is only to our selves and doth not any way Defraud others of what they might in Reason claim from us or as in the Case of Pious or Charitable Works of what we had allotted them in our own Designs tho without Sin we might Sue for it yet doth it shew more of that Charity which seeks not her own and is a nobler attainment in a Christian Patiently to sit down under it as Athenagoras tells us the Christians in his time usually did who when their Goods were violently seized would not draw the injurious Persons into Judgment And this St. Paul affirms of it 1 Cor. 6. There is utterly or altogether a fault or a defect among you because ye go to Law at all one with another Why do ye not rather take wrong Why do you not rather suffer your selves to be defrauded v. 7. He doth not condemn it as a Sin but only as a defect or thing that lessened them Their Suing before unbelievers he tells them was a sinful Course because as their Case stood who impleaded each others and that too for injuries it was a Scandal to their Enemies and exposed the Christian Cause v. 1.6 But as for their bare going to Law it self it was not so For he tacitely intimates they might do it before the Saints Dare any of you having a matter against another go to Law before the unjust saith he and not before the Saints much rather v. 1. Nay he orders them that they should do it and erect Judicatures among themselves for that intent Go not before Infidels says he but set those who are least esteemed among your selves to Judge or set them in the Seat or Chair of judgment v. 4.2 3. This was ordinarily done in other places where they had Judicial Assemblies as I have shewn from Jam. 2.2 Yea and where they had not but must implead before a Gentile Judgment-Seat when the Scandal that now accompanied their Case was not incurr'd he himself had given Countenance to it and threatned Legally to Right himself before the Heathen Magistrate Acts 6.37 38 39. But altho their Suits at Law in weightier Cases were no Sin yet he tells them they were their Lessening and Diminution And that albeit they might with a safe Conscience use them yet would it shew more Contempt of Earthly Things and Mortified Passions more Generous Charity and Stronger Patience and a greater height of Christian Perfection to retain It is says he altogether not a Sin but a Lessening and Diminution to you that you go to Law one with another And because there is only a Defect but no Transgression in it he doth not absolutely condemn but only comparatively disswade from it Why do ye not rather take wrong Why do you not rather suffer your selves to be defrauded 1 Cor. 6.7 As for these places then which seem to forbid Suits either on Losses or Indignities they do not forbid them absolutely and in all Cases They only forbid us to fly to them in smaller matters such as our Saviour mentions or to make them a means of Revenge in Great ones or say of Suits in General where a publick end or some other Virtue doth not require them that they are although not our sin yet our Defect and Diminution So that whensoever they are sued at Law the best men may serve themselves of it and when they are greatly injured though 't were better to let it alone yet may they safely seek to it and without any offence to God or wrong to a good Conscience implead others still And thus it appears that Suits at Law are not sinful in themselves but may lawfully be used if there is no unlawfulness in the Ground and way of management The thing it self has no sin in it and so may be innocent if we take care that no other sin adhere to it So that barely to try a Title is no matter of any mans account nor has any offence at all in it But although Suits at Law are not thus unlawful in themselves but may sometimes be innocent yet as I said 2. They are our sin and a matter of our account when they are either enter'd upon an unjustifiable Ground or are carried on by a sinful Management 1. I say Suits at Law are our sin and a matter of our account when they are begun upon an unjustifiable Ground It is not every cause that usually begets it which can warrant before God and Justify a Law-Suit For sometimes men are led on to it only by Revenge when they have no lasting Dammage to be repaired but seek only their Brothers smart and to be even with him who offered it and then the Suit must needs be unlawful having a sin at the bottom of it And at other times when there is a real Dammage yet is it so trivial as that the making of it up will not countervail the Evils and Temptations of a Suit and then it will be sinful still as wanting a Ground of so much weight as can bear the burden of it For a Tryal at Law besides its being a costly and painful thing is also a very perillous State and a dangerous Temptation It will be sure to put him we sue to much trouble and pains in Collecting and Examining Evidences preparing Witnesses informing Advocates and attending Courts which is toyl in it self and an hindrance to better business and in the whole Course and Conduct of it it will put him to constant Charges and Expence And it will be a State of great Temptation both to him and to our selves insnaring us unless we are very circumspect to prevent it into covetous Wishes or delays of Justice or vexatious Arts or uncharitable Surmizes and revengeful Thoughts or deceitful Suggestions and Falsifications Hypocritically disguising the weakness of our own Cause or unreasonably aggravating those of our Adversaries to our own profit and his prejudice and the like These sins are ever before men whilst a Suit is depending they have constant opportunities for them and are perpetually provoked into them and it must be a great Conduct as well as a great Care that must preserve them from being ingaged in them And since there is so much Toil attending it so great Charge occasioned by it and so many Temptations and great Dangers both to our own Souls and our Brothers laid in the way of it it must not be a light thing but a weighty Cause indeed which can over-balance all these Considerations and justly draw us to commence it But in this point to be more Particular Suits are unlawfully entred when they are begun either 1. For Revenge and not for Reparation of Damages Or 2. When for Reparation only of small things which cannot countervail the evil and hazard of a Suit but ought to exercise our Patience and Forgiveness and so be put up without Recourse to it 1st I say Suits are unlawfully entred when they are Vindictive not Reparative and are begun only
Christian Worship For then not only they whose Virtues were most high and perfect but all the Faithful were call'd upon to Communicate and they who were judg'd fit to meet at the Prayers and other Services were thought worthy to meet at the Lords Table too and since they fitted them for it in those Days it cannot be thought but that they must needs fit us in ours also As for those then who have been wont to think more hardly of the Sacrament than of other parts of Worship and how frequent soever they were in them to come but seldome unto it by reason of the apprehended difficulty in a worthy partaking of it If they duly consider these three things they will see cause to change their mind and forbear to complain any more against it For the Virtues that are required of us in a worthy Communion are all necessary parts of Duty and of a Good Man and are as much required to a worthy Prayer Vow Thanksgiving and every other act of Religion and are not necessarily required in more intense and transporting Degrees in it than in other instances of Devotion So that no Good man has any cause at all to repine at it or abstain from it it lies hard upon and can be blamed by none but those who for the same Reason must blame every other Ordinance and part of Divine Service which requires as much of a worthy Worshipper as this and who at the same Rate as they cast off it must renounce their Christianity and throw aside all Religion too And thus having noted some things that may help to reconcile all Good minds to this Blessed Sacrament and silence the Complaints of hardship in a worthy receiving it I shall proceed now 2 ly To shew plainly who are unworthy of it and what they must do to fit and prepare themselves for it and so conclude this Point Now these in one word are all that are impenitent that have committed any Damning Fault and are not fully set and purposed to amend it For all the Virtues of worthy Receiving as we have seen are necessary parts of Duty and of a Good man so that if any Person would Repent of all his breaches of them and take care thenceforward to endow his Soul with them he would be worthy to be entertained at this Feast and fit to be bidden welcome Besides if Repentance and forsaking all his Sins will go down with him there is no man who pretends to Religion but may perform every thing else which is required to this Communion For there would be no great difficulty in paying Christ Honour and Reveverence and following him with Love and Thankfulness and resigning our selves up to his use and abhorring of our Sins if Repentance and Reformation were not annexed to them men could Love Christ heartily and Thank him freely and Honour him abundantly and resign themselves up to him wholly and Believe in him chearfully if he would not peremptorily require them to amend their ways and forsake their sins which are the things they place their chiefest Pleasure and Delight in So that if any man will not fit himself for Receiving it is not for the difficulty of other Duties as if he could not brook them but only for the difficulty of Repentance so that Impenitence is truly at the bottom He will not satisfie those who have suffered by him or forgive those who have injured him or be at Peace and Charity with all Men or renounce that Injustice Lasciviousness Drunkenness or other known sin which in confirming the New Covenant he must promise God he will depart from It is because his Heart sticks to some of these or some other such like Transgressions and will not go off from them that he is an unfit and unworthy man whereas were it not for this he could do all things else that are required of him He therefore that is unworthy to Communicate and unfit to receive the Sacrament is plainly one that is impenitent that is guilty of some Damning Sin and is not resolv'd to leave but intends still to continue in it He is either a careless man that lives at large in a constant course of Sensuality and Worldliness being wholly given to heap up Wealth or aim at Honour or follow Pleasure without Conviction or making any pretence to serious Religion Or if he seems to look towards God and is careful in many things to please him he serves him not in all points as he ought but allows himself in some known Sin continuing unreclaimed in common Swearing Drunkenness Vncleanness Malice Contentiousness Fraud Oppression Slander Censoriousness Evil-speaking or some other Damning Crime which he will not be at the pains to leave for Christs sake or for any thing that he either has or would do for him Now if any of those who read this Treatise are such as these and I put the matter to their own Consciences I confess they are not worthy to come to the Sacrament till they turn away from such a known Fault and Repent of it and would sin against this Holy Feast and their own Souls if they should do it But then I must tell them withall that as they are not fit to come to this Ordinance so whilst they continue in that Estate neither are they fit to come to any other or to any thing else that looks towards God and their own Eternal Happiness For so long as they thus espouse any Number or any one Sin against God and daily repeat it when they have a Temptation to it notwithstanding their own Hearts are sensible he has forbid it or at least would have been sensible of it unless they had been willfully blinded or by long use harden'd in it So long I say as they are thus Impenitent in any known Sin they are not only unfit to come to the Communion but also as unfit to Dye or to go to Heaven to Pray to God to utter Praise to make Vows or to joyn in any other actions of Religion For an Impenitent man whilst he continues such is Gods Profest Enemy and is welcome to him at no time but when he Repents so that till that is done he is acceptable in no Service which he pays him This then is the danger of their State who lye Impenitent in many or in few known Sins they are unworthy indeed to receive the Communion but they are equally unworthy to joyn in Prayers to give Thanks or make Vows or dye in Peace or hope for Happiness or do any thing else that shews them to be Christians And if any mans Conscience tells him this is his State his way is not to think there is no harm if he doth but abstain from the Communion for as I say he is as unworthy in his Prayers and Praises and every thing else that belongs to Religion but forthwith to Repent and amend that Fault which shuts him out from the Sacrament and every thing else that looks towards Heaven
especially if they have reviewed and acknowledged every Night their every Days Transgressions they will be able to do it at a few minutes warning So that if they should happen at any time to be surprized with a Communion which it is not decent for any good Christian to sâ—inch from though all would desire a more solemn preparation where they have time for it yet can they fit themselves for it in that strait and know what sins to resolve against upon a few moments Recollection But besides that it would be no sufficient excuse to any Person to neglect the Holy Sacrament though it required all that time and pains which is supposed and that to all true Penitents it is not so tedious or difficult as some have imagined so that they have not so much as this discouragement in make them backward in it I proceed now 3. To shâ—w that all even the poorest and mâ—st implâ—yed have 〈◊〉 sufficient if they will 〈◊〉 it 〈◊〉 that end and that â—f those who have less leisure and oppâ—rtunities so as that thâ—y 〈◊〉 fit themselves in great Degrees God expects the less preparation and 〈…〉 〈…〉 imployed have time sufficient to prepare for the Communion if they would use it to that end That which makes them apprehend they have no time for it is a perswasion that all preparation must be carried on in the Closet when they are sequestred from all worldly Affairs and have set themselves apart for Devotion and Religious Meditations And for doing this they who are full of business who must labour all the day long till they have quite tired themselves for maintenance or whose time is not at their own disposal but at the will of others complain they have no leisure or vacant time to spare But now besides that no persons must pretend they can find no time for set Devotions and separate Thoughts since the most imployed of all can find it sometimes to throw away on Vanity and Diversions this conceit that all preparation ought to be carried on in the Closet is a mistake for when any Persons are so minded it may go on whilst they are held at work and ingaged in the course of their imployment For the great business of preparation as has been shewn lies in examining our own hearts to find out what our sins have been and in resolving particularly against them And this a man may carry on in any place where he has Liberty for thought and Recollection He may call to mind his own ways as he is on a Journey or busie at his work for thought is free at all times and every man may consider and reflect whensoever he has a mind to it And so long as he can find time for this he has time enough to prepare himself let his Condition be as Dependant or his time as much taken up as it will And as for for those who have less leisure and opportunities so as that they cannot fit themselves in great Degrees God expects the less preparation I say and accepts it at their hands Thus much he expects of every man and that all may and must perform viz. That they examine themselves about all those things which they know are sinful and wheresoever they find themselves Guilty resolve stedfastly to do so no more and humbly ask his Pardon and that they have an affectionate thankful sense of Christs Death and of all that he has done for them But as for the Degrees of these Duties how high they shall be in their Detestation of every Sin how ardent in their Acts of Resignation how Passionate in their Love and Thankful Affection though he is well pleased with it where he finds it yet he exacts not the utmost height as I have observed in those who are fitter for it nor looks for more in any than that every man return according to the opportunities which he has given him Some have Naturally much flame and great vehemence in all their Passions and much time in their own hands and much help from good and inlivening books or great quickness of Wit and parts which can readily and advantageously represent to their own minds the motives to these Dispositions and these Persons are able to imprint an higher measure of them and affect their own Hearts more deeply with them than others of cooler tempers and less leisure and fewer helps and slower understandings can ever hope to do But when men have less time and abilities for them God expects the less perfection and Degrees of them For in these Cases his Rule is this Vnto whomsoever much is given of him shall much be required and to whom men have committed much of him they will ask the more Luc. 12.48 And thus I have considered this Fourth Hindrance and shâ—wn that the difficulty of the thing or the want of time can be no just Reason or Excuse to keep any man from Receiving And the sum of what I have suggested in this buâ—iness is this If it requirâ—d 〈…〉 that is no sufficient ground for any person to neglect it because when God commands us to do a thing as he has done most strictly in this Case we must be willing to spend both time and pains upon it But in reality it is neither so painful nor tedious to good men as is ordinarily imagined It costs more indeed to ill men because they have more faults to examine after and more backwardness to resolve against them but this expence of time and pains they must not impute to the Communion but to an Holy Life and Regeneration which whether they Communicate or no if they Love their own Souls they must labour and manfully indeavour in But as for Good men their great work is Self-examination it being an easie thing for them to resolve against any sins when they see them and this will not be long or tedious to them nay if they have been used to examine often and to call themselves to an account every evening if necessity so requires it may be dispatch'd at a few minutes warning It is a thing which all men even the poor and most imployed may find time for yea when there is need of it without hindring or neglecting any other affair if they are careful to use it to that end and when they have less leisure and abilities so as that they cannot fit themselves in great Degrees there God expects the less preparation and accepts it at their hands To Communicate is a most necessary Duty which will not be excused and a most equitable and easie one which need not be declined so that no pretence of hardship or of want of time ought ever to be urged or can ever be allowed to put us by it 5. A Fifth thing which hinders several from the Sacrament and makes them carelesly to neglect it is because they see others or have found themselves to be no whit bettered or improved by it so that 't is not worth their
