in St. Jude's time and account wer spots in the Churches fests of charity thogh indeed they wer None of her Members for they denied our only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ yet is not the Church her self blamed for not wipeing them out Again there is great difference between Having a Spot and Being One and Yet again there is great difference between Spots for the word of God himself telling us by way of discrimination that Som mens spots ar not the spots of his children Deut. 32.5 Plainly enogh intimateth that Others ar so And certainly those Spots which hinder not a person from being a child must not Disherit him from a Childs Portion or a Childs Duty Yet still those pios persons meant well and saw no danger in their procedure at least none to the holy Sacrament The Dictates of the Church wer Then Reverenced and her Injunctions Obeyed yea the
than to Maim a man this sure would not bring me under any suspicion of justifying that Great yet comparatively Less injustice Why then should I be looked on as a patron of Unworthiness bicaus I say it is Less criminal than Disobedience or of Irreverence toward the Sacrament thogh I say we ar no more to be frighted from It than from any Other worship Those who press Prayer as an indispensibl Duty to be performed more than once every day ar secure enogh from any such charge and whence comes it than there should be greater Antipathy toward reverence in the One than in the Other Or why must This be more unable to overcom and more obliged to yield to the corruptions of the votary than That If we have such veneration to the Sacrament for its Own sake let us consider what shall it profit if it gain all possibl Reverence and lose its own Being If for our Lords sake let us remember that if we Forbear it upon a Reason which He thoght not Sufficient to hinder him from Commanding it we honor his Representative above his Person even by Neglecting it and exalt our selfs at once against his Authority by limiting his Law and Wisdom by pretending we know better thin Himself what is fit to be do'n for his service But here again we will continue our wonted Prodigality And supposing that the Being of the Sacrament is secured will further consider that its Power is weakened and consequently its Honor in promoting all the good ends it is fit and designed to serv which for brevity I shall reduce to three 1. The conversion of Sinners 2. The Comfort of the Godly 3. The Edification of the Church in Love CHAP. VI. The Sacrament made useless toward Conversion I. That it is made unserviceabl toward conversion of a sinner Three propositions 1. To deny it a converting vertu is dishonorable to the Sacrament and more so to our Lord. II. No danger to the Worthy but the whole question is about the Unworthy and concerning them there is more hope than fear five reasons why the hope should be embraced III. 2. The Sacrament hath a converting vertu Proved 1. by the joint authority of the Apostls and by consideration of this Apostl's argument St. Augustin used the same argument with the same unhappiness IV. No fear that such stating the Argument should drive men as far from the Church as the Altar V. 2. By Reason 1. The Death of Christ serviceabl to convert That he suffered more for This end than any other proved by Scripture and Reason VI. 2. This Sacrament setteth forth Christ's death more powerfully than Preaching We may not imagin that he will deny it his blessing VII 3. The converting power promoted by frequent repetitions A supposition that One solemn address may be worth Twenty examined An hypotyposis of such a performance 1. Fregment offers hit one time or other 2. Repetition addeth new force to the former decaying act 3. Teacheth to act better So it will help not prejudice the performance in respect of the manner FIRST it is plainly made Useless toward the Conversion of unconverted sinners bicaus All Such ar Forbidden the use of it Yea Not only those who have no good Inclinations but those who have good Beginnings yea those who have made good Progress if yet they com short of Any qualification necessary to Complete saving repentance ar therefore excluded from all Benefit bicaus they ar so from all Use of it by this sentence Bicaus whatever dispositions or alterations he may begin to have in order to pardon and holiness he as yet hath neither but is Gods enemy and therefor cannot receve his holy son To Such therefor the Sacrament can have No other power but to Fright them away or at best if it offer any Invitation it is such as Nurses use to Fallen Children Com to me and I will help thee up This is not to Help but to Mock and must suppose those to be very children indeed that can be incoraged by Such Exhortations to Endeavor to raise themselvs or Thank their exhorter For if Repentance must precede the Sacrament then may it be the Caus but not the Effect and may Dispute against it Thou bearest not the Root but the Root Thee Other good fruits it may produce Many and Great but not This of conversion which it must not influence as a Root but attend as a Fruit. How injurios this is I shall indevor to shew by three Positions 1. It is dishonorabl to the Sacrament to deny it a converting vertu and more so to our Lord to deny the exercise of such a vertu if it have it 2. It hath a converting vertu 3. That vertu is better exercised by Frequent than Rare exercise FIRST That it is dishonorabl to the Sacrament to deny it a Couverting vertu I might think the plainest proposition in the world since it is thereby robbed of the better half of it's power for to have both a Converting and Confirming power is more than dubl to the Later without the Former which is farr more Gracios But This is yet plainer that it is farr less Sacrilegios to Rob the Sacrament of such vertu than to Blaspheme our Lord with an imagination that he should deny Them the benefit of the Representative