thence taken encouragement to believ you would much more easily pardon such a Presumption than such an Omission I therefor humbly recommend not so much these Papers as their Sacred subject Our Lord's Institution and our Churches Constitutions to your Grace's protection as I do your Grace's Person and pious Labours to that of Almighty God who that He be pleased to make your Grace a glorious Instrument of His service in This World and a more glorious partaker of His rewards in a better is the hearty Prayer of Your Graces most humble and Dutiful Servant A R. BVRY THE CONTENTS Of the whole I. WE are not at liberty to Receive or Refuse the Lords Supper Proved by 1. Scripture which must be regulatly examined PART I. Chap. 1. 1. Our Lord's Institution wherein 1. The word THIS pointeth at som singular Bread and Cup. Chap. 2. This singular Bread and Cup hunted out and found in a Jewish Tradition Chap. 3. No dishonor to the Lords Supper Chap. 4. This origination more plainly proved from 1 Cor. 10. Chap. 5. 2. The word DO requireth Performance PART III. We may not omit it without warrant Chap. 2. Our obligation ceaseth not thogh Church festing be not the same Chap. 2. 3. The END PART IV. The Livree of a Christian Chap. 1. Appropriate to our Lord's Person with signal marks of his favor Chap. 2. Serviceable to our own interests Chap. 3. 2. The Apostl's Explication PART II. His primary design was not to assert the Reverence but the Constancy due to the Lords Supper Ch. 1. The Clause as often as examined by several Phaenomena Chap. 2. The vulgar interpretation examined Chap. 3. Objections answered Chap. 4. 3. The Examples of other Apostls and their Churches Chap. 5. 2. The Practice of Antiquity Chap. 6. 3. Answers to Objections PART V. Deference paid to former Ages and the Sacrament Chap. 1. Concerning Unworthiness Chap. 2. Concerning Self-examination Chap. 3. Allegories of a midl nature between Reason and Scripture answered Chap. 4. II. Were we at liberty Reason would perswade us to Frequency The very Being of the Sacrament must not be hazarded Chap. 5. Distant Communions Useless for Conversion of Sinners Too much Aw Vexatious to the Godly Pernicious to Peace and Charity THE CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS THE INTRODUCTION Shewing it necessary to enquire how often we are obliged to receive the Holy Communion I. The seeming impossibility and real necessity to add to what hath be'n already written concerning the Lords Supper II. A double Objection slighted yet answered and turned to a double plea. The former concerning the dignity of the Sacrament III. The other concerning the deference due to Antiquity A short retrospect upon the several stages of our departure from it How later Fathers departed from the first The Papists from the Fathers IV The Reformed Churches from the Papists The Moderation of the Church of England blamed by the Non-conformists who dissented heretofore in One extreme and now in Another V. Our own Divines of the last age less justifiable than those of the present who do better yet not enough VI. The sum of the account A request for rigid examination and its reason An example of noble Ladies An advertisement to the Reader PART I. Concerning the Particle THIS Pag. 1. CHAP. I. The Scripture cleared from the scandal arising from our contentions by shewing the true cause and cure I. The Sacrament of the Lords Supper highly esteemed by our Lord and all his Churches In later Ages many differences of Opinions concerning it II. Not the number only but mater of the differences scandalos to the Scripture both toward Papist and Jew III. The blame removed from the Scriptures to the Doctors IV. The Papists best perhaps silenced by our claiming the literal sens in the Wine as they do in the Bread Our own Divines neglect the former part which yet is the Head of the Apostl's discourse V. The regular way to understand his meaning Two Suppositions taken upon trust with engagement VI. The whole Discourse Paraphrased VII The whole Argument Analysed And reduced to Logik form The great Limbs more minutely to be dissected in four considerable Members And all to be closed with an answer to what is said to the contrary CHAP. II. Of the Necessity to fit the word THIS with som singlar Bread and Cup. Pag. 18. I. The difference of our Lords stile towards this Bread and Wine from That towards litl children II. This subject requireth the clearest expression III. The Particle THIS most considerable IV. Grammar and Logick In Logick it is considerable 1. As a singl word a Demonstrative must have somthing for its object precedences Every word must be answered by som Idea V. 2. As the subject of a Proposition The meaning of the Predicate must be mesured by the capacity of the subject Offers at the import of the word rejected 1. That Individual 2. The whole kind 3. Somthing indeterminate 4. The Action CHAP. III. The singular Bread and Cup hunted out and found Pag. 28. I. Customs of that time and place to be enquired 1. The Custom of Festing in publik worship fitteth the Apostl 's Argument but not our Lord's Institution II. 2. The Passover fitteth our Lord's Institution but not the Apostl's Argument Three incidental remarks upon the Jews Paschal form III. A Jewish custom pitch't upon exactly fitting both our Lord's and the Apostl's words IV. An Objection answered with a story CHAP. IV. Pag. 37. I. No more dishonor to This than to the other Sacrament to be derived from a Jewish Tradition This Tradition more worthy than That II. In what sens our Lords Table is an Altar Were our behavior at Table more pious the Sacrament need not be ashamed of such a relation III. Our Lords form of consecration derived from the Jewish Forms both Festival and Sacrificial CHAP. V. Pag. 44. I. A plainer proof from Chap. 10. From the sameness of names In the Cup the Greeks aped the Jews The Apostle stileth the Cup of the Lord the Cup of blessing which is a perfect translation of the Heb ew name II. The breaking of Bread a Jewish phrase III. Some Phaenomena not salvable but by this Hypothesis IV. He expresly telleth us that each part of the Jewish Tradition by name is a part of our Lord's Supper V. An Illustration from our Grace-cup VI. A Sacrament What PART II. Concerning the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CHAP. I. The Apostl's design was not to assert Reverence to the Lords Supper Pag. 55. I. The Apostl's proper design first to be enquired into II. Three steps 1. What might be the Corinthians case III. 2. What might becom the Apostl to do in such a case IV. 3. How doth the Apostl's procedure agree with such Suppositions 1. The former part very well agreeth with them V. 2. The later part necessarily requireth them Proved 1. Negatively He did not design to assert Reverence due to our Lords Supper precisely taken The subject of the
singular Demonstrative and Dignity Our Lords stile is the very same and plainly alludeth to the same form of Consecration This cup said he is the New Covenant and therefore This blood of the New Covenant must as well as that of the Old have some Praevios singularities preceding the Proposition and Fitting it for the honor whereto merely by reason of That fitness it was so preferred above All other As we know what Honor it receved from the Institution so we must enquire what was the Singular fitness it broght to it We are not yet com'n to the word of command DO THIS where the Demonstrative following the Action may derive a singularity from it but we are yet in the porch in the Declaration THIS is c. and desire to learn what THIS can signify before any other word be spoken which may change it to some other state than what belonged to it before V. HITHERTO we have looked upon it in its Single capacity Logik further considereth it as a Part and the principal Part too of a Proposition It is no less than the Subject considerable Always as the Foundation whereon the Praedicate is to be bilt and Oftentimes as the Standard whereby its meaning is to be mesured For the sense of the Praedicate must ever be fitted to the capacity of the Subject and if the ordinary signification appear too big or too little the Inrerpreter must imitate the Prophet who applied his Own Eyes Hands and Mouth to the Childs wherein he must derive his mesures from the Speakers mind somtimes discoverable by common Reason and somtimes by the Speakers annexed Exposition E. G. Jacob categorically affirmeth of several of his Sons that they are Beasts of several kinds and immediatly limiteth the extravagant Expression to some determinate Resemblance Juda is a Lions whelp Not in all respects but this From the prey my son thou art not go'n up Issachar is a strong Ass What in the whole form No but in This couching down between two burthens Dan shall be a Serpent in the way Not in All but this One respect He biteth the horse heels Our Lords stile is the same at other times as well as now And we may as reasonably say Our Lord was not a Man but a Plant because he said I am the Vine thogh he interpreted himself by adding In Me ye bring forth fruit Yea not so much as a Living plant because he said I am the door thogh he immediatly added by me if any enter in he shall be saved As we may that this is not Bread because he said This is my body when he immediatly glossed upon the word by adding Do This in remembrance of me But on the contrary we are as much obliged to mesure This Proposition by the annexed Limitation as either of the Other and so to confess that This is no more our Lords Body than himself was a Door or Issachar an Ass Now if it be true that the Praedicate must be thus accommodated to the Subject then the less capable the Subject is the less must we giv it of the Praedicate If therefor Bread as such cannot be understood to be our Lords body Then perhaps as THIS it may carry such diminishing characters as may write it less capable For This reason it is probable that former Ages have be'n industriously silent concerning it and for This reason is the enquiry necessary Thogh This be a quite different question yet it is not unserviceable even toward our understanding the Other It is one question which asketh what Jacob meant by the word Ass when he put it upon Issachar and another to ask which of his sons it was whom he so stiled So it is one thing to enquire what our Lord meant by the word Body when he said of the Bread This is my body and another to enquire what extraordinary Bread that was which he preferred to that dignity THE Eunuchs first question was Not concerning the Things to be suffered but the Person that was to undergo them He asked not what was meant by being led like a lamb to the slaughter his judgment taken away in his humiliation or the obscurity of his generation But of whom speaketh the Prophet this And the same must be our method if we will understand our Lords Institution Before we enquire what he meant by calling the bread his Body we must ask of what bread speaketh the Lord this We may probably better understand Into What our Lord changed it if we first know From What. Many Therefore understand not What they say because they know not Whereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 1.7 Many wold not have Spoken Others would not have Believed what All confess they cannot Understand in the Praedicate of this unhappy Proposition if they had first understood its true Subject as they ought to have do'n 1. That our Lord spake only of that individual Bread and That individual Cup which he then distributed so as to make Those Individuals the adaequate Subject as well of his permanent Institution as of That One Distribution cannot be imagined since Those Individuals must perish in the useing but for ever live in such successors as may be the Same in the General Nature of Bread and Wine and in the Special circumstances wherewith those were accompanied even before their preferment 2. That he spake of the Whole kind Any Bread and Any Cup we may not believe both because of the now mentioned difference of stile in This text and That concerning Children and because such a sense would oblige us to Consecrate All bread and All wine seeing the Demonstrative would have pointed to All alike This sense is as much too Wide as the former was too Narrow yet some will have a yet Wider For 4. They conceve that our Lord was so far from pointing to any determinate Bread that he did not to any determinate Thing But the Hoc must be taken Indeterminately Hoc i. e. Hoc aliquid This Somthing That they may destroy the nature of Bread they begin with that of the Pronown For whereas the Proper office of This Pronown is to make the Object More determinate by singling One out of Many contracting the General to a Special or Particular This sense will make it Less Determinate and More General 't will be so far from distinguishing This bread from Other bread that it will take away the Specifical difference whereby it is distinguished from an Egg a Stone or a Scorpion c. Which is so contrary to the nature of a Demonstrative as Black is from White whereof One is said to Congregate the Other to Segregate And the Constant Practice of All mankind contradicts it For whoever sheweth any thing to another and stileth it This Doth not pretend to disable him from judging what it is in its kind but to difference it from Others of the same kind doth not pretend to Contradict his sense but to Direct it If Caius shew Titus a
this the Jews in their Passover used our Important This in such a Form as did no less plainly prefigure this Institution than the Sacrificed Lamb did the death of the Author then must it seem reasonable that he chose that Form with the same affection that he did that Season and if so then must we mesure our Lords This by that of the Jews makeing the resemblance an evidence that the One was the issue of the Other Let us therefore to the Jewish rituals The Law of Moses requireth Unleavened Bread and for That reason to This day they honor Bread with many ceremonios solennities Before In and After Supper Particularly they break a Cake into two unequal parts The greater part the Master of the Fest hideth under a cushion there to be kept safe till the end of Supper Then doth he solenly bring it forth distributing it among the guests and saying This is the bread of affliction which your fathers ate in Egypt whoever is hungry let him come and eat of the Paschal Lamb. And have we not now found our so much sought for Singular bread exactly answering what This bread is more than any Other bread Do not All features exactly concur The Season the Mater the Form of words All Circumstances the same This is so plausible that to this very Day thogh not for this Reason many look upon the Passover as the Predecessor of the Lords Supper and consequently the Standard of our Performance Many think that women have no right to the Lords Supper because they had none to the Passover and which is more proper to our present purpose that we are not obliged to receve it but at Easter only because That was celebrated only at the same season And that the Corinthians were of this Later opinion the more we consider it the more probable will it appear but most manifest that the Apostle hath utterly confuted it For he first reproveth them as profaning the Lords Supper not in their Paschal only but their Ordinary meetings and then convinceth them that it is concerned in them All whereby the Former error is also destroyed unless its Patrons will exclude all women not only from the Lords Table but his House too The Paschal bread therefore ' though it exactly answer our Lords Institution yet can it by no means agree with the Apostles gloss and we must not rest till we meet an answer for All Phaenomena as well in the One as the Other YET have we not lost our labor For as the Chemist ' thogh he miss his great Secret often findeth his cost and labor well paid by some profitable Experiment so we ' thogh we meet not full Satisfaction in our main enquiry meet somthing worthy Observation 1. That since our Lord in the same Circumstances used the same Word we ought to understand him in the same Sens. And therefor This bread must be our Lords body just so and no otherwise but so as the Pascal cake celebrated to this day by the Jews is the very bread which their Fathers ate in Egypt 2. That since This in the Jewish Passover pointeth at a Singular remarkable piece of bread distinguished from All others of the Kind by its Proper circumstances wherein it is to be eaten therefore This in our Lords Institution must likewise point at some Special bread known by the Circumstance of eating it from All ordinary bread 3. Thogh we have not hereby found what are the proper Marks whereby we may know This from Common bread yet we have the Way wherein we are to seek it For since there is no other defect in the Paschal but This that it answereth not the Apostles dissertation which reproveth their Ordinary Fests it must needs concern us to enquire into the forms of their Common Fests if possibly we may therein find not only such a Special bread but such a Special cup too as may answer both our Lords design and his word This in his Institution and the Apostles explication too whereby he proveth them concerned not only in the Passover but generally in Church Fests III. 3. LET us therefore again to the Jewish Ritual Behold at the very first Step we receve such light as leaves Nothing unsatisfied but our Wonder that the Jewish Rabbins should be better Commentators upon our Lords and his Apostles words and discover more to us of the Original Nature and Design of our great Sacrament than All the Christian Doctors who so long and so much have labored to honor it with their explications Because they are short and full take the words of Leo Modena a modern Rabbin and to remove all doubt of his veracity you shall find the same said by Buxtorf in his Syn. Judaica so that you cannot doubt of matter of fact equally testified by two such witnesses as you are secure agreed not to deceve you After they are sat down they say for the most part the 23d Psalm and afterward the Master of the house taketh a loaf of bread and saith a benediction over it which having do'n he breaketh it and giveth to each person about the bigness of a great olive and afterward every one eateth as he pleaseth and so the first time that every one drinketh he saith a benediction When they have do'n eating they wash their hands and take their knives from off the table because say they the Table representeth an Altar upon which no iron tool was to come And if they be three or more that eat together then doth one of them command a glass to be washed and filling it with wine he taketh it up from off the table saying with a loud voice Sirs let us bless His name with whose good things we have be'n filled After this the master of the house blesseth it and prayeth for peace and having so do'n he giveth to each of them a little of That wine which he hath in his glass and he himself also drinketh of it and so they rise from the table The Necessity considered which lieth so hard upon us to find some Special Bread and Cup which may equally answer both our Saviors and Apostles THIS we may justly upon That single account require any Dissenter to admit of This or shew us a Better But the Resemblance considered we may challenge him not only to shew a better Tally to our Lords Institution but any Pictur better answering the life Yea upon supposition that we were allowed to Forge what we pleased we might challenge him to Invent any Hypothesis that may more exactly answer all the Phaenomena both in our Lords Institution and the Apostles Dissertation to the least tittle Mark I pray you After they are sat down the master of the house taketh a laaf of bread saith the Rabby Our Lord distributed The bread when he had given thanks saith St. Paul as they sat at meat saith St. Luke Then for the Cup. The first time any one drinketh he saith a benediction saith the Rabbi The Lord took the
Country accordingly His General design we cannot mistake Nothing can be plainer than This that it is to convince the Corinthians of their guilt in profaning the Lords Supper but the Medium whereby he prosecutes this charge is both Generally and Grosly mistaken and since this is the Mother error whence all our Neglects on One hand and all our Earnestness on the Other and all our Disputes on All hands proceed it cannot be too plainly exposed and thogh it be troublesom yet must we crave the Reader to undergo a labor so necessary that without it he cannot understand what the Apostle meaneth throughout his discourse We too hastily believe that he endeavoreth to prove no more but this that our Lords Person was concerned in all the abuses of his Supper taking it for granted that they knew how his Supper was concerned in Those Meetings which he reproved Whereas the more we consider it the plainer we shall find that his Direct and Immediate endeavor is to prove the Later supposing the Former as self-evident upon the first notice of our Lords Institution So the case of the Corinthians toward the Lords Supper was much like the Apostles Own toward the High Priest Acts 23.4 5. They that stood by said Revilest thou Gods high priest Then said Paul I wist not brethren that he was the high priest For it is written Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people He reproveth the Corinthians as the By-standers reproved Him Profane you the Lords Holy Supper And supposing them likewise to excuse themselves in the same manner by saying We wist not that it was the Lords Holy Supper for we cannot but know That must be celebrated with reverence he argueth in such manner as to convince them of what they seemed either not to Understand or not to Own II. THE understanding of This will give us great light towards discovery of every step and that this is true we may the better perceve if we proceed by these Enquiries 1. Whether this might not be the Corinthians case 2. What might become the Apostle to do in such a case 3. How doth the Apostles procedure suit with such a Supposal 1. This might very well be the Corinthians case For 1. Possibly they might suppose that our Lord pointed at the Bread as Paschal not as Festival and consequently preferred not Every Fest but only the Passover to this honor and for This there are appearances of reason not contemtibl 1. He chose the Passover for the Season of his Institution and embraced it with such expressions of Affection as seemed Proper to That Particular solennity saying With a desire have I desired to eat not this Supper but this Passover 2. This above All other Fests best Prefigured his death while Future and was therefor most fit to Commemorate it when Past 3. The Jews said of the Lamb This is the BODY of the Passover and our Lord seemeth to allude to it saying This is my BODY 4. The Jews distributing the Paschal Cake said THIS IS the Bread of affliction c. and our Lord distributing the Bread said THIS IS my Body c. And at That time having newly filled their minds with phrases proper to the Season it is very probable that they might receve our Lords words in such a sens 2. And probably such an error might proceed from want of a proper form of Words to accompany the celebration One of the best Doctors our Church can bost of authoriseth me to say That such a Form of words however Useful is not indispensibly Necessary Our Lord enjoined none and we find not that his Apostles either Practised or Taught their Disciples any and it was prone for the Corinthians to slide into an error concerning That cup which carried no Inscription to declare its contents Certainly from hence came that which Tertullian complains of in his days That Fests of Charity were celebrated in the Church without the Lords Supper and from hence came our loss of the meaning which is the Soul of our Grace-cup And on the contrary the Jews with the Mater retene also the meaning of their Tradition because both the Bread and Cup are accompanied with such a Form of words as will not suffer it to be lost 3. And possibly they might look upon the Whole as a mere outward Performance For knowing how litle fondness our Lord had toward Such exercises they might thence infer that he left it in Their choice to Perform or Omit it as Themselves should judge convenient and their Partiality to their beloved riot might incline them both to Entertene such an opinion and Improve it Our Lords Supper must strike some Aw into their unwilling minds Commanding not only Sobriety but Devotion And how unwelcom such a check must be to the Corinthian humor and consequently how willing they must be to free themselfs from it if we know not already we shall anon Thus far we have considered Probabilities we come now to Certainty 4. Whatever they Really believed it is Certain they might Pretend that they believed our Lords Supper unconcerned in Those Fests which the Apostle thus reproved and the very Possibility of such a Pretence no less required a confutation than a Real profession of such a Belief which requireth us to consider as our next step III. VVHat might become the Apostle to do in such a case If it were but Possibl for them to believ so Himself hath taught us that he ought to suppose they Did For Charity thinketh no evil but hopeth All things believeth All things Since therefor This was much better than Knowingly and Willingly to affront our Lord in his Representative This must in Charity be supposed And Prudence agreed with Charity rather to seek out Excuses for them than to expose them to the Vttermost He was to deal as Sweetly and Obligingly as possibl so to endear Himself and the Gospel to them Praise them as much as possibly he might Reprove them no more than Needs he must and Excuse them when he could not Justifie them And this as it sweetened the Reproof in appearance so did it more bitterly aggravate the Crime if their own consciences upbraided them as uncapabl of such an excuse Since the Guilt must needs be Great which to the Reprover appeared Incredibl Nor could any Inconvenience on the Other side dissuade such a procedure This way he might meet with them at All turns If they wer Really mistaken he might Rectifie their Judgments if they wer not he might Baffl their Pretences and Both waies Reprove their Misdemeanors rescuing our Lords Supper from Profanation if they intended to celebrate it and his Commands from Neglect if they intended it not and Himself from any appearance either of Severity towards Them or Coldness towards our Lords Supper IV. 3. HOW doth his Procedure suit with such Supposals If we carefully observe we find that the former part agreeth very well with them and the later part will agree with
such but against total Apostacy from Christianity yet if we carefully examin we shall find the Reason yea the very Phrase reach the former For if we reduce the Rhetorical expressions to plain Reason we find the Christian Religion balanced against the Mosaical and advanced above it in a triple opposition the Law-givers the Rites and the Promulgation In the first both parties are expressed Moses and the Son of God In the other two One is expressed and the Other implyed 2. The Blood of the Covenant wherewith a Christian is Sanctified implicitely compared with the Blood of the Heifer wherewith a Jew was sprinkled 3. The Spirit of Grace in whose mirific power our Savior first and his Apostls afterward proclaimed the Gospel and whom to Blaspheme was unpardonable weighed against the Angel that proclaimed the Law at Mount Sinai 2. The Second is to Us most considerabl That whereas our Lord stiled This Cup the New Covenant in His Blood The Apostl pointeth at it in the Proper Phrase as That Character whereby a Christian Professor is to be Known viz. The blood of the Covenant wherein he was sanctified For he speaketh by Metonym of the Sign for the signified a Figure Elegant Emphatical and Common It is as if one should thus express a Knight of the Garter deserting his Order He hath torn off his Ribon Broken in peices his George Left off his Starr c. Every one seeth that the Laying aside these several peices of his Habit are so many Descriptions of his Apostacy bicaus the Wearing of them ar so many Cognisances of a Brother Since therefor this Supper Hath I should say Had the Same Office in the Christian Church as Those Cognisances have in That Fraternity therefor must the Desertion thereof be equally Expressive of an Apostate from Christianity There is only This and no disadvantageos difference That This One Singly signifieth as much in a Christian as Those Severals did Joyntly either in Knight or Jew He that kept not the Sabbath might retene other signes of a Jew he might be Circumcised keep the New Moons the Passover c. But at the date of this Epistl This Cup was Constantly celebrated by Every Christian in Every Assembly as an Indispensibl bicause Critical Rite of public worship so that it was the same thing to desert the Lords Table and his Church God forbid we should not allow for so Great a Change however unjustifieabl in our Publik worship but should charge such as Apostates from Christ who perhaps fear less to Shed rheir Own Blood in his Service than to Drink His at his Table yet were it to be wished that we would better consider that Moses's own Child was in great danger to be destroyed for want of Circumcision and he that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day thoght as litl of Apostacy from God as any of us do from Christ Yea look we upon the words before us Who wer they that dyed without mercy as dispising Moses's law Wer they such only as Totally fell from Judaism Wer they not All such as neglected any One of those Rites that wer therefor Capital bicaus Distinctive When therefor all is considered we can plead nothing but the goodness of our Intentions or the greater goodness of Gods grace if upon the same reason we should be caled to account for our omission of This Rite no less Important and Indispensibl Yea as we have already seen if the Reason be the same the Crime is much greater not only bicause of the Better Law and Law-giver but bicause of the Greater Contemt There the Law was despised here the Person who 's blood is the mater of the Law That was the Law of Moses This the Blood of the Son of God That was despised This is troden under foot and therefor upon so Many and so Great accounts of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy that is guilty of so much greater contumely But bicause we usually judge of the Price which the Law-giver puts upon his Law by the Penalty which he annexeth to it lest we be temted to think our Lords Supper not intended in the words we now com from viewing And its deserter so far from worthy of any sorer punishment that indeed he is worthy of None bicause None is threatned by our Lord in his Institution It is therefor necessary that Thirdly we observe IV. 3. VVITH What Obligation our Lord hath bound This duty upon us We ar here fundamentally to consider the difference between the Laws of Christ and Those of Moses and all Other lawgivers Our Lord declared his Kingdom not of this world and 't is plain his Punishments ar not For thogh the Apostl the more to prevail with the Corinthians speak no Less and perhaps More of Temporal than of Eternal judgments yet doth he herein rather speak his Own Reason than our Lords Revelation applying himself ad homines to their sensual apprehensions not to any declared threats of our Lord who hath not bound his Command upon us by any Chains of Fear but the much Stronger and more proper Bonds of Love And if the Prophet might make it a complaint against Ephraim I led them with the cords of a man with bonds of Love yet they knew not that I healed them it must not be Diminution but Aggravation of the crime if we break Such bonds asunder and cast Such cords from us The word used by the Prophet is the same whence our English Cable seemeth derived and written by the very same Letters But we need not contend with the Translation For rhose Bonds of Love ar Both Cables for Strength and Cords for Compliance Silken Cables whose Soft Smooth flexiblness twineth about the heart and whose Strength so forceth it that it cannot so much as wish either to Slip or Break the Obligation These ar called the Cords of a man they lay hold on our Humanity fasten upon our very Nature prevail on us by force of Reason And they ar the Bonds of Love no less suitabl to the Nature of the Gospel and more particlarly of This Institution than to Our Own The very Design of the Command is a Thankful remembrance of the Death of the Author and it had be'n most incongrous ro kindle the Spirit of Thankfulness with the blustering of Threats Do this or Dy may very well suit with the Spirit of Bondage But Do this in remembrance of my Death to an Evangelical Spirit is much more Potent as well as Proper than Do This for fear of Your Own As our Lord chose this more Obliging way so hath he Improved it with all such Endearments as may fasten it most Powerfully upon our Affections that so it may not be possibl for any despiser to impute his Kindness towards Us to Coldness toward his Institution CHAP. II. This is Appropriate to our Lords Person and recommended by signal marks of his favor 1. This Command appropriat to our Lords Person and Humanity And thereby I.