the worse of their Enemies or carrying themselves towards them at a distance or excluding them from all particular Trust and Confidence and the like so long as they shew them all that Love which is due to all men out of Common Charity and Neighbourhood and are ready to shew them more when their Repentance fits them for it they ought not in any wise to put them by it They are no Breach of that Charity which God has required and therefore do not unfit them for the Holy Sacrament so that when they are all their hindrance they need not stay away but may chearfully approach to it CHAP. IV. Of Law-Suits The Contents They are an Hindrance from the Communion when there is sin in them They are not sinful in themselves which is shewn 1. From the necessity of them 2. From the Magistrates Office being appointed for them 3. From Gods taking Legal Determinations upon himself as if he were the Author of them 4. From Courts erected by consent in the Apostles Days which ministred to them These St. Paul prescribed to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 6. They are the Assemblies mention'd Jam. 2.2 5. From our Saviours and St. Pauls Practice who in claiming the Benefit of them warranted and authorized them An objection from Mat. 5.38 39 40. consider'd which is shewn not to condemn defending our selves in any case when others implead us nor moving Suits in all but only in case of lighter Lâ—sses and Indignities such as our Saviour there mentions or making them minister to Revenge in any others And 1 Cor. 6.7 answered which makes them not a Damning sin but only when some Virtuous ends do not require them a Defect and Diminution But they are sinful 1. When they are begun upon an unjustifiable Ground Such they always are 1. When they are Vindictive not Reparative as when we sue insolvent Persons or others upon such Words or Actions for which besides costs no Dammages that are valuable are like to be allotted us 2. When they are for Reparation of small things which countervail not the evil and hazard of a Suit but ought to be a matter of Patience and Forgiveness and so be quietly put up without recourse to it In judging of this smallness we must not estimate by our own Pride and Passions but by the reality of things and the Judgment of indifferent humble and dispassionate Persons This is true not only in case of Injuries to our own selves but also in case of Trust when we have the charge of others 2. Suits are sinful when they are carried on by a sinful management As they are when they make us Transgress any of those Duties towards our Adversaries which oblige us towards all Persons To avoid all these in suing is an hard point So we must be slow in coming to it and very circumspect when we are forced upon it The Answer to this Hindrance summ'd up BEsides those Particulars which I have considered in the last Chapter there is another want of Charity which may seem of greater weight and which is most commonly pleaded in Excuse of mens abstaining from the Holy Sacrament and that is the point of Law-Suits For this is very frequently given as a Reason why men dare not receive the Communion because they have a Legal Controversie with their Neighbours and a Suit depending Now as to Law-Suits when they have no sin in them they are like all other indifferent things and need not hinder men but when they are sinful they are like all other sins i. e. they unfit us till we shew Repentance and ought to hinder us so long as we continue in them But as then they are an hindrance to a worthy Receiving so are they equally to a worthy Prayer and to all just hopes of Heaven Whilst we go on with them we cannot pray to God or think to have our sins pardon'd or should we be snatched away to Judgment in this state expect to be happy in another World And this is a state wherein no considerate man will persist for one moment but when he sees his Suit is so offensive to God and brings his Eternal welfare into so great hazard he will either manage it more innocently so as that there shall be no offence in it or break it off without delay and instantly put an end to it And when once he has done this or is fully purposed in his own mind so to do he is again a Friend of God and fit to joyn in the Holy Sacrament as well as in Prayers or in any other part of Worship Thus doth the weight of this Hindrance from the Communion lye in the innocence or unlawfulness of the Suit which is depending And therefore that Persons at Law may know when they are unfit to Communicate till they have put a stop to it and when they may do it notwithstanding it I shall here state the case of Law-Suits and shew when a Tryal is our Fault and when 't is innocent that so we may know when we need not and when we ought to be hindred by it In pursuit of this I shall endeavour to clear up these two Particulars 1. A Suit at Law is not a thing unlawful in it self but may be innocent if nothing else comes in to make a sin of it But then 2. It is our sin and a matter of our account when it is either upon an unjustifiable Ground or carried on by a sinful management 1. I say a Suit at Law is not a thing unlawful in it self but may be innocent if nothing else comes in to make a sin of it It is no unlawful thing barely to dispute a Title or to bring an Action it is in some Cases allowed as well as in others it is prohibited so that a man may be Faultless that has a Suit unless something more comes in to make him a Transgressour in it The offence lies not in the Nature of it so as to be inseparable from the Thing but only in the Cause or in the manner of Suing for as St. Paul said of the Law of God among the Jews so may we of the Laws of our several Countries the Law is a good thing if a man use it lawfully 1 Tim. 1.8 it is no sin to use it or take the benefit of it but only to transgress some other Precept or join some other sin with it when we do Now this may appear 1. From the necessity of it 2. From the Magistrates Office being appointed for it 3. From Gods taking a Legal Determination upon himself as if he were the Author of it 4. From Courts being Erected by consent in the Apostles Days to minister to it 5. From the Practice of our Blessed Saviour and St. Paul who claimed the Benefit of it and thereby plainly warranted and authorized it 1. It appears I say from the necessity of it A Tryal at Law must needs be innocent in it self when nothing else corrupts it because it is a
thing we cannot want and there is no living in the World without it For take away Law which should secure innocent mens Properties and bridle all Envious Angry Spiteful Covetous Insolent and Ambitious mens rapacious and encroaching humours and since all places are fully stored with these injurious Tempers the Wicked being by far the greatest numbers the Quiet and Conscientious must flee into Woods and Desarts or if they stay to Associate with others become every where a Prey to their greedy and usurping Neighbours If there were no Laws to protect them there were no living in this World for good men and in effect there would be none if it were a sin in them to try a Title or Right themselves by them For no man that had a mind to it would be aw'd from doing wrong by a Law that is always to be a Sword in a Scabbard and must never be pleaded against him or executed upon him when he transgresses it The use of Law then in this World is absolutely necessary to all Society to keep Peace and Justice in all Converse and to protect and encourage all such as desire to serve God and to be Conscientious And since there is that necessity of it for Gods Service and all Virtuous Ends it cannot in its own Nature be a thing offensive and unlawful to us It cannot be it self a Sin which God has made so absolutely necessary to keep all others out it must needs be allowed by him since without it his own ends of Peace and Justice cannot be attain'd it is at least sure an innocent if not a good thing which gives the only protection to all Goodness and without which there is no living for Good men in Societies where they may do God publick Service and draw in others nor indeed any safe abode for them upon the Earth at all 2. That a Suit at Law is not sinful in it self but may sometimes be innocent appears from the Magistrates Office being appointed for it One part of the Magistrates Office lies indeed in protecting his Subjects against all Foreign Force and Invasions But his most ordinary and constant work is to administer Justice and maintain Peace among themselves which is done by hearing Causes and judging in all Controversies and Arraignments giving Sentence on the side which the Law favours and where the Right Lies Thus is â—t the Magistrates Office to hear Causes or Suits at Law and to decide them And this work he doth not assume to himself either without or against Gods liking but according to his appointment and altogether with his approbation For by me says Wisdom Kings Reign and Princes Decree Justice Prov. 8.15 And the Powers that be says St. Paul are appointed of God they are Gods Ordinance Rom. 13.1 2. And since God himself appoints them to hear our Causes we may well presume he will not look upon it as our sin to bring them to their hearing For God would never appoint an Ordinance to minister only to Mens sins and to put them in a way of multiplying Offences so that since he has appointed Officers to hear it a Suit at Law in it self must needs be innocent and capable to be carried on without any sin at all Nay God has not only appointed the Magistaates Office for it But moreover 3. When a Legal Determination is given he takes it upon himself as if he were the Author of it which is still a further Evidence that we do not sin barely in seeking to it He takes a Legal Determination I say upon himself as if he were the Author of it In the Jewish State God was their Political Prince and Soveraign and the Judges among them were as much his Deputies and did represent his Person as now the Judges do the Person of their several Princes in all other Nations And therefore Moses told them when he appointed them that the Judgment was God's and that they gave Sentence only as his Deputies and judged not for themselves but for the Lord Deut. 1.17 Now tho' other Nations cannot look upon God as their Secular King and State-Head in all those Points which the Jews could for he gave them Laws in Civil Affairs and issued out Directions in State Exigencies and the like yet as to this they can that all their Governours are but Substitutes under him and that he owns what is legally and justly Determined by them For the Magistrate he looks upon as his Minister and Vicegerent who doth all things in his Name and Stead the Power says St. Paul is the Minister of God Rom. 13.4 And since he acts as his Servant he takes his judicial Determination upon himself as if it were his own and he were the Author of it For this he doth plainly in Criminal Causes and the Case is the same in all other Judicial that are not Criminal When any man is wrong'd saith he let him not avenge himself for Vengeance is mine I will repay it i. e. by the Magistrate who is my avenger to Execute Wrath so that when he punishes you may look upon it as if I had done it Rom. 12.19 and 13.4 And since a Legal Determination is owned by God himself as if he were the Author of it we may be sure whilst all things else are right that there is no hurt barely in our seeking of it It can be no sin to ask what God grants for he hears not Sinners in their Sins Joh. 9.31 nor can it give any Offence in a controverted Case to appeal to his own Sentence So that since in all Legal Determinations it is God himself who by his Ministers passes Judgment we may be assured that we do not displease him in applying our selves thereto when there is just cause for it 4. That a Suit at Law and all Judicial Process is not in it self a Sin appears from Courts being Erected by consent in the Apostles days for the Management and Conduct of them Now that such Courts were then Erected I shall shew from two places one of St. Paul wherein he prescribes them and another of St. James wherein he makes mention of them 1. It appears from one place in St. Paul wherein he prescribes them and that is 1 Cor. 6. where he orders the Corinthians to appoint Courts of Judgment among themselves that so they might have no need to expose their Religion by impleading one another before the Heathen-Tribunals Do not ye know says he that the Saints shall judge the World And if the World shall be judg'd by you are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters or unworthy of the smallest Judicatures If then ye have Judgment of things pertaining to this Life or if ye have recourse to secular Judicatures go not before Unbelievers but set some yea rather than Infidels those that are least esteemed or set at nought in the Church set them I say to judge or in the Chair of Judgment v. 2 4. Thus doth he advise
case of lighter Losses and Indignities it equally obliges us in Trust for others as in our own Business Where 't is no Duty indeed and a Suit is not a Sin but only a Defect and Diminution as it is in the Case of greater injuries there is a Difference and tho it were commendable still to refrain in our own Case yet 't is not in theirs In the former Instances to forbear is a necessary point having an express Precept for it and necessary things may be done for them by those that represent them without their own consent and approbation But in these Cases where 't is no sin to forbear is no necessary Duty but a voluntary Act And it is no part of our Trust to perform voluntary heights and unrequired Generosities at their cost but if ever these be done they must be left to themselves when by making it a matter of their own choice they themselves may have the Virtue and the Reward of it So far then as the putting up an injury without a Suit is no Strict Duty but only a Free-will Offering and a Voluntary Act it must not be done in their Case tho in our own it were much to be commended But when Patience is a Duty and Suits are sinful whether it be their concern or ours it matters not for both are equal We must be faithful to our Lord and observe the Duties of Patience Peace Forgiveness and all other Laws of God in acting for others as well as for our selves so that when there is no justifiable Ground of Suit we must abstain from it whether it be for Publick or for Private ends whether our Charge or we that are concerned in it And this I have noted for the use of those who I think are greatly out in this point For there are several that would or at least pretend thy would bear much in their own Business who will bear nothing at all and yet think they are not litigious in commencing Suits for every trifle when they are in Trust for others But as some Suits are thus unlawful because they are upon an unjustifiable Ground so when the Grounds are good are others unlawful 2. Because they are carried on by a sinful management A Suit at Law is a very dangerous state and has strong Temptations to several sins accompanying it And if when there is just Cause for it any of these are incurr'd in the management it is our Sin still and we shall be put to answer for it To shew what these are and when Suits are unlawful upon this account I observe that when we have an Action against any Man we must for all that look upon him as our Neighbour and love him as our selves paying him all that Justice Peace and Charity which is due to all Persons And this is hard to do when Men persue any controversies wherein their Interest is concerned especially when they are Publick and if they do not succeed the Eyes of the World look on to see them worsted as it is in Law-Suits For then Conquest is the end that is ordinarily sought and in prosecution of that Mens Passions generally are ingaged and both these are opposite to the Love of others and seek only to please our selves and so push us on to transgress this great Law of Charity in several instances For where Conquest is the end there is much Emulation and Strife to gain it and where Envy or Emulation and Strife is saith St. James there is confusion and every evil work Jam. 3.16 And where Passion is high and Anger is once moved there a Law of Love is not like to be observed for as the same Apostle says the Wrath of Man worketh not the Righteousness of God Jam. 1.20 And since Law-Suits generally have both these attending them they do too often lead the Litigants God knows into many breaches of Justice Peace and Charity towards each other particularly into these following If their Cause is bad they use delays to tire out their Adversaries they feign Pleas to gain time for themselves and insist upon Punctiliâ—s in his Proceedings wholly forreign to the merits of the Cause to make him begin all afresh and hunt out all Reserves of Law to prolong the Suit and suspend the Sentence And this besides its being most opposite to Love and Brotherly-kindness and being a course most uncharitable and vexatious is also a most unjust thing being a doing wrong as far as in them lies and endeavouring what they can to put an hindrance and stop to Justice And whether it be good or bad they generally incur many Sins in pursuit of it and fall into sundry instances of Injustice and Vncharitableness to succeed in it They have a longing desire to overcome and to have the Verdict pass for them be it right or wrong which is coveting other Mens Goods against the Law of the Tenth Commandment Exod. 20.17 And this disposes them to Judge all in Favor of their own Right and to fret and murmur when they have lost the Verdict and to suspect if not complain of Injustice in the Judge and Jury who were concerned in it against the plain Duty of Patience Reverence to Governours and meek submission under Judgment They watch their opportunity to take Advantage of their Adversaries over-sight or to bring the Tryal on at a time when he doth not expect or is unprepared for it which is not only against the great Law of Charity that as St. Paul saith seeks not her own at others Mens hurt 1 Cor. 13.5 but also against Justice which forbids Defrauding or going beyond our Brother in any matter when we can Over-reach and Out-wit him in it 1 Thess. 4.6 They suggest False Pleas or supply Circumstances out of their own Heads in favour of their Cause and when a little more would do it stretch beyond the Truth to ech out an Evidence and make the matter fall to serve their purpose which is clearly against the Duty of Simplicity and speaking the plain Truth with our Neighbour They have an inward hatred against their Adversaries which makes them envious when any good especially in the Process of the Cause befalls them and glad when any ill has happen'd to them and apt to surmise ill things of them and defame them as often as they can find a fit occasion and to watch all opportunities of being Revenged on them and to burst out into Anger and exasperating Carriage Strife and Variance Clamour and bitter Words against them upon any the least Provocation all which are directly contrary to the Great Duty of Love and Charity which rejoyces with them that do rejoyce and weeps with them that weep which suffers long and is kind which thinketh no Evil which renders Good for Evil which puts away all Bitterness and Wrath and Anger and Clamour and Evil-speaking with all Malice and ingages us so far as 't is possible and as much as in us lies to
