account be given why they did this as constantly as they assembled themselves for Divine Service but because they took that to be our Saviours meaning and intention when he said This do in remembrance of me Now there is nothing more apparent in the holy story than this that the Apostles and those whom they first converted made this a daily part of the offices of Religion For we read that when three thousand Souls joined themselves to the Church upon the day of Pentecost they continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and fellowship and breaking of Bread and Prayers Act. ii 42. Where breaking of Bread I proved before signifies their receiving the Eucharist and now observe that the words we translate continued stedfastly which in the Greek are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signify that they were constant and assiduous in this holy action For the word imports frequency as appears from other places particularly from Rom. xii 12. Where there is the same word in the Apostles Command for Prayer and we translate it continuing instant in Prayer And Coloss iv 2. it is joined with watching thereunto with thanksgiving From which Observations we gain this that as frequent and instant as they were in Prayer so frequent and instant they were in breaking of Bread for they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 constant and unwearied in them both alike Now what this constancy or frequency was is expounded in the 46. verse where St. Luke saith they continued the same word again daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking Bread from house to house or at home as the word is better translated in the Margin of our Bibles Where we see that breaking of Bread at home in their own private Houses was as daily as their going to the Temple publickly and can be meant of nothing but their receiving the holy Communion every day For no man can so much as imagine a reason why breaking of Bread should be mentioned as their daily practice at home together with their resort to the Temple service abroad but to signify that they communicated among themselves in the service of the Eucharist or Holy Communion proper to the Faith of Christians as they communicated with the Jews in the service of the Temple common to all the Disciples of Moses You may impute this it is possible to the warmth of their zeal but remember withal that this zeal was grounded upon knowledge which they wanted not in those dayes And the knowledge they had of Christian Religion taught them that when our blessed Saviour commanded them to do this in remembrance of him naming no time when it should be done he meant it should be done always in their Christian Assemblies as the perfection and Crown of that Service for which they Assembled III. And indeed if we had not had these records of the practice of the Apostles and of the first Christians to explain the meaning of our Saviours Institution yet we should have had reason to think it was so in the Apostles days and therefore the meaning of our Saviour because this practice of receiving the holy Communion every Day continued in the Church for some Ages I cannot say in every place for we have no Records of that but rather of the contrary but in many places and in the most famous that are come to our notice and where the vigour of Christian Religion remained and where they were awakened by more than ordinary dangers to consider their obligation Thus we find St. Cyprian in his Exposition of the Lords Prayer takes that Petition give us this day our daily Bread to signify in the spiritual sense our desire to be fit to receive the Eucharist every day for the food of Salvation And in his Epistle to the Church of Thibaris speaking of a more grievous and fiercer fight of persecution hanging then over their heads he tell them therefore the Souldiers of Jesus Christ ought to fortify and arm themselves well against it with an uncorrupt Faith and robust Vertue considering that they did for this end quotidie calicem Christi sanguinis bibere c. every day drink the Cup of Christs blood that they might also be able to shed their own blood for Christs sake In which words he addresses his Discourse to the Laicks as well as the Clergy exhorting all the faithful unto the constancy of Martyrdom which Men Women and Children indured Nay long after this we learn from St. Hierom in his Apology to Pammachius for his Books against Jovinian and other places that this Custom continued at Rome and in Spain as well as in Africk where St. Austin tell us in his famous Epistle to Januarius that in his time some did quotidie communicare c. daily communicate of the body and blood of our Lord though others he acknowledges did it only on certain days St. Basil also begins his Epistle to Caesaria Patritia in this manner to communicate every day and partake of the holy body and blood of our Lord Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a commendable and profitable thing and then adds that they did communicate four times a Week in his Church on the Lords day Wednesday Friday and the Sabbath that is Saturday and on other dayes if the memory of any Martyr fell upon them Nay three or four Ages more after this such a sense of this Devotion remained that Walafridus Strabo in his Book of Ecclesiastical Affairs c. 20. sayes it seems to be very full of reason that Christians especially Clergymen should every day be imployed in divine Offices and when some very grievous spot of mind or body doth not hinder receive the Lords Bread and Blood without which we cannot live imitating the wholsome diligence of the primitive Church concerning whom we read in the Acts of the Apostles that they persevered in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of Bread and Prayers and a little after they continued daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking Bread from House to House c. quoting the words I named before All which and much more that might be said make it apparent that the Church in the best times and the best men in the Church in after Ages lookt upon this as an ordinary part of Christian Worship which Christ intended should be performed in his Church as oft as they Assembled for Divine Service And what other ground could they have for it but this that Christ having confined it to no time they thought in reason it should be taken for a duty he expected from them at all times when they came to worship him and make their thankful acknowledgments unto him IV. And truly we can gather no less from the very nature of this holy action which sufficiently shows it was our Saviours meaning that it should be a daily part of the Churches Service It being as all know a solemn Thanksgiving unto God and a Form of Prayer and Petitioning which every one
without impediment and that there is nothing left in their Souls to oppose their duty Whereas bad people in a quite contrary way give admission to those scruples and doubts into their minds with a secret pleasure and having entertained them let them rest and take up their lodging there very willingly because they will plead their excuse they fancy for not doing their duty and be a defence to their lazyness Worldly mindedness and other naughty affections In short Doubts and Scruples never arise in good mens minds without grief nor stay there without much trouble and therefore they long to be rid of them and are glad when they are discharged because they hinder the performance of their Christian Duty but bad men not only listen to them willingly but embrace them as welcome Guests which they cherish and never part withal without difficulty and some sort of inward displeasure because they desire the Worldly Spirit that is in them should not be left without all excuse but have something to say for it self when it is pressed by the force of Religion against its inclinations Search and try your selves by this mark and the Lord give you a right judgment in all things for Jesus Christ his sake In whom I remain Your Faithful Servant S. Patrick Discourse I. THE NECESSITY OF Receiving THE Holy Communion THE neglect of the Holy Communion of Christ's Body and Blood was so general and so long continued in the late distracted times being laid aside in man whole Parishes of this Kingdom for near twenty years together that in some Ages of the Church it would have been interpreted a downright Apostasie from Christ and a renunciation of the Christian Faith And though blessed be God since the Happy Restauration of his Majesty to his Throne and the settlement of the Church upon its ancient foundations it hath not been so generally neglected yet it is not so much frequented as it ought to be No not upon such great and solemn dayes as this when we are assembled to commemorate that stupendous Grace which our Lord purchased for us by his pretious Blood and bestowed upon his Church in sending the Holy Ghost the Comforter to be a Witness of his Resurrection and Exaltation at God's right hand and to confirm us in the belief of all that he hath taught and appointed in his Church For we content our selves only with the Common Prayers and I wish I could say that they are duly attended and with the Sermon and then turn our backs on that part of the Divine Service which is properly Christian and consequently is above all other most acceptable unto Christ and unto his Holy Spirit Which I shall therefore at this time press upon your Consciences as a means to revive that ancient Devotion wherewith such Festivals as this was kept which now alas is wanting among us And I shall do it from those words of St. Paul 1 Cor. xi 26. wherein he recommends this duty unto us upon this particular account that as oft as we eat this Bread and drink this Cup we do show the Lords Death till he come In which words it is easy to observe these three practical truths The two