different there is no correspondence upon which a comparison may be made between them Eph. 4.1 that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called i. e. sutably to it and as becomes those that make profession of it And so in all the places where Christians are exhorted to walk worthy of the Lord worthy of God and worthy of the Gospel the true sense of all which the same Apostle expresseth Phil. 1.27 by letting their conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ And thus in all the places in the New Testament in which Men are either exhorted to endeavor or declared to be worthy of the Kingdom of God and worthy of the future glory you are not to understand worthy in the utmost sense of the word as it means merit in the sense in which that is now become matter of Controversie for that is against the constant sense and language of the New Testament but only as it signifies meet and fit and duly qualified for such glory Just as most of the Schoolmen when they come to talk closely of merit distinguish between meritum ex condigno and meritum ex congruo and when they would assert mans merit before God make it at last to dwindle into meritum ex congruo i. e. no merit at all properly speaking but only fitness and meetness to receive blessing from him and truly I do not know one place where the word is used of Man with respect either to God or future glory or doing his duty but it is used only in this sense for meet and fitting and so as becomes him in all these respects Now according to this sense unworthy must needs signifie unfit unmeet and unbecoming and accordingly you shall find it is used in two places in the New Testament which are all the places I think besides this Cup where it is meet with Act. 13.46 Seeing you judge your selves unworthy of everlasting life and 1 Cor. 6.2 Are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters i. e. are you unfit to make peace among the brethren and to umpire the small differences that happen between them This now is the signification and this the use commonly of the word in the New Testament viz. to signifie unfitly unbecomingly and not always unworthily in the strictest sense of that word But yet this is but the general signification of the word and the particular is to be determined by that particular matter that it is applied unto so that to determine that here in this place we need only to inquire what that particular worthiness and becomingness is which ought to accompany the doing any duty or service of our Religion and eating and drinking in the Holy Sacrament unworthily will and must needs be the contrary to it according to this signification of the word Now the great and necessary qualification to render the doing any service of Religion becoming and fit is great reverence and devotion out of a just sense of the sacredness of that service and the greatness of that God that it is done unto and therefore to perform any such service of Religion irreverently rudely carelessly and profanely is to do it unworthily and is that very unworthiness that our Apostle intends in this place And that we ought to understand it so here I think I may safely conclude from these two further considerations 1. The reason of the thing which will not suffer us to understand unworthily in the strict and rigorous signification of it for then no man in this present lapsed state could avoid eating and drinking unworthily after his utmost endeavour and care not to do so The best and most devout Man living falls short of that worthiness and perfection in doing this or any other service of Religion that it should be done with he fails in many circumstances of that exactness that ought to grace all religious performances The Lord is great and cannot worthily be praised as our old Translation renders that passage Psal 96.4 i. e. It exceeds the power of Man in this imperfect State to praise the great God in that sublime manner that he ought to be praised in many things saith S. James we offend all Jam. 3.2 and in all even our best things it is certain we offend in so many circumstances that should God be extream to mark what is done amiss no service of the holiest man living could expect to be accepted by him Who is sufficient for these things crieth the inspired S. Paul 2 Cor. 2.16 and yet he speaks it but of preaching the Gospel it were perhaps proper to move the question concerning this service and that with some advantage too Who is sufficient or able to perform it worthily and what Man is he that can think he dischargeth it anytime in every circumstance so as he ought to do we may safely enough answer the question and say not one So that the very reason of the thing concludes us to this sense of the expression for otherwise no Man living ought to commucate nor could do so without eating and drinking damnation to himself which I believe the strictest urgers of this place to this purpose do not believe Every Man finds it too true in daily experience and every good Man puts it into his daily confessions that he doth greatly fail fall very short of doing this or any other duty so worthily as he ought to do and consequently doth always eat and drink unworthily if that were the signification of that expression 2. The second thing that concludes us to this sense of eating and drinking unworthily is the expression that the Apostle explains it by afterwards in this Text and we need but let him expound his own meaning in order to our right understanding of it now that he doth in the last clause of it not discerning the Lords body this is added by the Apostle both as an explanation of the precedent phrase eating and drinking unworthily and a reason too of that punishment that is due to him that doth so he that eateth and drinketh unworthily doth not discern the Lords body and he that doth not so eateth and drinketh damnation to himself This expression I shall choose to explain in the second place as being indeed the true Key to this Text and what the import of it is we may easily learn both from the phrase and that particular error and miscarriage of these Corinthians which the Apostle doth here perstringe and which this whole discourse hath a direct regard unto The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies not differencing or distinguishing the Lords body and is the word commonly used to signifie the differencing of meats and other things under the Law and being applied here to the body of Christ in the Holy Sacrament it signifieth plainly the eating and drinking the holy Symbols of it as common things The eating that bread as common bread and drinking that cup as common wine the putting no difference between that
the Holy Sacrament which their minds may have entertained upon the reason of them CHAP. II. Having in the former Chapter cleared the true sense of these words I proceed in this to the second general that I proposed to draw some general Conclusions from them which may be proper to be considered in the present case and to which I shall reduce as to so many heads what I intend further to say in this discourse the Collections that I purpose are these three that follow 1. That eating and drinking unworthily in the sense of this place is a thing hardly to be committed by Christians in this age 2. The supposed danger of eating and drinking unworthily is not a sufficient reason for Men to abstain from the Holy Sacrament upon 3. The true purpose of this place is to deter Men from irreverence and rudeness in eating and drinking in the Holy Sacrament and ingage them to that devotion and reverence that becomes them that do discern the Lords body These are three material Collections proper to be considered by all scrupulous persons in this case and therefore I shall endeavour to the utmost of my power and skill to discourse them with that plainness and evidence that they require and deserve I begin with the first eating and drinking unworthily in the sense of this Text is hardly to be committed by Christians in this age In order to the clearing the truth of this Collection it will concern me to do these following things 1. Shew what this eating and drinking unworthily was and wherein this sin of these Corinthians did consist 2. Consider the Circumstances that all Christians now are in which set them almost above the possibility of being guilty of it 3. I shall inquire what can be counted eating and drinking unworthily in proportion to this 4. And consider in the last place whether these also be not almost incompetent to Christians especially to any that are concerned in our present case SECT I. IN order to my discharging the first thing undertaken I shall need but to repeat a little of what I said in the explication of this Text and this phrase in it Not discerning the Lords body is certainly the Key to the meaning of eating and drinking unworthily and by considering the one we may come to the understanding of the other and by examining how the case stood with these Corinthians we may easily understand both By their not discerning the Lords body the Apostle means their not considering that this was an immediate service of Religion and that the morsel of bread which they did eat and glass of wine that they did drink were Sacramentally the very body and blood of Christ they put no difference between these sacred Symbolls of our Lords body and blood and common food and drink nor shewed greater reverence in eating and drinking the one than doing so to the other they ate in Gods House just as they did in their own and made no distinction between this and a common meal Yea and which is something worse yet they did this not only thus irreverently but in intemperance and downright drunkenness for so he tells them vers 21. One is hungry and another is drunk How this monstrous disorder happen'd among them hath been hinted already and may more fully now by giving a short account of the ancient practice of the Church in this matter Now that briefly stood thus the Holy Sacrament was usually prefaced unto by a publick feast of Charity which is called in antiquity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Love-Feast to which you have frequent reference in the New Testament to this Feast every one contributed and brought some portion according to his ability of which all feasted lovingly together reserving some portion for the Holy Sacrament which they always celebrated in the close of this Feast Now this grand profanation of this Holy Service happen'd thus instead of feeding lovingly all together of what was thus brought by all each one fed singly upon his own portion by which it came to pass not only that the poor had little or nothing to eat but the rich had too much which brought them to excess and even to plain drunkenness one is hungry and another drunk in which sad condition approaching to the Table of the Lord they were very unfit to consider the sacredness of it and very unlike to pay that reverence that was due to it That both these things contributed to their not discerning the Lords body and in consequence of that eating and drinking unworthily we may fully satisfie our selves by considering the Apostles dealing with them in the latter part of this Chapter where he falls upon this Argument For because they were so grosly ignorant in the reason and design of the Holy Sacrament he explains that fully to them from Verse 22d to the 27th acquainting them with the Author reason and purpose of this institution that it was an immediate service of Religion instituted by Christ himself just before his suffering and instituted to no meaner a purpose than to be a solemn rite of commemorating his death which should be used in his Church till his coming again to judgment For I have 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 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 when he had supped saying This cup is the New Testament in my blood this do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew the Lords death till he come And because through their scandalous intemperance preceding they so horribly profaned this service therefore he shews them both the sin and great danger of it and presseth them to a serious care to reform it as you may see in the 27 28 29 and 30th Verses 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. But let a man examin himself and so let him eat of this bread and drink of that cup. For he this eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself not discerning the Lords body For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep For if we would judge our selves we should not be judged In which words it is plain he refers to this scandalous abuse of theirs aggravating both the guilt and danger of it in words as high and dreadful as could well be thought on that thereby he might bring them to a dread of it and to the use of those means which he prescribes in order to the reforming of it This in short was the eating and drinking unworthily that the Apostle so sharply taxeth and God
forward to make any thing eating and drinking unworthily which I have reason to believe the Apostle did not intend so I will not be hasty in agreeing with them that do unless I be very well satisfied that the Analogy is true and that the circumstances in both cases be the same 2. Another thing that I would have observed here is this that nothing can be eating and drinking unworthily in analogy to what the Apostle means here but that which argueth or infers as great an irreverence to this service and as gross a profanation of it as this of the Corinthians made them guilty of Their eating and drinking unworthily consisted in this and therefore if men make any thing else to be eating and drinking unworthily like them they must prove the same or as great irreverence and profanation to be in it If they can find any other thing which equally hinders men from discerning the Lords body or yielding any more respect to the sacred Symbols of it than the Corinthians did then I will yield that that may be allowed to come within the guilt of eating and drinking unworthily that the Apostle here refers to This is that Key that lets us into the Apostles meaning in this Text and opens to us his sense of eating and drinking unworthily and therefore if men will use it to any other things they must see that the wards exactly agree or else it will do no more service to them in this cause than a common Key will do towards the opening a Lock which it never was fitted for The Corinthians did eat and drink unworthily because they did not discern the Lords body and therefore those that do eat and drink unworthily like them must as little discern the Lords body as they did This is the rule that we must proceed by in this case if we will conclude rightly concerning any other thing it must be something that sets men as far from discerning the Lords body and renders them as unfit or unable to shew any becoming respect to it as this disorder of the Corinthians did them otherwise it is not eating and drinking unworthily in proportion to them in this the Analogy must truly hold or else all our deductions will miserably fail SECT IV. HItherto we have been smoothing the way and so far I dare say we have gone upon sure ground but now we must advance to a more uncertain and slippery path and to that in which the difficulty pincheth most 3. And that is the third thing proposed viz. to inquire what can according to this rule of proportion be admitted to be eating and drinking unworthily as these Corinthians did what it is that can hinder us from discerning the Lords body and paying that reverence and respect to it in the Holy Sacrament that men ought to pay as that disorder and intemperance of these persons did them This is the main question and the resolution of it will set us pretty well to rights in this difficulty There are but two things that after my best considering of this question I dare pitch upon to bring into any comparison with this unworthiness of the Corinthians and they are these gross ignorance and wilful resolved impenitence I name these two because I think I can make the correspondence to hold and I name no more because I cannot see that Analogy to hold in any others Upon the reason of one of these men cannot and upon the other they will not discern the Lords body and therefore in both cases are as far from any due respect and reverence to it as the Corinthians were I shall consider them distinctly and examin them upon this reason of not discerning the Lords body 1. Gross ignorance I mean it in the great principles of Christian Religion especially in that great mystery of our redemption by Jesus Christ when men understand little or nothing of Christs coming into the world or of the reasons of it or that bitter suffering and death that he underwent for us When they know not what the reason of this institution was or what our Lord would have signified in it If any adult Christian be thus grosly ignorant and being so communicate in this service I do not know how to excuse him from eating and drinking unworthily as the Corinthians did for it is plain in this case he cannot discern the Lords body He will look upon the Elements but as common Bread and Wine he will not consider that they are the Symbols of Christs body and blood and that the breaking of the one is to signifie the breaking of Christs body on the Cross and the pouring out of the other the shedding of his blood for our redemption and that our communicating in these is communicating in the blessed effects and benefits of both He doth not know that by this solemn rite of Religion he is to commemorate with gratitude and transport the amazing love of his dying Lord and that in this he may expect those communications of divine grace that shall strengthen and refresh his soul as really and truly as his body is by the Bread and Wine And being thus profoundly ignorant in these things such a man will eat that morsel of Bread and drink that Wine but just as these Corinthians and their fellow Grecians used to do the like in the end of their feasts as a Concluding Morsel and as a Grace Cup in token of that love which was amongst the ghosts for so they used always to end these their conventions And just like them he will be far enough from apprehending any thing of Religion and Mystery to be in it and consequently to that far enough from that devotion and reverence that becomes every Communicant in this service This was the reason why converts in the ancient times of the Church were usually kept in the rank of Catechumens for some time and competently instructed in the principles of Christian Religion before they were admitted to full Communion and to this service and this is the method that the Church of England proceeds in to this day to have all baptized persons Catechised and competently instructed in their Religion and thereupon Confirmed before she admit them to the Lords Table And by the way I would to God that this were so carefully kept up and practised as it should be and then we should have but little reason to fear any mens such gross ignorance or communicating unworthily upon the reason thereof 2. The other thing that we may allow to be the cause of eating and drinking unworthily in proportion to this of the Corinthians is resolved wilful impenitence In this case it is as plain the Analogy doth hold or indeed exceed rather and the not discerning the Lords body is alike in both cases a resolute impenitent wretch doth as little discern the Lords body as the Corinthians did and besides that doth despight to it instead of shewing forth the Lords death he comes to avow it instead of