shew forth the Lords death by them This Consequence we have all this while be'n proving to be his aim 2. The Other Consequence argueth back again from the Reverence due to our Lords Person to Answerabl Reverence due to his Representatives Bicaus the Lords Body and Blood ar concerned in it therefor you must not eat This bread and drink This cup Vnworthily And this he presseth by two important inferences the Former setting forth the Crime in the 27 vers The Later prescribing the Remedy in the 28. Upon these two turn all the Interpretative Prohibitions which must revers our Lords Command to DO this and all his own forgoing argument inforceing it For by the Former All Unworthy persons ar ipso facto excommunicated and by the Later every one is bound therefor to examin himself that if he find himself unworthy he may execute the sentence It must therefor needs be worth our Labor seriosly to enquire into the true import of those two considerable words which I shall do in their Order CHAP. II. Concerning Unworthiness I. What Unworthy importeth 1. In it 's singl signification 1. In Grammar it is an Adverb 2. In Logik a Relative II. The degree of the Crime not expressed why We need not be so fearful as the Papists We deny not the Real Presence III. 2. The Aspect of the word upon the Apostls designe 1. Personal worthiness dishonourabl to our Lord. 2. Different from the Apostls mesure IV. The Apostl oght to have warned the Corinthians of it 1. For the Lord's Tables sake 2. For his own arguments sake V. 3. For the Corinthians sakes who were such as oght to have be'n forbidden THE Former is set forth in vers 27. He that eateth This Bread and drinketh This Cup UNWORTHILY is guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. And again vers 29. He that eateth unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself In the 27. is declared the Guilt in the 29. the Punishment And Both of them incurred by doing this UNWORTHILY Our main business therefor must be to mesur the import of the word Unworthy And first we must view it in it's Singl Interpretation and then in its Aspect 1. It 's Singl import may be considered in Grammar and in Logik 1. In Grammar we ar to consider the Root and the Termination 1. The Root is Worthy which Rigidly importeth an Equality of worth but in a Milder sens is satisfied with som Proportion thogh short of Full value The Chancery of the Gospel abateth much of what Strict Law requireth Is satisfied with Suitablness for Worthiness This Allowance doth it perpetually give All such words as import Righteousness And with This Latitude doth our Apostl frequently use This very word E. G. Eph. 4.1 Col. 1.10 Thes 2.12 c. For if any one think he can in a Proper sens Walk Worthy of the Gospel Worthy of the Lord or Worthy of God That very thoght will make him Unworthy of the mercy offered by That Lord in That Gospel 2. The Termination speaketh it an Adverb qualifying the Manner of the Action Not an Adjective subjected in the Agent It is not He that eateth and drinketh being Unworthy but he that doth it Unworthily however his Person be qualified The Difference between These two is so Wide so Evident and in This place so Important that it could never escape such acute eys as som of our adversaries enjoy were they not muffled with that Proverbial partiality which maketh None so blind as him that will not see For the first sight of it will expose the impertinence as to This performance of all those Schemes and Directories for Self-Examination which are so carefully set forth as if it wer the same thing to do this in a Manner worthy of the Office and to make one's Self Worthy to be the Officer This can never be too carefully observed I again insist upon it that This Difference between UNWORTHY and UNWORTHILY duely considered will let in such light as will abundantly discover the many and great flaws in That hypothesis to which so many good and wise men have so enslaved themselvs that they ar somtimes as we shall anon see a pitiful exampl forced to offer violence to their ingenuity 2. In Logik it is a Relative wherein beside the now considered Relation and Subject is also considerabl the Correlate which is the Party concerned in the Worthiness or Unworthiness of the Action And this is Generally Grossly and Unhappily mistaken for our Lords Person whereas we have sufficiently proved it to be This Bread and This Cup. Bicause so much depends upon it I again desire is may be considered that the Apostl reproveth the Corinthians just as a sober person would a rude Bully if he should see him abuse a Justice of Peace in execution of his Office Sir might he say Take heed what you do you seem to take this Gentleman for your Equal or perhaps your Inferior but then are you mistaken for This Gentleman This plain Gentlman what ever you think of him represents the Kings person And therefor the Abuses you offer Him ar not private incivilities to an Ordinary Person but Publik Misdemeanors c. In such an Admonition Nothing is intended to be urged but what needs it viz. The Character of the Officer which once known the Nature of the Crime and the Kings concern immediately appears II. THE Nature of the Crime but it 's Degree is not so plain The Apostl in This place by a most unusual stile leaveth it to our Own Reasons to judge He is guilty saith he of the Body and Blood of the Lord but whether of Trampling it under foot or only of Contemning it or in what degree of Affronting it the strange Ellipsis hath left uncertain This is very Certain and no less Considerabl That the affront which passeth through the Officers person loseth much of it's force There and cannot strike so strong upon the Kings as if it were Directly and Immediately aimed at him The Character doth indeed dignify the Otherwise inconsiderabl Person But the Person hath it's Reaction upon the Character We make great allowances for the Meanness of the One even when we pay our Honor to the Other For we think not the same Aw due to the Justice's Worship as to the King's Majesty nor do we judge the Crime Equally great in the affront offered him As the Corinthians Crime had be'n much aggravated so had the Apostl's own Argument be'n much strengthened if he had not made This Bread This Cup but our Lords body and bloud the proper object of the abuse Had therefor This Bread be'n the Proper Body and this Cup the Proper Bloud of our Lord he was now obliged both to Declare and Urge it In a case so urgent an Omission is equivalent to a Negative It was his business so to set forth the Dignity of This abused Bread and Cup that by Proportion with it their Guilt may be Aggravated Would Truth have Consented
his Design would have Required him to have raised his voice Higher He must have said he that Eateth this Bread and Drinketh this Cup eateth the body and drinketh the bloud of the Lord and not have com'n off with a Cold Indefinite Ellipsis which not expressing in What Measure maketh nothing plain but this that it is in a measure much Inferior and consequently his own argument much Weaker than if he had declared them guilty of contemt to the body and bloud of Christ immediatly by Using Them in such manner as they did This Bread and This Cup. Those indeed who still believ This Bread and This Cup not to be our Lord's Representatives but Himself may justly fear the Unworthiness not only of their Persons however carefully Prepared but of their Worship too however carefully Performed But we who believ them no other than what the Apostl stileth them even Then when he most Studiosly Recommendeth them to our Reverence when upon due Self-examination we find how unworthy We ar to Receve our Lords body and bloud may check our fears by considering how Vnworthy This Bread and This Cup ar to Represent them not doubting but the same goodness which bestowed such honor upon the unworthy elements will pardon and accept of Us if we receve them in a Manner suitable to their Office tho not in a Degree worthy of his own Person Let me not be mistaken I deny not the Reality of Christs presence in the Sacrament When I call This Bread and Cup Representatives I mean not that our Lords body and bloud ar thereby no otherwise Represented than the Kings Person is by his Picture which ar the proper goods of the Possessor and may be treated according to his pleasure or than a King is by a Stage-player which only Imitateth but Shareth not his power But as the King is by his Officer who so Representeth his Person as to Execute his Authority with whom he is tho not Personally yet Politikly present Ratifying whatever he doth in his Name and stead This kind of Real presence our Lord himself promised not to Affright but Incorage us When two or three said he ar gathered together in my name there am I in the mids of them He meant doubtless no less than a Real presence which must needs be most Eminent in Such assemblies as ar gathered together not only in his Name but upon his Invitation And to make such a Promis an argument to fright men away is a strange way of honoring the Author From this dissection of the very words we find them fall very short of the force ascribed to them They no way barr any man from Obedience for want of Worthiness Require not a Legal Worthiness in the Person coming Make not the Person of Christ the Object of the Worthiness required in the Performance And upon the whole make not the guilt of the Unworthy Performance equal to that of Disobedience since This Directly affronteth our Lords Person in his Command That only Indirectly in his Representative III. VVE have said that the Anatomist is not only to vieu the Intrinsic Texture of the part dissected but it 's Serviceablness to the Life to what therefor we have seen of the proper sens of the word we shall add it's aspect upon the Apostls design which will be a Further Evidence that he meant not so much as is generally believed bicause such supposal of Personal worthiness would have be'n 1. very dishonorabl to our Lord 2. very Deferent from that Mesure himself stateth it by and 3. very Unfaithful to the Corinthians he requireth it of 1. It wer a great DISHONOR to our Lord to suppose it possibl that any one can be Worthy yea or com within any Neerer distance than Infinite Unworthiness For Worthiness is Relative signifieth if not Full Equality yet som Proportion between the Merit and the Reward the Fest and the Guest And take which of the Correlates you please you find a Saint reproving the concept To those that fear their Own Unworthiness thus speaketh St. Chrisostom Thou sayest thou art not worthy to Do this neither art thou worthy to Pray c. We may go on neither art thou worthy to Hear So far art thou from being Worthy to take our Lords Body that thou art not Worthy to take His Name into thy mouth so far from Worthy to injoy his Bloud that thou art not so to injoy the light of the Sun the fruits of the Earth or any of those sensual delights which Beasts may Injoy but not Abuse as much as Thou On the other side to those who fear the Greatness of the Sacrament thus speaketh another Saint Thou abstainest from the Blessed Sacrament bicause it is a thing so sacred and formidabl that thou not thinkest thy self worthy of it well suppose That But I pray' who is worthy Is an angel worthy enogh No certainly if we consider the greatness of the Mystery Let us well consider these two Sayings and their Reasonablness and then judge of those so frequent phrases A Worthy Communicant A Worthy Guest c. whereby many unwary persons ar more Scared than with any thing derived from the word of God which never taught us either to think so Slightly of our Lords Bloud or so Highly of our Selvs as to believ it possibl by any endeavors to becom Worthy of it 2. The vulgar sens is very different from that Mesure the Apostl stateth the reproved Unworthiness by He expresly caleth it a not discerning the Lords body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 putting no difference between This which our Lord declared his Own Body and Common bread Our Learned Mede very well confirmeth the Jewish definition of Holiness that it signifieth Separation We Sanctify what we honor with Discrimination and on the contrary we Profane what we use as Common The heavenly vision confirmeth this warning St. Peter from an Error in opinion analogos to this Crime What God hath sanctified that call not thou Common To call Common and Unclean was all one in St. Peters sens and not to discern the Lords body from Common bread is all one as to Desecrate it in St. Pauls And this he so presseth upon the Corinthians as dubly to convince them What saith he Have ye not houses to eat and to drink in or despise ye the Church of God and shame them that have not Possibly he might urge this not as Another Crime but as an Evidence of their unexcusablness in the Former They might perhaps plead Ignorance in That but in This they could not For thogh possibly they might not understand that they were obliged to Discern This Bread as the Lords body yet must they needs know they oght to Discern the Church as his Hous If they knew it not to be Sacrilege to make the Lords Cup an instrument of drunkenness they could not but know it so to make his Hous a Tavern With what partiality do som for som others do not treat these two parts
THE Constant Communicant A DIATRIBE Proving that Constancy in Receiving THE Lords Supper Is the Indispensible Duty of Every Christian By AR. BURY D. D. Rector of Exon. Coll. in Oxford Canon Apostol IX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whoever of the Faithful enter and hear the Scriptures but stay not out prayers and Communion ought to be Excommunicated as disturbers of the Church Socrates Hist Lib. V. Ca. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For whereas All Churches through the world on the Sabbath day in every revolution of the week celebrate the mysteries they of Alexandria and they of Rome upon a certain ancient Tradition have refused so to do OXFORD Printed by LEON LICHFIELD Printer to the University for STEPHEN BOLTON 1631. TO The Most Reverend Father in God WILLIAM By Divine Providence Lord ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY Primate of all ENGLAND and Metropolitan And one of His Majesties most Honorable PRIVY COUNCIL c. May it please your Grace MANY great miracles do the Romanists pretend to be frequently wrought By the Holy Sacrament of the Altar but none so admirable as what their ancestors wrought Upon it For what more wonderful than This that a particular Church by colour of a Tradition should prevail with All other Churches throughout the whole Christian world to reneg That Constancy which was universally practised as indispensible for more than 400 years That from Dispensing they should proceed to Discouraging and therein so prevail that those who have freed themselvs from their many other gross abuses cannot from This but still believ our Lord more honored by Forbearing his Table than by Frequenting it In opposition to this Vulgar error I have in my narrow Sphaere used all other endeavors but with so litle fruit that I must either sit down in despair or fly to the last remedy Writeing which beside the advantage of fastening conviction better upon those few that ly under My inspection may extend it to as many others as shall bring my papers under Theirs But here also I meet great discoragements I see that many worthy persons have of late be'n as careful to exhort to the Performance of the Duty as to Worthiness in it but with no better success than those first messengers who 's kind Invitations brought nothing to the Lord of the Fest but variety of excuses If therefor I would conform either to the Parable or to Reason I must proceed to rougher means compell by force of irrefragable arguments the unwilling and resisting world and by all cogent proofs assert a Truth which by Many ages was never Doubted by More generally Denyed by Ours somtimes Affirmed but never that I know clearly proved viz. that it is every Christians duty to be a Constant Communicant And this I have do'n with Such evidence that I fear not any mans confutation yet with litl hope to see the Table furnished with guests For alas what can a poor Enchiridion do toward subduing such an error double armed with Prejudice in the Vnderstanding and Partiality in the Affections fortified with long Possession defended by the Priests and beloved by the Peopl I must therefor be unfaithful both to the service I have undertaken and to Your Grace's right should I either expose it naked and unsheltered to a Cold Advers world or seek any other Patron than your Grace For as this Sacrament hath a double aspect so hath your Grace a double right to it's protection As it is the greatest exercise of Love and duty to our Lord by your Eminence in Piety As it is the Principal office of Church-worship by your eminence in Power Ecclesiastical By the former every good christian may claim common with your Grace in most of the following pages but by the Later your Grace hath a peculiar jurisdiction over some particularly a PART III. Chap. 1. Sect. 4. those wherein I have justified the Constitutions of our Church as doing what in such unhappy circumstances is possible for retriving Primitive Constancy Could I say as much for the Practice But be it never so defective it cannot hinder us from justifying our Church as well as St. Paul himself For his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is no less generally mistaken for a derogation from That very obligation to constancy which he employed it to prove indispensible than is the three times in every year which our Church defines as the Least that she can tolerate in the Peopl for the most that she expecteth from the Priests who therefor think themselvs exactly conformable if they minister it just so often and no more though without any care either Before-hand to exhort the people to Receve it or Afterward to reprove them if they Neglect it which yet they cannot avoid seeing them generally do being so taught and accustomed during our confusions and still biased by their sloth or worse What may be allowed for the untractableness of the people under our present Distractions is not for Me to determin But that those very Distractions which now toss us between two such parties whereof the One first robbed the Sacrament of Constancy and the Other strippeth it stark naked of All Performance ly on us as a just punishment for our compliance with them is plainly enough to be discovered without any rude intrusion into God's secrets For Constancy in This Office is apparently the most effectual means to unite us as being both by it's own nature most serviceable thereto and by its singular interest in our Lord's Person singularly intitled to his Blessing I therefor conceve it no impertinent disturbance of those great cares wherewith your Grace is too much molested if as a kind of Church-warden-general I make humble presentment of that defect in Parochial Churches especially which your residence in Cathedrals hath hindered you from discovering bicause those Officers who ought to be eyes to your Grace and our other Fathers in God are themselves blinded with the vulgar error Whereof we saw a pernicious experiment in the days of your Grace's immediate predecessor when a General enquiry made upon these Questions 1. How many inhabitants in your Parish 2. How many refuse to join in Communion with the Church proved abortive bicause those who refused to communicate in This Principal office were not noted as refusing to join in Communion with the Church which had they ben the necessity of compulsory means would have appeared so evident that we had not now be'n in danger to have our nineteenth Article urged against us to disprove our being a True Church I know my self chargeable with a double great boldness first in fronting these Papers with your Grace's name and then in the account I make for it But when I first engaged in the work I resolved not to do it by halvs and I think I might better have omitted the better half than This way of advantageing the whole And since your Grace is so well known eminent for zeal in redressing whatever you shall find to need it I have
Proposition ver 26. is not the Lords Supper but This Bread and This Cup. The Praedicate is utterly useles and wors toward such a design VI. 2. Positively The Proposition pointeth at som Determinate Bread and Cup. The Argument reduced to a Syllogism CHAP. II. Concerning the Clause AS OFTEN AS Pag. 70. I. The unhappiness of this Clause II. The true sons of the words mesured by parallel precepts III. Serviceable remarks 1. With what care the Apostl recordeth this Claus IV. 2. With partiality he treateth the Cup. V. The justice he doth the Bread joining it with the Cup in his deductions VI. The Conclusion with an Objection answered CHAP. III. Concerning the Vulgar interpretation of as often as pag. 85. I. The Distinction between Suppositive and Absolute stated because made the mesure of obligation II. The words of the Author set forth and III. Examined IV. The merely suppositive sens enervates our Lords Command And V. The Apostl's own Argument VI. The two senses ballanced in order to Conscience CHAP. IV. Objections answered pag. 100. I. The First Objection That the Tradition may be novel answered 1. By mater of Fact II. By passing judgment upon it 2. No necessity of difference in point of frequency between the breaking of bread before meat and Grace-cup after it 2. If the Jews Antiquities be against us we may reject their authority III. 3. Seeing a party of them are on our side we may well prefer that party above the opposite So great an agreement as is between them could not be 1. From Chance IV. 2. Nor the Jews conforming their custom to Christs Institution bicause it is incredible they should have such 1. care 2. or wit V. Another Objection That we must have Fests or no Sacrament adjourned VI. A third Objection That the Jews used their Grace-cup in their Houses not their Synagogs Answered by six steps VII The last Objection The universal silence of all Ages Answered 1. By shewing reason why both Primitive and Later ages should be silent and 2. by shewing that the best critiks have observed it CHAP. V. Mater of Fact recorded in Scripture pag. 117. I. A transition to Mater of Fact Not so easily understood as might have be'n expected Two things considerable 1. The Backwardness of the Apostl's in Understanding our Lords mind 2. The means which our Lord used to recommend it unprosperos The night of Institution by its terrors II. Our Lord's conversation with the two Disciples in the way and at Emaus so ordered as to discover the meaning of his Institution as well as the truth of his Resurrection ineffectual upon a contrary reason Their ignorance 'till the coming of the Holy Ghost III. The second observable Their diligence in obeying our Lord's will when discovered That by their breaking of Bread must be meant the Lord's Supper appears by 1. The exercises accompanying it 2. The Phrase expressing it IV. 3. The Place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must signifie the Meeting house where the first Christians held their Conventicles for fear of the Jews V. 4. The time The Apostl's a d Brethren at Hire daily The Remote Churches on the Lo d's day VI. The first day of the week consecrated to this office and for that reason stiled the Lords day dishonored by derivation from the Fourth Commandment cannot be worse profaned than by neglect of this office to which it oweth its sacredness CHAP. VI. The Practice of Antiquity pag. 131. I. The constant Practice of Christ's Church in it's best ages proved by one evidence of each kind viz. 1. Canon the 9th Apostolik II. 2. One Father Justin Martyr 3. One Historian Socrates The Church of Rome under pretence of tradition innovated against the Church Universal III. 4. Enemies of each kind 1. Protestants IV. 2. Papists V. 3. Junior Fathers particularly St. Augustin whose words are recited wherein we must distinguish between Father and Doctor As Father he stateth the question The question and the practice of the Church both in Doctrine and Discipline very different between St. Augustin's time and Ours VI. As a Doctor he determins the question 1. His stile very diffident bicause his Opinion is opposit to all other Fathers 2. His determination reacheth not Our question Yet have later ages caght at his words and strained them beyond his intentions with unhappy success His Syncretism rectified PART III. Concerning the word DO CHAP. I. We must answer such a Command no otherwise but by Performance Pag. 149. I. The cause of our disobedience to this Command too much Fear II. We may not commute Doing for any other service III. The reason why som think best not to do this often and their appeal to the Church of England IV. The Church vindicated V. The two opposite opinions personated The Vniversity Statutes the best comment upon the Churches Rubrike The Greek Church in great Churches celebrateth the Holy Communion every Sunday and Holy day VI. Those who omit the Communion it self greater Non-conformists than those who neglect the Communion Service CHAP. II. We may not omit This duty without warrant pag. 164. I. Necessity may be complied with A doubl question II. Difference between Laws Moral and Positive The Apostl's vouching our Lords revelation a proof of the valu of the Sacrament Fear of cheapness no reason why we should make it scarce III. Omission compared with unworthiness IV. Our Warrant must be either Countermand or Dispensation V. Defect of preparation no Dispensation VI. All other Duties in the same danger CHAP. III. The Obligation ceased not upon the change of the Manner of the Festing in the Church but must be accommodated thereto pag. 174. I. The Apostle hath prevented such a consequence by saying our Lord appointed us to do this 'till he com II. The adequate mesure of our doing this is not Eating but Meeting in the Church As change of the Ceremony hindereth not Perjury from being a sin Nor doth change of the season hinder us from stiling it a Supper III. The Church careful to preserve the memory and titl of Festing VI. The Apostl's argument holdeth by vers 20. more for the Thing than for the Manner wherein we cannot now be guilty as the Corinthians were V. The Equitable and Moral sens of the Argument accommodate to the present manner of Church-meetings VI. Distinguish between yielding and justifying PART IV. Concerning the End In Remembrance CHAP. I. It is the badge of a Christian pag. 183. I. This the only rite whereby we honor our Lords Person Three Considerations 1. Every Religion distinguished from Every other by som proportion This Nature taught the Heathen and Gods Law the Jews II. The New Testament contracteth the multitude of Jewish rites to two whereby Christians ar known as the Knights of the Garter 1. By a rite of admission III. 2. By continual wearing the badge IV. Those distinguishing rites must be highly valued It was mortal to a Jew to omit any of them and to a Heathen to wear them V. This wors in
a Christian upon several accounts 1. The Law giver 2. The Rites VI. 3. The Obligation CHAP. II. This is Appropriate to our Lords Person and recommended by signal marks of his favor Pag. 196. I. This Command appropriat to our Lords Person and Humanity And thereby 1. Endeareth all other Laws by new obligations proper to the Nature of a Man II. 2. Is it self a New Law upon a New account III. It is not only a Monument proper to our Lords memory but a Statu lively representing him IV. Our Lord expressed his esteem by his care in recommending it in the most advantagees circumstances 1. It was the Last night in his Life 2. The night in which he was and knew he should be betrayed V. The perverse returns many make to this care 1. The Profane make it their Last act as if it wer to shew forth their own death 2. Som make it their Last care by preferring every other before it Business unpreparedness uncharitableness VI. The Scrupulos refusing to receve bicause hindered by impossibl conditions blemish our Lords wisdom and goodness CHAP. III. Serviceable to our own interests Pag. 213. I. The kindness of the Command as it regards our Interest 1. In point of Ease It is a sacrificial Fest not a Sacrifice Suffering an expression of Love exercised by many but not requited in this duty II. 2. In point of pleasantness 1. Spiritual pleasures greater than Sensual thogh the Atheist cannot relish them We must believe the experienced not the ignorant III. 2. Pleasures of the Christian greater than of any other Religion IV. 3. Pleasures of this greater than of any other Office of Christian worship 1. It hath proper sweetness of its own V. 2. It improveth all other Offices 1. Preaching 2. Swearing 3. Prayer This proved by the practice of those who in danger desire the Sacrament VI. 4. Thankfulness VII Other Advantages intimated but not insisted on bicause set forth by many other Writers A brief Recapitulation of what hath be'n here said with a Transition to what remains PART V. Answers to the Vulgar opinion CHAP. I. Deference paid to the Former age and to the Sacrament Pag. 235. I. Former ages excused for advancing Reverence when there was no other danger but of Irreverence and stating preparation in such manner as might best serv Piety Reason to believ that were they now living they would press the Performance as earnestly as they have do'n Preparation II. A Second Protest against robbing the Sacrament III. The Adversaries opinion set forth in his own words whereby almost all the World must be prohibited IV. A Warrant demanded A confession that a good Consequence is Warrant sufficient CHAP. II. Concerning Unworthiness Pag. 247. I. What Unworthy importeth 1. In its singl signification 1. In Grammar it is an Adverb 2. In Logik a Relative II. The degree of the Crime not expressed why We need not be so fearful as the Papists We deny not the Real Presence III. 2. The Aspect of the word upon the Apostls design 1. Personal worthiness dishonorable to our Lord. 2. Different from the Apostls mesure IV. The Apostl oght to have warned the Corinthians of it 1. For the Lord's Table sake 2. For his own arguments sake V. 3. For the Corinthians sakes who were such as oght to have be'n forbidden CHAP. III. Of Self Examination pag. 260. I. How Self-examination is usually pressed II. The question is not indifinite but confined to the Present occasion and the answer is dubl 1. Negative III. 2. Positive IV. The true question concerning which we must examin our selvs CHAP. IV. Answereth Reason Objecting Allegories pag. 268. I. A Transition from Scripture to Reason and by the way notice taken of Allegories of a midl Nature between both II. The Allegory of Covenant and Seal answered and retorted III. The Allegory of Member likewise answered IV. The Allogory of Sons and Enemies V. A General answer to all objections of this kind CHAP. V. Reason as the case now standeth forbids to hazard the very being of the Sacrament for advancement of Reverence pag. 275. I. A Descent from Scripture to Reason The case now different from what it was formerly II. 1. Bicause the very Being of the Sacrament is hazarded III. Every step from Constancy an approche to That danger At first the Prohibition lay onely against singl persons not qualities and against Persons by sentence of the Bishop IV. From sins grosly scandalos a pass made to All sins The moderation of the Church of England V. Motives to bring tepid persons to the Sacrament not potent VI. A comparison of such Doctrines as endanger the Being with such practices as profane the Sacrament 1. Somthing is better than Nothing More hope of reformation A Protest against encorageing irreverence Three good ends laid down which the Sacrament is fit to promote but disabled by disuse CHAP. VI. The Sacrament made useless toward Conversion pag. 287 I. That it is made unserviceabl toward conversion of a sinner Three propositions 1. To deny it a converting vertu is dishonorable to the Sacrament and more so to our Lord. II. No danger to the Worthy but the whole question is about the Unworthy and concerning them there is more hope than fear five reasons why the hope should be embraced III. 2. The Sacrament hath a converting vertu Proved 1. by the joint authority of the Apostls and by consideration of this Apostl's argument St. Augustin used the same argument with the same unhappiness IV. No fear that such stating the Argument should drive men as far from the Church as the Altar V. 2. By Reason 1. The Death of Christ serviceabl to convert That he suffered more for This end than any other proved by Scripture and Reason VI. 2. This Sacrament setteth forth Christ's death more powerfully than Preaching We may not imagin that he will deny it his blessing VII 3. The converting power promoted by frequent repetitions A supposition that One solemn address may be worth Twenty examined An hypotyposis of such a performance 1. Frequent offers his one time or other 2. Repetition addeth new force to the former decaying act 3. Teacheth to act better So it will help not prejudice the performance in respect of the manner CHAP. VII Wors than Useless toward comforting the Godly pag. 309. I. The second end Comfort of the Godly This Sacrament founded upon Festing the tessera of Love II. The conscientious griped between a fear of Unworthiness on the one side and of Disobedience on the other III. Hopes mingled with Fears a snare to the Godly which the Vngodly escape IV. The Lords table more dishonored by such preparation than by None CHAP. VIII Pernicios to Charity pag. 318. I. Fasting a bond of kindness among guests Salt an embleme of Love II. This a Fest of Charity seasoned with a kiss of Charity The highest Communion Drinking and Pledging Drinking healths The Bride-cake The Apostl's way of Arguing our Union from this Communion III. The
kiss of charity translated kissing the Pax Panis benedictus a mockery The Sacrament not only disabled from advancing Love but turned to a makebate 1. by taking away the necessity of the Supper we take away its power to make us One body Our Saviors precept of being reconciled before we offer our gift miserably perverted IV. 2. By our too great aw we not only disable the Sacrament from healing the least breach but make it an instrument of the greatest 1. This multiplieth questions 2. Invenometh them 3. Maketh them incurable V. Taketh away the very subject of the question ' better the Sacrament had never be'n instituted than so abused The Conclusion Reflecting upon the whole I. All reduced to three questions Qu. 1. By what Authority do we depart from Constancy By that of the Church of Rome II. No Doctrine hath so much of Popery as This. III. Qu. 2. With what Success 1. By loss of Constancy we have lost tolerabl Frequency IV. 2. By too much advanceing Reverence we have made it mischievos 1. To the honor of our Lord 2. to the peace of his church V. Qu. 3. Upon what Need No such danger as is feared of loss of reverence or if there were any it is much outweighed both by prudential and conscientious considerations VI. The Reverence which is due to the Sacrament is not such as belongs to Gods Decrees which require our Forbearance but such as belongs to his Laws which require our Performance THE INTRODUCTION Shewing it necessary to enquire how often we are obliged to receive the Holy Communion I. The seeming impossibility and real necessity to add to what hath be'n already written concerning the Lords Supper II. A double Objection slighted yet answered and turned to a double plea. The former concerning the dignity of the Sacrament III. The other concerning the deference due to Antitiquity A short retrospect upon the several stages of our departure from it How later Fathers departed from the first The Papists from the Fathers IV. The Reformed Churches from the Papists The Moderation of the Church of England blamed by the Non-conconformists who dissented heretofore in One extream and now in Another V. Our own Divines of the last age less justifiable than those of the present who do better yet not enough VI. The sum of the account A request for rigid examination and its reason An example of noble Ladies An advertisement to the Reader AFTER so many Treatises and Contentions concerning the Lords Supper it 's Nature and Mysteries the Duties we are to pay it and the Benefits we are to receive from it c. it may well appear not only needless to write any more upon so spent a subject but impossible to do it without troubling the World with Repetitions of what hath already and perhaps too often been said by others But the complaint which our judicious Sandys made in behalf of the devout Pilgrims who with great trouble and danger visit the Holy Sepulchre may well fit those pious persons who travel in search after our Lords mind in this Monument raised with great care by himself in memory of his death There the devout Pilgrim findeth the Grave it self buried out of his sight the herbs and flowers withered into costly but dead Marble and the glorious spatious Vault of Heaven contracted into a much duller and meaner one of a splendid magnificent Temple And here the conscientious enquirer findeth This Monument buried under so many incomprehensible Mysteries that the Sacrament of the Altar looks no more like the Lords Supper than doth the Temple of the Sepulchre like Joseph's Garden How much more had our learned and ingenious Writers advanced both the honor of the Sacrament and the interest of Souls if in stead of those Many Great and Fine Buildings wherewith they have endeavored to beautifie and really hidden it they had left us the naked Area a Plain Honest account of our Lords Meaning especially in such points as are therefore necessary to be known because otherwise we cannot conform our obedience to it Such are These Whether our Lord intended more than he expressed and how much Whether he intended to impose it upon us as a Command or no and how much and with what limitations Whether all Persons be obliged to perform it and how often Whether we may omit it in any case and in what cases Whether and in what cases we be not only permitted but obliged to forbear Whether it be best to perform it seldom or often or constantly c. These and such as these are questions so obvious yea so unavoidable ly so directly in our way so cross it and even block it up that it may be wondered how Any one much more how Every one that pretendeth either to guide others or follow his own light should I cannot say Neglect but Avoid them For they serve not to tickle the Fancy or scratch the Curiosity but to inform the Conscience they do not amuse us with impertinent Speculations but direct us in necessary Duty and that not in Collateral or Inferior but in the Principal Articles So that it seemeth no less than admirable that any should sincerely desire to keep a good Conscience yet neglect to understand his Obligations in the necessary points of Time and Frequency required For unless we can believe that our Lord most carefully established an Institution only to be talk'd of stared upon or fought for If we believe a word of the Imperative Mode must have an Imperative sense If we should think our selves ill served when having commanded our servants to do some useful work we should find them busie themselves in talking or perhaps quareling about the wisdom of the Command or the usefulness of the Work and so leave the applauded Command unexecuted and the magnified Work unperformed Then after so many Inventions yea so many Veines exhausted after so much profusion not only of Ink but Blood unhappily spilt upon this sole Subject it is not only Possible but Necessary to write yet more concerning a Subject so far from being spent that it is untouched in those Points which are most worthy our labor For while some imploy their zeal in Disputing or worse concerning the manner of our Lords Presence and the Adoration due to it and others who deny Adoration strain Reverence to such a pitch as turns it to Fear While they forbid us to approach the Lords Table upon any other terms than we may safely come to his Judgement Seat while our kinder Writers help us with Schemes for self-examination and Forms of Devotion that we may if possible come Worthy but press the Duty so coldly that it is questioned whether it be a Duty or no and past question that it is not one to come at all Times When so much is spoken to fright us from the Altar and so little to oblige us to approach it What other Fruit can we reasonably expect from such Labors but what we see Many pay their
half proved by the very first glance upon the Text. 2. That in All their Church Fests they honored some Special Bread and Cup with Special ceremonies the Cup ever closing the Fest This will require a fuller Examination Upon these two Suppositions the Apostles Argument otherwise unintelligible and All his Expressions whereof some must be otherwise impertinent will appear most Clear Rational and Unanswerable By their help therefore I shall make a duble dissection of the Words by a Paraphrase and of the Argument by an Analysis VI. THE Paraphrase must take in the 20th Verse bicause all the rest hang to it 20. When you come together therefore into one place this is not to eat the Lords Supper 21. For in eating every one taketh before other his own Supper and one is hungry and anothor is drunken 22. What Have ye not houses to eat and to drink in or despise ye the Church of God and shame them that have not Shall I praise you in this I praise you not 23. For I received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you that the Lord Jesus in the same night in which he was betrayed took bread c. 25. After the same manner also he took the Cup when he had supped saying This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood this do ye as often as ye drink it in remembrance of me 26. For as often as ye eat this bread This bread and drink this cup you do shew forth the Lords death c. 27. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But let a Man examine himself and so let him eat of This bread and drink of This cap. 29. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself not discerning the Lords body 33. Wherefore my brethren when ye come together to eat tarry one for another 34. And if any man hunger let him eat at home When you meet in that publik place appointed to Gods Worship your behavior is such that you cannot be thoght to celebrate the Lords Supper For whereas the whole Fest oght to be common to all the Communicants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you on the contrary in that foregoing Supper which the Lords is to close eat every one his own Supper apart so that one taketh more than Temperance alloweth and another less than Nature requires If your debauchery be such that you cannot forbear drunkenness it were less intolerable to practise it in private in your own houses than thus impudently to affront the whole Church and insult over them who have neither houses nor such plentiful provisions I said indeed verse 2. I praise you that you remember me in all things and keep the Ordinances as I delivered them to you But in this which is an Ordinance of the first Magnitude I must make an exception In this I do not cannot praise you For this Tradition I received not as I did the rest from my fellow Apostles but from the Lord Jesus himself and since you seem ether to have forgotten or mistaken it I again repete it That the Lord Jesus in the same night wherein he was betrayed being a Festival one took Bread c. After that same Festival manner also he took the closing Cup in its proper time viz. after Supper saying As often as ye drink this Cup in this manner do it in remembrance of me and not as you have hitherto do'n it For by this Institution This Bread and This Cup is so advanced above its former dignity that it is consecrated to a representative of our Lords death and as such is to be honored and that to the end of the world so that neither you nor any other Christian Church shall ever be at liberty to use it otherwise Wherefore this bread and cup are now no longer your own but the Lords and who ever useth them in a manner unworthy of that Relation is guilty not only of Intemperance but Sacrilege as abusing not common Bread and Wine but the thereby represented Body and Blood of the Lord. But remember that it is the proper character of a Man to examin his own actions Do so in This consider what you do and act sutably to your rule Let not the fear of so great a guilt fright you from your Duty but from your Irreverence For he that doth it in a manner unsuitable to its relation provoketh our Lord to anger as leveling His Flesh with that of a Beast and His Blood with that of a Grape putting no difference but treating the one in the same rude manner as he doth the other Wherefore when you come together to your Church Fests entertain you one another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you that are able communicate your meat to those who have none of their own But let no man either eat or drink immoderately in Gods House if he be given to appetite let him rather satisfie it in his Own By this Paraphrase well understood and duly heeded we shall not fail of the Apostles meaning in the whole and every Particle provided we handle them regularly which I shall now do by a Logical Analysis of the Argument VII BY the Rules of Reasoning we must First consider the Conclusion intended to be proved and Then the Media imployed to that End mesuring These by their serviceableness to That The Conclusion is the charge of Profaneness in the Corinthians relating to our Lords Supper This animates and This must interpret every word and therefore requires to be it's self most carefully heeded And one might think a litle heed sufficient since it seems impossible either to Overlook or Mistake it He doth not only plainly lay it down but thrice inculcate it And since in every proposition the Quantity is highly considerable we must carefully observe that he doth not accuse them as guilty of misdemeanors in Some more than Other meetings but in All alike Had he charged them as guilty in Some special meetings wherein the Lords Supper was more especially concerned we had then understood that it was not concerned in All assemblies as such Or had he charged them as Profaning the Lords Supper in All meetings without heeding whether it were concerned in them or no if in Those meetings they were at liberty to have celebrated or omitted it they might excuse themselves by saying they intended it not in those particular ones But because they Never met in the Church without Festing and in All such Fests they were obliged by Christs command to celebrate his Own he therefore blameth their Fests Universally and that in such language that thrice varying the Phrase he still further cleareth his meaning Verse 17. Your coming together is not for the better but for the worse Their coming together Indefinitly if it be not plainly enough equivalent to an Vniversal is more clearly made so by ver