first whereof are plainly supposed and the other is affirmed and enjoined I. The first thing here supposed is that it is a Christian Duty to eat this Bread and drink this Cup here spoken of that is to receive the Holy Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood II. The second is that it is a Christian Duty which ought to be often performed And then III. It is here plainly asserted that when it is performed the thing designed in it and which we ought to aim at is to show the Lord's Death till he come The last of these will be sufficiently explained in the handling of the other two viz. the Duty and the Frequent repetition of it unto which I shall confine my Discourse And of the first at this time I. THat it is a Christian Duty incumbent upon every one of us to eat this Bread and drink this Cup that is to receive the Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood This is supposed in the words Which are not to be understood as a mere permission that we may do this if we think good and when we think good but as a command of something we ought to do For when he tells us what it is we do when we eat this Bread and drink this Cup in which we show forth Christs Death it plainly implies that it must be done and is not left to our choice whether we will show forth the Death of our Lord or no. Of which more anon when I have laid some other things before you which will convince you if they be considered of the Obligation that lies upon you to the serious performance of this Duty And for our clear and orderly proceeding I shall cast my Discourse into this method I. First I shall show you that there is a plain institution of this Sacrament and a command that it should be received And then II. Secondly I shall show from the practice of the Apostles after â—hat time when they first received it with our Saviour that it was no temporary command but of Everlasting Obligation III. Thirdly That there is more â—han their practice to interpret the meaning and obligation of this command IV. Fourthly That in this Discourse of St. Paul to the Corinthians there are evident proofs of the necessity of its performance V. Fifthly That the very Text shows the same by the end for which it was instituted VI. Lastly That all these reasons are exemplified by the practice of the Universal Church of Christ I. And first let it be considered that this Holy Sacrament is a Divine Institution Ordained Commanded and required by Christ Himself Who the same night that he was betrayed took Bread and blessed it and brake it and gave it to his Disciples and said Take eat this is my Body And he took the Cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying Drink ye all of it For this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins Matth. xxvi 26 27 28. Here is as manifest an Institution of this Sacrament and as formal a Command to take and eat and drink what Christ then gave as can be contrived in words Unless they be plainer which we read in other places for the Institution is recorded by the two next Evangelists St. Mark and St. Luke and here again in this Chapter by St. Paul Which two last named say that our Saviour added these words in the Institution of this Sacrament This do in remembrance of me Luk. xxii 19. 1 Cor. xi 24 25. Which enjoin this duty by as express a Command as those of old Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy And Honour thy Father and thy Mother Which may henceforth be blotted out of the number of the Commandments if we take this to
against what I have said that surely it is sufficient if we every day pray to God in Christs name and for his sake desire our Prayers may find a gracious Audience praising him also as our Saviour and Redeemer and Intercessor at Gods right hand though we do not use these visible signs which he hath appointed But if this be intirely sufficient so that our Christian worship may be justly thought intire compleat and perfect without doing this in remembrance of Christ then for what end was it instituted by him Why did he appoint it if our worship be compleat without it Then it is as needless and superfluous an addition to the Christian Service as we seem now by our intire neglect of it or seldom performance to imagine it to be Which since no Christian dare say because it disparages the wisdom of our Saviour in appointing it if all be perfect without it we must therefore to our shame take the other course and say that we are faln into a state of imperfection but hope our less perfect services will be accepted by vertue of that most perfect Sacrifice of Christ which we commemorate publickly as oft as we are able V. And that might very well be oftner than we do commemorate it for I shall now proceed to tell you as an Introduction to the account I am about to give how the Service of the Church came to be so defective that when Christian people grew less devout yet still they did not fail to perform this peculiar service to Christ every Lords Day and Holy Day at the least that is on those days of the Week as you heard out of St. Basil when the memory of any Martyr was celebrated Which in time becoming the practice of many Churches made an ancient Writer about Divine Offices mentioned by Cassander in his Book of Liturgies affirm that men imployed in secular businesses received the Communion even in the primitive times only on the Lords Days and other Festivals interpreting as many think the practice of the most antient times by the Customs of his own It is possible indeed that he had a better reason for what he affirmed because we find something in Scripture to countenance this opinion that very early some Christians did content themselves with so doing For in Acts xx 7. we read that at Troas upon the first day of the week when the Disciples came together to break Bread i. e. to receive the Eucharist Paul preached unto them c. From whence it should seem saith our learned Mr. Thorndike that in this Church at Troas the Eucharist was celebrated even in the times of the Apostles not every day as it was at Jerusalem but only on the Lords Day For the first day of the Week being mentioned as the time when they came together to break Bread it seems saith he to stand against the rest in terms of difference as if upon other days they did it not And thus much I believe is certain that when the Church was multiplied all Christians could not meet together every day but some one day some another and all on the Lords Day Which being the principal day it came to pass in process of time that it was the only day of the Week when they celebrated the Eucharist but on that day none omitted it no more than they did the rest of the Christian Service And thus it seems to me most reasonable to understand the matter here at Troas where they did not omit the Communion on other days for I cannot perswade my self but that they were conformable to the Mother Church of Jerusalem but such as could assemble themselves and attend upon Divine Service daily ' did receive it and on the Lords Day all the Christians in the City came together for that purpose and whatsoever business they had which hindered them on other dayes it did not hinder them on this but they all came to do their duty to their Saviour and make a publick Commemoration of his love And in this they were so strict for a long time and it was accounted so great a fault to be absent that if any persons were found not to have Communicated for three Sundays together they were to be Excommunicated and separated from the Society of the Church by the Canons of three several Synods mentioned by Zonaras upon the eleventh Canon of the Apostles which orders them to be cast out as an offence to the Church who entred into the Church and heard the holy Scriptures but did not stay for the Prayers nor receive the Holy Communion Which was thought so necessary that the Deacon who before the Communion as you shall hear anon out of St. Chrysostom cryed all you who are under penance you who cannot pray i. e. with the faithful go out is appointed by the Constitutions called Apostolical to stand with the Sub-Deacon at the Door of the Church and hinder all the rest who were not under Pennance and so bound to Communicate that they should not go out till they had received the holy Sacrament And unto this pitch of perfection if not higher our first Reformers desired to bring the Service of the Church I say if not higher because in the first Communion Book of Edward VI. there is a Rubrick which supposeth daily Communion not only in Cathedrals but in other places as there is another which takes care the people should be admonished and quickned when they are negligent to come to the Communion upon the Sunday or Holy-Day Which shows as the learned person above-mentioned observes that they affected the frequentation of this Service according to the primitive pattern so far as they thought it attainable desiring that even upon other Holy Days as well as Sundays it should be celebrated in the Mother Churches at least as patterns and examples unto the rest And thus much Mr. Calvin himself roundly declares after he had commended the ancient custom of communicating daily and condemned the custom of communicating only once a Year as a Diabolical invention that the Table of the Lord ought to be prepared for Christian people at least once a Week and that all should be exhorted and stimulated and the slothful chidden to flock as hungry people unto such a Banquet As his words are in his IV. Book of Institutions C. xvii n. 46. And so it is still enjoined in one of our Rubricks that in Cathedral and Collegiate Churches and Colledges where there are many Priests and Deacons they shall receive the Communion every Sunday at least except they have a reasonable cause to the contrary Now nothing you have heard was thought a reasonable cause in ancient time to keep any of the people from the Communion except such sins as threw them into the number of the Penitents For none of the rest were suffered to go out of the Church but stayed to receive it Nay such was the devout affection of the primitive Christians while they remained one heart