for Whom he shed his Bloud it self when by This the Salvation may be Promoted which he purchased by That What a wretched Baffle wer this to the Apostls argument whereby he pleadeth He that denied us not his only Son how shall he not with Him freel giv us all things How doth it represent the infinite lover of mankind as an envios malicios enemy both to Them and his own Bloud by taking from Them the benefit and from This the vertu which was to Them most Necessary and to This most Honorable This way of Honoring our Lord is but the revers of That whereby his enemies Reproched him They blamed Him for Eating and Drinking with sinners and This doctrine forbids sinners to Eat and Drink with Him And Both ar fitted with his Own best answer The whole need not the Physician but the sick It is the Honor bicaus the Profession of a Physician to giv his company Not to those who most Deserv but to those who most Need it Those who ar already in the state of Salvation need not his Abilities as a Physician to save their lives thogh they do his Bounty as a Fester to cherish and glad their hearts The Godly injoy Many and Great but Other benefits such as rather conduce to the advancement of their Happiness than their Safety which is above such need They ar the Sick they ar such as ly in a state of Misery and Danger who 's need cry loudest for his Saving power And to help such he Came into the world traveled about it went out of it and left this monument to continu in it till he com again II. AND concerning Such is our whole question
it was upon This Occasian and to This End urged seemeth most plain from the very Text For their Coming together is twice complained of before the Lord's Supper is mentioned and in the third place This is imployed only as an Evidence of the Other Whereas by the Laws of Reason and Custom if This had had the chief place in the Apostls intention it must have had the same in his Discurs and not be'n put to wait behind to com forth only as a valet to perform service to it's principal This is worthy more observation than the world is aware of For as the thing it self is to a considering person very plain so ar the consequences very great and That upon an account already cast up For if the Apostl make use of the Lord's Supper as an aggravation of profaneness in Gods hous and That for This reason bicaus all the unworthiness which we bring thither is imputed to us as broght to his table then must it be the most potent argument that possibly can be draw'n ether from Religion or Reason to make us careful of our behavior in Gods hous and consequently every where els In Gods hous upon the Apostl's reason bicaus of the interest of our Lords table which possesseth the chiefest place there and consequently Every where els bicaus of the preparations which we must cary thither and the good impressions which we must receve there so much the deeper by how much better our self-examination hath prepared us AND This very argument do we find used by St. Augustin to the same Purpose and with the same Unhappiness in his 252 Sermon de tempore upon the Anniversary of the Dedication of the Church or Altar Beginning with the words of the Apostl The templ of God is holy which templ ye ar for a proof how necessary it is that we keep this Templ shut to the Devil and open to Christ he persuadeth every one to examin his conscience and layeth doâ—n This for an undoubted truth Qui enim agnoscens reatum suum ipse se humiliter ab Ecclesiae altari pro emendatione vitae removere voluerit ab aeterno illo coelesti convivio excommunicari penitus non timebit Rogo vos fratres diligenter attendite si ad mensam cujuscunque potentis hominis nemo praesumit cum vestibus conscissis c. and so goeth on throghout the whole Sermon arguing against unworthy coming to the Lords Supper in such a stile that I verily believ our divines take thence their confidence to write as they have do'n I answer not for his Doctrine but I do for his Argument as being the same with the Apostl's as above urged Nor could he have argued better for care of coming worthily to God's Hous than by urging the hainosness of coming unworthily to his Table seeing it was as true in His time as in the Apostl's that whoever came to the One came also to the Other But if we mesur his Argument by our own Customs then will it be as weak as the Supposition will be fals For the Conclusion will exceed the Premises and fall short of the Fathers Design since it will not fright any from unworthiness in the Templ but such as intend to com also to the Altar i. e. few or none Yet will not this Insufficiency be the worst of its falts it will be so far from prevailing with a profane man to quit his lusts that it tends to harden him in them For when such a man shall hear so much spoken against unworthy Communicating and so littl or nothing against unworthy Praying how plausibly may his willing mind infer that there is as littl need for Him to fear the later as for his teacher to warn him from it I therefor offer it to most serios consideration whether the almost general loosness of this age be not much incoraged by the agreement tripartite which we seem implicitely to have made between Prayer This Sacrament and the World whereby it is agreed that Prayer shall enjoy Frequency without Reverence This Sacrament Reverence without Performance The World it's Lusts without Disturbance from either of them Whereas were Worthiness pressed in the now mentioned figure with half the vigor that it is in the Vulgar Were half of that which our Divines speak of preparation for the Sacrament in the abstract applied to it in conjunction with Common-Prayer Did we believ our selvs to ly under the same Necessity and Conditions of worthiness for Gods hous as we do for his Supper then can we not doubt it necessary so to live that we may be capabl to com worthily to Common-Prayer even for it's companion 