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B10074 Certain queries concerning the receiving of the sacrament preached in a sermon on Saint Luke 9. Vers. 30, 31 / by Richard Standfast. Standfast, Richard, 1608?-1684. 1680 (1680) Wing S5206; ESTC R184576 7,792 29

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our unworthiness that we may the better perform our duty I know it will be said I fear I am not worthy and if I come unworthily I become guilty of the body and blood of the Lord Jesus and so eat and drink to my self damnation and were it not better for me to forbear than to come unworthily Unto this I have many things to say First Here 's a fair shew and pretence of humility and some pretended reverence to the Ordinance of God but pretence of humility may possibly prove one of the depths of Satan this brought in of old the worshipping of Angels Col. 2.18 for in pretence of humility they would not make so bold as to make their addresses unto God immediately themselves because they were such unworthy creatures and therefore thought it fitter to make their approaches by the mediation of Angels and what mischief this pretence of humility was like to have done Saint Peter we may find Joh. 13.8 for had he had his desire at that present it would have excluded him from having any part in the Lord Jesus Besides thou fearest thou art unworthy but let me ask Is it thy fear that makes thee so to think the more fearful any man is the more careful he will be to avoid the danger what makes any man fear hath he examined himself if not it is his own fault if he hath examined and finds himself so to be it is his greater fault if he doth not reform himself Self-examination is not to keep us from but to fit us for the Sacrament Let a man examine himself and so let him eat not stay away And our Saviour hath taught us when we come to offer our gift and there remember that our brother hath ought against us not to carry our gift away but to leave it there and to go first and be reconciled to our brother and then come and offer the gift Mat. 5.23 24. If thou art not fit thou maist be Gods commands bring no men into snares and therefore here it will be worthy to know what that is that makes us unworthy Communicants There is a twofold worthiness the one is in strictness of justice and so there is none so worthy but that he must confess with the Church We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crums that are under thy Table And there is a worthiness of acceptation a meetness and fitness to be partakers of these holy Mysteries according to which we may every one say with Hezekiah The good Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seek God the Lord God of his Fathers though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the Sanctuary 2 Chron. 30.18 19. There is also a twofold unworthiness The one of Infirmity The other of an evil Conscience That of Infirmity is what the best are liable unto when by reason of our frailty we come not up to that height which is required of us The other is of an evil Conscience which is when we know that we live in some sins that we are resolved not to part with nor repent of this alone is that unworthiness which will make us unworthy Communicants and he that is thus unworthy is an enemy to his own Salvation because he loves to go on in wickedness and how can that man expect the mercy of God And yet this unworthiness cannot exempt us from the obligation to our duty neither doth God necessitate any man to do evil for he requires us to Communicate and shews us the way to do it worthily and that is by repenting us truly of our sins and stedfastly purposing to lead a new life And this be sure of he that fears to come unworthily for fear of damnation that man will be as much afraid to stay away unworthily for fear of wilful disobedience against God We use to say Of two evils chuse the least but this holds true in penal only not sinful evils for of sinful we are to chuse neither Nor doth God ever bring men into such straits but that he shews a way how to come out of them and therefore the case is not rightly stated which is better but which is worse for both of them are sinful before God and he that refuseth to receive upon this account may as well refuse to hear the Word of God lest it should become the savour of death unto death in refusing to conform himself to the Directions thereof Qu. 9. Whether he that lives in such an unworthiness as makes him really to be an unworthy Communicant be not also unfit to hear pray or die and he that is so must needs be in a sad condition To repent truly of our sins to have a lively faith in Gods mercy through Christ and to be in charity with all men will make a man a meet Communicant and without this a man can neither be fit to pray hear nor die That we may hear as we ought we must lay apart all filthiness and receive the ingrafted word and we must believe for it profits not if not mixt with faith in them that hear it and we must be doers of the Word and not hearers only or else it will never save our souls and that Word requires that all our works be done in charity Would we pray how shall we call upon him in whom we have not believed and if we regard wickedness in our hearts he will not hear us and how can we pray to God to forgive us our trespasses unless we forgive them that trespass against us And if we die in impenitence unbelief and disobedience how can we expect the Resurrection of the body unto life everlasting If we are fit for these we are fit for the Sacrament if we still neglect the Sacrament we may as well be thought to neglect all the rest and he that lives in that neglect he is not worthy the name of a Christian Qu. 10. And last Whether in all excuses that we make for our neglect wilfulness be not the principal ingredient and if we are resolved to follow our own wills more than the will of God how can our conversation be suitable to the Gospel In St. Luk. 14.18 we find mention of a man that made a great Supper and bad many and they straitway began to make excuse they were but beginning they never made a compleat excuse they began but they never finished and indeed there 's no end of making excuses but their excuses were in effect but denials and Saint Matthew saith in a like case that when they were bid they would not come Mat. 22.3 There 's the truth of the matter and so it will be interpreted another day And the more wilful such neglect is the more sinful it will be found before God For the close of all I will only add this one particular It is Christ alone that is the Consolation of Israel neither is there salvation in any other and there is none of us all but when we come to die we would be willing to pray with Saint Stephen Lord Jesus receive my spirit but if our Consciences should then say unto us You have often refused to receive Christ heretofore and how can you now think he will receive you You have often refused to receive Christ in the way of his own institution and how can you expect he should receive you into everlasting habitations would not this be a sad thought at your last departure Think on this FINIS A POSTSCRIPT to the Christian Reader THE great neglect of that Blessed Sacrament is so common amongst us that it is and ought to be just matter of a sad lamentation this was the occasion of the first composing and is now of the present publishing of this little paper it is but a little one and yet big enough through the blessing of God to convince the guilty And as little as it is it will one day be found to be a great witness against such as continue obstinate and it will also witness for me and of my aim and desire to do good Who am thine in the Lord Jesus R. S.