is capable of this Work whence again we may conclude that God made Man for his peculiar Service and Glory unless we can imagine that God would make a World and place no Creature in it whose proper Business it should be to know and worship his Wise Maker and Bountiful Lord. Man is the Priest of Nature who offers up the Praises and Thanksgivings of the whole Creation to God Thus you see that Religious Worship is a natural Debt which we owe to God and that God does expect and exact the Paiment of it from us We may certainly conclude from hence that he expects we should live according to the most perfect Constitution of our Natures This is the natural Rule of our Actions to serve the Ends for which we were made for God did not make such and such Natures for nothing either to be unimployed or imployed to other or to less and meaner purposes than they were designed for And besides this we have frequent and express Commands to worship God in that Revelation he hath made to us of his Will The Scripture is so full of Precepts Exhortations and Reproofs about this Matter that I need not spend time to prove so acknowledged a Truth But from the whole of what I have now discoursed we may safely conclude the great Evil of Irreligion as being the highest injustice to our Maker and Soveraign Lord. Thirdly The great Evil of Irreligion of denying or neglecting the Worship of God appears in this That it is the most sordid Ingratitude Now Ingratitude is Injustice too but it is Injustice to a Benefactor that is it consists in violating all those Obligations which Goodness and Kindness has laid upon us as Injustice properly so called consists in breaking the Rules of Natural or Civil Right For Mankind generally accounts the Obligation to return a kindness as strong and necessary as to pay a Debt and nothing is more infamous among Men than an ungrateful Person for as Goodness is a greater Perfection than strict Justice so Ingratitude must needs be a more hateful Vice than bare Injustice because it is opposite to the greatest Good As Goodness is the greatest Glory and Perfection of Humane Nature so Ingratitude must needs be the greatest Infamy and Reproach because it is at the greatest distance from Goodness Now among Men Injustice and Ingratitude may be separated Men may be unjust but not ungrateful and they may be ungrateful and not unjust according to the strict Notion of Injustice for Men may wrong and injure those who never did them any kindness and that is Injustice without Ingratitude and they may neglect to make decent Acknowledgments and Returns of Kindness without injuring their Friends in any of their Natural or Civil Rights and that is Ingratitude without Injustice But now it is impossible to be unjust to God without being ungrateful too because he is not only our Natural Lord but our great Benefactor and those very things which give him a natural Right to our Worship and Obedience do not only lay on us the Obligations of Justice but of Gratitude to worship him He made us and this gives him a natural Right to our Worship because he is our Natural Lord we are intirely his and owe our selves and all we have and all we can do to him and this makes it very unjust to deny or neglect his Worship But then we must consider that if we love our Selves and our Being and those Advantages of Happiness which Being makes us capable of then much more we are obliged in gratitude to praise and adore that God who gave us our Being for though possibly some will not allow it proper to say that God was good to us before we had a Being yet he was very good in making us and therefore it is high ingratitude as well as injustice in Creatures not to praise and glorify their Maker Thus that Divine and Heaven-born Mind and those noble and excellent Faculties of Soul which God hath bestowed on us as they may make us capable of knowing and worshipping God so make Religious Worship a natural piece of Justice and if we value the excellency of our Natures and think it any advantage to be made so noble an Order of Beings Gratitude as well as Justice obliges us to employ all the Faculties of our Souls for that high and noble End for which they were made that is to know and love and admire and worship God the greatest and the best Being and the most perfect Object of our Minds It is Ingratitude as well as Injustice to our Maker to debase our Natures to make them stoop to low mean and vile Things to inherit the Curse of the Serpent to crawl upon their Bellies and lick up the Dust of the Earth when they were made to aspire towards Heaven to unite themselves to God the Fountain of Life and Being and to live in the Love and Contemplation of him The like may be said with reference to that good Providence of God which maintains and upholds us in Being and provides all Necessaries for us and defends us from all unseen Mischiefs both Justice and Gratitude require us to praise and adore so great and constant a Benefactor These are all Expressions both of the Natural Justice and Bounty of our Wise Maker and therefore lay a mixed Obligation on us of Justice and Gratitude God was under no Antecedent Obligation but his own Will and Goodness to make a World but if he did resolve to make one he was under the Obligations of his own Wisdom and Justice and Goodness to make every Creature perfect in its kind and fitted to attain the end of its Nature and to make some Creatures for great and noble Ends and consequently to bestow very noble and excellent Natures on them and therefore there being a mixture of Justice and Goodness in God's making and governing the World no wonder that it lays a mixt Obligation on us too of Justice and Gratitude But there is another manifestation of God's Goodness in the Redemption of the World by our Lord Jesus Christ which is a Work of such pure and unmixt Grace and Goodness that it is all Goodness and nothing but Goodness Innocent Creatures may challenge a natural Right in the Care and Protection and Bounty of their Maker but a Traitor a Rebel against the Majesty of Heaven an Apostate Wretch who has abused the Bounty and Goodness of his Creator can challenge no right to those common Blessings which God bestows upon his Creatures so that he should cause the Sun to shine and the Rain to fall on them and therefore since Sin entred into the World even those External and Temporal good Things which Sinners enjoy are wholly owing to the Goodness and Mercy of God and accordingly our Obligations to Gratitude and Thankfulness are so much the stronger and our Ingratitude in neglecting the Worship of God the more heinous and provoking But much less can such
name of Godliness as the Apostle divides the several Duties of Religion into three parts living soberly righteously and godlily in this present World And the proper Notion of worshipping God is to honour him all the several Acts of Worship honour God as they signify our great sense and devout acknowledgment of his Being Power and Providence of the Excellencies and Perfections of his Nature our dependence on him submission to him trust and affiance in him such as are great and venerable apprehensions of God Prayers Praises Thanksgivings and the like Now every Man must acknowledg that Honour is always the greater the more publick it is That he who has great and admiring Thoughts of God and publishes this to the World in the most solemn manner honours God a great deal more than he who keeps these Thoughts to himself and praises God so privately that no Man knows it but himself The Prophet David resolves to make his Praises of God as publick as he could I will declare thy Name unto my Brethren in the midst of the Congregation will I praise thee And exhorts others to exalt him in the Congregation of the People and praise him in the Assemblies of the Elders Praise ye the Lord I will praise the Lord with my whole Heart in the Assembly of the Upright and in the Congregation And besides this we may consider that there are two parts of Worship the Worship of the Mind which consists in honouring God with devout and pious Affections in bowing our Souls before him and the external and visible expressions and significations of this Honour which is external and visible Worship such as praying and praising God with an audible Voice falling down on the ground kneeling uncovering the Head and those other outward Expressions of Devotion which signify the humble and devout Affections of the mind now tho these external signs of Honour may and ought to be used in Private and Closet Devotions so it be with due caution not to make them publick which is a piece of Pharisaical Hypocrisy yet the proper use of them is in publick Acts of Worship to testify our concurrence and agreement with other devout Persons in the same Acts of Worship for God knows our Thoughts and Affections and therefore needs not to be acquainted with our Desires by cloathing them with words he hears the most silent breathings of our Souls and therefore needs not that we should speak to him in an audible Voice he sees the bending of our Souls and the most humble submission and prostration of our Minds and needs not be informed of this by bending or bowing our Bodies to him but Men cannot see this but by external signs nor join in the same Petitions and Praises without words so audibly pronounced that all present may hear them and therefore those Scriptures which require these external Signs of Worship suppose that this Worship must be publick too that we must meet together to offer up our united Prayers and Thanksgivings to God And accordingly we find that all the Psalms of David were penned for publick Worship for the use of the Temple and delivered to the Master of Musick to be sung as publick Hymns of Prayer or Thanksgiving And if we enquire into the fundamental Reasons of Worship we shall find our Obligations much more strong to publick than to private Worship tho that be our Duty also especially when we want such publick Opportunities The natural Reason of worshipping God is that he is the most excellent and perfect Being the great and universal Parent and Benefactor and the Soveraign Lord and Judg of the World for it becomes us to acknowledg and adore him who is our Maker in whom we live move and have our being who feeds and cloaths us who defends us from Evil who encompasseth us with his loving kindness and tender mercies and therefore these are the Subjects of most of those Forms of Worship Prayer and Thanksgiving which we find recorded in Scripture especially in the Writings of the Old Testament Now all this is a more cogent Reason for publick than for private Worship for though we are bound to acknowledg those particular Favours and Blessings which God hath bestowed on us which is the foundation of private Worship yet God is not so much to be considered a private as a publick Benefactor as an universal Parent and soveraign Lord and therefore must be worshipped as a publick Benefactor that is with publick Worship for there is no visible Worship of God as the Supream Lord of the World unless it be publick And since all Mankind are God's Creatures and the Subjects of his Care and Providence and are every one of them bound to worship the same God natural Reason will inform us that we ought all to join in the same acts of Worship which gives a greater awe and solemnity to it for we cannot think that Man was made a sociable Creature for every thing else but only for Acts of Worship which is his highest End and greatest Perfection and therefore if Men unite themselves into Societies for Civil Order and Government it is as highly reasonable that they should unite for Religious Worship unless we think that Bodies Politick Kingdoms and Common-wealths are not bound to worship God as every particular Person is tho it be an old Maxim of Government That Religion is the surest Bond and Cement of Civil Societies Especially when we consider that the greatest Blessings we are to praise God for are such as are bestowed on us in common with others or all Mankind such as the influences of Heaven and the fruitfulness of the Earth the blessing of Peace and Plenty deliverance from Enemies the advantages of good Government and all other National Mercies and above all the Redemption of the World by our Lord Jesus Christ so that God is defrauded of his Glory if our Acknowledgments be not as publick as his Blessings are For private Praises are not just Returns nor due Acknowledgment of publick Mercies And therefore when the Psalmist celebrates the publick Mercies of God he invites all Israel to join in his Praises Praise ye the Lord sing unto the Lord a new Song and his praise in the Congregation of Saints Let Israel rejoice in him that made him let the Children of Zion be joyful in their King And all this is confirmed by the universal practice of Mankind who tho they differed in the Objects and Nature of their Worship yet all agreed in making their Worship publick and solemn and such an universal Consent is no less than the Voice of Nature Secondly Let us now consider what that Worship is which God himself instituted and ordained and I shall at present instance in the Jewish Worship which was typical also of the Christian. Now it is so evident that every part of the Jewish Worship which God commanded by Moses was of a publick Nature and to be performed in a publick manner
parts of the work of our redemption without using those visible signs I would fain know to what purpose they were instituted by our Saviour if Christian worship be compleat and perfect without it it is and ever was as needless an addition as most Christians now think it to be which I think derogates very much from the wisdom of our Saviour in its Institution We ought not to look upon the Supper of our Lord only as a particular act of worship but as an external and sensible rite of worship which is fitted to all parts of Christian worship and by the institution of our Saviour necessary to give vertue and efficacy to them as the oblation of Sacrifices under the Law did to those Prayers which were offered with them Now suppose that any men should have argued thus under the Law that if men prayed devoutly to God though they offered no Sacrifice they should be accepted by him I doubt this would have been called despising Moses's law and such men must have died without mercy though they had prayed never so devoutly and yet the Apostle tells us that we ought to have greater regard to the Laws and Institutions of Christ than the Jews had to the Law of Moses The great danger then of neglecting the Lords Supper is that such a neglect may render all our Worship unacceptable to God a right to Christ's Sacrifice upon the Cross is by the Institution of our Saviour conveyed in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and therefore though we pray in Christ's Name if we neglect his Institution whereby the vertue of his Sacrifice is conveyed to our prayers we must pray without any interest in his Sacrifice and we may easily guess of what worth such prayers are just as much as our own good works without an Expiatory Sacrifice to recommend them to God The serious consideration of this thoroughly convinces me how highly useful not to say necessary it is to restore the Apostolical and Primitive practice to celebrate the Lords Supper as often as we meet for publick Worship if we would have our Worship true Christian Worship according to our Saviours own institution as understood and practised by the Apostles themselves 3. Another obligation to a frequent receiving the Lords Supper is that this is the principal act of Communion with Christ. There is nothing more frequently talked of than our Union to Christ and our Communion with him which is the great mysterie of our Religion and the great foundation of our hope Now Union to and Communion with Christ may either be considered as a constant state and relation and so it signifies being members of the body of Christ by being incorporated into his Church by a visible profession of our faith in him ratified and confirmed by Baptism and by the communication of his Grace and Spirit which dwells in the sincere Disciples of Christ as the bond of a spiritual Union and an abiding principle of sanctification and holiness or it may be considered as an Act and so it is most properly applyed to the Lords Supper which is the most visible external symbol of our Communion with Christ and instituted as a Sacrament of Union for the conveyance of all divine and spiritual blessings to us And for the explication of this I shall observe two things In this holy Feast 1. That it is our eating at the Table of our Lord and 2. That it is our feeding on the body of Christ. 