it or so grosly irreverent and careless as not to consider it for had they done either much more both they could hardly have been guilty of such profaneness or of eating and drinking unworthily as they did And that is what I would say in this period that whatever the sense of eating and drinking unworthily is in this place the discerning the Lords body will secure men from it and this I shall endeavour to make plain in these following considerations 1. The not discerning the Lords body is here made the reason of their eating and drinking unworthily this I have cleared already to be the reason both of the sin and punishment too from whence it is plain that discerning the Lords body would secure from both for if men eat and drink unworthily because they do not discern the Lords body then if they do discern it they will not eat unworthily for the old rule is true in morality as well as nature and will hold in this instance as well as others take away the cause and the effect will cease 2. But Secondly this appears clear in the nature of the thing for there is a direct and immediate vertue and power in discerning the Lords body to cause in men all those qualifications that render them meet for this service and sufficiently secure them from eating unworthily as the Corinthians did yea and from doing so in any sense like unto them For First in general if men discern the Lords body they will presently perceive that this is a most sacred solemn service of Religion and not any ordinary thing and by this will not only be admonished of that reverence and devotion that it ought to be performed with but strongly induced to it Men naturally have some sense of reverence and aw upon their minds when they are addressing themselves to devotion and when they ingage into the services of Religion And so they will have here also when they consider what a solemn service of Religion this is and hath always been esteemed to be in the Christian Church and truly they can hardly be otherwise if they have any sense of Religion or any dread of the Almighty upon their Spirits And Secondly if men discern the Lords body here so as to understand the special reason of this institution that it is to commemorate the mighty love of our Lord in dying for us that it is to be a religious solemn representation of his meritorious bitter death and passion for our sins they will find that it will even naturally beget in them repentance and faith and joy and charity and thankfulness and a very high sense of the love of God and Christ towards poor sinners These are the highest and meetest preparations for the Holy Sacrament and those qualifications that fit us for the receiving of it and the death of Christ is the highest argument and most powerful means of effecting these in men that God Almighty hath to offer or can use with them The Apostle seems to count it irresistible and such a one as cannot miss of effect upon men that consider it 2 Cor. 5.14 The love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then all were dead c. And truly if Men do thus judge if they do seriously reflect upon the transcendent and amazing love of Christ in dying for the salvation of sinners it will even constrain them to repentance and faith and love almost whether they will or no if the grace of God be irresistible in any argument of the Gospel it is certainly so in this and I will adventure to say it is so far so here that those are monsters of Men or they do not consider things as Men that can resist and defeat the effect of it So that the Holy Sacrament being so sensible a commemoration of this death the very visible representation of it the evident crucifying of Christ before our eyes as the Apostle speaks Gal. 3.1 the true discerning of it and of the Lords body in it will be of the same effect to produce all these things in us I appeal to the experiences of good men for the truth of what I say let them tell you what a mighty efficacy they find in the Holy Sacrament to this purpose and how powerfully they feel their hearts moved to these things by it and truly if we consider the natural causality of things we shall be inclined to think it almost impossible it should be otherwise let us consider them a little singly 1. As for repentance whether it imply sorrow for sin a sense of its mighty evil and danger and a resolution against it or all these together as indeed it doth what can effect this in me if the Holy Sacrament do not can I see the Lords body broken and his blood poured out as I do in the Holy Sacrament for sin and to make the great attonement to the divine justice for sin I say can I see this without a sorrowful reflection upon my own sins which had a hand in this suffering Or can I doubt what a mighty evil sin is which could not be expiated by a meaner sacrifice than the death and suffering of the Son of God or of how dangerous and insupportable effect that punishment must be which the Son of God could not bear without horror and astonishment without fainting and death or lastly can I consider all this without some resolution and purpose to reform from sin and to beware of that whose consequences and issues I see to be so dreadful and insupportable I am sure I cannot consider these things but they will have some effect upon my mind and I am sure if they have not I do not duely consider them 2. And as for faith whether it respect the gracious declarations or kind promises or terrible threatnings in the Gospel or all these can I doubt the truth of any of these when I see the son of God die to confirm it can I question whether God be gracious and ready to forgive sin when I see him exposing his own Son to death that he may with honor do so can I doubt his promises to all penitent sinners when I see the truth of them sealed in his Sons blood or can I think that the divine threatnings of wrath and vengeance against all impenitent wretches will not most certainly be executed on them when I see God inexorable to his own Son and letting him suffer and die rather than permit sin to pass unpunished In a word the whole Covenant that God hath made with man the new Covenant of grace and mercy which the Gospel is the joyful publication of is here as it used to be of old ratified and confirmed by blood and the blood too of the Son of God which is such an assurance and confirmation of its truth as can never fail us and beyond which our faith cannot desire a greater 3. And then as to a mighty sense of the
into carelesness and presumption on the other or from thinking that no preparation is enough imagining that any though never so slight is sufficient I would not encourage any Man in his superstition but I would as little encourage his negligence and profaness I would not willingly scare Men from their duty by telling them stories of the difficulty of doing it and the danger of not doing it aright but I would be as loth to discharge their care from doing it as exactly and well as they can There are some pious and tender Persons in the World that think they ought to set apart so much time and use such a method of preparation for the Holy Sacrament and constantly do it And for my part supposing them to live in such circumstances that they can easily spare so much time without intrenching upon other necessary Duties and without rendering Religion tedious and a burthen to them I discourage them not they do well and in Gods Name let them go on Some time is absolutely necessary for the great affairs of Mens Souls to set all things so far as they can to rights between them and God and no time can be more opportune and proper for such a care than when they are going to the Holy Sacrament and to partake in the greatest manifestations and pledges of God's dearest love to Sinners in giving his own Son to Dye for them But now I would neither have these Persons to impose this their practice upon all others nor those others to think presently that such things are absolutely necessary and that unless they come up to them they ought to stay from the Holy Sacrament as being utterly unworthy and unfit for it For I consider that the Primitive Christians received the Holy Sacrament every Day and in times of Persecution twice every Day as seems very probable from some passages in Antiquity and I can easily consider and satisfie my self that therefore these Persons did not yea could not set aside so much time and be so curious in their preparation every time that they received it The plain truth is they accounted the Holy Sacrament to be as necessary and standing a part of their Daily Devotions as their Prayers or any other publick service of their Religion and as in truth no greater preparation is necessary for one than for the other so it is plain they thought there was not but went to it as constantly and with just the same devotion as they went to their Prayers they thought a Christian good Life an habitual preparation for the Holy Sacrament and a Pious Devotion of Spirit the best way of Receiving it And I am very sure they thought right in this matter and as we ought to think too Would Men endeavour really to approve themselves good Men by leading regular good Christian Lives as they did and as those Persons that seem so scrupulous and fearful pretend to do a very little time an ordinary endeavour and care would suffice to render them fit for the Holy Sacrament Holiness as I said but now is the best preparation for this service a good life is an habitual preparation and Christian devotion and reverence with it is always an actual one and with these two no Man can be unfit to Communicate in it for what those good Men did we may do also would we endeavour to imitate and come up to them in their life we need fear offending God in this service no more than they did it is a very little matter that will fit a good Man for the Holy Sacrament and it is not a little thing that can cause him to receive it unworthily But still I speak not this to supersede or lessen any Man's care to fit himself for this service as well as his time and skill and care will give him leave the better and more exactly that any Man is fitted for it the better it is for him and he can never be too well prepared And therefore I enter this caution that no Man think the contrary of me from any thing that I am going to say on this Argument I am concerned to encounter the contrary extreme and therefore while I go to shew that with an ordinary care a Man may render himself fit to communicate I desire that no Man do presently think that he may be fit without any endeavor or care at all SECT II. ANd now having premised this which I must beg Men's remembring of as we go along I proceed directly to make good the assertion viz. That it is no such mighty difficult a matter to render a Man's self fit for the Holy Sacrament and so to remove and get above the unworthiness that he seems so afraid of which I have proposed to do by three plain arguments The first is by considering what the Apostle here prescribes to these Corinthians to remedy and prevent that their Eating and Drinking unworthily which be blames them for It is not easie to imagine any Men more unfit to receive the Holy Sacrament than they were or to receive it more unworthily than they did And therefore the same measures that he observed with them will be proper for us also in our present case and what was thought sufficient by him to redress this unworthiness in them may be sufficient for us to the same purpose Now all that he saith to this purpose is contained in v. 28. and 31. Let a Man examine himself and so let him Eat of that Bread and Drink of that Cup. And if we would judge our selves we should not be judged of the Lord. This is all that he prescribes in this case for what he saith in v. 33. and 34. doth concern the manner of Eating in their love-feasts and not in the Sacrament as is plain to any that reads them So that in order to our satisfaction in this matter we shall need only to consider what the sum and import of those two Verses are I begin with the latter both because it is the sooner dispatched and because I do not well know whether it so truly intend any thing to be done by them in order to fitting themselves to receive worthily or rather prescribe the way of expiating and attoning for the Guilt of their having Eaten and Drank unworthily but if it do imply somthing of this nature then the meaning of it is only this Let us judg our selves for our errors and failings that we may anticipate and prevent God's Judging of us Now in this sence it respects and injoyns only the matter of Christian repentance by which we reconcile our selves to God assoil our selves of our Sins and so become fit to receive the pledges of Divine Grace and pardon offered to us in that Holy Sacrament But I put this but only upon supposition and that I might not be thought to conceal any thing that can be supposed to be prescribed by the Apostle to this purpose for I am apt to believe that this as I said
shall leap too far and never think himself removed enough from it till he sits down quite in the other extream The Nature of Man is sullen or impetuous and like a restive beast either unwilling to stir at all or to run away without any restraint or moderation and our spightful enemy is watchful and cunning and knows too well how to impose upon us It is indifferent to him in which extremity we fix since he knows both to be equally destructive to us and therefore he not only willingly permits but sometimes purposely pusheth on a transition from one to the other that he may the more effectually secure our destruction Since he not only gratifieth our humor and affectation of novelty and change thereby but cheats us into an opinion of being Converts and having quitted our sins when alas we have only shifted the Scene but the same act is continued still the same evil sticks close to us only it appears in another Garb and is acted in a differing instance There are not many instances in which all this is more unhappily visible at this day than in Mens deportment and carriage towards the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper from despising it on one hand Men come to dread it on the other and from thinking any preparation almost too much they come to believe that none is enough for it Time was when Christians crowded to this Holy repast as the Doves do to their own windows and the good Fathers of the Church were imployed in directing them how to come and not in perswading them to it heretofore want of due preparation was the crime but now neglect and contempt is the great guilt Men cannot have arguments against their coming unduly and unpreparedly to the Lords Table but they carry those arguments too far and make them to conclude against their coming at all That which S. Paul used as an argument to reform one Error among the Corinthians we have improved into an excuse of a worser among our selves and what he intended to shew the danger of coming amiss we make use of to fright our selves from coming at all Our duty lies in the middle and both these extremities are equally distant from it it is the latter of these which is the great distemper of this time and which this discourse is designed to endeavour the cure of and in order thereto to consider those words of S. Paul 1 Cor. 11.29 which sound so terribly to some men and which they have improved into so great an exception against coming to the Holy Sacrament for whosoever eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself not discerning the Lords Body From which words a great many Men have taken up a superstitious fear and dread to approach the Table of the Lord and from thence have fallen into an unchristian neglect and disregard of this service apprehending some extraordinary guilt would be contracted and some mighty danger incurr'd by any little failure in it above what may be feared or contracted in any of the other services of Religion though they do not perform them so well as they ought to do To this purpose you may hear them argue at this rate You see what a mighty great deal of preparation is necessary to our receiving the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper and that upon no less a hazard than eternal damnation you hear the Apostle saying expresly that whosoever eateth this Bread and drinketh this Cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord and eateth and drinketh damnation to himself And what now would you have us to do We are very sensible of our own infirmity and know too well how far we shall fall short after all our care of being worthy to ingage in such a sacred service of Religion or discharge it so worthily as we ought to do and therefore since we know this beforehand is it not much safer to sit still than to run so great a hazard choose rather not to eat and drink at all than to damn our selves by doing so unworthily This is really the case and these are the reasonings of too many men the great danger of eating and drinking unworthily frights them from this service and they chuse rather wholly to neglect their duty than to venture so great a stake upon the undertaking of it This is that error and fault of Men that I would vindicate these words of S. Paul from having any influence upon and I am very confident whether I can successfully do this or not the Apostle was far enough from any such intention or thought in them his meaning was only to direct to carefulness and reverence in doing this duty and by no means to discourage or fright Men from it In the prosecution of this design I have proposed to do these three things I. To give a plain though short account of the sense of these words II. Draw some general deductions from them which I judge proper to satisfie these fears of Men and take off those objections which they make against coming to the Holy Sacrament upon the reason of them III. To make some plain practical reflections upon the whole Argument CHAP. I. The first thing proposed in this Discourse is to give a plain Exposition of these Words to which purpose it will be necessary to consider the import of three Expressions in them 1. WHat is the true sense of eating and drinking unworthily in this place 2. What discerning or not discerning the Lords body means 3. What we are to understand by damnation and by eating and drinking damnation in this Text. By considering these we may perhaps gain something towards the understanding the true intent and meaning of the Apostle in this place and freeing our minds from those affrightments which men are fallen into from their mistaking of it 1. In order to the understanding the true meaning of eating and drinking unworthily it may not be unexpedient to consider what the signification of the word is in other places that secondly we may better know what there is to determine the sense of it in this place 1. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render unworthily may perhaps best be understood by considering what the signification and use of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is which it is the opposite unto Now though that do indeed signifie worthy in the strictest and most rigorous sense of worthy yet in the New Testament it is oftner used to signifie that which is fit and becoming or at least as often used in this sense as the other Thus to instance in a few places in Luke 3.8 bring forth fruits worthy of repentance that is such as are becoming repentance or as 't is rendered Mat. 3.8 meet for repentance in Rom. 8.18 for I reckon that the sufferings of this present world are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in Christ i. e. they are vastly