are carried on by a sinful Management As they are when they make us transgress any of those Duties towards our Adversaries which oblige us towards all Persons To avoid all these in Suing is an hard Point So we must be slow in coming to it and very circumspect when we are forced upon it The Answer to this Hindrance summ'd up Page 304 CHAP. V. Of Three other Hindrances A Seventh Hindrance is because others are not in Charity with them so that they are afraid they want that Peace which is required to it As for other mens uncharitableness it is their sin and so unfits them but not being ours it unfits not us for Receiving If that ought to exclude any from the Sacrament it had excluded Christ and his Apostles and the Primitive Christians since none had ever such implacable Enemies as they had Care to be taken that their Enmity be not continued through our Fault so that if we have given just occasion we must endeavour a Reconciliation and if we gave none be careful not to hate them again An Eighth Hindrance is because 't is a Presumption in us to come to it and therefore an Humble man ought in all modesty to abstain from it But 1. 'T is no Presumption to come when we are call'd and to do what we are bidden 2. 'T is a very great Presumption to stay away and leave it undone 3. If the height of Priviledge and Honour in it be sufficient to make an humble man refuse the Communion it will also carry him to renounce the whole Christian Profession A Ninth Hindrance is because many good People are seldom or never seen at it so that they have good Company and may be good too if they abstain from it But 1. In inquiring after our own Duty we are not to ask whether others practise it but whether Christ has any where enjoyn'd it 2. If any Good People keep from the Sacrament that is no part of their Goodness so that therein they are not to be imitated 3. Though they might be acceptably Good whilst through innocent Scruples and honest Ignorance they were afraid to come to it yet will it be a very great Fault even in them to Neglect it after they are better informed which will not be forgiven but upon their Amendment of it Page 362 CHAP. VI. Of Two more Hindrances A Tenth Hindrance is because others who are unworthy of it are admitted to join in it But 1. They ought not to be forward in judging others unworthy lest they be mistaken in it 2. When some who as they have great cause to think are unworthy do receive yet ought not that to hinder them from joining in it For if it be a sufficient Hindrance it had equally hindred our Saviour Christ and the Primitive Christians It ought not only to hinder us from the Communion but also from being Members of the Christian Church and Profession but 't is plainly of no Force for either of them since one man shall not bear anothers but every man his own burden 3. If still any are really offended at the Communion of the Wicked upon complaint made in the Congregation they are to be suspended from the Holy Table and denied the Sacrament An Eleventh Hindrance is the Gesture of Kneeling which is required to it When any are absent upon this account there is no excuse from it Three things insisted on to prevent their being hindred by it 1. Kneeling is no unsuitable Posture in receiving so that if we were left at Liberty we might have enough to justifie our selves in making use of it 2. It is appointed by our Governours whom God Commands us to obey in all lawful Things so that every Good man ought to observe it But if it neither had Authority to injoyn nor Reason to recommend it but another Posture might be better used Yet 3. Since it may lawfully though not so well be used too for the Sacraments sake which is not otherwise to be had we should at least comply with it No Hindrance to this Complyance because the Gesture of Kneeling is different from what our Saviour used For so is sitting too and therefore they and we are equally concerned to answer it The Posture he used was no part of the Institution so that the Institution is not broken when the Posture is altered Neither it nor any other has any Command of God for it so that none is necessary but all are still indifferent When a Posture different from that at the first Institution was introâ—uced in Sacraments our Saviour himself and they too have submitted to it Again no hindrance to it from the fear of worshiping the Bread or its being a Popish Rite A conclusion of this point Page 381 CHAP. VII Of some other Hindrances An Account of some other Hindrances One abstains because the day before he was at a Feast Another because his Child is sick or he himself is lighty indisposed A third because his Wife or Husband cannot come along with him to joyn in it A fourth because he has a Visit to make or a Friend come in who in all civility must be attended A fifth because of a Showr of Rain or a sharp Air abroad so that he must endure a piercing Blast or wet his Foot to go out to it These are no Excuse from it but still Men are bound to Communicate Some Devout Meditations and Prayers to help them in a Worthy Discharge of it After they have received they must be careful to make good those holy Vows and Promises which they made to God in the Holy Sacrament Page 421 Heads of Self-Examination for the use of those who would find out what Sins they have to Repent of either before a Sacrament or at any other Times Page 465 A Prayer before the Sacrament Page 474 A Prayer and Thanksgiving after the Sacrament Page 478 A Morning Prayer for a Family Page 484 An Evening Prayer for a Family Page 487 AN HELP AND EXHORTATION TO Worthy Communicating The INTRODUCTION IN this matter of the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper there are two great Faults which are every where incurr'd and which all that Love their Saviour or their own Souls ought most carefully to avoid and they are a Refusal or Neglect and an unworthy Vsage or Prophanation of it both which are most offensive to Almighty God and to our dear Lord. For our Blessed Saviour has appointed it and expresly commanded us to come to it and shew'd us by manifest Tokens that he lays a particular weight upon it so that we are greatly undutiful and disobedient if we keep back from it And he has appointed it for sacred Ends and solemn Purposes which call for a very Reverent and Devout Carriage so that we prophane it if we come carelesly and behave our selves unworthily when we approach thereto It is a most necessary part of our Religion and therefore not to be passed over and let alone through Negligence and
wherein he is to be remembred 1 Cor. 11.24 And so 't is also in St. Luke where the Words are Peremptory for the Apostles administring and so answerably for the Peoples receiving it without any intimation of the eating it self being indifferent and uncommanded which that Evangelist would not so unwarily have expressed if Christ had so intended it And our Lord shew'd us not only that he has commanded this Sacramental eating but that he has commanded it as a necessary thing when he tells his Hearers that except they thus eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of the Son of Man they have no Life in them Joh. 6.53 And this necessity of it is further manifested from the necessity of the Passover among the Jews which answered to it for at every Return of it they were to be cut off from Israel whosoever presumed to omit it Exod. 12.15 And if there were no express Command for it yet are the things we are call'd to in it all of that obliging Nature and such necessary Duties that without Sin they cannot be declined By all which as we have seen this Sacramental eating and drinking is evidently proved to be a plain Duty and under a peremptory Commandment When therefore in this place the Apostle says of our drinking of the Cup Do this as often as ye drink it he doth not intimate that we may do it as seldome as we please or as if it were under no Law or express Precept He uses the words as often not because 't is an Arbitrary Act and there is no Duty in it but because though it be a Duty we have not always opportunity for it and so cannot always be performing it For as has been shewn there is a Command to Communicate and that as all other Affirmative Laws binds us to it at all times when a fit occasion is offer'd When we eat and drink in the Sacrament we must remember Christ and when we have an opportunity to eat and drink in it we are obliged to it as the Jews we saw were to the Passover which answered to it who were to be cut off from Israel when at any time they omitted it So that to Communicate is no Arbitrary Act but an indispensable Duty and peremptory Command still And since it is thus necessary a Duty in every grown Christian to come to the Holy Sacrament it must needs be a great and dangerous Sin in any of us when we neglect and abstain from it We must not think it an indifferent thing but make Conscience of keeping off from the Holy Communion as we do of keeping off from Prayers of Swearing doing Wrong being Proud Incontinent or Drunken For it is expresly and straitly forbidden by God as well as they and we incur his Anger and till we repent and do so no more cannot regain his Favour when we are guilty of any of them A neglect of the Lords Table therefore is a Sin which although God may excuse in those good Souls who because of their over-high Veneration for it and Fear of their own Vnworthiness to partake in it in the honesty of their Hearts think they ought not to come to it Yet will he not excuse in them when they are better inform'd and much less in others who neglect it because they are careless of it or too Wicked and Impenitent to receive it He may excuse it I say in those Good Souls who in the honesty of their Hearts through Ignorance or Error were held back and because of their over-high Veneration for it and fear of their Vnworthiness to partake in it thought they ought not to come to it An innocent Ignorance or mistake of an honest mind may plead our excuse before God in this as well as in other Duties For in all of them Christ has such a Sense of our Infirmities as that he can have Compassion on the Ignorant and those that err or are out of the way Heb. 5.2 So that if after an upright indeavour to be rightly inform'd in it some Good Minds shall happen to mistake their Error will not be imputed It may be through the loose Discourses of some or the general Practice of the World who by being so seldom at it seem to set lightly by it they think themselves not obliged to it Or again through the extream Rigidness of the Discourses of others who require such extraordinary things to it as very few have attain'd they think themselves always unworthy and unprepared for it and that they should sin and eat their own Damnation in it But if they fall into these mistakes about it which make them abstain from it after an honest indeavour to be rightly inform'd about it their Ignorance may plead their Excuse and make their Neglect to be connived at God will not account it to them as a sin because they knew it not but were mistaken For in this as well as in all other Cases to him that knows to do Good and doth it not to him 't is Sin Jam. 4.17 But though God may bear with this neglect of the Sacrament in Good men whilst they are thus innocently misled Yet will he not excuse it in them when they are better inform'd and much less in others who neglect it because they are careless of it or too Impenitent to receive it He will not excuse it even in them when they are better informed Their only plea for their not doing of this Duty is that after the best search they could make they did not know they were bound to it or that with safety they could perform it and when once their Understanding is inlightned this plea is removed so that afterwards they can find no relief at all from it They abstain then when they know if they are truly Penitent they might and ought to come and that abstinence is wilful and unless they repent of it and amend it will end in their Condemnation For to him that knoweth to do Good and doth it not to him 't is Sin Jam. 5.17 And much less will he excuse it in others who are careless of it and too Impenitent to receive it If they are hindred from the Lords Table out of Slothfulness or are unworthy of it by Reason of their Impenitence those are not their Excuse but their own Damning Fault and they must expect to bear the punishment of it To tell God I did not come to the Sacrament because I would not Repent is to tell him I would not come and promise to be Good because I was resolved to continue Wicked and that is a very odd way of excusing it Impenitence is no excuse but a most damning Sin and therefore if we have no other cause to give why we did not come we must needs be liable to Condemnation If any of you therefore who shall peruse this Treatise have refused Gods invitation formerly and have kept back from this Feast by what I have here said you may see your Fault and
how nearly you are concerned as you tender your dear Saviours Honour or the safety of your own most precious Souls to amend it You have offended God in not coming to the Communion as you would offend him in not coming to Church in not saying your Prayers in not giving Thanks for Mercies in not being humble honest and upright in your dealings or in omitting any other Duties So that you must not think all is well with you when you keep away as if you had done nothing If the true Cause why you abstain'd was your well meant mistake about it and your not knowing after all the search you had opportunity to make that every Good man who Repents of all his Sins is worthy and fit for it God will wink at your Ignorance whilst it lasted but that will be no excuse to you now you are better informed so that now you will be Guilty of a Damning Offence if you still neglect it after you are told of it But if you have absented hitherto out of a careless Spirit which would not attend the times or be at the pains to come to it or because you have an Impenitent Heart which will not promise that Amendment and New Life that is to be undertaken for and ingaged in it Then has your Absenting been your Damning Sin which has provoked God against you as all other Acts of Disobedience and Irreligion If this is your Case you must look upon your selves all this while to have been in a great Fault which God will not forgive till you Repent and amend it For God will forgive you this Sin of neglecting the Sacrament upon the same condition whereon he will forgive all others namely when you forsake it and turn away from it and instead of absenting learn to frequent it So that if you would keep a Good Conscience towards God and dye in Peace and have no unrepented sins to answer for at the last Judgment Every one of you that has sinfully sleighted this Sacrament hitherto must come to it henceforward and according to your Saviour Christs Commandment readily partake in it when you are called thereto CHAP. II. Of the Benefits of Communicating The Contents The Sacrament is full of Blessings which make it not only our Duty but our Priviledge In the General it is the most effectual means in all Religion to recommend our Prayers and make them powerful and so is the likeliest way to attain all Mercies In particular 1. It Seals to us the Pardon of our Sins for the Peace of our Consciences 2. It encreases and Confirms in us all Graces Those are ordinarily such as we bring along with us It confers Grace 1. By the Natural Virtue and Tendency of those Duties which it both exercises and excites in us 2. By those inward Assistances which it conveys to us Since on all these accounts it is so excellent a means of Grace and New Life 't is the best Rule any Person can observe who would go on in the Work of Repentance All these Motives to Communicate both from Duty and Interest summ'd up HAving shewn in the former Chapter how much it is every Christians Duty to frequent the Holy Sacrament who is of Age to come to it and how greatly they sin against God who neglect it both from the obliging Nature of the thing and Christs express Commandment I proceed now in this 4 ly To shew what great inducements we have to it and how great the Benefits are that come by it which should make us press to it of our sâ—lveâ— were it not Commanded The Holy Sacrament has Blessings enow within it self to recommend it to our choice if God had not interposed his Authority and laid that weight upon it which he has It is fully stored with Benefits which make it not only a strict Duty but an high Priviledge to come to it as the Christian Church has always thought whose great Penalty lay in a Separation or Exclusion from it It is not only a matter of Honour to God but also of highest Advantage to our selves so that in all Reason we ought to seek it and heartily thank God that we may be admitted to it out of a care of our own Happiness and pure Self-interest Of these Benefits I have mentioned some already such as its being a vouchsafement of highest Honour to us and a token of Gods greatest Love for us and a certain pledge of our Future Glories of all which I have Discoursed in the last Chapter But besides them it is full of many other singular Blessings and present Graces which I shall now treat of in this And those which I shall take notice of are these 1 st In the General It is the most effectual means in all Religion to recommend our Prayers and make them Powerful with God so that 't is the likeliest way to obtain all Mercies 2 ly In Particular 1 st It Seals to us the Pardon of our Sins for the Peace of our Consciences 2 ly It encreases and confirms in us all our Graces 1 st In the General It is the most effectual means in all Religion to recommend our Prayers and make them Powerful with God so that 't is the likeliest way to obtain all Mercies And this it doth by being a Commemoration unto him of the death of Christ which is the only Argument that prevails with him to bestow them on us It is the common way of all men when they sue for kindnesses from others and think they have not Interest enough themselves to use such Intercessions and suggest such things as have most Power with them and are likeliest to incline them to grant their Desires And as it is thus in our Requests to men so is it in our Prayers to God too We set those Considerations before his Eyes and suggest those things to his Remembrance which are fittest to move his Pity and to make him favourable towards us Thus the Holy men in the Old Testament in their Prayers are frequently putting God in mind of his Covenant and Promise and making mention of his Servant David or Abraham or Isaac or Israel for whom they knew he had an especial kindness and with their Prayers they used to joyn Sacrifice hoping to be the easier heard when they came with their Atonement in their Hands and that the Life of the Beast being offer'd up in Commutation and accepted instead of theirs God would be the easier appeased and more inclined to hear their Supplications Upon which account that their Prayers might have a Powerful Argument to recommend them going along with them they were careful to offer them up at the hour of Sacrifice as appears from the Prayer of Ezra and of David at the Evening Sacrifice Now that which Powerfully intercedes with God for us and which was shadowed out by all the Jewish Sacrifices is our Saviours Death For it was his Blood that merited so highly at Gods hands as