's sake IV. NOR is there any reasonable fear lest this should have the same malignant aspect upon the Whole as we complain of in behalf of the Common-service lest in-stead of bringing men to the Church with greater reverence it should drive them quite away from it This danger is sufficiently prevented by the Apostl's Indicative way of arguing which telleth us that Christ imputeth guilt to us not according to Our Performance but his Own Institution and This imputation will reach us at Any distance not only from his Table but his Hous too For if it be no less our duty to com to God's hous as often as the congregation is held There than it is to com to his Table as often as we com to his Hous and if God by his scientia media seeth and punisheth the unworthiness which we would have broght to his Table if we had com'n to it Then to what distance soever we cary it we ar by God reputed to have broght it both to his Hous and his Table as often as his Church meeteth at the One and oght to do at the Other bicaus we oght to have met it at Both. What the Apostl saith in another case of himself we may apply to our selvs in This I verily as absent in the body but present in the spirit have already judged as present and again When you ar gathered together and My spirit If the Acts of the Church might be authorised by the reputed suffrage of the Absent Apostl then may the Lords Supper be profaned by the reputed communication of the Unworthy Absent since every member no less concurreth with the Church in Worship than the Apostl did in Discipline And this is plainly enogh implyed in that practice of the then Church which we heard testified by Justin Martyr For sending to the Absent their parts of Communicated bread and wine they thereby owned them to have the same interest as if they had be'n present This rock therefor followeth us as it did the Israelites in the Wilderness to what distance soever we eloin our selvs He followeth us with imputation of Receving even when we Refuse him to condemn us if we receve him with unwashed hands and to condemn us dubl if we therefor refuse him bicaus we will not be at the troubl
This Sacrament When the Word hath prepared the Heart by the Ear when the Understanding is Informed and the Affections somewhat Moved with the recital of What our Lord suffered And Why Then doth the Sacrament complete the service by shewing to our very Eyes the Wounds not of his Garments but his Flesh and Those not as long since made but as now in making Represents his Sacred bloud not as dried up by time but as Now even Now streaming from his Heart It so Commemorates his passion as to Repete it and in the most inflaming manner presents to our Souls all those incentives against sin which our Lords death our Lords Present death can furnish He that considers how the little sens of Religion yet left in the world is derived from the Frequency of Preaching will find too great reason to bewail the invaluabl loss it suffers by want of so helpful an Attendant For if That maimed as it is do in Som however Littl mesure prevail by it's Singl and Deserted strength how much more might we hope from their united Forces if Jonathan secunded his Armor bearer To say that we might Then sing of them as the daghters of Israel did of their victorios Princes Preaching hath saved it's Thousands and the Sacrament it 's Ten thousands would be but a cold Eulogy We have no reason to doubt that as there is more than Ten to One difference in their Powers so would there be in their Successes Unless we will needs doubt of our Lords ordinary blessing upon his so beloved ordinance which we have far more reason to believe he would assist with the Spirit not only of a David but a Samson as being a Nazarite appropriat to himself Therfor THIRDLY I shall say but this litle to such a scruple That as it would look almost like a Miracle if an Honest Constant Communicant should miss a blessing so we may be sure that if there needed a Miraculos Power to bless such an one it would not be wanting For it is incredibl that he who promised that when ever two or three ar gathered together in his name there he will be in the mids of them should not be most Especially and most Graciosly present with those who meet not in his Name only but at his Table upon his Own kind invitation to fest not With him only but Upon him Of this I say no more bicaus Those whom I dispute with ar so far from denying our Lords especial Presence that they make it the Reason for Their Absence who most need it but how much they thereby honor our Lord and his Supper let what I have above said declare for I hasten to my third position VII 3. MY THIRD Position is that the Converting Power of the Sacrament is better Exercised and it's Honor more Advanced by Frequent than by Seldom Celebrations The question is concerning the Greater or Less probability of the Conversion of a Sinner whom we must suppose arrived to neither of the Opposit perfections neither Worthy on the One side nor Atheistical on the Other but in a Midl state sensibl of his duty both to our Lord and his Church Willing or rather Submitting to do what he shall be convinced to be required of him but Wavering between his Obedience to our Lords Command which seemeth to require Frequency at least and the Apostls indulgence backed with appearance of Reason which recommendeth Aw and Distance as necessary to preserv that Reverence which it is supposed will best advance both the Honor of the Sacrament and Benefit of the Recever For such an one may plead that if I ow any person Twenty shillings and pay him One Guinny I do better than if I paid him Twenty silver shillings So if One Solen Address be more worth then Twenty of the Constant it will be better to com One time for Twenty With such Solennity then Twenty times for One Without it And consequently our Lord will accept of That as more perfect obedience than