1. In the Lords Supper we eat at the Table of our Lord for this is a Feast of Christ's own appointment instituted by him on purpose to commemorate his death and sacrifice upon the Cross and so answers to the institution of God under the Law to feast upon Sacrifices which was constantly observed in Peace-offerings of which part was burnt upon Gods Altar part belonged to the Priest and part was eaten by the Sacrificers or those Persons who offered the Sacrifice of Peace-offerings who are therefore said to partake of the Altar behold Israel after the Flesh are not they which eat of the Sacrifices partakers of the Altar To partake of the Altar signifies to partake with God whose Altar it is that is to have part with him for part of the Sacrifice was burnt upon the Altar or given to the Priests and that was Gods part or share and the other part was eaten by themselves Thus it was among the Heathens also who used to feast on the Sacrifices which they offered to their Gods and sometimes invited their Christian neighbours to these Feasts who not sufficiently understanding the nature of such Religious Feasts many times went as to common friendly entertainments and therefore are corrected by the Apostle for it as utterly inconsistent with their Christian profession for to eat of a Feast upon a Sacrifice is to have communion with that Being whatever he is to whom the Sacrifice is offered Now the Gentiles sacrificed to Devils and therefore to eat of such Sacrifices is to partake with Devils to be in confederacy and communion with them But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to Devils and not to God and I would not that ye should have fellowship with Devils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that you should be Communicants with them Ye cannot drink the Cup of the Lord and the Cup of Devils ye cannot be partakers of the Lords Table and the Table of Devils that is it is as irreconcileable to eat at the Table of Christ and of the Gentile Sacrifice as it is impossible to unite Christ and false Heathen Gods From whence we learn that to eat of the Lords Table that is of the Christian Feast of the Lords Supper is to partake with Christ or to have Communion with him as to eat of the Sacrifices under the Law was to partake of the Altar or to eat of Pagan Sacrifices was to partake with Devils Now in general there were two things signified by these Religious Feasts 1. A Covenant relation that such persons who feasted at Gods Table were in Covenant with him for all solemn Covenants even between men in the Eastern Countrey were made and ratified by Sacrifice thus it was in the Covenant between Iacob and Laban and Iacob said unto his brethren gather stones and they took stones and made an heap and they did eat there upon the heap And what this eating was we may conclude from the nature of the action which was confirming a Covenant and therefore this eating is eating a Sacrifice as we are more expresly told then Iacob offered Sacrifice upon the Mount and called his Brethren to eat bread and they did eat bread and tarried all night upon the Mount And thus it is especially between God and men thus we know the Mosaical Covenant was confirmed by the blood of the Sacrifice as the first Testament is said to be dedicated by blood and the book and all the people the Tabernacle
greatest concernment Pag. 104 CHAP. II. COncerning Publick Worship Pag. 110 Publick Worship to be preferred before private tho it were not expresly commanded by God Pag. 111 Publick Worship a greater honour to God than private Devotions Pag. 116 External Worship must be publick Pag. 118 God is a publick Benefactor and therefore publick Worship is due to him Pag. 120 Publick Worship instituted by God under the Law Pag. 122 And by Christ under the Gospel the true Notion of a Church requires it Pag. 125 This proved from the nature of Christian Communion and Sacraments Pag. 126 The same proved from the Institution of the Gospel-Ministry and the power of the Keys Pag. 130 And from the publick profession of Christianity Pag. 133 And from the Duty of Princes to encourage and propagate Religion Pag. 134 CHAP. III. Section 1. COncerning those who plead Conscience for Separation and set up distinct Communions of their own Pag. 138 Some Inquiries with reference to their honesty and sincerity in this Matter Pag. 139 1. Whether they separate upon true Principles of Conscience the difference between private Opinion and Conscience and the use of this Distinction ibid 2. Whether they consider the great Evil of Schism Pag. 151 3. Whether they believe our Communion to be unlawful Pag. 156 4. How they came to think our Communion unlawful Pag. 156 5. Whether they ever impartially examined the Reasons of their Separation Pag. 170 6. How they behave themselves towards their Governors Pag. 184 Section 2. Some general Considerations in order to remove those Prejudices which some have entertained against the Worship of the Church of England Pag. 188 1. From the Nature of God Pag. 190 2. From the Nature of Christian Religion Pag. 193 3. From the Example of our Saviour Pag. 207 4. From the practice of the Apostles and the first and best Churches Pag. 208 Section 3. An answer to some popular Cavils Pag. 215 Concerning Will-Worship Pag. 216 Concerning Superstition Pag. 222 The Church of England charged with Idolatry Pag. 235 And with Popery Pag. 236 PART II. CHAP. I. COncerning Parochial Communion CHAP. II. Concerning irreverence in Worship 267 CHAP. III. Concerning the neglect of the publick Prayers of the Church 281 CHAP. IV. Concerning the publick administration of Baptism 289 CHAP. V. Concerning the publick instruction of Youth 296 CHAP. VI. Concerning the great neglect of the Lord's Supper ERRATA PAge 6. line 26 read Apollos P. 9. l. 13. r. and that none P. 18. l. 15. r. that they either P. 50. l. 14. f. we r. be P. 105. l. 18. r. you 'l P. 124. l. 26. r. who P. 164. l. 9. r. fell P. 185. l. 2. r. them P. 208. l. 6. r. so P. 212. l. 11. f. if r. that P. 219. l. 24. r. now though P. 224. l. 12 13. r. difficult P. 230. l. 5. r. had P. 331. l. 18. f. rule r. rite P. 346. l. 28. f. truth r. faith A Practical Discourse OF Religious Assemblies The INTRODUCTION 1. Containing a short Account of the nature of Christian Assemblies for Publick Worship 2. A Scheme of the Design of this following Treatise 3. The seasonableness of such a Discourse 1. RELIGION is the greatest Concernment of Mankind both with respect to this life and the next and the Worship of God is the most excellent part of Religion as having GOD the most excellent Being for its immediate Object This is the Work and constant Imployment of Angels and blessed Spirits in Heaven who see the Face of God dwell in his Presence admire his essential Glory and infinite Perfections and sing Eternal Hallelujah's to Him When we come to Heaven we shall have no unruly Passions and Appetites to govern and tho our Souls shall be transformed into a pure Flame of Divine Love yet there will be no place for the laborious exercise of Charity in pitying and relieving one another where all the Inhabitants shall be perfectly happy in the enjoyment of the most perfect Good Indeed in this World Temperance and Charity are no Christian Vertues but as they are acts of Worship that is as they flow from a great sense of God and veneration for him for God is the sole Object of Religion and to be sober and to be charitable upon some meaner Considerations without any respect to God as the last end of all is to serve our selves or our Friends or to follow the inclinations of our nature but is not properly the Service of God Whatsoever we do out of a just sense of God is in some respects an act of Worship for it is to honour the Deity which may as effectually be done by actions as by words verbal praises are of no value with God are meer lip-labour and formal complements when they are alone and produce no answerable effects in our lives This is what the Apostle calls a form of Godliness without the power of it Religion is nothing else but such a vital sense of God as excites in us devout affections and discovers it self in a divine and heavenly Conversation But yet that which we more strictly call Worship is the most visible and solemn expression of our Honour for God when we lift up our hearts and our eyes and hands to God in Prayers Praises and Thanksgivings and when it is sincere and hearty has a powerful influence upon the government of our Lives For what sincere Worshipper can be so void of all fear of God as to break his Laws and contemn his Authority and despise his Judgements and therefore that vain and hypocritical semblance of Religion wherewith some bad Men deceive themselves and flatter God is called the form of Godliness without the power it being only an external imitation of Religious Worship without that powerful sense of God which governs the Lives of truly devout and pious Men. And as the Worship of God is the most excellent part of Religion which has the most universal and most powerful influence upon our Lives So publick Worship is the most excellent Worship as you shall hear more hereafter Indeed the right and power of holding Publick Assemblies for Worship is the fundamental right of the Church whereon all Church-Authority depends as has been well observed and proved by a Learned Man of our Church The Power of the Keys signifies no more than Authority to take in and to shut out of the Church the first is done by Baptism the second by Church-Censures the highest of which is Excommunication which debarreth Men from all parts of Christian Communion And therefore the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews makes forsaking Christian Assemblies either to be an Apostacy from Christianity as it was in those days or at least a fair step towards it he exhorts those to whom he writ to hold fast the profession of their Faith without wavering that is to continue firm and stedfast in the profession of Christianity and in order to this gives them this Caution Not
can worship God as well at home in their Closets or Families 3. Those who plead Conscience for their Separation and set up distinct Communions of their own The second Part is designed to correct some great Miscarriages in Publick Worship which some who profess to live in Communion with the Church of England are too notoriously guilty of Such as these 1. The forsaking the Communion of their Parish Churches without just cause for it 2. Irreverence in Worship 3. The neglect of a due attendance on the publick Prayers of the Church 4. The neglect of the Publick Administration of Baptism 5. That they neglect or refuse to submit their Children and Servants to Publick Instructions 6. That either never receive the Lord's Supper or very rarely III. The very naming these things must needs convince all Men who have any sense of Religion how seasonable this Discourse is for there was never any Age wherein there was more need of it And since Religion has so great an influence upon the government of Mens Lives the neglect or miscarriage of Publick Worship does not only tend to corrupt Mens Manners but has a very ill aspect upon Publick Affairs I confess it is a very ill time for any Man who prefers his own Ease and Quiet before the Service of God and of Religion to put forth to Sea in such a Storm and Hurricane when the passions of men are in such a ferment that they are hardly capable of coole thoughts and impatient of the gentlest Reproof and Opposition the most charitable Designs are misconstrued and nicknamed and whoever endeavours to convince Men of their Mistakes how careful soever he be to avoid all just occasion of offence is either a Railer or a Persecutor But these things I thank God do not much affect me and shall never affright me from any part of my Duty I value a good Name as much as other Men but am contented to be reproached for the sake of my Lord and Master who was Himself reproached and vilified by Scribes and Pharisees But that which I suppose will be thought most unseasonable at this time is what concerns the Dissenters from our present Establishment for this is now upon all occasions urged and thought a sufficient Answer to all such Discourses But can it be thought unseasonable to perswade Men not to forsake Christian Assemblies when it is grown so general a practice that many have lost all sense of the evil of it Is it not a fit season for the applications of the Physician when the Patient is dangerously sick of a mortal distemper Thanks be to our good God we still enjoy the Opportunities of Publick Worship and therefore have opportunity also of perswading and exhorting Men to return to the Communion of the Church How effectual indeed such Exhortations may be at such a time we cannot tell success in these matters does not so much depend upon the fittest season as upon the Grace of God and the good temper of the Ground where the Seed falls as our Saviour tells us in the Parable of the Sower Matth. 13. However in case of necessity a thing must be done when and as it may and I think there never was greater necessity for this Exhortation than in our days But that which I perceive makes some Men think it so unseasonable at this time to perswade Men to return to the Communion of the Church of England is because they are either in great hope to pull down the Church of England or at least to open the Door a little wider to let those in who are now excluded by some scruples of Conscience about some indifferent Rites and Ceremonies used in our Worship As for the first of these I wish with all my Soul that such seasonable Exhortations as these may prove very unseasonable for their Designs that it may bring Men to their Wits and make them consider what they are a doing when they go about to pull down the best Church in the World It may be very unseasonable indeed for them but it would be a very unseasonable and despicable piece of Folly and Modesty for all those who favour Sion to stand still and say nothing while they accomplish their Designs and bring their wicked Devices to pass As for the second sort who only desire to see the Church Doors a little wider to receive more honest and devout Men into our Communion I cannot imagine why they should conceive such Exhortations unseasonable at this time for are they afraid that such Discourses should so far satisfy all Men in our Communion that there should be no need of any alteration Truly I have no great hopes to see such blessed effects of the wisest and most convincing Discourses and if such a thing ever should be certainly no good men would be troubled at it since the great End they designed viz. To see all Men return to the Communion of the Church would be as effectually obtained and it is much more desirable to see Men rectify their own Mistakes than to alter wholsom Constitutions wherein there is always great danger and very seldom any great success witness the miserable Confusions of the last Age. Or do they think it impossible to vindicate the Church of England from unjust Imputations to wipe off that dirt which is cast upon her by her inveterate Enemies to discover the evil and danger of Schism and Separation without obstinately adhering to every Punctilio and opposing all reasonable Condescentions to the weakness or ignorance of others I am sure there is no consequence in this and it is a great Argument that they censure and revile Men before they know them We know how to distinguish between the lawfulness and necessity of things between some less material Circumstances of Worship and the Peace and Communion of the Christian Church Possibly the most zealous and most learned Defenders of the Church are most ready to any Reasonable Compliances when-ever Authority shall see fit We have a late Instance of it in an excellent Person than whom possibly no Man ever writ better for the Church nor ever hinted more reasonable and equal Proposals in the behalf of Dissenters The truth is it is as absolutely necessary to dispose Mens minds to Peace and Union by good Arguments and pious and earnest Exhortations as it is for Publick Authority to relax the Terms of Communion to give ease to some doubting and scrupulous Consciences for while Men have such superstitious Conceits that God is either pleased or displeased with doing or not doing some indifferent things in themselves considered with wearing or not wearing a Surplice or using or not using the Cross in Baptism when Men think that God will be angry with them for doing that which he hath no where forbid and that we must do nothing in the external Ministries of Religion but what he has expresly commanded and then I confess I do not see how we can perform any one Duty