and after the Holy Comunion and we may commonly see that they do so Men have generally more veneration for Religion than to go drunk to Church or dare to appear before God when they are so unfit to do so And yet even these Men have a higher sense of and a greater veneration for the Holy Sacrament than other services of Religion and a mightier horror and dread of coming carelesly and without respect unto it Yea the very same men that dare so irreverently and regardlesly attend other Ministeries of Religion yet are seen to be very serious and devout in this They that can sit at prayers as if God were rather petitioning and praying to them than they to him They that can lay themselves down to sleep at a Sermon and perhaps sooner fall into sleep on a hard bench there than the softest down in their own houses they in a word that can behave themselves in Gods house with as little reverence and shew of devotion as they do in a Warehouse or a Stable yet when they approach the Table of the Lord seem generally very reverent and devout and I hope really are so 5. There is yet a fifth thing that may pertinently be observed as of effect to secure Men against this profanation of the Holy Sacrament and that is their having been so long taught what a mighty deal of preparation is necessary to it and having been so loudly alarmed with the great danger of communicating unworthily in it This hath been the current Doctrin and the common way of dealing with Men for some ages The great business of the good Fathers was not to perswade Men to come to the Holy Sacrament for that they always accounted their necessary duty and till this last age none ever counted to pass for Christians that neglected it and therefore their business was only to direct the zeal and devotion of Christians in this instance and not to excite it to direct and instruct Men how to come acceptably and as they ought and not to argue with them about the duty of coming and therefore there is so much met with in their writings about the necessity and way of due preparation and so little about the obligation to come many books written to instruct Men in the methods of due preparation but there was no necessity of insisting upon that which is our chief task and business at present For in the latter part of this feculent and almost worst of ages Men have run their instructions and doctrins into the other extreme pressed so much the necessity of an extraordinary preparation and aggravated so mightily the danger of receiving unworthily that Men are frighted from the Sacrament rather than invited to it and have thought it as I said before safer to keep wholly from it than to run so great a hazard in the observation thereof These things we find stick fast in Mens minds yet and it is a hard thing to dispossess them of that superstitious fear that these doctrines have struck them with Men are now in more danger to run into the contrary extreme than to fall into this in more danger to stay wholly from the Holy Sacrament upon this dread of it than to run to it carelesly and without any due regard of the sacredness of it Upon these reasons it may I think safely be said that Christians now are in little danger of this sin and almost out of a possibility of eating and drinking unworthily in the sense of this Text and which the Apostle taxeth the Corinthians for SECT III. HAving proceeded so far upon the strict sense of this place and the direct design of the Apostle in it I go on to a material scruple and a very important inquiry very fit to be considered and resolved And that is whether nothing be eating and drinking unworthily besides this doth a Man never eat and drink unworthily but when he comes drunk to the Lords Table doth not this open a gate to very great looseness and carelesness and make communicating worthily a very light and easie thing to what purpose needed the good Fathers of the Church to have taken so much pains to direct Men how to fit and prepare themselves for this service and have pressed the observance of those prescriptions with so much earnestness as they did if this where the only instance in which Men could eat and drink unworthily This I call a very considerable inquiry and therefore I shall endeavour to give it as plain and full satisfaction as I am able It seems to consist of several parts to all which I shall endeavour to suit proper answers in these following propositions 1. Whatever Men may say or think in this matter this only is that eating and drinking unworthily that the Apostle means in this place and to which he threatens this punishment This I have cleared already and need not stand repeating it again not considering the Lords Body but eating the Holy Sacrament as a common meal being as regardless and intemperate at the Lords Table as Men commonly are at their own was that sin of the Corinthians which the Apostle here taxeth and which he calls eating drinking unworthily Now if Men would consider this it would be one good step towards their satisfaction in this case and of good use towards the removing their fear of eating unworthily For why should men fear incurring the same guilt unless they committed the same sin and while they are very sure they shall not commit the one why should they discourage and afflict themselves with fears of the other It is neither safe nor fair dealing to apply passages of Scripture beyond their own proper intendment and few things have done more harm in Divinity than this As we cannot establish or prove the truth of doctrines from the bare chiming of words or because some sayings may be found in Scripture that seem to found to our sense and purpose no more ought we hastily to extend reproofs and threatnings beyond their own proper matter As for example to make this clear in a parallel case Every failure of a Clergy-man in the discharge of his publick duty is not presently to be thought to be Nadab and Abihu's offering of strange fire nor is presently to expect the like miraculous punishment from heaven No more ought we to conclude that every failure in eating and drinking the Holy Sacrament is presently that eating and drinking unworthily that the Corinthians were guilty of or that every Christian is therefore liable to the same damnation that we think they were threatned withal The Corinthians did not discern the Lords body made no difference between the Sacrament and a common meal came drunk to the Lords Table and in a condition that made them utterly unable to pay any respect or reverence to the Symbols of their Lords body and blood and therefore were sharply threatned and punished too but what is all this to thee that even tremblest at the thoughts of
such horrible profaness why needst thou discourage and fright thy self from coming to the Holy Sacrament with fear of the same guilt and punishment when thou art very sure thou shall not commit the same sin and let me add when if thou hast the least sense of Religion in thee and dost in any measure discern the Lords body thou canst not commit it But now some Men may yet reply what did this passage so solely concern the Corinthians that it respects none else is there no use that we may make of it nor any instruction to our selves that we may improve it into I answer why yes we may and there is scarce any other such passage in holy Scripture but we may improve so too and there are two very useful improvements that we may make of this to our own advantage 1. The first is to ingage our utmost care and caution against the same sin and this is the prime principal and most proper improvement of it to take heed that we do not sin after the similitude of transgression that they did This the Apostle tells us in a like case the threatenings of punishments that fell upon the Jews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were our examples and intended as admonitions to us that we should not lust and become Idolaters and murmurers as they were 1 Cor. 10.6 and 10. and it ought to be just so here also the threatnings and punishments of the Corinthians for their gross and scandalous profanation of the Holy Sacrament ought to caution us against the like irreverence But I do not understand any good reason why we should afflict our selves with apprehensions and fears of the same punishment while thanks be to God we are far enough from the same sin any more than there is reason for those men presently to expect the Plague the exterminating Angel the fiery Serpents that destroyed the Idolatrous and Lustful Israelites who were never guilty of any uncleanness or idolatry like theirs 2 But we may go further yet in our improvements of this and such passages in the Holy Scriptures i. e. to ingage our care not only against the same sin but any thing that looks like it or comes near it It is not safe coming within the reach of a danger nor approaching so near as the Verge of a sin if a man can help it a wise man will not only beware of the same sin that he sees so sharply threatned and punished but even of any that looks like it And as every Clergy-man that ministers before the Lord may by the sin and punishment of Nadab and Abihu learn to be very careful in the discharge of his sacred function So every Christian by considering the sin of the Corinthians and what befell them for it may learn how greatly it concerns him to be devout and reverent at the Lords table and to take heed of every thing that looks like a profanation of that Sacred Ordinance But as I do not know any reason why he should think every little failure of his to be the same unworthy eating and drinking that they were guilty of no more do I know any cause why he should presently dread the same punishment that was inflicted upon them 2. But I advance a second proposition in further answer to this question viz. That although this be the only true notion of eating and drinking unworthily in this Text yet it is possible that Men may fix that notion upon other things by the rule of Analogy and proportion I mean there may perhaps be some other things that may cause a Man to eat and drink unworthily in some proportion to what the Corinthians did So that I am far from saying that no man needs fear eating and drinking unworthily but he that is drunk at the Lords Table There may possibly be other things to bring a man within that guilt as well as that and this is as much I think as can be required in this objection But then I say withal these two things which I would have always considered as the conditions of this concession 1. That whatever those things are that men think to bring within the compass of this guilt they do it but reductively and as I said but only by analogy and proportion Those sins whatever they be are not primarily intended in this place but brought in only by our own arts of deduction and reasoning in which we may possibly be mistaken and which are far from being so certain as the discourse of the Apostle is So that if men will needs bring in other things within the compass of this guilt and within the reach of this punishment besides what the Apostle intends and speaks of they ought to be infinitely careful and very sure that the Analogy will hold and that their own deductions be rational and certain This is absolutely necessary in all arguments that proceed upon proportion the cases and circumstances must exactly correspond or else the argument will not only be weak but trifling too And when we consider how uncertain the most confident mens reasonings commonly are and how very subject they are to be mistaken in them it will be a hard matter to know certainly when their inferences may be depended upon and when not So that men have great need to be very careful in their discourses of this matter what they do determine to be eating and drinking unworthily besides what the Apostle meant for though they may seem to themselves and perhaps others too to have the safer side of the question and to pursue a design which may seem the better of the two i. e. to secure a mighty reverence to the holy Sacrament above what the other doctrin seems to do Yet they may be so far mistaken as thereby to occasion a greater mischief and while they go unwarily to ingage men to come with that exactness of preparation and care that they would have them to come with they may possibly fright them from coming at all and to deal freely and plainly I do not know a more likely way to do this by than by being too free in such inferences enlarging the notion of eating and drinking unworthily and extending it to things which it is certain the Apostle never meant I am very much mistaken if this be the safer side of the question I think it much better that a man retain some sense of his duty and take some competent care to do it though it be but imperfectly and far from that exactness that it ought to be done with than that he wholly neglect it and live as if we were unconcerned in it and for my own part I would much rather bring men to do their duty and set about it as well as they can than by any doctrin of mine encourage them to sit down in a careless neglect and disregard of it I would much rather encourage men to their duty than fright them from it and therefore as I will not be very
commemorating the love and blessing of it with joy and transport he comes to put a scorn and affront upon it instead of reflecting upon it with sorrow and shame for the sins that caused it he comes to repeat it and to justifie all the barbarous indignities of it instead of improving it into an argument of repentance and reformation he comes to deride it to insult over it and resolved to continue in his sins in plain defiance and spight of it This in the Language of the Apostle is called Crucifying afresh the Lord of glory and putting him again to the same open shame trampling under foot the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was redeemed and should have been sanctified Heb. 10.29 And truly is in effect a seconding all the malice and spight of the Jews avowing the treachery of Judas justifying the Sentence of Pilate and vindicating the barbarous and remorseless cruelty of the Roman Soldiers yea and let me say is in him that professeth Christianity really exceeding and outdoing them all The guilt of most of the orher is capable of some extenuation either ignorance prejudice or interest but what shall excuse such a mans guilt or can be pleaded in extenuation of it who hath been baptized into the faith of Christ and solemnly vow'd love and obedience to him as his Saviour and Lord and yet wilfully outdoeth the greatest indignities and affronts that his most treacherous servant or most implacable enemies could offer to him This was one great reason why the discipline of the Church in her primitive times of purity was so very strict and sharp Why she was so quick to observe and as careful to punish all notorious and profligate offenders by suspending them from all Communion with her and not admitting them to this highest act of it 'till they had given full testimony of their repentance and sound amendment well knowing how unfit such persons are to communicate in such sacred and divine mysteries besides a great deal of other mischief that they do And were this discipline preserved and duly exercised as the Church of England requires and desires it should there would be none to incur this horrible guilt or be guilty of this lamentable profanation the honour of the Holy Sacrament would be secured and this high profanation of it be effectually prevented and provided against SECT V. ANd if we consider things well we shall find that things are not so bad among us but that both these instances upon which men may Communicate unworthily are pretty well provided against or however that they are not committable by any Christians that offer themselves to the Holy Sacrament or have any fears upon them of coming unworthily to it let us consider how circumstances stand in relation to both 1. And first as to this gross and scandalous ignorance how much soever some men have made it their business to cry out against and taken liberty to traduce the members of our Church as a company of blind and ignorant creatures thinking that there could be light no where but where themselves shined and that nothing but darkness and ignorance must succeed when such lights as themselves were removed and their instruction of the people ceased Yet thanks be to God care is taken that people be competently instructed in the principles of Christian Religion and I hope much better than they have been the generality of the members of our Church I believe do competently understand their Religion and any one is impardonable that doth not I am sure instruction and knowledge is not hid from them but they have both in as plentiful a measure as it may be the Church hath ever injoyed It is not easie for them to remain ignorant under such advantages and means of knowledge as they enjoy and if they apply their minds to them as the Church begs them to do they cannot do so I would not be afraid to have the comparison made between the members of the Church of England and the proselites to any of the various sects among us if the tryal were made it would be found who are the ignorant who truliest understand what Christian Religion means notwithstanding they may be undervalued and reproached by ignorant conceited and supercilious opposers If I may be allowed to speak my observation I would say that of all the people that I ever conversed yet with some that think so highly of themselves have I found to be most truly ignorant Knowing and well skill'd I confess in the little distinctions of their sects pert and bold in quarrelling with the Church and offering their little exceptions against it c. a sign that in these they are chiefly instructed but as really ignorant in the true grounds and principles of Christian Religion as the meanest of those which they so scornfully and imperiously pity as poor ignorant people But these things call me too much out of my way I only mention them to shew that men cannot well be counted so grosly ignorant as to bring them under the danger of eating unworthily upon that reason and that if any should chance to be so it is their own fault only and the Church is wholly free and to be acquitted from being in the least accessary to it but I pass the further prosecution of this and proceed to what is more pertinent to my purpose And that is to shew by what measures a man may judge himself and his knowledge in this matter and what those measures of knowledge are that will set him above all this danger and I dare pronounce him to have attained to these that hath so much knowledge as enables him to understand that Christ died for the redemption of mankind to satisfie for the sins of the world and to purchase pardon for men upon the Conditions of repentance and faith in him that the Holy Sacrament is instituted to be a commemoration of this death of Christ to give God Almighty hearty and devout praise for it and to assure us that if we truly believe in Christ and his merits repenting us of our sins and resolving by Gods grace to lead a good life we shall be pardon'd for what is past and enabled to perform what we resolve for the future truly upon These are no mighty arduous or difficult measures of knowledge a man that is a grown Christian and hath lived under the instruction of the Church can hardly be thought so ignorant as to come within the danger of eating and drinking unworthily upon this reason he will be able to discern the Lords body to understand that this is a sacred and religious service and to put a difference between it and a common meal he will understand what it means what he ought to do what to expect and what posture to put himself into when he doth approach to the Table of his Lord. 2. But the more important and seeming difficulty is yet behind and that is to apply what I say to the second thing