18. When you come together in the Church where the more general coming together is so appropriated to the Church that the indefinite when must be equivalent to whensoever as yet more plainly appears by ver 20. When you come together into one place it is not to eat the Lords Supper This is the extract of the whole charge That when they came together into That holy place which was set apart for Gods worship they so behaved themselves that what they did could not be taken for the Lords Supper A charge which now adays we should not decline and why should the Corinthians more than we We acknowledg might they not say yea we plead it We cannot be said to Eat the Lords Supper and what then therefore we cannot be said to Profane it This might have be'n an evasion as Effectual as Obvios if the Lords Supper were not concerned in Those very same meetings which he so Described and Reproved i. e. in All. This therefore is the sum of his Charge and it must be the Design of his Reasoning to prevent any evasion not to be do'n but by proving That in All their meetings the Lords Supper was Therefore Abused because it was Concerned in them All. Let us now consider by what Media he proveth it At the 23d vers he beginneth his evidence appealing to our Lords Institution explained by a Revelation In recital whereof it is most considerable that in reporting the consecration of the Cup he addeth words not mentioned by any of the Evangelists nor by himself in That of the Bread For none of Them say that our Lord said of the Cup Do this as often as you drink it nor doth Himself say that our Lord said of the Bread Do this as often as ye eat it The Reason of this difference we shall have a fitter time to enquire hereafter At Present we must not neglect to observe That as he is very careful thus to Insert these words so is he immediatly to Resume them and settle them as the Foundation of his whole Argument For upon this Supposition that our Lord preferred This Bread and This Cup which was constantly used in All Church-meetings to such an Office that whether they Considered it or no yea whether they Would or no it must set forth his death Then and not otherwise will All his Inferences follow that the abuse of This bread and This eup reach That body and blood which they so represent And lest This should fright them not only from the Abuse but the Use too of This bread and This cup to prevent so great an inconvenience he is careful to warn them that it is no less crime to disobey our Lords Authority than to Profane his Supper They must first examin themselves to prevent the One and then Eat this bread and drink this cup to avoid the Other And having thus secured the duty both in the Thing and the Manner he binds it by Threatnings to the end of the Chapter These are the great Limbs of this Body This the Process of the Argument Thus doth it answer his own character The body is fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth Not one joint too little or too much not One loose Expression not One word Impertinent or Unserviceable every part hath its mutual consent with every other part and its office of Serviceableness to the whole which also is complete without any the least defect His Charge made good in its whole Latitude The Corinthians convicted All Evasions barred The Crime displayed rhe Danger discovered the Duty inforced the only Safe way set forth and the Fear of deserting it prevented And because some require not only Logik force but Logik form too This is the formal Process of the Argument Those who so come together that they cannot be said to eaet the Lords Supper com together for the worse You so com together ver 21 22. The Proposition which alone needeth it he proveth by words purposely inserted in his recital of our Lords Institution ver 25. and resumed ver 26. As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye shew forth the Lords death which Proposition signifieth nothing unless helped with this Assumption As often as you come together in the Church you eat this bread and drink this cup. And by assistance of this Assumption the whole is made unanswerable This fundamental Assumption then Deserveth and Requireth our utmost care I shall therefore most diligently observe it And for greater clearness shall transpose the Apostles words reading them Thus This cup as often as you drink do it in remembrance of Me. And so we find these considerables 1. A certain special cup pointed at by the Demonstrative THIS 2. This cup made a standard whereby we must measure our performance 3. The Performance which we must mesur by This standard 4. The end for which we must do it And having thus stated our obligation by examining the Apostles discourse I shall examine what is said to the contrary by our late Divines who not heeding the Standard and mesuring the duty by a good but unfit one have defeated both our Lords design and their own too CHAP. II. Of the Necessiâ—y to fit the word THIS with somâ— singular Bread and Cup. I. The difference of our Lords stile towards this Bread and Wine from That towards litl children II. This subject requireth the clearest expression III. The Particle THIS most considerable IV. Grammar and Logick In Logick it is considerable 1. As a singl word a Demonstrative must have somthing for its object praecedances Every word must be answered by som Idea V. 2. As the subject of a Proposition The meaning of the Praedicate must be mesured by the capacity of the subject Offers at the import of the word rejected 1. That Individual 2. The whole kind 3. Somthing indeterminate 4. The Action OUR Lord after his last Supper treated Bread and Wine with such kindness as at another time he did little Children He took them up laid his hands upon them and blessed them But with This great difference that of Those he favored the Whole kind Suffer said he little children to come to me Little children indefinitely i. e. Any little children whatsoever and gave a Reason comprehensive as the Precept For of such is the kingdom of heaven Whereas Here he preferreth not Bread and Wine indefinitely nor speaketh a word of their Fitness for the honor recommendeth not either of them as Such but as This i. e. Not the whole Genus nor any Other Species but only This i. e. This singularly Proper cup. So great a difference in his Expression must needs proceed from a suitable difference in his Intention In the Former case his Words plainly declare his meaning That as often as Any parents or other friends desired to bring Any Children to him for his blessing his Disciples should admit them whoever they wer And had he now meant as
Universally of Bread and Wine as then he did of Children he Easily Might and therefor Certainly would have declared such a parallel Intention with a parallel Expression saying As often as you desire to set forth my death by a visibl representative do it with Bread and Wine for such viands ar proper to That end Thus I say he Might and therefore Would have declared his meaning if he had meant no more bicause Thus it would have be'n best understood For as reason required it was his constant Practice to deliver his Practical precepts in the clearest stile that the dullest apprehension of the most illiterate Fisherman might understand his duty II. IN the Mysteries of the Kingdom indeed especially such as might have temted his yet carnal followers to forsake him he Hinted and Intimated more than he thought fit to Express and he gave his reason I have many things to say to you but you cannot bear them now He therefore spake only so much as might serv to prepare them for that Spirit of truth which as it brought all his Sayings to their Memories and all his Institutions to their Understandings so did it indue them with power from on high to bear such truths as were then too Big for their narrow Capacities or too Heavy for their sensual Affections Now this is a Practical Precept Therefore Injoined that it may be Performed and for that reason oght so to be Expressed that it may be clearly Understood especially in such Necessary points as are to be Mesures of the Performance Besides as it is a Practical precept so it is a Positive one too And such above all other require the Fullest and Clearest declaration of the Authors meaning For Precepts Moral if they be less clearly delivered may receve further light from the candle of the Lord which shines in every mans Reason But Precepts Positive having no other Mesur but the mere Will of the Law-maker can have no other Interpreter but his Words which therefor need be as Clear as his intentions to be obeyed can be Real Which in This case we cannot doubt them to be since it is appropriate to his own Personal honor and favored with many expressions of his esteem If ever therefore we must mesure our Lords Mind by his Words it must be Now and Consequently Now must we most carefully examin the Proper sense of Every word by such tests as are owned by all mankind III. AND among his Words this Particle THIS as it hath the first Place so hath it a principal Importance Our Lord made it the head stone of the corner thogh the bilders have rejected it and made it a stone of stumbling For what St James said of the Toung may be applied to THIS Particle It is very litle in Bulk but very great in Power and that Power it exerciseth in the same Manner too The Bridle determins the motion of the otherwise wandring Horse and the Helm That of the otherwise floting Ship and THIS the otherwise Undermined object If we go on with St James and complain of it's setting on fire the course of nature the unhappy sentence may appear more gilty than Any But our THIS is so far from the Incendiary that had not it's help be'n refused it wold either have Prevented or Quenched the flames For had the Doctors imploy'd some of That care in duly Stateing the power of the word THIS which they have worse than lost upon Exalting that of the word BODY the Cup of blessing could never have spent as it hath do'n more blood of Christians than of the Grape But those who resolved to Deify the word BODY must Sacrifice to it our word THIS That they might destroy the principles of Natural Philosophy they must begin with those of Grammar and Logick which concur to require our Special regard to the neglected Particle IV. GRAMMAR tells us that it is a Pronoun Adjective and Demonstrative As an Adjective it cannot stand without a Substantive and as a Demonstrative it must have a proper Object to point at And Logik saith the Same if we look upon it as a Simple word and More if we look upon it as part of a Proposition If we look upon it as a Single word Logik calleth it Syncategorical which is another expression of the same office which Grammar ascribeth to it It so points at some Singular object as to change the Vagum into Determinatum and put as much difference between This Cup and Any cup as there is between Hic homo and Quidam which is no less than what the Proper name can add to the Common nature For if Peter be pointed at and called This man he is thereby as much distinguished from all other men as if he were named Obj. If it be thought sufficient that there is a difference between THIS and other bread as soon as it is prepared for Consecration Ans I answer We ar not yet com'n so far We are not now enquiring into the Consequence of the Action but into the Meaning of the Institution which was the Caus of the then futur Action We know it to be no Common Bread when it is Separate or about to be so from Common use but we wold also know whether it wer not distinguished from Common bread before the Institution required us so to Separate it whether it had not some Praevios fitness above Any other Bread which might prefer it before All orher to the Office wherewith our Lord honored it in consideration of That singular Praevios fitness Now since our Lord pointed to it by the Demonstrative THIS before ever he had Consecrated it and thereby declared it Singularly capable of the Office either it must have some Praevious singularity or the Demonstrative must be vain as having Nothing to demonstrate FOR Words are but Images of Thoghts and as That Thoght must be vain which hath no Thing to answer it so must That Word be that is not answered by a Thoght the One and the Other must be verified by some Idea But of All words the necessity lieth heaviest upon THIS Others must Signifie some proper object This doth not only Signifie but Point to it and must be not only Vain but Abusive if professing to shew somthing it have nothing to shew This Priest must of necessity have somthing to offer I here challenge Any one to shew me in Any Author whatsoever any one example wherein This Demonstrative createth the first Difference without any Praevios disposition in the Object so to be pointed at And 'till That can be do'n we may very well receve our Lords word in the same Sense since it carrieth the same Sound as it doth in Moses's stile This said he of the Blood of sprinkling THIS is the blood of the Covenant That Blood receved not All its proprieties from what Moses said or did But it First differed from All other blood by its Proper circumstances of offering and Moses finding it so Predisposed honored it with a
Guinny and say This you shall have if c. he wold do him injustice if he gave him a Shilling instead of it pretending he meant not by the word THIS any determinate coin nor would Any arbitrator judge but he must pay what the constant import of the Phrase called for i. e. what to sense the piece appeared to be worth which Cajus pointed to by the word THIS The case is the same on both sides as it must not signify Less so must it not More but just the same as the sense to which it is shewen takes it for If Therefore to All senses it appear Bread the Demonstrative will not make it Any thing else it will leave it its Proper Nature of Bread and Add to That Nature some Enclosure from the Common to exclude All Other but THIS only 4. That our Lord pointed Not at the Elements but the Action is the concept of a greater than Bellarmine of our Church which he bildeth upon the Grammatical disagreement of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But it is contradicted by the Other Element for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth more necessarily require that the Demonstration should be applyed to the Cup than the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can forbid it to be applyed to the Bread And the two Elements being joined in the same interests often help one another in the interpretation of what is not equally expressed but must equally be implyed as equally belonging to Both. Nor can we abstract the Action from the Subject but must take the whole complex together This Action Thus performed with THIS Bread and THIS Cup. For our Lord first Declared what THIS IS before He Commanded us to DO THIS We cannot therefore perform the Action until we know what is the Necessary Mater because the Action is confined to THIS bread and the Common nature of bread is determined to THIS only with exclusion of All Other and That before the Action hath passed upon it I have I doubt tired my good Reader with this dry kind of reasoning I come now to another kind of evidence probably more Satisfactory certainly less Troublesom If I can shew som special Bread and Cup that shall exactly fit both our Lords Institution and the Apostl's Comment thereupon This probably may be more persuasive than Any Logical Demonstration whatsoever that there Must be such an One let us therefor try if such can be found CHAP. III. The singular Bread and Cup hunted out and found I. Customs of That time and place to be enquired 1. The Custom of Festing in publik worship fitteth the Apostl's Argument but not our Lord's Institution II. 2. The Passover fitteth our Lord's Institution but not the Apostl's Argument Three incidental remarks upon the Jews Paschal form III. A Jewish custom pitch't upon exactly fitting both our Lord's and the Apostl's words IV. An Objection answered with a story VVHEN Grammar and Logik can discover nothing to us but our Want and thereby set us upon the indispensible task of enquiring after the Extraordinary Bread and Cup honored above All Other both by our Lord and Apostle but cannot direct us one step in our way to find them Whither shall we go but to History the last interpreter of Those sayings whose Obscurity is derived only from That dust wherewith time hath covered them It is the very frequent fate of many a good Speech and the very Sound sheweth it so of This that their meaning dependeth upon the Customs of remote Time and Place for which they were Calculated and with which alone they are to be Retrived Let us therefor put our selvs in the Corinthians Place and Time and enquire into their Publik assemblies if possibly we may therein meet satisfaction I. FESTING in Gods Publik worship was Then and before that time so Universal to All Nations and Religions that it may seem derived from the light of Nature But that it was the Practice of the Apostles and their Coaetaneos Churches the book of their Acts sufficiently declares and that it was so in the Church of Corinth the Apostles reproof must necessarily suppose both in his Charge wherewith it is Ushered and his Evidences wherewith it is Proved And This alone can give us a good account of that solemn and otherwise insignificant ver 26. whose Implicit meaning is only thus to be Explicated As often as you Eat this Bread which in All your assemblies you constantly Eat and Drink This Cup which you also Constantly Drink you shew forth the Lords death by vertue of that Institution whereby I have declared to you by revelation from himself he Consecrated them to That use By this light as the Importance of That vers so its Connexion both with the preceding and following and its irrefragable Force toward his design manifestly appear not leaving One syllable Obscure or Unserviceable in the the whole Dissertation BUT thogh it suffice for the Apostles Argument it doth not for our Lords Institution We hereby find To what state our Lord had preferred it but not From what And we are obliged to enquire out such a Special bread and cup as may answer This in our Lords hand before ever his Church had celebrated it or Himself commanded them so to do If we understand it to signify no more nor less but a Fest it cannot be denied that Eating bread was but another phrase to signify Festing and the Expression will concur with the Apostles Argument to say That our Lord by This Institution commanded that as All of All Religions consecrated All their publik Feasts to the honor of their several Gods so should His own Worshippers consecrate All Theirs to His own memory Did this sens agree as well with the Actions and Words of the Institution as it doth with the Apostles Comment thereupon I know not why it should be refused But bread in That stile must signify the Whole Supper All the Viands as well as the bread and wine for in customary speaking Eating bread signified eating flesh fish and what ever els was provided whereas our Lord took the bread brake and distributed it leaving the rest of the Provisions untouched the while And beside the Bread he took the Cup also and that After supper was ended pointing to This no less solenly than to That which in common speaking comprehended it And all the while the Paschal Lamb was not honored with the least Touch of his finger or Word of his mouth II. 2. THE Paschal Lamb Well remembred Did then our Lord point at This not as A Supper but as The Passover Let us consider He imbraced This Passover with the greatest affection With a desire said he i. e. wirh a vehement desire have I desired to Eat This Passover with you before I suffer and immediatly as declaring his reason proceeded to this Institution And what could more fitly represent his death when Past than That which most lively prefigured it while Future If beside
as between These Which must double the probability of the relation seeing it carieth apparent marks not of Father only but Grandfather too not only of the Tradition but the Rite of Sacrificing whence that Tradition was derived LET us then consider The Institution-Supper as it was Festival so was it Sacrificial more particularly it was Paschal i. e. a Fest of unleavened Bread And Bread was and still is therein honored with a solen Distribution and these words This is the bread of affliction which your fathers ate in Egypt Do you not perceve the air of our Lords Form This is my body which is given for you If not observe that of the Cup. Moses when he sprinkled the blood of the sacrificed Heifer upon the Peopl recordeth himself to have said Behold the blood of the Covenant which the Lord hath made with us the Apostle reciteth it This is the blood of the Testament or Covenant which the Lord hath enjoined you The One of these Forms is not more like to the Other than Either of them is to our Lords This is the blood of the New Testament or Covenant that is shed for you And 〈◊〉 we doubt This to be a copy of That Can we doubt but This pointeth at That as its shadow now to disappear Neither the Jewish stile which caleth their Table an Altar nor the Christian which caleth this the Sacrament of the Altar can desire a more honorable approbation than these words of our Lord give them manifestly owning That Jewish Phrase for the Parent and This Christian one for its Issu This resemblance of the Sacrificial Form added to the other of the Festival Mater what is it but the Scripture-way of naming considerable persons that we may not know Joshua the son of Nun more distinctly than we may this Festival Ceremony the issu of that Sacrificial CHAP. V. I. A plainer proof from Chap. 10. From the sameness of names In the Cup the Greeks aped the Jews The Apostle stileth the Cup of the Lord the Cup of blessing which is a perfect translation of the Hebrew name II. The breaking of Bread a Jewish phrase III. Some Phaenomena not salvable but by this Hypothesis IV. He expresly telleth us that each part of the Jewish Tradition by name is a part of our Lords Supper V. An Illustration from our Grace-cup VI. A Sacrament What NEVER did Talies more exactly agree than do This Institution and That Tradition both in Substances and Circumstances Yet shall we be content to let all this pass for Accidental and the Evidence thence derivable for Incompetent if we confirm it not by a Demonstration as full and unanswerable as the Subject can bear or the most Sceptical person require Suppose a Prince had be'n long lost and his Friends had met with a person of Princely deportment carrying in his countenance all the features and in his voice the perfect tone of the lost Prince This must certainly make them full of hopes that it was the same and what greater satisfaction would they desire than This that som credibl person of his retinu should giv in his clear Testimony that it was so And what clearer testimony could any such person give or how could he more effectually express it than by naming him by his proper name and declaring that this Person â—â—â—med was the Prince they desired If therefor we find the Apostle call the Lords Supper in each Element by the very same names as the Jews did each Mater in their Tradition and then declare them to be the Communion the one of his Body and the other of Blood I might hope the evidence capable to silence all doubts Look we then back to the 10th Chapter and observe his motions and expressions His Design there is to dissuade his Corinthians from communicating with Heathens in their Idols Temples His Medium for this he there taketh from the same Topik as he doth here for the reproofs of their misdemeanors in the Church As Here the Lords Supper is inconsistent with Intemperance so is it There with Idolatros Fests There is saith he implicitely the same relation between the Church of Christ his Table and his Cup with Us as between the Temple of the Idol his Table and his Cup with Them These are the Characteristiks of an Idolater as Those are of a Christian and therefor you cannot use them Both bicause you cannot at once be of Both families In pressing this Argument he so manageth each part of the Lords Supper as may best answer the Customs of the Heathen from which he is to dissuade them That they used any benedictions of Bread is nether manifest nor probable because not so suitable to the Greeks humor which ran all upon Drinking But their Closing-cup is so evident that they who above all Nations in the World were excellent at Both Speaking and Drinking could not find a word more expressive of Drunkenness than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it were the inseparable attendant of Sacrificeing And that in their other Fests they aped this Tradition as in their Sacrificing they did the Law appeareth by what we find in many of their Poets and other Writers I mention only the Scholiast who seemeth litle more than a Translator of the last claus of our Rabby 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The custom was to offer drink to the good daemon when the Table was about to be taken away This doth the Apostle so lay hold on as to express in their own abominable stile therein opposing Name to Name as expresly as he doth Cup to Cup caleth That by the Name themselves had given it the Cup of Devils for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is only the diminitive of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And thereto opposeth the Cup of the Lord by the very same Name which the Jews in the above-mentioned Tradition knew it by For this I urge as most considerable that to this day they call their closeing Cup 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which it is not possible to translate into Greek more exactly than the Apostle hath do'n by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Strength or at least the Evidence of the Argument dependeth upon the Sameness of the Name whereby he here pointeth at the Cup no less yea perhaps more plainly than we have seen him do in the next Chapter by his Demonstrative This and I think it not easy to find a third way wherein he could have more clearly have do'n it No properer way of determining an Individuum than either to call him by his proper Name Peter or John c. or by pointing at him and saying This man Thus do these two Arguments mutually enlighten each other and Both concur to make it manifest that the Cup of Blessing in the 10th Chap. and that pointed at by the Demonstrative This in the 11th Chapter are the same with that which the Jews honored both in the same Circumstances and by the same Name too II. AND this will be yet
they recompenced the thus injured Season with a succedaneos Sacrament in the Grace-cup as the Jews did their unattended Temple with a succedaneos Sacrifice in the Tradition The concurrence of two such Names evidently derived from the same Cup no less remarkable than that of all other circumstances dubleth the evidence All this may well justify a challenge to the gainsayer either to accept of This or produce a better Yea perhaps it might be urged that we cannot avoid but that we must own either the cup of the Lord or the cup of divels there being no other imaginable Original for the unaccountable Grace-cup Yet as I will not disparage the Table in our Chappel by equaling it with That in our Hall so neither will I my better Evidences by leveling them with a mere Conjecture how ever Probable I therefor take it not as we may suppose it delivered down by our Ancestors but as it is still practised among our Selvs not as a Proof of a pios custom in the Churches of Christ but as an Illustration of his Own meaning Suppose we then that our Lord should again visit the Earth convene a Council truly General make a publik Fest declare his great satisfaction in the Opportunity and then in its proper Season and with all due Circumstances take the Grace-cup and deliver it about with the same Words as he did that in his Institution saying This is c. would we then doubt but by the Particl This he pointed at That Cup so in his hand under the long knowen character of a Grace-cup If This would not put us out of doubt let us further suppose that our Lords chief Secretary should profess that he had to him declared his meaning and that this unexceptionable person should not only describe the Grace-cup by its proper characters but even it by its proper name and in plain words tell us that the Grace-cup which we drink is the Communion of the blood of Christ Would any one now doubt but the Grace-cup so Circumstanced and so Named and so pointed at must be the peculiar cup of the Lord which must cary its old Constancy to a new Dignity If this amount not to Full Evidence yet sure we cannot deny it to be more then Half and then the Civil Law will allow us to bring a Suppletory The Bread then joineth its Evidence with this of the Cup. In our Lords Institution it holdeth the same Place as in the Jewish Tradition In the Apostles Argument by loss of its Place it is advanced in Power for by its Deposition so alloyed it appeareth that thogh rhe Apostles Argument were yet was not our Lords Institution complete without it for which there can be no other reason given but this that it was an equally Necessary part of the Tradition whence the whole Supper was derived Let us therefor carefully compare them What Lineaments what Feature what Meen what Motion is there in the Tradition that is not answered both in our Lords Institution and in each of the Apostles Arguments What Family can shew a Son so lively resembling both Father and Grandfather what Artist a Picture more exactly representing the Original what Wisdom less then that of the wonderful Counsailer could have invented a Rite more perfectly setting forth the Tradition it copieth the Passion is commemorateth the Benefits it exhibiteth c. I do not upon all these Evidences crave your Sentence There remain other necessary Enquiries to be made We have rejected the Passover because it answered not the Apostles Argument thogh it better did so our Lords Institution we must bring them to the same Test and if it agree not with every title confess all our hopes vain and labor lost VI. VVHICH yet I am so secure against that I cannot forbear to anticipate the Observation That this notice must silence a multitude of trifling troublesom questions concerning the definition and qualifications of a Sacrament For Both This and its Twin Sacrament upon examination confess themselvs nothing els but Jewish Traditions sublimed by our Lord to Evangelical Commands requiring all Christians to wear them as badges of his service as we shall have another occasion more fully to discover And from this we may well take occasion to warn som too zelos persons that they need examin whether there be as good agreement between their own Spirits and that of our Lord as we have found between these two Cups The Jews were no less zelos of Moses's Law in opposition to the Gospel than any Papist can be of his Superstition in opposition to Reformation Our Lord as much abolished Legal Ceremonies as our Reformers did Popish He as much declared against the Traditions of the Scribes as our Church doth or needeth to do against Superfluos Ceremonies Yet behold he was so far from refusing their Customs for This only reason because they were Theirs that for This very reason he chose them He could doubtless have invented som other rite for Matriculating Disciples no less proper than that of Baptism and som other for Commemorating his death than This of the Grace-cup yet did not disdain to borrow Both his Sacraments from those implacabl Enemies of his Person and Gospel while he abolished all those Divine Ordinances that prefigured Both Leaving us an example so to shun what is prejudicial as to retain what may be serviceabl and make our adversaries practice a reason not to Fly but Embrace it PART II. Concerning the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CHAP. I. The Apostl's design was not to assert Reverence to the Lords Supper I. The Apostl's proper design first to be enquired into II. Three steps 1. What might be the Corinthians case III. 2. What might becom the Apostl to do in such a case IV. 3. How doth the Apostl's procedure agree with such Suppositions 1. The former part very well agreeth with them V. 2. The later part necessarily requireth them Proved 1. Negatively He did not design to assert Reverence due to our Lords Supper precisely taken The subject of the Proposition ver 26. is not the Lords Supper but This Bread and This Cup. The Praedicate is utterly useles and wors toward such a design VI. 2. Positively The Proposition pointeth at som Determiminate Bread and Cup. The Argument reduced to a Syllogism HAVING thus found our Key as Fit as Necessary to unlock our Lords Institution we may with the better corage prove it upon the Apostl's Discours concerning it Wherein as there are More and som of them cross Wards so if it answer them All in All their turnings we shall have so many the More Evidences that it is the tru one That we may work regularly it will be necessary in the First place to Enter it in due manner i. e. begin with a right understanding of the Apostles proper Design whereto every word is to be serviceable For it is no small help to a travailer to know which way his journies end lies and to cast the
no other That he designed to treat them as Kindly as possibl we may see in his entrance upon This Chapter Now I praise you brethren that you remember me in all things and keep the Ordinances as I delivered them unto you And again in his entrance upon this very Reproof vers 17 Now in This that I declare unto you I praise you not that you com together not for the better but for the wors And again by his close upon his description of their miscarriages vers 22. What shall I say to you Shall I praise you in This I praise you not How Unwillingly How Gently and if his thoughts wer like ours how Coldly doth he put in this calm exception against his late General Praise He had in a case far less scandalos said Now therefor there is utterly a falt among you And speaking of those Divisions which are here also objected as the first instance of their unworthy coming together saith I could not speak unto you as unto Spiritual but as unto Carnal Yet here when Divisions of the Rich among Themselves and their joint contemts of the Poor their Shismatical and Uncharitabl separations eating every one his Own supper and destroying the very Nature of a Communion and their Intemperance in Those Suppers affronting not only our Lords Doctrine but his very Person when such abuses of his very Body and Bloud in his Own Hous in the face of his Own Church cryed to his utmost zele and eloquence for a Reproof loud as the Crime in so clamoros a provocation what do we meet but a cold Negative much short of Eli's however condemned reproof Not so much as his This is no good report You make the peopl to abhorr the table of the Lord but only I praise you not We shall indeed hereafter find him lift up his now calm voice and loudly thunder both Reproofs and Threats vers 29. He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself not discerning the Lords body But this in consequence of Conviction which by That time he supposeth his argument to have wrought in them After which if they should Willingly and Knowingly profane This Bread and This Cup now proved to be the Lords Body and Bloud their Crime would be uncapable not only of Praise but of Excuse The Gentl language therefore that Ushereth in the Argument compared with the Severe which Followeth it doth more than intimate a supposal that they knew not what they did and therefor were first to be Convinced of their Error by good Evidence and then Frighted with Threatnings lest they should continu in the now inexcusabl wickedness And we may perhaps yet better understand his judgment of their Disease by the Medicine he useth for its Cure which is no other but a re-minding them of what he had before Declared to them and they perhaps misunderstood in This subject wherin he seemeth thus to bespak them I am loth to believ you guilty of so horrid a contemt of our Lords Person as to drink his very Bloud in a manner so shameful as looketh more like the mockery of a contumelios Jew than the devotion of a faithful Disciple No I rather impute this to your Forgetfulness or Misunderstanding of what I declared unto you concerning this most holy Ordinance which therfor I now repete to you Then doth he proceed to recite the whole Institution so Particularly as at That time he might very well think Sufficient throghly to convince them in what he Supposed or would seem to Suppose them Mistaken I say it was at That time sufficient For it is most necessary that we distinguish between That time and Our own The Tradition where on we suppose our Lords Supper founded was Then not only in Memory but in Practice The Demonstrative had its Object not only Intelligibl but Visibl they did not more plainly Hear the Word than See what it pointed at and therfor our Lord might well think it superfluos to express How Often they wer to do This in remembrance of himself since the Tradition which That very Institution commended sufficiently declared it Do This said he This which you see Me do This which your Whole Nation in such circumstances constantly do in conformity to the Tradition Do This with the same Matter Bread and Wine In the same Order First Bread and Then Wine at the same Season After Supper and is it not equally plain with the same Frequency when Three or More fest together This mesure of Frequency might our Lord well suppose at That time in Those circumstances sufficiently plain by that known rule Exceptio firmat legem in non exceptis But it seems the Disciples wer either less Able or less Willing to understand than He had reason to expect And how the Corinthians might mistake we have made not improbable conjectures The Apostl therefor to Clear what now appeared to Need it telleth them plainly that what our Lord at the time of institution did Not Express he had since Reveled to be his meaning viz. That as often as they drank That Cup which he then consecrated after Supper they must do it in remembrance of himself Since therfor they closed or ought to close All their fests with the Same Cup his Bloud was concerned in them All. WHAT fairer account can possibly be desired of this Former part of the Apostles Process Of the Lenity of his Reproof of his Method in convincing them first of their Error and then of their Gvilt Of his Reciteing the Lords institution so to vindicate his Supper from Cheapness of his inserting the omitted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so to assert the Interest that his Supper had in Their publick meetings and of his authorizing this insertion so to avoid the objection that might be raised from our Saviors not useing it proved by the joint testimony of the three Evangelists WHAT need the Apostl do More than baffle All their Pretences and rectifie All their Mistakes and what could he do Less than prevent that most obvios Evasion whereby they might have pleaded for Those Meetings as unconcerned in the Lords Supper If any one of a contrary judgment can give a fairer account of this Former part of the Apostl's discours he will do a Great work but he will have a Greater yet to do For the Later part wherein the Apostl draweth his Inferences will not only Offer this as the Fairest but Urge it as the Only sens of his argument V. LET us now therefor carefully examin HOW and WHAT he bildeth upon his so solen recital of our Lords Institution He beginneth his deductions at the 26th verse wherein he resumeth the Last as the most Important clause laying it down as the Sum of our Lords mind in his Institution and the Foundation of all his own intended Inferences therefrom that As often as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup ye shew forth our Lords death By This Proposition therefor must we mesur his