the natural Passions of our Minds If we consider God as the first Cause of all Things so God has a natural right to the Praise and Glory of all his Works and therefore all the Works of God are said to praise him The Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy-work What-ever Wisdom Power or Goodness is seen in the frame of this vast and beautiful World what-ever Perfections are bestowed on any Creatures must be ascribed to the great Maker of all Things It is impossible to see any curious piece of Painting without admiring and praising the skill of the Painter and that Man is very unjust as well as very sensless who can look upon this World so wonderful for its unknown Extent exquisite Contrivance Beauty Uniformity infinite Numbers variety and perfections of its Inhabitants and not adore and worship that God who made all this The Order Beauty and Glory of Material Beings are visible Demostrations of the Infinite Perfections of their Invisible Cause and the most proper and natural Work of reasonable Creatures is to discover the Perfections of God and of his Works and to worship him with the humblest and devoutest Adorations and if it be unjust to defraud Men of the Glory of their wise and great and good Actions it is much greater injustice to God who is the sole and independent Cause of all Things and yet not to worship God is to defraud him of his Glory And if we consider more particularly that we our selves are God's Creatures who owe our Being to him that in him we live move and have our being this makes it a natural Debt to praise and adore the God who made us as the Psalmist speaks To worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker Know ye that the Lord he is God it is he that hath made us and not we our selves we are his People and the Sheep of his Pasture Enter into his Gates with thanksgiving and into his Courts with praise be thankful unto him and bless his Name For since God made us he has a natural Right and Interest in us and may challenge our Homage and Obedience as a just Debt entailed upon our Natures Thus God argues A Son honoureth his Father and a Servant his Master If then I be a Father where is my Honour and if I be a Master where is my Fear That is there is at least as much natural Justice in paying all Homage and Worship to God our Heavenly Father and Soveraign Lord as it is accounted among Men for Children to honour their Parents and Servants their Masters and therefore let any Man who will but allow God the same right in his Creatures which he himself challenges in his Children and Servants judg how unseemly and unnatural it is to refuse to love and honour and worship the great Author of our Being Who planteth a Vineyard and eateth not of the Fruit thereof Can any thing be more reasonable than that God should be worshiped and adored by those Creatures whom his own Hands have made and fashioned So that upon all Accounts God has a natural Right to our Homage and Worship and nothing can excuse us from paying this Debt unless it appear that we are under some natural Incapacity to do it But indeed this is a Debt which we are all able to pay for God has made us reasonable Creatures endowed us with Wisdom and Knowledg to discover the Perfections of his Nature and Works and to understand our Obligations to him and with such a Principle of Will and Choice as can act freely and with such inward passions of Love and Joy Fear and Reverence Hope and Affiance as may easily be wrought up to the highest strain of Devotion He has given us Eyes to contemplate this beautiful Frame of Things and Tongues to speak his Praises and publish all his mighty Works so that Man-kind seems to be made on purpose for the Worship of God to be a curious and diligent Observer of God's Works and to speak of his Glory which lays a new Obligation on us and gives God a natural Title to our Worship This was the Reason why he made us this was the Design of our Natures and the End of our Creation We live now in such a busy World where we find so many things to do to provide Food and Raiment and all things necessary to this Mortal State or it may be to serve the Ends of Ambition and Lust that we can find very little time to worship God and therefore are apt to think that this is the least thing we have to do But we should consider that this is not the Original Work and Imployment of Man-kind but the punishment of our Sin and Apostacy from God For let us suppose that Man-kind had preserved their Innocence and continued in Paradise where they had no need of Cloaths and fed on the Fruit of the Garden which grew of it self without plowing or sowing and was fit for Food without any Arts of Cookery when there was no other bodily Employment but to look to the Garden which neither required much labour nor took up much time but was like those innocent Diversions we now use to recreate and unbend our Minds with now I say in such a state as this which was the Original State of Mankind how could Men spend their time but in the Contemplation of God's Works and in the study of Divine Wisdom and Philosophy and in adoring the great Maker of all Things unless we can imagine that God gave Man such an active and busy Mind to dissolve in sloth which is so uneasy a state that Paradise it self could be no happiness upon these terms or that God designed him for an Atheistical Philosopher to admire the Works of Nature without adoring the Wise Creator Indeed it is not conceivable that so vast and comprehensive a Mind such active and boundless Passions as God hath endowed Man-kind withal should be wholly designed for no higher Employment than to qualify a Man to be a Plow-man or a Mechanick or to speak the greatest thing at once to be a Prince or a Minister of State such a Mind as comes so near Infinity as that of Man was certainly designed for nothing less than the Knowledg Love and Admiration of an Infinite Being And if we must learn the End for which Creatures are made by the End which they are capable to serve it is evident Man was made for the Worship of God because he is fitted with such Endowments and Perfections of Mind as qualify him to be a Worshipper And if God be the greatest and most perfect Being then the Knowledg and Worship of God is the noblest Employment of Humane Nature and consequently the last and highest End for which Man was made Nay we may consider further that Man is not only capable of worshipping God but no other Creature in this visible World is he and he only
escape better at the last Judgment than Capernaum and Capernaum I doubt will escape much better than the Infidels and Atheists and profane despisers of Religion in our days because they laboured under old and inveterate Prejudices which could not easily be removed but required time and patience and the exercise of free and impartial Reason to wear them off But now when the Gospel has prevailed in the World for so many Ages when Men are educated in the Christian Religion and have all the Prejudices of their first and early Instructions on the right side when it is so difficult a thing to cast off their reverence for God and to silence and stupify their clamorous Consciences for Men to use so much Art and Industry to turn Atheists or Infidels or profane Scoffers at Religion will admit of no excuse but is the highest Affront to God and will receive the sorest Punishment and a Sentence as amazing and astonishing as the Sin is Thus I have represented the evil and heinous Nature of this Sin and if these Men do believe that there is a God as they profess to do would they give themselves time seriously to consider these things I cannot imagine but it must have some good effect upon them For can any Man who believes a God if he ever consider such Matters endure the least thought of putting such a scorn and contempt upon God as the neglect of Religious Worship does naturally signify He knows what a sharp resentment he himself has of a slight or neglect how ill he takes it if Men industriously avoid his Company if they do but talk and seem to mind something else when he is telling a Story if his Friends neglect to visit him and turn their heads another way when they pass by his Door and he knows how sensible Superiors especially are of such neglects from their Inferiors For a Prince to be slighted by his Subjects or a Father by his Children or a Master by his Servants is thought so unsufferable a rudeness as cannot be too severely punished And therefore considering that infinite distance which is between God and Creatures he may easily conclude how ill God takes the neglect of his Worship which is the greatest slight that can be put upon him and argues very mean and contemptible Thoughts of him if such Men did think of him at all And when he considers also how many Obligations he lies under to worship God he cannot but blush to be guilty of so great injustice not to praise and magnify him who deserves to be praised and to be had in reverence by all those who are about him He thinks it great injustice to detract from the Praises of worthy and deserving Men or to conceal them what is it then not to ascribe to God the Glory and Perfection of his Nature and Works which are proclaimed by all the World Not to adore and worship our Maker who made us for this end that we might see and speak of his Glory Did God give me Eyes may such a Man say to see the Glory of this World and an Understanding to search out the first Cause to whom the Praise of all is due that when I have found him I should take no notice of him neither confess his Power nor admire his Wisdom nor praise his Goodness Did he give me a Tongue to talk of every Trifle and never to be silent but where it ought to be most vocal in the Praises of my Maker How ill should I take it could I make any Being that could understand or speak should it refuse to acknowledg from whence it was and to whom it owes its Being Consider my Soul how thou shouldest resent the neglect of a Son of a Client of a redeemed Captive or of any one whom thou hast obliged and by thy Bounty raised from a low to a splendid Fortune who owes his Being his Fortune his Liberty and all the Comforts and Blessings of Life to thee And is it nothing then to neglect the Worship of that God who is the Universal Parent Lord and Benefactor of the World who has redeemed thee with the Blood of his Son and designed a more glorious Happiness for thee if thy unjust and ungrateful neglects of him do not render thee uncapable of his Favour But how unpardonable is it for a Man to be false to his Oaths and Covenants Such Persons are not thought fit for Humane Conversation who break the most Sacred Ties and therefore can never be trusted but yet no Man ever broke his Word much less an Oath or Covenant but when he expected to make some advantage of it And shall I break the Covenant of my God a Covenant to which I owe all my hopes of Happiness all the Good I now enjoy and all that I expect If I forfeit my Interest in this Covenant I must be miserable and perish like a Fool and since I cannot forfeit my Interest without breaking my Covenant I must perish like an Apostate a Runnagate a Traitor or like one who deserves to suffer the worst things but deserves no Pity and is it so grievous a thing to worship God that I should chuse rather to be unjust to be ungrateful to be perfidious to God to forfeit his Love and Favour and to incur his hottest Displeasure than acknowledg that I owe all to him that I have and that I expect all from him SECT III. Concerning the Danger of Irreligion both with respect to this World and the next and the folly of it with a serious Exhortation to these Men to take care of their Souls SEcondly I shall now consider the Danger of Irreligion in neglecting or contemning the Worship of God For those who will not be wrought on by a sense of Justice or Gratitude may yet be governed by the more brutish Principle of Fear Now the Danger of this respects both this World and the next 1. The Danger of Irreligion with respect to this World Now whoever believes there is a God who governs all Humane Affairs in whom we live move and have our Being who disposes of our several Fortunes and Conditions of Life must needs apprehend himself in great danger of being miserable here while he neglects to adore and reverence the soveraign and unaccountable Lord of the World We find throughout the Scripture that the Promise even of Temporal Blessings and Deliverance is made only to those who beg it of God by their servent and importunate Prayers This is the course all good Men in all Ages have taken and found the blessed success of it Call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me For thou Lord art good and ready to forgive and plenteous in Mercy unto all them that call upon thee Give ear O Lord unto my Prayer and attend unto the Voice of my Supplications In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee for thou wilt answer me He shall
all manner of Wickedness and naturally tends to harden Men in Sin and very often ends in down-right Atheism Men who have cast off all sense and reverence for God have no other restraint from the greatest Villanies but what the Laws of the Land their own natural Tempers their Education and Converse and such-like Considerations lay upon them which can keep very few Men who have cast off the Fear and Reverence of God within any tolerable bounds and thus Men run into the wildest Excesses and wound their Consciences and stain their Reputations till they grow hopeless desperate and impudent Sinners Men who are very bad and yet will not neglect their Prayers nor absent themselves wholly from Christian Assemblies do what they can find great checks of Conscience and have a great many sober Intervals they cannot say their Prayers and confess their Sins to God and beg his Pardon and Mercy but their Consciences will reproach them and put them at least upon some imperfect resolutions of amendment and when they attend the preaching of the Word they often are so startled and scared and labour under such strong Convictions that they are not able to resist any longer and the good Spirit of God does not wholly forsake those Men who attend the Publick Ministries of Grace but sometimes works such miraculous Cures as are the triumphs of a Soveraign Grace and therefore the Case of these Men can never be so desperate and hopeless as theirs is who take care to think of him as little as possibly they can and withdraw themselves from Publick Instructions that they may sin on without disturbance till they drop into Hell Thirdly Let us now consider the folly of Irreligion and there is the more reason to do this because the Irreligious and Profane the Practical as well as the Speculative Atheist is very apt to boast of his Wit and Understanding and to think himself much above the ordinary level of Mankind But the Spirit of God calls them Fools The Fool hath said in his Heart There is no God which is not meant of the Speculative but of the Practical Atheist who though he professeth to believe that there is a God yet lives as if there were none And if Religion be the onely true Wisdom Irreligion must be the greatest folly and yet so we are taught in Scripture that the fear of the Lord that is the Worship of God which is the most natural expression of our reverence of him that is Wisdom The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom a good understanding have all they that do his Commandments The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom and the Knowledg of the Holy is Understanding Now what I have already discoursed of the Evil and Danger proves also the Folly of Irreligion for what can be more foolish than that which contradicts the best Reason of our Minds and our natural Obligations to worship God founded on the highest Wisdom What can be more foolish than to undermine our own Interest to lay Trains of Misery for our selves and to forfeit our present and future Happiness That is cursed contemptible Wit which will droll away a Man's Life and his Soul together But besides all this the Folly of Irreligion will appear if we consider these two Things 1. That it transforms a Man into a Beast and then though such a Man may have all the wild conceits of Apes and Monkeys and