to make him think of shewing Favour and being kind to us It is the Blood of Propitiation Rom. 3.25 that makes peace between God and Men Col. 1.20 and speaks better things than the Blood of Abel calling for Life and Salvation as that did for Destruction Heb. 12.24 And 't is the Representation of that Blood now in heavenly places that gives Christ himself such absolute Power with God and makes him sure to prevail whensoever he intercedes for us For by it he entered into the Holy Place where the Mercy-seat or Propitiatory was Heb. 9.3 5.12.24 and where he ever lives to make intercession for us Heb. 7.25 So that the great Argument which either Christ our high Priest now in Heaven offers for us or which in our Prayers we can plead for our selves is his own Death and Sufferings Now this is set before God in every Prayer and in all Acts of Religion in all which we use Christs Name and desire to be heard and hope to prevail through his Mediation But in the Sacrament it is done more perfectly and with greater Solemnity and that too by Gods own appointment For one chief end of the Holy Sacrament is to Commemorate the Death of Christ i. e. to set it out in solemn shew and make mention of it not only before men but also to Almighty God This do in Remembrance or Commemoration of me says our Saviour Luc. 22.19 And as oft as ye do it says St. Paul ye shew forth the Lords Death i. e. both to God and Men till he come 1 Cor. 11.26 Thus do we no where so livelily and advantageously set out this great Argument of being heard as in the Holy Sacrament which we may justly hope will be the more observed and have the more effect because it is not done of our own heads but by Gods own special Direction and Appointment And where the Argument is most advantageously set out we may expect the better effect and greater force from it And this the Ancient Christians thought accounting their Prayers were not like to be so Powerful at any time as when this Commemoration of Christs Death the only Plea for being heard accompanied them And therefore at the Sacrament they used to pray not only for themselves but also for all others and to recommend any Person or thing to God which was dear to them thinking they could never so advantageously as at that time sue for them Thus in the General is the Holy Sacrament a most likely means to obtain for us all Mercies because it is the most effectual course in all Religion to recommend our Prayers which must procure them for us 2 dly In Particular 1 st It seals to us the Pardon of our Sins for the peace of our Consciences 2 ly It increases and confirms in us all our Graces 1 st It seals and confirms to us the Pardon of our Sins for the peace of our Consciences In the Holy Sacrament God calls us to give us a full Pardon by giving us that Blood which was shed for the remission of Sins and which is the Blood of Expiation and having received that at his hand if we are true Penitents we need not doubt but that our sins are expiated and he is reconciled The Sacrament it self as we have seen is nothing less than a soâ—emn Confirmation of the New Covenant which promises Remission of Sin to all that truly repent of it So that when with Penitent Hearts we come to joyn in it we come to stipulate and secure a Pardon of all our Offences which will give us all the security of it that Covenants and Promises can make us Whensoever we Repent indeed we have Gods promise of Forgiveness which may comfort our hearts after any Sin not only in the Communion but in every Penitential Prayer and Confession But in the Sacrament this Promise is again repeated and in most solemn manner Sealed and Confirmed to shew us that God is still of the same mind and to give us a renewed and a sensible assurance of it And when God has thus set his Seal to it and a Penitent Soul has just received his Word and Bond for it it need not question but he is reconciled and unless it starts back from these penitential engagements and falls afresh into new Provocations will always continue so to be And thus the Sacrament is the most effectual means to calm the Fears and quiet the Consciences of all true penitents If once they make sure of their own Repentance after any Fault it doth that in an ordinary way which an Angel from Heaven and a special Revelation would do in extraordinary i. e. it lets them know their Sins are Pardoned and that God is their Friend For therein they receive from him the Blood of Expiation a plain proof their Sins are atoned for and forgiven and therein there is an express agreement and solemn Covenant of Peace and Reconciliation between God and them which is confirmed by this Feast of his own prescribing and having this Instrument of his own appointment which they may look upon as his Hand and Seal to it they may chearfully depend upon it and rest satisfied in their own mind 2 ly It increases and confirms in us all our Graces These Graces are ordinarily such as we bring along with us which we either have already practised or are fully purposed and resolved so to do For therein God gives Grace only to the Worthy Communicants and those Communicants only are Worthy who Repent of all their Sinâ— and are wholly determined to lead a New Life in Obedience to all his Commandments It is not a Sacrament intended to give strength in Grace to those that have nothing of it for it is our Spiritual Meat and Bread as our Saviour calls it Joh. 6.51 55. the use whereof is not to give Life to a Dead Person but Strength and Nourishment to a Living It is not designed to turn an Impenitent Man into a true Penitent or to make an Ill man Good for every impenitently ill man is an Unworthy Receiver and eats his own Damnation which is a Curse and not a Blessing so that he is not the better but the worse by it But it is intended to make a Good Man Better to carry on Repentance in those that have begun it and to confirm and enlarge every Virtue in those who are already possessed of it If we come to it with Faith or Belief of the Scriptures particularly of Gods promises to pardon our Sins for Christs sake upon our Repentance and to help us to any Graces upon our indeavours and to make us Eternally happy upon our entire Obedience it strengthens and assures it if with Love of our dear Lord who dyed for us it increases it if with Thankfulness for his kindnesses particularly that of giving his own Life for ours it makes us more sensible of it if with hearty Repentance and full purpose of amending all our Sins
objective Representation of most forcible inducements to them powerfully excited in them at that time And as these Duties are all improved by the Holy Communion so are they 2ly Most Powerful in helping us to become Obedient and Good men If we were but perfect in these Virtues and they had once got the Ascendant over us and ruled in our Hearts they would have an Universal influence on all others and govern our whole Lives For if when we are tempâ—â—d to any sin our minds being familiarized to it would at that instant readily suggest to us that Christ dyed for it and that it put him to all the pain and anguish he suffered we should not endure to come near it If we have any true Love and Zeal for him we shall shew no manner of Favour or Compliance with it if we are really Thankful for what he has done for his sake we shall withstand it if we are resign'd up to his use we shall have nothing to do with it because he is against it and if we abhor it for the pains it put him to when he answer'd for it and will at last put us to also if we continue in it we shall disdainfully reject and turn away from it If we Believe and remember always as we have need that Christ died for our Sins and procured us Pardon for them upon our Repentance and Grace to get quit of them upon our best indeavours that Faith will make us Obedient and carry us on to amend them If we truly Love Christ that Love will make us do something for him and cast to please and obey him If we are Thankful for what is done we shall never despite him by any Sin which for all his Benefits were to return the greatest injuries again If we are resign'd up to his use we shall Faithfully serve him If we are heartily Penitent and abhor our Sins we shall forsake them If we have this lively Faith and Remembrance of Christs dying for us and this intense Love and hearty Thankfulness and entire Resignation of our selves to his Service and sincere Repentance and utter Abhorrence of all our Sins If we have these Virtues I say and in these prevailing measures they will carry us on to an Holy Life and make us Obedient to all Gods Commandments And therefore since this Holy Sacrament when 't is worthily received doth so much improve these Virtues in us it must needs help us on and improve us in all others and in the whole course of a good Life too Thus doth a worthy receiving by its own Natural tendency confirm and increase us in all good Living by our exercising and its exciting in us such Duties as help it on and set it forward and so doth it 2 ly By our binding our selves thereat in solemn Vows and Ingagements to go on in it One chief end of our meeting at this Feast and prime part of our Worthiness in partaking of it is to confirm the New Covenant as we have seen and to make God our Faithful promises that from that day we will amend all our Faults 〈◊〉 so we may attain that Pardon and Happiness which upon our true Repentance he comes to offer and assure to us And these solemn Vows and Promises are a fast hank upon us to make us leave our Sins and do all that he requires of us For every man ought and thinks himself concerned to be as good as his word and to perform what he has promised especially when 't is to one who is too Wise to be deluded and too Just and Powerful to suffer any abuses of him to pass unrevenged which all men that understand any thing believe of Almighty God When we Promise and Vow to him we know that he cannot be deceived and that he will not be mocked so that we must needs see it stands us in stead and is our highest concern to perform with him And therefore since in the Sacrament we do in the most solemn manner Vow to amend our ways and promise an Holy Life to Almighty God in Regard none that are honest will and none that are wise and serious dare be unmindful of such sacred and solemn Compacts it must needs be an excellent way to bind it fast upon our Souls and fix it in our minds and so help very much to establish and imprint it in us And thus we see how a worthy receiving conveys Grace and confirms and increases in us all Virtues by the Natural tendency of those Duties which it exercises and excites in us For it powerfully excites and therein we exercise several Duties which help on a Good Life and set it forward and bind our selves by solemn Vows and Ingagements to go on in it both which are most Powerful to improve and effect it And as it thus confirms and increases in us all Graces by the Natural Virtue and Tendency of those Duties which it excites in us so does it 2 ly By those inward Assistances which it ministers and conveys to us This Sacrament doth not only confer Grace by its Natural Tendency as other means but moreover by virtue of Gods Promise and especial Bounty to the Worthy Receivers of it as it is an Instrument in his hands He tells us that he will do great things at the presence of it and be liberal in Spiritual Blessings to all that duly partake in it So that besides what they do from the Virtues themselves which are exercised thereat they may promise themselves much Spiritual Grace and Strength from his Free Gift and immediate concurrence with it For in the Sacrament he offers them all that outward Grace and Spiritual strength which Christs Death procured and therefore if they come to it worthily so as their own unworthiness is no bar against it that offer will be sure to take effect and they shall undoubtedly receive it And this is plainly intimated to us when our Saviour tells us of his Flesh that it is Bread the true use and end whereof is for support and nourishment Joh. 6.51 And when St. Paul declares that the Cup of Blessing which we Bless is the Communion or Communicating to us the Blood of Christ i. e. those Benefits his Blood procured us and that the Bread which we break is the Communion or Communicating to us the Body of Christ i. e. those Graces which the offering of his Body obtain'd for us amongst which are these Spiritual Assistances 1 Cor. 10.16 And when our Lord himself tells us that the Bread he gives us is his Body and that the Câ—p he reaches out to us is his Blood Mat. 26.26 28. By which though he mean not that they are his Body and Blood in their Natures yet the least he can mean is that they are so in their Effects so that when we receive them we receive all the Blessings of his Blood-shedding and all that Grace which his Death has purchased for all Men. And thus the
Church of Christ has still thought concerning it In the Sacrament says St. Ambrose thou receivest the similitude of the Body of Christ i. e. the Bread and Wine which râ—presâ—nt it but together with tâ—at all the Grace and Virtue which the true and real Body obtained This Sacramental Food says St. Cyprian or whoever was the Author of that Tract is in outward appearance a bodily Substance but by invisible Efficiency it works all the Effects of a Divine Power and Presence They that partake of the Eucharist by Faith says St. Clement of Alexandria are sanctified thereby both in Body and Soul And we eat the Bread says Origen which by Prayer is made the Body of Christ Holy in it self and making those Holy who feed on it with Resolutions of New Life and Holy Purpose And this is another way whereby the worthy Receiving of the Sacrament confirms and Augments in us all Spiritual Graces viz. As it is an Instrument in Gods Hands who at the presence of it ministers and conveys them to us And by this it appears that the Holy Sacrament confirms and increases us in all Graces both by the Natural Virtue and Tendency of those Duties which it excites and improves in us and also by those inward Assistances and Spiritual Aids which it ministers and conveys to us And thus we see how the Holy Sacrament is full of Grace and a quickning Spirit and helps mightily to set us on in an Holy Life and in the work of Reformation and Amendment And therefore when any Persons turn Penitents and resolve to lead new Lives one of the best Rules that can be given them is to frequent it For it will carry them forward in their work and what by the Natural Tendency of the Duties themselves that are exercised in it what by the Assistances that are conveyed by it increase their Strength and give them Power to go through with it It will perfect them in Obedience by exercising and exciting and by both improving in them that Faith Love Thankfulness Resignation and Repentance which are the most Genuine Principle and Effectual cause of it It will bind it upon their Souls and ingage them to it by their repeating every time they are at it their solemn Vows and sacred Promises to go on in it And it will inable them to succeed in it by bringing down from God those inward Helps and Spiritual Assistances which shall bear them through it So that if any man begins to look towards God and longs to go forward with the work of Reformation and Amendment He ought in all Reason to seek out and press in to be admitted to the Holy Sacrament For it is one of the best Rules that can be prescribed in his Case and serves his end above any thing and therefore he must not in any wise shun it but lay out for it above all men living A man that will not Repent indeed whilst he continues in that mind must not come to it for he would not receive Good but hurt by it But if he resolves to amend his ways and seeks out for help and would make use of any means which would do him most Service in effecting it let him be constant at the Lords Table and frequently Communicate It will quicken him when once he is in the way to become Good and amend his pace where he has need to be set forward and strengthen him in those Parts where he is weak and most lyable to be assaulted as St. Ignatius told the Ephesians when he advised them to be frâ—quent in it saying Shew haste to assemble often in the Eucharist for the oftner you meet in it the more your standing is secured and the Power of Satan is destroyed It will fortifye him in all Tryals wherein he is like to be most endanger'd enlivening in him that Holy Zeal and steady Purpose and other Graces which must bear him through it for which cause it was used anciently and upon a like occasion would be so still as a Preparation for the greatest Tryals and to fit men to Dye Martyrs for the Cause of Christ. Those says St. Cyprian and the other Africane Bishops whom we would preserve safe and invulnerable against the fiercest Darts of the Adversaries we arm first with the Lords Supper wherewith they may be guarded as with a shield and wherein they may be secured as in an impregnable fortress It is an excellent means of confirming every Grace and affording Spiritual Help and Strength to all that want it and that is inducement enough were there no Command for it for every man who desires to be intirely good and strong in Spirit to resort to it And thus at last it appears what those Blessings are which come by the Sacrament and which are sufficient to ingage all good Souls to press to it of themselves though it had no where been commanded For it is a most effectual means to prevail with God in all their Prayers and thereby to obtain all Mercies it Seals to them the pardon of their sins for the Peace of their Consciences and Confirms and Augments in them all their Graces So that if they have I will not say any Duty and Service for their Saviour but any Love of themselves and care of their own Souls they will seek to be admitted and come hastily when they are called thereto To conclude this point then the sum of what I have said to ingage mens presence at this Feast and to Communicate as often as an opportunity is offered amounts to this It is their Duty to come to the Communion as much as it is to come to Church to be Temperate Humble Just or to perform any other Precepts of their Religion For they have Christs express Command for it who by injoyning it has required Obedience in such an Instance as best shows their peculiar Reverence and Love to him and to ingage them to it has freed them from all the load of Jewish Ceremonies and imposed no heavier Burden than it and Baptism instead of them and to make it take the more effect left it among the last Words which he spâ—ke to them and to shew it is a matter of no small moment would have it expresly specified in St. Paul 's Commission and tells them that unlesâ— they come therein to eat his Flesh and drink his Bloâ—d they have no Life in them and will punish the neglect or abuse of it as he 〈◊〉 of the Jewish â—â—ssover which answered to it with Excision And the Nature of those things which are meant by it and wherein they are to imploy their minds when they are present at it most straitly oblige them to it For therein they shew they have Fellowship with Christ and appertain to his Religion and thankfully remember him and Seal the New Covenant with God and a League of Love and Friendship with their Brethren and are vouchsafed the highest Honour and receive Tokens of