This. At present we dispute not that in This Institution the Number of pieces is the very Essence of the Obligation but admit the supposed liberty of paying One Golden performance in lieu of Many Less valuabl and upon This Supposition require that the Pretence may be made good viz. That the One for Twenty may be Such as shall recompence by the greater Valu the defect in Number This One Solen address must have not only a plainer Stamp as every new Coin may have but purer Metal not only more Outward Solennity but more Inward Devotion For if a man bow the knee never so Solenly and give the title of King never so Formally yet if in So doing he put no better then a Dry Hollow Light Reeden Scepter into our Lords hand he acteth more like a persecuting Jew than a Loyal Disciple And in the present inquiry Those who ar to make the Address ar supposed to ly in a state of Enmity and Need of Conversion for concerning the Godly there is no doubt but the oftener the better What ever Outward deference such enemies bring if it have nothing of the power of Godliness it doth not honor our Lord with his Own Sceptre For the Sceptre of his Kingdom is a right Sceptre a love of Righteosness and hatred of iniquity What ever wanteth This wanteth That Divine life without which the most Solen worship is no better than a gay Pageant who 's Forced motions pass for Solen merely bicaus Unwieldy the Absence of inward life giving the Ly to them all That we may the better Compare them it will be requisite we bring to vieu both the Rivals And first let us bring forth that Shew wherewith our Lord is to be better Served and Pleased than with literal Obedience WHEN the Unwelcom season is now at hand which Indispensibly exacteth the painful task the Unwilling votary if he can deserv That name finding No way to escape it forceth himself to look Sadly upon his still Beloved sins Confineth himself for som tedios days to the Lothed conversation of that Troublsom stranger his Conscience wherewith he Communeth in such Awkward manner as plainly betrayeth his Unacquaintedness with it's language not to be supplied by the vainly courted assistance of those good Books which at such times only he taketh the Penance to read and after the appointed days languished away in this heartless Exercise which he calleth Preparation he receveth I say not the Lords Supper but the holy Symbols with great Solennity we grant but with as little Benefit or Relish as Appetite and goeth home with This only comfort that the Tedios work is do'n and the Stately Lifeless machin may be laid aside till the Revolution of another Solennity call it forth to stalk abroad again with the same Troubl to the same Little purpose Let our adversaries now deal freely can they suppose such Pageantry acceptabl to God can such Counters as have somthing of the due Image and Superscription but
Distance CHAP. VII Wors than Useless toward comforting the Godly I. The second end Comfort of the Godly This Sacrament founded upon Festing the tessera of Love II. The conscientious griped between a fear of Unworthiness on the one side and of Disobedience on the other III. Hopes mingled with Fears a snare to the Godly which the Vngodly escape IV. The Lords table more dishonored by such preparation than by None THE Secund great and good End to which the Holy Sacrament is to be serviceabl is the Joy and Comfort of the Godly and to This the modern way of honoring hath made it not only Useless but Pernicios That we may have the fuller vieu of the Former member of this position it may be fit to look a litl upon the Almost forgotten Significancy of Festing wherein this Sacrament is founded COMMUNION at Table hath ever be'n lookt upon as an Obligation of mutual kindness among the whole company but more especially between Host and Guest Such an Obligation as created a right Equal and somtimes Superior to that of Bloud it self Nether Consanguinity nor Affinity wer sufficient to Hinder or Heal a breach between Laban and Jacob thogh Unkle and Nephew by Bloud Father and Son by Mariage But when That Quarel ended in a Govenant of kindness a Fest sealed it as more obliging than Both Those Relations Yea even Paternal affection when it would exalt it self to the Highest possibl rapture caled in the assistance of This endearment Take me som venison said Isaac to his Firstborn and make me savory meat such I love that I may eat that my soul may bless thee The venison was not only to strengthen his body but heigthen his mind the Fest made a new relation Host and Guest signified somthing of addition to Father and Son and improved his title to Blessing From this Jus Hospitii was derived the Rite of Sacrifice When God accepted the Sacrifice he signified his Love to the Votary first by som Other tokens as appears by the story of Cain and Abel and then by Entertening him at his Table For God was the Hous-keeper the Altar his Table the Sacrifice his Meat and the Votary his Guest Fested with That Flesh whose propriety he had now Transferred to his God and again Receved from him in token of Communion Nothing can be plainer than this from 1 Cor. 10. The same Persons by the Same Ceremonies in the 20 vers Offer Sacrifice to Devils and in 21. drink the cup of Devils ar partakers of the table of Devils and have fellowship with Devils and all this as their Guests treated by their Gods with the Sacrifices themselvs had offered to them Upon This account have we found Plutarch in the best of his treatises prove the mirth of the Religios transcend that of the Epicurean and St. John preferr that of a Christian above that of a Heathen What behavior becoms a Guest at This table of the Lord if we understand not by what we have already said let us learn by exampl The Apostls and their fellow commoners eat it with chearfulness the next and all succeeding ages stile it the Eucharist Our Own Church saith it was ordained for a thankful