the craft and subtilty of a Fox yet he has not the Understanding and Wisdom of a Man He may have an inferior sort of Wit and may be reckoned the top and perfection of the meer Animal and Sensitive Life but is fallen vastly below the Attainments of Men for it is not Reason but Religion which is the Glory and Perfection of Humane Nature as every one must acknowledg who believes that there is a God for God is the noblest Object of our Minds and to adore and worship him is to act according to the most excellent capacity of our Natures I doubt not at all but brute Creatures have an inferior degree of Reason fitted to the low Attainments of their Natures and that they commonly reason more wisely and truly in their own Concerns than Irreligious Men do in theirs but they cannot know God nor worship him they cannot see nor adore his infinite Perfections their Reason is confined to a narrow compass to those things which concern the preservation of their own Being and the enjoyments of their Natures and such a kind of Being is an Irreligious Man whose Reason indeed is capable of higher and nobler flights but is pinnioned down and confined to present and sensible Objects and serves only to corrupt and deprave a more excellent Nature into a brutish State Now if that be the true Wisdom and Glory the specifical Difference of a Man which distinguishes him from all inferior Creatures then Religon as the Scripture tells us must be his Wisdom and whatever Wit Irreligious Men may pretend to being so much below the Attainments nay being no better than the Corruption of Humane Nature it may set them a degree above the Wit of a Beast but is no better than folly in a Man 2. There is not a more certain demonstration of folly than for Men to act foolishly especially in Matters of vast Concernment and this consideration impeaches the Irreligious Man of the most despicable Folly as to give you some Instances of this Some neglect to worship God out of a careless trifling humour they never consider what God is how much they owe to him how intirely they are at his disposal what the danger and punishment of Irreligion is and if it be folly not to use the wisest Thoughts and best Consideration we have in matters of the greatest moment then Irreligion is Folly Others neglect the Worship of God because it disturbs them in the secure enjoyment of their Lusts and puts a great many black and melancholy Thoughts into their Heads which is just as wise as to shut our Eyes and run down a Precipice because it makes us melancholy to open our Eyes and see our Danger whereas a wise Man would rather chuse to open his Eyes that he might see how to avoid it Others take offence at Religion because they see a great many Hypocrites zealous pretenders to Religion and they had as good never mind Religion as be Hypocrites but is this a good Reason not to mind Religion because Hypocrites pretend to Religion when indeed they have none Cannot they be sincerely Religious though Hypocrites be not Are there not a great many Religious Men who are no Hypocrites And is not that a better Reason to be Religious without Hypocrisy than to be of no Religion to declare to all the World that we are not Hypocrites Others are scandalized at the great variety of Religions which are as contrary to each other as Light to Darkness and conclude that it is to no
that I need not insist on the proof of it Their several sorts of Sacrifices were to be offered at the Tabernacle or Temple by the Priests who were publick Persons even those particular Sacrifices which were offered for particular Men either Expiatory or Eucharistical to make atonement for their Sins or to be an oblation of Praise for particular Mercies were yet offered at the Temple and besides this they had Sacrifices for the whole Congregation as on the great day of Expiation which was not for any particular Man but for the whole Body of the People and therefore considered them all as united in the same Religion and Worship God appointed also a publick Place of Worship viz. the Tabernacle or Temple at Ierusalem and a publick place for Worship can be of no use if there were no obligation to publick Worship God also instituted publick Times of Worship the Seventh day Sabbath their New Moons and Annual Festivals when all their Males were to appear three times a Year before the Lord And such Times as these are described by calling Assemblies and solemn Meetings because then they met together for publick Worship for indeed it seems to be a contradiction to appoint publick and solemn Times for private Worship If Men are bound only to worship God in private there is no need of publick Days of Rest dedicated to God's Worship for every Man may take his own Time for it as he finds most convenient and useful but fixed and stated Times of Worship do necessarily suppose publick Worship and evidently prove that Solemn and Publick Days for Worship are not sanctified meerly by private Acts of Worship And therefore we may consider further that God entred into Covenant with the Children of Israel not as particular Persons but as the Seed of Abraham as a People and Nation whom he had chose for himself to be his peculiar Inheritance and therefore every part of his Covenant and the institution of Religious Worship is none of the least parts of it concerns them as a Nation So that this was a National Covenant and a National Religion and Worship and I need add no more to prove that according to God's Institution it was a publick Worship for God was the King of Israel and therefore required as publick Homage from them as other Princes expect from their Subjects as publick I say tho he can Challenge more divine Regards than earthly Princes because he was their God as well as their King And therefore the Children of Israel themselves are frequently called the Congregation of Israel and the whole Congregation as consisting of such Persons as used to meet together for publick Worship how had a right to Worship at the Tabernacle of the Congregation Let us then thirdly consider the Religion of our Saviour and what Obligations that lays on us to all the Acts of Publick Worship Now I need not tell you that Christ has instituted a Church which is so often in the Writings of the Apostles called a Church and the Church of Christ. Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies a Meeting and Assembly which is called together and so acquaints us what the Nature of a Christian Church is that it is a Society of Men united and combined together in the Faith and Worship of Christ For the Church of Christ is purely a Religious Society Our Saviour had no Temporal Kingdom as the Jews expected his Kingdom was not of this World and therefore his Church is nothing else but a Society of Men for the Worship of God through Christ which is a plain demonstration that every Member of the Christian Church is bound to join in all the Offices of publick Worship for there can be no Christian Church if there be no publick Worship because the Christian Church is a Religious Society that is a Society instituted for Religious Worship nor can he be a Member of the Christian Church who wholly neglects or despises publick Worship for he can at best be only a nominal Member of an Assembly who neglects to assemble with them especially when it is essential to our Membership to frequent such Assemblies Now we may safely conclude that Christ would never have instituted a Church or Religious Assembly for publick Worship had not publick Worship been much more acceptable to God than our private Devotions had it been so indifferent as some Men presume whether we worship God singly or in a Body and Society whether at Home in our Closet or in the publick Congregation And we may observe farther That this Church is called the Body of Christ and the Apostle tells us that there is but one body and one Spirit even as you are called in one hope of your Calling Now to be one Body as all good Christians are if Christ have but one Body signifies a very near and intimate union between all the Members of the Body this is agreed by all but then the Question is wherein this Unity consists Some place the Unity of Christians in one Faith in believing all the Articles of the Christian Faith or in having a mutual Kindness and Charity and it must be acknowledged that these are absolutely necessary to unite Christians to make them the one Body of Christ. But yet this is not all for there may be great Dissensions and Schisms where there is but one Faith as it was of old in those fearful Schisms of the Novatians and Donatists who differed not in Matters of Faith but Discipline and as our own sad Experience convinces us at this Day and Men may exercise a Christian Charity and Forbearance to each other without being Members of the same Body and therefore we must consider that this one Body is one Church and the Unity of a Church or Religious Assembly must of necessity consist in one Communion and therefore he who separates himself from Christian Communion who forsakes the Publick Assemblies for Religious Worship destroys the Unity of the Church which is a sufficient Argument that publick Worship when we can enjoy the Opportunities of it is essential to the Notion and Being of a Christian Church And therefore we find that this was the constant practice of Christians from the very first Foundations of a Christian Church Thus we read of those new Converts That they continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of Bread and in Prayers And they continuing daily with one accord in the Temple and in breaking Bread from House to House did eat their Meat with gladness and singleness of Heart Here you see the Example of the first Christians they continued in the fellowship of the Apostles in the communion of Doctrine Sacraments and Prayers which is the true description of the Unity of the Christian Church and therefore the Christian Church is called a Communion or Fellowship That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that you may have fellowship with us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that you may become Christians and enter into our Society and truly our Fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Iesus Christ. And therefore the Sacrament of Baptism is our admission into the Christian Church that is gives a right to all the Priviledges of Christian Communion for we are baptized into one Body and the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is expresly called the Communion it is that common Table which all Christians have a right to The Cup of Blessing which we bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ the Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ For we being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread It is essential to the nature of the Lord's Supper that it is a common Feast of which all Christians partake for it signifies not only our Union to Christ but our Union to one another in the same Body for which Reason the Reformed Churches universally condemn the private Masses of the Church of Rome where the Priest receives by himself and truly private Devotions when they thrust out publick Worship are much of the same nature So that the very Institution of a Church the Example of the Primitive Christians and those Sacraments of our Religion which our Saviour has instituted as the Badges of Christianity and the Conveyances of Spiritual Life and Grace may convince us how necessary Christian Communion and Publick Worship is if we will be the Disciples of Christ and we are expresly commanded by the Writer to the Hebrews Not to forsake the assembling of our selves together But we may consider farther that Christ has instituted an Evangelical Priesthood the publick Ministers of Religion whom he has commanded to instruct his Church to feed his Flock to pray for his People and to bless in his Name to whom he has committed the Power of the Keys to let in or to shut out of the Church Now what use could there be for publick Ministers unless publick Worship were a great and necessary Duty If it were so indifferent a thing whether Christians frequent the Religious Assemblies and continue in their Doctrine and Fellowship breaking Bread and Prayers it does not seem worth the while to have invested Men with such Power and Authority which is of so little use especially since Christianity is so much known and so far spread in the World whereas our Saviour promises to be with his Apostles unto the end of the World which could not be meant of the Persons of the Apostles for they are long since dead but of their Successors who retain their Office and Power as far as is necessary to the present state of the Church And the force of this Argument from the Apostolical Office will be better understood if we consider wherein the Power of the Keys consists which Christ committed to St. Peter and the rest of the Apostles or what is the true ancient Discipline of the Christian Church Now the Power of the Church which is truly Spiritual consists only in letting into the Church or shutting out The admission into the Church is by administring Baptism which they are made the external Judges of who are fit to be received into the Church by Baptism and who not shutting out of the Church is by exercising Censures upon Offenders which consists only in this in removing such Men from Christian Communion either in part or wholly for a time or for ever according to the severity of the ancient Discipline Some were not permitted to come into the Christian Assemblies but lay at the door lamenting their wickedness and begging their Prayers Others were admitted to publick Instructions but not to the Communion of Prayers or at least if they were admitted to the Prayers of the Catechumens those who were publickly instructed and catechised but not yet baptized were not allowed to be present at the Prayers of the Faithful Others were admitted to Prayers but not to the Supper of the Lord. Now all this supposes that Christian Communion is not only a necessary Duty but a great Priviledg since they had no other way of punishing Offenders but by denying them the liberty of Worship in their Assemblies but what would those Men value Church-Censures who make so slight of publick Worship as daily to excommunicate themselves Certainly these Men are greatly mistaken or else the very Office and Authority of an Apostle is a very inconsiderable thing and that dreadful Sentence of Excommunication which was so formidable in the Ancient Church is a very innocent and harmless thing since Men may as well worship God alone as in Christian Assemblies and that they might do when excommunicated or shut out of Christian Assemblies And I observe farther That our Saviour requires of us the publick profession of his Name and Worship which necessarily includes publick Worship Whosoever therefore shall confess me before Men him will I confess before my Father which is in Heaven but whosoever shall deny me before Men him will I deny before my Father which is in Heaven To confess Christ is to own him for our Lord and Saviour not only in words tho too many such there are whom our Saviour will not own will not confess before his Father which is in Heaven but by paying him such publick Homage and Worship as is a visible demonstration that we do own him for our Lord. For thus to confess Christ signifies With the mouth Confession is made unto Salvation for whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved The Christian Church was to be a Visible Society like a City that is set on a Hill or like a Candle placed in a Candlestick to give light to all that are in the House But the Church can never be visibly distinguished from the rest of the World without the publick and visible exercise of Religion and therefore our Saviour exhorts his Disciples Let your Light so shine before Men that they may see your good Works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven which must refer to all parts of Religion and therefore includes Acts of Worship as well as Acts of Mercy and Charity To conclude this Argument It is the acknowledged Duty of a Christian Prince to take care to encourage and propagate true Religion in his Dominions which can never be done without encouraging publick Worship correcting publick Abuses and punishing the neglect or profanation of it for if Mens Religion be confined to their Closets no Man can possibly tell what Religion they are of they may be Pagans Mahometans Papists or Infidels and no Man the wiser if they can but keep their own counsel And therefore if it be the Duty of Magistrates to encourage and reform Religion and yet nothing can fall within his cognizance or under his care but what is publick it is easy to conclude That publick Worship which is the Care of