Design by This must we enquire whether he intended merely to prove that Reverence is due to the Lords Supper as is generally supposed or whether he mean to prove that Some determinate Bread and Cup was consecrate by our Lord to his Supper In This Inquiry we shall proceed 1. Negatively shewing that the Former cannot be his meaning 2. Positively shewing that the Later must be so 1. The FORMER cannot be This will appear whether we consider the Subject or the Praedicate of the Proposition 1. The SUBJECT of the Proposition is not the Lords Supper but This Bread and This Cup and therefor whatever the Praedicate brings must not belong to That but to These That the Lords Supper precisely and formally considered is not the true subject of the Proposition is plain both by the express words that have not a syllabl of it and by plain reason which requireth it to differ from the Praedicate For if the Subject differ from the Praedicate only in Syllables not in sense the Proposition will be no better than a tautology a mere repetition of the same thing in other words It is true the Lords Supper is concerned in the Proposition but Mediatly because of its intimate relation to This Bread and This Cup which for its sake are advanced above All other of the kind consecrated first to the Lords Supper and thereby to his Body and Blood And This is so much the more considerable because if the Apostle had no other design but only to assert the dignity of our Lords Supper he ought in all reason to have insisted upon the very Phrase which would go far in his way For the very Name of the Lord challengeth Reverence the very Sound is an Argument it carrieth Aurhority and Commandeth Aw into the hearts of the hearers whereas on the contrary Bread and Wine in their natural State are but poor beggarly creatures servants of our Appetites at best and too often of our Corruptions and need a Law to defend them from our abuses Now that our Apostle should have No other Design but to assert the dignity of our Lords Supper yet desert that stile which would Strengthen his Argument and take up another that would Weaken it is so much the more unreasonable because he had used That more potent stile in his charge ver 20. and thereby obliged himself to inforce it So that he must now desert not only the Reason of his Argument but the very Subject of his Charge if he had no other design in This Proposition but to prove that our Lords Supper oght not to be treated as he complained 2. The PRAEDICATE of This Proposition is utterly useless or worse to such a design The Argument would run more Clearly more Briefly and more Conveniently Without the Proposition than With it For the Institution having stiled this Suppor of the Lord his BODY and BLOOD the Inference is most Natural and Cogent therefore whoever celebrateth the Lords Supper unworthily is guilty of his Body and Blood So this whole 26th verse will at best be but impertinently troublesom good for nothing but to amuse our thoughts confound our minds and cloud the light of the Argument Yea the very Phrase of the Praedicate will conspire with That of the Subject not only to Darken the Argument but to Weaken it For to declare it our Lords Body and Blood must needs command our aw more than to say it setteth forth his death so that the interposition of This meaner office between our Lords Institution and his own next Inference in verse 27. in Both whereof That higher one is given it can serv to no other effect but to eclipse the Light and intercept the Influence which otherwise would stream more powerfully and directly from the One to the Other In a word let the Otherwise minded shew what Necessity yea what Use this 26th verse serveth what Light or what Strength it ministreth to the Discourse otherwise they must needs either suppose the Apostle to talk impertinently or accept of That service which his words offer which what it is will yet forther appear VI. POSITIVELY therefor This Proposition pointeth at some Determinate Bread and Cup declaring that Whoever eateth That determinate Bread and drinketh That determinate Cup doth Thereby shew forth the Lords death And now the lately disputed Particle THIS is no Less perhaps More considerable in the Apostl's mouth than we found it in our Lord's For the sake of This Demonstrative did he so solenly recite the Institution and resume That as the most important clause therein From This doth he derive All his Argument and to This doth he pay All his Service He observeth to what honor our Lord advanceth the Bread and Cup From His hand doth he take them cloaths them with the important Demonstrative as the Robe royal rendring them conspicuosly honorable in the beholders eyes Crowns them with the potent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as giving them power to prescribe mesures to our obedience leads them in pomp and proclaims before them THIS is the Bread and THIS the cup which the Lord delighteth to honor THIS Bread and THIS Cup hath he commissioned to shew forth his death THIS Bread and THIS Cup are the Supper of the Lord and therefor whoever eateth THIS Bread and drinketh THIS Cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. The Process is Pompos yet withal it is Elegant he so inculcateth the important particl as to favor your ears he so indeavoreth to satisfy as not to surfeit you with nauseos repetitions and therefore having so shewed it as abundantly to fill you with his meaning he withdraweth by degrees still varying the phrase yet so as still to preserv the influence even when he quitteth the sound of the Demonstrative That you may see both his Art and Care I shall set down his very words Ver. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In verse 26. he giveth the Bread honors before denied it Equaleth it with the Cup honoreth it with the same Emphatical Article and the same potent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither of which was given it in the Institution The reason will anon be plain he now describeth the complete Supper wherein the Bread is no less necessary than the Cup thogh not equally honored with it in the Institution as we shall see and understand why anon In verse 27. He keepeth the same stile for the Bread but varieth it in the Cup saith not now THIS cup but The cup of the Lord. And here we must pause lest we seem to contradict truth for I said but now that the Apostl mentioneth not the Lords Supper whereas here he stileth the Cup the cup of the Lord. But what I said but now I spoke of the 26th verse wherein he cut out work for his whole following process Again in this very
verse 27. it is yoked with This Bread and being thus secured from any danger of mistake might safely be clothed with That larger title more suitable for It than for the Bread because it doth not only Represent his Blood as the Bread doth his Body but Prescribe the frequeny for celebration which the Bread doth Not. In verse 28. The Demonstrative is laid aside and in the 29th not only the Demonstrative but the very Subject In both a manifest Ellipsis easily and necessarily supplied since we cannot apprehend the Action of Eating and Drinking without the Bread and Cup nor any other Bread and Cup but only THIS so earnestly inculcated in the same breath And now that I may bring the whole Argument to a closer vieu I shall from a disjointed examination of its scattered parts proceed to a reduction of All to Logik form in a Syllogism of the most perfect mode Bar As often as you shew forth the Lords death unworthily you are guilty of his Body and Blood ba As often as you eat This Bread and drink This Cup you shew forth the Lords death ra As often as you eat This Bread and drink this Cup unworthily you are guilty of his Body and Blood Of this Syllogism the Assumtion is set forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verse 26. The Conclusion thence inferred verse 27. But the Proposition which is generally look'd upon as the adaequate design the Apostle no otherwise proveth but by reciting the Institution which abundantly declareth the relation between the Lords Supper and his Body and Blood Since therefor it was necessary for him to convince them that the Lords Supper was concerned in All their meetings but not at all that the Lords Body and Blood were Represented in his Supper since accordingly he payeth All his service to This Bread and This Cup which was used in all their Meetings but None at all to the Lords Supper otherwise then by consequence therefrom Since the whole 26th verse must be utterly Impertinent and worse if it pretend only to assert the dignity of the Lords Supper but most Cogent if it intend to assert that of This Bread and This Cup since One way he shall prove a truth whose importance Deserved his service and whose Doubtfulness Needed it and the Other way one who 's Self-evidence superseded any Proof one might think the choice between them not very doubtful Yet ar we all this while no farther than the Entry For the very Life of the Argument is laid up in a Clause purposely inserted in the Close of our Lords Institution and resumed in the Head of his Own discourse as the strength of the whole yet so miserably mistaken that it is made the only Enemy to the Apostl's direct design Dispensing with the Constancy which he so industriosly laboreth to prove Indispensibl CHAP. II. Concerning the Clause AS OFTEN AS I. The unhappiness of this Clause II. The true sens of the words mesured by parallel precepts III. Serviceable remarks 1. With what care the Apostl recordeth this Claus IV. 2. With partiality he treateth the Cup. V. The justice he doth the bread joining it with the cup in his dedeductions VI. The Conclusion with an Objection answered HOW unhappy our Lords Supper hath be'n in All the means he used to indear it we have already noted He chose the Last night because the words of dying friends most forcibly affect the survivors and the horrors of the Tragical time dashed it out of the Apostl's thoghts He then made a contrary opportunity and by a Supper purposely contrived evidenced his care of This memorial of his Death equal to that of evidencing his Resurrection And then Joy and Wonder hindred them more from heeding This than from believing That Nor did Any other means prevail till the Holy Ghost broght it to their understandings But their Disciples had not the same mesur of This Spirit The Corinthians either mistook or soon forgot and St. Paul found it highly necessary not only to Remind them of their duty but further to Explain it And This very Explication suffers as much from the mistakes of Interpreters as did the Holy Supper it self from the profaneness of the Corinthians For St. Paul did no more intend to discorage our Obedience to our Lords Command than did our Lord himself to encourage Their profaneness in the Performance Yet in his Own words do we take refuge from his Reproofs as if he had taught us to place All our safety from Unworthiness in keeping distance from Obedience That we should run from One extreme to a Contrary thogh it be a great Error is no great Wonder thogh nothing be more Condemned yet nothing is more frequently practised But that Those very words whereby he indeavored to Prevent the Error should be made to Serv it That he should use his utmost care to prove Constancy indispensibl and we should take his words for a Dispensation from it is the Singular unhappiness of This Only clause perverted thereby to an utter Defaisance of our Lords Command and an utter Defait of his Own Design We shall therefor indevor to restore the Words to their due power First by shewing what must needs be their true meanang And Secundly by exposing the Absurdities of That which is vulgarly imposed upon them II. FIRST we are to enquire into the true sense of this Clause As often as And to this end we need not look back upon what we have seen in the word THIS For This Claus no less peremtorily requireth a certain Standard than That Demonstrative doth a certain Object And the Apostle plainly joineth them together in the same power as the dubl hinge whereon his whole Argument turneth These doth he jointly resume as the sum of our Lords institution These doth he fasten as a nail in a sure place and upon These doth he hang that chain of Consequences whereby he convinceth his Corinthians of their crime and discovereth the Need and Way to avoid it Let us first vieu the import of the Words and Then his care concerning them This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is plainly Relative it imports Equality in point of Frequency and requireth that the new Relative should conform it self to the mesur of a Former Correlate Now it is plain that whoever is obliged to make One thing Equal to Another must certainly know the mesur of That Other which he is to conform to No Town can shew a Standard made of Air or Water but of Wood or Metal whose firm substance having a stable bigness of its own may certainly determin the Quantity of what is to be mesured by it The Apostl is very careful to prove and inculcate that Eating THIS bread and drinking THIS cup is the stable Standard whereby we must mesure our Frequency in the Lords Supper It must therefor be necessary that it self must have its Determined Frequency fixed by som praevios Law or Custom certainly foreknown and thereby capable to give mesures to any Other performance
If therefor THIS bread and THIS cup be as I hope I have proved a Singular bread and cup used at Certain Determinate times then have we the Standard whereby we must mesure our Frequency in the Lords Supper And again if we are obliged to do This As often as That then must we understand how often we must Do That So the Relation is perfect and reciprocal Our obligation to celebrate the Lords Supper As often as we Eat THIS c. supposeth it certain how often we eat it And the Certainty of difference between THIS and Other bread and wine determineth how often we are to use Them in the Lords Supper Thus will our Lords mind in This Institution be as plain as in Any other Practical Precept The Apostles Argument as convincing as Any in All his Epistles And our Lord's stile conformable to that of All mankind and that which himself frequently used when most desiros to be understood by the meanest When th u fastest saith he anoint thy head and wash thy face when thou givest thine alms let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth When ye Pray say Our Fasher c. Had these exercises no other Foundation but the precariosly supposed Will of the performer and That too undrawn by any preceding motive Had they never before be'n heard of in the World as is supposed of This bread and This cup what would such a groundless Precept have signified Who wold thereby have be'n induced to undergo the penance of Fasting the cost of Alms-doing or the labor of Prayer Or what Obligation had there be'n broken by the neglect Whereas now that these Precepts did not Create New performances but Reform Old ones since before our Lord had opened his lips concerning them his Disciples very well knew how frequently Those exercises were performed it must be needless to tell them what they knew already but he must be supposed to imply it in what he bilt upon it And if we may paraphrase his words we may thus do it You often Fast and give Alms and Pray and ye do well in it I give you no new command concerning the Substance or Quantity of those good exercises go on to do as much as you have formerly do'n but I caution you concerning the Manner that as often as you do them you do them sincerely without any misture of Hypocrisie The language is the very same here and so ar all materials A practice presupposed and left to its former mesures a new Precept concerning a change of manner and This mesured in point of frequency by the foreknown Standard Our Lord's and the Apostl's meanings as clear at That time as the supposed practice they both refer to was common I say At That time and insist upon it as necessary both for Justification of the Scriptur and Satisfaction of our Own Consciences that we must redeem That time that therewith we may retrive the Only proper light whereby we may discover both our Lord's and Apostl's meaning And thogh we might now supersede any further proof since our Lord himself may be pleaded the best Interpreter of his own Language frequently used upon like occasions yet because another and more acceptabl sens shall I call it hath gotten possession of Most if not of All minds I shall further observ 1. With what care the Apostle Recordeth these words 2. With what partiality he applieth them to the cup and with what suitable partiality he honoreth the cup for their sake 3. With what care he righteth the bread by giving it equal power with the cup in his own deductions III. 1. IT is very observable with what care the Apostle Recordeth this clause None of the Evangelists mention it and it is probable our Lord used it not in his Institution and therefor the Apostle is careful so to Insert it as withal to Authorise it saying expresly That he receved it of the Lord. This is very considerable and therefor we shall observ 1. This Apostle was our Lords Disciple after another rate than were the rest He enjoyed not as They did an intimate conversation with him upon Earth but was abundantly recompensed with Revelations from Heaven St. Luke indeed is very sparing as became an abridger in recording such Revelations he mentions only That which converted him and a very few others relating to som of his journies Yet in recital of his speech to King Agrippa he plainly intimateth a larger discourse even in That First Vision than himself had expressed and particularly that our Lord promised to make That an earnest of More and Those more instructive I have said he appeared unto thee for This purpose to make thee a Minister and a Witness both of these things which thou hast seen and of Those things wherein I will appear unto thee Which After-appearances were Such and so Many that he declareth himself in danger of being puffed up by them 2. What he declareth himself to have receved of the Lord must needs be This considerabl 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All the rest were openly delivered at the Institution to the whole College of Apostles from Them he might have receved them and to their Testimony he might have appeled if his truth had be'n questioned But concerning These important words they must All have joined their testimony Against him if the Evangelists did not join in a strange omission neglecting to report such a considerable clause As therefor our Lord by a very intelligible Ellipsis left these words unspoken because needless at the time of his Institution so doth the Apostle now by another Ellipsis omit the distinction which we are supposed to understand between This clause which he inserted as receved of the Lord by a posthum explication and the rest which All the other Apostles receved without it at his Last Supper 3. These words alone he immediatly resumeth and inforceth as his principal Evidence for all his deductions thence inferred Since this is the Basis of All it oght to be firmly setled and he needed our Lords authority for This only 4. This Authority evidenceth not Only the Truth but the Importance of what was thus delivered These words of deference What I have receved are never paid but to Truths of the first rate In the fundamental Article of the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15.1 c. when he had honored it with the most illustrios titles The Gospel That whereby we are to be saved c. he addeth This also I have delivered saith he that which I also receved but expresseth not from whom since the cloud of witnesses was apparent When he would confirm the truth of the whole Gospel and exalt its dignity to the highest he speaketh in the present stile Gal. 1.11 I receved it not of man neither was I taught it but by Revelation of Jesus Christ And since the Stile is the same the Consequence must be the same Here as There If I or an Angel from Heaven teach any other doctrin
than what you have received let him be accursed When our Lord himself hath so reveled his mind All the inhabitants of Earth and Heaven should they combine are nether to be believed against the Revelation nor obeyed against the Command And to what purpose such a Revelation and such a Vouching If These words do not Streighten the obligation they will be but Impertinent if they Slacken it they will be Worse They can no other way answer the Care bestowed upon them but by inforcing constancy in the performance IV. 2. MY next Observation is the Partiality wherewith the Apostle treateth the Cup which alone is honored with these considerable words Somthing of This Partiality we have already observed in his Argument against the Cup of Devils which added to what we are now considering will duble the weight Describing the Institution he giveth the Bread its due Place but as cold a Treat as possible Affordeth it not so much as the common articl but without welt or gard speaketh in the slightest manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and describeth our Lord as equally slighting it not stiling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but Indefinitely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much less giving it the power to mesur the performance But coming to the Cup ver 25. He useth it with much more deference himself and reporteth our Lord to have used the same Partiality He saith indeed that our Lord took the Cup 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the Equality must relate to the Tradition which it equally honored not to the Circumstances wherewith it self was honored not in Like but in Higher manner 1. He expresseth the exact Season After Supper and This in exact conformity to the Jewish stile which useth to fix a character of emphasis upon the Cup After Supper As we find most properly to our purpose Berach cap. 7. ver 6. Wine is broght to them in the midl of the meal they bless severally every one by himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For That After meal one blesseth for them all Where that prefix ל payeth deference the Wine After Supper as to Wine of note But this is not payed to Bread because none but the Paschal Cake was distributed After Supper and had our Apostle spoken of That in the same stile he had intimated that which he endeavoreth to confute viz. that our Lords Supper was successor to the Passover 2. He honoreth it with an emphatical Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. Then he describeth our Lords partiality who did not speak of it as of the Bread with a simpl 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but more emphatically 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. Nor Indefinitely This is my blood as of the Bread This is my body but with an Explication fixing his meaning This is the New Testament in my blood 5. And above All the important 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is industriosly put upon the Cup and denied to the Bread Let us now reflect He First reciteth the consecration of the Bread and he could no otherwise matter of fact obliged him to it as appeareth by the uniform testimony of all the Evangelists which spake any thing of it Yet he prefaceth the consecration of the Cup with the note of conformity In like manner also In which form of speaking it is Not unusual to omit in reciting the later what had be'n expressed in the former the very phrase excusing because manifesting the Ellipsis used merely to avoid the tediosness of repetition But it is contrary both to Reason and Practice that any thing should be omitted in the Former and understood in the Later and therein expressed by such a conforming Phrase when This cannot find in That any likeness What the Reason of this strange method is we shall the better discover if we observ Another care which seemeth to cross This. He is very punctual in reciting the difference of Time between the consecration of the One and the Other Our Lord took the Bread when he had given thanks and the Cup when he had supped His Argument wold have go'n more Smoothly thogh not so Strongly if in the common way of speaking he had made the later every way like the former But how could he avoid this cross Should he give the Cup the precedence he must then misreport matter of Fact Should he then apply these mesuring words to the Bread that he might speak of the Cup in like manner also He must then have confounded his Own argument For the mesuring clause must have signified either too much or too little too little if this should point at the Paschal Bread too much if to the Ordinary For since of All Fests the Passover was most prefigurative of our Lords Death and he delivered rhe Bread with such a form of words as manifestly alluded to the Paschal cake if to such peculiar suitableness with That Season and That Form he had added These words also Would not the Demonstrative have pointed to the Bread as Paschal and consequently would not these words have required us to mesure our performance of the Lords Command by that of God to Moses And would not this have cleared the Corinthians from any profanation of his Supper except only in the Easter Communion But if these words had be'n applied to the Bread as blessed Before Supper then must they have signified too much For they would have comprehended not only every Fest but every Private meal They would not be a Rubrike for Publik worship in the Church but Advice for Private manners at home they would neither require Fest nor Communion nor distinguish the Church of God from the meanest Parlor Possibly to Prevent certainly to Remove both sides of mistake and to convince the Corinthians of their obligation to close neither All their Private nor Only their Paschal but All and Only their Festival Suppers with our Lords he So describeth the Institution that it appeareth probable that our Lord distributed the Bread at the Beginning and more so that he did it before the End of Supper but manifest that the Cup he delivered at its proper time And since the Cup was the Adaequate character of a Fest to the Cup only must the power be given which these words import Let Any one giv Any other tolerabl account why the Apostl should thus deprive the First-born of the Blessing which naturally belongs to it and I must confess my self to have lost a great evidence of the Relation between our Lords Institution and the Tradition whence I endevor to prove it derived There are too many who have need to consider another honor to which our Lord preferred the Cup above the Bread He said not Eat ye All but said Drink ye All of this Whether This difference wer occasioned by Judas 's Presence when That was distributed and his Absence when this was so is not so plain as it is that it falleth very cross to the Laws of That Infallible Church which denying the people the Cup takes away
the better half of our Lords Supper and the Whole of the Apostl's Argument which cannot out-live this lose but would not have be'n wounded so mortally by That of the Bread V. 3. MY last remark is that in the Deductions which which himself draweth from our Lords purposly recited Institution he payeth to the Bread joint honor with the Cup which he had denied it for no other reason but only for its unserviceableness to his Argument Those Deductions ar ushered with ver 26. For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye shew forth the Lords death till he com 1. Here we see he applieth These relative words to Both elements whereas in recital of our Lords Institution he had not at all applied them to the Bread And this contrary to that know'n rule which forbids the Conclusion to infer more than was conteined in the Premises Hereof what other account can there be given or what better desired than the Tradition offereth In the former verse he was to state our Lords mind reveled to himself concerning Frequency And thereof the Cup was the only Standard because That alone distinguished Festival Suppers from Common But in This he is to describe the Supper it self wherein the Bread hath right not only to be joined with it but to be preferred before it Had he now excluded the Bread he must have intimated concerning It what som without any such color declare concerning the Cup that it were needless bicause the Supper were complete without it But by this care he preventeth any such concept 2. He addeth another Claus not mentioned in the Institution 'till he com thereby either to obviate an evasion in point of Duration if possibly the Corinthians might pretend to shift from his reproofs by supposing the Obligation worn out or to strengthen the command by shewing how great esteem our Lord had for it as extending it to all times future as well as present 3. But the most remarkable is this that the Imperative is changed to the Indicative A change so Considerable and otherwise so unaccountable that our glorios Dr. Hammond thinketh it not to be made The Greek is indifferent to both but in the Imperative there appeared a grain of sense and none at all in the Indicative For if in the Subject of the Indicative proposition we see no other difference between This Bread and Cup and and any Other Bread and Cup but what our own actual Consecration hath advanced it to if this stile be only a Periphrase of the Lords Supper differing therefrom only in Syllables then will the Proposition tell us no news at all Every child will without its help understand that as often as we eat This bread and drink This cup upon no other reason but this that we may thereby shew forth our Lords death we shew forth our Lords death And that the Apostl should so carefully bring a candl to shew us the Sun seemed no way probable to our learned Doctor But if the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be read Imperatively not ye do but do ye then may there be so much of reason in the Precept as there is of possibility to do otherwise For look how much danger there is that we may do this without shewing forth our Lords death just so much need there is of Caution and just so much reason will there be in the Command which hath no other use but to prevent such danger whereas in the Indicative as there can be no possibility of error since the very naming of the Subject makes the Praedicate self-evident so can there be no reason for the Proposition Yet all this while if there be Any at all there can be â—ut a very small difference for the Performance containeth the End almost as necessarily as the Subject doth the Praedicate it is almost as hard to do this without shewing forth our Lords death as it is to doubt whether we oght to do it or no And all that can be gotten by the change is this that upon supposition of the Reverence which every one will certainly pay our Lords Person the command enjoining an action in remembrance of our Lords death will by consequence mind them of doing it with such Intentions But be the gain litle or great we must quit it because the word FOR which ushereth the declaration necessarily requireth the Indicative mode Had it be'n an Illative wherefor or therefor the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had be'n indifferent to the other mode Therefor do ye had be'n all as proper as Therefor ye do But the Causal FOR will by no means indure any other than an Indicative It s proper office is to confirm our Belief or instruct our Understanding not to command our Will No Author ever speaks so nor will our Ears indure such an incongruos sound so that our excellent Doctor must lose on one hand whatever he may seem to gain on the other and he will reap but small thank from the Apostle by delivering him from a supposed Solaecism in Logik and casting him upon a real one in Grammar I say it is but a supposed Solaecism in Logik and That supposition is grounded upon our inadvertency For grant once that our Demonstrative This and our Relative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 point to some praeviosly singular Bread and Cup and immediatly we discover a sens so far from trifleing that probably it will appear too severe certainly most worthy of so great an Apostle most serviceable to his Argument and most worthy our utmost consideration For thus will it convince the Corinthians It is in vain for you to pretend that you do not celebrate the Lords Supper in Those your intemperate meetings FOR I have so recited our Lords Institation that you may plainly perceve it to be his meaning that as often as you drink This cup which he Then consecrated and which is the same with that wherewith you close All your Church Fests you must do it in remembrance of Him FOR he hath not left it in your power to make his Supper Concerned or Unconcerned by celebrating it as often or as seldom as you please in such meetings yea or to choose which way you will be guilty whether of Disobedience to his Command by Omitting the duty or of Contemt to his Person by Doing it unworthily FOR he hath inlayed it upon All such Fests so inseparably that thogh you would you cannot take Any of them without it FOR YOU DO whether you intend it or no whether you will or no notwithstanding any contrary Intention You Do you cannot but Do what he hath thus made not only Unlawful but utterly Impossible for you to Omit It is not only a Command obliging you but an Institution necessitating you and you cannot avoid the Actual doing it if you avoid not All Church Fests FOR as often as ye eat This bread you eat That whereof our Lord said This is my body and as often as you drink This
cup you drink That whereof he said This is my blood And taking this for the sens of the 26th vers the necessity of the 27th and all that follow immediatly appears For if they be so Much and so Unavoidably concerned then whoever eateth This bread and drinketh This cup unworthily must needs be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord who hath so made Those the representatives of These that whether we receve them or no will make no difference in his imputation because the Relation dependeth not upon Our admittance of them for such but upon His own Commission constituting them for such So that in the recess by intending to Omit the Lords Supper you make your selves guilty of breaking his Command which obligeth you to Do it without escaping the other guilt of Unworthiness since his Institution hath made his body and blood concerned in all the abuses you put upon This bread and This cup. SINCE therefor this 26th vers cannot be Imperative because Grammar requireth the Indicative mode always to follow the causal FOR And since it cannot be Indicative if This bread and This cup in the whole comprehension signifie nether more nor less than the Lords Supper because then in their formal concept they will necessarily import setting forth his death and Logik requireth that the Praedicate in every Proposition should bring somthing of news concerning the Subject But if we fit the Demonstrative This with its necessary Object and the Relative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with its necessary Mesure then will the Proposition carry Weight enough to lay it as a foundation for all the Deductions which the Apostl bildeth upon it and Light enough to shew the use of every syllabl in his Argument and Force enogh to convict the Corinthians beyond all possibility of reply To doubt now whether we will accept so Serviceable yea so necessary an Hypothesis is no other than to put our selvs into a very hard streight For we shall be obliged either to accuse the Apostl of transgressing the plain rules of Grammar and Logik yea and of Justice too in charging the Corinthians with the greatest Crime without sufficient evidence or else to produce som Other Hypothesis of our own which shall be at least equally serviceabl towards clearing his discours from such great defects And while the adversary deliberates upon so hard a choice I proceed to examin that Other Sens shall I call it which alloweth our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No ground to Build or so much as to Stand upon CHAP. III. Concerning the Vulgar interpretation of As often as I. The Distinction between Suppositive and Absolute stated because made the mesure of obligation II. The words of the Author set forth and III. Examined IV. The merely suppositive sens enervates our Lords Command And V. The Apostl's own Argument VI. The two senses ballanced in order to Conscience THAT in so doing I may escape both the Task of setting a tolerable countenance upon an opinion so generally receved and the Suspicion of representing it disadvantageosly I conceve it most Convenient if not absolutely Necessary to exhibit it in the words of its Patrons Patron I should say For among the Many that entertein it I know but One that hath put himself to the charge of affording it any means of Subsistence by cloathing it with any proper Rules or nourishing it with any Proofs But it is Such an One as may pass for a Multitude One that may not be named without Reverence One of the greatest Ornaments and Pillars of our Church One who professeth to fit every subject with its proper Rules and Mesures and therefor One whom we may believe to have said the utmost in behalf of his Opinion This singular Person puts it to the question Whether our Lords words in This Institution amount to a Command And thogh his interest persuaded him to have Affirmed it yet the sound of These words and inadvertency to the Custom we suppose them to relate to engaging him for the Negative embarrased him in difficulties inextricable from which because he struggles to free himself by help of the distinction between Suppositive and Absolute I shall first state That distinction and Then try what service it can do in the present question A Suppositive Command Obligeth just so as a Suppositive Proposition Declareth viz. nothing else but a Connexion or Disjunction between the Parts An Absolute Proposition may be true though its Subject have no Being and so may an Hypothetical one though its Antecedent have no Truth And as a Hypothetical Syllogism Absolutely concludes Nothing without help of an Absolute Assumtion so doth not a Hypothetical Command oblige to any thing without the help of som Positive addition Hypothetical necessity is therefor consistent with Absolute liberty because the Obligation must derive half its power from the yet undetermined Position E. G. If my Father should have laid upon me this Suppositive Command As often as you go to London go by land This would not oblige me either to the Journy or the Manner By staying at home I should have be'n as obedient as by a hundred tedios Journies But if my Inclinations or Bisiness should call me to the Journy then by vertu of the Command joined with the Urgency of my Business wer I obliged to go not by Water but by Land Such a Command would by no means have amounted to Get you a hors and away Nor can a Suppositive Command amount to such an Absolute Precept as Let a man examin himself and so let him eat But the utmost that so civil a word could amount to is this If you are pleased to eat then is it necessary you examin your self This is the true state of a Suppositive Obligation It leaveth us at full liberty thogh it expose us to be rob'd of it by som Absolute Proposition following And how impossibl it is to reconcile the Wisdom of our Lords Institution with the Weakness of such an Obligation cannot better be discovered than by the succesless attemts of so habile an Undertaker whose words I com now to examin wherein I beg the Readers just charity to believ what I most seriosly protest that it is not without great reluctancy I engage in so unwelcom an office toward a person to whom I am so much obliged and nothing but faithfulness to so great a Subject should compel me to expose the words of him whom all good men are obliged to honor His Rule is The Institution of a Rite or Sacrament by our Blessed Savior is a direct Law and passes a proper obligation in its whole integrity This one would think is as plain as heart can wish but the Gloss quite mars the Text for thus doth he endeavor to bend his Rule to his Conceptions and Other Writings concerning This Holy Sacrament THIS Rule can relate but to one instance that of the Holy Sacrament of Christs body and blood for although Christ did institute two Sacraments yet that
consequently the Institutions built upon them will differ as much as a Castel in the Air and a Castel upon a Rock I wish I could deny that it is in the mater of the Sacrament as in the mater of Marriage in This unhappy respect That Many frighted with the troubles of the Married state refuse to engage in it and More frighted with the difficulty of coming worthily and the danger of coming unworthily refuse to com to This. But then in this respect again it is Not in the mater of this Sacrament as in that of Marriage for when the Disciples said If the mater be thus with a wife it is not good to marry our Lord granted the consequence and advised those that could receve Eunuchism should receve it But we never find our Lord or any Apost'l say of the Sacrament He that cannot receve it worthily let him forbear it nor did our Apost'l close his severe threats with saying Let a man examin himself and so if he find himself unworthy let him forbear But in both the one and the other without any if absolutely oblige us to the performance All men are not Alway obliged to receve the Sacrament This is very modestly but withal very warily and wisely expressed for had he spoken all he must have marred all his rule would have inferred no man is at any time obliged For mere suppositive necessity is on all hands agreed to be perfect liberty since a counter-supposition in the other scale equally true by counter-poising annihilates its weight For the Institution being in order to certain ends and in the recipients certain capacities and condicions required by way of disposition The excellent person had said 11. 2. An Institution obtains the force of a Precept according to the subject matter and to its appendent relations Let that Rule be translated hither we need seek no further for an answer For the End of This Institution is such as All men at All times are obliged to serve and by the last recited clause it will follow rhat this must be so far a Necessary Commandment as to remember our Lords death is a Necessary Duty Certain capacities and condicions are required They are so and that not only in order to the Sacrament but absolutely and by their intrinsik necessity It is our Duty first to have them because the Gospel upon other indispensible accounts requires them and then it is our duty to bring them to the Sacrament even by this excellent Persons own rule But if we will speak distinctly Natural capacities are not Required but Supposed and as Marriage was not Instituted for Eunuchs so was not this Sacrament for children or fools But Moral capacities are required by the Moral Law and if they be the Foundation they are also part of the Bilding They were necessary to All men before they were so to Communicants and therefor cannot make This the Less necessary to Any There can be but a Relative and therefor limited command of its reception It must Relate to and be Limited by Those Ends Capacities Condicions and Dispositions and since Relata must be Equal therefor the Performance must neither Exceed nor Fall short but Equal those Limits i. e. we must neither Oftner nor Seldomer nor Otherwise do it than In remembrance of Christ with due Dispositions and all requisite Condicions But Those Condicions thogh they be Limits of our obedience in the Maner do not limit our Obligation to the Performance being themselves comprehended in it as antecedently necessary upon the Moral account Les a man examin himself is no less a Command than So let him eat The Disposition it self is a part of the Duty and the want of it is so far from a Dispensation that it is it self a sin But to Them who do receve it the Institution is a perfect and indispensible commandment for the manner i. e. Whoever doth it being not thereto antecedently obliged doth thereby thrust himself upon a very Great but Needless Trouble and Danger For he was under no Obligation till he put himself under one by undertaking an action very Difficult to be do'n Worthily and very Dangerous if do'n Unworthily and that without any Necessity derived from this Institution This is the whole that the most Excellent person and Only Patron could make of this ungrounded sens of those Relative words And as I said before of the whole question that we need no other than a due understanding of this One discours of the Apost'l because we have no other Scholiast upon our Lords Institution so say of This member of the question We need look no further for a due discovery of this ungrounded Interpretation than the unhappiness of this most Excellent Person since among the multitudes that have be'n seduced by it no other hath attemted to put a regular countenance upon it and This in effect doth but warn every considering person to so bear the performance i. e. to destroy the Supposition he bilds upon And if this be the Best that its Best patron can make of it what is the Worst we find the words twice and in either place most studiosly mentioned In recital of our Lords Institution they are carefully inserted and authorised In the Argument thereupon bilt they are solicitosly resumed and setled as the Foundation let us see what work they make in either place IV. THIS interpretation enervates our LORD'S COMMAND This we find abundantly acknowledged It is Only from These words Thus understood that we com now from hearing a Rare person degrade it from a Command to an Institution such a poor Institution as may complain with its great Author it hath not a place where to lay it's head It doth not Command our obedience but Beg our benevolence and begs also with David's curse in desolate places and which is yet wors in places laid desolat by it self for it self forbids us to give it the entertainment it begs It enervats our Lords command because it cancelleth our obligations By doing nothing we shall be as obedient as by our most active diligence For if the Command let us for once beg That title be purely Relative If it do not Absolutely enjoyn the Performance it self but only a Commensuration between It and the Maner than is it no more obeyed when Both are equally Performed than when Both are equally Neglected He that never doth this at all doth it no oftner than he doth it in remembrance of Christ and therefor as often as he doth it he doth it to That end The Commensuration is no less exact when Both have the Most and when Both have the Least yea when Both have Nothing at all And well may that be denyed the title of a Command which is Performed by Neglecting But what title will be due to it 's great Author If he that doth Nothing may Obey he must do somthing Less than nothing that Commands because he pretends to do somthing and all the guilt of the neglect if