'till they have a little better strengthened their good resolutions and tempers than to venture presently upon that service which they may abuse and profane by being false to the resolutions they take up and the promises which they make in it This is the case and to the scruple taken up upon it I return these three things in answer and satisfaction to it 1. That every man ought indeed to be true to his vows and promises as near as he can and when he hath taken up such a resolution and given his faith to God he ought to perform it and to do his utmost to stand to it It is certainly a dreadful fault to play fast and loose with God almighty to promise and never take any due care to perform what a man doth promise there is not a sadder instance of a loose careless trifling spirit than to be prodigal in our promises and niggardly in our payments of them to be forward upon all occasions to promise great things to God what reformed what good men we will become and be but yet to be regardless and careless afterwards whether we be such or not and never to apply our selves in earnest to make good what we have promised and to put our good purposes in execution 2. But yet Secondly a mans doing thus afterwards doth not make his Communicating in the Holy Sacrament to be eating and drinking unworthily in any proportion to what is intended in this Text. His having received the Holy Sacrament may aggravate the guilt of his after failure but that subsequent failure doth not so affect his precedent communicating as to render it eating and drinking thus unworthily if the purpose of the mind be then serious and sincere his receiving the Holy Sacrament is far enough from being unworthy or faulty and as I said his failing afterwards doth not affect it all But then do I consider what I say can that purpose of mind be sincere and serious which afterwards is not put in execution doth not a mans failing afterwards to make it good shew that he was perfidious and an hypocrite in making of it why no I say it doth not a man may be in earnest and sincere in making a promise and taking up a resolution and yet possibly fail of making it good afterwards his failing afterwards is no argument that he was not in earnest when he made it it is argument indeed of his carelesness and irresolution but it may arise from a thousand reasons besides his falsehood or hypocrisie when he made it Many a man in the time of affliction and sickness for example makes fair promises to God what he will be and what he will do if God please to spare him and this I doubt not really and in earnest and with a sincere purpose of mind at that time to be or to do as he promiseth and yet afterwards that sense of things may wear of and that purpose of mind abate and that specious promise may come finally to nothing but this is not because the man was not then really in earnest but because afterwards he is careless and trifling and easily led away with temptations that interfere with his former promise and purpose of mind And so I doubt not it may be and too often is with men when they come to the Holy Sacrament their pious purposes for that time may be sincere and in earnest and yet afterwards wear off and come to nothing 3. And therefore Thirdly I affirm a man in this case doth come with one great qualification which should attend his communicating in the Sacrament i. e. a purpose of repentance and reformation and which will most certainly secure him against all possibility of eating and drinking unworthily in the sense of this Text or any like it So that instead of staying away for fear that he should change his mind afterwards he ought I think the rather to come that he may not do so the great reason certainly lies on this side seeing there is not any better course that he can at present take to fasten his good purpose and to secure it of effect than this for by this means he will make his promise more solemn and affecting upon himself cause it to stick the deeper and closer upon his own thoughts and receive that grace most infallibly from God which if he be faithful and true unto his pious resolution will continue and he may be enabled to act according to the intention of it SECT VI. 4. I Add now a fourth thing worthy to be considered in order to our satisfaction in this inquiry viz. that whatever the sense of eating and drinking unworthily is in this Text or whatever men can think to be like it discerning the Lords body will secure them from it What discerning the Lords body means I have shewed already and I need repeat very little of it again it means these two things First putting a difference between the consecrated Elements and common Bread and Wine the looking upon the Holy Sacrament as an immediate duty and service of Religion and consequently performing it with that devotion and seriousness that reverence and respect that men use to shew in other services of Religion the want of this was the cause that made the Corinthians to eat unworthily and provoked God to punish them with sundry diseases and death as he afterwards tells them they did not make any difference between this and a common meal in their own Houses they did not take it to be any peculiar act of Religion they came intemperate and drunk to the Lords Table and therefore to be sure were far enough from that reverence and devotion that so sacred a service ought to have been performed with Secondly discerning the Lords body means something more not only to look upon this Holy Sacrament as a solemn and immediate act of Religion but as the Sacrament and immediate representation of Christs body i. e. his body broken and slain for the sins of the world and the Communicating therein to be the commemoration of his death and partaking in the blessed effects of it to look beyond the Elements to that which they are designed to signifie and Sacramentally are to look upon the bread not as common bread but the substitute of Christs body and the wine not as ordinary wine but the figure of his blood and so regarding the whole service both as the most devout and solemn commemoration of Christs death and passion for the expiation of our sins and partaking as truly and effectually in the benefits and blessings of his body and blood as if we did eat and drink that very body and blood themselves This is the great end of this service and the reason of our Lords institution of it and to discern the Lords body is to understand it so and look upon it as such which it is most certain these Corinthians were far from doing either so ignorant as not to understand the reason of
blessed it and brake it and gave to the Disciples saying take eat this is my body And he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying drink ye all of this for this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins Here it is plain the Sacrament is instituted by our Saviour and delivered to his Disciples with a command to eat and drink of it and you meet with the very same words Mark 14.22 23 24. In S. Luke the matter is something plainer where it is not only instituted by our Saviour as the others relate it but a command given for their doing it likewise after his death in remembrance of him Luk. 22.19 And he took bread and gave thanks and brake it and gave unto them saying this is my body which is given for you do this in remembrance of me And that it was not a command that injoyned the doing of this at that time only S. Paul shews clearly in 1 Cor. 11.23 24 25 26. where it is observable that he speaks of it as a thing which our Lord charged him also with as well as the other Apostles For I have received that of the Lord which I also delivered unto you that the Lord Jesus in the same night that 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 when he had supped saying this Cup is the New Testament in my blood this do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me for as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew the Lords death till he come I beseech men to consider what is said in all these places and then to say if any thing can be plainer if there ever was or could be a more plain command than this is do this in remembrance of me if this be not an express command never any was such and if we may disobey this at our pleasure I know not why we may not disobey all others as well 2. It is not only a command a positive institution that relies only upon the will and authority of Christ commanding it but upon a very great and good reason and is recommended upon an argument that shews it to be eternally reasonable and becoming Not only do this as S. Matthew and S. Mark speak but do this in remembrance of me as S. Luke and S. Paul relate the matter which the latter repeats again as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye shew the Lords death till he come These words make it to relie upon a reason that is both becoming and obliging also even until the final coming of our Lord to Judgment for nothing can be more reasonable and fit in it self than to keep up in the Christian Church the solemn and most grateful remembrance of Christs death and they that can think otherwise are unworthy to share in the benefits of it Besides the instituting of it to this end makes it perpetually obliging also I mean to the end of the world and as long as there shall be a Christian Church in it for so long it will be fit to keep up the memory of it and this reason will not only hold but improve and grow stronger in every succeeding age and period of the world in which the sense and memory of it will be in danger to expire and wear off so that every such age will rather have greater than lesser reason to keep up this solemn commemoration of it 3. To these intimations I may add one thing very considerable to our purpose from the practice of the Apostle and the circumstances of his discourse in this Chapter a learned Man hath taken notice of them before me so that I shall but just name them First that the Apostle takes so much pains to instruct the Corinthians in the right way of Communicating in the Holy Sacrament and to reform the profanation of it that they were guilty of Now can any man reasonably think that he would have done this if he had not looked upon it as a necessary duty tied upon Christians by Christs own command and institution Certainly no he that gives direction how to do a duty supposeth the obligation and necessity of it or else he speaks to little purpose And as that great Man speaks can any man think the way and manner of doing an action to be a duty and yet that action it self no duty this is not supposable And we may be sure the Apostle would never have spent so great a part of this Chapter in directing how to eat and drink how to order and prepare themselves for it but that he looked on it as a duty necessarily incumbent on them nor be so impertinent as to concern and busie himself in directing the circumstances of an action which was not necessary to be done but arbitrary and at their pleasure whether to do it or no. The second circumstance is what I observed before that he did this even when the Corinthians run a very great hazard and incurred a grand guilt by their profanation of this service and coming so unworthily to it Certainly had the Apostle looked upon this as any thing less than a necessary duty he would have gone another way to work with them he would have discoursed to them at another rate and have told them it were much the better and safer way to stay away from the Sacrament than incur so great guilt and punishment by coming so unworthily this would have been the advice that a great many Men now according to their principles would have given to them and indeed do give themselves and others too But it is evident the Apostle speaks not one word to this purpose nor knew of any warrant he had to do so he had no authority to grant them any indulgence or licence to stay away though they were apt to come so very unfitly He was to recommend it as a necessary duty and to press the serious and becoming observation of it but he had received no warrant from the Lord to dispense with that observation he would have them to look upon the Sacrament as a necessary standing service of their Religion to count it their duty to eat and drink and his province was only to direct them how they might do it acceptably and not to their condemnation These Considerations are sufficient to convince all Christians that this is a plain necessary indispensable duty instituted and intended by our Lord to be a standing service in his Church 'till his second coming to judge the world And its being so becomes one very good argument to our present purpose and a good foundation to superstruct the truth of our observation upon for that which is necessary must be done and the
no more is intended but this you do by your own follies and faults expose your selves to the wrath of God you provoke him yea you even force him to afflict and punish you who is otherwise merciful and gracious unwilling and slow to punish the work of his own hands 2. But I add Secondly so do men do by other failures and miscarriages as well as this and there is no more immediate or direct influence upon a mans own misery or destruction in one case than in the other It is most certain every mans destruction is of himself and there are many ways by which men incense God against them and provoke him to punish them and amongst those this is one they do in this miscarriage as they do in many others draw down the divine judgments upon themselves but they do in this but just what they do in others and for my part I know no reason to make any great difference upon I know too well that some men who had designs to serve by scaring men from the Holy Sacrament have invented terrible phrases and used frightful ways of speaking in this matter but I do not know what reason there is for them nor whether it be worth my stay to examin them Those that have so commonly called the Chalice a cup of poyson and compared unworthy drinking the one to a wilful drinking of the other I think stand accountable to God for a disparagement and dishonour to the blood of Christ next to blasphemy and are highly concerned to consider how they can answer it Those that talk so dreadfully of mens stabbing their own souls in this and becoming self-murtherers c. use words of fancy which signifie nothing but by a figure and nothing in this case more than all others where men heedlesly or wilfully prevaricate their duty and incense God against them And those that tell us that men do in this seal their own damnation and even covenant with God to be damned beside that they speak only of their own heads speak it upon a great mistake of the reason why the Sacraments are sometimes called Seals by Divines and by the Holy Scriptures too I know Circumcision is once called by S. Paul a Seal Rom. 4.11 but I do not know whether this be presently a good warrant for calling all the Sacraments of the New Testament Seals or not But if I do allow this Holy Sacrament to be a Seal I must have it remembred that it is a Seal on Gods part and not on ours and that Divines mean thus when they thus speak God Almighty is pleased to ratifie and confirm the truth of the everlasting Covenant to us by these Symbols and Seals of it if you please to call them so and in some sense to Sealâ— the Truth of his own gracious promises but I do not so well understand how they are Seals on our part or what we can be said to Seal unto in any other than a metaphorical and borrowed way of speaking It is very true Gods Covenant and the Promises of it are made to us upon the conditions of faith and obedience and though these are not only supposed in them that come to the Holy Sacrament and may in some sense be said to be promised and adstipulated unto by them at such times yet that is but a collateral and secondary design of the Holy Sacrament the prime design of it is to confirm our faith in God and not to Seal our obedience unto him and the Sacraments are but just such arguments and engagements upon us to become good men as our faith in the divine promises is which are all made to us only upon that condition and he that testifies his belief of those promises doth oblige himself to that condition or else he believes like a fool and upon no reason at all But had I not said one word of this matter I might safely have replied that whatever men may be said to Seal to in the Holy Sacrament it is not to their own damnation Why yes say some but those that eat unworthily do so for he that Seals with God for life and salvation upon the condition of faith and obedience doth in effect Seal to his own damnation upon his failing to believe and to obey But I say still this is a great mistake for the Contract or Covenant is only about salvation and the incurring damnation no part of it at all but only by consequence and by reason of mens failing to make good the conditions thereof infidelity and disobedience will as certainly forfeit salvation with the Sacrament as with it and I do not see that an ill man is in a surer way to damnation after the Sacrament than he was in before it I do not speak thus to lessen the obligation that receiving the Holy Sacrament lays upon all to dead good lives nor in the least to insinuate that breaking our promises then made to God is not a very great sin and that which must be severely accounted for but only to extenuate or take off that dread of coming to the Holy Sacrament which is brought upon mens spirits when they hear such terrible things said of it But still this is a matter besides our present question for whatever guilt or damnation a man may contract and incur by failing to perform the promise that he makes to God and seems to Seal in the Holy Sacrament it is a thing which respects his failing to live as he should after it and not his eating and drinking unworthily in it the guilt is contracted after his receiving the Holy Sacrament and not at it and whatever damnation he may incur by his fault afterwards yet he did not Seal to his own damnation in it I might add another consideration pertinent to our present purpose here but that I have said it already that there is no reason to dread any such extraordinary guilt in eating and drinking amiss above what may be justly feared in doing other duties of Religion amiss But this I have considered and I hope sufficiently made good before and therefore must refer to that place for it And only consider two short surmises that may be entertained against this assertion and explication of this phrase 1. That this is really a greater profanation of Christian Religion than failure in other services of it is this is counted the most high sacred and venerable service in our Religion and hath always been so esteemed and called in the Christian Church I confess it hath and such a gross profanation of it as the Corinthians were guilty of is certainly a very heinous sin but that doth not render every imperfection and failure in Communicating the greatest sin that may be or higher presently than men can commit in other services of their Religion 2. But the Apostle seems plainly to say so Verse 17. Whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and