publick Magistrates is the Duty also of private Christians Possibly some may think that I have taken a great deal of needless pains in proving so plain a Thing and truly I should think so too were I not sensible by my own experience how many profest Christians there are who have very little apprehension of the necessity of publick Worship and therefore sometimes come to Church to comply with the fashion of the Place and sometime stay at Home to comply with their own careless Humours If any such read these Papers I would desire and beg of them seriously to consider this Matter and not to abuse themselves by some childish and sophistical Reasonings into a Neglect so dishonourable to God and so destructive to their Souls Suppose you did really as some I fear only pretend spend your time in private Prayer and Reading and Meditation yet can you reasonably expect that God should accept should hear and answer your private Prayers when they signify a Neglect if not a Contempt of publick Worship which is so much more pleasing to him as it is more honourable to be praised by a multitude of devout Souls in the Face of the Sun than in a secret Corner where no Body sees nor hears us Can you think your single Prayers will as much prevail with God as when the fervent and ardent Desires of a Christian Assembly are offered up to God by a publick Minister of Religion whom our Saviour has appointed to pray for us and to bless in his Name Can you any where expect such plentiful effusions of the Divine Grace and Spirit as in the Congregation of the Saints while we attend on Divine Institutions which are never without a Blessing annexed unto them when there are Subjects capable of receiving it There is time enough for our private Devotions without neglecting or affronting publick Worship And when we remember that Christ has promised to be present in Christian Assemblies Where-ever two or three are gathered together in his Name and that God prefers the Gates of Sion the place of publick Worship before all the Dwellings of Jacob it should make us long and thirst after the Courts of God and be glad when they say Let us go up into the House of the Lord. CHAP. III. Concerning those who plead Conscience for their Separation and set up distinct Communions of their own SECT I. Containing several Directions to such Men whereby to try their Honesty and Sincerity in this Matter THe third sort of Men who forsake our Religious Assemblies are those who pretend Conscience for their Separation and set up distinct Communions of their own who separate for fear of Sin and think themselves bound as they honour God and love their own Souls to avoid our Communion Now these Men deserve our most tender regard for if they be in good earnest it is very great pity that those who are so desirous to please God and to save their Souls should fall into such dangerous Mistakes But yet I do not intend to dispute the terms of our Communion with them at this time there are so many excellent Books writ in defence of the Church of England that there is no want of Instruction for those who are honest and inquisitive and therefore at present I shall take another Method which I hope may prove more effectual than disputing commonly does And I shall reduce what I have to say under these three Heads First To put them upon some Inquiries with reference to their honesty and sincerity in this Matter Secondly To offer some general Considerations for their Satisfaction Thirdly To remove some popular Pleas and Objections First To put them upon some Inquiries with reference to their honesty and sincerity in this Matter For those who plead Conscience for disobeying their Governors in Church or State offer such an insufferable affront to God if they be Hypocrites and carry on other Designs under a pretence of Conscience that woe be to that Man that whited painted Sepulchre how glorious a Profession soever he makes who is thus rotten at the Heart And in order to discover your honesty and sincerity I shall desire every Man as he fears God and loves his Soul and hopes for Mercy at the terrible appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ when he shall come again to judg the Quick and the Dead to give a sincere Answer to these following Questions First Whether he do indeed separate from the Communion of our Parish Churches upon true Principles of Conscience To pretend to Conscience for any Thing is to pretend the Authority of God for God alone is the Supream Lord and Governour of our Consciences in all Cases where he interposes his Authority and to pretend the Authority of God for disobeying our Governors and dividing the Church when we have no such Authority is like counterfeiting the King 's Broad Seal to justifie Treasons and Rebellions Few Men make any difference between their private Judgments Opinions of Things and their Conscience that is between their own Authority and the Authority of God what-ever fancy comes into their Heads is called their Conscience and then they think they are bound to prefer their own private and groundless Conceits before all the visible Authority of Church and State And if this Principle be once admitted it is impossible there should be any lasting Peace and Unity in Church or State No Man must act against his Conscience that is he must not do any thing which he knows God has expresly forbid nor neglect doing any thing which he knows God has commanded A Divine Law is the Rule of Conscience and all the Powers of the World cannot deliver us from the Obligation of it in such Cases we must rather chuse to obey God than Men what-ever we suffer by it in this World but an erroneous doubting scrupulous Conscience is improperly called Conscience it being nothing else but our mistaken Opinion of Things and the wavering uncertainty of our Minds which cannot determine on which side the Truth lies But you will object That this seems to be a fruitless nicety which signifies nothing in practice for whether you will call it Conscience or private Opinion the case is the same for we must not do any thing which we believe or fear to be evil and contrary to a Divine Law as St. Paul tells us That he that doubteth is damned if he eat for what-ever is not of Faith is Sin But notwithstanding this this distinction between Mens Consciences and private Opinions between their Judgments directed and governed by the Laws of God or by other arbitrary and uncertain Measures is of very great use to direct our practice For first this should make us religiously careful not to pretend Conscience that is a Divine Authority where we can produce no Divine Law commanding or forbidding those things which we pretend to do or not to do under the Obligations of Conscience The pretence of Conscience is that we dare
not displease God and therefore chuse rather to displease Men but to pretend a Divine Command and Authority when we have none is like prophesying falsly in the Name of God and entitling the Divine Majesty to all our Dreams and Fancies it is to make new Laws which God never made and to set up a new Church and new Religion in his Name And if we consider what dreadful Woes and Curses are denounced against those who prophesy falsely in the Name of God it should make us all tremble to pretend a Divine Command without Divine Authority This we may see in the Prophet Ieremiah Then the Lord said unto me The Prophets prophesy lies in my Name and I sent them not neither have I commanded them neither spake unto them they prophesy to you a false Vision and Divination and a thing of nought and the deceit of their Heart I have heard what the Prophets said that prophesy lies in my Name saying I have dreamed I have dreamed How long shall this be in the Heart of the Prophets that prophesy Lies Yea they are Prophets of the deceit of their own Hearts Therefore behold I am against the Prophets saith the Lord that steal my words every one from his Neighbour Behold I am against the Prophets saith the Lord that use their Tongues and say He saith Behold I am against them that prophesy false Dreams saith the Lord and do tell them and cause my People to err by their Lies and by their lightness yet I sent them not nor commanded them therefore they shall not profit this People at all saith the Lord. Now tho we understand prophesying here of foretelling future Events in God's Name without any Revelation or Authority from him yet to pretend that God has commanded or forbidden any thing which he has not is not a less Crime than to prophesy Dreams and the deceit of our Hearts for the mischiefs which these false Prophesies did consisted in that ill influence they had upon Mens Lives that they hindred their Repentance and encouraged them in their licentious or idolatrous practices and therefore to preach up new Laws in God's Name is as great an Evil as it is to prophesy falsely in his Name and therefore no Man must pretend Conscience any further than the express Commands and Prohibitions of the Scripture To say that any thing is unlawful to be done which God has not forbid or that it is unlawful to do any things in Matters of Worship which God has not commanded is to prophesy falsely in God's Name when they can shew no such Law extant in the whole Bible You pretend Conscience it may be against hearing a form of Prayer or receiving the Sacrament kneeling or being present when the Minister uses a Surplice in Divine Administrations Consider now whether you do not falsely pretend a Divine Authority when you have none shew me where God has forbid the use of a form of Prayer or a Surplice or kneeling at the Lord's Supper or the Cross in Baptism If you think it sufficient that these are not commanded shew me but that Law That nothing must be done in the Worship of God but what he has commanded and if you can do neither as I am sure you can't then consider what an impious thing it is to say Thus saith the Lord when he hath not said it to make new Laws and bind them upon your own Consciences and impose them upon other Men by your own private Authority which is a much heavier imposition than the observation of some few innocent and indifferent Rites and Ceremonies Those who understand their Christian Liberty in the use of indifferent Things and therefore comply with all wholsome Constitutions of the Church in obedience to their Civil and Ecclesiastical Governors do not usurpe upon God's Authority but obey Divine Laws as Divine and Humane Laws as Humane but to pretend Conscience for disobeying our Governors in indifferent things is to teach for Doctrines the Commandments of Men to make that a Divine Law which God never made so viz. That we must do nothing in Religion which God hath not commanded tho it be commanded by our lawful Superiors Secondly I observe further That the meer pretence of Conscience is not a sufficient justification of any Action unless we can produce a Divine Law as the Rule of our Consciences It is not Conscience when we mean no more by it than our private Judgment and Opinions of Things but the Law of God which is the Rule of our Actions There never have been worse Actions done than have been done out of a pretence of Conscience and he must be a very uncharitable Man who believes that there never was a consciencious Pagan Papist or Mahometan and if to act according to our Consciences that is our Belief and Perswasion be sufficient to acquit us at God's Tribunal this must necessarily make all Religions indifferent for then an honest Pagan Papist or Turk who lives according to his own Perswasion is as acceptable to God as the most hearty and sincere Protestant then the Jews were very godly and devout Men when in Zeal for their Law they crucified Christ and persecuted his Apostles as believing that they did God good Service and therefore we must not content our selves if we act according to our Belief but we must be careful to believe a right for if we follow the guidance of a blind and ignorant Conscience we shall wander and go astray to the infinite danger of our Souls as our Saviour tells us That if the Blind lead the Blind they shall both fall into the Ditch These blind Men are such as have blind Consciences that is are ignorant of their Duty but yet may very sincerely follow their own Consciences and very safely too if Conscience right or wrong were a secure Guide Thirdly I observe further That we ought not to doubt and scruple any thing which is not forbid by a Divine Law The Law of God is the Rule of our Consciences and therefore to the Law and to the Testimony and if our Consciences do not speak according to them it is because there is no Light in them Some Men look upon it as a sign of great tenderness of Conscience to be doubtful and scrupulous and value themselves more by their Scruples than other Men do by the most clear and distinct Knowledg and therefore are afraid of being delivered from their Scruples and use great Art and Industry to ensnare and entangle themselves but I confess I shall never envy any Man this Attainment no more than I do a purblind Eye which sees very imperfectly and therefore gropes for its way with great caution and fear Now all Men agree that when we have any unnecessary Doubts and Scruples tho we must not act with such a scrupulous Conscience yet we ought to lay our Scruples aside But then the great Question is How we should do it unless Men can have Scruples
Law of Moses For we may observe that the Apostles themselves in compliance with the weakness of the believing Jews did use a great many Mosaical Rites only stripping them of their Typical Nature St. Paul was a zealous opposer of Circumcision and yet did not scruple to circumcise Timothy not in token of God's Covenant with Abraham but to prevent Scandal And those Christians who lived at Ierusalem worshipped in the Temple kept their Religious Festivals and observed their Law but no Christian could do this according to the Original Institution of those Laws for that had been to renounce Christianity but they observed them in complyance with the custom of their Nation and to avoid giving offence to believing Jews And if the Apostles might lawfully observe those Jewish Customs when they were freed from their Typical signification it cannot be a Fault to use some such innocent Ceremonies and Circumstances in Worship as are no way prejudicial to the Nature of Christianity If the belief of Christianity made the Observation of those Jewish Ceremonies Innocent which in their own Nature and Original Institution are inconsistent with Christianity as signifying that Christ was not yet come How much more innocent is it to worship God in a white Garment to kneel at the Sacrament and bend our Knee to our Lord at whose Table we eat and to sign our Children with the Sign of the Cross in honour of our crucified Lord and as a visible Profession of a suffering Religion 3. Our Saviour rejects all Superstitious Observances which were not any part of Religious Worship and yet were thought to have an extraordinary Sacredness and Religion in them such as he calls the Traditions of their Elders and charges them with teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of Men such as washing Cups Platters and Hands before Dinner thus touch not taste not handle not are by St. Paul called the Doctrines and Commandments of Men which refer to their abstaining from certain sorts of Meats and the like So that these Doctrines and Commandments of Men which Christ flings out of his Religion were not any Ceremonies or Circumstances of Worship but some Customs they take up with a great Opinion of their Religion and Merit As the Papists have great numbers of them such as Pilgrimages and Penances c. And St. Paul tells us with respect to such Customs as these That the Kingdom of God is not Meat and Drink but Righteousness and Peace and Ioy in the Holy Ghost that is that Christian Religion does not consist in such sorry things as eating or not eating such and such Meats but Christ expects from us true and sincere Piety as the only thing that can recommend us to God Such Superstitious Customs as these are very different from the Circumstances and Ceremonies of Religious Worship unless we think it the same thing to hope to merit Heaven by going a Pilgrimage by professing Poverty Celibacy and blind Obedience by abstaining from Flesh