any be will pass from the obediently negligent Subject to the impertinently busie Law-maker who having not Required but Supposed the Action neither Found nor Made any ground for the Supposition It forbids the benevolence it begs For thogh it threaten No guilt of disobedience to the Omission it doth to the Performance While we may ly safe in our Neglect we run a great risk in our Officiosness For he that Omitteth the Performance disobeyeth no command therefor cannot incur any guilt nor deserv any punishment but he that upon such terms approacheth the Holy Table is already gilty of contemt towards the threatnings denounced against Unworthy recevers bicause he needlesly exposeth himself to them and to com safely off had need of more Piety in the Performance than we can Yet discover of Wisdom in the adventure V. IF WE can suppose the Apost'l so regardless of our Saviors command yet sure he had more kindness for his OWN ARGUMENT than to use such solicitos endeavors to destroy it and for his own Credit than to furnish the Corinthians with a Plea whereby they might non-suit his Charge He was sure a better Disciple both to Gamaliel and our Lord than to use such endeavors as by the ordinary rules of reasoning must depose both his own Discours and our Lords Command from all power But such is the unavoidable consequence of the merely Suppositive sens of those important words For it is obvious that the Corinthians Might and therefor supposable that they Would plead thus for themselves We are sufficiently sensible that as often as we eat This bread and drink This cup we shew forth the Lords death and consequently that whoever eateth This bread and drinketh this cup unworthily is guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. But in these our ordinary Fests which thou so severely reprovest we have nothing to do with This bread nor This cup. We Fest indeed as often as we meet in the Church but without any Intent and we conceve without any Need to eat This bread or drink This cup. We intend to do what all Nations agree to be the proper manner of worshipping God This is the Vniversal notion of mankind in that so common Rite of Sacrificing The Votary therefor offereth his beast that he may become a guest to his God thereby at once Receiving and Expressing a confidence that he is propitious to him And thogh our Lords great Sacrifice of himself have made it needless to shed any more blood by way of atonement yet is that so far from any reason that we should lay aside Festing with Sacrificing that it is a very good one why we should take it up if it had never be'n used before since now we have much greater reason to rejoice in the Communion to which God inviteth us But that in all our Fests we should be obliged to celebrate the Lords Supper since himself hath not expressed it we understand not For either he intended we should receive it only at the same Fest whereat he Instituted it which was the Passover or els he left it wholely to our discretion to receve it as often as we should think convenient Now that we intend not to do it in our ordinary meetings thy self seemest to understand For thou declarest when ye come together it is not to eat the Lords Supper Is it not we own it we plead it It is not to eat the Supper and how do we Profane it when we do not eat it When we do Eat it if our behavior be irreverent we must confess our selves guilty for we submit to thy rule As often as we Eat This bread and Drink this cup unworthily we are guilty but it thence followeth not that we are so as often as we Fest together in the Church It is hard to say whether such a plea were more obvios to the Apostl's Observation or Destructive to his Argument It was therefor infinitely necessary he should answer it and we find no other Answer to it but in these words nor any other Use of Those words but for such an Answer This is sufficient to perswade us so to interpret them that the Argument be not Defective nor Themselves Impertinent But to fasten such a Gloss upon them as shall make them not only Useless but Pernicios and the Argument not only naked of so necessary a defence but irrefragably retorted against the Author is perhaps a greater abuse to Them than the Corinthians profaneness was to the Lords Supper VI. FOR a close of this troublesom dispute let us impartially ballance the rival senses upon This enquiry which of all others is most important viz. which of them affordeth better satisfaction to a pious soul conscientiously enquiting how often he is obliged to receve the Holy Communion A question wherein there are many things doubtful but none more than This Whether it more Deserve or Need to be answered 1 The One sens offereth full satisfaction by shewing us a Certain Mesure to which we must conform And though the change long since made in the Manner of celebrating Church Festivals seem to have confounded it yet if we once know what it was at the time of the Institution we may and must so accommodate the never decaying Reason to the Change as still to answer the first Intention For if the Corinthians were therefor obliged to Eat the Lords Supper in All their Church meetings bicause they Fested in them All in One manner so are we bicause we also Fest in them All in Another manner Since the Manner of Publik worship the Church upon competent reasons may alter but the Institution of our Lord indispensibly closing All Church Fests with his own Supper No human power may abolish at least not in point of the Obligation though possibly invincible necessity may dispense with Actual performance at som times So by This account the clear answer will be That the Church must offer the Holy Sacrament as often as she can persuade the peopl to receve it and every person is so often obliged to receve it as the Church Officers shall offer it and Both the Church and every person oght to come as neer as possible to doing it every Lords day and every Holy day i. e. All days of Church Fests 2. But the other Sens for want of a Standard will pack us off with an answer more Delusory than the Collier's If we ask How often must I do this in remembrance of Christ it will answer As often as you eat This bread and drink This cup If we then ask How often must I eat This bread and drink This cup it will answer As often as you do it in remembrance of Christ This I say is more delusory than the Collier in two respects 1. Bicause it was possible to know what the Church believed Publik Confessions Canons of Councils c. All of them independent upon the Collier or his Faith and all know'n to the Catechist But Here we have No
Declaration or Canon which pretends to oblige 'till our own voluntary Act do it 2. The Collier was not the same person with the Church He might possibly differ from her or if he did Not then might a further question join them Both together and by asking How do both thou and the Church believe call him to a determinate account of his Own and the Churches Faith But here This bread and This cup are supposed to be a mere Periphrase of the Lords Supper differing only in Syllables and not at all in Signification It is therefor impossible that ony one can Do This which he would never have do'n had not our Lord commanded it and not remember That Command which must be the adaequate reason of the Action and it is no less impossible to remember the Command without remembring the Author These are so far from separable by any Forgetfulness that they cannot be made so by any Endeavor And therefor it must be extremely frivolos if the Apost'l should so solemnly press this as reveled by our Savior That as often as we eat his Supper we must eat his Supper Again the entire question is compounded of Both terms For we ask not separately How often must we Do This as a distinct question from How often must we set forth our Lord's death But join Both in This question How often must we so do This as thereby to set forth our Lord's death Had the Collier be'n thus Catecised he could not have escaped either confessing his ignorance or giving account of his belief But here the clearer the Question the more unsatisfying the Answer When different expressions are made different things they may pretend to mesure each other but when they are joined together as parts of one whole Suppositive duty then we have no mesure at all Yea Those very words which pretend to give us an exact one rob us of one that with som Latitude might have served the turn For without them we could not have doubted as now we do whether we are under the obligation of an absolute Command or no as well to the Thing as to the Manner nor be'n put to such hard yet unprosperous shifts to make our Lords Institution and the Apostl's Discourse worthy their Authors CHAP. IV. Objections answered I. The First Objection That the Tradition may be novel answered 1. By mater of fact II. By passing judgment upon it No necessity of difference in point of frequency between the breaking of bread before meat and Grace-cup after it 2. If the Jews Antiquities be against us we may reject their authority III. 3. Seeing a party of them are on our side we may well prefer that party above the opposite So great an agreement as is between them could not be 1. From Chance IV. 2. Nor the Jews conforming their custom to Christs Institution because it is incredibl they should have such 1. care 2. or wit V. Another Objection That we must have Fests or no Sacrament adjourned VI. A Third Objection That the Jews used their Grace-cup in their Houses not their Synagogs Answered by six steps VII The last Objection The universal silence of all Ages Answered 1 By shewing reason why both Primitive and Later ages should be silent and 2. by shewing that the best critiks have observed it HAVEING thus ballanced the two pretenders and found the One not only Serviceable but Necessary and the Other not only Unserviceable but Prejudicial both to our Lords Institution and the Apostl's Argument I might with corage proceed on in the remains of my journy But sensibl how many prejudices he must encounter who shall in so awful a subject oppose the stream and unable to prophecy what might rise in Other mens minds I communicated what I have above written to two or three pious and learned Friends requesting them to favor me with their Censures and Objections that I might either answer them or submit to them Two Objections I have by that means obtained which I think requisite to Answer 1. THE FIRST OBJECTION saith that The Custom referred to is in many particulars novel and by which we cannot judge of the practice of the Jews in our Saviors days This strikes at the very heart and must be carefully warded I shall therefor first examin what is to be found of the Jews Opinions in the case and then consider what judgment is thereupon to be made 1. The Jews think the Practice so far from novel that they think it as ancient as it's occasion the disbanding of the Camp in Joshua's days and the consequent impossibility of the whole Nations bringing their daily offering to the publik place of Sacrifice This we have found in Dr. Castel upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where he intimateth that the people must tary for Samuel 1 Sam. 9. because he was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this seemeth confirmed by Jonathan's Targum which is elder than our Lords Institution and paraphraseth the word which signifieth Blessing by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence perhaps our Latin Pars which signifieth Breaking But my learned Objector doth not impute novelty to the whole but many particulars and adviseth me to consult the Misna in Berachoth I have do'n so and thereby find reason enogh to suspect the Jews care or felicity in preserving their Antiquities but not enogh to suspect mine own Hypothesis Indeed I find them treat the Bread and Wine much like the Apostle They speak much more of the Later than of the Former and it is not for a running vieu to discover what difference they put between them The 7th chap. of Berachoth beginneth thus Three eating together are obliged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word is proper to This exercise and its derivatives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie the meeting which Elias thus describeth Three or more sitting at Supper among whom one as the father of the family or som venerable Rabbi if such be present as a guest is obliged to pray and bless the Table with an audible voice as is said Psal 34.4 Magnificate Dominum meum Magnificate there are Two at least Mecum there is the Third if there be only Two ether of them prayeth privately by himself Here and in most other of their Writeings they speak indifferently of the whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if we com more distinctly to enquire what interest the Wine hath above the Bread we shall find nothing certain but what Shulch Aruch tells us That they are divided into three Opinions 1. Some say the Wine is so necessary to consecrate a meal that thogh a man eat single if he can get no Wine he must rather fast than eat without it indeed he is not obliged to fast more than one day 2. A second opinion is That the Cup of Blessing is not at all necessary be the number of guests never so many 3. A third sort say with our Leo Modena that it must not be omitted if there be three And
this last Opinion seemeth fairly intimated in the Berachoth it self if well interpreted For in the eighth Chapter reckoning up the differences between the houses of Shammai and Hillel they thus express the last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which words may be thus translated There cometh to them Wine for the Poscaenium and there is there no other but That very Cup The house of Shammai say he blesseth first for the Wine and afterward he blesseth for the Meat But the house of Hillel say he blesseth for the Meat and afterward he blesseth for the Wine In which words is plain that all agree that there is Wine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we observed them to stile that After Supper 2. That there is but one cup for the whole company and 3. That the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 blesseth for them All. But Zohar in Exod. p. 280. speaketh full to our purpose and nameth the Cup by his proper name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Cup of Blessing was not used unless when there were Three because of the mystery of the Three fathers which blessed and so there is no need of the Cup unless there be Three The Reason is most Rabbinical i. e. most ridiculous but the Authority is reputed great because most ancient and the words are most pertinent and conclusive to our purpose plainly expressing how much they stood upon the Cup of Blessing and what number it required II. UPON This account of mater of Fact it will not be hard to pass judgement which I shall come to by steps 1. WHETHER in our Saviors days they put such difference between Bread and Cup is not necessary for us to determin for the Apostl's Argument will go as strongly thogh perhaps not altogether as gracefully without it since his partiality to the Cup may otherwise be fairly accounted for 1. Because we have seen from other pens that the Greeks understood the use of the Grace-cup but we meet no such foot-steps of their Breaking of bread and it was reason the Apostl should rather bild his inferences upon a custom which they knew than upon One which they knew not 2. Because Bread was never distributed After any Other Supper but only the Paschal and was Then attended with a form of words sounding much like that which our Lord used in his Institution Since hence appeared som danger lest the Corinthians should mistake our Lords meaning it was fit the Apostl should clear it which he doth almost as plainly as if he had said You know the custom of closeing a Fest with a Cup of blessing and you may know the custom of the Jews distributing a Cake after the Passover and probably you may think our Lord intended that his Supper should be mesured not by the Cup which was used after All Fests but by the Bread which was so used only after the Passover But I tell you I have receved from the Lord himself that you must celebrate his Supper as often as you drink the Grace cup. Here is ground enogh for his Argument and all its turnings and we may safely spare the trouble either of enquiring or contending for the equal or unequal frequency of the ordinary Bread 2. WERE the Jewish Misna or Talmūd directly against us in som material particulars it were more reasonable to reject their Authority than so Necessary and so Exact a Key That we may see the reasonableness of This assertion it will be fit to ballance them 1. If the Jewish Doctrines in maters of their dearest Law be apparently changed from what they were in our Saviors days we oght to suspect their care not to have be'n greater towards a Tradition Let us then compare what our Lord said with what their Talmud now saith The Gospel informeth us Luke 14.5 that our Lord spake to the Pharisees and Lawyers saying Which of you shall have an Ox or an Ass falen into a pit and will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath day And they could not answer him to these things Which yet they might have do'n if their then Doctrines had be'n agreeable to those of the Talmud which forbiddeth to pull him out but alloweth to carry meat to feed him and if need be straw to support him in the place And accordingly Munster furnisheth us with a pertinent story out of the Saxon Annals A Jew saith he fallen into a Jakes on the Sabbath would not be draw'n out but have meat brought him thither which the Bishop hearing of required that the same honor should be paid to the Christian Sabbath so the poor Jew suffered two days penance for the Talmud's swerving from ancient practice I pretend not to equal any evidence with the Gospel It is sufficient that I hence infer that we may not argu from their Present customs to their Ancient so as to reject any probable light especially when so confirmed as we are by som of their own Rabbies III. 3. SEEING so great a party of them so state their Tradition as most exactly jointeth with the Apostl's discours we have great reason to believe Them to be in the right This not as an arbitrator between the dissenting Rabbins but in defence of my Hypothesis from my worthy Friends Objection I thus confirm from the exact agreement which I found between the Apostl's Argument and That Custom so stated This Argument must proceed from Chance from the Jews accommodating their Custom to our Lords Institution or from our Lords accommodating his Institution to the Jewish Custom It was not from either of the Former Therefor it was from the Last That the Division is adaequate needeth no proof For Ether it must be by Chance or it must Not since there can be no midl between the two ends of a Contradiction If it were Not by chance then ether That Custom must conform to This Institution or This to That For they cannot meet unless Mahomet go to the Mountain or the Mountain com to Mahomet The Assumtion I thus prove by parts 1. It cannot proceed from Chance Such a concurs of so many and so crooked particls can be no more imputed to undiscerning chance than can the meeting of the letters in the discurs it self Chance may do one thing well as a blind man may shoot a Hare but he cannot shoot multitudes without missing one When a FINE is levied in Court the Chirographer writeth two Copies at a competent distance in the same Parchment In the space between them he writes two or three letters then he cutteth the Parchment in the middle indenturewise so as to divide those Letters leaving either indenture som part that upon any occasion the conterparts compared together may by so many agreements vouch either for the other There happened a question between three parties concerning the conditions of a Fine levied time out of mind Two of the contenders produce for proof of their pretences common Parchments attested only by their Fathers The third produceth an Indenture of Fine transmitted to
Remote Churches on the Lords day VI. The first Day of the Week consecrated to This office and for That reason stiled the Lords day dishonored by derivation from the 4th Commandment cannot be worse profaned than by neglect of This office to which it oweth it's sacreduess HITHERTO I have labored to serve the Learned and the Inquisitive the Able and the Willing to search both the ground of our Lords Institution and the Apostl's discourse concerning it which reciprocate such light to one another that I hope every such Reader is fully satisfied both in Conscience and Curiosity But there ar many other who ether understand not such work or will not suffer the fatigue whom I shall now endeavor to fit with less troublsom Discourses It is much easier both to Understand and to Attend the the process of an History than that of an Argument and the sens of Mater of Fact as it is more Obvious so is it generally more Potent than That of Mater of Right What therefor I have hitherto be'n proving to have be'n our Lord's and Apostl's mind concerning our obligation to constancy I shall now authorise by the suitable Practice of All the Apostl's and Primitive Churches In This Chapter I shall search the Scripture for the Former and in the following I shall look into humane Writers for the Later In This Chapter let us vieu the Scripture and see the strange unhappiness of This Subject We might well hope to ' scape all disputes concerning Mater of Fact when the witness is infallibl what can we need more but to hear him Yes we need understand him too and as in the Apostl's argument we have found difficulty bicause those expressions which were familiar to His age are worn out in Ours So the same difficulty still pursueth us in the very History We must not only vieu what is written but we must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Search and Examin and that carefully too what is meant when report is made even of Mater of Fact But we have This comfort that as the troubl will be now less so will our discoveries be more various and at every step we shall meet somthing worth the no great labor of the inquiry Two things will be worth our observation 1. How careful our Lord was to recommend his Institution and how backward the Apostls were in Apprehending his meaning 2. How diligent the Apostl's were in Obeying his will when well informed concerning it 1. It is worth observing be it but for our own justification that notwithstanding our Lords care to instruct them the Apostl's themselves were as hardly broght to understand his mind in his Institution as we ar now And it is more particularly observable that Those endeavors which he used to recommend it to their affections met the same success as we have seen follow those very words of the Apostl whereby he endeavored to prove the necessity of constancy Our Lord's care to recommend it appeareth especially by two Actions 1. His timeing the Institution Secondly His care to mind them of it while fresh in memory 1. He chose the fittest Time for the Institution The Apostl observed it and we shall anon find another occasion more fully to consider how observable it is that it was the Last night and That wherein he was betrayed and the Evangelist is careful to commemorate with what affection he embraced That Passover for This very reason bicause it was the most proper for This Institution But That dismal night however seasonable to endear it to Future times was least so for it's publication to the Present It was natural that the dreadful Tragedy then impending should so confound both their Apprehensions and Memories as utterly to rob them of all other consideration but of their Lord's and their Own dangers leaving them no power to regard the at-such-a-time-scarce-considerable action To cure This inconvenience he applyeth a contrary remedy and that speedily II. HIS Resurrection was matter of as great Joy as his Passion was of Grief or Fear and he makes That an opportunity to remedy the Other After his Death they met together not to Fest but Fast bicause the Bridegroom was taken from them the news of his Resurrection must give them the garments of gladness for the spirit of heaviness and invite them both to turn their Fasting to Festing and to close their Fests with his Supper as he had both very Carefully and very Lately commanded He therefor contriveth a way whereby he may at once assure them of the truth of his Resurrection and the meaning of his Institution The story we meet in Luke 24.13 which bicause we as litle heed now as the Apostl's did then will require som Animadversion Finding Two Disciples traveling together to complete the necessary number himself makes a Third He joins himself to them discourses with them gives them sufficient opportunity and occasion to observ his countenance his voice his meen and whatever els he might be know'n by But these it seems were Disciples in extraordinary not such as ordinarily conversed with him and they knew him not so perfectly as to discover him in such circumstances He suppeth with them and having by his discourses manifested himself a Rabbin takes the office of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Breaker and performs it not in the Accustomed but his Own New form points not so much to the Bread as to his own Body and thereby so manifested his Person that immediatly they knew him This gives us an Hypothesis suitable to all the Phaenomena of the story otherwise unaccountable and if our eyes be withholden that we no more know his Meaning now than the Disciples did his Person by the way let us look how we shall answer these questions How came their eyes to be opened 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in or by the breaking of the Bread more than by all his other appearances You say he might discover himself When and How he pleased True but the question concerneth not his Power but his Will which governs that Power and is it self governed by his Wisdom We therefor further demand Why he that Could do it in what circumstances he pleased should Chuse to do it in These rather than any Other This say you is a saucy question we are not to call our Lord to account for his actions But may we not be bolder with his servants his Disciples and Evangelist Let us then inquire concerning them Why were the Disciples so careful to report This very Circumstance Why the Evangelist so punctual to record that they reported not only the Thing but the Manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How or in what manner he was knowen to them by the breaking of the Bread Here meet an unaccountabl Will of our Lord choosing This very Manner of discovering himself the no less unaccountabl Care of the Disciples reporting This Manner and of the Evangelist recording both the One and the Other Must All this be imputed to a fortuit concurs without
see that none could stay out the Prayers but they must be at least by-standers at the Communion Or if any thoght to avoid them Both they were not thereby excused as appears in the case of the Alexandrians for when many of them after reading of the Gospel went away John surnamed the Alms-giver then Patriarch followed them out of the Church sharply reproving them telling them He came to administer the Eucharist to them and never giving over his importunity till he brought them back to the Holy Table Even those who were go'n out of the Church as resolved not to Communicate and therefor certainly both Unprepared and Unworthy did he promiscuously even compel And This zele of so Eminent a Prelate might I vouch as my second Topik since he cannot be denied the title of a Father of the Church But I urge not This however Venerable Authority further than as Expositor of the true meaning of the now mentioned Canon since by the shifts the People made to avoid the Letter by not staying out Prayers and the importunity the good Prelate used to recal them both to Prayers and Communion we may best Avoid any Evasions that our Modern Teachers may use who in Reverence to the Sacrament fright the vulgar from it and Justify my self in my professed endeavor to compel them to it And from the first Testimony thus cleared I com to II. 2. ANcient FATHERS among whom Justin Martyr shineth with great lustre He florished in the midl of the Second Century and is so Clear and so Particular that his words may serv as well to Describe as to Prove the Practice of Those days consonant to the Apostls This excellent Father having before described the other Sacrament and to its Description added what the Church constantly did to its Celebration That of the Lords Supper proceeding afterward to giv a Several account of This he thus reporteth its Constant Revolution And That day which is caled Sunday there is a meeting of all that dwell in Town and Country and the Reader having do'n his office the President makes an Oration wherein he exhorteth the people to imitate such goodly things Then we all rise and pray and as I have said at the end of prayers Bread Wine and Water are brought forth and the Prefect again poureth out with all his might Prayers and Praises and the people answereth aloud Amen And there is a distribution and communication made of those things over which thanks have be'n given to every one that is present but to the absent it is sent by the Deacons But those that are wealthy and willing contribute what they see good c. These words do so exactly suit the Practice of the Church to her above-recited Censure that I know not what Light can be Added or what Evasion Pretended if we consider how expresly they declare 1. That this was Every Sundays exercise And that it was not confined to the Sunday appeareth by what he had said before in the description of the Other Sacrament whereof he made This a certain attendant without declaring that it was do'n only upon Sundays 2. Every Christian was thoght obliged to Communicate every Sunday at least bicause the Church-officers were appointed to cary the Holy Supper even to the Absent 3. They mingled Water with the Wine This we may very reasonably believ to have be'n do'n in Conformity to the Jewish Tradition which forbiddeth the Cup of blessing to be otherwise celebrated For so the Misna in Berachoth endeth the 7th Chap. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They bless not for the Wine until Water be put to it This Action they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mingling of the Cup as they do the other the Breaking of the Bread 3. The third sort of testimony promised was an HISTORIAN I might plead performance of That promise by the now recited words of Justin reporting Mater of Fact But that you may see this was no short lived practice I shall further offer you the testimony of a profess'd Historian that wrote about the midl of the fifth Century Socrates in lib. 5. cap. 21. describing the differences between several Churches in their Rites thus speaketh concerning the Subject now in question Althogh All Churches All the world over in every week on the Sabbath day celebrate the Communion yet the Alexandrians and Romans upon an ancient Tradition refuse so to do But the Egyptians which dwell near Alexandria and in Thebais celebrate also the Communion on the Sabbath but receve it not after the manner of other Christians for after they have Fested and filled themselves with sundry meats in the Evening making the Offering they Communicate in the Mysteries Behold here a Testimony as full and as clear as can be expected from an Historian yea from a Witness for he nether speaketh by hear-say nor transcribeth other mens Writings of former ages but reporteth what himself certainly knew of the Universal practice of the whole Christian World at the time of his Writing And for our better satisfaction let us consider 1. That He should say the Sabbath was the day of Celebration whereas Justin Martyr puts it upon the Sunday can make no objection The analogy between them having given the One the name of the Other in our own days 2. Whereas the Egyptians Fested first and Communicated in the Evening after they had Fested themselves this may well be taken for a continuation of the Primitive practice in their Fests of Charity banished at That time out of other Churches bicause of rhe abuses they suffered from the Intemperance of the Peopl 3. Concerning the singularity of the Roman Church 1. It is not hard to reconcile Socrates with St. Hierom who saith That in His days there remained plain foot-steps of daily Communions in That Church which also continueth true in Our days without any contradiction to our Historian She hath still evident Foot-steps of more than Daily Communions yet no Face of so much as Weekly It seems that even in Socrates's days they had put it in Maskerade 2. We see what right That Church hath to ingross the title of Catholik It is one contradiction to confine so large a Word to any One part of the World and it is a Greater to confine it to That part which was singular as differing from All besides the Alexandrian Church 3. We find what pretence that Church hath to equal her Traditions with the Scripture since Universality is essential to a Tradition and here she pretendeth One unknown to the whole Christian World But most pertinently to our present purpose 4. We see whence we are to derive the neglect of Weekly Communions When the Roman Church got the Power to impose her own Singularities upon All other the Ambition to usurp the title of Catholik as if she were not only the Head but the Whole and the Confidence to set up her Inventions as authentik Traditions then must the Universal Practice of All the Christian World be
swallowed up and our Lord's Institution be lost in a private Tradition and an unintelligibl Mass but in the Beginning it was not so 5. The result of all is That the Doctrine of liberty from obligation to constancy in the Lords Supper is Popery most properly so caled both in the Mater and the Derivation in the Mater as differing from the Church Universal in the Derivation as proceeding from no pretence of Scripture at first thogh it be otherwise now but from Tradition of their own making contrary to Tradition worthily so caled and Scripture carefully examined Whoever therefor desireth a Thorogh Reformation from Popery and Popish Superstitions let him not spend his zele about litl Ceremonies and Circumstances but imploy it in service of the most Sacred and most properly Christian office which needs be rescued from utter abolition by the Practices of Rome never more grosly superstitious than in This Subject III. 4. THE Fourth sort of Testimony is That of ENEMIES Those that appear such to the Constancy we assert may be reduced to one of these three Glasses viz. 1. Protestants 2. Papists 3. Junior Fathers Among PROTESTANTS and Abov all others I therefor apply my self to the excellent person above praised bicause I know no other that hath asserted any thing so distinctly as to be capabl of an answer This admirable Person finding the Evidence of the best Antiquity That of the Apostl's and Primitive Fathers undeniable endeavoreth ro Evade what he findeth necessary to Confess 1. Concerning the Former we have heard him say True it is the Apostls did indefinitely admit all the faithful to the Holy Communion but they were persons wholely enflamed with those Holy Fire which Jesus Christ sent from Heaven to make them burning and shining Lights c. And then he spends a whole Page in such a Character as one might think intended for the Apostls themselves did not the question necessarily cast it upon the Faithful and then too one might think that word must be taken in its most rigid sens for the Elect. But was there a Judas among the twelve chosen by our Lord himself and not One unworthy among the thousands of Disciples whom the Apostls indefinitely admitted St. Jude describeth not Such Saints sure where among other black characters he brandeth them with This that they are spots in their fests of charity and as litl doth he blame the officers of the Church for admitting them St. Paul too I take it doth not describe Saintly conversation in those Church meetings for whose debaucheries he reproveth not the Pastors for Admitting such Persons but the Peopl for Committing such Leudness yea and So reproveth them as not to Excommunicate them for their domestik riots but to require them however unworthy in their persons to come but in a manner more worthy Had the Scriptures be'n silent we must have be'n very tame if without any evidence we had believed that All Christians in that better then Golden age deserved so great an Eulogy but after such contrary Evidence we have nothing better to do than to pity such an excellent Person so enslaved and hardly used by an Opinion that putteth him to seek but alloweth him no shifts from such insupportabl Evidence Another Confession with it s annexed Evasion concerns the Ancient Fathers in these words St. Hierom and St. Augustin tells us That even until their days the custom of receving every day remained in the Churches of Rome and Spain And all the ancient Fathers exhort to a frequent Communion But just as Physitians exhort men to eat the best and heartiest meats not the sickly and faint but the strong men and the healthy All the ancient Fathers exhort to a frequent Communion This is more than can well stand with his own positions which discorage the generality from it yet falls as much short of truth as Frequent doth of Constant for we shall presently meet som of them exhorting not only to Frequent but Daily Communions Yea so certainly did the Primitive Christians make This not only their Constant but their Principal exercise in All their meetings that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which primarily signifieth no more than a Meeting became the diverbial word for the Lords Supper in exact conformity to St. Luke's stile who saith They meet to break bread and the footsteps of the phrase remain as plain yet as much corrupted as do those of the Office among the Romanists who express their Church-meetings by Going to Mass As certainly therefor as the Papists make the Mass the Principal exercise of their Publik worship so certainly did the Primitive Christians make the Lords Supper the principal of Theirs the very phrase confirming their express testimony of this truth They exhort men he confesseth but evades the consequence by adding they do it Just as Physicians c. whereas it is undeniable that They exhorted as the Apostls admitted All Indefinitely and until we are shewen that they excepted any besides Catechumens and Excommunicates we must not clip their indefinite Exhortations with unwarrantable Limitations derived from no other reason but their serviceableness to our Hypothesis IV. ANOTHER Class of Adversaries ar the Papists who yet no less manifestly Preserv than Contradict the Primitive Practice For That very Church which obligeth not the Peopl to receve but at Easter only That very Church in whose magnified Synod at Trent a Caveat was entered not to derive even That anniversary obligation from our Lords but the Churches command That very Church to This very day so Prescribeth as to Out-do the constancy of the Primitive Som may think it too much that I have from the Acts of the holy Apostles taken the Lords Supper for the reason of the Disciples meetings the first day of the week But none sure can doubt that with the Papist to go to Church signifieth the same as to go to Mass but to go to Hear Mass is such an errand as the first ages never went upon While they admit the people only to hear or see Their Hoc est corpus meum is an egregiosly and Both words of St. Paul may be applyed to such a Mass To the people belongs This is not to eat the Lords Supper To the Priest As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you shew forth the Lords death And both the One and the Other forsake their Duty and their Patern while they pretend to stick to them Thus the ruins of a beautiful Structure may at once evidence its amplitude and confess their own rubbidge no way answerable to the beauty it formerly served We need not therefor be ashamed of this kind of proof as if we too much honored the Church of Rome in owning her Practice for an evidence of the Primitive We take it not as the Testimony of the Honorable but as a Confession of the Guilty when we make use of their Own words as an evidence against the Speakers practice When we say every Mass ought to
be a Communion what do we more plainly than condemn the Private ones as carrying a Contradiction in the very Terms and the Publik ones as carrying One or More in their Performance For they plainly contradict both the word Communion when there are no Communicants and our Lords Command while in One Element they Dispense and in the Other Prohibit what He commanded Yet still they do well in the Thing thogh ill in the Manner in this very particular deserving to be owned a true thogh corrupt Church V. 3. AND what if we now reckon the Junior Fathers among our Adversaries yea Those very Fathers by name whom we but now found vouched as telling us That the custom of daily Communions continued in some Churches until their days What such Fathers or other credible Writers say of the Doctrines or Customs of the Churches of Christ in their own days we think our selves obliged to believe upon their credit And upon that account we doubt not but This custom of daily Communicating who 's foot-steps remained in Those times wherein they wrote was derived as Catholik from the preceding and if themselves Depart or Detract from what they have so witnessed to be Catholik what can we do better than distinguish the Doctor from the Father and judge his Opinion by his Testimony Whether St. Augustin have so do'n and consequently how far his authority is to sway us in the present Question we cannot take a better way to find than by transcribing his own words the consequences whereof were he alive to see he would doubtless lament His Discours is in his 118th Epistle in these words among others Som will say that the Eucharist is not to be receved every day If you ask why he tells you bicause som days ar to be chosen in which a man may live more purely and continently that so he may com to so great a Sacrament more worthily bicause he that eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks damnation to himself On the other side another says If thou hast received so great a wound and contracted so violent a disease that such remedies ar to be deferr'd every such man ought by the Authority of the Bishop to be removed from the Altar and put to penance and by the same authority be reconciled For this is to receve unworthily Then to receve when a man should be doing penance and not according to his own pleasure offer himself to or withdraw himself from the Communion But if his sins be not so great as to deserve Excommunication he ought not to separate himself from the daily Medicine of the Lords Body Between those possibly a man may determine the question better if he admonishes that men should abide in the peace of Christ But let every one do what according to his Faith he piosly believes ought to be do'n For neither of them dishonors the Body and Blood of the Lord if they in their several ways contend who shall most honor the most holy Sacrament For Zacheus and the Centurion did not prefer themselves before one another when one receved Christ into his house and the other said he was not worthy to receve him under his roof That by this Discourse we may undarstand what was St. Augustin's Opinion and how far we are to be determined by it it will be requisite that we consider 1. The State of the Question And 2ly His Determination of it 1. In Stating the Question we ar to observ 1. The Question it self And secondly The Practice of the Church at That time 1. The Question it self is extremely different from Ours So different that we may very well subscribe to the Fathers determination It is Whether the Eucharist be to be receved EVERY DAY or some days to be chosen wherein a man may live more purely c. Now we pretend not to EVERY DAY But believ that the Lords day was purposely consecrate and afterward other holy days were added and that every such day hath its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 set aside to the purpose expressed by St. Augustine That a man may therein live more purely and continently that so he may come more worthily to so great a Sacrament If therefor This great Fathers Arbitration which was bounded to Every day be stretched to the modern Question which exceedeth All bounds nothing will be so questionable as This Whether the injury we do the Fathers Discurs or That we do our Lord's Institution be the greater of the two 2. The Practice of the Church for which the Question was calculated was extremely different from Ours and That in two respects 1. In point of Worship For at Thar time the Holy Communion was daily administred by the Priests at least in great Cities and daily received by the devouter part of the peopl Som saith St. Augustine himself Daily communicate in the body and blood of the Lord some receve upon certain days in some places it is offered every day without intermission in som only upon the Sabbath and the Lords day in some upon the Lord's day only 2. In the point of Discipline which in Those days excluded the most scandalous both from the Communion and publik Prayers but This by the sentence of the Bishop This as it is plainly intimated in St. Augustin's above-recited words so is it more plainly expressed by St. Chrysostom in These words Art thou not worthy of the Sacrament nor Communion thou art not then worthy of Prayer Thou hearest the officer standing and proclaiming Whoever of you are in Penance be go'n If thou be one of those that are in Penance thou must not communicate For he that doth not communicate is in Penance Why then doth he say Be go'n you that cannot pray and thou impudently standest by and art not such but one of them that can communicate In which words of St. Chrysostom two things appear very considerable 1. That those who were excluded from the Holy Communion were no less so from publik Prayer which by the above-recited account of Justin Martyr began at the Communion Service 2. That it was not left to every mans private Caprice or Conscience to Com or Forbear But every one must com if he were not under Penance by the Bishops sentence VI. HITHERTO we have heard St. Augustin as a Father discursing in the Early stile a uestion suitable to his own time We ar now to hear him as a Doctor determining the Question by his own Reason And we are to observ 1. The stile he speaketh in And 2. The Determination he giveth 1. His stile is not definitive Doth not give his Sentence but his Opinion yea not his setled Opinion but his staggering unfledged Sentiments Doth not Impose upon our Belief but Propose to our Examination Between these saith he possibly a man determine i. e. No man hath yet so determined nor can I say that any man may but I offer it to consideration In This he speaketh most like a Father that he confesseth himself Not