upon their people and earnestly beseech them to remember from whence they are faln and repent and do the first works When there was no need to use so many arguments as I have represented to prove this to be a Christian Duty nor so many motives to perswade men to the frequent practice of it but they ran forwardly to the holy Communion and were troubled above measure if they might not have the priviledge to receive it There were no quarrels then raised in those days against the manner of its Administration no disputes against the posture wherein it was received The Ministers of Christ had not their pretious time taken up in answering objections and satisfying doubts and scruples much less did they stand in need of the assistance of the Civil Power to inforce the practice of this duty Which all took to be a Commandment of our Lord and Master to commemorate his wonderful love and shew forth his death and passion for our sakes and therefore was no less chearfully and readily obeyed than if they had been invited to the most delitious Feast and promised to receive the greatest largesses in the World That it may be so again is the design of publishing these Papers in which I have represented those Truths which if they be weighed and laid to heart will save us this labour for the future For I have shown you a short way to be free from all fears and doubts about this matter which is not to leave your selves in uncertainty whether you shall go to Heaven or no but by making that sure to make your selves sit for the Holy Communion unto which you may go with an assured confidence if you have any good hope to be admitted into the Society of the blessed in Heaven If that be out of doubt you need not doubt of acceptance with Christ at his holy Table For which the best preparation is an holy Life or a serious Resolution of it for the future if hitherto we have lived otherwise What other Preparation had the Apostles for the partaking of the first Eucharist with our Blessed Lord and Saviour What other could they have when Christians received it every day If we have this therefore which is the main thing let us not stand upon little niceties nor waste that time in questioning and debating whether we be sit or no which ought to be spent in doing this and other Christian Duties whereby we shall be every day fitter to have Communion with our Saviour Remember that it is in actions of Piety as it is in those of Policy A Wisdom that is too scrupulous commonly doth nothing for fear of doing ill We read of Cities that have been taken while the Senators were gravely deliberating how to preserve them Even so is it here too over-much niceness about preparation makes men never to be prepared Therefore it is a fault when it hinders that duty which it keeps us still thinking how to perform Let us not confound our selves with words but understand the sense of things and then we shall not be perplexed as many have been in this business of Preparation Much less will any be affrighted from the holy Communion by being commanded to kneel when they receive it Which is no more than they do at their daily Prayers and therefore should the rather be inclined to do here when we pray and give thanks for the greatest blessings which we cannot do in too humble a manner We worship also and adore our Blessed Lord in this holy action and therefore one would think should be disposed of our selves without any injunction to fall down upon our Knees in token of the worship which we give Him Which is no Popish Ceremony being not so much as injoined by that Church in the act of receiving nor observed by the Pope himself who when he receives rather sits or leans a little forward upon his Throne but an ancient devout Posture of the best Christians which the people of the Roman Communion observe by long custom without bidding And therefore should much more be chearfully observed by us when we are enjoined to keep to the ancient reverence wherewith the Saints of God received the pledges of our Saviours love Vouchsafe I beseech you to give this small Book wherewith I present you a careful Reading and I doubt not it will free you not only from these but from all sorts of scruples if any of you be troubled with them which now hinder many people from the greatest duty and comfort too of our holy Religion Which if you would be perswaded to perform often the profit which would redound to you thereby would be as great as the Credit which it would do to our Church and Religion For no man can come seriously to the holy Communion but with some Resolutions of being better than he hath been which Resolutions are not presently broken but last for some time And therefore if there were not too long a distance between one Communion and another it is likely they might last for ever For before the force of the first Resolution were quite lost it would be backt and strengthned with a second and so being re-inforced from time to time while it remained in some power would become so firm that it would never be broken Make a trial I earnestly intreat you and suffer not this pains which I have taken to serve you to be thrown away without that good effect Which it will not be if you make the trial with the same seriousness wherewith I have written this Treatise In which you will meet with nothing to entertain the fancy not so much as with fine words and elegant composure but with good store I think of solid sense to inlighten the mind to inform the judgment to pierce the heart to stir up holy devotion nay to turn the will and produce godly Resolutions which if they be pursued and have their fruit unto holiness will in the end bring you to Eternal Life And that such Resolutions may be both produced and pursued I will here add one observation more for the removing the greatest of those hindrances to Holy Communion which lie in the way of those who pretend to Religion It is this That doubts and scruples being the weakness and sickness of the Soul they that readily entertain them and then suffer them to remain there quietly and peaceably are in a very ill case nay ought to look upon themselves as in a very dangerous condition For it is a sign all is naught within and that they deceive themselves with a vain opinion of their being Religious For they who are truly so groan under their doubts and scruples as under a sore Disease and therefore will not let them long dwell with them but seek with all speed to have satisfaction which when it is offered they receive with all readiness of mind and are not loth to be cured but rejoice that they are set at liberty to serve God
of his Christian duty as much as hearing the Sermons of the Apostles and Prayers I am loth to spend the time in going about to prove against vain Cavillers that by breaking of bread is here meant this holy action of receiving the Communion and not their bare eating together But to give full satisfaction in that matter let it be briefly considered First that breaking of Bread is here placed in the midst between other holy actions preaching fellowship or communicating to one anothers necessities and prayers and therefore in all reason must be concluded to be it self of that nature not a common but an holy action And besides secondly their eating at a common Table if it be at all mentioned in this Chapter Acts ii under the phrase of breaking bread is spoken of v. 46. and therefore not intended here No nor there neither I shall show hereafter for even in those words also they continued daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking bread from house to house or at home c. the breaking of bread belongs to the holy Communion And to put all out of doubt thus the Syriack an ancient Translation understands it expresly turning it thus in the Eucharist As it doth also Act. xx 7. Vpon the first day of the week when the Disciples came together to break bread Paul preached unto them c. that is when they came to receive the Eucharist saith that Translation which was a part of their Lords days work nay the principal part for this was the thing for which the Disciples came together and not merely to hear the Apostle preach And who can give any reason why it should not be so now as it was then when in familiar speech it was as usual with them to say they would go to Church to receive the holy Communion as it is with us to say in these days we will go to Church to Prayers or to hear a Sermon III. But more than this not only the practice of the Apostles and first Believers after they were divinely inlightned by the Holy Ghost expounds the meaning and the obligation of this Precept to be perpetual but Christ himself showed it so to be after he went to Heaven and was exalted at Gods right hand For appearing to St. Paul to make him one of his Apostles and in order to it revealing himself and the whole Christian Religion to him which he gave him commission and authority to preach He declared this to be a part of his Will and a piece of his holy Religion For I have received of the Lord saith he in this Chapter v. 23 24. c. that which I also delivered unto you that the Lord Jesus the same night he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he brake it and said Take eat this is my body which is broken for you this do in remembrance of me After the same manner also he took the Cup saying This is the New Testament c. Observe here an evident proof that what our Lord did with his Apostles at his last Supper he intended should be done by them and by others when he was gone For sending one who was not then with him nor had any