remembrance of the death of Christ and of the benefits which we receve thereby How joyful an exercise Thankfulness is he that understands not may learn of David My mouth saith he shall be filled with marrow and fatness when my heart praiseth thee with joyful lips It is generally believed that the Pleasure of Drinking is greater than that of Eating and to this St. Paul inviteth us saying Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess but be ye filled with the Spirit singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord giving thanks c. Meat Wine Musik nothing now can be wanting but Company and that St. John promiseth Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ and these things write we unto you that your joy may be full The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth Communion and This alone of All religios exercises have we found capable of That Name and This above them All is best furnished for it Meat indeed and Drink indeed and Fellowship indeed and the most intimate Union Whether we look to the Significance of Festing in General or the Design of This in Particular Whether we regard the Exampl or Exhortations of the Apostls the Authority of the Church Vniversal or our Own in Particular which way soever we look we must expect a Desert suitabl to the other provisions The fruits of the Spirit must attend the Supper of the Lord and what Those ar the Apostl tells us The fruits of the spirit ar Love Joy Peace If therefor in stead of These we ar treated with Wildings such as in stead of setting our hearts on praising God shall set our teeth on edge whatever thanks we owe to the Lord of the Table there can be litl due to the Ministers either from Lord or Guests II. LET us then tast the Provisions wherewith our modern divines treat us and see whether they can say with St. John These things we write unto you that your Joy may be full If they can we must borrow a gloss of St. Paul who exhorteth to Rejoice in as much as ye ar partakers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Communicants with Christs sufferings For they so set forth his sufferings as to repete them upon his Guests They gave me gall to eat and when I was thirsty they gave me vinegre to drink said David The Letter was verified in our Lords Personal sufferings and the Metaphor in those of his dearest friends and at his Own table We may go farther and say that as they ar partakers of Christ's sufferings so ar they of his enemies curses too For this their table is made a snare to take themselvs withall and that which should have be'n for their wealth is to them an occasion of falling which will be the more applicable to our unhappy Communicants if our excellent Dr. Hammond mistake not who interprets the Table in that place to signify the Sacrificial and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the votaries portion For how is This Beatifik Wine mingled with Vinegre This Bread with Gall How is This Joyful Table made a Snare to Catch Intangle and Gripe the most worthy guests And how doth the tenderness of conscience give deeper reception to the Snare and acuter sens to the Torment How few ar they that upon the required Examination find in themselvs a full Assurance that if they Dy at the Table they shall be Saved And how must All others however worthy be tormented between hunger and thirst after the Flesh and Bloud of Christ on the One side and fear to be poisoned by them on the Other On the One side by fear of Eating and Drinking damnation if they com in That state of doubted unworthiness and on the Other of deserving it if they omit
above the Laity in their own The Former by exalting this their proper tradition above the joint practice of all other Churches and the Later by putting the People at distance from the Altar and consequently from the Priest who must needs appear more worthy of reverence by the privilege he had to Partake the Sacrament while the People must only Adore it II. I QUESTION whether All their Doctrines put together I am sure not any One singl hath so much of Popery both Form and Matter as our modern way of robbing the Lords Supper of due constancy 1. This is the Soul and Life of Popery To Equal Tradition with Scripture and engross to themselvs the power of declaring what is Tradition This is the Pope's tripl Crown by this he dominereth over the Conscience and Understanding of the whole Christian world And This Particular Tradition is the first-born of That invention and the most valiant of the whole race None like it in Boldness for it first durst openly affront the whole world none like it in Atchievments for it hath triumphed not only over the Church Universal but over the Apostl himself 1. With the Church Universal she hath hereby dealt as her Nero did with her Predecessor-city Among all his pranks none like That of firing the City and then enenlarging his House upon the ruines If a City be to the whole World as a singl House is to a whole City then to make a Private Tradition devour the Universal Tradition of the whole World was another kind of Neronian fire and the title of Roman Catholik an exact tally of Roma domus fiet c. 2. With the Apostl she hath dealt if possibl more rudely turned his own artillery upon himself baffled him with his own weapon For He that he might convince the Corinthians that our Lord required constancy pleadeth a private Tradition I have saith he receved of the Lord what I delivered to you The Church of Rome employeth the very same evidence Trueth only excepted in direct opposition to This very Tradition of the Apostl receved and practised by all the Churches of Christ for having no other pretence to rob the Lords Supper of This constancy I have saith she receved it by tradition that it is not to be celebrated every Sunday The Corinthians could not oppose any thing to the Apostl's testimony concerning His tradition without