The cause of our disobedience to This Command too much Fear II. We may not commuse Doing for any other service III. The Reason why som think best not to do this often and their appeal to the Church of England IV. The Church vindicated V. The two opposit opinions personated The Vniversity Statutes the best comment upon the Churches Rubrike The Greek Church in great Churches celebrateth the Holy Communion every Sunday and Holy day VI. Those who omit the Communion it self greater Non-conformists than those who neglect the Communion Service WHAT is meant by DO when joined as here with its Object one would not think so hard to Understand as to Mistake The force of the Imperative mode is so know'n to every litl Boy that it is strange Doctors should miss it nor could they had they not be'n mis-led by the sound of Those unhappy words which I hope now sufficiently appear designed to an office contrary to that rhey have so long be'n abused in If they are not ro be a Defaisance but Inforcement then will the Command be for the Form as Absolute and Intelligibl for the Mater as Serviceabl to the ends intended and every way as Obliging as the greatest Care joined with indisputable Authority can possibly render Any But it is the singular infelicity of This only command to be Disobeyed out of too much Regard We think our selves unworthy to Do This and ar therefor willing to believ we Do better than This if we pay not Obedience in kind but by som liberal Commutation make the Command a gainer and our Selvs secure An error so much the more Excusabl bicause Natural Fear of the Divine presence is as much Original and consequently as Universal as Sin against it Never were the Israelites so heartily obedient to Any law of God as to That which commanded them to keep Distance from the terribl Mount where his Presence appeared They were so willing to forbear Touching that they would keep out of Hearing Speak thou with us said they to Moses and we will hear but let not God speak to us lest we dy Yea not only the common people and upon such terrible appearances but even the best servants of God and upon his most gracious visits have be'n frighted at his Presence The best Prophets fell down at the appearance of a good Angel and thogh the God-head doubl-veled it self in Flesh and Poverty that Humility added to Humanity might prevent our dazeling yet when the glory of his Divinity brake throgh and shined in his Miracles even those who rejoiced in the Benefit feared the Benefactor The Centurion even when he prayed that his Power and Goodness would bless his house deprecated his Presence When Peter had gained a miraculous draght of Fishes the acknowledgement he paid was a Prayer That the Lord would depart from him And the Gadarens who suffer more in their Reputation than they did in their Swine fell to the same prayer not more in sens of their Loss than Peter did in that of his Gain but both of them in contrary circumstances wer frighted at the same sens of their unworthiness Were we as uncharitable to our Desertors of rhe Lords Supper as we generally are to the Gadarenes we might censure their Absence as the effect of their Covetousness Possibly som may fear the Offertory more than their Unworthiness but sure they must be very Few We must needs believ most mens departure from Christ to be the issu of the Same Fear but not so excusable as that of Peter and the Centurion For if the same Peter had really forsaken Christ when he receved his Command to follow him or if the same Centurion had receved the same command with Zacheus and denyed obedience to it Peter must have had his portion with Judas and the Centurion with the inhospitabl Samaritans II. AND this is our present case Do this is no less Imperative to us than Follow thou me was to Peter or com down to entertene me was to Zacheus It leav's us not at liberty to do Any thing else in stead of This. We may as litl Commute as Omit the performance when the Word of command pointeth out as well the Object as the Act. Had our Lord said Honor this or Contemplate this or Admire this or Adore this or Dread this c. Had he left to our choice whether we would pay in Kind or in Value we must needs have justified rhe Christian World not only for a Just paymaster but a Liberal benefactor So industriosly have men taxed All their Faculties for an ample Contribution their Inventions for Mysteries their Fancies for Allusions their Severity for Condicions their Affections for Ardor I wish they had moderated that ardor not permitted it to break out into devouring Flames to destroy such multitudes merely bicause they could not translate Do this into Worship this Strange that in a command so Positive and so Plain the Teachers themselvs should no better have learned what That meaneth To obey is better than Sacrifice And I know not which may claim more of our admiration the strange Agreement among the otherwise most irreconcileable Sects of Christians in their joint resolution to Commute or the strange Difference in the Sacrifices they bring for Recompence to the piosly injured Command I pass by the Papists who commute Obedience to This command into Disobedience to Another paying forbidden Adoration instead of commanded Eating and the Non-conformists who in stead of Obedience to our Lord pay Disobedience to his Officers refusing to Do this lest they should do it in Circumstances for This only reason to be Shunned by themselves bicause Required by their Governors I ass by Both These and All Others but Those of our Own I wish I could call it Communion who owning the Command of our Lord and the Authority of our Church professing conformity to Both disobey the Command in its own Defence and shelter themselves under the protection of the Church pretending her to have declared three times in a year sufficient and therefor more than Three times needless Had they appeled to St. Augustin they had met som sound of words that by help of Inferences might have afforded them som color He did indeed first hang up the scales between these contrary ways of honoring our Lord and left the Centurion aequilibrate to Zacheus But now almost all the weight is taken out of the One scale and cast into the Other the Obligation to the performance made so Light and the Conditions of worthiness so Heavy that it is Now questioned Not whether we ar to receve Every day but Any day And what St. Augustin thought not Possibl to be questioned is now too Generally believed viz. that there must be a choice not only of som Days but som Persons above Others Concerning the required worthiness of Persons I shall meet a fitter time to speak more fully I am now to enquire concerning Times whether we are obliged to take All or Any
hardness of the peopl's hearts In so corrupt an age we may not stand upon our Lords In the beginning it was not so but yield to his Suffer it to be so now I therefor urge no more but this That it is the duty of every Minister to labor with his people to com constantly and to offer the Holy Communion as often as he can prevail with them to receve it Against this so complaisant Assertion bicause St. Augustin's out-running followers have not only opposed his Let every one do what he thinks best but preferred the Centurions aw before Zacheus's reception therefor must this doubl Error be encounter'd with a doubl Question 1. Whether our Lords Do this take not away our liberty to forbear it 2. Supposing we had liberty to do what we believe best whether it were not better to do it frequently than seldom 1. Our first Question must be Whether our Lords Do this leave us any liberty to forbear when we think it better In this Enquiry we must distinguish between Laws Moral and Positive II MOral Laws ar written in the fleshly tables of the heart whose yielding nature may take impression from the various occurrences of life Those Laws as they ar Dictated by Reason so must they be Interpreted by it and bend to the several requires of the subject matter For the Philosopher cannot so fix the bounds of Vertu but that in many cases the Determination of a Prudent man is necessaty to distinguish it from Vice But God wrote his Positive Laws in Tables of Stone whose rigor was uncapabl of yielding Of such Laws the Will of the Law-giver was the Only Reason and must be the Only Mesure We must do Just so no less nor no more nor no otherwise Reason hath here nothing to do but to deny it self to have the least power to Dispens or Derogate or Commute or any way Decline from the express voice of the Law Uzzah could not then plead the appearance of necessity or the evidence of his good meaning when the danger of the Law was greater one way than that of the Ark was the other way To this surpose ler us reflect upon what we have already observed that our Apostl vouched our Lord's authority that so he might assert both the Truth and Importance of what he delivered For we cannot now deny the Truth without affronting the Apostl's veracity nor the Importance without disparaging our Lord's wisdom for the One must be said to take great care for a subject of no valu or the Other report a falshood We have seen som danger that our Lord's mind might be mistaken as if he either intended to consecrate none but the Paschal Supper or valued the whole office at no higher rate than he used to do outward performances We need no other evidence that the Corinthians might probably believ This than the commonness of This belief now notwithstanding the Apostl's indeavor to confute it in both its members by This declaration which plainly discovereth how much our Lord valued this office how often we must perform it and how litl power we have to abate any thing of it For these reasons he doth not plead here as before in another case of outward decency Doth not appeal to Their Judgments nor offer his Own saith not as cap. 10. I speak as to wise men judge you what I say nor as chap. 7. I give my judgment This say I not the Lord but quite contrary This say not I but the Lord and the consequence is Neither I nor an Angel from heaven must be believed against the Revelation Neither I nor an Angel from heaven much less a mans own humor can any way relax the Obligation Grant therefore now that the Observation be as Tru as the Subject is Unhappy suppose Frequence bring danger of Cheapness must we therefor presume to make it Scarce No doubtless If we will needs hear Reason it will tell us that our Lord knew this as well as We It was so Before and In and Ever Since His days as it is in Ours How then dare any one judge That a sufficient reason to hinder him from Doing this which our Lord judged not so to hinder him from Commanding it Doth not such an one declare himself both Superior and Wiser If thou judg the Law saith S. James thou art not a Doer of the law but a Judge I may add Thou art not only a Judge but an Unjust one if thy sentence rob the law of it's due so much more so by how much greater care our Lord took to have it duly paid III. HE therefor that breaketh This which is not the Least of our Lords Commandments and teacheth men so must be weighed in others scales than those of St. Augustine Not compared with the modest Centurion or forward Zacheus but with the most Disobedient Rebel and the most Unworthy Communicant and even so will be found more inexcusable than the worst For he that Doth This however unworthily payeth Somthing of obedience owneth our Lords Authority is easily Convinced of his Crime But he that saith he needs not do it doth not only deny the Law to have power over himself but assumeth to himself power over the Law and renounceth all Need and therefor all Benefit of Repentance He that Disobeyeth the Kings Law may be a Felon but he that setteth up an Opposit Authority is a Rebel and declaring himself as all Rebels do a most Faithful Subject is thereby the more Unpardonabl He that doth this unworthily is guilty of the body and bloud of the Lord he dishonoreth his Person and that in his Humanity but he that Renounceth any Obligation to do it is guilty of his Crown and Dignity Deposeth him from his Throne and affronteth the Majesty of his Divinity and his pretence of Reason for disobedience whether it be Reverence or his Teachers Authority or what ever els it be it is a Rival to obedience and it 's plausibl Pretences make it so much the more properly Rebellious This perhaps may seem too Severe I grant it nor do I believ our Lord judgeth according to such Rigid mesures but Rigid as they ar they ar Just and may be urged against the Doctrines thogh not against the Persons For if the Preformance be bound upon us by a Positive Law of Christ and Forbearance only by my Own or my Teachers Reason If I prefer This abve That and Justifie my doing so what is this but to say I will not have That but This to reign over me We may not therefor without manifest Deposing our Lord pretend any thing Equal to his Authority but if we will decline our obedience to This Command we must fetch our Warrant from That alone as dispensing with us in such cases as we oppose to our obligation IV. AND this Warrant must be as Express as his Command and it must be either a Countermand or a Dispensation 1. A Countermand may be either Express or Implicit If
it be not possibl to do this without breaking some Other no less evident Law This will amount to an Implicit Countermand For then will This Law lose all its weight by the equal Counterweight of That Other bicaus the Same Lord who said Do This will have said also Do Not That and when such a Counter-Law is Pleaded and Proved we must acquiesce But Where Where in the name of Christ is such a Counter-Law In what Book whar Chapter what Vers do we find him say Do Not This Pretences we find in abundance but where do we find them Authorised Where is it written Do not this if there be a Judas in the company Do it not if you may not do it without diminution of your liberty in things indifferent Do it not if you may not do it in such Manner such Forms such a Place such Company such Gesture c. as your selves like Best Do it not if the Form of Administration have any Mixture of humane Ordinances or the Assembly any mixture of Profane or Suspicios Persons Or which is the same Kind thogh not the same Color Do it not as Often as you have Opportunity if you believ your Often doing it will occasion your doing it Less Reverently If in any of These or any Other cases we find any such Express or Implicit Countermand as with equal Clearness of Words and equal Evidence of Sens and equal Absolutness of Command can ballance our Lordr Do this we must yeild but els whatever weight is Wanting in the Opposite Scale is Left in the Obligation V. 2. AND the same rule also holdeth in the Other kind of Warrant If we pretend our selfs not Countermanded but Dispensed wth we must have an Express Word declaring us so in That particular case I say we must have an Express Word For Consequences of Our own drawing unless they be so absolutely Unavoidabl as to be equivalent to an Express word may not be interpreted for a competent Dispensation since it is an undoubted rule That every Dispensation is a grievance to the law therefore to be avoided as much as possibl in defence of the Law There is indeed an Express word which hath too long and too generally be'n taken for an Vnlimited Dispensation not only to the Grievance but the very Destruction of the Law upon which Very account besides others I hope I h ve cleared it from that mistake and therefor shall now say no more concerning it Our future troubl will be with som Consequential defeasances draw'n from som cautionary expressions of the Apostl no less perverted against his meaning than Those other words are against both His and our Lord's He declareth it a great crime to do this Unworthily and for That reason warneth us to Examin our selfs and from hence some hastily infer That if we have be'n hindered from This Preparation and some others that if we have neglected it then ar we not only Excused but Prohibired from the Performance And whoever hath any kindness for his Sloth or his Sins very Plausibly perswades himself That the Indulgent Apostl hath left a wide door open to admit what he please for a Competent Hinderance from Preparation and consequently a Competent Excuse from the unwelcom exercise But This very Unpreparedness is it self a Violation of an Express Precept Let a man examin himself and so let him eat is a doubl Precept but so that Either Member is an Entire Precept by its self without retaining to the Other as it 's condicion It is not Let a man eat if he be prepared but without any If thogh not without an And they ar Both Absolutely thogh Jointly commanded He that Eateth not is guilty thogh he be Prepared He that nether Eateth nor Prepareth himself is Dubly guilty because he hath omitted a Dubl duty But that we may answer formally We Deny That Consequence whereon the Evasion is bilt viz. That If a Command oblige to do a thing and in due manner the Defect in the Manner thogh voluntary must be a Dispensation from the Thing God commanded the Jews to eat the Passover with their loins girt Wer it not ridiculos to think that if one be ungirt he is free both from the Obligation and the Threat so that notwithstanding them Both That soul shall not be cut off from his peopl The Girding of the Loins is often used as an expression of Preparation and the defect of That may as well excuse from the Passover as the defect of This from the Lords Surper VI. AND at This rate of pleading we may as well excuse our selves from All Religios Exercises whatsoever bicause we cannot in any of them make Any address to God unworthily without affronting him That our Partiality and Injustice toward This Sacrament may the more plainly appear let us for a minute or two suppose what probably the Corinthians believed that it was not concerned in those Meetings wherein they behaved themselves so irreverently and Then consider whether the same reproofs may not be transplanted into such Meetings upon as good grounds and with as good fruit Might he not have pleaded with the same Evidence of reason and even in the same words You come together not for the better but for the worse For first of all when ye com together in the Church I hear that there be divisions among you and I partly believe it When ye come together therefor into one place this is not to worspip God For one is hungry and another is drunken What have ye not houses to eat or to drink in or despise ye For I tell you that as often as you meet in Gods house to worship him you address your selves to Gods person For as often as you pray to God you address your selves to his Throne and to him that sitteth thereon Wherefor whoever prayeth to God unworthily shall be guilty of affronting his Majesty But let a man exawin himself and so let him address his prayer to God For he that prayeth to God unworthily prayeth for damnation to himself not regarding the Majesty of God What think you Were any of these reproofs too severe Any of those Warnings needless Any Precept for self-examination superfluos Or do All of them amount to a dispensation from worshipping God in his House May we not then take up the same Apostl's Language expostulating with a self-condemned Jew Thou that darest not take the Lords Supper in thy unhallowed lips darest thou take his Prayer Thou that darest not eat This Bread bicause thou art not one bread with thy offending brother darest thou use That Prayer which maketh thy forgiving or not forgiving thy brother the mesure of Gods forgiving or not forgiving thee Thou that fearest to bring an unclean heart to God's Table darest thou bring the same to his Throne Thou that fearest to be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord darest thou make thy self so of His Majesty and Purity Are not These as much contemned by
of their Meeting but in That of their Festing yet his in thrice repeated charge he doth not lay his accusation against These but against Those especially vers 20. When ye com together in one place it is not to eat the Lords Supper From which words especially if helped with the now mentioned clause of ver 26. it plainly appeareth that it Then was and Ever must be the duty of All Christian Churches to celebrate the Lords Supper when ever they meet in his House Otherwise the Corinthians must be unjustly arraigned as Criminal having broken no Obligation God forbad Perjury in This stile Thou shalt not take in the Hebrew it is Thou shalt not lift up the name of the Lord thy God in vain The Phrase is bilt upon their then Custom of lifting up the hand in the name of God Our form of Swearing is not by lifting up the hand above the head but perhaps by bowing down the head to the hand yet no man pretends the power of the Law abolished with the Ceremony it seemeth bilt upon since the Obligation dependeth not upon the variable Circumstance of Swearing but the indispensibl Connexion between our Oath and Truth Just so it is here This Institution relates to Festing as That Law did to lifting up the hand This requireth that our Lords Supper should accompany All our Church-meetings as That doth that Truth should accompany All our Oaths and the Church may be as Innocent and the Obligation as Firm after the One alteration in the manner as after the Other And 't is worth our observation with what temper she hath ever proceeded that in the Great Changes she found Necessary to make the Sacrament might not lose its right It seems not an Accidental but Substantial circumstance That This should be Instituted In and After Supper and consequently that it should be Celebrated in the same Season necessary both to answer its Title the Supper of the Lord and the Tradition whence it was taken Yet to celebrate it before day appeareth by the unquestionable testimony of Pliny to have be'n the practice in Trajan's time But That Persecution which Necessitated did thereby Justifie so Great a variation They wer denyed the use of their Public Churches if they had Any their malicios enemies watched all opportunities to mingle their blood with their Sacrifices Either therefor they must do this before day or not at all This was a great Change but no Robbery for the Sacrament lost not so much as its Name by it but still continued to be caled the Lords Supper That change the Emperors Persecution made necessary and a worse Persecution made a Greater one no less so The unbridled luxury of the people turned it from the Supper of the Lord to a Fest of Bacchus and it seemed impossibl to rescu it from that wors Metamorphosis but by turning it from a Desert after Supper to a Break-fast in the Morning III. AND thogh this seemed a Greater change than the Former as taking away not only the Season of the Supper but the very Nature of a Fest yet was the Church careful to save the Institution harmless The Day first consecrate to This office still enjoyeth the title of The Lords day and of a Fest Four Councils declared it heretical to Fast and many Canons forbad to Kneel upon That day it is honored with a Preparatory Vigil and a Communion-Service and every Other Holy day if they be not expresly consecrate to Festing enjoy the same honor and title of Festivals And why I pray' now why all this care Why so great a Soloecism to Fast upon our Lords day Was he indeed as the Scribes and Pharisees charactered him a riotos person and a Wine-bibber If He were yet certainly St. Michael and all Angels ar not nor wer All the Saints so John the Baptist came neither eating nor drinking St. Paul was in fastings often and many other Saints are honored for their very Abstinence How can it be congruos that the Angels should delight in That whereof they are by Nature Uncapable or the Saints in that which by Grace they Shunned But granting this Why then must their Eves be Fasting-days What strange meetings of Contradictions are these That they who in their lives loved and practiced Fasting should after their deaths delight in Festing and yet their very Festing-days be honored by a Fasting Usher Suppose This be only a Preparative To what purpose such a bedel Must we Therefor Fast upon the Eve that we may have the better stomach to the following Fest There must questionless be som Better reason and what Better can there be than what we ar now observing viz. the constant Practice of All mankind and particularly of Christians celebrating the worship of God with Festing not abrogated but thus improved that the Supper of our Lord might be it self a Spiritual Fest attended with a Corporal one and ushered with a Vigil the One proper for its genuine Celebration the Other for our Preparation to it Nor hath the Apostls argument suffered more by this change than our Lords Supper the only difference is this That before it concluded by Enthymem and now by Syllogism While the custom continued of Eating this bread and drinking this cup in Every Meeting the conclusion without more ado followed Ergo He that eateth this bread and drinketh this cup unworthily is guilty But now it requireth the assistance of an Assumtion which Then was the Apostl supposed would Ever be self-evident viz. that as often as they met together they ate this bread and drank this cup. And thogh the 27th verse seemeth to have lost its force bicause we do not eat that bread and drink that cup as the Corinthians then did yet the 20th still retaineth its strength and we ar guilty of the same charge of so coming together as not to eat the Lords Supper thogh we are not to be convicted by the same medium IV. AND if any Claus in the Apostls whole Dissertation teach us That charge must needs do it None of the rest can teach us point blank but only compass and by Analogy with those sensual Debaucheries against which they were leveled It can not now be said one is hungry and another is drunken nor can any other of those Characters fit us by which the Apostl describeth the profaneness he impeacheth But we think our selfs obliged by Analogy to infer that as their Sensual unworthiness made them guilty where they abused a Sensual Fest so any Spiritual unworthiness will make Us so if by it we profane a Spiritual one and for this Analogical reason we must examin our selfs c Now if this seem obliging in point of Worthiness much more must it be so in the Performance it self For he disputeth for That not only by Analogy but Point blank We find no Reproof because no Mention of any but Sensual or Schismatical unworthiness in the Corinthians but Express and thrice Repeted inculcation of their Meetings as
dishonoring the Lords Supper by their necessary connexion Either therefor we ar quite out of the reach of his Threats bicause we are free from the Character he Reproves or if we ar Not then are we most exposed to That now mentioned bent against their So Coming together as not to eat the Lords Supper since That and only That can literally be charged upon us And since his Cautionary precepts were also levelled against the Sin Reproved they must needs strike more directly upon That Omission wherein we are equally gilty than upon the Unworthiness wherein we cannot be so And that inseparabl connexion between the Churches meetings and the Lords Supper which he so industriosly proveth must needs concern us more than any such kind of unworthiness as he mentioneth Not since That is to continu till the end of the World by our Lords own Institution and This is not condemned but by Our own Reason in consequence of the Apostls reproving another kind of gilt whereof we are uncapabl V. IF therefor we must accommodate the Apostls Dissertation to the change so as to shun the Unworthiness Not expresly forbidden much more must we do so in the Constancy so Expresly and Industriosly enjoyned So that our concern must needs be this As often as the Corinthians ate that bread and drank that cup which our Lord had adopted to represent his body and blood so often they shewed forth his death and therefor whoever did unworthily celebrate That were gilty of profaning This The connexion between their Meetings and their Fests the Apostl did not bicause he needed not mention but That between Them and the Lords Supper he proved inseparabl both as to Intermission and Abolition The former connexion the Church hath changed the later she may not in either of its members We ar therefor and till the Lord com ever must be obliged in All our Church meetings to celebrate the Lords Supper and That in such manner as becometh his body and blood THIS is the Equitabl and Moral sens of the Apostls words which was so Long and Universally paid them by all Ages and Churches preceding and following the change as might create a right even by Prescription but on the other side it hath be'n lost so many Ages that the Contrary Sens pleads Contrary Prescription It is now no less impossibl to reduce the people to Constancy than it was in the time of the Laodicean Council to reduce them to Sobriety and therefor the Officers of the Church now find it necessary to yield to the hardness of hearts callos by time VI. BUT here we must carefully distinguish between Yielding and Justifying Our Church speaketh not one syllabl to Dispens with the strictest Constancy but on the contrary still recommendeth it as often as she can without exposing her Own Injunctions to the Same Contemt from which she endeavoreth to rescu our Lords She doth indeed forbid the celebration if there be not a competent number to communicate bicause if the Holy Table must needs be deserted it is less dishonorable that it be so Without the Supper than With it She therefore leaveth it to the Ministers Discretion how often it shall be offered but she intrusteth their Piety to exhort the peopl to com as often as possibl She is Both ways careful that neither the Willing may want a Communion nor the Unwilling an Exhortation She therefor complieth with the peopl's Neglect no otherwise than did the equally valiant and indulgent Captain with his Armies cowardize he Commanded he Intreated he Exhorted he Reproved but when he could by no means prevail to stop their flight he put himself in their head that they might seem rather to Follow their Leader than Flee their Enemy But as this compliance of the Captain did not justify his Disobedient Troops so neither do the Churches Rubriks justify either Ministers or Peopl that are wanting to the Constancy so plainly Urged by the Apostl Practiced by the Best ages and Recommended by her Self The Sum of all is this Since the Church had no Authority nor no Intention to slacken the Power either of our Lords Command or the Apostls Argument we must therefor still own them to have the same Power now as ever and must accommodate them to our Present meetings as if they still were Festivals not only in Name or Spiritually as we acknowlege them still to be but in Reality and Sensually as at the time of his Writing they were and in the Recess the Obligation is no less indissolubl against the teeth of time and the constitutions of Governments than against any evasions of singl persons But All this the More it Obligeth the Less it Persuadeth It may perhaps Compel us to submit to the Duty but cannot Invite us to Embrace the Favor And our Lord doth not use to Drive us like Beasts we know not Why nor Whither But to Lead us with the cords of a Man with bonds of Love with strong Reason and sweet Allurements the savor of his sweet ointments which so draw loving souls as to make them not only Follow but Run after him And This duty above All others is That way most attractive The Command made Reasonabl by a good End and the End made Amiabl by Relation to our Lord 's own Person as we now com to see in the remaining words In remembrance of me PART IV. Concerning the End In Remembrance CHAP. I. It is the badge of a Christian I. This the only rite whereby we honor our Lords Person Three Considerations 1. Every Religion distinguished from Every other by som proper rite This Nature taught the Heathen and Gods Law the Jews II. The New Testament contracteth the multitude of Jewish rites to two whereby Christians ar known as ar the Knights of the Garter 1. By a rite of admission III. 2. By continual wearing the badge IV. Those distinguishing rites must be highly valued It was mortal to a Jew to omit any of them and to a Heathen to wear them V. 'T is wors in a Christian upon several accounts 1. The Law-giver 2. The Rites VI. 3. The Obligation HITHERTO we have seen nothing but Dry Law the rough Issu of Authority and Will haling us to the unrecommended performance by chains of Compulsion without any gentler Attractives that may Invite our Affections or Persuade our Reason And as the Country hath be'n dry and barren so have the Ways be'n craggy Troublesom to the Best and Unpassable to the Most understandings The Reader must understand the Rules of Reasoning and must be ar no litle pains to mesure the Apostl's discurs by Those Rules We now com to a pleasanter Country and smoother ways From the Apostl's Argument to our Lords which is full of endearments to our Affections and free from difficulties to our Understandings thogh we never sate at the feet of Gamaliel or any other Tutor but Love For whoever loveth our Lord's person can no sooner hear that He is concerned but he findeth abundant
Her Power to preserv him in a great part of All Three especially That which of All was dearest to him He had Long made her heart his Throne and Now desired to have it for his Monument he therefor prayed both the Gods and Her to take care of That life wherein was preserved the remains of his Own To this purpose but infinitely more obligingly spake our dying Lord not in the language of a faint but quiet sickness but in the Agonies of a tormented Soul not in a few Complemental words suddenly offering themselvs to Augustus's mind and perhaps as suddenly flitting out of Livia's certainly dying with her but upon a premeditated Design to settle a lasting Monument whose firm durablness should Fix the fugitive impression and by constant returns perpetually Renew it so to keep his Bloud from Drying up and his Death from Dying His Last Command oght to be as powerful to work Obedience in his Disciples as wer his last Cryes to work Faith in the Centurion since These shewed no less the Strength of his Love than Those did the Vigor of Life at the very point of Death 2. But much more when we further consider that as it was the Last so was it the most Dreadful night This Passover had not onely the same bitter herbs with others but much bitterer Gall. He had the Devil for his guest and he that dipped with him in the dish was about to Betray him And he had his merciless enemies for his attendants waiting with swords and staves to take and destroy him This was That dreadful night wherin his Soul oppressed with horrors complained That it was exceeding heavy even to the death The same dismal night wherin the stabbing agonies of his tormented mind made every pore of his body a wound bleeding great grumos drops and those so plentifully as to run down to the ground The same terribl night wherin the dreadful prospect of his approaching sufferings so confounded his faculties that with dubled and trebled importunities he prayed to have That Cup taken from him for drinking whereof he came into the World The same amazing night wherin he was so near sinking that he needed an assisting Angel to support him under his burthen Even in That most hideos night did his care of This Institution so prevail over All Those Horrors which prevailed over his faculties as to bring him to a truce and he seemed almost to forget what night it was To Forget No but what was incomparably more to Long for it to Desire it With a Desire i. e. with a vehement desire with such a desire as outvoiced all the cries of his terrifying and tormenting passions Could we possibly understand the load that made him complain That his Soul was exceeding heavy even unto death and how much his Longings for This very season outweighed so great a load then possibly may we adjust the esteem he had for This his Dear Institution V. BUT if on the other side we compare the Affection wherewith We Receive it shall I say with that wherewith we find our Lord Recommended it we shall find Solomons words most perversly verified As in water face answereth to face so doth the heart of man to man For as the Reflex is directly Opposite to the Incident answering the Right side with the Left so doth our Obedience shall I say or our Performance no but our Neglect answer our Lords Care He chose the Last night of his Life for the Institution and many answer This by chusing the Last of theirs for the Performance as if appointed to shew forth not His Death but Their own When they have receved the Sentence of death in themselvs and ar immediatly to receve That of God Then first do they think fit to receve the Body and Blood of Christ as a kind of Charm somwhat better than the Sign of the Cross to fright the Devil from seising his own When the Physician hath declared or other Indications make it apparent that there is no hope of returning to Those sins which Therefor only they repent of bicaus they ar Past when the Will is sealed wherin they bequeath That soul to God whereof they had so long given the Devil possession Then in commutation for a whole life spent in contemt of This and All other holy exercises the Minister is sent for som good words spoken Absolution granted and Sealed with This Sacrament And now what uncharitabl Infidel can doubt but that the man is Pardoned in vertu of the One and receved into Eternal joys in that of the Other since our Lord himself promised that Whosoever Eateth his flesh and Drinketh his bloud hath Eternal life or how can This Bread and Wine possibly be imagined ar Any time fuller of Vertu than when so lately receved that the digestive faculty of the stomach hath not at all impaired it BUT others do not Thus put it off to the very Last Many own it if not a Duty yet an acceptabl act of Devotion Laudably thogh perhaps not Necessarily to be performed in the mids of life Yet even Those thogh not in the Same in Another wretched sens make it their Last Care When All other Interests and Inclinations ar served Then perhaps shall This have it's turn But if any thing els crave it however Slight or Trifling it be This Holy Office must yield it Precedence Pretences so Slender that a hundred twisted together shall not be sufficient to draw one from a Gossiping or any other Meeting shall singl be abl to draw him from the Lords Table With Solomons yawning Sluggard he cryes there is a Lion in the way a Lion in the streets when indeed he fears no danger But to his Lust or Ease I had business says one But pray Sir what was That Business Was it greater than what our Lord had in That last horrid Night wherein he forced all his dreadful crouds of griefs and fears to give way to This Care Was it so Importunate that it could not be Neglected or so Urgent that it could not be Delayed or so Suden that it could not be Prevented Didst thou use all indevors to Keep or Dispatch it out of the way Did it Surprise thee just in the nick when thou wert going to the Church and upon the very spot Disable thee from performing thy then fixed resolution Didst thou Wrestle against it with thy utmost Strength and yield to it no otherwise than as to an Invincibl Necessity If so thou art so far excusabl For Necessity hath This only of good nature that it Defends those most who have most Resisted it But if thou hast either Wilfully Draw'n this pretended hindrance upon thy self or Carelesly Suffered it to surprise thee or Tamely Yielded to it or be'n any way Defective in striving against it look how many grains the Hindrance falleth short of Insuperabl and thy Endevors of Perfect so many doth thy Excuse of Justifiable BUT the business which is too Slight may be otherwise Innocent
