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A82006 The great duty of communicating explain'd and enforc'd, the objections against it answer'd, and the necessary preparation for it stated With devotions to be us'd before, at, and after the Lord's Supper. By the author of The duties of the closet. Dawes, William, Sir, 1671-1724. 1700 (1700) Wing D455B; ESTC R229669 29,052 50

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is true indeed that the part which our Lord had in the institution of his Holy Supper viz. The blessing of Bread and breaking it and taking Wine and giving thanks and distributing both belongs only to the Minister of the Gospel because these are all special Acts and Exercises of the Ministerial Function and as such have been always reserved to them alone But the receiving of the Bread and Wine whe● broken blessed and offered to us is the common dut● of all Christians as well people as Ministers Thirdly The end for which this is commanded to be done in remembrance of me or rather in commemoration of me For so the word which we here translate remembrance sometimes signifieth and this indeed seems to be the most proper signification of it in this place For commemoration is a solemn act of remembrance and such an one no doubt our Saviour here expects from us We are always bound habitually to remember him but this his Supper is particularly design'd to excite in our Souls a present and actual remembrance of him of him that is of his death and Passion of his Body that was broken and his Blood which was shed for us For the Bread and Wine which are here administred to us were appointed by him as signs and representations of his Flesh and Blood as he himself tells us at his Institution of this Holy Supper This saith he speaking of the Bread is my Body which is given for you that is this is a sign or representation of my Body which shall very suddenly be offer'd up upon the Cross for you and again speaking of the Cup This is my Blood of the New Testament or the new Testament in my Blood which is shed for you and for many as if he had said the Wine which you now see in this Cup and which I commanded ye all to drink of is a sign or representation of my Blood which will be shortly shed to ratify or confirm the New Covenant which I have made between God and Man When therefore we eat of this Bread and drink of this Cup we must be sure to put both parts of our Lord's Commandment together and to fulfil both by doing it in remembrance of his Body that was given and his Blood that was shed for us And such a remembrance as this necessarily implies these two things First An acknowledgement of Christ for our Saviour and Redeemer For what else is it to commemorate his dying for us but to declare that we are sensible that our peace is made with God through the blood of his Cross and that we who before were all under sin and lyable to wrath aliens from and Enemies to God shall now not have our trespasses imputed to us but be saved from wrath through Christ and in the body of his flesh through death be reconciled unto God To declare I say and shew both to God and Man that our hope is only in the Lord Jesus who hath now appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself and in whom alone we have redemption through his blood even forgiveness of sins This you see is what the Scripture means by Christ's Body being broken and his Blood shed for us and therefore all Christians who sincerely remember those must sincerely acknowledge this Secondly An acknowledgement of Christ for our Lord and Master For besides that by submitting to his Rites and Institutions we plainly declare our selves his Disciples besides that by acknowledging of and partaking in his Sacrifice we do according to the sense of all Nations own our selves members of his Church besides this I say by acknowledging Christ's dying for us we do manifestly acknowledge our obligations both to love and obey him To love him who hath so loved us as to lay down his life for us to obey him whose purchase we are who hath bought us with a price even the inestimable price of his Blood and has therefore a right to us as the Scripture tells us as a peculiar people to himself And this the Primitive Christians were so sensible of that they look'd upon every receiving of the Lords Supper to be a new tie and obligation a new vow and dedication of themselves to Christ And hence it was that the word Sacrament which signified among the Romans that Oath of Fidelity which their Soldiers took was given as a name to the Lords Supper because Christians were suppos'd to bind themselves there as it were by an Oath to Christ's Service The ends for which our blessed Lord instituted this holy Supper seem to have been these three First His Father's and his own Glory which could no way better be illustrated and extoll'd than by making all Christians whatsoever join in ascribing their Redemption and Salvation to them For this is at once to own both their power and wisdom and goodness which were so eminently display'd in these great works and likewise their Soveraignty and Dominion over us which are the natural effects of them Secondly The preserving the unity of his Church towards which nothing could contribute more than the frequent meeting together of its Members to acknowledge one hope of their calling one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all above all through all and in them all and this is most effectually acknowledged by our being all partakers of that one bread for thus as St. Paul teacheth we being many are one bread and one Body And likewise their meeting to commemorate the noblest instance of Love that ever appeared in the world and consequently the noblest Example for Christians to follow the noblest motive to excite them to love one another Thirdly The good and edification of every particular Christian and this end will appear to be admirably well serv'd this way if we will give our selves leave to reflect a little on the benefits which every Christian is made partaker of by receiving this Holy Supper And First If we consider this Holy Supper only as a Commemorative Sign or sign to put us in mind of Christs dying for us yet even thus it will prove of vast advantage to us For this will naturally tend to inflame our Love and exalt our Gratitude towards him to confirm our Faith and strengthen our Hope in him and to fix and stablish our purposes of obedience to him All this I say will be the natural result even of a bare contemplation or remembrance of Christs having freely given up himself to death even the death of the Cross for us and of his having thereby procured remission of all our Sins and a promise of Eternal Life and Happiness to all those that obey him But Secondly If we consider it as it is the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ that is as it is to all faithful Christians an actual participation of the benefits of Christ's death and passion viz. of remission of sins of the hope of eternal happiness upon our obedience and of the grace