giving him the ly nor was there any other way for Other Churches to avoid This of the Church of Rome And who durst be so rude to the capital Church of the Empire If All the Christian World have so venerated that Imperial Church as to sacrifice to her authority their own eyes who but a race of impudent Heretiks will question her veracity after so many ages of possession And if in such a Question as This the whole Catholik Church yielded to her authority with what fore-head can any other Church much more any private Person oppose her in any Other For if after such a concession This same Church shall pretend a Tradition that it is the duty of every other Church to yield themselvs up to her conduct by implicit Faith and blind Obedience what is this more than is already granted He that hath given up his eyes so as not to discover the brightest evidence must contradict himself if he believ them in any less manifest For it is to deny his own concession viz. that the Church of Rome is to be believed against all contrary evidences whenever she shall declare tradition This therefor as it was the First and Greatest essay so it is the most Prosperos that that the Church of Rome ever made or can make of an unlimited power over the Word of God and the Understandings of Mankind 2. This is the most Material Articl the Greatest limb of Popery Both sides agree to make this Sacrament the adaequate Test whereby to distinguish a Romanist from such as they call Heretik and This was the first step whereby it mounted to the controverted adoration When once it was obteined that Other offices of publik worship might be celebrated without This it was not hard to gain one step more for if it be as Well in point of Duty it must seem Better in point of Prudence to make it Venerable by Distance than Cheap by Familiarity And if it be Best to make it Venerable then will it be best to speak the Most that can help to make it so and when once it came to This that he speaketh Best who speaketh Most what wonder if Alexander claim adoration But to Adore the Sacrament and Trample upon the Institution To pretend that This is but a Positive Law and therefor subject to the Churches power and then with an express non obstante not only to Universal tradition but to our Lords Command to forbid the One half to the Peopl exalting their own Authority in the One and their Wisdom in the Other against His This was a jump which even the Church of Rome it self durst not make but after long exercise of omnipotence And as she herein exceeded all her Former Ages so doth she in This All her Other Doctrines In Other Doctrines they cheat men of their mony by scaring them with Purgatory soothing them with Indulgences wheadling them with Merits cullying them with Absolution upon the Priest's own terms fooling them with Foppish ceremonies c. But by This they pull out their very Eys forbidding them to believe any of their Senses If countermanding that singular Law which is appropriate to our Lords own Person if tearing away that badge which himself made the cognisance of his Church if to affront him in Both his Natures his Divine by derogating from his Authority and his Humane by defacing his Image can deserv the title then must This above All Doctrines be most worthy to be stiled Antichristian In brief and plain Ether the Church of Rome is to be followed in opposition to the Church Universal or the Church Universal in opposition to the Church of Rome If the Church of Rome be to be followed why do we deny implicite Faith to any her Other traditions If the Church Universal be to be followed why do we forsake her in This point of Constancy which she paid the Sacrament 'till the Church of Rome out-faced her III. VVE have seen by who 's Prescription this Phlebotomy hath be'n exercised let us now enquire with what Success And this will occasion another Question viz. Whether of the two we have more reason to be ashamed of The Practice is two-fold and ether part is answered by its proper success On the One side the Sacrament is rob'd of Constancy and That is followed by loss of tolerable Frequency On the Other side That Loss is recompensed by Veneration and This is followed by as great Mischiefs as the Author designed Benefits 1. By loss of CONSTANCY we have lost tolerabl Frequency The Obligation ones untyed and Latitude allowed without any other limit
living would no less industriosly press it had they no better reason than this that the bildings go with the land bicaus those who think it needless to receve the Sacrament cannot think it necessary to examin themselvs by way of preparation for it Let us then learn by experience we have seen the trial of Both ways Primitive Christians practised Constancy with as great Success as Obedience The Church of Rome first seduced the world from it and thereby advanced Themselvs more than the Sacrament Our Schismatiks out-shot the Church of Rome not only Abated but Destroyed the Office root and branch What need we less intelligibl comments upon our Lord's or Apostl's words our very senses inform us what is to be do'n And however former ages may be excused by the goodness of their intentions we cannot be so if we refuse to be convinced by manifest experience plainly confuting their plausibl designes IV. THE other part of the practice is the advancement of REVERENCE for as Frequency for want of a Damm to fence it is swallowed up so Reverence for want of one to restrain it hath swollen further and further 'till it came to Adoration and this is answered by a success so much wors than the Other as a Mischief is wors than Nothing for it is mischievos both to the Honor of our Lord and the Peace of his Church I. To the HONOR of our Lord bicause it restoreth Both those Religions which he came and died to abolish turning This which he instituted for a livree of Christianity to a cloak both of Heathenism and Judaism 