blood of the Lord. But whatever that expression may seem to imply it doth really signifie no more than the expression in this Text that I am all this while considering it means only this in plain English that such persons are guilty of a great disrespect and dishonour to the body and blood of Christ of which the Bread and Wine in the Holy Sacrament are the representatives and Symbols for a profanation of these reflects upon him whom they represent and was ever interpreted and thought to do so The sense is well expressed in this Text not discerning the Lords body i. e. not considering what a sacred and venerable thing they represent and signifie and therefore using them with as little respect or religious regard as men do common bread and wine in their own houses This I have shewed the Corinthians did and something worse and the truth is the guilt of such a gross profanation cannot well be represented in too terrible a phrase So that still for any thing either said in this Text or that can reasonably be deduced from the phrase of it my argument stands firm viz. that there is no greater punishment threatned to a failure in this than may be dreaded upon the like failure in other services of our Religion Damnation signifies here only divine judgment and punishment at large and there is no reason to restrain it only to that tremendous punishment in hell Yea there is that plain in the context which is evidently against that sense of it for when the Apostle had spoken of damnation here he presently instanceth in temporal inflictions being sick and weak and falling asleep all which he not only calls being chastened in this world but being chastened that they should not be condemned with the world And then consonantly to this the eating and drinking this damnation to a mans self signifieth no more than exposing a mans self and becoming obnoxious to these punishments and chastenings of the Lord. These things I think are plain sufficient to make out the truth of my argument and in consequence of that to shew how much wide of the Apostles meaning here those men argue that talk so dreadfully of everlasting damnation being eminently due to every failure in mens receiving the Holy Sacrament and that they stand accountable to God for a greater sin and an higher profanation of Religion in this then they do by their miscarriages in other duties and services of it SECT III. WEll but because it may yet be objected against the purpose of this argument that whatever the minute and prime signification be yet eating and drinking unworthily cannot but be accounted a great sin highly affrontive to the body and blood of our Lord and therefore a high provocation of God and a fault that he may most justly punish with eternal damnation Therefore I proceed to the second thing that I proposed on this argument that whatever the meaning of damnation be in this place yet men do not deal fairly in urging it against coming to the Holy Sacrament or staying from it upon that reason And this I shall endeavour to make good upon these two reasons amongst others First because if it should mean eternal damnation yet it is not threatned to every degree of eating and drinking unworthily but only to that gross and monstrous doing this that the Corinthians were guilty of And Secondly because this damnation doth not restrain men from other sins which they must acknowledge to be as damning as this 1. The first of these I need but just name because I have insisted upon it largely already here I shall only add two short Considerations further relative to this matter First That it is not fair dealing with Scripture to extend the signification of it beyond the proper intendment and meaning or to take a liberty of frighting people with the danger of eating and drinking unworthily upon every failure when the Apostle used that phrase only in the case of such a prodigious profanation of the Sacrament as the Corinthians were now guilty of I have already said their miscarriage might well be counted eating and drinking unworthily indeed but therefore to infer that every failure to eat and drink so reverently so fitly and so becomingly as men should is presently eating and drinking unworthily in proportion to them is putting our own sense upon Scripture and judging the things of Religion by our own measures only And Secondly I add that it is unreasonable as well as uncharitable to affright men with danger of the same punishment when they are far enough from the same sin It is Gods prerogative to apportion punishments unto sins and not ours and as much our duty as it is our interest to make a difference there where it is plain the divine mercy doth It is greatly for our comfort and the ease of our guilty minds that we have a God to serve who transacts with us by the measures of a great mercy and an infinite goodness that weighs us not as I observed before by grains and scruples but rates our services and our lives too by the general frame and bent of them and provided we be industrious and honest in the main and sincerely endeavour to do our best will accept them and not be extream and rigorous to mark every thing that is done amiss or every little imperfection that may attend them This is the great comfort and support of our hopes and to rob us of this is certainly a mighty injury and disservice to us and yet this in their proportion they do that alarm and frighten men with danger of damnation upon every little failure in this matter though never so short of that to which it is only threatned I have shewed you it is not an easie thing for any Christian to be guilty of this sin related to in the Text and I verily believe it and therefore why they that are really so far from it yea who tremble at the very thoughts of it should be so amused and perplexed with apprehensions and fears of the punishments due to it I know not I am sure in all other cases men desire we should bend the bough rather the other way and think themselves severely judged and hardly dealt with if we do not and therefore to teach men to believe and fear so in this is to make them sad whom the Lord hath not made sad and to bring an evil report upon the divine goodness yea justice too SECT IV. THe second thing upon which I charge men with unreasonableness in urging the danger of damnation in coming to the Holy Sacrament and pretending to stay from the one upon a fear of the other is this because this fear of damnation doth not restrain them from other sins which they must confess are as damning as this can be There are other sins in which men incur the danger of eternal damnation as really as they can be thought to do in failing to Communicate so
worthily as they should and yet it is too notorious that this fear of damnation doth not restrain them from them It is a hard saying but it is too true those very men that are so very scrupulous and so very fearful of damnation in this yet appear openly regardless and proof against all fear of it in other things wherein it is as reasonable and necessary to be feared There are too many men on one hand that can live and persist obstinately in plain Schism allow themselves in rebellions and the most factious courses opposing government speaking evil of dignities pride and uncharitableness judging and rash censuring of their brethren fraud and hypocrisie injustice and knavery and all sorts of such spiritual vices as these without the least remorse And I would to God I could not say as truly that there are too many on the other hand that will allow themselves in open debauchery make no conscience of raillery and profaness of intemperance and uncleanness of whoredom and drunkenness and that cursed humour of Swearing which hath obtained so among us to the shame of the Nation and for which it mourns There are too many I say of both sorts that live without any apprehension or fear of damnation in these things who yet when invited to the Holy Sacrament or reproved for the neglect of it seem wonderful scrupulous and fearful of damnation if they should come to it and think to excuse the neglect of one with their fears of the other which they always plead in vindication of it Now I appeal to the reason of all men whether this be fair and honest dealing or whether it be not plain collusion and subterfuge were there any true reason to fear damnation here which yet I have shewed there is not yet men were not just and fair in pretending so much fear of it in this and yet surmounting so easily that fear in others I have told you before in this discourse often and I shall have occasion to tell it you again that it 's a bad sign to see men scrupulous only in some few things and there is not a plainer mark of an hypocrite than to be shie and fearful of sin and damnation in some lesser things but venturous and regardless of it in others that are perhaps far greater It was this which our Saviour so often charged upon the Pharisees and for which he so sharply condemned them as a pack of fulsom errant hypocrites and men had need to look to it for they will draw upon themselves the same imputation if they be of the same temper and practice If the fear of damnation therefore influence you in this one let it in Gods name do so in other instances that are more gross and obvious If the fear of damnation in this be true and sincere it will do this for damnation is still the same thing and equally to be dreaded but if it do not it is plain you use it as subterfuge and artifice you proclaim your own insincerity and hypocrisie in it and the excuse it self not only aggravates but becomes part of the crime I have added this Consideration only ex abundanti and to argue with some men even upon their own pretences and if they will honestly reflect upon it it will hardly fail of some effect on them but to others that are really scrupulous and fearful of damnation upon every failure to receive the Holy Sacrament so well as they should and argue their fears upon the reason of this Text to these I say the former Consideration will be sufficient since it is not this eternal damnation that the Apostle means in this place And let me add that if eternal damnation be not threatned to the Corinthians here who so shamefully and grosly profaned this holy service much less is it presently to be feared by those who receive it as well as they can though not so well as they should if so extream gross and scandalous a profanation be not threatned with it surely every small failure needs not fear it CHAP. VII I advance now to the fourth Consideration which I proposed for the truth of our present Collection viz. That whatever sin or guilt there is in eating and drinking unworthily there is the same yea there is greater in not eating and drinking at all THe truth and reasonableness of this relies upon a reason that I have made good already and that is that eating and drinking in the Holy Sacrament is a necessary indispensible duty tyed immediately upon all Christians by the command of their Lord and that upon a reason which will ever have effect upon all those that have any love and respect to him yea which will still improve and in every age grow stronger and stronger I shall not and I hope I need not resume this argument because I have discharged it pretty well already and therefore shall little more than give in the heads of what hath been more fully represented 1. First Then I have observed that the command for this duty is as positive and express as any command for any other duty either is or can be and this we shall be satisfied of if we look into the story of it's institution This is related by three Evangelists and almost in the very same words Mat. 16. from 26. to the 29. Vers As they did eat Jesus took bread and blessed it and brake it and gave to the 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 this for this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins The same you have also in the other two Evangelists S. Mark Cap. 14.22 23 24. Verses and in S. Luke also Cap. 22.19 20. Verses in all which places our Lord doth not only Addminister this Holy Sacrament himself but expressly commands them to do so likewise Do this in remembrance of me This that you have seen me do do you take care to do also after that I am gone from you in which words it is plain that our Lord institutes this and enjoyns it to be a standing service in his Church and to be observed and practised by all the members of it For First The Apostles were at this time Christs little flock the first fruits of that Church which he was going to plant in the world and it is plain in the story that he administred it to them all And Secondly If we are to respect them here peculiarly as Apostles whom he designed to be the first and chief Pastors and governors of the Church the argument is equally concluding still for making it their duty to Consecrate and Administer the Holy Sacrament he doth make it the duty of others also to partake of it and to have it administred to them And if we take in part of the Ecclesiastical story to this Acts the second Chapter at the latter
the things that he prescribes in order to it 1. Of the first of these I have given account already and shewed that this crime of the Corinthians which he so sharply taxeth was a monstrous shameful disrespect and irreverence to the Holy Sacrament to which I shall only add that it was occasioned by these two precedent errors and miscarriages First their not discerning the Lords Body Secondly their intemperance in eating and drinking in the love-feast that preceded this Service 1. They did not discern the Lords Body they did not know or they did not consider that this was a solemn service of Religion and that there was a mystery in it they did not understand the reason of its institution that the Bread was Sacramentally the Body of Christ and the Wine in the same sense his Blood that both were to represent his Sufferings and Death and that our partaking of them was religiously to commemorate and gratefully to adore the love of God to sinners therein In plain terms as both the Sacramental Bread and Wine was part of what they had eaten and drank in the love-feast just before so they looked upon them to be still the same and but only a concluding morsel and a grace Cup with which that feast was to be ended for that as we ought to know was the common custom among the Jews and these Grecians too to conclude their feasts with a Loaf or small parcel of Bread of which every one took a little piece and a Glass or Bowl of Wine of which every one drank in token or in pledg of that unity and love that then was and afterwards should continue among the ghests that had then feasted together Now being so ignorant and uninstructed as it seems they were in the reason of the Holy Sacrament they might easily slip into this mistake and knowing that their former feast was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a feast of love and instituted to be a means of creating and continuing love among them they might easily take the Sacramental Bread and Wine being a portion of what they had eat and drank before to be but a tessera cheritatis such a pledge and token of love among them as was used at their other feasts This is the true state of this matter and it gives us one plain account of the irreverence and profanation of the Holy Sacrament which these persons were guilty of and how strange soever the thing may appear to us yet when these circumstances are considered the wonder ceaseth and the reason is plain 2. And yet this was not all nor the worst in this matter for their intemperance was worse than their ignorance and would more fatally prejudice their reverence and devotion intemperance in eating and drinking is the greatest hinderance of devotion possible and plain gluttony and drunkenness utterly inconsistent with it Now this you find the Apostle charging them roundly and plainly with at least the richer sort of them v. 21. one is hungry and another is drunk which though it may seem very strange and one would think incompetent to a Christian yet we have a plain account given us also how this happened For these love-feasts were upon a common stock to which every one contributed his single portion the poor you may well think could bring little or nothing but the rich brought more every Man saith the Apostle according to the ability which God had given And perhaps among these Corinthians than whom no Grecians were more vain proud every one might strive to exceed the other Now hitherto all was tolerably well only bating that some vanity might mingle with these contributions but here was the first fatal miscarriage these richer persons instead of casting in their symbols to the common stock feasted upon their own single portions and having much to eat and drink did eat and drink accordingly and commonly to that excess as to be downright drunk by that time they came to the Holy Sacrament which was always celebrated at the end of these feasts of such a portion of Bread and Wine as was separated out of the publick offertories Now coming to the Holy Sacrament in this sad condition no wonder if they profaned it indeed and shewed so little reverence and regard to it a drunken Man is every way as unfit for devotion as an ignorant Man can be but when Men are both these no irreverence can seem strange that they are guilty of These two things occasioned this terrible irreverence and profanation of the Holy Sacrament that our Apostle chargeth them with and from which these words are intended to reform and affright them for the future and by considering this we may surely collect what the great purpose of them was for as when we know a disease we can guess easily what the design of the Physick prescribed in cure of it is so by considering what the errror and miscarriage of these Corinthians was we may conclude what the design of the Apostle is in these words which he useth in remedy of it and therefore since the great fault of them consisted in their horrible irreverence and want of respect to this service we can assure our selves that what he intended was to reform that fault and bring them to that reverence and devotion that became a service of Religion and that so solemn too as he had instructed them the Holy Sacrament was So that since their eating and drinking so irreverently and profanely was that eating unworthily that he speaks of their doing this worthily would be by communicating with that Religion reverence and devotion that became a service so sacred as that was This I am confident is really the sense of these words and a true account of the Apostle's intent and meaning in them the consideration of which would be a great relief to scrupulous and timorous persons in this case and let them see how much others pervert and they themselves mistake the sense of this Text who conclude every error and miscarriage in communicating to be that eating and drinking unworthily which the Apostle so sharply blames and so severely threatens in these words I conclude by only adding this observation if eating and drinking irreverently and profanely be that eating and drinking unworthily which the Apostle means in this place then eating and drinking with that reverence and devotion that becomes such a service of Religion will set Men above the danger of that unworthiness and if to bring Men to this was the only thing he aimed at then Men do very ill to put other sences upon this Text and to fright themselves and others with the sound of words that do not concern them SECT I. THere is a second thing also I told you to confirm us in this account of the Apostle's meaning here and that is the phrase of the Text both that in which the Sin and the cause and the punishment of it too is expressed 1. The word expressing the Sin is unworthily