the greatest Love and injoyment of present Graces and Pledges of Future Glories from him which are things that every Ingenuous man will and every Good man ought to do when he is call'd to them and no man can honestly refuse or decline who professes himself a Christian. These things oblige all those who are of Age for it and have an opportunity and fit occasion offer'd and have no lawful Let or Impediment of Providential hindrances sickness or other thing which would excuse their coming to Prayers or other Ordinances of Christ they oblige all such I say to come to this Feast when they are call'd to it And if after they are shewn how much it is their Duty to 〈◊〉 in it and how Repentance make them worthy of it through Carelesness or Impenitence they stay away from it they sin against God and are Guilty of a Damning Fault which will not be forgiven them till they Repent of it and amend it But if there were no Guilt in the Neglect and to Communicate had not been thus required yet would the Blessings of the thing it self have ingaged every Penitent Good Man to press in to be admitted For it is the most effectual course in all Religion to prevail with God and to be heard in all their Prayers it Seals to them the Pardon of their Sins for the Peace of their Consciences and Confirms and Augments in them all their Graces bringing down such help as may make them stand in all Tryals and carrying them on beyond any means that can be prescribed in the course of Repentance and new Obedience which to all that love the ease of their own Minds and have any care of their own Souls are invitation more than enough to ingage their presence at this Ordinance and as for those that do not they are neither to be won by them nor by any others And thus having shewn what is the meaning of eating Bread and drinking Wine in the Blessed Sacrament and wherein lies the Worthiness of doing it and how much it is every Good Christians Duty to frequent it and what great Benefits there are that câ—me by it which should make us press to it of our selves were it not Commanded I shall proceed now 5 ly In the last Place to consider those Excuses and to take off those Pleas which are most usually made against it of which in the next Part. PART III. Of the Hindrances that keep men from the Communion CHAP. I. Two Hindrances from Communicating The Contents One most General Hindrance that keeps men from the Sacrament is a Fear of their being Vnworthy and Vnfit to receive it This Answer'd by shewing 1. The Partiality of it because they are not so scrupulous about Neglecting as about Vnworthy Receiving though there be the same cause for it 2. That every true Penitent is worthy of it Yea he that has only fully purposed Amendment though he has not had time to perform it 3. Impenitence which unfits them for it is no Excuse for the Neglect of it 4. Impenitent men who alone are unfit if they understand the danger of their State cannot continue in it but amend it and then they may worthily Communicate 2. A Second Hindrance is because an Vnworthy Receiver eats his own Damnation 1 Cor. 11.29 which makes not Receivinâ— seem the safer side By Damnation is meant 1. A Damning Sin which is deadly till we Repent of it and such are both unworthy eating and sinful abstaining so that they are equal as to that point 2. Temporal Penalties which were inflicted for their Intemperance at this Feast and other Disorders peculiar to those Times and are not now usual in ours so that the fear of them need not discourage us from it SInce a worthy receiving of the Holy Sacrament is a Duty which our Blessâ—d Lord has so straitly injoyn'd and from which we may all hope to reap so great Benefit as has been shewed it may well be expected that all who would do Service either to their Saviour or to themselves should readily join in it whensoever an Opportunity is offer'd And so 't is like all that pretend to serious Religion would were it not that they have some Exceptions in their own minds against it which till they are removed make all Discourses of the Duty or Vsefulness of it fall without effect and perswade them that however necessary or adviseable it may be to others yet it is not so to them who have so just an hindrance to excuse or discourage them from being present at it To give this Duty as fast hold as I can therefore on the Consciences of all those who shall peruse this Treatise having already set forth the indispensable Obligations we have to it I shall now proceed to remove those Hindrances and to take off those Pleas which are offer'd to excuse and keep men back from complying with it And as for them the most weighty and considerable which I have been able to learn or have had opportunity to meet with are such as follow Men are most ordinarily hindred from the Sacrament notwithstanding it is so much both their Duty and their Interest to frequent it by one or other of these things 1 st Because they think themselves unworthy of it and unfit to receive it 2 ly Because of the great danger of Vnworthy Communicating Damnation being said to be eaten in it which seems to make abstaining the safer side 3 ly Because therein they are to promise concerning every Sin they find themselves guilty of that they will no more commit it and this Promise they dare not make because they fear they shall not keep it 4 ly Because of the great difficulty they apprehend to be in worthy receiving and their want of time and leisure to prepare for it 5 ly Because they see others or have found themselves to be no whit bettered or improved by it so that 't is not worth their 〈◊〉 to fiâ— themselves for it 6 ly Because they have not that Charity for all the World which is to be professed in it 7 ly Because though they be with others yâ—t 〈◊〉 are not in Charity with them and therefore they fear they want that Peace which is required to it 8 ly Because it is a Presumption in us to approach it and therefore an humble man should abstain from it 9 ly Because many Good People are seldomâ— or never seen at it and therefore they may be Good too and have Good Company if they keep away from it 10 ly Because others that are unworthy of it are admitted to joyn in it 11 ly and Lastly Because though they ought and would come to the Sacrament yet they would not Kneel which is the Posture appointed by the Church wherein they are to receive it These are such things as do most ordinarily hinder Good People from partaking in this Ordinance but indeed they ought in no case to be their hindrance from doing their Saviour and their
any Persons For 1. Where it is true there is no excuse from it 2. In all good mens case 't is false for they are really better by it many by improving in their goodness all by continuing in it for which it is richly worth their pains to come to it 3. Where they are not bettered at all or not so much as might be expected that is purely through their own Fault in not using the means of improving by it so let them amend that and this Hindrance is removed A Third thing that keeps back several from the Sacrament though both in Duty to their Saviour and in tenderness to their own Souls they are most straitly bound to frequent it is because therein they are to promise concerning every sin they find themselves guilty of that they will no more commit it and this Promise they dare not make because they fear they shall not keep it Now as for these Persons I would desire them to consider that if this be a sufficient hindrance to keep them from this Ordinance it is equally so to keep them from their Prayers nay from their very Baptism and being inroll'd Christians For God will not hear their Prayers for the Pardon of any Sin till they Repent of it and resolve within themselves and make him Faithful promises that they will never more commit it Nor did he admit them to Baptism to be listed Members of his Church till they had Renounced the Devil and all his works with all the sinful Lusts of the Flesh and promised to keep his Holy Will and Commandements and walk in the same all the days of of their Lives If we stick at these Promises then we must scruple saying our Prayers and boggle at all Religion and if we were yet unbaptized upon this account refuse our Baptism since therein we did and ought to make as large and express promises of leaving all our sins as we can or are required to make in the Holy Communion But to those who are afraid of the Holy Sacrament upon this account I have these two things to add 1. Promise this Amendment and keep it and then the Doubt is answer'd 2. Though after some time they should forget themselves and break it in some instance yet still have they the benefit of Repentance afterwards 1 st I would advise them to promise this amendment and keep it and then the Doubt is answered When the Objection against promising is only the danger of performing when they both can and ought to perform it is an objection that lies only against themselves in a suspicion that they will be wanting to their own bounden Duty and Service and that is better removed by their care faithfully to discharge it than by any thing that I can say to it They ought to perform it and if they will they may do it and therefore let them be careful to do that and this difficulty is ended They ought I say to perform this Amendment which they promise to Almighty God and leave every sin which formerly they have committed God will not forgive us any Fault whilst we persist Impenitent and continue to repeat it but requires first on our part that we forsake and amend it Sin no more says our Saviour to the Woman taken in Adultery and then will not I condemn thee Joh. 8.4.11 And let the Wicked man forsake his ways says God by Isaiah and return unto the Lord and then he will have mercy upon him and abundantly pardon Is. 5.7 It is no indifferent matter that is left to our own choice whether we will leave our sins or no but the thing must of necessity be done if ever we hope to appease God or go to Heaven so that we must not be less forward to promise for that is our Duty but more careful to perform And as they ought to perform this amendment which they promise to Almighty God so by his Grace they may perform it if they will and have a mind to it When at this Feast they say they will never commit this or that sin any more as God has required they say not that they will never be surprized into it but that they will never act it willfully i. e. when they see and are aware of it or if at any time they do that they will not persist in it but amend it Repentance always going along from the beginning to the end of the Gospel Covenant And this by Gods help they all may do if they make it their serious business and lay out their utmost care and pains upon it For when a mans Conscience tells him that the thing is sinful which he is about to act or at least he could readily see it if he would direct his Eye to it he need not go on unless he will but if he please may instantly turn away from it This I say he may do for if he will not be wanting to himself God will not be wanting to him in it but inable him effectually to abstain from it when he duly indeavours it If once we are careful to work out our own Salvation St. Paul assures us that he will work in us both to will and to do Phil. 2.12 13. To him that hath i. e. imploys what he hath our Saviour promises that more shall still be given Mat. 25.29 and elsewhere again God will give the Holy Spirit to those that ask him Luc. 11.13 And since they may pâ—rform this Amâ—ndment if they will and ouâ—ht to perform it if ever they hope to be accepted let them but be careful so to do and then this hindrance will give them no more trouble but be quite removed They will have no cause to be slow to promise what they will be thus honestly careful to perform 2. Though afterwards they should forget themselves and break this promise in some instance yet is not their case desperate thereupon but they have still the benefit of Repentance afterwards Indeed if they break it as soon as ever they have made it and run constant changes in sinning and repenting performing this time and transgressing it the next that Repentance will be of no avail with God because it rests only in fair Words and Promises or at best in some faint attempts without any real Reformation and Amendment Nay if they fall a Second time into some sins which lay waste the Conscience such as Murder Adultery willful Perjury and the like which few good men can ever incur at first and fewer can afterwards Repeat when once they have smarted for it it may still give cause why the sufficiency of their Repentance should be questioned But if in sins which are more ordinarily incurred as Discontent Pride Revenge Backbiting Passion c. which are generally meant by those who are kept back by this Impediment If after they have promised to leave these sins I say they go on for some due time to make good their word and avoid the fault in several opportunities
that lead them to it but at last happen to forget themselves and break it in some Instance yet doth not that null their former Repentance or make their Case desperate thereupon but they have still the benefit of Repentance afterwards and by amending what they have done amiss may be perfectly râ—stored and made whole again For God will pardon us upon our Repentance not only Once or a Second time but as often as there is occasion So that if after we have promised in the Sacrament that we will never more be guilty of any particular sin we yield to it at length and are a-new overcome let us but Repent of that Breach and fully resolve against it a second time and then we are made whole as we were in our former station As for this Hindrance then whereby some are kept back from the Sacrament viz. Their promising therein concerning every Fault that they will no more commit it which promise they dâ—â—e not make because they are afraid they shall not keep it it need not stick with them nor ought to hinder any man that pretends to Religion For let them promise this Amendment and keep it and then the Doubt is answered Or if after they have kept it for some time they happen to fail upon some occasion let them Repent of that Breach and make new Promises and Resolutions and then they are whole again And all this has nothing in it that can be avoided or ought to be feared but is all necessary and desirable to be done for it is their Duty thus to promise and their Duty to perform and their great Priviledge that if they fail in any instance afterwards upon repeating their Repentance they shall receive a Pardon It is what every man must do not only to be a worthy Communicant but to be a Christian. For the same things are promised in Prayer and in Holy Baptism so that if any man draw back from them and sticks to promise them he must not pray to God nor pretend to Religion nor were he to chuse again be baptized into the Christian Profession 4. A Fourth thing which keeps back several from the Sacrament Is the great difficulty they apprehend to be in a worthy Receiving of it and their want of time and leisure to prepare for it They fancy it is a very hard thing for any man worthily to Communicate and since 't is hard in must needs require much time and application to prepare themselves for it and as for their parts they have little leisure from their business and are not made to master Difficulties so that they must be content and hope they shall be excused if they abstain from it This objection many are ready to make against coming to the Communion But every Christian will be much ashamed of it and slow to urge it a second time when once he considers that it lies not more against it than against an Hâ—ly Life and all Religion For all the particulars of worthy Communicating as I have shewn are equally parts of indispensable Duty and a good man God has required no more Virtues in us at the time of Receiving than he requires at all other times to render us acceptable Christians to fit us to say our Prayers or to give us any hopes of Eternal Happiness So that if any man says the work of the Sacrament is over-hard and therefore he is not willing or wants time to fit himself for Receiving he may as well say he is not willing or wants time to be a Christian or to go to Heaven and upon that Plea may with equal Reason bid adieu to all Religion But to answer this more particularly I must observe to them 1. That if it did really require all this time and pains to prepare for it yet would that be no sufficient Reason or Excuse for any of us to Neglect it 2. That to all true Penitents it is not so difficult nor requires so much time as is imagined so that they have not so much as this Discouragement to make them backward in it 3. That all even the poorest and most employed have time sufficient if they will use it to that end and that of those who have less leisure and abilities so as that they cannot fit themselves in great Degrees God expects the less preparation and accepts it at their hands 1. I say If it did really require all this time and pains to prepare for it which is supposed yet would that be no sufficient Reason or Excuse for any of us to neglâ—ct it For when God bids us do a thing can any man think it a good excuse to say I would if it were not troublesome or long a doing Must we perform those things only at his Command which are easie and soon over but neglect all others which imploy more care and pains and require to be attended longer How we may like such Masters I will not say but I am sure God will entertain no such Servants as will pick and chuse with his Commands and obey them no further than their own ease and occasions will suffer them No he expects we should do him Service though it be with difficulty and loss to our own selves And this in all Reason he may very well require of us because we our selves who can plead no such Deserts nor make any such Recompences as he propose do all look for it from our Servants in any business they are to do for us For if we set them to any work we shall think it a very odd Answer if they tell us they would do it for us but that they are unwilling to be at so much pains or to spare so much time as it requires Although a worthy Communicating then would require much time and pains to prepare for it yet would not that be a just excuse for any Person to Neglect it For since God Commands it nay Commands it urgently and lays a great weight upon it we are bound in all Duty to perform it though it cost us both time and pains so to do But 2. To all true Penitents it is not so difficult nor requires so much time as is imagined so that they have not so much as this Discouragement to make them backward in it The Difficulty of worthy Receiving lies not in giving Christ Thanks or believing the Scripture and all its Promises as I have shewn but only in Repenting of all our Sins And this indeed has more difficulty in it and requires more time to ill men who are held Captives by them but not very much to good who are already set free and have broke off from them 1. I say Repentance of all their Sins and amendment of their Lives has more difficulty in it and requires more time to ill men For they have many Lusts to pare off which are very dear to them and many things to set straight which cannot all be done upon the sudden When they come to