of the holy Spirit to teach and enable us to obey we shall be abundantly convinc'd of the advantage and benefit of it to us By this means we have the same strength and nourishment convey'd unto our Souls which the outward Symbols Bread and Wine convey to our Bodies We are made one with Christ and Christ with us and nothing but our own wilful disobedience shall be ever able to part us more from him This is a true and faithful account of the Lord's Supper which I think may be fairly summ'd up in these few and plain words It is a Foederal Feast or Feast of Covenant between God and man instituted by Christ himself and perpetually to be observ'd by all Christians where by partaking of Bread and Wine in commemoration of Christ's Body given and his Blood shed for them they on their part acknowledge Christ for their Saviour and Redeemer Lord and Master and God on his part grants and confirms to them under the Symbols of Bread and Wine the Body and Blood of his Son Christ Jesus that is all the blessed effects of his Body broken and his Blood shed viz. pardon of past sins promise of eternal happiness upon future obedience of the Gospel and Grace to direct and enable them to perform this obedience And this Feast is therefore call'd the Lord's Supper because it was instituted by our Lord at Supper time From what has been said I think our obligations to receive this Holy Supper do abundantly appear For First We have here a plain command so to do Do this in nomembrance of me a command as has been already shewn you which reacheth to all Christians and will oblige them even to the end of the world So that it is meer trifling with God our Saviour and the World to call our selves Christians and yet live in a wilful neglect of this plain command of Christ Why call ye me Lord Lord saith our Saviour and do not the things which I say to what purpose do ye in words acknowledge me to be your Master and yet when I call upon you to do this plainly declare by your actions that you do not regard me Better had it been for you that you had never taken my sacred name into your mouths than that you should thus abuse and blaspheme it Be not deceived I will not be mock'd but I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sydon at the day of Judgment than for you Secondly This command of our Saviour is attended with a multitude of Circumstances which do every one of them very much add to its force and obligation and render the neglect of it more and more unpardonable For First It was his dying Command that very same night in which he instituted this Holy Supper was he betrayed into the hands of the Jews in order to be mock'd and derided buffeted and scourged and at last sacrificed upon the Cross for our sakes And can our dying Saviour require any thing of us that we will not do Can he speak and shall not his last words be minded by us What answer do ye think ye should have given him had ye heard him speaking in this manner to you My dearest Children who I love so well whose miseries I am so deeply concern'd for whose sins I am so very desirous to get a pardon for that behold I am just now going to dye an ignominious death upon the Cross for you that so by the Sacrifice of my self I may take away all your sins and make you heirs of eternal Glory My best and dearest Children dearer to me than my life itself Hearken to the last words of your dying Saviour I have but one thing more to require of you Oh let not that be neglected by you Let me intreat you with my last breath that breath which I am contented to part with for your sakes to preserve this my last Commandment inviolable I would ye not all have said Distrust us not O blessed Master we beseech thee command whatsoever thou seest good and we will cheerfully obey tho it be even to death itself Our hearts are affected with the sense of thy approaching kindness that we can no more forget thy dying words than we can refuse to accept thy dying Love Secondly It is a very easy Command take Bread and Wine bless them and then eat and drink of them ●n remembrance of me is a Commanndment as little ●rievous as our hearts could wish for so that they ●…ho neglect it have nothing to say in excuse for ●hemselves but seem to sin purely for sinnings sake ●nd this is the very height of wickedness Blessed God ●hat ever the Devil should so far get possession of mens ●earts as to keep them from doing their duty even ●…here there is no hardship in doing it How can ●hese men in reason expect that our Saviour should ●e at any pains to save them who are resolv'd they ●…ill be at none to obey him Or rather how can ●hey not expect to be made the unhappy instances of ●is wrathful displeasure who will not do even this ●mall thing to please him Thirdly This is a Command in which our obedience to ●hrist is more peculiarly try'd In most other of his ●ommands there are other obligations besides those ●f his Authority as in all moral duties obligations ●rom nature reason or the like so that it is not ●ery easy to tell by mens complyance with these ●…hether they are true Servants of Christ or no be●ause they may nay and it is plain they sometimes ●o comply with these Duties upon principles of ●ature or reason when yet they have no true sence ●f their obligation from Christs authority But in the ●uty before us there being no obligation but Christs ●ositive institution they who perform it as they ●ught must certainly act upon a true Christian prin●iple viz. a sense of the obedience they owe to Christs ●ommands This then being a plain Test of our ●eing true Christians it is certainly our duty to let ●ll the world see by our compliance with it that ●…e are so and that the obligation of Christs Autho●ity when alone is abundantly sufficient to com●…and us whithersoever it pleaseth Fourthly This command is a more than ordinary Tryal of ●ur gratitude and Love to Christ because it commands ●othing but what we are bound even by the meer ●aws of Love and Gratitude to be most ready to per●orm For supposing Christ had had no authority to ●ommand us any thing but had only requested of us that we would perpetually observe this his Supper in commemoration of him yet considering wha● great unspeakably great things he had done for us we should have been most inexcusable if we should not have answer'd this his request The Laws o● Love and Gratitude are founded upon reason and therefore ought to have a powerful influence upon reasonable creatures and certainly all that Love and Gratitude can oblige us to we must be