in Lent and such kind of vain Superstitions as it is to wear a Surplice in the time of Divine Worship or to receive the Lord's Supper upon our Knees as an external Expression of Devotion not as meritorious Superstitions The Ceremonies of our Church have been often declaimed against under the Notion of the Doctrines and Traditions of Men but it is plain that neither our Saviour nor St. Paul meant any thing like them for they do not speak of any Circumstances or Appendages of Religious Worship but of such arbitrary Superstitions as they turned into formal Acts of Religion The fourth does not much concern our present Argument the difference Christ put between the Substantial and the Instrumental parts of Worship any otherwise than to mind us that we must not look upon any Ceremonies as parts of Worship but a decent manner of performing it That our acceptance with God depends upon nothing that is meerly external but on the Devotion of the Heart and Soul expressed in such becoming Words and Behaviour as may make it visible and exemplary to others and this is exactly the Doctrine of our Church and if any Men think that such external Expressions of Honour will please God without the Worship of the Mind and Spirit they must answer for themselves for she owns no such Principles but takes care to instruct her Children better And methinks this should be no small satisfaction to Mens Minds that the established Worship of our Church has nothing contrary to the nature and design of Christianity from whence it follows that Men may be very good Christians while they live in Communion with our Church and then I doubt they cannot be very good Christians when they forsake it for nothing but an apparent and manifest danger of sin can justify such a Separation 2. But let us now further consider how the Worship of our Church is justified by the Principles of Christianity We do not pretend that there is an express command to pray always by a Form or to institute and appoint significant Ceremonies in the Worship of God but there is enough in the Gospel of our Saviour to justify such Practices as briefly to point to some few things 1. Our Saviour himself taught his Disciples to pray by a Form Our Father which art in Heaven c. And if you will allow that it was lawful for them to pray in these words though you should suppose that they were not always bound to use it it plainly proves that the Christian Religion does not forbid praying by a Form for if it be lawful to pray by a Form even of Divine Institution then a Form as a Form cannot be unlawful 2. Our Saviour has no where prescribed the particular Circumstances of Religious Worship and yet no Religious Action can be performed without some Circumstances or other he has commanded us to pray to God in his Name to commemorate his Death and Passion in his last Supper and has commanded his Apostles to baptize all Nations in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost But how oft we must pray and celebrate this Heavenly Feast in what Place in what Posture in what Time he has not told us He has prescribed the Form of words in Baptism but not any one Circumstance and yet it is certain there must be some Circumstances for every Action for the more decent performance and greater solemnity of such mysterious Rites and therefore we may well conclude that our Saviour left all such to the order and direction of his Apostles and their Successors in all Ages as may tend most to the preservation of good Order and the edification of the Church For we must consider the difference between the Law and the Gospel Under the Law the Church was in an Infant State like an Heir under Age which is under Tutors and Governors and therefore every part of that Typical Temple-Worship was exactly framed according to the Pattern in the
prevail with some honest but less thinking Men to forsake our Communion And I shall only mention those which concern the Rites and Ceremonies of our Church and all that I shall at present do here shall be to answer some hard Words and ill Names which are given to our Worship and shew how ignorantly and injuriously they are applied to the Church of England Such are these Will-Worship Superstition Idolatry Popery These are hard Words which very few People understand and therein the great force of the Objection lies as will appear from a particular examination of them First Will-Worship Now when Men charge the Church of England with Will-Worship they generally understand such a Worship as is not commanded by God but is originally owing to the Will and Invention of Men. Now this I absolutely deny that there is any such thing as will-Will-Worship in the Church of England The Worship of the Church of England consists in publick Prayers and Praises in reading the Scriptures and expounding them to the People and instructing them in the great Articles of Faith and Rules of Life in singing Psalms and administring the Supper of our Lord and such like Exercises of Devotion All which are expresly commanded in Scripture and therefore cannot be Will-Worship in this Sence for they are not the Inventions of Men but the Institutions of Christ. It is true there are some Circumstances and Ceremonies of Religious Worship used and enjoyned in the Church of England which are not commanded by God but these are no parts of Worship and therefore not Will-Worship We do not think wearing a Surplice to be an act of Worship nor expect to please God by any external Dress or Habit but we think it a decent Garb for those to use who minister in holy things We do not think kneeling at the Sacrament to be an Act but a Posture of Worship as it is of Prayer and therefore not kneel to the Bread and Wine but receive them kneeling as expressing that Reverence and Devotion of Mind which becomes such a mysterious Worship and as a Posture suitable to those Prayers which in the Act of receiving we put up to Heaven The Cross in Baptism is not designed as any act of Worship to God but as a visible Profession of our Faith in a crucified Saviour it is not a dedicating and covenanting Sign which respects God but at most an engaging Sign which respects the Church and therefore is not an Act of Worship much less Will-Worship To institute any new Kind or Species of Worship is certainly unlawful as to make any new object of Worship whether it be a visible representation such as a Picture and Image or invisible Beings as Angels and deisied Men a numerous company of whom are worshipped in the Church of Rome or any new Acts of Worship such as frequent Washings Purgations Sacrifices Pilgrimages c. But the Circumstances and Ceremonies of Religious Actions which are no where determined by God may and must be determined either by our own Prudence or by the Prudence of our Governours without the least suspicion of Will-Worship because they neither are nor are designed for Acts of Worship But we must observe further that this Word Will-Worship is found but once in all the Scripture and some very wise and learned Men question whether in that place Will-Worship be condemned by the Apostle as an ill thing the Words are these Which things have indeed a shew of Wisdom in Will-Worship and Humility and neglecting the Body not in any honour of satisfying the Flesh For they observe that Will-Worship is joyned with two other very good things Humility and neglecting the Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies external Severities and Mortifications to keep down the Body and bring it into Subjection not to pamper it with high Nourishment nor to make Provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof which seems to be the meaning of what follows not in honour in satisfying the Flesh for Honour as St. Hierom observes signifies taking Care of and making Provision for it So that we may as well say that Humility and bodily Severities Strictness and Austerity of Life in suppressing all the Motions of Lust and the least inclinations to sensual Pleasures are forbidden or censured by the Apostle as that Will-Worship is for there is as much appearance of his condemning one as t'other And besides this the Apostle says that these things have a shew of Wisdom in Will-Worship c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now we expound this to signify only a false appearance of Wisdom yet that supposes that Will-Worship and Humility and bodily Severities are in themselves good things and parts of Religious Wisdom when other things which are not good gain a Reputation of Wisdom by being like them for that which makes these things to have a shew of Wisdom is that they are mistaken for Will-Worship Humility and neglecting the Body And therefore according to this way of expounding the Words by Will-Worship we must understand voluntary Worship which answers to Free-Will-Offerings under the Law which were not commanded by God but yet were very acceptable to him when Men do something more than God has expresly commanded and deny themselves those Liberties and Enjoyments which God allows in order to some Spiritual End to refine and purge their Souls that they may arrive at more perfect attainments in Goodness And there is so much to countenance this Interpretation that all the Superstitions in the World do deceive and abuse Men and pass for excellent attainments in Religion under the shew and appearance of voluntary Worship and Free-Will-Offerings of doing something more than God has enjoyned them whereby they think they so highly merit of God as to obtain the pardon of their Sins and become his peculiar Favourites Thus the Pharisees thought to do by observing the Traditions of their Fathers by their frequent Washings Purifications Fastings and Tything even Mint and Cummin Thus the Papists do by their Fasts Pilgrimages and Penances but the mistake is that this is but a false appearance of Wisdom because tho at first it looks like the noble generous Worship of Free-Will-Offerings yet it is not so For tho under the Law Free-Will Offerings were not commanded which had destroyed the Nature of a Free-Will Offering yet there are directions given what such Persons shall offer to God in case they do offer at all and in particular that there shall be no blemish in it which signifies that this voluntary Worship must be confined to such Instances as we know are acceptable to God and therefore when Men spend their Zeal in some voluntary Superstitions which cannot please God such things have only a shew a false appearance of Wisdom in voluntary Worship because tho their Worship be voluntary and so far commendable yet they do not make a wise choice of the Acts of Worship do not worship God in an acceptable manner And this is
he has put an end to Circumcision Sacrifices Legal Washings and Purifications and the like and has only instituted Baptism as the Sacrament of our admission into his Church which cannot be thought grievous and troublesome when it is administred but once to a man for his life and the Lords Supper as a standing Rite of Worship and to deny obedience to one easie Command when our Lord has delivered us from such a grievous and unsupportable yoke is a sign that as much as men talk of Christian Liberty they little value that love which purchas 't it at so dear rate Others there are who do not wholly withdraw themselves from the Lords Table but yet think there is no great reason to communicate often so they do it some times though very seldome they comply with our Saviours Institution who has commanded us indeed to eat the Sacramental Bread and drink the Wine in remembrance of him but has not appointed how often this shall be done In answer to this I grant that our Saviour has appointed no fixt and setled times for the celebration of this holy Supper but this seems to me a plain argument that he has instituted this Supper as an ordinary part of Christian Worship if he had intended that we should have received these mysteries only on some set and solemn times he would have told us so but having appointed no time for it we must conclude that this is part of that Worship which he expects from Christians in all their publick Religious Assemblies when ever they meet together to worship God and their Saviour And thus the Primitive Christians understood our Saviour for they never met together for Religious Worship but this holy Feast was part and alwayes accounted the principal part of it In the Apostles dayes this was done every day as is generally concluded from that short history we have of their daily conversation which was spent in the duties and exercises of Religion that they continued daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking bread from house to house did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart praising God the proper work of the Eucharistical Feast and having favour with all the people and we have reason to think it was so in the Apostles dayes when it is evident this custom of receiving every day continued some Ages after So it was in St. Cyprian's time and so it was at Rome in St. Hierom's time and the Apostolical Canons and the Synod of Antioch denounce Excommunication against those Christians who come to Church to join in other Religious Offices but go away without receiving the Lords Supper afterwards as mens zeal in Religion decayed so they abated in the frequenâ— Celebration of this Feast and from every day it came to once or twice a Week or every Lords day till it grew so dis-used that the Church was forced to make provision by her publick Canons that every Christian should at least receive the Supper of the Lord three times a year on the three great Feasts of the Church Christmass Easter and Whitsunday But the Institution of our Saviour confining it to no time seems to make it an ordinary part of Christian Worship especially when it was thus expounded by the general practice of the Apostles and Primitive Christians who were most likely to understand our Saviours meaning that I confess I am so far from thinking it an excuse for communicating seldome that I want a fair Apology to make for our selves for communicating so seldome as once a Moneth unless the degeneracy of the Age the decay of Christian Piety and that little sense men have of the necessity and advantages of this duty be thought a good Apology 2. For we may consider farther that as Christ has instituted this holy Supper so he has instituted it as an act of Religious Worship It is a Sacrifice of Prayer and Thanksgiving to God and to our Saviour It is a commemoration of the Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross a shewing forth the Lords death until he come and therefore is a mysterious Rite of Worship as all Sacrifices were under the Law But to explain this more particularly though briefly I shall consider this holy Feast both as it respects God and as it respects our Saviour 1. With respect to God and so we may consider it as a Thanksgiving or as a Prayer 1. As a Thanksgiving to God for his great and unexpressible goodness in sending his Son Jesus Christ into the World and offering him up as an expiation and atonement for our sins Certainly it becomes us to admire and adore that Infinite Goodness which took pity on us in our low estate and provided a Ransome and Sacrifice and Redeemer for us Who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And when so proper to do this as when we celebrate this holy Feast when we commemorate the Death and Sufferings of our Lord which must needs affect our souls if we be not wholly stupid with a very passionate sense of the love of God and what more proper Sacrament of Thanksgiving and Praise can we use than to present him with the memorials of his stupendious love to let him see that we retain a fresh sense and remembrance of it that we never suffer it to slip out of our minds though it is so many hundred years since Christ suffered and perfected the work of our Redemption You cannot more effectually praise any man than to shew the visible remains and monuments of his Bounty and Charity as the Widows weeping shewed the coats and garments which Dorcas made while she was with them Thus when we offer up to God the memorials of Christs Death and Passion it is a visible Sacrifice of Praise and speaks such kind of language as this Behold Lord here is the token of thy love to us thy own Son bleeding and dying for our sins thy eternal Son the Son of thy love in whom thy soul is well pleased dying upon the Cross a shameful accursed lingring tormenting death scorned and reproached of men and forsaken of God who delivered him up into the hands of his enemies and left him to struggle with the fears and weakness of humane nature without those divine and supernatural supports which he now needed most but least enjoyed We will never forget such love as this we will perpetually celebrate this holy Feast and offer up the memorials of a crucified Iesus as a sacrifice of praise to his Father and to our Father to his God and to our God 2. The Lords Supper may be considered as a Sacrament of Prayer for so the Sacrifices under the Law were alwayes offered with Prayer which were accepted in vertue of the Sacrifice and therefore though all men could not every day attend the Temple Worship especially those who lived at a great distance from the Temple