enter upon a good Life who as yet are strangers to it they must consider particularly of all Gods Laws which are the Rule of it and examine their own Hearts at every one to see against which of them they have offended and there make their particular purposes and full resolutions of Amendment They must spend time and pains upon this examination to bring them to a Penitent purpose and a deliberate well-weighed Resolution and when that is done it will cost them more time and pains still in frequent Tryals as in the course of Life and Business they meet with opportunities to practise and perform what they have resolv'd upon For when upon a strict Review of their whole Lives they find they have several sins to amend they must not think after they have resolved against them to get perfectly quit of them on the sudden But they must withstand the Temptations to them once and again and pass through frequent Tryals and exercise themselves in many Conflicts before they will have got the Conquest and be indeed reformed from them Thus will it require both much time and pains for an ill man to become good and not only to Resolve that he will amend all his ways but to put in practice and perfâ—â—m it too 'T is true indeed I cannot say the actual amendment of every Fault and the performance as well as purpose of obeying in every Commandment is necessary to a worthy Communicant For a full Resolution of amendment without staying for time and opportunities to fulfill it is sufficient to fit us for this Feast as I have observ'd it did in the Apostles Days when upon their first Conversion and becoming Penitent before they had time to perform what they had promised men were admitted to the Sacrament as to other parts of Worship So that the Repentance required of us to a worthy Communion will not take up all that time which is necessary to amend a whole Life and to practise all the Duties of a Good man But although it will not call for all that time which is necessary to a New Life and Practice yâ—t will it require all that which is necessary to beget and actuate a New Heart and Purpose and that will be much more in â—ll than it will be in good men For whâ—n ill men examine themselves to find out all their Sins that they may resolve agaiâ—st them they have many more sins to Repent of and imploy their minds upon and are more Strangers to their own Hearts and Lives having never observed or looked into them and so need the greater Labour of Recollection and more hardness of Heart and coldness of Spirit so that they do not so easily renounce them nor can so readily and fully Resolve against them when thâ—y have discovered them as good men can Aâ— for this Repentance of all their sins then which consists not in an actual amendment of them but in full Purposes and Resolâ—tions never more to commit them which is sufficient to a worthy Communion it has more difficulty in it and requires more time than ordinary to ill men who are held Captives by them But 2. It doth not require very much to good who are set free and have broke off from them The great thing which they have to do is to examine what are their Faults and to find out their own miscarriages for if once they discover them they are so habitually set to amend every thing that is amiss that they will quickly resolve against them And this discovery they will make much easier and sooner than ill men can For their Faults being fewer are sooner run over and their Consciences being tender and used to observe them they do better remember them and are the readier when they are asked to give in an Information of them than the others are Indeed if they do not accustome themselves to Self-examinations they will find the more to do and need a longer time when they come to them But if they are much vers'd in them especially if they take an account of the Day past every Evening having daily discovered and acknowledged all their Faults they will bear them still in mind and have an habitual sense of them and so be able at any time to tell what acts they are to promise and resolve upon at a few minutes warning as we may well suppose they did in the first times when they Communicated every day and under the pressing wants and distractions they conflicted with could not set apart whole hours for preparation Thus is the work of Preparation for the Communion not so difficult to true Penitents nor requiring so much time as some have imagined It may cost them some time whilst they imploy their Thoughts in actuating their Love and Thankfulness and other Graces before they come but if they have little leisure for it this need not be long a doing for most good minds are so inclined and habituated to these Tempers that they can express them and that too answerable to the Degree of Warmth their Complexion allows in other things with Fervor and Intension upon any warning But the great Work which may seem to have length and trouble in it is Repentance of all their Sins and this will not be either long or troublesome to them For the only thing that will give them trouble in it is the Work of Self-Examination to find out what their sins have been their Hearts being so good that they can quickly resolve against them when once they have discovered them and this they will not find tedious but may dispatch in convenient time If they were yet to begin the work of Reformation indeed they must spend more hours or days upon it and be held to it so long till they could run over all Gods Laws and all their own actions and work themselves up into firm purposes of amendment at every thing they find was done amiss through their whole Lives which would be a more tedious and painful business So that when ill men come to prepare themselves for the Sacrament they must set out more time for it and expect to pass through greater hardship But then they must remember not to charge this upon the Communion but upon a New Life and Regeneration it not being for the work of worthy Receiving but of Repentance and Reformation which they must go through with whether they receive or no that all this time is spent and hard pains taken But if they have begun to Repent long ago and have indeavoured carefully to become good men a much less time will serve their turn for they will be able presently to resolve against aâ—y Fault they see being habitually set against all already and also see all they have to repent of upon a small Examination If they have not been used to frequent Examinations so as to have all their sins at hand before them it may hold them a longer time but if they have examined often
more remiss in time yet being a freâ—h inlivened and intended by a new approach to this Feast the former Ardors will be revived and the same bent establish'd and so they will be always advancing forward in a continual improvement This increase of their Graces and Augmentation of all virtuous Dispositions especially of those wherein they are most defective the Sacrament works in many good persons and 't is very fit it should do it in all And although I dare not say they are unworthy of it or unbetter'd and unfruitful under it yet I will say they are very much wanting to their own Souls who are not careful to carry on and attain this improvement by it And if they examine their Growth in Grace and Goodness by a growth in these points I believe the greatest part of careful and devout Receivers will find they are really made more perfect and improved in Virtue by frequenting it Yea I add further they may be thus improved by it though upon Examination they themselves should not be able to point out Determinately in what or make a clear Discovery of it For very few Persons do so strictly observe the Degrees of their own Attainments in any Virtues with what ease they do them and how seldome they sin against them as may inable them to compare exactly the pitch of their present Graces with the pitch of the same Graces sometime afterwards And if they should very narrowly observe them yet would they not be able nicely to judge of every small increase for little things are no more discernable in Grace than they are in Nature nor can be easier seen in growing Virtues than in a growing man or Tree or other Natural improvements And besides since the Grace which the Sacrament is to improve in us is so diffused and extends to so many instances when really we have gain'd and advanced in it yet may it be hard for us to recollect and shew determinately in what and specifie it in the Particulars It is so I am sure in knowledge which is another thing wherein the instances are so infinitely numerous For although it be very plain that the longer any man lives the more ordinarily he understands and improves in Knowledge yet if most of us were asked how much we are wiser now than we were a Month or two Months since it might often puzzle us to answer it and though it be plain we are improved to particularize in what as well as it is to particularize our improvements by the Sacrament So that not only those good men whose growth is apparent but also several others who have not particularly discovered it are bettered in Communicating by an improvement of those Graces which they brought along to it But if any Good men are not better'd in the Sacrament by improving yet are they all 2. By continuing in their Goodness which they must ascribe to it and for which it is most richly worth their pains to frequent it It is one great Grace and Benefit to all Good men that they can maintain their present station in Goodness and not Relapse and fall back into their former sins again Their Natural Lusts are only kept under not quite extinguish'd in them and will grow bold and strive for Mastery upon any fair occasion And they are daily in the way of manifold Temptations which awaken them and give more strength and advantage to them And they are many times either wearied out with watchings or lull'd asleep in secure carelesness which makes them lyable to become a prey to them They are closely beset with Powerful Enemies and much indanger'd by continual Temptations and oft-times unguarded and fit to make but a very weak Defence which are things that would hinder them from standing where they are as well as from improving and going further So that it is a very great benefit and they are much the better by it if any thing can help them to keep what Grace they have got already as well as inable them to gain more This continuance in Goodness is less indeed than Improvement but yet it is a most valuable thing and of so great account that were there nothing more to be had by it for its sake alone it were most richly worth any mans while to come to the Holy Sacrament And this Benefit which all good men hold since they would cease to be good should they fall from it all worthy Receivers ought to ascribe as much to the Communion as to any other thing They owe it not to it alone indeed but to other means also viz. to hearing and reading the Word and meditating upon it which puts them in mind of their Duty and of the great motives to it to Self-examination which shews them their Falls and Deviations from it to solemn Vows and Promises which bind them to be careful in it and to fervent faithful Prayers which bring down Gods Gracâ— and Spirit that inables them to perform it All these and others are great means of securing their standing in an Holy Course amidst all their Temptations to depart from it and therefore to every one of them they they must in part ascribe it But the Sacrament contributes to it as much at least if not more than any thing besides so that in accounting whence they receive this great benefit it ought not in any wise to be excluded For therein they remember and fix in mind the Death of Christ which is the highest motive to it and exercise that Faith and Love and Thankfulness and Resignation and Repentance which are the best means to set it forward and make God solemn Vows and Promises which are the straitest bond to ingage them to it and put up many fervent Prayers which are the best course to make way for it and receive those inward Graces and Assistances as I have shewn which inable them to discharge it So that when worthy Communicants continue after the Sacrament to hold their present pitch of Goodness and do not slide back again into their former sins they must not say they are no better by it for this benefit of standing in a good state they receive from it Though it doth not improve and bring them forward yet it helps mightily to continue and keep them where they are Thus are all good People really bettered by the Sacrament For besides the Peace of Conscience which is thereby much settled in those Penitents who understand and consider that therein they have seal'd the Covenant of Pardon with Almighty God Besides this effect I say in those who rightly understand it the Graces of some are much improved and the standing of all is greatly maintain'd by it which last were there no other expectation from it is a most valuable benefit and such wherefore it is highly worth any mans labour to frequent it 3. Where they are not bettered at all by the Sacrament or not so much as might be expected that is purely through their own
are no more able always wholly to forget what has past than we were at first to be wholly ignorant and insensible of it Nay in many Cases if we could it is not advisable that we should do it for whilst the injurious Person is Impenitent and ready to repeat the same again the Remembrance of it will do us good in quickning our care and making us more wary and watchful to prevent it But if once he has Repented of what he did so as that he ought to be admitted to his former state then indeed it may seem very desirable that as much as in us lies we should forget it by giving no entertainment or incouragement to the Thoughts of it For the Remembrance then can serve no good ends but may prove a very great snare to us in making us backward in kindness or fit to catch fire on small Provocations or uncandid in interpreting his words or actions afterwards It will not be our sin till these or some other ill effects are wrought by it but it will be our Temptation whereby 't is very like we shall sometimes be much indanger'd so that then it may be very fit to lay it aside for fear of receiving hurt by it 2. They fear that after an unkindness or injury received they are not so Charitable as they ought because they think the worse of him that offered it Now if they are uncandid in judging of the injurious action i. e. if they impute it to the worst cause and make not those Allowances of forgetfulness over-sight and the like which it would well admit and which Love would fix upon it were it to construe it 't is true they are so far wanting in it This indeed is hard for us always to avoid and therefore we must be sure to take the more care and keep the stricter watch against it And if after all through unwariness through an Accusers laying out only the interpretations of the ill side or our own suspicious temper insensibly leaning towards it we are ingaged in an uncandid Construction e're we can discover it there our inconsideration and unadvisedness will be our excuse for it But so soon as ever we can observe it or are shewn how the action is equally capable of a favourable Sense we must strike in with it and correct our hasty Judgment So that if by thinking worse they mean that they think worse than needs of the Action and incur an uncandid interpretation this is the Sentence they are to pass upon it Either it was an innocently inconsiderate escape and then their haste and unadvisedness must excuse it or it was a known sin i. e. it either was or had they not been grosly partial and evidently bent to think ill would have been committed with observation and then their Repentance and Amendment must atone for it But if by thinking worse they mean that when the Fact is evidently ill they have a worse opinion of the Person there is no want of Charity in that because they have just cause for it and cannot in Reason think better of him They judge only according to the plain Truth of things and that the best Souls may safely do and it is no uncharitable part in any of them For thus our Lord thought of Judas when he most affectingly suggested to him the baseness of â—is Bâ—trâ—ying him and that too with a Kiss the sign of Friendship and Affection And thus the Apostles thought of the Jews whom they looked upon as wicked Murderers for our Saviours Crucifixion And thus St. Paul thought of Peter when he blamed him for his sinful complyance and dissimulation And thus God himself thinks of us upon our miscarriages for he sees them and dislikes us for them and thereby magnifies the Honour of his Patience and loving Kindness in that he is good even to the unthankful and the evil and shews us Favour notwithstanding them And thus also may we very innocently and charitably too think ill of any others when they have evidently deserv'd it and given us just occasion for it For the work of Charity or Love to others is not to make us blind in a plain Case and see no Faults in them when they are clear before us For this is Love without Eyes which is by no means the Love of wise men or the Charity of Christians It is not always possible in Nature nor could be shewn if we should attempt it for when others Faults are evident there is no way of being dark against the Sun or shutting out the Light whilst our Eyes are opened But if it always could be done yet is it not in any wise proper to be advised for if we must see no hurt in any Persons it unavoidably destroys all wise choice of Friends and Companions Relations and Dependants all seasonable Counsel and Instruction Reproof and Admonition and so produces most sad effects both in Conversation and Religion The work of Charity to others then is not to wink against a Fault when 't is apparent but not to be quick in discerning and forward in presuming it when there is no just Cause for it So that if we would be Charitable to our Enemies we must not believe ill of them till it is sufficiently made out to us nor conclude them faulty in a doubtful case when there are Reasons on both sides and they are as likely to be otherwise nor presume they had an ill design in that which lies as open to a good and might have no hurt at all in it In these Cases where their offence is not clearly proved it is uncharitableness in us to be hasty in believing it But when their Enmity is profest and their Vnkindness or Injurious dealing is evident 't is no Duty in any man to shut his Eyes against the Light nor any Uncharitableness at all to esteem them the less for it We may think him a Dishonest man that has injured us and him a False Friend that has betrayed our Secrets to our Prejudice as our Saviour Christ did Judas and that he is not so kind as he professes who when he might refuses to do good to us When we judge of Persons not from rash Surmises but from clear Evidence and Experience we may judge as we find cause and if we judge ill of them it is not because we are inclined to it but because they have deserved it so that our ill Opinion is owing purely to their Faults and not to any want of Charity in our selves 3. Some Persons of Passionate Natures fear they have not that Charity for Enemies which is required of all Good men because when some have been most mischievous to them their hearts are troubled and they are inwardly moved as often as they see them not with any Angry or Revengeful Passion which would do hurt to them but only with a sad Remembrance of their own Losses which they have sustained by them Now where this is really the