sense the very Body and Blood themselves and by the grace and blessing of God upon them to convey to us all those effects and benefits which the very Body and Blood and our feeding upon them could do Then certainly we cannot but pay all possible adoration to Christ when we partake of them nor partake of them without the profoundest reverence that our Souls are capable off And as I may well think that those who can be rude irreverent and profane when they partake of these Holy Symbols would be so to Christ were he visibly and corporally present so I may safely say that upon the same reasons that we would pay respect and reverence to our Lord were he so present we may and we should pay it when we partake of those things which he hath instituted and commanded us to observe as representations and memorials of him The truth is the argument in this case is rather too great than any way defective and upon every good Heart the effect must be according It can scarce fail of running our devotion into rapture and our reverence into extasie and transport to consider that the great God should put such an honor upon poor creatures not only entertain us at his own Table but give us his own Sons Body and Blood and all the blessed effects and benefits of them to feed upon Lord what is Man that thou art so mindful of him or the Son of Man that thou so regardest him and what name is bad enough for that Man whom such love and condescension such Majesty and such Blessing will not engage and strike into the profoundest reverence and devotion when he actually communicates in the Blessed Pledges of them all CONCLUSION ANd now I have brought this discourse to its designed conclusion and have little more than to beg of God that it may have at least some part of that effect upon Men that was designed in it I do think a scruple of this nature necessary to considered and I have endeavored to satisfie it as well as I can and I hope no Man will blame the undertaking how defective soever he may think the performance to be Is it not great pity that any scruple should keep Men in a total negligence of a necessary duty and cause them to think themselves innocent in it Is it not a strange thing and lamentable that Men should lye under such fatal mistakes as to think themselves at liberty whether they will obey the last dying command of their dear Lord or that their love and homage to him can consist with a constant disregard of it Is it not pity that Men should be easily perswaded to slight that which is so mighty advantageous to all the great purposes of the Spirit and Salvation and in which the greatest kindness and honour is offered to Men that God can put upon them Is it not pity and a shame that so many should call themselves Christians and of the Church of England too and yet neglect that which is the highest duty of Christianity and the great band of communion with the Church Is it not a shame for a Church to be without Sacraments or for that Church to have members that never communicate in them If any things in the World can be pitiable these things are so And if any thing can be necessary it must be to consider what that thing is that is the great cause of them Now this I would fain hope is a fear that Men have taken up upon the reason of what is said in these words I would gladly hope that it is neither obstinacy in some nor carelesness in others that keeps them from the Holy Sacrament but only fear and scruple in all fear of coming unworthily and incurring that Damnation that is threatned by the Apostle to all that do so come If this be the case of Men they are really pitiable and it is for the sake of them that this discourse hath been undertaken in which I hope somthing hath been offered that may be considered to good purpose and Men may find their account in 1. For first Men by attending to it may understand what the notion of eating and drinking unworthily is and upon what reason the Apostle chargeth the Corinthians with it viz. their not discerning the Lords Body their being drunk at the Lords Table as well as their own and putting no difference between these and common things and that no Christians now can be guilty of the like Sin but by somthing that sets them as far from discerning the Lords Body and paying due respect to it as they were 2. And secondly by considering this Men may perceive both how far they themselves are from the Sin and how little they need to be afraid of the same danger if they find that by the grace of God they are secured from the one they may confidently hope that his mercy will secure them from the other 3. They may hence also learn what a reasonable measure of knowledge devotion and care will most certainly set them above all possibility of this unworthiness and of that damnation threatned to it 4. And fourthly by considering that it is their necessary duty and the mercies and compassions of God as great and ready to pardon the common infirmities of humanity in this as in any other Services of Religion they may learn to slight and surmount all their fears in this as they do in them and to come with as much chearfulness sense of duty and hopes of divine acceptation in this as in others 5. This discourse may be of some use to the directing and encouraging Men in their preparations for this Holy Sacrament and not fright them by the labour difficulty length of time and curiousness of preparation that some have accidently done The effect of all which should be the ridding Mens minds of those unreasonable and superstitious fears that they have too generally taken up in prejudice against the Holy Sacrament and addressing themselves conscionably and chearfully unto it And I have nothing more but to beg them to give it this effect to take heed that they shut not their eyes against clear light that they pretend not scruples to keep them in the neglect of a known necessary duty and that they cherish not those scruples and wilfully retain them against all reasonable ways of satisfaction there is not a worse nor a more dangerous temper of mind than this and he that considers that for this cause God gave up the Heathen to a reprobate sence to vile affections and left them at last to follow things which reason and nature did abhor had need to fear transcribing the same temper of mind lest he succeed in the same dreadful punishments It were certainly much better to look upon our scruples of this sort to be as they really are diseases of our minds and be as desirous and ready to have the cure of them as we are of the diseases of our Bodies to give God Almighty thanks whose providence orders us these helps for the one as well as the other That so as the Apostle speaks both he that sowes and they that reap may rejoyce together The one for that they are satisfied and relieved and the other for that God hath honoured him so far as to be an instrument in it Which I pray God almighty grant may be the issue of all at last Amen FINIS
which is common and that which is holy the eating the Lords Supper just as men do a common Supper or Meal in their own Houses and making no difference in our respects and regards to the one more than to the other For it is plain and I shall have occasion hereafter to shew it fully this was the great miscarriage and fault of the Corinthians which the Apostle so sharply taxeth in this place they did eat the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Love-feasts disorderly and in great confusion yea to excess and drunkenness and the Holy Sacrament which they are in the close thereof they are irreverently and without any due sense of the sacredness of it just as they ate at home in their own houses without any sense of Religion or mystery in it and without making any difference between that and a common morsel of bread or cup of wine This is the particular sense of eating and drinking unworthily in this place and by this Key we may come to the true understanding of it and though perhaps we may extend it further and make it to comprehend some other failures beside this yet we do it but by Analogy and proportion in which we may possibly be mistaken and in which our own reasonings may fail us but whether they do or not nothing but this is that eating and drinking unworthily which the Apostle means in this place So that although those other things may possibly cause Men to eat and drink unworthily in some sense yet not to do so in the sense of this Text and therefore Men should be infinitely careful how they apply this to other things than what the Apostle did or assert the same guilt and danger to be incurred equally in one as well as the other 3. The naming of which brings me to the third and last expression that needs to be explained in his eating and drinking damnation to himself in doing which I shall but need to consider what the strict and particular reference of damnation is in this place for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being of a general and indefinite signification and being used to express any judgment whatsoever must be fixed only by the circumstances of the place and by that we shall best understand what it doth specially refer to I do not deny but the word is sometimes used to signifie what we commonly restrain it to i. e. that eternal damnation in hell that is prepared for the impenitent and unbelievers and those other appellatives of vice which the Scripture describes such as Whoremongers and Adulterers Extortioners and Covetous Drunkards Murtherers c. But because it is sometimes used in that sense therefore to understand it always so wherever we meet it is a great mistake and sometimes of very ill consequence I could shew this in some other instances besides that under present consideration were not the truth too visible in this alone For by this means Men have been frighted from the Holy Sacrament and as I observed before sate down in a total disregard and neglect of it chusing rather and thinking it the safer side of the question not to Communicate at all than to run an apparent hazard of damnation by doing so And I must confess were this really the case they would have at least some appearance of a reason to plead for themselves and would almost stand upon the same ground with us and have the same argument against coming to the Holy Sacrament which we use to perswade them to the same The highest Argument that we have to this purpose is that it is a plain duty relying upon the express command of our dying Lord which wilfully to transgress must most certainly be a damning sin Now the same would these Men have to plead against it were this the sense of damnation in this place and so would run no greater a hazard in not receiving it at all than they do in receiving it unworthily and amiss they must be damned in receiving it unworthily and they can be no more in not receiving it at all This I call a gross misunderstanding the sense of damnation in this place for whatever it may signifie in other places it is plain it doth not signifie so in this And this is evident if we consider what the punishments are which were inflicted for this sin which the Apostle instanceth in the following verse for this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep i. e. This gross irreverence of yours towards the Symbols of his own Son's body and blood hath provoked God to punish you with many sicknesses and diseases and some among you have been cut off and have died by them In all which there is not one word of eternal damnation nor any mention made but of temporary of external or corporal punishments only nor is there any necessity of inferring the danger of damnation from these for Men may be punished in this world and spared and pardoned in the next and it is not only possible but common and ordinary to be so Eternal damnation is the final excision and last wrathful destruction of wicked Men it is the last unmixed cup of Gods vengeance in which there is no allay of mercy not one grain of favour mixed with it but such Judgments as these here are far from being so they are always medicinal and preventive to correct and amend former faults and to prevent the last and final destruction They are intended for the salvation of Men and do not always so much as preface to their damnation Yea when they proceed so far as to cut off Mens lives they may be only correcting and punishing of them here that they may be finally spared hereafter And so the Apostle plainly tells these irreverent Corinthians that these punishments were Vers 32. When we are judged we are chastned of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world i. e. God inflicts these judgments upon you to bring you to a sense of the sin that caused them and to learn you to reform and abstain from those things whose consequences you have found to be so bitter they are so far from intending your eternal damnation that they are purposely designed to prevent it They are the medicinal chastenings of your good Father which are inflicted indeed for this your great fault but intended as expiations rather of the guilt than eternal punishments for it This now I think is the plain true exposition of this place which I have therefore given in the first place because it may be of good use to take off something of the terror that seems at first sight to be in it and to let Men see that these words rightly understood according to the purpose of the Apostle in using them are not so frightful as at first perhaps they might apprehend them to be and may serve therefore in consequence of that to take off something of that fear and dread of coming to
had so severely punished these Corinthians for and when we consider seriously the horrible grossness of it I believe we shall subscribe to the equity and reasonableness of both this was so extreamly foul and gross a profanation of the Holy Sacrament that we cannot wonder either at the vehemency of the reproof or sharpness of the punishment it was such a crime as was scarce ever heard of in a Christian Church and at the very name of which I am perswaded a Christian heart cannot but tremble if damnation in the most dreadful sense of the word had been threatned or had been inflicted up on this sin it had been no wonder SECT II. 2. LET us therefore enquire whether any Christian now needs much to fear or can well be guilty of the like and we shall soon find that they are almost above the possibility of it 1. For first these preceding Love-Feasts are now abolished and wholly disused and have been so for many Centuries of years for these Feasts not only giving some colour of a reason to the Heathens to traduce the Christians upon as if they indulg'd to all manner of sensuality and uncleanness in them as they very well knew themselves did in their Bacchanalia and some other Feasts but also giving too much occasion to exorbitancy and disorder among themselves and coming in a little time to be abused indeed to some ill purposes were by publick Order and Canon of the Church prohibited and wholly laid down and continue so to this day So that to us there is no such possibility of this disorder and excess because we are out of the reach of that which was temptation and occasion of it in them and that custom and practice is wholly antiquated and laid aside among us which betrayed them into it 2. And secondly the time of communicating in the Holy Sacrament with us is wholly changed from what it was of old for the same reason it was then not only called the Sacrament of the Lords Supper but indeed was so i. e. in imitation of our Lords practice it was celebrated at Supper time though I cannot but by the by note that to me it seems plain it was celebrated antelucano tempore during those hot and raging persecutions in Pliny's time when the Christians were glad to meet early before day to perform the services of their Religion for fear of discovery by their persecutors But however that were it is certain that generally it was observed in the Evening at Supper time a time which was really more inconvenient in this respect and when men were in more danger of not observing it with that reverence and devotion that became both it and themselves too and that for these two plain reasons First that at night Mens minds and thoughts are commonly more loosened and far from that seriousness and consistency that they are usually in a morning Mark it and you will commonly find a great difference between a Mans morning and evening devotions in a morning our thoughts generally are both more clear and united but by that time the hurries of the day are over they are more pusled and disordered with the business that hath employed them so that they cannot so easily recollect themselves and fix upon God and Religion again upon which reason it is thought by some Divines that the Psalmist compared his early devotions to incense but those of the evening to the lifting up of his hands or to the common sacrifice So that in this we have greatly the advantage of them and the wisdom of the Church hath thought fit upon this reason to change the time for the observation of it long ago we receive it now in the morning and that upon Sundays and Holydays too i. e. both when our thoughts are more active and united and when we are out of all temptation from other business and before we can well have disordered our selves with any Secondly Another advantage on our side lieth in this that in the morning we are usually fresh and free from any steams of intemperance and from any temptations to it which in the progress of the day men too often meet with and by too easie compliances with are too often ruffled and disordered by before evening Men are generally sober in a morning and S. Peter thought Men could not be drunk at the third hour of the day i. e. according to the Jewish way of dividing the day at nine in the morning and though perhaps in this degenerate age and place some exceptions might be produced against the Apostles rule yet it is not ordinarily and commonly so Men are neither in such danger of being over taken nor so commonly so in a morning as God knows they too commonly are seen to be at night so that upon this reason also we have something the advantage of them in this respect and cannot well come drunk to the Lords Table unless we be beasts and monsters of intemperance 3. And yet there is a third instance in which the Christian Church hath taken care to secure us in this instance And that is its injoyning us to receive the Holy Sacrament fasting For this there are several Constitutions and Canons of the Church producible by which certainly it hath taken the utmost and most effectual care possible for the prevention of such profanation of this Holy Service For because that the custom of Communicating in the evening continued longer in some Churches than in others though they could not break that custom yet by this institution they thought they provided sufficiently against all possibility of this profanation and indeed so they did for it was not possible for them to come drunk to the Holy Sacrament in the evening who had fasted all the day preceding this constitution would either certainly change the time of the Holy Communion or it would secure it against this profanation or rather as we see it hath done already it would secure both purposes This Custom hath now generally obtained in this as well as all other Churches Men generally receive the Holy Sacrament fasting and I believe few do otherwise unless it be out of some necessary respect to health or some present infirmity in which the Church doth and always did allow a dispensation well knowing that God requireth mercy and not sacrifice 4. To these we may add in the fourth place that high respect and veneration that Men generally have and have long been accustomed and taught to have for the Holy Sacrament even above any other service and ministry of Religion The truth is instead of profaning the Sacrament by our Common and irreverent carriage at it we have run on the other hand into a superstitious fear and dread that keeps us from it and I believe there is not one instance in a whole age producible of a Mans being drunk at the Lords Table The worst of Men the worst profligate and debauched will lay some restraint upon themselves both before