yet the time of Morning and Evening Sacrifices were the usual hours of prayer observed by pious and devout men who sent up their prayers together with the Sacrifice Thus Ezra tells us at the Evening Sacrifice I fell upon my knees and spread out my hands unto the Lord my God and to this the Psalmist alludes Let my Prayer be set before thee as incense and the lifting up of my hands as the Evening Sacrifice For since the fall of man we cannot expect that God should hear our prayers for our own sakes we can make no atonement and expiation for our own sins nor offer him any just compensation for them and therefore under the Law God appointed Expiatory Sacrifices to be offered by the Priests who were Gods Ministers and now under the Gospel God has sent his own Son into the World to be both our Priest and our Sacrifice the acceptation of our prayers depends upon the power of his Intercession and the power of his Intercession upon the merit of his blood for with his own blood he entred once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us We must now go to God in his Name and plead the Merits of his blood if we expect a gracious answer to our Prayers Now for this end was the Lords Supper instituted to be a Remembrance of Christ or of the Sacrifice of the Cross to shew forth the Lords death till he come which as it respects God is to put him in remembrance of Christ's death and to plead the Vertue and Merit of it for our pardon and acceptance It is a visible prayer to God to remember the sufferings of his Son and to be propitious to his Church his body and every member of it which he has purchased with his own blood And therefore the ancient Church constantly at this holy Supper offered up their prayers to God in vertue of the Sacrifice of Christ there represented for the whole Church and all ranks and conditions of men For this reason the Lords Supper was called a Commemorative Sacrifice because we therein offer up to God the Remembrance of Christ's Sacrifice and therefore in the ancient Church the Altar or the place where they consecrated the Elements was the place also where they offered up their prayers to signifie that they offered their prayers only in vertue of the Sacrifice of Christ and that the very remembrance of this Sacrifice in the Lords Supper by vertue of its Institution did render their prayers prevalent and acceptable to God and therefore in the very first account we have of the exercise of Christian Worship we find breaking bread and prayers joyned together The efficacy of our prayers depends on the merit of Christ's Sacrifice and the way Christ hath appointed to give our prayers an interest in his Sacrifice is to offer them in the holy Supper with the Sacramental remembrance of his Death and Passion 2. If we consider the Lords Supper as it respects Christ himself and is a Remembrance of him so it contains all that peculiar Worship which the Christian Church payes him as a thankful acknowledgement of his great love in dying for them as will appear if we consider what it is to do this in Remembrance of him For 1. This signifies to keep this Feast as a publick and solemn Commemoration of our Lord we ought to remember our Saviour and think of him as often as we can but this holy Feast is a publick celebration of his fame and memory we must not only think of our Saviour as we do of an absent Friend who is very dear to us but we must remember him as some Nations do their publick Patrons and Benefactors with solemn and festival joyes The Lords Supper is a Feast instituted in honour of our Saviour wherein the whole Church must call to mind his noble acts and shew forth his praises and perpetuate the memory of them from one generation to another We must call to mind his great and astonishing love and recount all his victories and triumphs over Sin and Death and Hell and him who had the power of death that is the Devil We must sing praises to the Lamb of God who was slain and is worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing This is the proper work of a Religious Feast to call to mind the works of God and ascribe unto him the glory due unto his Name This is the true reason of all Religious Festivals The Seventh Day Sabbath was originally instituted in honour of the great Maker of all things who finished the Creation of the World in six dayes and rested on the seventh and was changed to the first day of the Week in remembrance of the work of our Redemption and the Resurrection of our Saviour from the dead The Feast of the Passeover was for a memorial of that deliverance the children of Israel had from the destroying Angel who smote all the first-born of the Egyptians but spared their houses which was but an obscure type of our greater deliverance by Christ of which the Lords Supper is instituted as a perpetual memorial All these holy Feasts were for a remembrance that is to call to mind the wonderful works of God to praise his great name and by a contemplation of his wisdom goodness and power in making and governing the world to inflame our souls with love and joy and wonder till our thoughts and passions grow too big and vehement to be suppressed in our own breasts but break forth into publick songs of praise and thanksgiving And thus we must remember our Saviour in this holy Feast by making publick thankful and joyful acknowledgements of his great and mysterious love and all the mighty things he hath done for the redemption of mankind When our Saviour says Do this in remembrance of me he requires us to keep this Feast with the publick expressions of that love and honour which we bare to his memory as a testimony of our thankfulness to him for all that he hath done and suffered for us as a profession of our faith and hope and trust and affiance in a Crucified Jesus that we own him for our Lord and Saviour and are not ashamed of his Cross nor afraid of any sufferings for his sake 2. The Lords Supper is the peculiar worship of Christ considered as a God incarnate the word was made flesh and dwelt among us the eternal son of God the uncreated wisdom of the Father came down from Heaven and cloathed himself with flesh and blood and became man as we are that he might be capable to dwell among us without that terrour and astonishment which his unvailed glory carries with it which is too bright and dazling for mortal eyes to gaze on and that when he had lived here a poor despised afflicted life in the condition of a Minister and a Servant he might die as a Sacrifice
for our sins this is represented to us by Bread and Wine that he was Flesh and Blood as we are that bread of life which came down from Heaven to give life unto the world This is a great and stupendious Mystery which the Angels themselves desire to pry into the lowest condescension of eternal love but the highest advancement of humane nature above the glory of Angels into a union with the Deity it self How should our Souls triumph in God-man a Saviour of our own race and stock and with a litle variation sing the Song of the Blessed Virgin My Soul doth magnifie the Lord and my Spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour for he hath regarded the low estate of our nature for behold from henceforth all generations even the Angels themselves shall call us blessed for he that is mighty hath done great things to us hath magnified us hath greatly exalted us and holy for ever blessed and glorified be his name How zealous should we be to advance his name and praise who debased who humbled who emptied himself and made himself of no reputation for our sakes when he suffer'd so low a debasement by becoming man and hath so greatly exalted us by it does it not become us in this holy Feast to advance his name to sing his praise to publish his con descending love and with a greater passion and wonder adore the Deity cloathed with our nature how should our hearts leap within us when we see such a visible representation of an humble and incarnate Deity when we see that mysterious bread and Wine which represents to any eye of Faith a God Incarnate a God cloathed with Flesh and Blood a God in the nature and subject to all the sinless weaknesses and infirmities of a man Oh amazing and surprizing sight which does as much puzzle our passions as our faith and is as much too big for our love and joy and wonder as it is for our finite and narrow understandings and yet oh how pleasant it is to be lost in the contemplation of such love and condescension as this to find an object too big for our highest raptures and ecstasies of devotion where we launch out beyond the sphere of words and thoughts and are swallowed up in silence and wonder This is one great design of the Lords Supper that we may celebrate the praise and glory of an Incarnate God 3. The Lords Supper is the proper worship of a Crucified Saviour for here we see his body broken and his blood shed for our sins it is a Feast upon the Sacrifice of the Cross wherein we visibly declare and profess our Faith in a Crucified Saviour and return him our joyful praises for his great love in dying for us here we offer up our selves Souls and Bodies to him as the purchase of his blood Souls fired with zeal and devotion and transported with a passionate admiration of his dying love a love without any bounds or measure without precedent or example a love stronger than fear or shame or death a love which had no cause but it self which did not find but make its object which pitied us when we did not pity our selves which suffered such hard such unsufferable usage from the hands of sinners to deliver them from those punishments which they had deserved from God and can we do less than love him who hath loved us first than live to him who hath died for us and give up our selves to be governed by him who gave himself a ransom for us Blessed Iesus thou hast conquered thou hast captivated us by thy astonishing love we are thine we give up our selves to thee take the intire possession of us we lay our selves and our dearest concernments at thy feet use us as thou pleasest we have no greater ambition than to serve thee and to advance thy name and glory whether in life or death riches or poverty honour or disgrace we will follow thee whither soever thou leadest us though it be to the Cross and through the valley of the shadow of death and will rejoyce that we are accounted worthy to suffer shame for thy sake and account the reproach of our Lord greater riches than all the treasures of this world Nay in this holy Feast we do not only admire and praise his dying love but extol his power and conquest over death that he was dead indeed but is alive and hath the Keys of hell and death Our Lord is risen again and become the first-fruits of them that sleep and now in the death of our Saviour we see the eternal conquest of death and the grave for by death he hath destroyed him who had the power of death that is the Devil and delivered them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory thanks be to God who hath given us the victory through our Lord Iesus Christ at this holy Table we feast on the spoils of death this is that bread which giveth life to the world by putting an end to death and becoming the principle and earnest of Immortality Glory be to this mighty conquerour whom all the powers of darkness could not detain prisoner this is our crucified Lord who died with scorn and ignominy but rose again with glory and power we do not eat the Sacrifices of the dead but feed on a living Saviour So that you see the Lords Supper contains in it self or is admirably fitted to all the parts of Christian worship which is no more than expressing that in words and actions which is represented by visible signs in this holy Feast we cannot beg of God the pardon of our sins or any blessings which we want either Temporal or Spiritual but in the merit of that Sacrifice which is here represented the proper subject of Christian praises and thanksgivings is the work of our redemption and the worship of an Incarnate and Crucified Saviour must relate either to his great humility and condescension in becoming man his great love in dying for us or the glory of his resurrection and that power to which he is now advanced at the right hand of God all which is either signified or represented in the Supper of our Lord and therefore that question how often we should communicate at the Lords Table is easily answered by another how often we are bound publickly to worship God and our Saviour Christ for the Lords Supper being instituted by our Saviour as a sacred and venerable rule for worship for so I must beg leave to call it for want of a more proper name and fitted to all parts of Christian worship ought to be as often repeated as we worship our Saviour and publick worship is very lame and imperfect without it For if it be urged that it is sufficient to pray to God in Christs name and to praise him for that wonderful manifestation of his goodness in all the
and I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me This is that bread which came down from heaven not as your Fathers did eat Manna and are dead he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever Where our Saviour gives the reason why those who eat him shall live for ever because he himself shall live for ever though he must die he was to rise again into an immortal life and an eternal Kingdom as the reward of his death and sufferings and therefore this holy Feast is a certain earnest of immortality to those who feed on him and we need not indeed doubt this since it conveys the holy Spirit to us as St. Paul tells the Romans But if the Spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you But possibly some may object that all this which is attributed to the Holy Supper we receive at our Baptism the pardon of our sins the gift of the Spirit and the promise and earnest of immortality for so we are Baptized for the remission of sins and we are baptized as well as made to drink into one Spirit and those who are baptized into Christ have put on Christ and we are buried with Christ by baptism into death that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father so we also should walk in newness of life for if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection Now all this I grant to be true and therefore Baptism not the Lords Supper is our regeneration or new birth we are raised into a new life are renewed and sanctified at our Baptism and have the Holy Spirit bestowed on us as the author and principle of a new life but the continuance of this grace and the daily assistances of the Holy Spirit especially when we have grieved him and made him withdraw from us by our sins depends upon our diligent attendance at the Table of our Lord. It is not enough that a man is born into the world unless he have constant food to preserve his life and thus it is with the new creature and therefore the Supper of our Lord is Bread and Wine the stay and support of life to signifie to us that these supplies of grace which we receive at this Feast are as necessary to our Spiritual life as our daily food is to the support of a bodily life and therefore our Saviour calls himself the bread of life which came down from Heaven of which the Manna was a type and figure now we know Manna was their constant food the only Bread they had which signified that this heavenly Manna is the daily support of our spiritual life and therefore we know the ancient Fathers by our daily bread in the Lords Prayer did generally understand the Sacrament of the Lords Supper which they called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Bread of God All which may convince us from the very nature and reason of the institution that frequent communione are as necessary to our spiritual growth and increase in holiness to repair