may appear that Judicial Consistories are the Assemblies here intended Thus were Judicatures prescribed and ordinarily used in the Apostles Days St. Paul appoints the Corinthians to ereâ—t them and St. James makes mention of them as of an ordinary thing among them and that too without passing any mark of dislike upon the Courts themselves when he blames that partiality and respect of Persons which they shewed in them These Judicatures indeed were erected by their own consent among themselves and were not imposed on them by Power and Authority as other Legal Tribunals are but they serv'd for the same end of hearing Causes and passing such Sentence as should take effect and put an end to Controversies as other Judgment-Seats so that the same thing was done by them in suing in their Courts which is done by us in ours In our Judgment-Halls 't is true where things are managed by Advocates that oftentimes seek Conquest and not Justice and ransack all Reserves of Law to support as long as Craft can do it an unrighteous Cause there is more room for ill Arts which bring more sin into our Pleadings But that is not a Fault inseparable from Suits but is the sin of Managers it lies not naturally upon the thing but only upon the Contingent circumstances and manner of doing so that if we are careful to keep it free from them a Suit in it self may still be innocent and carried on as lawfully in our Courts as it was in those of the Apostles Days And as this Lawfulness of Judicial Process appears from these Legal Courts erected in the Apostles Days to minister to it so doth it yet further 5. From the Practice of our Blessed Saviour and St. Paul who claimed the benefit of it and thereby plainly warranted and authorized it Our Blessed Lord himself I say claimed the Benefit of it For when the Officer in the High-Priests presence struck him with the Palm of his Hand he openly complains of the illegality of the Act and expostulates before him for a redress of it If I have spoken Evil says he testify against me and bear witness of the Evil but if well why smitest thou me Joh. 18.22 23. And after him St. Paul was not afraid to plead his own Cause and serve himself of Law when others went about to use him with Violence contrary to it For when the Chief Captain ordered him to be scourged uncondemned he pleads the Legal Priviledge of a Roman who ought not to be so treated Act. 22.24 25. And when the Magistrates of Philippi contrary to all Law and Priviledge had scourged him and Silas without any hearing of their Cause he threatens them for it and would not put it up unless in Compensation they would come themselves in Person to release them out of Prison and do them Honour before all the Multitude Act. 16.36 37 38 39. Nay he uses all wise Arts of Law to maintain a Righteous Cause and when he was not like to have Justice done him in one Court protests against it and claims the Benefit of appeal to another For when Festus willing to do the Jews a Pleasure would have had him go up to be judg'd before him at Jerusalem in the way whereto the Jews design'd to murder him he answered I stand at Caesars Judgment-Seat where I ought to be judged if I have committed any thing worthy of Death I refuse not to die but if there be none of these things whereof these accuse me as thou very well knowest the Law of the Empire is my Protection and no Man may deliver me unto them I appeal unto Caesar Acts 25.3 9 10 11. And thus from all these Considerations it appears that a Suit at Law is not a thing unalterably evil and unlawful in it self but may very innocently be carried on if no Sin mixes with it to turn it into a Transgression It is a thing which God has allowed when we have just cause for it and are guilty of no Vice in the Course and Conduct of it For he himself has put us into a necessity of it and has appointed the Magistrates Office for it and takes upon himself the just Judgment which is given in it and when Christians became a distinct Body Courts were set up by the Order of the Apostles themselves to Minister to it and as it fell in their way our Blessed Lord and St. Paul too have serv'd their own turns by it By all which 't is plain that a course of Law may sometimes innocently be used since otherwise God and these Good Men could never have been thus concerned about it But against all this some may urge two places which seem to take away all Suits among Christians and to forbid all legal Defence by requiring a patient Sufferance of all Losses and Indignities which should occasion them One is Mat. 5.39 in point of Indignities the other is Mat. 5.40 and 1 Cor. 6.7 in point of Losses and spoil of Goods And if both these must be suffered with Patience without any Legal Defence or Righting of our selves what is there left to be matter of Civil Causes for us to Sue and Contend for These Pleas seem fair and therefore it is fit they should have an Answer One Place seems to forbid all Suits and Legal Righting of our selves in case of Affronts and Indignities and that is Mat. 5.38 39. Ye have heard says our Saviour that it hath been said in the Law of Moses an Eye for an Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth i. e. When any one had offered these Violences to them they were allowed by judicial Process this Law of Retaliation being directed to the Judges Exod. 21.23 24. to inflict the very same on them again But in opposition to this I say unto you resist not Evil or the Evil Man not only forcibly by Private Violence but also legally by publick process for so the word rendred Resist sometimes signifies and its opposition to these Legal Retaliations among the Jews here imports But whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek turn to him the other And so again in case of Losses and spoil of Goods ver 40. If any Man will Sue thee at the Law and take away thy Coat or inner Garment rather than contend with him for that hazard a further Loss and let him take thy Cloak or upper Garment also Conformable whereto the Apostle tells the Corinthians that they are utterly in a fault in not suffering themselves to be Defrauded but seeking Remedy by a Suit or going to Law at all 1 Cor 6.7 Now in Answer to these places I observe 1. That 〈◊〉 are not meant literally and absolutely 〈◊〉 â—urning our Cheek to all Smiters or 〈…〉 our Goods to all ravenous Encroachâ—â—s â—ea that they do not forbid us at any time to serve our selves of Law when others implead us nor at all times to seek unto Magistrates and implead others 2. That they are meant proverbially and
live peaceably with all men Lastly They Love to be vexatious and cut out work for their Adversaries deferring a Tryal several Terms for no other end but to make them throw away both their Mony and Pains in attending to prevent a Surprise or putting them to prove needless things which influence not the merits of the Cause or insisting on every fetch of Law that may be an hindrance in their way though 't is no way necessary to the main business or studying other mischievous Arts of creating them trouble and being vexatious which is absolutely against the Loving of our Neighbour as our selves and having a Brotherly-kindness and doing Good as we have opportunity to all Persons and is that very sin which St. Paul mentions and which he expresses by wickedness or mischievousness i. e. a studying to do mischief and make work for others Rom. 1.29 Thus to mention no more are all these Prolongations of Suits and delays of Justice these Covetous Desires and Acts of Impatience these Arts of Circumvention and going beyond our Adversaries these deceitful Suggestions and Falsifications in Pleadings these mischievous and vexatious ways this Hatred Envy Evil-speakings and Surmises Anger Bitterness Strife Clamour Revenge c. which are so ordinarily the Concomitants of Judicial Causes most unlawful and forbidden things so that whensoever we have any Suits depending we sin in them if any of these intrude and mix with them A Judicial Controversie that is begun upon a Justifiable Ground will not be innocent if 't is carried on by so unjustifiable a management And therefore to clear our Consciences in all Legal Tryals we must take care not only that after all other means of righting our selves have fail'd the Suit be Commenced for a thing of weight which is a justifiable Ground but also that it be pursued in all this Justice Charity and Peace which makes a justifiable management For 't is not enough that the Cause be good unless the manner of maintaining it be good too This I must confess is an hard Point because in managing a Suit we are in the way of so many sins and meet at every turn with strong Temptations which must needs very much indanger us For all the way these sins lye before us so that unless we have a constant care we shall step into them They generally serve our ends and set on the cause so that we are still under a Temptation to them And what through our own Interest and the desire of Conquest what through the opposition that is made unless we are very Circumspect our Passions will be ingaged and then more or less we shall be hurried into the Commission of them So that if no Suit be innocent where the Ground is good except all these sins be avoided in the management it will be a very hard thing may some say to sue innocently and appeal to Courts at all This indeed is very true and I am ready to confess so too For though some even-temper'd men who are endowed not only with great goodness but also with great Discretion and Government of themselves may do it with some ease and not find it very difficult yet are those men very few in Number who are so well set out and qualified for it But ordinarily it is a very difficult task and there is great danger of offending God attending it For I think there is hardly any thing that shews more the Conduct and Goodness of a man than to be able to keep innocent whilst he is put upon contending and so to manage a Suit or other Contest as that when he has done his own Conscience shall have no cause to accuse or condemn him for it But then the effect of this can be nothing else but that men be very slow in coming to it and very Circumspect in all they do when in a thing of weight after other means have been tryed in vain they cannot avoid it It must make them slow in coming to it I say and this besides its quitting them of the hazzard will I believe make also for their ease for they will generally find less difficulty in bearing Loss than in keeping innocent whilst they seek Judicially to repair it But when the thing is of so great weight that a Suit cannot well be avoided it must make them very Circumspect and Watchful over themselves all the time it is going on lest they incur any of these sins in pursuit of it The greatness of their Care must answer to the greatness of the Danger so that they must resolve to set a strict Guard upon themselves in suing or else not venture to begin any Suit at all And thus it appears that although in it self a Suit at Law be an innocent thing yet when 't is either begun upon an unjustifiable Ground or carried on by a sinful management it is not innocent but defiles the Conscience of a Christian. It is our sin and we must account for it when we seek Revenge by it or Reparation of a thing so small as cannot bear it or of a weighty matter by delays of Justice Falsifications Vexatious Arts or any other Instances of Injustice or Vncharitableness which is a sinful way of managing it When this is the state of it there is a great offence in it and whilst that lasts it deprives us of the Favour of God and ought to exclude us from the Holy Sacrament whereas were it free of these there would be no hurt in it nor any Cause at all why a good Soul should be hindred by it As for this Hindrance then whereby Devout minds are oft-times with-held from coming to this Feast viz. their being ingaged in a Law-Suit we see now at length what weight is to be laid upon it and when indeed they ought to be hindred by it For if there are no Damages to be expected in the Cause but we sue only for Revenge or if when there are they are so small as will not bear a Suit but ought to be a matter of Forgiveness or if when the Loss is of that moment which would justifie a Suit we transgress any instances of Justice or Charity in managing the Process our Suit is our sin which will not be forgiven us till we shew Repentance When 't is unlawful upon the unjustifiableness of the Ground we sin in it till we put an end to it and when upon some particular Injustice or Vncharitablness in the way of management we sin in it till that particular is Corrected and Amended And so long as we are Impenitent in either of these we are unfit for the Holy Sacrament since no man who allows himself in any sin is worthy to partake of it But then we are equally unfit to Pray or perform any other Religious Service or hope for the Forgiveness of our Sins and Eternal Happiness because as I have formerly observ'd Justice Peace and Charity and other Virtues are equally necessary in all these Cases If
Neglect it And therefore if any Persons otherwise Good are seldom seen at the Blessed Sacrament that is no part of their Goodness but their Fault so that therein they are not to be imitated 2. Though they might be acceptably Good whilst through innocent Scruples and hohonest Ignorance they were afraid to receive it yet will it be a very great Fault even in them to Neglect it after they are better inform'd which will not be forgiven but upon their Amendment of it A Good Man cannot indulge himself in any known Sin for he ceases to be good and acceptable to God if he persists in any of them after he is plainly told of them and his Duty is evidently set before him The Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all unrighteousness saith St. Paul Rom. 1.18 And he that breaks one Law saith St. James is guilty of all i. e. of that Eternal Punishment which is denounced not barely to some one but to all Jam. 2.10 So that when once this Great Duty of coming to the Sacrament is clearly laid out and his Conscience is inlighten'd and possessed with a Sense of it he can be no Good man who willfully holds off still and refrains to come to it Whilst he was perplex'd with Doubts about it indeed and either through the loose Discourses of some thought himself not obliged or through the unreasonable Rigour and Severity of others after all his Repentance and full purposes of Amendment thought himself still unprepared to come to it for the pitiableness of his Ignorance and unwill'd mistake so long as they lasted his Neglect of it may be excused and connived at But if after all his Doubts have been solv'd and things have been set in a clearer Light he continue still to slight it then he is Guilty of a very great Fault which will not be forgiven till he Repents and Amends it To him that knows to do Good and doth it not says St. James to him 't is Sin Jam. 4.17 And when any willfull sin stands charg'd on our account it will not be struck off till we forsake and turn away from it For to all such Sinners Gods Declaration is this Except you Repent you shall all perish Luc. 13.3 As for those then who urge this in excuse for their not coming to the Sacrament because several Good People are seldom or never seen at it My Answer to them in sum is this In judging what is our Duty we must not take our measures from other mens Practice but from our Blessed Lords Commandments since if they disobey any Precept that is no excuse to us nor gives us any warranty for companies sake to disobey likewise And as for the Sacrament in particular if any Good People keep away from it that is no part of their Goodness so that therein they are not to be imitated Nay if they continue in this Neglect after their Consciences are rightly instructed and informed about it they cease to be Good and commit a Damning Fault an Impenitent continuance in any one known sin putting any Person out of a gracious State Whilst they were held back purely by Doubts and Scruples and wart of Knowledge without their own Fault their Omission was fit to be connived at and they might continue acceptably Good notwithstanding it But if still they persist in it after they know more and are better instructed they are Guilty of a very criminal Neglect which will not be passed over but upon the same Terms as all other known sins are i. e. their Repentance of it If they stay away out of Ignorance and Mistake all they can expect is to be pittied but not to be commended for it and if out of willfulness after their Conscience has been set right they will be severely punish'd unless they are reclaim'd from it So that no man must ever hope to justify himself in refraining the Lords Table because he has good Company and knows of several others whom he takes to be very Holy Persons that are wont to refrain it too CHAP. VI. Of two more Hindrances The Contents A Tenth Hindrance is because others who are unworthy of it are admitted to join in it But 1. They ought not to be forward in judging others unworthy lest they be mistaken in it 2. When some who as they have great cause to think are unworthy do receive yet ought not that to hinder them from joining in it For if it be a sufficient Hindrance it had equally hindred our Saviour Christ and the Primitive Christians It ought not only to hinder us from the Communion but also from being Members of the Christian Church and Profession but 't is plainly of no Force for either of them since one man shall not bear anothers but every man his own burden 3. If still any are really offended at the Communion of the Wicked upon complaint made in the Congregation they are to be suspended from the Holy Table and denied the Sacrament An Eleventh Hindrance is the Gesture of Kneeling which is required to it When any are absent upon this account there is no excuse from it Three things insisted on to prevent their being hindred by it 1. Kneeling is no unsuitable Posture in receiving so that if we were lest at Liberty we might have enough to justifie our selves in making use of it 2. It is appointed by our Governours whom God Commands us to obey in all lawful Things so that every Good man ought to observe it But if it neither had Authority to injoyn nor Reason to recommend it but another Posture might be better used Yet 3. Since it may lawfully though not so well be used too for the Sacraments sake which is not otherwise to be had we should at least comply with it No Hindrance to this Complyance because the Gesture of Kneeling is different from what our Saviour used For so is sitting too and therefore they and we are equally concerned to answer it The Posture he used was no part of the Institution so that the Institution is not broken when the Posture is altered Neither it nor any other has any Command of God for it so that none is necessary but all are still indifferent When a Posture different from that at the first Institution was introduced in Sacraments our Saviour himself and they too have submitted to it Again no hindrance to it from the fear of worshiping the Bread or its being a Popish Rite A conclusion of this point A Tenth Cause which many Persons are wont to Assign for their absenting from this Feast is because others who are unworthy of it are admited to joyn in it Tho this be a very good thing yet they fear they should give offence in doing it with all Partners and how worthy soever they may be in themselves would be defiled by the unworthiness of others so that unless they can receive in an unmixt Company and only with the pure and true Believers they think best to