love of God to poor Man what can so clearly and almost beyond desire assure us of it as the death of his Son you may see how the Scriptures triumph in this and magnifie it as the mightiest instance the highest exaltation of the divine love that is conceivable and how can I possibly question this when I see him parting with his own Son his only Son the Son of his bosom and dearest love yea exposing him to suffering and misery to pain and shame to death it self nay to that ignominious and cursed death upon the Cross rather than poor Man should perish eternally and there should not be a way to save him by 4. And lastly as for joy in this love of God as for praise and thankfulness for it what can effect these in my soul if the representation of Christs death in the Holy Sacrament cannot had I seen him hanging upon the cross bleeding fainting swooning dying and with expanded arms ready to receive and embrace me it could not have affected me much more than the visible representation of all this in the Holy Sacrament may do If I reflect upon it then as I should and that I shall do if I discern the Lords body I can scarce entertain the thoughts of it with less than rapture and transport but I am certainly the most ill natured person living and for ever the most unworthy of the blessings of it if I fail in any measure of joy and thankfulness that I am able to express These now are even the natural effects of discerning the Lords body and they are such things as will make us meet partakers of these holy mysteries as our Church speaks they will set us far above that unworthiness that the Corinthians were guilty of yea or any other thing that can be counted unworthiness in preparation to it By all which things my fourth proposition is I hope made good and brought to an issue And so is all that I intended to say on this first general Collection CHAP. III. I advance to the second Collection that I made in order to the taking off the exception that men make against coming to the Holy Sacrament upon the reason of these words viz. That the possibility and danger of eating and drinking unworthily is not a sufficient reason for men to abstain from the Holy Sacrament upon I Add this Collection to come up more closely to the exception that men make against this service and that which they hope to excuse their neglect of it upon The danger they tell us of receiving unworthily is great and the Apostle saith expresly that it is so now we have great reason to think our selves unworthy to come and to fear we shall come unworthily if we adventure to come and therefore think it the safer course not to come at all than run so great a danger in coming we are very unwilling to damn our selves and we hold it the safer way to stay away and venture it to Gods mercy than by coming unworthily to incur the plain danger of damnation This is the great exception and the general plea of men in this case and at the first hearing it seems to argue great modesty and regard to a mans eternal salvation and therefore deserves to be considered by us Now though what I have already said was intended to satisfie this exception and if truly considered be I hope of good effect in order thereto for if men consider that eating and drinking unworthily in the sense of this Text is a sin that they can hardly be guilty of and when they consider themselves may be sure they are not it may surely enable them to surmount this scruple for while they are so far from the sin they need not be afraid of the punishment Yet I advance this Collection in order to the further satisfaction of it and when Men are convinced in this point also that if they were in any likelihood or danger of eating and drinking unworthily yet that were not a sufficient reason for them to abstain from the Holy Sacrament upon then it may reasonably be hoped that they will no longer stick at this exception nor hope to be excused upon the reason of it This therefore is that which I am going to make good the truth and reasonableness of that the possibility of eating and drinking unworthily is not a sufficient reason for Men to keep away from the Holy Sacrament upon nor fit to be admitted as an excuse in this case and therefore how honest and sincere how conscientious and tender soever Men may account themselves in staying from the Holy Sacrament upon this exception yet it is a temptation and a snare a very great error and mistake and that which will never bear them out in this omission and this I shall endeavour to make good first by the circumstances of this place and the Apostles discourse in it and secondly by some arguments founded upon the truth of the thing 1. From the circumstances of the Apostles discourse in this place there are many things in it pertinent to my purpose but I shall only briefly observe these few that follow First the Corinthians were grosly guilty of this sin they did eat and drink unworthily in the most notorious and scandalous manner possible the Apostle plainly tells them so instances in evident matter of fact and blames them with that sharpness that so foul a matter justly deserved Yea secondly he aggravates the sin and guilt of this miscarriage to a very high degree and threatens it with a very sharp and severe punishment And yet thirdly after all this he doth not give them any the least allowance or liberty to stay from this holy service till they had repented of and reformed sufficiently this miscarriage he doth not tell them that their unworthiness render'd them unfit to come to the Table of the Lord or gave them a dispensation from it he doth not advise them to stay away for the future till they had better fitted themselves for fear of damnation by coming unworthily You do not read one word spoken by him to any such purpose but rather directly the contrary let a man examin himself and so let him eat and when ye come together tarry one for another and if any man hunger let him eat at home that ye come not together to condemnation in all which the Apostle doth not advise them to intermit this service and let it alone 'till they had better consider'd it and better prepared themselves for it but he requires them still to keep up the practice of it but to reform their great faults and errors in it to come still together to eat this bread only to examin themselves to consider what they were going about what they were doing that they might eat it becomingly as they ought to do He taxeth very severely and sharply the fault in doing the duty and presseth earnestly the reformation of that fault but he doth not make
end we shall see that the Apostles did thus understand this Command of their Lord and did practise accordingly as soon as ever they had gathered the face of a Church for they continued in breaking of bread as well as in prayer and as constant and daily in one as in the other This must needs be to our great satisfaction in this matter Our Saviour did institute and command this service to be in his Church and his Apostles understood him so and accordingly did practise it and keep it up as a standing Service in the Church as soon as ever they had gathered one and the members of this Church continued daily in the observance of it as well as prayer from all which if any thing can be plain this is so that Christ intended the Holy Sacrament to be a constant standing Service in his Church and that the Apostles and Primitive Christians did accordingly observe and keep up the practice of it and this too as carefully and constantly as the publick Prayers And if this be not enough to evince it to be every Christians duty to observe it yea to observe it as well as any other publick Service of the Christian Church nothing is and nothing can be so And since we are engaged again on this Subject let me add S. Paul's representing of this matter to the same purpose 1 Cor. 11.23 24 25. I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you that the Lord Jesus in the same night that 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 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 This S. Paul and the other Apostles were all that our Lord immediately and by himself consecrated and appointed Pastors and Governors of his Church and 't is well worthy of observation that he gives this in charge equally to both and takes care that S. Paul should no more go out uninstructed in it than his own immediate Apostles but that he should set up the practice of it among the Gentiles as well as they in the Churches of the Jews i. e. in plain terms that all both Jews and Gentiles that should embrace his Religion should equally practise this as a standing and constant Service in the Christian Church and it is certain that both these Churches did accordingly observe and practise the same SECT I. BUT then lest it should be thought a temporary transient institution only which was to continue only while the Apostles lived or some little time after as some few other things were Therefore I observed in the second place the reason with which this institution of Christ is backed and what our Lord hath declared to be the great end and purpose of it now this is expressed in these words in remembrance of me this do in remembrance of me which reason doth clearly shew this precept to be no temporary one only but to be even morally and perpetually obliging 1. I think I may say morally for the pious grateful devout and joyful remembrance of our Saviour and of his great love in what he undertook and underwent for our sakes is an instance surely of moral justice and as indispensibly and everlastingly due from us as gratitude is to a great benefactor or any instance of natural Religion is to God and certainly he that thinks otherwise dishonours and disparageth this love and makes himself for ever unworthy of it If ever any love were worthy to be remembred if ever any thing that God did for man deserved and might in justice challenge our highest gratitude and praise this certainly doth and I would to God that some men would remember this and remember this too how they can hope for the benefit of it and yet neglect to remember it and to remember it by that which himself hath appointed to be the solemn rite of that commemoration 2. I said perpetually obliging too and this I say now not only upon the former reason that its end is a moral good and what is morally good is unalterably and eternally obliging but I speak it upon a particular respect to the reason of its institution which is so far from wearing out that it will improve upon our hands and grow stronger in every succeeding period of the Church than other there will always be the same reason to remember the love of our dying Lord for that love will always appear the same and the benefits of it will continue the same too so that the reason of this service will in every age continue the same But there is another Consideration which will make it to improve and grow stronger and stronger for time is a grand consumer and waster of things and the memory of the greatest kindness and blessing in a long tract of time is apt to decay and wear off of mens minds so that the further that men live off from the time of our Saviours passion the more danger they are in of forgetting it and the more need they have of something to fix it the more deeply and indelibly upon their minds So that this reason will still improve and we therefore that live at this distance of sixteen hundred years from it had need to be more observant of this institution to refresh our memories than they that lived but a very few years or days after it and so every age that shall succeed us will have more need still till the final dissolution when the Lord shall come as S. Paul speaks when we shall see him whom we now commemorate and have all our pious acts of remembring him superseded by the blissful vision of and attendance upon him for ever SECT II. I Might take in some other Considerations to add to the strength of these all which combine to render this precept more effectual and obliging if it were possible than the former I will little more than just name some of them First This was the last institution of our dying Lord and the thing that he gave us in charge just when he was going to suffer and die for us Secondly It is the peculiar precept of the Gospel and that which may be more truly called the command of our Saviour than any other And Thirdly it is plain and easie to be obeyed not in the least chargeable or burthensome as some such institutions before were nor in any measure more difficult than any other service in our Religion is But I will not enlarge upon these here because I have done it formerly in another place and in truth I only mention them and what hath preceded on purpose to make good the ground of my present Argument to let men see that it must needs be a sin and to convince
before doth not so much respect any thing to be done by way of preparation to the Holy Sacrament but rather to be added by way of advice how to attone for the Sin of having Eaten and Drank unworthily and to prevent those punnishments that they might expect and fear upon having done so The Apostle had convinced them of their Sin in this and let them know that the judgments which they lay under were the effects of that Sin and having told them in verse 28. how to reform and prevent the Sin for the future he tells them in this how to escape the punishments that were due to it viz. by anticipating God's judging of them becoming Assessors upon themselves and by their own remorse and sorrow inflicting that punishment upon themselves which otherwise they might expect from God this I think is the truest account of this passage and of what the Apostle means in it So that the great matter of preparation that he prescribes in order to their Eating and Drinking fitly and becomingly i. e. worthily in the sense of that word is comprehended under that examination that he adviseth to verse 28. Let a Man examine himself and so let him Eat of that Bread and Drink of that Cup. And therefore this is the great thing to be explained by which we may see what a reasonable measure of consideration and care the Apostle thinks sufficient to this purpose I do very well know and as readily acknowledg that some considerable Men understand this so as to comprehend all that strict and critical examination of a Man's self that may be needful to the understanding exactly the state of his Soul with respect to his Religion Faith Charity c. i. e. whether Men be Christians indeed or not and whether they resolve to continue so whether they have truly repented them of all their Sins both in general and particularly and whether their purposes of reforming from them be real and sincere Yet I think I have reason to differ from them a little in this for whatever may be the meaning of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in other places of the New Testament yet I think it is not the meaning of it in this and by considering wherein the error and guilt of these Corinthians consisted we may pretty well understand the meaning of what he prescribes in remedy of it This I have considered at large already in this discourse and the truth is the Apostle expresseth it plainly enough to be not discerning the Lords Body i. e. putting no difference between this and common bread and therefore Eating with as little Reverence at the Lords Table as they did at their own in their own Houses This was the Sin and by considering that it was so we may easily collect the meaning of that examination which he prescribes against it to be primarily no more than this which I shall borrow the words of a great Man among us to express let every Man among you consider well with himself what a Sacred action that is which he is going about and what a devout and reverent behaviour becomes him that is going to Celebrate the Holy Sacrament which Christ hath instituted to represent and commemorate his own Body and Blood broken and spilt upon the Cross for Man's Redemption This is what the Apostle prescribes as a remedy against that profanation of the Holy Sacrament that they were guilty of and what he thinks sufficient to preserve them from it for the future to consider well what a high mysterious service of Christian Religion it is that the Bread and Wine are therein consecrated into the symbols of our Lord 's own Body and Blood that they are no longer common Bread and Wine but changed into a great mystery and in a Sacramental sence the very Body and Blood of Christ This is discerning the Lord's Body and this is the import of a Man's examining himself that he may discern it and he that doth this can never be guilty of such unworthy eating and drinking as these Corinthians were guilty of for he will see clearly what a mighty respect and deference is due to this service and what a profound veneration and reverence becomes those that eat at the Table of the great God and are admitted to a participation of his own Son 's most Sacred Body and Blood upon this reason Antiquity used to call these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most Sacred and dreadful mysteries and no Man that considers them as such but must put a difference between them and common food and can hardly but partake of with a Sacred dread of Spirit and a most profound reverence and devotion I only add what I undertook this notion for viz. That this self examination is therefore no such difficult thing as Men imagin it to be it is what all Christians know what they can easily consider and what it is indeed the greater difficulty for them not to consider and be affected withal But then suppose that it did imply something more and what some Men as I hinted before do extend it unto i. e. all that examination of a Man's self that is necessary to the true understanding the state and condition of his Soul with respect to his Repentance Faith Charity and the quality of his life First I say I will by no means discourage any one from care of this and setting apart some time for it in order to his eating and drinking becomingly at the Lords Table This is a thing upon many accounts very expedient and fit and especially in order to our understanding with what qualification we ought chiefly to come to this Holy Sacrament which may and ought to vary according to the variable circumstances of our Spiritual condition Besides this examination of a Man's self is a thing highly necessary to the great purposes of Religion and because no time can well be pitched upon for it more fit and proper than when Men are preparing themselves for the Holy Sacrament therefore it may be very prudent to take that time to do it in some time is necessary for it and that time may be as fit for it as any other and those that will so imploy it do well and are by no means to be discouraged But then Secondly I say this examination is but just necessary then as it is at other times for I see not why it may not be thought as necessany to examine our selves and consider what the state of our Soul is when we go to pray and when we go to hear God's word that we may both know what especially to pray for and how to apply that word to our selves as it is when we are addressing to the Holy Sacrament So that whatever it signifies it is no more necessary to the Holy Sacrament than it is to other services of Religion nor ought to fright us from the one any more than it doth from the other And Thirdly I add that surely