1. Heathenism by making it an Idol much after the Old Pagan mode For the Old Heathen believed they could by force of words bring their God to enhabit the statu they consecrated to him and then worshiped That statu not a as carved piece of wood but as the body of the God and the Papists believ they can by like force of words make bread and wine the Body of Christ and then worship it after the manner of the heathen yet eat it too and therein exceed them 2. Judaism by burying true Spiritual worship under a heap of dumb ceremonies Our Lord gave This as a character of the Gospel-worship God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship in Spirit and in Truth But the Papists have turned Spiritual worship out of door to make room for a mass of pageantry who 's Mysteries ar no more understood by the Priest than is the Language by the Peopl But thogh no meaning can be perceved in the Retail yet This is plain in the Gross that the Sacrament is to be Admired but not Understood II. To the PEACE of the Church the Ten Persecutions have not be'n so pernicios The King of France after all his bloody atchievments must yield it a greater right to his vaunt Behold what destructions I have wroght upon the earth God be blessed we ly not at present under such violent paroxysms as our ' forefathers suffered Nether Warr nor Persecution rage among us but we hear of Oppressions among our Neighbors Plots among our selvs Jelosies Disputes Distractions which thogh they do not utterly Destroy do yet Disturb the peace of the Church as Fears and Perplexities of conscience do the souls of it's best members These ar the fruits of our modern way of honoring the blessed Sacrament Neglect of Constancy hath produced Constancy of Neglect we have So put it at Distance as to put it out of sight Yea it is wors than Destroyed for it is made Destructive of that Spiritual devotion toward God that mutual Charity toward each other that inward Comfort in our Own souls which our Lord instituted it to advance V. OUR THIRD enquiry is What Need For it oght not to be thoght but the Necessity must be proportionate to the Remedy Nice persons somtimes take physik without need only to prevent they know not what in such cases the Physician prescribes none but gentl medecines such as may do no more than only purge the patient out of som of his superfluos mony Such a cours therefor as we find taken with This institution must persuade us to expect som very urgent Necessity or som apparent and great Danger no other way to be escaped And a great danger we hear of A danger of contemt But what contemt Is this holy Bread any where cast to the dogs Is this Cup wors abused to drunkenness Is the whole Supper any where profaned as the Apostl testifieth it to have be'n the by Corinthians or as their Persecutors slanderosly reported of the Primitive Christians All this were so much less than the abuses it now suffereth from the remedies as Lust is less than Murder but the Least of them is incomparably more than our greatest fears For indeed there is no pretence of any other danger than Negative or Comparative It will not be capabl of Adoration at Rome nor of Veneration among our Selvs 't will be as cheap as Common-prayer by too much familiarity it must therefor keep state like the Eastern kings who preserv Aw in their peopl by keeping Distance That Distance causeth Aw cannot be denied This objection verifieth it For while we look upon it at distance it looketh dreadful as a Lion but if we com to a closer vieu we shall find it a less formidabl beast To this end we have already distinguished the world into it's two parties the Godly and the Ungodly and found that from nether of them was any such danger to be feared Not from the Godly for no Constancy will make them quit their Reverence Not from the Ungodly for they have none worth preserving 1. The Godly will never quit Reverence upon any the greatest Frequency as plainly appeareth by their uniting Both in Prayer Evening and Morning and at Noon-day will I pray and that Instantly said David Not the less Instantly bicaus Constantly Such Constant Experience oght to deal with this Fear as its patrons pretend Constant performance will with Reverence Abate at least perhaps Destroy it 2. That shew of Reverence which Ungodly men bring to the Communion is not worth preserving much less is it worth purchasing at so dear a rate as disobedience We have b p. 303. lately examined the Pageant and found that however goodly shew it makes in the eyes of children and the populace it must be contemptibl in the eyes of God who seeth and hateth it's want of inward life which it Therefor wanteth bicaus it wanteth such Frequency as is most likely to beget it Since therefor True Reverence which alone is Worth our care Needs it not bicaus it is secure from danger and that Empty shew of revercnce which is in danger is not worth our care to preserv it From This topik of Prudence there is not to be had one grain to turn the emty scale But on the contrary in This very Topik we shall meet such considerations as without help from any
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