And if it condemn when put into the Opposit scale what will it do in the Criminal Many plead their very Negligence in excuse for their Disobedience as if they wer therefor Not Guilty bicaus they ar Dubly so I was unprepared saith he And I easily believ it For None duly Prepared will be Absent He had not Examined Himself I know That too For he that hath do'n so must find that Omission of a duty is a Crime I may add he hath not Examined his Obligation for had he do'n so he must have found that the Same Apostl from who 's mistaken words he deriveth his excuse speaketh Imperatively to Both alike Let a man Examin himself and so let him Eat Go to the next Sessions thou trifler Go and There learn if any Offender be quitted upon pleading himself Therefor not guilty of the crime he is endited for bicaus That was the consequent of Another See if a Thief be quitted if he plead he stole bicaus he was Covetos or a Murderer if he plead he killed bicaus he was Malicios Or a Rebel if he plead he Rebelled becaus Ambitios But if neither These nor any Other Malefactors be quitted for pleading One crime in justification of Another then know that for the same reason thou canst not be justified by pleading Unpreparedness in excuse for Disobedience since That is a breach of as positive a Law as This. BUT Unpreparedness thogh it cannot Wholely Justify may in Part Excuse it self It is but a Singl omission hath broken No Other Law but this One. There ar who go higher and plead the Greatest Guilt Charity is the Greatest Command in the Moral and if possibl yet More highly enjoined in the Evangelical Law That is as much a Moral mark of a Discipl as This is a Ritual one For he that said Do this in remembrance of Me said also By This shall all men know that you ar my Disciples if ye love one another Yet som ar so impudent as to plead their very Uncharitableness in barr of This Duty as if they wer therefore innocent bicaus they cast off Both their badges that they may not make One give the Ly to the Other I am not in Charity saith One and to this Another addeth I never will be These ar indeed Unworthy to com to the Lords Table but so they ar to be caled by his Name I wonder not that Such should be afraid to Eat This Bread and Drink This Cup but I wonder that they dare Eat or Drink or Sleep at all much more that they dare Pray in our Lords Name and most of all that they dare do it in his Words For he that saith Forgive me as I forgive while he denyeth to Forgive needeth no other Guilt nor no other Sentence to exclude him not only from This but from the Eternal Supper of the Lord. Under These Three heads com the general Excuses which ar pleaded as hindrances from Performing what Nothing could hinder our Lord from Commanding Business Unpreparedness Uncharitableness The first too slight to be mentioned The second too criminal to be justified The last too gross to be pardoned VI. THERE ar other less General but less Frivolos excuses which cary more appearance of Conscience but not a jot more of Reason as being equally weak upon a contrary account These ar as much too Strong as Those ar too Weak These cannot be just excuses bicaus they ar Easy and oght to be avoyded nor These bicaus they ar Unavoidable For when we seriosly consider that our Lord Therefor chose Such a season that by the Difficulties which himself broke throgh in the Institution he might teach us to yield to None in the Performance we must find it no less unreasonabl to think he would Clog such a duty with Impossibl Conditions than that he would have it postponed to our Slightest Inconveniences For it is irrational to say He valued it so high as to think it worthy his Greatest Care and yet left it so encumbered with difficulties that it must Rarely if Ever be celebrated Those therefor who object such Hindrances as must Freqently if not Constantly occurr and ar as hardly to be Overcom'd as Avoided must needs cast a great blemish upon That wisdom and goodness that should provide such a Costly Fest use such care to sharpen our Appetites bid us with such earnest importunities yet lay such barrs in the way that we may not Tast it Some cannot receve bicaus they cannot do it without communicating with such as they know or at least suspect to be Unworthy These if they want not Charity toward Them whom they so Boldly and perhaps Unjustly condemn certainly want Appetite to this fest For as none but the worst of men ar by St. Jude branded with This character that they ar spots in our Fests of charity so doth the same Apostl declare that such Spots did not hinder the Saints from celebrating the Fests Themselves The truly loving Soul will not disdain to com to Christ thogh incompassed with Publicans and Sinners Som cannot receve it bicaus they cannot do it except they kneel And kneel they cannot not bicaus it is otherwise unlawful but bicaus it is commanded by their governors These manifest their appetite greater to Disobedience than to their Duty Not onely bicaus they chuse to Omit This Duty which the Lord never dispensed with much less forbad but bicaus they make Disobedience to his Officers more eligibl than Obedience to Himself Som cannot receve becaus the Minister is not at least they think him not a Saint These cannot have very great esteem for the Treasure who refuse it bicaus broght in an earthen vessel These and such as These ar the pleas of the Scrupulos wherein they differ no more from the Irreligios than the Coward doth from the Sluggard And as Every one of their pretences hath it's Own Proper weakness so do all agree in this One that they cast an inexcusabl dishonor upon our Lord as Commanding and Endearing a Performance utterly Impracticabl For since he could not but foreknow that in All Ages and Places there would be som spots in the Fest som unworthy Ministers in the Church and Som rules for Publik Worship in every country how can we suppose he should forbid us to Do this if any such Inconvenience should ly in our way How could he be at once so Careful to stablish the Command in midst of so Many and so Great Hindrances and yet so Regardless of the Performance as to require us to yield either to farr Less than Himself struggled with or such as we cannot fail to meet with How easily ar Both Kinds of excuses answered by that One fundamental rule of Epictetus teaching us to know our Duty and Happiness Be careful saith he to distinguish between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What ever is pretended for an hinderance either Is in our power or Not. If it Be ye must Remove
his Divine we enjoy not only his Representative but his very Body and Blood In Sacrificeing said Plutarch we convers intimately with the Gods These things saith St. John we write unto you that your joy may be full that you may have fellowship with Us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ St. John probably in those words compareth Our God and Lord with Those in whose fellowship Plutarch placed his greatest joy We may make another comparison between the Fellowships themselvs yea between the several kinds of fellowships that a Christian may have with his Lord. Several kinds of fellowships No There is no other kind of visibl fellowship but This one Other kinds of Worship there are but no other Communion Whether we com to God with our Praises or our Prayers whether we com to Hear him or to call upon him we keep an awful Distance We Approach his Throne but do not Sit down in it It is boldly said by Plutarch In Sacrificcing Fests we even touch the Gods a Christian goeth Higher We do not Touch only but Eat we receve our Lord not Only in our Arms but our very Bowels We Fest not only With him but Upon him He mingleth Souls with us and is no more Two but One Spirit We Fest upon his Flesh and Bloud which himself saith ar Meat indeed and Drink indeed and St. John addeth Here is Fellowship indeed and what more Need or Can be added to make our Joy Full If therefor there be any joy in the spirit any comfort of love what ever the Voice of David could Sing or his heart conceve whatever the Light of the Sun or the Sweetness of Wine or the joys of festing can faintly shadow ar Here in the highest perfection earth is capabl to enjoy as much above the pleasures of Sens as the Firmament is Brighter than Earth or Sea and as much above other exercises even of Devotion as the Stars ar Brighter then the interstellary Firmament whose light while they Out-shine they Increas Upon which later account alone we heard Symnachus give the Sea preeminence over the Land as mother of Salt the Universal Sawce exalting the Gust of All meats But V. 2. SALT doth not so much improve the Gust of meats as doth This Sacrament the Power and consequent Pleasur of other Religios Offices 1. How the power of Preaching is thereby advanced we shall find another occasion to consider to which therefor we adjourn it and proceed to other Religios exercises 2. An Oath when duly used is One kind of Worship of That God when we thereby Invoke an end of All strife and all suspicions among mankind And its Obligations at generally supposed more Indissolubl when bound with This Sacrament or taken at the Altar The Kings of France and Spain and All Christendom with them agreed in This that the Pyrenaean Treaty could not be more Inviolably confirmed than by This Bond. And if it have not proved Security sufficient it is no exception against it's force but a proof of the invinciblness of That Falshood that will as litl be Slave to the most formidabl Oath as to a Word 3. HOW great pleasur there is in PRAYER we should better understand if we were better acquainted with it The Stoiks believed our Pleasur to consist in Freedom from Pain It is plain that Bodily Pleasur doth so and the Satisfaction is pleasant in exact Proportion with the Appetite which is thereby satisfied It is som Ease to a wounded spirit if it can but Bleed out it's troubles into the bosom of a Faithful friend but much more if That friend be as able as willing to help God is indeed of himself more willing to hear than We to pray for such blessings as conduce to our True Happiness but in Som Other kinds of Requests which thogh they com not up to the highest dignity we think worth asking he is Moved by Prayer and so much the more when it is Improved by the Manner and Season of the address Hester the more effectually to prevail with her great Ahasuerus endeared her petition with a Fest and This we com now from finding the Sens of mankind in that universal rite of Festing upon the Sacrifice Indeed God is to be laid hold on by either hand Fasting or Festing upon occasions respectively suitable exalt the power of Prayer the one that we may move Commiseration the other that we may obtain Bounty by the One we kill the Beast by the Other we hold communion with God If therefor Hannah found her grieved mind so much eased by having unburthened it in prayer improved by the holiness of the place we must have so much more title to the joys of Hope by doing it in this exercise as his Table is holier than was Shiloh And if Themistocles prevailed with Admetus by presenting him his litl Son how much greater confidence may We have when we obsecrate by the body and bloud of Christ For the young Prince was a perfect stranger to Themistocles came in his way and thence into his arms by mere accident without any thoght of becoming his Mediator but our Lord came and dwelt among us and was made sin for us and when we obsecrate by the mystery of his Incarnation by his Cross and Passion by his precios Death and Burial offering them to his Father not only by Words but Actions such Dramatical Actions as in a manner Repete them This do'n by his Own institution must needs add unspeakabl force to thc Petition so presented Again Admetus's child was wholely passive joined not the least token of consent with Themistocles's act for his Body was offered without any concurrence of his Mind But This Supper is of our Lord 's own providing We therein offer not only his Body and Bloud but his Love and his Soul Himself taght us this singular art of wrestling with his Father and having promised that he would grant whatever two or three should agree to ask in his Name taght us further to invigorate our confidence by adding his Body and Bloud HENCE it is that in the Primitive Church the Prayers ever were attended with This Sacrament as we found them described by Justin Martyr and Optatus upbraiding the Donatists for breaking down the altars of Churches told them that thereby they did what they could to hinder the Churches prayers for illac ad aures dei ascendere solebat populi oratio Hence is it that in the Communion Service we again pray for the same blessings we had prayed for in the first for the Church Vniversal the Kings Majesty the whole Nation c. Nor need we any other than our adversaries testimony The Papists in ordinary cases think ordinary masses sufficient but in their greatest extremities have recours to This as a more powerful mediator than any their Ora pro nobis's I instance in the case of the Duke of Montmorancy whom when the incensed King could by no intercession be
he the Best Manner for exalting it's Motions and Pleasures Such a Commemoration improveth the kindness even of the Passion it self He seemeth to have contrived how he might make the Remembrance of it as Sweet to Us as the Suffering was bitter to Himself Certainly shewed the same Love in providing for our Joy by This Communion as for our Salvation by the Effusion of That Bloud which we so Enjoy So that by Doing This we do not only Render Thanks for that Greatest Benefit his Death but Receve a New one and feed our very Thankfulness which acquireth a New Obligation and thereby new mater of Pleasure by endeavoring thus to answer the Old And we may still go on with Davids question What shall I render for this cup of Salvation By how much therefor the Joys of Thankfulness exceed All other Joys By how much our Lords Passion more exceedeth our utmost Thankfulness than could All Those other Benefits which so posed David By how much This Office is more Appropriate and Serviceable to it than Any yea than All other offices of devotion By so much More Pleasant must This be than Any other Exercise even of Religion yea even of Christian Religion And if there be any truth in what St. Paul after the Prophet professeth that ey hath not seen nor ear heard nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceve what God hath prepared for them that love him If there be any reason in his invitation to quit the satisfying pleasures of wine for the more raptures inebriations of the Spirit we must needs believ that our gracios Lord had the same design in This Institution as St. John professed in his first epistl which he ushereth with this declaration These things I write to you that you may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ and these things we write unto you that your joy may be full Did Epicurus ever promis such Happiness Did Lucullus ever make such a fest Did Petronius Arbiter ever invent such pleasures That any one who hath I say not any spark of divine life but any sens or desire of Pleasure should slight such invitations is next to the Love that made them the greatest Wonder and next to That of the Jews the greatest Injury since this is in a manner to crucify the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame in Effigie Do we not put This his representative and therein Himself to an open shame when we so slight it as to postpone it to our more esteemed lusts and idleness as unable to match them in its offers of happiness VII OF HAPPINESS Yes it serveth not only our Pleasures but our solid and durabl Happiness It is not our Flatterer but our Friend Flatterers often serv mens Pleasures to ill purposes and mischievos consequences This doth not more seek to Please than to Benefit As it is a Banket to delight so it is both Food to nurish and Medicine to cure The gracios Author caleth it Meat indeed and Drink indeed bicaus the guest hath not only present satisfaction to all his appetites but Everlasting life to his Soul This ' thogh most worthy I insist not upon bicaus it is not only generally acknowledged for a truth but by our adversaries urged as the principal if not sole encoragement to the performance They honor it as a most gracios Invitation thogh they deny it the authority of a Command and while they unty the force of the Obligation make part of recompence by motives of persuasion drawen from our own interest And no more than need For it must be wholely insignificant and totally deserted if unfurnished of all kind of arguments and if it have none other but such as plead our own advantages they had need outweigh all the difficulties we must encounter AND Now Dear Reader we are com'n to the Rode You cannot fail of good Company and good Guides Variety of good books both setting forth the Benefits of the Lords Supper and the Preparation requisite to capacitate us for them and Many also giving us their own good company in Devout Strains helping our devotions And since I promised not to repete what others have spoken I shall do as guides use to do leav you to Gods blessing and the Conduct of others into whose company I have broght you in a large and populos rode But Before we part we may do well to sit down a while and consider whether the way we have passed be as Right as we have found it Troublsom It hath be'n so Long and so Universally deserted so utterly Untroden for so many generations that there is not any appearance of a Footstep much less of a Path This is sufficient to make us Doubtful But if the Learned and Pios be not only Silent but Opposite If they not only neglect to Urge the performance as Necessary but warn us from it as Dangeros it will certainly behove us to hearken to Such Persons and consider their Admonitions and their Reasons After a brief Retrospect therefor upon the grounds we have passed we shall take a full vieu of what is offered on the Other Side that so weighing the rival evidences we may embrace what shall appear worthy WE have certainly taken the only Regular way to understand the Apostl's meaning not cut off some One or perhaps Two expressions neglecting All the Rest and the mind of the Author in the Whole but carefully examined first the adaequate design of the Whole and then every Part and Paricl with their Consent in serviceablness to it We have found it absolutely necessary ro fit the important Demonstrative THIS with its proper Object both bicaus in our Lords Institution it is the Subject of a Proposition not otherwise to be understood and bicaus in the Apostls Dissertation it is the hinge on which his whole argument turns We have found a Pios custom of the Jews very Fit for this honor and exactly Suited both to our Lords Institution and the Apostl's Comment in every syllabl In the Later I mean the Apostl's Comment we have met several odd phoenomena highly worthy our Best observation but never honored with Any No Other way accountabl but this way most Clear Pertinent and Necessary We have found This same Apostl in the Chapter immediately forgoing cal the Lords Cup by the Jewish name expresly saying This is the same with That By this Light we have taken a careful vieu of That important clause whence is vulgarly derived a supposed liberty to do this As Seldom as we please and found that the Apostl was careful to insert Those words upon a quite contrary reason proving it indispensibly required that we do it as often as we meet in Christs publik worship From This discours of One Apostl we proceed to inquire into the practice of All the Rest and found Them and All their Disciples and the succeeding best ages of the
Church exercising Punctual Obedience to such a sens We have found our Own Church laboring what she can to retrive the same From Obligations of Obedience we proceeded to the cords of a man Reason we find requireth that the Badge of our profession should be constantly worn and Kindness obligeth us to embrace an office so Endeared as we find This by all incentivs of Love In the whole journy we have not found the least Inconsistence or Impertinence of any One syllabl but every Word and every Order yea every Disorder of words combine to declare This the true Key to Our Lords and his Apostls meaning And I may Boldly Challenge any one of a differing judgment to match This so punctual Dissection with any other that may suit his own Hypothesis with equal exactness but whether they make the least pretence to it or no will clearly appear by the examination of what they pretend the Apostl to have said to the contrary PART V. Answers to the Vulgar opinion CHAP. I. Deference paid to the Former age and to the Sacrament I. Former ages excused for advanceing Reverence when there was no other danger but of Irreverence and stateing preparation in such manner as might best serv Piety Reason to believ that were they now living they would press the Performance as earnestly as they have do'n Preparation II. A Second Protest against robbing the Sacrament III. The Adversaries opinion set forth in his own words whereby almost all the World must be prohibited IV. A Warrant demanded A confession that a good Consequence is Warrant sufficient SINCE it will be very hard if not utterly impossibl to dispute against Doctrines without boldness toward their Authors or to plead against One extreme without seeming to abett the Other before I proceed to the ill-lookt work I think it necessary to enter a dubl Protestation against Irreverence either toward the worthy Persons whom I am to treat as Adversaries or the H. C. which I am to render less Dreadful 1. Concerning the Pios Learned Persons whom I am to oppose thogh Truth will not permit us to embrace their Errors Justice will require us to excuse them bicause they Yielded to the then present Necessity at a time when there was no appearance of danger on the other hand When a City is Inaccesibl on the One side and Assalted on the Other the defendants think themselvs concerned to leav That side which seemeth safe and run to This which needeth their help and thogh many an otherwise impregnabl place have This way be'n lost yet still have the inhabitants be'n rather pitied as unfortunate than blamed as unfaithful The Antient Fathers saw No danger of loseing Gonstancy in this duty but Much of loseing Reverence and ar therefor to be Justified bicause they applied their labors to what appeared most Necessary But the Later Fathers broght That into Question which their predecessors thoght above Any Constancy first was ballanced against Reverence and then made to Yield to it St. Augustin first put the question Whether it wer better to Communicate every day or omit som days that we might do it better upon som Others This question when it first appeared in the World was no bigger than a mans hand thogh now it have overspread the whole face of the sky It grew from days to weeks from weeks to month's and the Church of Rome claims thanks for having made it necessary Once in a Year This abuse was so gross that the Reformers could not but correct but they did it with such aw both toward the Later Fathers and toward the Sacrament it self that they seem to have be'n more careful to speak what they thoght Best than what they thoght Truest To preserv the Sacrament from being swallowed up by the incorrigibl luxury of Their times the Fathers by way of necessary defence asserted the Reverence due to it as the Body and Bloud of Christ and our Pios divines endevor to advance it to a Power suitabl to That Honor a Power of exalting the Spirit of Christ by help of such Examination as must in all reason be That way most serviceable Sure enough our Lord can not but be well pleased that This Representative of his Death should second it in That great and good design for which he suffered it Thogh therefor they saw nothing in Scripture nothing in Tradition yet seeing in Reason great hopes of advantage they thoght best to lay hold on an expression or two of the Apostl's which however otherwise intended might be made of excellent use This way He had spoken of the Danger of Unworthiness and the necessity of Self-examination for avoiding that danger These two well twisted together and well bound on may be of excellent use to draw men to repentance so much the more speedy by how much neerer the time appears of approaching the dread Table And how can this be better do'n than by persuading men that no man is fit to Communicate who is not fit to dye What injury to the Apostl if useful words be not Confined to his Particular intention in that One place but Extended to a greater serviceablness to the General design of All his Labors or what to the Sacrament if it be so Rescued from Danger as to be made Victorios not only over That Intemperance which it suffered at Corinth but all other Sins of what kind so ever Or what to our Lord if the Representative of his Death be made to promote the good ends for which he suffered it This could not seem more Rational than Safe The Commands of the Church made it Criminal Universal Practice made it Scandalous to fail of appearing at the holy Table at least three times in the year and in all appearance the condicions of Preparation might be strained to Any height with as great Safety as Rigor Our Gratios Lord justified Moses for compliance with the hardness of the peopl's hearts in a case which in the beginning was not so The Pios Fathers in former ages had cast Festing out of the Church thogh This Supper wer by our Lords Institution appendant to it and they had removed the Season from Evening to Morning thogh the very title of Supper contradicted And why should not such apparent Advantages on one side yoked with such Security from any Damage on the other make it reasonabl to press Preparation in such manner that those who wer not prevailed on with Other reasons might be awakened by the approach of the Sacrament to betake themselvs to That work which otherwise they would delay till the approach of death When therefor we read what was written twenty or more years since when the Church had not yet lost her Power nor the Peopl their Shame when neither Atheism nor Schism had taught it needless to Obey our Lords last command when that neglect was thoght Incredibl which we now find incurabl let us consider as well the Reasons as the Words of those pios Authors and we
shall not think any thing more probabl than This that wer they now aliv they would change their Stile with the so changed state of the Question and Correct or Confute whatever they have said in abatement of the Obligation to Constancy in the performance For proof hereof I give you the words of the excellent Person whom I have so often created as an adversary To such persons as these he speaks of Neuters in Religion not so bad as to deserv Excommunication nor so pios as to be discernably in the state of grace I can give no other advice but that every one take his mesures of frequency by the Laws of his Church and add what he please to his numbers by the advice of a Spiritual guide who may consider whether his penitent by his conjugation of preparatory actions and heaps of holy duties at that time usually conjoined do or is likely to receve any Spiritual progress And a few lines after To such persons as these the Church hath made Laws for the set times of their Communion Christmas Easter and Witsuntide wer appointed for all Christians that were not Scandalos and openly Criminal by P. Fabianus and this constitution is imitated by the best constituted Church in the world our dear mother the Church of England and they who do not at these times or so frequently communicate ar censured by the Council of Agathon as unfit to be reckoned among Christians or members of the Catholik Church Now by these Laws of the Church it is intended indeed that all men should be caled upon to discuss and shake off the yoke of their sins and enter into the salutary state of repentance and next to the perpetual Sermons of the Church she had no better means to engage them into the returns of Piety hoping that by the grace of God and the blessings of the Sacrament the repentance which at these times solenly begins may at one time or other fix and abide By which and many other words of this admirabl person it appeareth That thogh he denied our Lords Institution to amount to a Command lest the Sacrament by too much Familiarity might lose that Awe which he thoght most useful to make it Powerful yet did he upon other grounds suppose every one obliged to such Frequency as Wise and Pios persons judge most conductive to Godliness which as it was our Lords designe in his Death must needs be the best mesure of our behavior toward it's Representative St. Chrysostom expressly declared This I speak not that you may absent your selvs but that you may com worthily And we may well believ the same to have be'n the intentions of All our pios divines wer there No Other reason for it but This That otherwise Their Own injunctions must be as insignificant as our Lord's For if it be not necessary for us to Receve the Lords Supper neither will it be so to Prepare our selvs in such manner as they prescribe in Order to it And then all those Cautions against Unworthiness and Directions for Self-Examinations may be serviceabl perhaps to other purposes They may be useful to try the truth of our Repentance when upon other reasons we may set our selvs to that work but 'till then may well be laid aside notwithstanding any obligations deriveabl from This Institution Since therefor All obligations but such as ar bound upon us by our Lord and his Apostl ar too weak since contrary to All Expectation as much as All Law we have seen this greatest office of the Church sequestred but not restored with it's Officers Since the declared intentions of our pios Predecessors ar so grossly not onely Disappointed but Inverted that it is generally thoght as much more Safe as more Easie to Forbear the whole than to venture upon such difficulties and Dangers as ly in the way to the performance we may very well believ them so far from fondness toward their formerly Hopeful but now Unhappy opinion that they would be as forward as any of our present Divines to contribute to the remedy which the present state of the Church calls for II. 2. MY secund Protest is That I am so far from any design to rob the Sacrament of its due Reverence that I have already said sufficient to secure me from any such suspicion were I not now obliged to speak such things as look't upon in separation from my task may represent me half a Corinthian But this is the necessary consequence of opposing errors For Truth is usually seated like Vertu between two Extremes whereof whoever opposeth the One must seem to defend the Other The zeal of som Fathers for Aw toward the H. St. is taken as an implicit denial of our obligation to Constancy and then improved to a contrary obligation to Forbearance And while I renounce this Later I may seem to break those bonds in sunder whose Obligations I do not pretend either to Break or Unty but only so far to Slacken that they may not by too streght binding disable us from performing our necessary duty I therefor here invert St. Chrysostom's Protest This I speak not that you may com Vnworthily but that you may com Constantly I dash not One part of the Apostl's cautionary precept against the Other to the destruction of Both no nor put asunder what he hath joined together But I endevor to shew how he hath so fitted the One to the Other that they ar not onely Consistent but Serviceabl each to other For when he yoked Let a man examin himself with let him eat c. there was no strife between them and som ages they drew very lovingly and prosperosly together But after ages made the former draw cross and too hard for the later The Greek Church appointeth a Lent preparatory for every of the four Solemn tides whereon the peopl ar obliged to Communicate And such among our selvs as think it a necessary duty only upon those three great Festivals which ar attended with their Octaves suppose it Ushered with an Octave of preparation But the first ages which celebrated it every Sunday and other Holidays could allow it no more than the ' foregoing Eve I deny not for it cannot be avoided that if we conform to them in the One we must also do it in the Other More than every such Eve the necessity of most mens affairs will not allow nor the constitutions of our Church be satisfied with less Whether this be more agreeable both to the Apostl's mind and the honour of the Sacrament it self than either of the other we com now to consider And first we must see what is said on the other side II. THAT I may here again keep my self from any suspicion of injustice I give you our worthiest Adversares opinion in his Own words First he layeth down This for his foundation No man is fit to Communicate who is not fit to dy And having thereupon raised several completeth all with This coronis The
sum of all is This He that is not freed from the dominion of sin he that is not really a subject of the kingdom of grace he in who 's mortal body sin do's reign and the Spirit of God do's not reign must at no hand present himself before the holy Table of the Lord bicaus what ever dispositions or alterations he may begin to have in order to pardon and holiness he as yet hath neither but is Gods enemy and therefor cannot receve his holy Son In These words and indeed in the Whole Book the excellent Person endevored to make the Same mesures of Repentance necessary for a Communicant as in another very Pios and Learned Treatise he had proved necessary for Salvation And thogh he Express it not yea ' thogh he Intend it not he must Imply such a Faith also necessary for This Supper of our Lord which every where els he denieth to be so for That in heaven viz. An Assurance that he is in God's favor For since upon these grounds no man can Otherwise be Assured of the Lawfulnes of this action and whatever is not so of faith is sin the want of such Assurance must be as strong a bar against the performance as want of Worthiness So Those Few only Those very Few who ar not only in Gods favor but Above all Doubt of their being so must presume to approach his Table Yea if we will follow the conduct of the Position as far as it will lead us we shall com to believ it less sinful to Dy in such an estate than to Communicate Bicause Death is Unavoidabl and however it be damnabl to Live in a state of Impenitency it is no New sin to Dy so But here we ar told that we may avoid the Lords Table without sin and therefor must incur a Distinct guilt by Coming and that not only if we be Really Unworthy but if we Doubt whether we ar so or no. And what a singularity it here In every other controversie the Rival Positions use to oppose one another as Positive and Negative in the same Question Our present question is Whether our Lords Do this amount to a Command We might in cours expect no wors than a Denial And That very Denial too we might hope so Tempered as to leav Something Answerable in Som sort tho not fully Equal to the usual import of the word An Encouragement or Recommendation an Invitation or Intimation Somthing of som savor as Fit if not Necessary At worst if it do no way Oblige us if neither Duty nor Kindness bind us yet at least we should be at full Liberty to do it if we please But behold We now find it a Command but a Negative one For every one is bound to Forbear it upon Such Suppositions as shall lay hold upon the far greatest part of mankind And if a Law be made for the Collective body then must This needs be a Negative one bicaus not one of a thousand can escape the Prohibition If it be said That This Prohibition is but Suppositive and between two such Propositions there is no Inconsistence That it may very well be tru that If we be not worthy we must not do it I confess it nor do I accuse this admirable person of Inconsistency with Himself but his two Suppositive Propositions of Conspiracy against our Lords Command Bicaus the Former if it pretend to contein the whole Command Derogateth from it and the Later plainly Countermandeth it That disableth it from Obligeing Any to Do this And This maketh it Oblige almost All men to Forbear it The One falleth unreasonably Short of our Lords Command and the Other more unreasonably Contradicts it IV. WE cannot now avoid the rudeness to demand a sight of the Warrant which may authorise any one not onely thus to Limit but Countermand our Lords Laws It is an undoubted rule Ubi lex non distinguit non est distinguendum And Those words which ar accused of it we have sufficiently cleared from any such Crime But to Countermand a Law is much more than to Limit it and for This we have not yet seen the least Appearance of a Warrant much less so Clear so Imperative so Express an one as may outvoice both our Lord and his Apostl Our Lords Command is Universal Drink ye all of this This Apostl's injunction is equivalently indefinite Let a man eat this bread c. It is probabl our Lord admitted certain he Forbad not Judas himself And it is plain the Apostl Prohibited not but Commanded the Corinthians themselvs bad thogh they wer And if Either of them did at any Other time either Repeal such unlimited Commands or Prohibit their performance to Any kind of Persons when we see it we shall submit Yea though we have no such Commission we will take the boldness to conform not only to an Explicit Prohibition peremtorily saying Do Not this but any such word as by Clear and Necessary Consequence must Infer it If I say either our Lord or This or any Other Apostl ever drop't a syllabl which is capable of being made a Medium to forbid not onely the Most but any One member of his Church to do this thogh I shall think it as great a Miracle as Either of them ever wroght yet I shall Admire onely not Oppose the Conviction But there is No such danger the wonder bloweth from another point even from the slightness of the Evidences shall I call them which ar brought against the whole weight of the Apostl's argument Two loos words cut off from their fellow members and miserably rack't that they may confess something against His or our Lords designe a few precarios Allegories and som shews of Probability that our Lords Supper would be more honored and his Service more promoted another way These are the whole force we ar to contend with and shall do it in the order now set down beginning with that which alone is worth regarding Scripture And here I deny not the truth of the Supposition if the Apostl hath said any thing which by necessary inference will forbid any one to Do this it is as much as if he had said in express terms Do it not But then the Inference must be Unavoidabl and the saying whereon it is grounded Uncapabl of any such sens as may Comply with That Command which it shall pretend to Weaken If once more we look upon the Apostl's dissertation we shall find it to consist of Two main limbs Positions and Deductions which Depending upon These Positions must by no means Contradict them The Positions we have found aim all at This That Our Lord hath so inseparably inlayed His Supper upon all Church-meetings that as we May not so if we would we Cannot part them The Inferences ar Two 1. From Constancy in the One he inferreth Constancy in the Other Bicaus in All your meetings you eat This Bread and drink This Cup therefor in All your meetings you
in theit Own Houses This was the Sore and to This must the Plaster be fitted Why must the Plaster be so much larger than the Sore Why must we examin our selvs concerning such Actions or Worthiness whose knowledge hath no Aspect upon this Performance but only Opposit and Malignant Such an Examination as shall excommunicat if not the Whole certainly the Greatest part of mankind He that shall most carefully perform his examination first in That manner which the Apostl prescribeth by Discerning the infinite Distance of dignity between the Lords table and his Own and then in That Manner that our Worthy Author prescribeth between our Lords Body and his Own Soul tho he be the Best of his age yea the best our Lord only excepted that ever was will most clearly discover not only that he is Now Unworthy but that he must despere Ever to be Otherwise Since then the Best Examination of the Best Person will carry him not only Beyond but Contrary to the Apostl's Design Since it will put such an Inconsistency between the Two Precepts that Let a man examin himself will inferr Let him Not Eat and since the Apostl doth not in any kind Intimate that our Worthiness but plainly Declare that our Differencing This from Common bread and wine is to be subject of our Examination IV. HIS Meaning in the words now under vieu can be no More nor Other than This Let a man examin himself whether he well Understand and Consider what he is about to Do Whether he put the due Estimate upon what he is about to Receve Whether he put as great Difference between the Lords supper and a Common fest as there is between the vertues of a litl Common Bread and Wine and those of the Body and Bloud of Christ Whether he go to gratify his sensual appetite with Eating and Drinking or to comply with his governors or neighbors in communicating with them or to fest his soul with Thankfulness and Love toward his crucified Savior with Joy and Delight in Communion with him and such other acts of devotion as so Holy an office requireth Let a man well examin himself concerning this and So let him Eat with appetites suitabl This I say is all that the Apostl's Design can Permit or his Words Declare him to mean by Let a man examin himself He requireth us to look Forward not Backward upon what we ar Going to do in the Church not upon what we Have already do'n there or elswhere upon the Difference between This and Other Bread not upon That between Our Own and Other mens souls Yet to prevent misconstructions I add this Proviso That I neither pretend to disparage the most Severe self-examination as it takes account of our Past actions and Present state of soul For I dare swear with Pythagoras that it is the high-way to divine life Nor to deny that our approch to This holy supper is the Most Proper season for This most Excellent exercise For he that best performeth the One will undoubtedly best perform the Other All that I deny is this That the Apostl in This place setteth up Examining our selvs against Obeying our Lord so as to Forbid any one to Eat if upon examination he find himself Unworthy And I further add thohg I have no such need that if it wer Doubtful yea if it wer highly Probabl If he had so worded his precept that in a Plausibl appearance it might signify som such intention yet is not a Probabl Sound of any One expression worthy to be ballanced against so Express a command of our Lord and so industrious an Endeavor of the same Apostl to urge it as we have found in the Context For it is Good Law and Good Reason that no Law can be repeled but by Express terms and therefor I still insist upon my demand Where is that Express DO NOT which may Countermand our Lords DO THIS CHAP. IV. Answereth Reason Objecting Allegories I. A Transition from Scriptur to Reason and by the way notice taken of Allegories of a midl Nature between both II. The Allegory of Covenant and Seal answered and retorted III. The Allegory of Member likewise answered IV. The Allegory of Sons and Enemies V. A General answer to all objections of this kind I. I HAVE now do'n what I proposed as Necessary and all that I conceve Possibl for a full discovery of the Apostl's meaning in That unhappy discours which as it is the Only Comment we have upon our Lords Institution so hath shared it's sufferings somtimes Mutilated somtimes Racked somtimes Rob'd of it's due sens somtimes Laden with more than it can bear and by all ways Tormented that it may say somthing in Justification of That Omission which he designed to Prevent or Condemn I have given so regular and exact account of every Word and every Aspect of words that as I am sure no man ever Hath so I may boldly believ no man ever Will match it with any other I have acted Both parts Opponent and Respondent On That side I have traced the Process of his Argument Viewed every Design and every Medium and every Claus as it servs either in the One or the Other Office On This side I have reduced the Inferences from Contradicting to Serving the Positions they depend on I have shewen that as the Former half which conteineth Positions hath be'n so Robbed of it's due that it cannot make good the charge in the Universality wherein it is laid down So hath the Later half be'n Rack't that it may speak more than either the words can bear or the Apostl's designe suffer That he cannot intend to Forbid Every person that findeth himself Unworthy or to make Self-examination an Hinderance to the Performance which it is to Serv. And I may boldly say that in the Former half there is not a word which doth not Help in the Later half there is not any that Hinders the obligation of Constancy in Every unexcommunicate person obliged by Every word disobliged by None If therefor we will appeal to Scripture and take the regular way to Understand it we ar upon as Secure ground as any Rules can make us Yet shall we quit This place of Advantage and descend to the Plain field allowing Reason to plead what it can to the contrary But before we can reach the Plain we ar encountered with a Midl sort of Evidences shall I call them or Colors laid upon Scripture ground precarios Allegories improved to a pretence of Reason These since they ar mere Colors no better Subjected than in Allegories must for That very reason be Insufficient to Convince us of Any thing but This that Those who make use of Such arguments want Better II. SOMETIMES we ar told that This Sacrament is the Seal of the New Covenant and we ought not to see Gods Seal to a Blank c. In this Plea ther ar two terms by explication whereof we ar to understand its force 1. Covenant 2.