knowledge of him while he was on Earth to preach his Gospel he gives him particular instructions about this matter to take care to see this done in remembrance of him So St. Paul who was the man to whom he appeared and gave a special Commission after he went to Heaven avows to the Corinthians in this place telling them that he delivered nothing to them but what he had received of the Lord and what he delivered to them was this that they should do what the Lord Jesus had done with his Apostles in remembrance of him This he received from him that is it was of the Lords Institution and to be practised by his order and special command and therefore called the Lord's Supper v. 20. When ye come together into one place this is not to eat the Lord's Supper Where it is called the Lord's Supper not because it was eaten by the Lord with his Apostles for at that Supper the Corinthians were not present nor was that now done in this place where they came together but because it was instituted by the Lord both then when he eat that Supper with his Apostles and now again when he appeared to St. Paul and required him to see this practised in the Churches which he converted And accordingly was now practised in this Church at Corinth to whom this Discourse of St. Paul is directed IV. In which we find many things more to prove this to be a necessary Christian Duty which was the fourth head mentioned in the beginning I shall single out two which will make it evidently appear to all unprejudiced minds I. The first is very remarkable that the Apostle takes a great deal of pains and spends a great deal of time in showing the manner how the holy Communion ought to be celebrated among them Which he would not have done if this had not been a necessary duty incumbent on them by vertue of Christs Command and a Divine Institution Do but consider this I beseech you and be at the pains to ponder at your leisure how serious earnest and laborious the Apostle is here in this eleventh Chapter of his Epistle to make the Corinthians sensible by a long Discourse about it after what manner they ought to approach to the Table of the Lord reproving their scandalous behaviour at the Communion directing them how to reform it and make a due preparation to receive the benefit thereof And then tell me or rather tell your selves was there any cause for a reasonable man to write so much to show how and after what manner the thing should be done if the very doing of the thing had not been necessary and under the obligation of a Command Can the manner and way of doing an action be matter of duty and yet that action it self be no duty at all Or can a man of common sense be very solicitous in giving directions how men should order themselves in a place and about a business into which they may never come but let it alone Can the Apostle be supposed to say so and so you ought to eat this Bread and drink this Cup and yet there be no command tying them to eat it and drink it at all And so and so you ought to prepare your selves to partake of Christs Body and Blood and yet after that preparation they might chuse whether they would do the thing for which they were to be prepared Surely we cannot imagine the Apostle to have had so much idle time to spare nay to be so impertinent as to busy himself in ordering the circumstances of an holy action if the action it self had not been a necessary nay a very weighty duty and of exceeding great moment which therefore he was highly concerned and took due care
should be duly performed II. To which add this consideration that had not this been a divine Institution and the practice according to it a duty incumbent on them it is not to be conceived that the Apostle would have suffered the Corinthians to have run so great a hazard as they did by the rude manner of doing that action if they might innocently have omitted it and without any guilt not have done it at all Nor would the Corinthians themselves have been so unreasonably cruel to their own Souls as to have incurred the dreadful danger of Damnation and Death by an unprepared participation of this Sacrament if they could have satisfied themselves that it was no duty to participate or not of such consequence but that it might with safety be let alone He that eateth and drinketh unworthily saith the Apostle eateth and drinketh damnation to himself and for this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep That is the divine judgment being passed against you hath seized on you and struck many of you with sicknesses others with infirmities aches and pains and some with Death for your riotous eating of the Supper of the Lord. Doth it not concern you then unless you be content to lie still under this scourge of God till you be all cut off to be better advised and not expose your selves in this manner to the wrath of God which it is plain by terrible Executions is more than kindled against you Now unto what course doth he direct them that they might avoid these Judgments Doth he advise them to abstain from the Holy Communion for fear of prophaning it to forbear to come to the Table of the Lord lest there he stretcht out his hand against them and gave them their Deaths wound This had been the shortest and the safest way according to the ignorant resolutions men make in this present Age to prevent the danger of Damnation unto which the Apostle no doubt would have charitably directed them if he had not known that the thing it self was a duty and such abstinence from it a sin He could not otherways have refrained when he beheld the Sword of Divine Vengeance thus hanging over their Heads and many already lie bleeding under it being strucken down to the ground by Sicknesses Plagues and Death he could not I say in this lamentable case have abstained from calling to them with the greatest earnestness and compassion saying why do you thus venture your Souls and Bodies to destruction Why do you not rather stay away and wholly forbear to approach to the Table of the Lord where you are in danger to be undone for your unworthy receiving the sacred pledges of Gods love But we hear no such language because the Apostle had not thus learnt Christ nor thus received of the Lord. Who commanded and expected that they should not abstain from the Sacrament as the manner now is but come to it net rudely indeed as they did but in an holy decent and prepared manner Which it had been in vain to discourse of if it would have been as well or would have sufficed to abstain from the act of receiving This was an invention not thought of in those early dayes when they took themselves not to be Christians if they did not frequent the Holy Communion as St. Paul proves they were not good Christians if they did not take care to come in an holy manner unto it That 's the thing to which he presses them and the only way he knew of to avoid Damnation Abstaining from the Communion would not secure them but let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup ver 28. Not to eat and drink of that holy food he could not give them a licence He had no such authority but lay under an obligation to enjoin the doing of the thing and to press it earnestly as a duty that could neither be safely omitted nor practised without serious Examination of themselves that they might not come together to condemnation v. 34. To come together for this purpose to eat and drink that Bread and that Cup there was a necessity their only care was that it might not be to condemnation Which things being well considered do convincingly demonstrate that this is not only a duty but a weighty duty strictly enjoined and not to be omitted no not in that Church where the profane doing of it had brought down Death and destruction upon them from Heaven V. The same is evident from the end for which our Lord instituted this Sacrament and commanded us to receive it which is the publication of the Lords Death till he come That 's the meaning of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye do show you do publish the word signifies and tell it abroad you profess this and declare it to all the World that Christ died for you and is Lord over you having purchased you by his blood and that you own him so to be and are the Servants and Worshippers of that Jesus who gave himself to be Crucified and to die for you This is the general meaning of this holy action Wherein we publickly own Christ and profess his Religion and give it out to all the World who see what we do that we are his and that we are sensible of it nay glory in it and intend to continue his for ever Now who can have the confidence to call himself a Christian and not think he stands bound thus to own Christ Crucified And therefore he is bound to do that whereby he doth own him which is to receive the holy Sacrament Which as often as we do we show forth the Lords Death and as often as we neglect we do as good as say we are ashamed of him and of his Cross or that we repent of our Christian Profession For if to do this be to show forth Christs Death then not to do it is to stifle and smother it as much as in us lies so that no such thing as the Death of our Lord should be published or known in the World This I am sure is a true consequence and our neglect of this duty will be thus interpreted by our blessed Lord when he shall come to take cognizance of it Why will some say we testify the contrary every time we say the Creed when we make an open and solemn confession of our Faith in him But let such persons observe how they argue in this against themselves For our Lord in whom they profess to believe requires that we should not merely in words though never so express but in plain actions also represent his Death and Passion for our sakes and thereby our high obligations to him That 's the Doctrine of the Apostle in this place For to what end do you break the Bread but to show the breaking i. e. the wounding and crucifixion of the Lords Body And to what end do you pour out the