very Scandalosness of it in the eyes of the Peopl made it look like impossibl that Any Person much more that any considerabl Number of persons should sink into such non-conformity both to our Lord's Institution and the Churches Constitutions as to deny this poor Quitrent this slight Acknowledgment of Three times at least which however short of the full due might yet serv to keep the right alive and in som kind answer that indulgent law of Moses not indeed in the Caus but the Event For That upon pure Necessity commuted Constant offering every beast they eat into Constant journying thrice a year to Hierusalem thereby to recompence loss in number by improvement in solemnity And our Church upon another kind of Necessity derived not from the Impracticableness of the Law but the hardness of the peopls hearts was fain to admit the same commutation Our Former Writers lived in such times as never questioned the necessity of doing so much at least and suited their precepts to Their own times not to These Dregs of error and impiety wherein our Lords remembrancer is it self Forgotten his Monument it self buried and his whole Institution so demolished that we scarce see any Appearance of it but in Books and even in Them no appearance of Obligation to perform it It was indeed a very pios design So to manage Repentance and this Sacrament that by mutual circulation they might assist each other That the Requisites of Saving Repentance may bring men to worthiness of the Sacrament and the necessity of coming Shortly to the Sacrament may cut off the delay of repentance But towards the Later Part of the design it was necessary to assert the power of the Command That so the Sacrament may equal Repentance as well in Necessity as in Difficulty For it is incredibl that those who ar not frighted to Repentance by the indispensibl Necessity thereof should be so to this Sacrament by any Less potent motive if there ly the same formidabl Difficulties in the way V. I Say Less potent motives for I must not deny our worthy adversary This right that thogh he have loosened the Obligation of the Command whereby the Worst ar tied to the Performance as their Duty yet hath he Recommended it by such Incoragement as must needs prevail upon all such as himself i. e. all tru lovers of the Lord Iesus thogh to lovers of their Lusts and Ease they be useless or wors For to invite a Carnal App tite to a Spiritual Fest what is it but to fish with a jewel whose very lustre will Fright the fish it should Allure Tell the man of Bottels that he cannot drink the Cup of the Lord and the Cup of Bacchus but must be bound over to the languid dulness of Sobriety Tell the amoros Gallant That this Flesh of Christ will rob him of all strange flesh and either confine him To One or From All his Loves Tell the greedy Scraper that this Heavenly treasure must be purchased with som diminution of his Earthly and scatter a good part his heaps among the Poor and bind his hand ftom those Gainful exercises whereby he Gathered and might further Increase them What ar These and what ar All Other graces required to or promised in This Sacrament to a sensualist but so many Warnings to stand upon the gard against such Robbers And what could have be'n more do'n or desired by it's mortal Enemies toward a total extirpation of Any office than to render it at once Difficult Dangeros Needless and Damageabl All which concurr in the Honor to which our modern way of Reverence hath exalted the H. S. in the eyes of the farr greatest part of those who ar to receve it On the One side a formidabl Gandelope between the Great Troubl of Preparation that we may com Worthily and Greater Danger of coming Unworthily after the most Laborios Preparation On the Other side all Necessity of running it taken away by a Denial that we ly under any Command and the suppletory Motive which should encorage us is to the much greater part of the world rather an Affrightment than an Invitation When therefore we look upon the Advantages we may hope from streyning the condicions of Worthiness let us cast one eye upon the Danger of losing even the Sacrament it self When we hear the Opinions of Former ages let us hearken to the Experience of our Own The Apostl and Primitive Christians had Great need to contend for the Manner We have no Less yea we have Gr ater to contend for the Thing I say we have Greater for if the Thing be lost the Manner cannot but perish with it VI. IF therefor the Revers be unanswerabl Then must Those doctrines be more injurios to the H.S. which reach men to shun the Performance it self than were I say not the debaucheries of the Corinthians who so behaved themselvs as not to Eat the Lords Supper but Any such Less mortal Profanations as may leav it a Being thogh less Honorabl And there ar two great reasons at least to believ that as any Landlord would liefer have his rent paid in Base Mony than wholely Witheld so our Lord would liefer have his Supper celebrated somwhat unworthily than wholely Omitted 1. Bicaus Somthing is better than Nothing No mony so base as not to be Somwhat worth A Pepper-corn is somwhat in its self and so much more in its significancy as the Right which it acknowledgeth is greater The very presenting our selvs to the Lords table is an act both of Worship and Obedience whereas those who turn their backs upon it deny both Them and our Lords Title to Them 2. Bicaus there is more Hope to Reform any Corruption in the Manner than to Retrive the Lost Thing This is not so visibl in Any case as in the present Against communicating Unwhorthily the Apostl hath spoken so Much and so Loud that if Reason wer Silent yea if it wer Opposit we would not avoid the evidence But concerning our obligation to the Performance it self thogh in truth he spoke no less convictively to That Age yet doth not Ours so fully understand it His argument needeth more Strict and Skilful examination than most men ar able to make Yea his words their key being lost ar obnoxios to be perverted and that not only by the Vulgar but the Learned to a sens quite Contrary And therefor in This beyond Any case it is dangeros to let the duty fall into Disuse since the Lusts of the Peopl will most readily concurr with the Error of the Priest to bury it in deep forgetfulness whereas Unworthiness in the Manner may easier find Practice than Patronage since every one hath knowlege enogh to understand it uncapabl of Any THOGH I have already said sufficient to the Candid yet fully to secure my self even against the malicios I think fit more formally to protest against encoraging Unworthiness or Irreverence Should I say that it is a greater crime to Murder