the decays of our graces and to renew our strength and vigour in serving God and to procure the pardon of sin after a relapse and to call back the holy Spirit when he is withdrawn from us as bread is to keep our bodies in constant repair and did men love their souls as they do their bodies they would no more neglect the Supper of our Lord than their daily food 4. The Lords Supper is the principal part of Christian communion and therefore as necessary as the communion of the Church is to debar any persons from the Lords Table is to shut them out of the communion of the faithful and they are never restored to full communion till they are restored to the communion of this holy Feast while discipline was preserved in its glory and vigour in the ancient Church no Christian durst turn his back upon the Table of our Lord as nine parts in ten now often do indeed they could not well communicate as faithful Christian people without receiving the Lords Supper The Catechumens and Penitents were admitted to publick instructions and to such prayers as were proper for them but they were dismissed when that was done and not admitted to be present at the worship of the faithful who were in full peace and communion with the Church the principal part of which was the Holy Supper Indeed St. Paul attributes the union of Christians in one body to Christ to this holy Feast He calls the Cup the communion of the blood of Christ and the bread the communion of the body of Christ and assigns this as one reason of it for we being many are one bread and one body for we are all partakers of that one bread From whence it is plain that we are united to each other by partaking of the same bread for we are one bread as well as one body which places Christian unity in a joynt participation of this Holy Feast This also unites us to Christ makes us his body because we all feed on his body the Church is his body as being fed and nourished with his body which both shows us how necessary the peace and unity of the Church is to give us an interest in the Sacrifice of Christ for the vertue of his Sacrifice is contained in the holy Supper and this must be celebrated in the communion of the Church and withal how essential this holy Supper is to Christian communion as uniting us all to Christ in one body For shame then let not those men cry out against Schism and Schismaticks who separate themselves from the body of Christ in that part of Christian communion which is most essential to Christianity it is a much less evil not to hear a Sermon together nay sometimes not to pray together than to joyn in all other parts of worship but to break company at the Lords Table where if ever they ought to appear as one body and one bread to set up Altar against Altar is somewhat worse is a greater and more incurable Schism than to absent our selves from the Lords Table but for my part I cannot excuse those men from being Schismaticks who live in an habitual neglect of so necessary a part of Christian communion and could the ancient discipline of the Church be revived such men should know that Christian communion in any religious offices is a priviledge which they do not deserve and which they should not have Having thus explained our obligations to frequent Communion in the holy Supper of our Lord which I judge so plain and evident that no honest impartial Inquirer can resist the evidence of them and of such great weight and moment that no
sober Christian can withstand their conviction I shall now briefly consider the second thing proposed What are the most common occasions of or excuses for such a neglect and though it were easie to think of a great many I shall but mention two very briefly as being I think the most universal and the foundation of all the rest 1. The first is of that nature that it is great pity it should have so ill an effect and that is a mighty reverence and esteem for this holy Feast Either they can never think themselves worthy to approach the Table of our Lord or that they can never be sufficiently prepared for it As for the first it looks like pride and folly to think that we must be worthy of the divine favors they must all be acknowledged to be above our deserts How came mankind to be worthy that the Son of God should dye for them and had God advised with such modest sinners they might have complemented away the death of Christ as now they do the benefits and advantages of it in his holy Supper How great a Saint soever thou art thou canst never merit such favours and priviledges as these for then there had been no need of Christ to merit for thee and how great a sinner soever thou art by complying with the Grace of God thou maist quickly make thy self a worthy Communicant Repent of thy sins and heartily resolve by Gods Grace to reform thy life and come to this holy Table with assurance to receive those supplies of Grace which may enable thee to do it And as for that great preparation which is necessary to fit our selves for so solemn an act of Religion I must say it is in this as in other acts of Religious Worship the greater the better but if we consider what I said before that the Institution of our Saviour plainly proves that he designed it for an ordinary part of Christian Worship we cannot suppose that it requires much greater preparation of mind than other acts of Religion This holy Supper is a sacred mysterious Rite of Prayer and Thanksgiving which gives vertue and efficacy to our prayers and makes them acceptable and prevalent with God Are you then when you come to Church fit to pray to God and to praise him if not you must neglect your prayers as well as the Sacrament if you are then you are fit to approach the Lords Table to give vertue and prevalency to your prayers This holy Supper conveys to us the vertue and efficacy of Christs Sacrifice upon the Cross the pardon of our sins and the assistances of the divine Grace and Spirit Now if you be truly penitent you are qualified to receive the pardon of your sins and therefore to approach this holy Table where it is dispensed if you earnestly desire the divine Grace you are prepared for the reception of it Come but with a sense of your wants and with such desires as a hungry man has of meat and here you shall be filled and satisfied and without such preparations as these we can neither pray to God to forgive our sins nor to bestow his Grace on us Yet I confess I cannot see how any man who is fit to pray to God should be unfit to approach his Table 2. Others think that there is much greater danger in approaching the Table of the Lord unworthily than in an unworthy performance of other parts of Religious Worship but for what reason they think so I could never learn The prayer of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord and his sacrifice is no more It is as unpardonable an affront to God to pray for the pardon of our sins in Christs name without true sorrow and contrition and serious resolutions of amendment as it is for an impenitent sinner to receive the Sacrament to praise God without a due sense of his Mercy and Goodness differs not at all from feasting at the Table of our Lord without any sense of his dying love I would not be thought to give encouragement by this discourse to wicked men to approach this holy Table such men ought to be carefully turned away from such sacred Mysteries when they are discovered but the whole design is to shew that those men who have such clear innocent consciences that they dare pray to God need not be afraid of receiving the Sacrament and those who have not I would desire them to consider what a case they are in they defile every holy duty they meddle with and are in perpetual danger of Gods wrath and displeasure they cannot ask his pardon but they provoke him the more for the interpretation of such mens prayers is only to beg a longer liberty and indulgence in sin and therefore this is no more an encouragement to neglect the Lords Supper than it is to continue in a state of sin and damnation But you will say does not the Apostle tell us that a man must examine himself and so eat of that bread and drink of that cup for he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself not discerning the Lords body Very right but not to dispute the particular meaning of that place is not this true also of him that hears or prayes unworthily Does the Apostle say that there is any greater degree of worthiness required to receive the Lords Supper than there is to pray to God He who is fit to pray to God is fit to eat and drink at the Lords Table and he who is not fit for either I am sure is not fit to dye Our right to immortality is conveyed to us in this heavenly Feast as you have already seen and it is equally strange to me that men should content themselves in such a condition as makes them unfit to receive the pardon of their sins the assistances of Gods Grace or immortal life or if they be not in this deplorable condition that they should neglect that holy Feast which is the only ordinary instituted means of conveying all these blessings to them FINIS Books lately Printed by Richard Chiswel LOrd Bacon's Remains octavo Dr. Puller's Discourse of the Moderation of the Church of England octavo Dr. Edw. Bagshaw's Discourses upon Select Texts against the Papist and Socinian octavo Mr. Rushworth's Historical Collections The Second Volume folio His large and exact Account of the Trial of the Earl of Strafford folio Remarques relating to the state of the Church of the 3 first Centuries wherein are interspersed Animadversions on a Book called A View of Antiquity By I. H. Written by A. S. Speculum Baxterianum or Baxter against Baxter quarto The Countrey-Mans Physician octavo Dr. Burlace's History of the Irish Rebellion folio An Apology for a Treatise of Humane Reason Written by Ma. Clifford Esq twelves The Laws of this Realm concerning Jesuits c. explained by divers Judgements and Resolutions of the Judges with other Observations thereupon by William Cawley Esq folio Dr. Burnet's
and reverence for their spirial Guides This may be thought an inconsiderable thing and only a word by the by for my own Profession but let it be for whom it will Religion never did nor ever is like to flourish when the Ministers of Religion are despised when their counsel is slighted and contemned Their Office is to be the Guides of souls and unless men look upon them as such it renders their Office useless to the souls of men and this is all I mean by a respect and reverence to their spiritual Guides to reverence their counsels reproofs and censures and to apply to them in all cases which concern their souls Now when men have been trained up in the knowledge of Religion by their Spiritual Guides and have found the benefit of their instructions it makes them naturally reverence their judgements and advise with them in all difficult cases a thing much out of use now and we see the sad effects of it in the lives of too many 4. By the publick instructions of Youth those may learn the first principles of Religion who are too old indeed to be Catechized but yet very much want it it is almost incredible to think how ignorant many men are of the very first rudiments of Christianity who are baptized in their Infancy indeed but were never catechized all our Sermons are in a manner lost upon these men who can never be brought to understand Religion unless you teach them as you do Children which would be thought a great affront to their age and long profession and therefore the best and modestest way of instructing these men is to instruct Children when they are present which may be of great use to them if they be sensible of their own ignorance and do not disdain instruction I shall add but one thing more and so conclude this argument that when I speak of instructing Children I would not have you think that I only mean such young Children as are just able to repeat the Catechism by heart but are not capable of giving any other answer to what you ask but what they find in their Books such Children as these are scarce capable of any instruction nor can it much edifie the Congregation to hear them repeat imperfectly the words of the Catechism but I principally mean such young men who are capable of learning who can understand what is said to them and make a reasonable answer at least with a little help and instruction We live now in an Age wherein it is thought a reproach for those to be catechized who are got out of their hanging-sleeves as soon as they are old enough to learn a Trade they think themselves too old to learn their Religion But is Religion then so easie a thing that every youth of sixteen or seventeen is past his Catechism Is it a greater reproach at such an Age to be instructed in Religion than it is to learn Arithmetick and Merchants accounts I readily grant such young men ought not to be treated like Children to be made repeat only the words of the Catechism as School-Boyes do their Lessons but there is a manly way of instruction which will not unbecome their years but much contribute to their increase in Christian knowledge could this point be once gained to perswade Parents and Masters to send such to be catechized as are capable of instructions I should not doubt in a short time to see very happy effects of this so much despised and neglected duty CHAP. VI. Concerning the great Neglect of the Lords Supper THe last miscarriage I shall at present take notice of is the general neglect of receiving the Lords Supper for though thanks be to God this practice is in some measure restored among us and we now with joy observe more frequent and numerous Communions than have been for many years last past yet this holds no proportion at all to those great numbers of professed Christians who neglect it wholly or communicate very seldome Thus to turn our backs on the Lords Table is a very great reproach to Christianity and infinitely dangerous to mens souls because the Lords Supper is the most excellent and the most beneficial part of Christian Worship and indeed one would think that there needs nothing else to perswade any man to so advantageous a duty but true understanding the nature of it My present design will not admit of a large discourse and therefore I shall bring what I have to urge into as narrow a compass as I can and 1. Shew you the great evil and sinfulness of this neglect and 2. Examine what are the true causes or occasions which tempt men to such a neglect 1. The great evil and sinfulness of this neglect and the most effectual way to convince men of this is by explaining those many obligations which lye on us to a frequent celebration of this mysterious Feast 1. And I shall first argue from the Command and Institution of our Saviour which certainly is sufficient to make it a standing and necessary duty to all who profess themselves his disciples Now the Institution of this Feast runs in the form of a command So St. Matthew tells us as they were eating viz. the Feast of the Passeover Iesus took bread and blessed it and brake it and gave it to the disciples and said take eat this is my body and he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying drink ye all of it for this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins The same account St. Mark and St. Luke give of it and almost in the same words so does St. Paul which he received by revelation from Christ himself So that those men at least are guilty of a very great sin who never celebrate this heavenly Feast if it will be acknowledged a sin to break a plain express institution of our Saviour and very great numbers there are of such men in our Church if at least they may be said to be in the Church who never received the Lords Supper who call Christ Lord and Master but do not the thing which he has commanded And there are two very considerable aggravations of this sin 1. That it is his last and dying command which usually has great sacredness and authority in it though it be but the command nay but the desire of a Friend this command he gave his Disciples the same night wherein he was betrayed when he was just about to offer his soul in sacrifice for sins when he was preparing to encounter with scorn and reproach with rage and malice with the shame and exquisite pains of the Cross and it is an ill requital of the love of our dying Lord that we will not obey his dying commands 2. That our Saviour by the Institution of this holy Feast has delivered us from all the numerous troublesome expensive Ceremonies and Institutions of the Jewish Worship