Flesh and of the World beyond the power of any means that we know of to rescue them from destruction But I hope better things of those who duly attend to what hath been said and that all those who have not now prepared themselves for this Holy Duty of showing forth the Lords Death whereby he purchased among other blessings the great gift of the Holy Ghost which it would have been most proper on this day to have most solemnly acknowledged will speedily set themselves about it and be ready against the next opportunity that is against the next Sunday or at least the next after that and so for the time to come be careful to perform this duty as oft as the Christian Religion requires Which I shall demonstrate in the next Discourse is much oftner than men imagine The end of the first Discourse Discourse II. THE FREQUENCY OF Holy Communion HAving demonstrated in the foregoing Discourse that it is a duty indispensably lying upon all Christians to receive the holy Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood a duty of great weight and importance for the neglect of which I do not see how we can atone by the performance of any other duty whatsoever I proceed to show that it is a duty which ought to be frequently repeated for as oft as ye eat this Bread saith the Apostle and drink this Cup ye do show the Lords Death till he come Which plainly insinuates that they did this often and that it was their duty so to do shall be the subject of this present Discourse And here now in the very entrance of it I must acknowledge that we are not told either in this place of Scripture or any other how often we ought to Communicate or how frequently the Church ought to make this Commemoration of Christs Death and Passion for our sake Of which observation men now make a very bad and preposterous use For finding that our Lord hath only said This do in remembrance of me but no where said when at what time or times it is to be done they imagine that they satisfy his will if they do not wholly withdraw themselves from his Table though they come never so seldom thither And truly by this sort of reasoning that because we are no where told how often we should do this we need only take care to do it sometime or other it may be thought sufficient if we do it but once in our whole life And so dangerous are such conceits which men frame to themselves from such Observations that vast numbers though otherwise not wicked live in a constant neglect of this Duty till they come to die and then upon their Death-Beds calling for this Sacrament and receiving it they think they have fulfilled the will of our Lord in doing this as he hath commanded because though he hath commanded it to be done he hath no where commanded when or how oft it should be done From whence we may certainly conclude that this is a false consequence which men draw from the silence of the holy Scriptures in this matter because it is so dangerous and pernitious that in a manner it quite destroys our Religion by taking away this part of it which is the principal and making it unnecessary as long as a man lives so he be but sure to receive when he is at the point of Death Of that indeed no man can be assured but supposing he doth receive the Communion at the very last gasp he is thus far safe and not guilty of the breach of this Commandment if this consequence be true that because our Saviour hath no where appointed the time or said how frequently we should do this in remembrance of him we do comply with his Institution provided we do it sometime or other Now to destroy this false notion from whence such absurdities flow I shall in the first place show you that the quite contrary naturally and necessarily follows from this observation of our Saviours appointing no time for the performance of that which he required to be done in remembrance of him From whence mens wicked hearts draw this conclusion as I have said that it may suffice to do this now and then though never so seldom I. But the true the genuine and honest conclusion which follows from thence is this that our Lord having named no fixed setled time or times for the performance of this holy action it is an argument that he designed and appointed it as a constant common and ordinary part of the Christian Service which he would have performed in his Church at all times Let those words of Christ this do in remembrance of me be well weighed and there is no man can infer less from thence than that if he had intended this should be done only at some such great and solemn times as the Passover was among the Jews when he first instituted this Feast and eat it with his Disciples he would not have suffered us to be ignorant of his meaning but told us in plain terms that upon some certain days and at some extraordinary Assemblies this should not be forgotten But that he having named no time whatsoever we ought to look upon his words as instituting this holy action to be a part of that Worship Honour and Service which he expected from his people in all their Religious Assemblies For being ordained in remembrance of him it is most reasonable to think he intended this Commemoration should be as constantly made as they met together to acknowledge him for their Lord and Saviour and only Mediator with God the Father And being a Commemoration ordained instead of all the Sacrifices whereby under the Law they daily implored the mercies of God or gave thanks for them it ought in all Conscience to be as continual a rite of Religious Worship as those Sacrifices were And thus when men had upright hearts and unbiassed affections they did honestly understand our Saviours meaning and accordingly made this a constant part of their Divine Service Which is the next thing I would desire you to observe For I would not have you to rely merely on my reasonings and inferences though I verily think this would appear a true way of arguing and a right conclusion unto any unprejudiced mind if we had no more to justify it but as a further evidence of this nay as a full conviction that we ought so to take it I beseech you seriously to consider that II. Thus the Apostles and the first Christians understood the meaning of our blessed Saviour in this Institution And can we have any better Expositors of his words any surer directors of our practice than such great Servants of his who were filled with the Holy Ghost Who never met together to worship God and our Saviour but this was a part and a principal part too of the service they performed in those Assemblies If I can make this good the other will follow for there can no other
people might bring their offerings more freely though they did not receive together with him And they magnified his operation so much till at last it brought forth this prodigious conceit that he held the very natural Body and Blood of Christ in his hands after the Consecration Which fancy obtained the more easily by the help of the Wafers now mentioned which having neither the form nor figure of Bread nor being like any sort of food used in the World served to banish out of peoples minds the thoughts of any such thing as Bread which they received in the Holy Communion See here again how men have spoiled our most excellent Religion by neglecting the constant practice of it For this Doctrine of transubstantiating the Bread into the very natural Body of Christ is the more absurd because in reality there is not so much as true Bread presented unto the Priest to transubstantiate if such a feat could possibly be wrought For the best Christians after these Wafers were introduced lookt upon them as unfit for consecration being unworthy of the name of Bread and not being at all broken and therefore did ad Christum Ecclesiam nihil pertinere not at all belong to Christ or his Church as Bernoldus a Priest of Constance adventured to speak in the Eleventh Century For he is that ancient Writer whom Cassander mentions as the Expounder of the Roman Order and commends as a pious prudent person and well skilled in the Ecclesiastical Traditions excepting only the indignation he expressed at the reducing of the oblations of Bread for the use of the Sacrifice into this form of Wafers much different from the form of true Bread which he called therefore in contempt mites of nummulary oblations being in the form of little pieces of money and ascribes to them an imaginary shadowy lightness which deserve not the name of Bread they are so thin and inveighs against them in more and sharper words than these which Cassander in his Book of Liturgicks cap. 27. saith he thought it not expedient to transcribe in that place But what he hath transcribed abundantly shows how wise and good men resented this change in the Sacrament by reason of which the Divine Service and the Religion of the Ecclesiastical office as that Author speaks was much every way confounded IV. Lastly This very thing hath turned the holy Communion in that Church into a propitiatory Sacrifice offered up to God both for the quick and the dead Which hath proved a most horrible abuse having no other original than that now named the people 's not communicating but leaving the Priest alone at the Altar Who being loth to lose the oblations as well as the peoples Company began to speak very high things of the saving efficacy which from this action of the Priest alone redounded even unto those who did not Communicate with him Which opinion being once received as a popular conceit men gave money freely and abundantly for private Masses out of a perswasion that thereby they should procure remission of sins both for themselves and for others both for those alive and those who were dead By which things I hope you see the great mischief of neglecting the