it was upon This Occasian and to This End urged seemeth most plain from the very Text For their Coming together is twice complained of before the Lord's Supper is mentioned and in the third place This is imployed only as an Evidence of the Other Whereas by the Laws of Reason and Custom if This had had the chief place in the Apostls intention it must have had the same in his Discurs and not be'n put to wait behind to com forth only as a valet to perform service to it's principal This is worthy more observation than the world is aware of For as the thing it self is to a considering person very plain so ar the consequences very great and That upon an account already cast up For if the Apostl make use of the Lord's Supper as an aggravation of profaneness in Gods hous and That for This reason bicaus all the unworthiness which we bring thither is imputed to us as broght to his table then must it be the most potent argument that possibly can be draw'n ether from Religion or Reason to make us careful of our behavior in Gods hous and consequently every where els In Gods hous upon the Apostl's reason bicaus of the interest of our Lords table which possesseth the chiefest place there and consequently Every where els bicaus of the preparations which we must cary thither and the good impressions which we must receve there so much the deeper by how much better our self-examination hath prepared us AND This very argument do we find used by St. Augustin to the same Purpose and with the same Unhappiness in his 252 Sermon de tempore upon the Anniversary of the Dedication of the Church or Altar Beginning with the words of the Apostl The templ of God is holy which templ ye ar for a proof how necessary it is that we keep this Templ shut to the Devil and open to Christ he persuadeth every one to examin his conscience and layeth doâ—n This for an undoubted truth Qui enim agnoscens reatum suum ipse se humiliter ab Ecclesiae altari pro emendatione vitae removere voluerit ab aeterno illo coelesti convivio excommunicari penitus non timebit Rogo vos fratres diligenter attendite si ad mensam cujuscunque potentis hominis nemo praesumit cum vestibus conscissis c. and so goeth on throghout the whole Sermon arguing against unworthy coming to the Lords Supper in such a stile that I verily believ our divines take thence their confidence to write as they have do'n I answer not for his Doctrine but I do for his Argument as being the same with the Apostl's as above urged Nor could he have argued better for care of coming worthily to God's Hous than by urging the hainosness of coming unworthily to his Table seeing it was as true in His time as in the Apostl's that whoever came to the One came also to the Other But if we mesur his Argument by our own Customs then will it be as weak as the Supposition will be fals For the Conclusion will exceed the Premises and fall short of the Fathers Design since it will not fright any from unworthiness in the Templ but such as intend to com also to the Altar i. e. few or none Yet will not this Insufficiency be the worst of its falts it will be so far from prevailing with a profane man to quit his lusts that it tends to harden him in them For when such a man shall hear so much spoken against unworthy Communicating and so littl or nothing against unworthy Praying how plausibly may his willing mind infer that there is as littl need for Him to fear the later as for his teacher to warn him from it I therefor offer it to most serios consideration whether the almost general loosness of this age be not much incoraged by the agreement tripartite which we seem implicitely to have made between Prayer This Sacrament and the World whereby it is agreed that Prayer shall enjoy Frequency without Reverence This Sacrament Reverence without Performance The World it's Lusts without Disturbance from either of them Whereas were Worthiness pressed in the now mentioned figure with half the vigor that it is in the Vulgar Were half of that which our Divines speak of preparation for the Sacrament in the abstract applied to it in conjunction with Common-Prayer Did we believ our selvs to ly under the same Necessity and Conditions of worthiness for Gods hous as we do for his Supper then can we not doubt it necessary so to live that we may be capabl to com worthily to Common-Prayer even for it's companion 's sake IV. NOR is there any reasonable fear lest this should have the same malignant aspect upon the Whole as we complain of in behalf of the Common-service lest in-stead of bringing men to the Church with greater reverence it should drive them quite away from it This danger is sufficiently prevented by the Apostl's Indicative way of arguing which telleth us that Christ imputeth guilt to us not according to Our Performance but his Own Institution and This imputation will reach us at Any distance not only from his Table but his Hous too For if it be no less our duty to com to God's hous as often as the congregation is held There than it is to com to his Table as often as we com to his Hous and if God by his scientia media seeth and punisheth the unworthiness which we would have broght to his Table if we had com'n to it Then to what distance soever we cary it we ar by God reputed to have broght it both to his Hous and his Table as often as his Church meeteth at the One and oght to do at the Other bicaus we oght to have met it at Both. What the Apostl saith in another case of himself we may apply to our selvs in This I verily as absent in the body but present in the spirit have already judged as present and again When you ar gathered together and My spirit If the Acts of the Church might be authorised by the reputed suffrage of the Absent Apostl then may the Lords Supper be profaned by the reputed communication of the Unworthy Absent since every member no less concurreth with the Church in Worship than the Apostl did in Discipline And this is plainly enogh implyed in that practice of the then Church which we heard testified by Justin Martyr For sending to the Absent their parts of Communicated bread and wine they thereby owned them to have the same interest as if they had be'n present This rock therefor followeth us as it did the Israelites in the Wilderness to what distance soever we eloin our selvs He followeth us with imputation of Receving even when we Refuse him to condemn us if we receve him with unwashed hands and to condemn us dubl if we therefor refuse him bicaus we will not be at the troubl
This Sacrament When the Word hath prepared the Heart by the Ear when the Understanding is Informed and the Affections somewhat Moved with the recital of What our Lord suffered And Why Then doth the Sacrament complete the service by shewing to our very Eyes the Wounds not of his Garments but his Flesh and Those not as long since made but as now in making Represents his Sacred bloud not as dried up by time but as Now even Now streaming from his Heart It so Commemorates his passion as to Repete it and in the most inflaming manner presents to our Souls all those incentives against sin which our Lords death our Lords Present death can furnish He that considers how the little sens of Religion yet left in the world is derived from the Frequency of Preaching will find too great reason to bewail the invaluabl loss it suffers by want of so helpful an Attendant For if That maimed as it is do in Som however Littl mesure prevail by it's Singl and Deserted strength how much more might we hope from their united Forces if Jonathan secunded his Armor bearer To say that we might Then sing of them as the daghters of Israel did of their victorios Princes Preaching hath saved it's Thousands and the Sacrament it 's Ten thousands would be but a cold Eulogy We have no reason to doubt that as there is more than Ten to One difference in their Powers so would there be in their Successes Unless we will needs doubt of our Lords ordinary blessing upon his so beloved ordinance which we have far more reason to believe he would assist with the Spirit not only of a David but a Samson as being a Nazarite appropriat to himself Therfor THIRDLY I shall say but this litle to such a scruple That as it would look almost like a Miracle if an Honest Constant Communicant should miss a blessing so we may be sure that if there needed a Miraculos Power to bless such an one it would not be wanting For it is incredibl that he who promised that when ever two or three ar gathered together in his name there he will be in the mids of them should not be most Especially and most Graciosly present with those who meet not in his Name only but at his Table upon his Own kind invitation to fest not With him only but Upon him Of this I say no more bicaus Those whom I dispute with ar so far from denying our Lords especial Presence that they make it the Reason for Their Absence who most need it but how much they thereby honor our Lord and his Supper let what I have above said declare for I hasten to my third position VII 3. MY THIRD Position is that the Converting Power of the Sacrament is better Exercised and it's Honor more Advanced by Frequent than by Seldom Celebrations The question is concerning the Greater or Less probability of the Conversion of a Sinner whom we must suppose arrived to neither of the Opposit perfections neither Worthy on the One side nor Atheistical on the Other but in a Midl state sensibl of his duty both to our Lord and his Church Willing or rather Submitting to do what he shall be convinced to be required of him but Wavering between his Obedience to our Lords Command which seemeth to require Frequency at least and the Apostls indulgence backed with appearance of Reason which recommendeth Aw and Distance as necessary to preserv that Reverence which it is supposed will best advance both the Honor of the Sacrament and Benefit of the Recever For such an one may plead that if I ow any person Twenty shillings and pay him One Guinny I do better than if I paid him Twenty silver shillings So if One Solen Address be more worth then Twenty of the Constant it will be better to com One time for Twenty With such Solennity then Twenty times for One Without it And consequently our Lord will accept of That as more perfect obedience than This. At present we dispute not that in This Institution the Number of pieces is the very Essence of the Obligation but admit the supposed liberty of paying One Golden performance in lieu of Many Less valuabl and upon This Supposition require that the Pretence may be made good viz. That the One for Twenty may be Such as shall recompence by the greater Valu the defect in Number This One Solen address must have not only a plainer Stamp as every new Coin may have but purer Metal not only more Outward Solennity but more Inward Devotion For if a man bow the knee never so Solenly and give the title of King never so Formally yet if in So doing he put no better then a Dry Hollow Light Reeden Scepter into our Lords hand he acteth more like a persecuting Jew than a Loyal Disciple And in the present inquiry Those who ar to make the Address ar supposed to ly in a state of Enmity and Need of Conversion for concerning the Godly there is no doubt but the oftener the better What ever Outward deference such enemies bring if it have nothing of the power of Godliness it doth not honor our Lord with his Own Sceptre For the Sceptre of his Kingdom is a right Sceptre a love of Righteosness and hatred of iniquity What ever wanteth This wanteth That Divine life without which the most Solen worship is no better than a gay Pageant who 's Forced motions pass for Solen merely bicaus Unwieldy the Absence of inward life giving the Ly to them all That we may the better Compare them it will be requisite we bring to vieu both the Rivals And first let us bring forth that Shew wherewith our Lord is to be better Served and Pleased than with literal Obedience WHEN the Unwelcom season is now at hand which Indispensibly exacteth the painful task the Unwilling votary if he can deserv That name finding No way to escape it forceth himself to look Sadly upon his still Beloved sins Confineth himself for som tedios days to the Lothed conversation of that Troublsom stranger his Conscience wherewith he Communeth in such Awkward manner as plainly betrayeth his Unacquaintedness with it's language not to be supplied by the vainly courted assistance of those good Books which at such times only he taketh the Penance to read and after the appointed days languished away in this heartless Exercise which he calleth Preparation he receveth I say not the Lords Supper but the holy Symbols with great Solennity we grant but with as little Benefit or Relish as Appetite and goeth home with This only comfort that the Tedios work is do'n and the Stately Lifeless machin may be laid aside till the Revolution of another Solennity call it forth to stalk abroad again with the same Troubl to the same Little purpose Let our adversaries now deal freely can they suppose such Pageantry acceptabl to God can such Counters as have somthing of the due Image and Superscription but
Distance CHAP. VII Wors than Useless toward comforting the Godly I. The second end Comfort of the Godly This Sacrament founded upon Festing the tessera of Love II. The conscientious griped between a fear of Unworthiness on the one side and of Disobedience on the other III. Hopes mingled with Fears a snare to the Godly which the Vngodly escape IV. The Lords table more dishonored by such preparation than by None THE Secund great and good End to which the Holy Sacrament is to be serviceabl is the Joy and Comfort of the Godly and to This the modern way of honoring hath made it not only Useless but Pernicios That we may have the fuller vieu of the Former member of this position it may be fit to look a litl upon the Almost forgotten Significancy of Festing wherein this Sacrament is founded COMMUNION at Table hath ever be'n lookt upon as an Obligation of mutual kindness among the whole company but more especially between Host and Guest Such an Obligation as created a right Equal and somtimes Superior to that of Bloud it self Nether Consanguinity nor Affinity wer sufficient to Hinder or Heal a breach between Laban and Jacob thogh Unkle and Nephew by Bloud Father and Son by Mariage But when That Quarel ended in a Govenant of kindness a Fest sealed it as more obliging than Both Those Relations Yea even Paternal affection when it would exalt it self to the Highest possibl rapture caled in the assistance of This endearment Take me som venison said Isaac to his Firstborn and make me savory meat such I love that I may eat that my soul may bless thee The venison was not only to strengthen his body but heigthen his mind the Fest made a new relation Host and Guest signified somthing of addition to Father and Son and improved his title to Blessing From this Jus Hospitii was derived the Rite of Sacrifice When God accepted the Sacrifice he signified his Love to the Votary first by som Other tokens as appears by the story of Cain and Abel and then by Entertening him at his Table For God was the Hous-keeper the Altar his Table the Sacrifice his Meat and the Votary his Guest Fested with That Flesh whose propriety he had now Transferred to his God and again Receved from him in token of Communion Nothing can be plainer than this from 1 Cor. 10. The same Persons by the Same Ceremonies in the 20 vers Offer Sacrifice to Devils and in 21. drink the cup of Devils ar partakers of the table of Devils and have fellowship with Devils and all this as their Guests treated by their Gods with the Sacrifices themselvs had offered to them Upon This account have we found Plutarch in the best of his treatises prove the mirth of the Religios transcend that of the Epicurean and St. John preferr that of a Christian above that of a Heathen What behavior becoms a Guest at This table of the Lord if we understand not by what we have already said let us learn by exampl The Apostls and their fellow commoners eat it with chearfulness the next and all succeeding ages stile it the Eucharist Our Own Church saith it was ordained for a thankful remembrance of the death of Christ and of the benefits which we receve thereby How joyful an exercise Thankfulness is he that understands not may learn of David My mouth saith he shall be filled with marrow and fatness when my heart praiseth thee with joyful lips It is generally believed that the Pleasure of Drinking is greater than that of Eating and to this St. Paul inviteth us saying Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess but be ye filled with the Spirit singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord giving thanks c. Meat Wine Musik nothing now can be wanting but Company and that St. John promiseth Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ and these things write we unto you that your joy may be full The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth Communion and This alone of All religios exercises have we found capable of That Name and This above them All is best furnished for it Meat indeed and Drink indeed and Fellowship indeed and the most intimate Union Whether we look to the Significance of Festing in General or the Design of This in Particular Whether we regard the Exampl or Exhortations of the Apostls the Authority of the Church Vniversal or our Own in Particular which way soever we look we must expect a Desert suitabl to the other provisions The fruits of the Spirit must attend the Supper of the Lord and what Those ar the Apostl tells us The fruits of the spirit ar Love Joy Peace If therefor in stead of These we ar treated with Wildings such as in stead of setting our hearts on praising God shall set our teeth on edge whatever thanks we owe to the Lord of the Table there can be litl due to the Ministers either from Lord or Guests II. LET us then tast the Provisions wherewith our modern divines treat us and see whether they can say with St. John These things we write unto you that your Joy may be full If they can we must borrow a gloss of St. Paul who exhorteth to Rejoice in as much as ye ar partakers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Communicants with Christs sufferings For they so set forth his sufferings as to repete them upon his Guests They gave me gall to eat and when I was thirsty they gave me vinegre to drink said David The Letter was verified in our Lords Personal sufferings and the Metaphor in those of his dearest friends and at his Own table We may go farther and say that as they ar partakers of Christ's sufferings so ar they of his enemies curses too For this their table is made a snare to take themselvs withall and that which should have be'n for their wealth is to them an occasion of falling which will be the more applicable to our unhappy Communicants if our excellent Dr. Hammond mistake not who interprets the Table in that place to signify the Sacrificial and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the votaries portion For how is This Beatifik Wine mingled with Vinegre This Bread with Gall How is This Joyful Table made a Snare to Catch Intangle and Gripe the most worthy guests And how doth the tenderness of conscience give deeper reception to the Snare and acuter sens to the Torment How few ar they that upon the required Examination find in themselvs a full Assurance that if they Dy at the Table they shall be Saved And how must All others however worthy be tormented between hunger and thirst after the Flesh and Bloud of Christ on the One side and fear to be poisoned by them on the Other On the One side by fear of Eating and Drinking damnation if they com in That state of doubted unworthiness and on the Other of deserving it if they omit
a Duty I say a Duty and every true Lover of our Lord saith the same For whatever Latitude the disputed words may be stretch'd to they know our Lord did not So Institute and Recommend his Supper only to be Neglected But if he required Constancy then is every Omission a Sin by Disobedience to his Law If Not then it is if possibl a greater one against Greater obligations of love For to a Loving Generous Soul a Trust is a Greater Obligation than a Command and Thankfulness will pay More than is Due And then further considering the work it self and it's fruits they conclude Constancy to be Due if not to our Lords Institution yet to their own Interests which Interests reciprocally comprehend our Lords honor since they cannot neglect his Blessings offered in This Sacrament without contemt to That bloud which Once so dearly Purchased and Still so kindly Offers them In these things no Divine is silent All Concurr in setting forth the Blessings and by Encoraging Oblige every one that loveth our Lords Person or desireth his Grace to lay hold upon Every opportunity to Worship the One and Enjoy the Other III. BUT when on the Other side we ar told that the Lord is no less present as a Judge than as an Host no less ready to Condemn the Unworthy than to Bless the Worthy And that Those ar Unworthy who com in any other state of Soul than they may safely dy in They now need be not only very Good but very Bold that shall dare to com upon such Dangeros terms For if the Person be never so Worthy never so Safe yet unless his Salvation be as Certain to Himself as it is with God he may not presume to com bicaus he cannot bring with him a full assurance and every Distrust will put him at the same distance as real Unworthiness YET seeing such persons have Hopes mingled with Fears thogh they have no full Assurance that they ar Worthy they have a good mesur of Hope that they may be so These very Hopes beget Fears that if they should Forbear the Lords supper they should disobey his commands Bicause they have Doubts of their Worthiness they dare not Com lest they should com unworthily and bicaus they have Hopes they dare not Forbear lest they should omit a Duty by forbearing causlesly So they see danger on ether hand they dare nether Com nor Forbear lest they should do ether the One or the Other unworthily So their very piety and hopes of Salvation thereupon bilt which should be their greatest joy is to Them an occasion of falling into a most griping Snare which hath no hold upon such as have nether hopes nor fears Let us now consider by what motives the Generality ar Led shall I say no it is the Goodness of God that Leadeth but Haled to repentance even by chains of fear forged in Hell fire Since those who ar most Religios upon fear of damnation must needs be most timoros where can we hope to find I say not That Family or City but That Kingdom that can shew us the scant number Three which we have found Necessary to make up a Communion who can com with Confidence And what then shall That rare Phoenix do which wanting neither Worthiness nor Confidence must want Company I plead not now the danger of Solitude to the Table but That of Torment to the Communicant God be blessed som ar so Heroically pios as to trust their Saviors Goodness notwithstanding their Teachers Rigors or their Own Fears hoping their good intentions shall be Accepted and their unworthiness pardoned if they com with Honest thogh Unworthy hearts But upon every turn of the Wind what Storms ar such good souls tossed with When they look backward how do they fear lest they may have receved unworthily When they look forward how do they fear lest they should do so again if they com or as bad if they forbear How earnestly do they Labor both for such Worthiness as they ar told is Necessary to avoid guilt and for such Assurance of it as may make them no less Quiet than Safe How often doth the very earnestness of the later hinder them from obteining it And how much still do their flutterings intangle them How often doth this wrestling with the heart inrage the spleen how often is the bloud sharpened by this contending against it's cooruptions How often doth earnestness after Assurance kindl earnestness in Others passions and then how rigidly is This very effect of laboring for worthiness censured as a symptom of unworthiness I know an excellent Lady troubled upon this very account that none of the meanest of our Divines to say no more now prescribed This as One rule of preparatory examination that we examin the irregularity of our passions dissuading us from the Next communion if we find not our selvs to have gotten ground of them since the Last And doth not the Snare finely encircle us Our very Indeavors after worthiness the more Eagre they ar the more they sharpen our Bloud and consequently our Passions and make us more Unworthy and This sens of Unworthiness obligeth us to Contend with all possibl Earnestness to master those Passions which by That very Contention ar Strengthened We now need no less help of the Physician to sweeten our Bloud than of the Divine to comfort our Conscience and if the goodness of God help us not more than Both we must either live Excommunicate from the Lords table or Indanger our souls by approaching it And Either way must be Griped with endless fears as having either Omitted the greatest duty of Love or Performed it Unworthily But all this is so inconsistent with the very nature of a Suprer so contrary to the gracios purposes of our Lord and sentiments of best Christians that I am almost persuaded to say that Such preparation dishonoreth the Holy table as much as None The Mourning weed sure is no less unfit for a Wedding garment than the Souldiers Buff or the Laborers Russet It is tru our Lord will never interrogate such guests as did the King in the parable Friend how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment Himself knoweth that the very Uneasiness of the garment is abundant evidence that their Affections ar as Honest as Unsuitabl and their welcom shall be suited to their Intentions But whatever Reward they shall receve hereafter it is manifest that at Present they suffer More and more Grievos perplexities from This which oght to be the most pleasant than from All other the most mortifying duties For in those the greatest austerities ar sweetened by the pleasures of the spirit festing their consciences with this satisfaction that they ar doing Gods work whereas in This they ar not only rob'd of That Satisfaction which is More properly due to it but griped with Anxieties as intolerable as undue Which yet to Souls as considerative as pios is less Afflictive than the Scandal thence arising
but what love shall prescribe and the Performance drest up in such frightful manner as is more apt to produce Dread than Love what other fruit can reasonably be hoped for than what we see that the generality should rather exercise their Aw by Shunning than their Lov by Frequenting it This was to som degree prevented by the Rubrikes of our Church 'till they wer deposed from their Authority by a sort of men who making distance from Rome their mesure of truth must by That rule have restored the Constancy which to banish was the proper act of Popery But Antipodes while they stand in greatest Opposition dwell in the same Latitude and so do these men with the Church of Rome in som of her worst Doctrines For as they also call it the Scepter of Christ's Kingdom to advance the Ecclesiastical Power above the Temporal so do they endeavor to make this Sacrament an instrument to subject the People to the Minister When they hoped to ' stablish their Discipline how briskly did they summon the People to the Communion How insolently did they depose them All even such as were every way better than themselvs to the state of Catechumens not admitting them to the Lords Table 'till they had undergo'n Their examination But when they found that they could not prevail ether with the People voluntarily to submit themselvs or with the Governors to compel them to it How quickly did they take pet How sullenly did they cast away the Sacrament as Useless to Any good purpose since it was So to their Own My banishment from the University cast me into a corner where the Dispute was publikly managed by word and writing from the Pulpit and from the Press whether the Lord's Supper wer to be celebrated in an unpresbyterated Church and the Negative so generally prevailed throghout the Land that during their whole reign in som places the very Table it self and in most others the Use of it was quite cast out of the Church When the Church of England was about to be restored and their Representatives wer desired to make their Proposals that they might ether hide or justify so great a neglect they moved to be freed from That Rubrike which obligeth the peopl to communicate at least three times in every year And to This day they make it a distinct cause of separation so that som who join with us in other offices dare not do it in This And their greatest Champion thogh he have his proper Congregation bosteth that he hath not ' ministered it these eighteen years with no less Non-conformity to his own pretences than to the stablished government 1. One pretence is that nothing must be do'n in the Publik worship of God without express warrant in his word Then certainly much less must any thing be omitted which his Command hath made necessary For the general Precept for Decency may virtually contein such Particulars as our Governors shall judge Decent but nothing less than a Particular and Express warrant can free us from a Particular Institution not only Expresly enjoyned but several ways Inculcated 2. Another pretence is that our Church is not rightly constituted according to the mind of Christ And we have discovered by the Nature of the thing by the language of the Apostls and by the unanimos consent of all the Christian world that the Sacraments ar indispensibl marks of a Christian Church which since his Congregation wants by his own principless he must abandon it 3. A Third great pretence is that We have too much Popery in our Worship And we have found that robbing the Publik worship of This Sacrament is the very Soul and Body of Popery but with This difference that the Popish Doctors intended to make it bleed away somthing of Constancy and Non-conformists bleed it to death WE see whence our neglect of the Sacrament took it's first Birth and whence it's Nourishment Popery gave it the one and Schism the other Yet how many among our selvs cherish it that renounce both Parent and Nurse Glad of the liberty which right or wrong they enjoyed during our confusions and loth to return to the troubl they suffered from such a curb to their dear lusts and ease They find that divines require no less for a worthy Communion than for a saving Repentance Repentance they press as absolutely Necessary but the Communion they think not so Who then can be so sottish as to delay his Repentance without giving the Sacrament as long a day Every mans Reason must needs concurr with his Sloth to persuade him that if it be a damnable Sin to com Unworthy but None to Forbear then must it needs be his wisest cours to avoid a task dubly prejudical first to his Ease and then to his Salvation When our Lord commanded us to pluck out our eys and cut off our hands he enforced it with a Reason as cogent as the Command could be rigid For it is better to enter into life with One ey foot or hand than to be cast into Hell-fire with two But so to state this duty as to say If you will do This you must quit your beloved lusts but if you will not do it you miss som benefits but incurr no danger how few such a declaration will persuade rather to renounce their lusts and ease than This Duty shall I call it no but Burthen Reason might have taght our ancestors to Conjectur and Experience compelleth us to bewail Experience which many call the fools mistress bicause those who apprehend not other evidence cannot avoid This Experience which is many times the Severest and alway the Best instructor doth so plainly and sadly reprove us that however excusable Other ages may have be'n who thoght themselvs secure from the ill consequences our Own and Future times cannot be so if we be not convinced by them We somtimes see men encumber their lands when they intend to grace them with Fair but Fruitless bildings and then sell houses land and all to pay the so contracted debt But we never see any so fond of such bildings as to sell the Land for their preservation if by pulling them down they can pay the debt with the materials Let us be as wise in our generation our ' forefathers thoght as such bilders usually do that the Sacrament could well bear and be improved by the cost they put it to that it would be more advanced both in honor and power than prejudiced by abatement of constancy but never thoght of staking its very Being against any hopes whatever That they thoght secured by the Laws of the Church and the unfailing practice of it's very worst members who for shame of their neighbors or fear of their governors durst not neglect it at any of the appointed seasons But now that the late Schism hath out-mischiefed all their fears it is not to be doubted but those very writers who heretofore discoraged the performance by their rigors wer they now
living would no less industriosly press it had they no better reason than this that the bildings go with the land bicaus those who think it needless to receve the Sacrament cannot think it necessary to examin themselvs by way of preparation for it Let us then learn by experience we have seen the trial of Both ways Primitive Christians practised Constancy with as great Success as Obedience The Church of Rome first seduced the world from it and thereby advanced Themselvs more than the Sacrament Our Schismatiks out-shot the Church of Rome not only Abated but Destroyed the Office root and branch What need we less intelligibl comments upon our Lord's or Apostl's words our very senses inform us what is to be do'n And however former ages may be excused by the goodness of their intentions we cannot be so if we refuse to be convinced by manifest experience plainly confuting their plausibl designes IV. THE other part of the practice is the advancement of REVERENCE for as Frequency for want of a Damm to fence it is swallowed up so Reverence for want of one to restrain it hath swollen further and further 'till it came to Adoration and this is answered by a success so much wors than the Other as a Mischief is wors than Nothing for it is mischievos both to the Honor of our Lord and the Peace of his Church I. To the HONOR of our Lord bicause it restoreth Both those Religions which he came and died to abolish turning This which he instituted for a livree of Christianity to a cloak both of Heathenism and Judaism 1. Heathenism by making it an Idol much after the Old Pagan mode For the Old Heathen believed they could by force of words bring their God to enhabit the statu they consecrated to him and then worshiped That statu not a as carved piece of wood but as the body of the God and the Papists believ they can by like force of words make bread and wine the Body of Christ and then worship it after the manner of the heathen yet eat it too and therein exceed them 2. Judaism by burying true Spiritual worship under a heap of dumb ceremonies Our Lord gave This as a character of the Gospel-worship God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship in Spirit and in Truth But the Papists have turned Spiritual worship out of door to make room for a mass of pageantry who 's Mysteries ar no more understood by the Priest than is the Language by the Peopl But thogh no meaning can be perceved in the Retail yet This is plain in the Gross that the Sacrament is to be Admired but not Understood II. To the PEACE of the Church the Ten Persecutions have not be'n so pernicios The King of France after all his bloody atchievments must yield it a greater right to his vaunt Behold what destructions I have wroght upon the earth God be blessed we ly not at present under such violent paroxysms as our ' forefathers suffered Nether Warr nor Persecution rage among us but we hear of Oppressions among our Neighbors Plots among our selvs Jelosies Disputes Distractions which thogh they do not utterly Destroy do yet Disturb the peace of the Church as Fears and Perplexities of conscience do the souls of it's best members These ar the fruits of our modern way of honoring the blessed Sacrament Neglect of Constancy hath produced Constancy of Neglect we have So put it at Distance as to put it out of sight Yea it is wors than Destroyed for it is made Destructive of that Spiritual devotion toward God that mutual Charity toward each other that inward Comfort in our Own souls which our Lord instituted it to advance V. OUR THIRD enquiry is What Need For it oght not to be thoght but the Necessity must be proportionate to the Remedy Nice persons somtimes take physik without need only to prevent they know not what in such cases the Physician prescribes none but gentl medecines such as may do no more than only purge the patient out of som of his superfluos mony Such a cours therefor as we find taken with This institution must persuade us to expect som very urgent Necessity or som apparent and great Danger no other way to be escaped And a great danger we hear of A danger of contemt But what contemt Is this holy Bread any where cast to the dogs Is this Cup wors abused to drunkenness Is the whole Supper any where profaned as the Apostl testifieth it to have be'n the by Corinthians or as their Persecutors slanderosly reported of the Primitive Christians All this were so much less than the abuses it now suffereth from the remedies as Lust is less than Murder but the Least of them is incomparably more than our greatest fears For indeed there is no pretence of any other danger than Negative or Comparative It will not be capabl of Adoration at Rome nor of Veneration among our Selvs 't will be as cheap as Common-prayer by too much familiarity it must therefor keep state like the Eastern kings who preserv Aw in their peopl by keeping Distance That Distance causeth Aw cannot be denied This objection verifieth it For while we look upon it at distance it looketh dreadful as a Lion but if we com to a closer vieu we shall find it a less formidabl beast To this end we have already distinguished the world into it's two parties the Godly and the Ungodly and found that from nether of them was any such danger to be feared Not from the Godly for no Constancy will make them quit their Reverence Not from the Ungodly for they have none worth preserving 1. The Godly will never quit Reverence upon any the greatest Frequency as plainly appeareth by their uniting Both in Prayer Evening and Morning and at Noon-day will I pray and that Instantly said David Not the less Instantly bicaus Constantly Such Constant Experience oght to deal with this Fear as its patrons pretend Constant performance will with Reverence Abate at least perhaps Destroy it 2. That shew of Reverence which Ungodly men bring to the Communion is not worth preserving much less is it worth purchasing at so dear a rate as disobedience We have b p. 303. lately examined the Pageant and found that however goodly shew it makes in the eyes of children and the populace it must be contemptibl in the eyes of God who seeth and hateth it's want of inward life which it Therefor wanteth bicaus it wanteth such Frequency as is most likely to beget it Since therefor True Reverence which alone is Worth our care Needs it not bicaus it is secure from danger and that Empty shew of revercnce which is in danger is not worth our care to preserv it From This topik of Prudence there is not to be had one grain to turn the emty scale But on the contrary in This very Topik we shall meet such considerations as without help from any
Other shall very much outweigh those fears 1. It is much better run the risque of abating Reverence than of Losing the Sacrament it self Somthing however cheap is better than Nothing and Obedience than Sacrifice But it is not singl Disobedience when accompanied as here with pretence of Prudence which no less affronteth our Lord's Wisdom than his Authority oblikely intimating that he could not ' foresee or prevent the danger 2. Probability is much lighter than Experience We do but Suspect the danger and we have Experience to the contrary On One side more than 400 years experience proved that Constancy and Reverence drew happily together to God's glory and his Churches benefit On the Other side many hundred years experience hath manifested that by their separation a multitude of mischievs have overwhelmed the world T. Livy said That Experience is the best judge and corrector of Laws If it may correct Laws much better may it Disobedience to Laws 3. This probabl Fear is answered by a more probabl Hope that by their re-union Common-Prayer would gain more than the Sacrament lose We have found that St. Paul and after him St. Augustin used this Sacrament as an argument for reverence in God's hous and the Later went a step further improving it for Purity of life if the Argument be good why should it be lost Hnd not Jehoshaphat accompanied the Kings of Israel and Edom in their address to the Prophet their three armies had perished and how much of devotion is lost for want of joining the Lords Supper with other offices of his worship who can divine 4. If Prayer and other Religios offices gain not altogether so much as the Sacrament may lose yet will the service of God be advanced by the Great bicause Frequency will abundantly recompence the disadvantage in the Particular Quick thogh Light returns make rich merchants and a little gain repeted every Sunday and other Holiday will enrich piety thogh purchased with greater abatement from the Sacrament as it is now rarely celebrated Thus our adversaries own Topik Prudence will write upon their pretended necessity for abatement of Constancy Mene Mene tekel how light then will it appear when so many and weighty obligations shall be weighed against it The Positive Command of our Lord not only Expressly enjoined but Carefully Recommended by the extraordinary season of the Institution in the Last night of his Life and no less carefully interpreted by posthum revelations after his death The Singular worth of the Duty it self appropriate to his Own Person the Livree of his Church the Monument and Effigies of his Death and benefits The great vertues of the performance the cement of charity among his members the Comfort of his faithful servants the advancer of devotion in his worship c. Against so great a weight nothing cast into the opposit scale but the mistaken sound of an unhappy word misinterpreted and abused upon loss of it's key by Modern Doctors but That mistaken Sound again infinitely out-weighed by the Apostl's design manifestly imploying That very word for enforcement of Constancy and the authority of Modern Doctors out-voted by the unanimos consent of more than 400 years universal practice of the Catholik church which having not yet lost the key perfectly understood the Apostl's mind by uninterrupted tradition not to be destroyed but by the Church of Rome nor by That upon any other Evidence than of a pretended Tradition not to be gainsaid thogh not to be credited by other less potent Churches VI. SO great a weight born up by an emty scale This could never be did we pay This Sacrament That Reverence which is due to it I say That which is Due to it For we oght to be careful in distinguishing There is One kind of Reverence Due to Gods Laws and Another to his Decrees Moses long since and very clearly stated the difference Deut. 29.29 Secret things belong unto the Lord our God but those things which are reveled belong unto us and to our children for ever that we may do all the words of this Law Secret things to God who hath reserved them for his own Knowlege and Execution and the Reverence which we ar to pay to them requireth us to keep an Awful Distance not to intrude but to admire and cry out Oh the depth of the riches hoth of Wisdom and Knowledge of God! how unsearchabl But Those things which ar reveled belong to us Faithful Study and Diligent Practice is the Reverence they claim Oh how I lov thy Law All the day long is my study in it said David in conformity to his character of the Blessed man Ps 1. And it is wonderfully unhappy that our most learned ages have most grossly erred on Both sides Concerning the Secret things that bolong to God how irreverently busy To marshal his Presence and Decrees in due order to prescribe limits for his Justice and Goodness to mesure the influences of his Decrees and his Grace upon our Liberty c. is every one's work While those things which ar reveled concerning this Sacrament ar reverenced by being treated as Mysteries with an Awful Distance with Admiration Ignorance and Forbearance I am therefor so farr from deposeing it from due Reverence that my whole endeavor hath be'n to restore it from the grossest Contemt which hath so long left it in the meanest state of Neglect Unstudied and Unpractised Yes it is Vnstudied in the mids of that multitude of disputes which have so long and so much pestered the Christian world concerning Sacraments in General and This in Particular still our Lord's Institution lieth Unstudied Unstudied as a Law bicause Overstudied as a Mystery Unstudied in what belongs to Us bicause Overstudied in what belongs to God What can he be said to have studied the Law that understands not it's first Rudiments That knoweth not whether it be a Law or no Whether it be a Law Absolute or only Condicional Is he learned in a Law that knoweth not how farr or how often it obligeth to Action When and in what cases the obligation ceaseth c. If this be to Love a Law what is to Slight it If this be Reverence what is Contemt A Contemt so much the Greater by how much Less labor the study requireth Did it require the reading of many large volums the loss of much sleep the wast of much time the Neglect might be imputed not so much to want of Reverence as of Corage But All the words of this Law were delivered by our Lord in one Breath and explicated by his Apostl in a Few Lines and how can you pretend Reverence to the One or the Other if you let the least tittl fall to the ground I pray' now have you indeed studied All the words of this Law Have you well examined what bread and cup the Demonstrative THIS points at or what is the import of the Imperative DO Or have you studied All the words of the Apostl's comment Yea have you examined All it's clauses or the Design of them All Why did he charge his Corinthians with profaning the Lord's Supper in All their meetings And how did he make good That Charge What meant he by such industrios inserting and repeting a claus unmentioned by any Evangelist and what standard doth it relate to What is the intent of the whole 26th vers how doth it summ up the evidence of the ' foregoing or support the inferences following These and many other main limbs Which of our assertors of Reverence have honored with any enquiry If to Neglect the most fundamental clauses and largest limbs of a Discours so to handl a Law as to disabl it from obligeing so to order a Duty as to render it impracticable be to pay Reverence I cannot but confess my self gilty of haveing denied it On the Other side I have be'n so bold both with our Lord's and Apostl's words as to examin every syllabl and every look taken them to a strict account what service they do to the author's designe What agreement they maintein with their fellow-members what order they keep and why Traced the diatribe throgh all it's turnings and hunted out the reason of them all Suffered not the least Phoenomenon to ' scape the most rigid examination and over and above compared all with the practice of the other Apostls and the primitive Churches This I take to be the Best way of Reverence except One wherein I hope my good reader will join with me which is to pass from Studying to Doing all the words of This Law FINIS