there is no such mighty difficulty in it in this sense nor any such long time necessary to the performance of it Every Man doth know or atleast easily may know his one temper and what the general bent and course of his life is what he loves and what he hates and whether Religion be the matter of his care or not a Man can no more be ignorant of his one temper if he will consider than he can fly from himself nor can any great Sins or wickednesses which require a particular repentance scape his notice any more than the visible actions of every day and how then can any Man be a stranger to or need any tedious difficult inquiry and search to know those things which he daily feels and is sensible of I do not at all doubt but that some wicked Men use arts to divert their minds and thoughts from any reflection upon their spiritual condition and study to live strangers to themselves but I am sure there is real difficulty in this and perhaps after all such endeavours their minds will somtimes emerge above their pressures break loose from these sensual restraints and force them to understand their condition whether they will or no it is natural for a Man to understand himself and to reflect upon his own actions and much more easie than to arrive to such a pitch of brutish carelesness insensibleness and inconsideration as to be perfectly a stranger to his one state it is not in this case as it is with a Merchant who may run on and undo himself before ever he know how his accounts stand for his Books lie out of his sight or he may be careless and neglect to look into them but in this case a Mans Books are always open always present and under his view and he must wilfully shut his eyes or look upon them and suspend the natural and even necessary exertions of his mind not to think of them So that whatever examining a Mans self can signifie it can be no very difficult thing nor require much time for the performance of it No wise Man lives without it and no Man of the most ordinary observation and reason can be such a stranger to his own affairs as to need much time or pains in the examination of them The great things of our Souls and what relate to the condition of them are always obvious and plain and there is no great difficulty that I know of relating to this matter but only to bring our minds to pronounce and judg honestly and impartially of them In this I must needs confess there is some difficulty for self-love is prevalent in all Men and they are not very willing to condemn themselves of all things in the world the falling under the reproach and censure of a Man 's own mind is the most irksom and therefore Men study arts and all possible ways to avoid it and in this it is that the deceitfulness of a Man 's own heart doth chiefly if not solely consist But still this difficulty ariseth not from the difficulty of knowing or examining our own state but from the difficulty of being honest and just in judging of it the case is always open and plain but the fault lies in partiality to it and in bribing a false opinion and judgment of it SECT III. ANd now having considered what it is the Apostle prescribes in this case and seen what this examination of a Man's self doth signifie and what little expence either of time or labour is needful for it I proceed to the second thing i. e. to examin the reason of the thing to consider what is necessary to eating and drinking becomingly i. e. worthily in the Holy Sacrament and what that preparation is that is needful in order theirto As for the first what qualifications are necessary to our communicating fitly and becomingly in the Holy Sacrament I mean with what tempers we ought to come and how to behave our selves there when we are come for these I think we need look no further than the exhortations of our Church in the Office for the Communion they are in our Common Prayer Books and I wish every one would often read and consider them they most plainly and fully instruct us in these things I shall reduce them to these four heads 1. Repentance as it includes a hearty sorrow for our sins an humble confession of their guilt to Almighty God and a resolution by the help of his grace to reform for the future from them 2. A stedfast humble faith in God's mercy through Jesus Christ for our pardon and acceptance 3. A grateful sence of God's mighty love to Mankind in sending his Son to die for us with a thankful remembrance of his death 4. Love and Charity to all Men forgiving those that have offended and injured us being reconciled or endeavoring to be so to all that we have offended and bearing love and good will to all so as to be ready and willing to do them good according to our power These contain the sum of all those qualifications with which we should come to the Holy Sacrament Now as these things are absolutely necessary to our being Christians and therefore necessary for us to regard and take care of at all times so there is no more difficulty in them to fright us from the Holy Sacrament than from other services of our Religion If the difficulty of them be an â—â—ception against the Sacrament it is so against Christian Religion in general and we may throw off wholly the one as well as the other upon the reason of it but as their is no great difficulty at all in them nor any reason to accuse Christian Religion as a heavy yoke in requiring of them no more is there any cause to make them an exception against coming to the Holy Sacrament these are the conditions of our being Christians and with the help of the divine grace they are possible and easie too and as easie in order to this service as to any other purpose And then if we inquire how we ought to behave our selves at the Sacrament the same exhortations will direct us in that also which we may reduce to four heads as we did the former 1. A most profound reverence and humility such as becomes creatures when they approach the immediate presence of the great Creator when they ingage into the most solemn and mysterious service of their Religion when they dolefully reflect upon their own unworthiness and demerits and when they humbly supplicate and beg for the pardon thereof and which most certainly becomes all Chistians when they are set in the most affecting prospect of the death and passion of their Lord and Saviour 2. A most affecting exalted joy and rejoycing in Gods mercy and our Saviours love to us who hath remembred us in our low estate given us such reason to hope for his favor and pardon and in this Holy Sacrament lets us
for the Holy Sacrament and he that lives such a life can never be unfit for it he is always habitually fitted and whatever curious dress he should at any time be in his constant pious and devout temper will easily be improved and heightened into it He that hath a Wedding Garment always ready and clean kept can easily put it on and he whose loyns are always girded and Lamp burning may be sooner ready to wait upon his Lord whenever he calls Or if we should suppose the worst of such a Man and that he should through the violence or surprise of a temptation have let down his Watch and indisposed himself yet a little matter will recover and set him to right again a light that is newly extinguished may soon be kindled again and an habitual goodness though it have been disordered will easily recover its temper a little matter will dispatch the business of a good Mans repentance and no great labour is needful to wash off that spot that is the stain of a Child and that some external accident hath cast upon the outside only 2. But the more material thing is to consider the case of a wicked Man who upon examining his condition finds too much reason to conclude ill of himself and to state that preparation that is necessary for him to make in order to this service For first I do not think this Man unconcerned in it but as much obliged to come to the Holy Sacrament as another if not rather more the command for the observation of it is general and no Christian is excepted or dispensed with our Lord administred it to all his disciples to Judas as well as St. Peter St. Paul when he comes to give directions about the same matter excepts none but rather includes all he commands indeed every one to examin himself but having done so then to eat and drink yea he commands those Corinthians to do this that of all Men one would think were the unfitest to do it And upon the whole matter there is so little reason to keep such a Man from the Holy Sacrament because he is in an ill condition that there is therefore the greater need why he should come it is very ill arguing as some do I fear my condition is bad therefore I must stay away the true reasoning holds just the other way My condition is bad why therefore come that it may be made better there is but own thing to be supposed to the truth and safety of this arguing i. e. that such a Man desires his condition should be amended if he resolve to continue wicked then he may stay away but so he may from all other services of Religion too for such a Man's Religion is all contradiction and nonsence and he may throw off all care of it as well as neglect the Holy Sacrament But this case I have argued before and need determin no more upon it now I only add one observation more at present and that is that the great and main qualification that the Church requires in them who come to the Holy Sacrament is repentance and the greatest part of the service she appoints in order to it consists in humble confessions in sad and passionate deprecations of the divine wrath and most earnest imploring Gods pardon all which is to me a plain argument that she thinks no Man unfit to come to the Holy Sacrament that doth repent of his former sins how great soever they may have been and that doth desire and resolve with Gods help to lead a better life for the future I am sure no Man hath more need to come than such a Man nor is any Ministry in Religion more proper for him to apply to which is so peculiarly fitted to his needs so efficacious to fasten his pious purposes and instituted on purpose to be a means of conferring that divine grace which is necessary to enable him to live up to them I know the Church in some cases adviseth some to stay away and commissions her Priests to suspend and keep away others but the first are only those whose consciences are yet perplexed and troubled for some grievious sin and the second are such as living notoriously in gross sins are become a publick scandal unto others but neither of these are either to keep off themselves or be kept off by others but only till the one by repentance prayer and consulting their spiritual guides get their consciences relieved and eased and the other by some publick testimony of repentance reconcile themselves to the Church and give some hopes of their amendment so that repentance and promises of amendment is thought by the Church sufficient to qualifie even bad Men for the Holy Sacrament This then being cleared we may proceed readily in the second place to consider that preparation which is necessary for such a Man and inquire whether any such long time or mighty labour be necessary for it and what hath been said just now will be of use to us in this inquiry for repentance is the great thing that such a Man hath to regard viz. with sorrow and grief to confess his sins to almighty God to implore and beg his mercy for the pardon of them and his grace to enable him to reform from them To this there is nothing necessary to be added but faith as it implies a great and grateful sense of Gods mercy in sending Christ to die for us and giving repentant sinners such hope of pardon and salvation in him and upon his merits and as it implies hope too of the same mercy and pardon to us upon our repentance together with an humble and steddy reliance upon Gods grace to enable us to repent and reform These things comprehend the sum of that preparation that is necessary for the worst Men to make for the Holy Sacrament and I pray consider what great difficulty there is in these or whether any such great deal of time be necessary for them that Men should except against coming to the Holy Sacrament upon that reason if Men make them an exception against this service they may as well make them an exception against Christian Religion in general for they are the great and necessary postulata's of Christianity and the only reasons upon which it promiseth salvation to any and therefore are no further any exceptions against the Holy Sacrament than they are against our whole Religion and upon the same reason that we abstain from it because of them we may renounce our Baptism and the name of Christ by which we are called If Men charge the Holy Sacrament to be severe and a hard service because it requires these preparations we may charge our Religion as well to be unreasonable and hard for they are made necessary by the one as well as required in order to the other So that if it be difficult to communicate because they are required it is difficult to be a Christian upon the same reason and
that require great reverence and devotion and a very differing respect and carriage from what those things to be done in your own Houses do From whence as it is evident that eating and drinking in Gods House with as little reverence and Religion as they did in their own was the fault so what he designed in this discourse was to bring them to that reverence that became the House of God and those sacred Services of Religion that it was set apart and appropriated unto 2. The second thing that he useth to the same purpose is instructing them fully in the nature and reason of this service which it seems they were so ignorant of this he doth from v. 23. to 27. where he lets them know first that it was the last institution of our Saviour a little before his being betrayed The Lord Jesus in the same night that 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 after the same manner also he took the Cup when he had supped saying this Cup is the New Testament in my Blood. And therefore this was a great deal more than that common concluding morsel and draught which they had taken it to be it was a solemn Service of Religion an immediate institution of Christ and therefore to be observed with another kind of temper carriage than they had profanely treated it with 3. And the sober and serious consideration and remembrance of all this is what he prescribes in the third place as the most effectual cure of this miscarriage v. 28. Let a Man examine himself and so let him eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup let him examine himself whether he understand these things whether he know and consider wherefore this Service was instituted Let him consider what a sacred Service of Religion this is and what a measure of reverence and devotion becomes him who doth approach the Table of the Lord and there partake of the symbols of his most precious Body and Blood. The consideration of all this will most effectually cure and restrain from all this rudeness and profanation and powerfully ingage to that awe and reverence that must needs possess all those that discern the Lords Body and understand what they are doing when they eat that Bread and drink that Cup. From these three things I think it sufficiently plain that rudeness and irreverence towards the Holy Sacrament was the great fault of the Corinthians which the Apostle so taxeth here and endeavours to reform and that therefore to bring them to reverence devotion and a sence of Religion in it is his great design in all this discourse 4. There is a fourth thing that perhaps may be pertinent to observe here to the same purpose that is what he adviseth verse 33 34. Wherefore my Brethren when ye come together tarry one for another and if any hunger let him eat at home This I confess seems more directly to concern the love-feasts and to respect the redressing those faults that they were guilty of in them but yet they do ultimately refer to the Holy Sacrament for feasting together charitably like friends and Brethren and eating and drinking at home that they might not do so then to intemperance and excess would preserve them in the fitter temper for this Service and from that intemperance and disorder that was one great cause of their scandalous irreverence and profanation of it But I need no artificial and collateral arguments in this case the matter is made plain by the former considerations which are all pertinent and direct to this purpose and render what I am contending for evident So that it is really a wonder why many Men should make such a pother and stir about the sense of this place and the meaning of eating and drinking unworthily to the perplexing the minds of scrupulous Persons and frighting them from such a necessary part of their duty as communicating in the Holy Sacrament certainly is CHAP. XII And now there is only the second and last thing remaining upon our hands For having shewed that to bring them to devotion and reverence in the Holy Sacrament was his design it will be proper now to shew how reasonably he might undertake that task and how becoming it is for them and us and all that engage into that service A very little may suffice on this because the reason of the thing is plain and because it is the common practice of all the services in our Religion this is commonly revered most and how indevout and careless soever Men are in others yet they are alwaies seen serious and devout in this the truth is Men rather offend on this hand than the other I do not mean in being too devout and reverent at the Holy Sacrament for that they never can be but I mean in thinking so highly and awfully of it as to be possessed with even a superstitious fear of it which the great design of this discourse hath been to remove and in order thereto to rectifie some mistakes of Men that may have contributed to the same So that it is only to prevent that roving extravagant fancy of running into extreams which I told you in the beginning of this discourse giddy minds are so incident unto that I add this in the conclusion of this discourse let Men see that I do not encourage any Mans light opinion or disesteem of the Holy Sacrament but contend for it as earnestly as any Man and to that purpose go on to remark the reasons upon which the becomingness and necessity of it doth rely I shall need little more than just to name them SECT I. ANd first I desire it may be considered that this is an immediate Service of Religion it is an institution of our dear Lord and the observance of it an immediate act of worship and expressiono four Homage and duty to our God. How much soever Men may indulge to carelesness and indifferency in common matters yet the universal reason of all Mankind consents in this that Religion is a serious thing and that the profoundest reverence and devotion becomes them who ingage into the services of it and worship their God. Common sense teacheth Men to distinguish between a Temple and a common House and that Mens carriage in the one should be very different from what it is or may be in the other and those persons that can behave themselves as lightly and irreverently in the Church as on Stage c. affront Religion and the service of it give the open lie to their one pretentions in ingaging into it Keep thy foot when thou enterest into the House of God and be not hasty to offer the Sacrifice of Fools saith Solomon Eccle. 5.1 and they that do not both keep that and their whole Man too do not possess themselves with an awfull reverence of that great God they come to adore there and