holy Communion which hath even undone the Christian World for it hath spoil'd Christs holy Religion and turned it into quite another thing by most gross depravations of it Which have had this effect even upon us who are called Reformed that they have rooted out the principal part of Gods Service from among us and made it lame and imperfect For the Church of Rome having retained the custom of celebrating the Communion every day but turned it into a Sacrifice for the quick and the dead though none but the Priest partake of it this is the use which the Enemy of Mankind hath tempted us to make of their abuses to perswade our selves that so long as private Masses are abolished we need not trouble our selves to be frequent in the Celebration and Communion of the Eucharist Now this is even according to the hearts desire of our grand Adversary the Devil who can be content with such a Reformation as this while we retain the very root and foundation of all the abuses which we have reformed viz. Negligence in frequenting this Holy Sacrament Which I hope we shall be careful also to reform at last if men will but lay to heart such things as I have laid before their Eyes Which let us see that though the particular time of communicating be not named in Christs Institution yet that is no argument we may take our own time for it and do not offend God so it be done some time or other but quite contrary that our Lord intended it should be performed at all times when we assemble for Divine Service Thus the first and best Christians understood it thus they practised and transmitted this practice unto Posterity who for some Ages continued it and though it be not continued till these times yet we are forced to acknowledge that the remembrance it importeth as that excellent man Mr. Thorndike speaks is so proper so peculiar to the profession we make that our Assemblies never look so like the Assemblies of Christians as when it is celebrated But are really naked without it or at least want the Crown of that Service for which we assemble that most excellent piece of Service which is peculiarly appropriated to the worship of our blessed Lord and Saviour By the neglect of which the love of God and the love of one another is deplorably decayed and the Christian Religion also so depraved that they who reformed it in many things have not been able to restore it to its integrity And therefore now that God hath put it into the heart of our pious Metropolitan to call upon us and enjoin us to live more strictly according to the Rules and Orders of our Religion by celebrating the holy Communion at all our more solemn Assemblies I hope none of us will be any longer disobedient and refractory to so godly a motion but rather forward to comply with the Command of God and of our Governours It may not be in the power of man perhaps so to command the occasions of this World as that all should be always disposed to communicate yet in so great a number as here come together to worship God there cannot but always some persons or other be found who are not so encumbred but they may be fit if they please to receive the holy Communion with us Certain I am it ought so to be and what ought to be may be and will be if the reason upon which it depends be duly considered If it be not so that for want of persons disposed to communicate the holy Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood cannot be celebrated every Sunday it is a wilful neglect for which nothing can be alledged but too much love of this World which arises from too little a sense of the
love of our blessed Saviour and too small valuation of his inestimable benefits Which I beseech you let us awaken our minds to weigh and ponder and then we shall make it part of our business to contrive our affairs in this World in such a manner that there never want some Company at the Holy Communion And it is no hard matter so to order things that some receiving one Sunday some another all may receive at least once a Month. What should hinder if we have any mind to it and will set our selves about it what can stand in the way of such a blessed and comfortable Reformation as this Of which though we have not heard a word from the great pretenders to Religion in an Age wherein so much hath been talkt of the Reformation of the Church yet all the true Children of it who understand and seek its good are sensible that the continual celebration of the Eucharist and the Discipline of penance to preserve the people in a disposition fit to receive it are such points of reformation in the Church as the great man before-named expresses it that without restoring these all the rest is but mere noise and pretence if not mischief And these are the things at which the Order of our Church aims for as it earnestly sighs and groans as you read in the Commination towards the restoring of publick penance which is the only means established by the Apostles to maintain the Church in condition to communicate continually so it enjoins as you have heard the continual celebration of the Eucharist in Cathedral and Collegiate Churches and Colledges every Sunday at the least which supposes it would be still more agreeable to its desires if it were done also upon other Festivals Now what should hinder us I ask again from coming thus near to the primitive Devotion though we do not come up quite to the utmost perfection of it Unless it be the fancy which works in many minds that to Communicate three times in the Year as the Church injoins every Parishioner at the least to do is sufficient for any Christian Which may well be called a fancy since it is manifest the Church names three times in a Year as the very lowest degree of Devotion less than which it would account prophaneness and I have demonstrated that we have little or nothing to say for our Communicating so seldom as once a Month but only this that in most places it is no oftner administred In the Mother Churches it will hereafter be more frequently which will in some measure conform us to those ancient Churches which communicated every Sunday For all the Country Churches in the Diocess being but parts of the Mother Church it may be truly said the holy Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood is administred once a Week in all our Churches Where I beseech you let us never want a competent number of Communicants And that we may not do not any longer imagine that you show sufficient respect to our Saviour if you resolve to come thrice a Year I wish every one were careful of doing so much but let me further tell you they that set themselves such a stint will be in danger too oft to fall short of that And therefore it is far safer and more becoming to aim at and endeavour after higher attainments by coming more frequently to the Table of the Lord. Hear how sharply that great person St. Chrysostome inveighs against those that contented themselves with receiving only at the Festivals especially at Easter It is in his third Sermon upon the Epistle to the Ephesians where having expounded the last words of the first Chapter which represent our blessed Lord as the Head of the Church advanced far above all principalities and powers c. He thus begins his Sermon Let us reverence our Head let us think with our selves of what Head we are the Body a Head to which all things are subject what an honour is this to be in some sort viz. in our Head advanced above the Angels and the Archangels Let us reverence then this kindred this affinity which we have with Christ our Head Let us fear lest any of us be cut off from this Body lest any of us fall away lest we appear unworthy of our relation to him If any body had set a Diadem or a Crown of Gold upon our Head would we not have laboured by all means not to appear unworthy of those liveless stones And yet now that there is not so little as a Diadem put upon our Head but Christ himself which is infinitely more is become our Head we make no account at all of it The Angels reverence it the Archangels and all the Heavenly Powers do him honour we only who are his Body neither for this reason nor for the other have any considerable regard to him What hope then is there of our Salvation Think upon that Royal Throne think upon that exceeding great honour God hath conferred upon thee and it will be more powerful than Hell fire it self to affright thee into a due regard towards him With a great many more such like efficacious words which I do but abridge he presses his people to the greatest purity of life and then at last comes in particular to press them from this Argument to a religious care of receiving the holy Communion I see saith he many of you receive the Body of Christ but it is rather from custom and for order sake than out of reason and understanding If it were the holy time of Lent saith one or if it were the Epiphany that is Christmas Day saith another who would not prepare himself to partake of the Holy Mysteries Is it then Christmas is it the time of Lent that makes a man a worthy Receiver I thought it had been sincerity of Soul holiness and purity of Life With these come always without these thou hast no right to come at all For as oft as you do this you show the Lords Death quoteing my Text that is you make a Commemoration of the Salvation wrought for you and of the benefit Christ bestowed upon you Consider then how abstemious how careful were they who did partake of the old Sacrifices under the Law What did they not do What expence were they not willing to make They were always purifying themselves that they might partake of the Altar But thou coming to a Sacrifice at which the Angels are astonished circumscribest the business and confinest it to certain periods of time thou wilt receive it at Easter at Christmas then thou wilt be pure and clean to partake of it But how wilt thou appear before the Tribunal of the Lord Jesus who darest with impure hands and lips to touch his Body For so it is at other times you will not come no not though you be pure but at Easter you will needs come though you have lately perhaps been bold to commit some great transgression O the power of
reason to be scrupulous about this unfitness whereof they complain that there is to be so about their unworthy receiving And yet they take no notice of the one any further than only to make it an excuse for the other What unjust what partial dealing is this What kind of Christians are these who if they were serious and in good earnest religious as some of this sort would be thought to be would be as afraid to remain unfit as they are to receive while they so continue They would be as scrupulous lest they should offend God by staying away as they seem to be lest they should offend him by coming to the Communion For they would see that it is very unequal dealing with God and with their own Souls to be very nice about the doing that which God hath commanded and to have little or no scruple about the omission of it What is this but to fancy that when God commands a thing to be done by us we may safely let it alone if our not doing it proceed from a fear of doing it wrong As if we did not offend him by not doing what he bids us as much as by doing it amiss and our total neglect of a duty were not as great a provocation as an undue performance Do but consider it thoroughly and you will find there is as much cause to be solicitous about the one as about the other And if all they that are now full of fears about unworthy receiving would but be fearful also of continuing unworthy to receive i. e. of sinful neglect of the holy Communion this equal fear on both sides would make them solicitously diligent in fitting themselves to be worthy guests at the Lord's Table That so they may neither offend by coming nor by staying away but approach in a becoming and well-prepared manner and find grace and favour with God to come every day more and more prepared For by coming as well prepared as our affairs in this World will admit with serious resolutions to amend our lives we grow still more fit if we frequent it to come better disposed to the Table of the Lord with stronger resolutions and consequently with more fruits meet for repentance of amendment of life For by doing our duty as well as we can we learn to do it with greater perfection especially if we continue to do it though for the present with many imperfections But alas will some say we are not only utterly unfit and unprepared for the present but it is not in our power to fit and prepare our selves in any sort to be meet partakers of these holy mysteries for the future To which it is necessary that I say something before I proceed further because if this be true all my labour will be lost in perswading men to dispose themselves for the performance of this holy duty 1. And here the same question might be askt such persons which I askt at the first how comes it not to be in your power and whose fault is it that you are not able to fit your selves But I omit this because it only throws the guilt upon such complainers but doth not convince them of the falseness of their Plea Therefore I rather demand of such men how they can pretend to Christianity and say that they cannot leave off their habitual course of sinning What Is there no power in the Christian Religion to alter a mans heart and to bring him to repentance and reformation of life Cannot he who by being made a Christian is regenerate with the holy Spirit cease to follow and to be led by those carnal Lusts and Worldly desires which at his Baptism he renounced Cannot he for instance forbear habitual Drunkenness Swearing Extortion and Prophaneness Is it impossible for him to be at peace with his Neighbours to lay aside all wrath bitterness and wilful animosities How is he then born again of the Spirit By what power were men changed and renewed in the beginning of our Religion which we have not now since we have the same Religion Or to what purpose are we exhorted every day to beseech God to grant us true repentance and his holy spirit that those things which we do at that present may please him and the rest of our life be pure and holy if no such thing can be obtained from our Heavenly Father no not by importunate Prayers unto him for it Do not for shame say any longer you have no power to fit your selves for the holy Communion that is to become better unless you will renounce Christianity and declare there is nothing in it but vain words empty shows and appearances 2. Which this sort of men I am sure cannot do having something in them which will satisfy them if they attend unto it that they do not say true when they pretend they cannot leave off those sins which keep them from the Communion For how can they be called sins if it be impossible to do otherways And if they be no sins how can they hinder you from Communicating Why do your Consciences accuse you of doing amiss if you could not but do as you did They never accuse you in other cases where there is an utter impossibility under which you labour For instance if a Neighbours House be on fire you do not accuse your self for not running to help to quench it when you lay lame in Bed and disabled to move out of it But if you set the House on fire you could not but think you did him a great injury or if you stood by in perfect health and soundness when it took fire and would not stir hand or foot to help him you could not but look upon your self as unneighbourly unkind and cruel In like manner if it were as impossible to forbear a sin as it is to stir when you are bound hand and foot your Consciences would never accuse you But the upbraidings you feel there the secret checks and remorse the suspitions and fears which your Consciences are troubled withal plainly declare that it was in your power and that you lie and do not the truth as St. John speaks when you pretend the contrary In short if you cannot possibly reform those sins which make you unfit for the Communion how come you to charge them upon your selves as sins If they be sins your own Consciences tell you that you can avoid them and if you can why do you not go about it and by doing this prepare your selves to do the other I mean to receive the holy Communion for which you will be fit when you have quitted those sins wherein you live 3. For the sins which you say you cannot reform are either sins of weakness or sins of willfulness If they be only such weaknesses as can scarce possibly be avoided by the care and watchfulness of good men but they are upon some occasions surprized with them surely these do not make you unfit for the holy Communion for
that is grievous punishment was For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep Now what is all this to you who are not guilty of any such crimes For no such scandals as these are committed among us now adays any where And therefore why should you fear so much as the judgment or sentence to suffer the grievous punishments now mentioned seeing you are not guilty of their faults Which I have purposely represented as they are set down by the Apostle that finding your selves free from them you may not fright your selves away from the Communion by a dread of that damnation which fell upon them But will not fall upon you who cannot be accused of their Crimes nor of any other like to them if you discern the Lords body and in a solemn manner come to commemorate his Death and Passion renouncing all your evil wayes and being in perfect Charity with all men Upon such God will pour down his blessings and not plague them with Diseases Sickness and untimely Death much less with Eternal Damnation to suffer the punishment of Everlasting Fire Which as it is not meant in the Apostles words as I have shown elsewhere so will not be the portion of those who come thus prepared to the Table of the Lord but rather of those who stay away out of a pretence of unworthiness when the true reason is because they will not be at the pains to prepare themselves to partake of it Or if it be timorousness of spirit and a scrupulous fearfulness that keeps them from it let them seriously weigh what hath been proved in this Discourse that they have the same reason to be fearful they shall not enter into Eternal Life For they that are not fit to have Communion with him in these Types and Figures of him how can they be presumed to be fit to have the immediate sight and injoyment of his Divine Majesty And what serious Christian is there that can live with any comfort who hath no hope of that How can he be quiet or take any rest till he hath rid himself of every thing which he thinks makes him unmeet to have fellowship with Christ in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood that so partaking of it religiously he may have no cause not to look upon himself as an heir through hope of Gods Everlasting Kingdom by the merits of the most pretious death and passion of his dear Son Who invites all those to come and feast with him that abide in no habitual sin such as shuts out of the Heavenly Kingdom and they ought to come without any fear of provoking his Majesty without any apprehension of danger to themselves thereby nay draw near with faith and take this holy Sacrament to their comfort and high satisfaction and to the joy of the Church of Christ which is highly honoured by having abundance of worthy persons in it fit to communicate with their Lord at his Table Such worthy Communicants let us all for our parts study to be by resolving now and indeavouring ever hereafter to quit all known sins and to live suteably to our Christian profession and Belief Then let nothing hinder you from taking frequent occasions of presenting your selves to the Lord at his Table Let no scruples fears and doubts that stick in your mind hinder you but rather get them pulled out by some skilful hand Do not believe you are religious because you are scrupulous but rather suspect your selves not to be so because you neglect the great duty of Religion And of this be scrupulous above all other things lest you offend God by not coming to the Communion or rather do not dare to be so bold and fearless in a matter of such great danger Let not the fault of others who communicate be a stop to your performance of that duty That is if they sin one way let not that tempt you to a sin of another kind If they go wrong on the right hand be not you moved thereby to turn too much to the left Let not the danger of unworthy receiving deter you from receiving but only from receiving unworthily Of which there is the less danger if you be really afraid of it for that will move you to be careful to prevent it And remember that nothing will make you more unworthy than neglect of it And therefore let not the thoughts of your imperfections hinder you for they will always hinder and staying from the holy Communion is not the way to be more perfect but coming to it Nay let not the breach of your resolutions by relapsing into sin after you have communicated keep you from communicating again but rather come the sooner and take the first opportunity that is presented you to renew your Covenant with God to strengthen your Christian resolutions to fortify your selves against temptations and to obtain assurance of a pardon for the unfaithfulness to your Saviour To fall is not so dangerous as not to rise again presently after we are faln Much less let business hinder for if you be honestly imployed in honest business it is part of your preparation for the holy Communion And let no man say he wants time to fit himself to receive it for this is in effect to say he wants time to live well Of which if you take a constant care that 's the main preparation And for the composing your mind and considering the ends for which you go to the Lords Table take as much time as your condition of life and the circumstances of your condition will allow and that is sufficient Be not hindred from the Heavenly Comforts of which you may there partake by an opinion of the necessity of a long examination of your selves before-hand for that necessity arises only from long neglect of the Communion Receive frequently as the first Christians did and then you will be as ready for this on all occasions as you are for other duties of holy Worship For you will be well acquainted with the state of your own Souls and with the nature and end of this part of your Religion especially if you take some account of your selves every day which will make your account short and easy before the Communion And let not dulness and indisposition be thought a reason why you should forbear to receive it but rather come thither to be quickned And if you continue dull there yet beliâ—ve you have pleased God by doing as he commanded though not so lively as you desired Let us not hear any man say I have not profited thereby and therefore had as good stay away For it is very profitable to do our duty constantly to express our gratitude to God to receive the tokens of his Love to tye our selves faster to him in renewed resolutions of holy obedience to be put in fear of offending him and in hope of his favour and there is no man that with any kind of care partakes of the holy Communion
but receives more or less such benefit as this by it Let no fancy therefore of this nature hinder you but oppose to them all the necessity of doing your duty as well as you are able Some for instance complain of hardness of heart and therefore dare not come but let such understand that it is yielding and compliance to do what Christ hath commanded and not to do it is that very hardness which they bemoan And if any quarrel or contention happen among Neighbours let not that hinder neither but rather let them come to the Communion and there be reconciled It is too much that wâ— have faln out one with another let us not fall out with our God too If these contentions have risen up to heats and anger nay wrath and evil speaking do not continue them by refraining holy Communion but repenting of the evil extinguish all by renewing your Fellowship with God and one with another It hath staid too long if one Sun hath gone down upon your wrath be afraid to let it rest a whole Week till another Communion day be come and gone And suppose this wrath improves into hatreds and enmities which you think you discern in some hearts against you let not that hinder you though it do them but come rather and testify you bear no hatred towards them but are in charity with all men To love an Enemy is the highest proof of our love to God our Saviour And if you be at any time ingaged in a Suit of Law let not that hinder your performance of this duty For Suits at Law to recover or defend that which you judge your right are not sinful nor is it difficult to manage them without sin with a Friendly and Christian mind both parties referring themselves to an indifferent judge and resolving to acquiesce as common reason directs in his sentence for there would be no end of contention if every man should be a judge for himself And do not say it is too great presumption want of humility and modesty to be seen oft at the Lords Table For it can be no presumption to love him very much and to accept of the honour he doth us in inviting nay commanding us there to attend him it will rather be rudeness and careless neglect of him if we do not frequent it And as for other hinderances if we have some Relation or Friend that is sick or we our selves are something out of order or we have been in a Journey or had a Visit to make which could not well be avoided or had a Friend came to see us the day before the Communion with whom we could not but in civility spend a good deal of time these and such like I am ashamed to do more than mention they are so trivial and by no understanding Christian can be thought a reasonable cause for putting by the intention we have at any time of receiving this holy Sacrament I shall only add therefore that the want of something to offer at the Communion which the poor and needy may make an exception against coming to it frequently is no reason to keep any body away from it For God who accepted of the Widow that cast a mite into the Treasury would have accepted her if she had not had a mite to give she having a willing mind to give him even all she had Some must receive relief out of the oblations and it is not required that such should make any but only the oblation of themselves Or if out of the abundance of their Love and Devotion they do as the poor Widow did offer all they have they may and ought to receive back again out of the offerings much more than they gave Let not these therefore nor any other exceptions keep us any longer from this holy duty The ends of which if we often call to mind or rather constantly keep in mind with a resolution frequently to come to the Table of the Lord and there to snow the affection we have to him and the earnest desire of our Souls to partake more and more of his grace that we may be inabled to live better and better and get a more absolute conquest over all those evil lusts and affections which struggle for the Mastery in us and by perswading us to neglect the holy Communion get a great advantage of us we shall be well enough disposed to partake of it with great fruit and profit and no less comfort and joy in God And that at any time when an opportunity presents it self though we have no notice till it comes of the opportunity Suppose it be when we go to see a sick Friend or Neighbour who is desirous to receive the Communion or when we come upon occasion into a Church where we are Strangers and did not know it would be there at that time administred I make no question it will be far more acceptable to our Lord Christ if with no other preparation than I have now mentioned we take the boldness to approach to his Table than if out of a mistaken humility and caution we turn our backs of it and go away because we had not so much time as we desired to dispose our selves for it For the Lords sake let us root out those false notions whereby we are prejudiced against our certain duty and be at the pains to settle true Christian Principles in our minds with a stedfast purpose to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and then we shall find no cause at any time to refuse holy Communion with him but rather be stirred up to embrace the occasion with ardent love and devotion Which the more it burns in our hearts the fewer scruples we shall have in our minds And those few if there be any that remain will soon be overcome when we feel what mischief they do us by keeping us from the most advantageous means of being eternally happy Nay from that present happiness which the sweet tasts of His love and of the benefits He hath purchased by his Death and Passion impart unto those Souls which devoutly partake of the holy Mysteries of Salvation Which were ordained by our Lord saith Theodoret upon Hebr. viii 4. for this very end that beholding the type of them we may call to mind the sufferings themselves he indured for us and may thereby have our love inflamed towards our Benefactor and expect the enjoyment of the good things which are to come hereafter Conclusion THus I hope I have cleared the way to the Table of the Lord so that there is no obstacle left in it to hinder your chearful approach unto it if you have any will to partake of it And the consideration of what I have represented in my First Discourse hath I trust formed such a will in you as the second cannot but dispose all those who seriously weigh it to have a will to do it frequently Unto which I shall