Duty Wilt not thou my sweetest Saviour who diedst for me whilst I was thine unrelenting Foe now intercede for me when I come to serve thee O speak Peace unto my poor Heart and let me know and feel that thou forgivest me Send thy Holy Spirit to take possession of it to keep it true unto thy self that it may never more start back from thee Thou hast promised thy Grace to those that ask it and endeavour in expectation of it O! I desire it and will do what I can to be assisted by it and therefore humbly hope this Promise shall be made good unto thy Servant Whatsoever thou doest in other things deny me not this Grace O Heavenly Father for Jesus's sake who is infinitely dear to thee and who died for me Amen Thus may we Discharge the Duties of this Feast and excite and actuate in our own minds that Faith and Thankfullness and Charity and Resignation and Repentance which are to render us fit and worthy of it If any are destitute of other helps they may make use of these Meditations and Prayers to affect their own Hearts and to shew forth these Virtues of worthy Receivers They will not always find room for all these Devotions whilst the Sacrament is Administring but they may go thro' with all of them before they come for then they may allot what space they please for them and make use of such of them as the time allows when they are receiving And for a more actual adorning of their Souls with them at that time whilst the Minister himself or others before them are Receiving they may express them all in one Continued Devotion by lifting up their Hearts to God in the words following O Blessed Jesu who gavest thy self to die for my sake how near have I lain to thy kind heart when the precious Blood that streamed thence was not so dear to it I am utterly ashamed of my self that ever I should put thee to part with such a price and to endure such exceeding smart and tortures to bâ—friend me I blush to think of it and abhor my sins which brought thee to it But since my need required and thy Boundless Love would make thee undergo what thou didst in the utmost thankfulness of an humble heart I gladly accept the inestimable benefit for which I love thee most Affectionately and will serve thee most Faithfully and praise thee most joyfully evermore extolling thy boundless Goodness and glorious Excellencies and endeavouring that all others may do so too Thou hast Bought me with thy Blood and here with an unfeigned Heart I give up my Soul and Body my Goods and all I have to be employ'd in thy Service and disposed of as thy Providence shall order me Take Possession of me by thy Spirit that my Body may always be the Temple of the Holy Ghost my Soul and all its Faculties intirely Devoted to thy Behoof and Interest and all 〈◊〉 worldly Goods acquired so innoâ—â—ntly injoyed so thankfully spent so â—â—â—perately and laid out so charitablâ—â—s becomes thy Faithful Steward I 〈◊〉 not hence forward call any things my own when once my Lord has need of them I freely resign all up unto thee since thou hast paid so dear for me I have grievously offended thee by many sins particularly by c. I am perfectly asham'd of them and sorry at my heart that ever I committed them and would never do it were they to do again and faithfully promise that wittingly I will never more yield to them and humbly beg that for Christ's sake in whom thou offerest Pardon to every penitent Heart thou wouldst forgive them Thou hast purchased the Holy Spirit for all those who are ready to labour in an Holy Life and take pains with it and offerest him to all such industrious Souls in this Sacrament I desire O Lord to amend all these Sins which I have here acknowledged I am fully bent upon it and will endeavour what I can towards it and depend upon thy Grace and Aid to carry me through it Be it unto thy Servant according to thy Word I am at Peace O Lord with all Persons and forgive all Offenders against me as I expect Forgiveness of my own Offences at thy Hands and am fully resolved to be kind to all the World but especially to all the Members of thy Mystical Body for thy sake that by these Returns of Charity I may in some sort answer that Infinite Love and Kindness I receive from thee Thy Blood O Blessed Jesus has procured and thou Holy Father for Christ's sake hast promised Pardon of any Sin to every one who repents of it and the Assistance of thy Spirit to every one that endeavours with it and Eternal Life to all that are entirely Obedient and callest us to receive Assurance that thou art still of the same mind and wilt make all this good in this Holy Sacrament Lord I heartily repent me of all my Sins for Christ's sake do thou pardon me I am fully resolved to shew Care and to labour in the Amendment of all my Faults let thy Grace and Holy Spirit come in to assist and enable me I am stedfastly purposed to keep thy Commandments do thou then graciously accept me for the sake of my Crucified Saviour whose Death I now most thankfully commemorate and who is here offered unto thee as our Atonement on this Table Or shorter thus O Blessed Jesus who diedst for my sake and daily still renewest thy Kindness by shewing thy self well-pleased with what thou hast done and calling me to meet thee in this joyful Commemoration of it I come at thy Command to shew my self humbly and thankfully mindful of so Infinite a Benefit Blessed yea for ever Blessed be thy Love which made thee think upon when I lay in misery nay forget thy self and throw away thy own Life to save mine I humbly adore thy marvellous Goodness which shall ever be the Joy and Praise the Wonder and Astonishment of Men and Angels And O that I may always love thee better than I do my Life that so I may not flinch even to die for thee as thou hast done for me if ever thou shalt call me to it for thy Glory I see in this Bread that is broken and this Wine which is poured out what cruel Pains my Sins brought to my dearest Lord and how they stand guilty of his Body and Blood I come with shame and a troubled Heart to confess it I utterly abhor them for what they have done and declare since they have proved thâ—â—ruel Enemies they shall evermore be mâ—â—e and that I will never from this day admit of a Reconciliation I am here to assure thee that I will not live unto my self or them but unto thee and freely devote all I have to thy use since thou hast bought me I love all Men and will embrace them as my Brethren because they are thine and freely forgive all the World even as I
desire to be forgiven O Holy Jesus according to thy boundless Mercy accept of these small returns of thy poor Servant which though very mean alas are yet the best I have to offer thee and supply me with a more abundant measure of thy Grace that I may be able to pay back something more worthy of thee Let this Holy Sacrament be the Comfort and Refreshment of my Heart conveying Pardon and Peace to it and the Enriching and Establishing of my Spirit with all the Benefits of thy Blood make it a great increase of present Grace to me and a certain pledge of Immortality to assure me that I shall even live with thee and be near to that Heart which Dyed for me Be it even so for thine own sake Blessed Jesu Amen In these or such like words may we act over all those Virtues which are to render us worthy Communicants before the Holy Mysteries are brought to us And at the receipt of them we may lift up our Hearts to God in these or the like Expressions After the Receiving of the Bread we may say to our Dearest Lord with an Affectionate Heart I Receive this O! my Lord in remembrance of thy Death and thank thee most intirely for laying down thine own Life for me O! how I rejoyce in thy marvellous Love and in this Remembrance of it I will always live to thee and utterly renounce every sin whereby I have most ungratefully pierced thy bleeding Heart and am Friends with all the World for thy sake and will extol thy matchless Bounty whilst I have a Tongue to speak giving all Honour Glory and Praise to thee the Lamb of God who wast slain and now sittest upon the Throne for evermore And in like manner after the receiving of the Cup. THe Remembrance of thy Blood-shedding O! sweetest Saviour is dear to me I can never forget it since it was altogether for my sake and I owe my very Life to it In all the Affection of an infinitely obliged heart I humbly thank thee for what thou hast done and gladly consent to those Terms of Life and Mercy which were purchased by it and will never willfully yield to do any thing that is unworthy of so great a Benefit and embrace all my Brethren with open Arms since thou so requirest it and desire after this sort to fulfill thy will in all things and adore thy Glorious Goodness and shew forth thy boundless Praise to my Lifes end O! keep me unalterable in this mind may a Devout Soul then go on and never suffer my own Corrupt Lusts to turn me from it I have now O! Holy Saviour taken thee into my Heart O let thy Presence banish them away that they may never pretend to it again since now 't is Holy to the Lord nor ever appear to pollute that place wherein so Divine a Guest is lodged Now thou art pleas'd to enter under my Roof have me always in thy keeping for I am safe in no other hands Preserve the place thou hast taken possession of and let not thy Enemies and mine any more invade it Pour into my Heart all the Benefits of thy Crucified Body and Blood since now by thy wonderful Grace I am made Partaker of them Thy Blood was shed for the Remission of sins O! let me know and feel that mine are all forgiven It obtained the Assistance of thy Spirit and Grace O! let me ever enjoy that as I stand in need of it It was the Price thou payedst down for Eternal Life O! let that finally be my Lot since thou hast paid so dear for it Bid me hope assuredly O Blessed Jesu that all this shall be made good unto thy Servant because now thou hast given thy self to me and fed me with thine own Body whereby mayest thou ever dwell in me and I in thee Amen And when this is done whilst others are receiving we may employ our selves in some of the foregoing Devotions or when we have enough of them joyn heartily in the Prayer which is made at the Delivery of the Bread and Wine to others or strike in affectionately with the Psalm of Praise which for the ease and exercise of all but of those particularly who have already received is wont at that time to be sung in most Places After this sort then may we lift up our Hearts to God and discharge all those Duties which are required in every worthy Communicant When we have no other helps we may acceptably express them all in a Devout Concurrence with the Churches Prayers since in them as I have shewn there is an actual exercise of all these Duties But when we can do more either by the help of Books or our own invention we may act them over still more fully in these or such like forms of Devotion And when all this is done and this solemn Feast is concluded we must not think tho work of worthy Receiving is at an end for one thing still remains that must employ us always afterwards and that is a careful performance of all those Promises which we made to God in this Holy Ordinance In the Sacrament as has been shew'd we seek not only a Pardon for what is past but also vow and promise Amendment for the Future and these Promises must be made good afterwards and it must be our care whilst we Live to fulfil them This we are higly concerned to do and it will greatly increase our Guilt and Condemnation if we fall short of it For if we return to our former sins again after we have thus solemnly vow'd to forsake them We are false to our Word and treacherous where we seem to be most sincere and seek more especially to be trusted We break our Faith with God and go about to delude his Expectation had he been capable to be imposed upon and believed as we would have had him which is as great an abúse as we can well put upon him And this doubles the sin which we commit and sets God further off from being intreated for now we have not only the Fault it self to answer for but also this Perfidiousness and breach of Vows which adds a new one to it and makes it greater So that after every Sacrament if we still continue Impenitent our Guilt is aggravated and our Souls more endanger'd and we are greater sinners than we were before Thus highly are we concerned to perform the Promises which we made at the Table of our Lord. And this we shall be very like to do if we think often of them every day for some time especially after we are gone from it Indeed if we forget all we did and all the Vows we made there to Almighty God we are like to be the same men still and must not expect that it should amend us For the Sacrament as I have shewn doth not better us without our own Care but by helping and ingaging us to Good endeavours after it is over It works not as a
Natural but as a Moral means and improves none but such as remember what they did thereat and labour after their own Improvements So that if we think all our work was done at Church and fall into a careless and secure state of mind when we get home again we shall be held still in the same sins and the matter is not like to be much mended with us by such Receiving But if afterwards we frequently remember what we promised there if we set our own Vows every day before our Eyes and call to mind our own ingagements that remembrance will give them Force and make them have their effect upon us For the thought of our having promised and solemnly undertook for any Duties is the readiest way to have them all performed To reap that Benefit then which God design'd and which we expect by it we must dwell much in our own Thoughts upon what passed there after the Feast is ended We must maintain that Acquaintance with our Blessed Lord which then we begun and look upon it not as a transient Act but as an entrance on a lasting State which ever after we are to continue in We must bethink our selves daily that when last we were with our Saviour we cut out work for our whole Lives and in that hour made many Promises which through all the remainder of our days are most Religiously to be performed by us This course will render it an Ordinance full of Grace and Heavenly Benefits which will set us on mightily in our virtuous Attainments And when we reap this profit by it it will cure all our Indifferency and Aversation to it and make us run to it the next time with edge of Appetite as we would to a most delicious and enlivening entertainment We shall no more account it a fruitless work when once we have tasted these sweet and wholesome effects of it but desire to share in it oftner as it can be had and bless the time that ever we came thereto The End HEADS OF SELF-EXAMINATION FOR The Use of those who would find out what Sins they have to Repent of either before a Sacrament or at any other Times The Particulars of Duty towards God and Men as they are briefly summ'd up in the Church-Catechism MY Duty toward God is to Believe in him i. e. to believe the Scriptures which are his Word taking all the Laws of Humility Charity c. there recited for his Laws and the Promises of Pardon and Happiness to the Penitent c. and the Threatnings of Eternal Death to all impenitent Sinners c. for his Promises and Threatnings which he will see fulfilled upon us To Fear him as every Man doth who dare not do any Evil thing which he sees is offensive to him To Love him with all my heart c. as those Persons do who for his sake do every thing which he bids them To Worship him to give him Thanks to put my whole Trust in him i. e. both in his Providence for outward Supplies as I need them in his Mercy for Pardon of Sins when I repent of them and in his Spirit for Grace and inward Aid when I endeavour together with him To Call upon him to Honour his Holy Name and his Word and to Serve him truly all the days of my Life My Duty towards my Neighbour is to Love him as my self or to do to all Men as I would have them do to me To Love Honour and when need is Succour my Father and Mother To Honour and Obey the King and all that are put in Authority under him To submit my self to all my Spiritual Pastors and all my Governours To shew Reverence to all my Betters To bear no Malice or Hatred in my Heart To hurt no body by Word or Deed To be True and Just in all my Dealings To keep my Hands from Picking and Stealing and my Tongue from Evil-speaking Lying and Slandering To keep my Body in Temperance Soberness and Chastity Not to covet other Mens Goods To be Diligent in my own Calling and do my Duty in that Relation State or way of Life unto which it has pleas'd God to call me A Particular Enumeration of Sins whether against God our Neighbour or our selves taken out of the Measures of Christian Obedience which are all there explained in the Second Book SIns against our selves are Pride i. e. too high a Conceit of our selves and Contempt of others Arrogance i. e. Assuming too much to our selves in setting off our own Praise Vain-glory i. e. Intemperate Affectation of the Praise of others Ambition i. e. A restless Pursuit of Honour and Great Places Haughtiness in contemptuous scornful Carriage Imperiousness i. e. A Lordly way of Behaviour in commanding Men no way subject to us Worldliness i. e. An over eager Care of Worldly things Gluttony Voluptuousness Drunkenness Revelling Inconvinence Lasciviousness Filthy or Obscene Jestings Vncleanness Sodomy Effeminateness Adultery Fornication Inoest Rape Covetousness i. e. Unsatisfiedness with our own and an impatient Desire of more or of what belongs to others Refusing the Cross i. e. Deserting a Duty to avoid it Idleness Sensuality i. e. An industrious Care to gratifie our Bodily Senses Carnality i. e. Subjection to our Fleshly Lusts and Appetites Sins against God are Atheism Denying Providence Blasphemy Superstition Idolatry Witchcraft Foolishness or gross Ignorance of our Duty Vnbelief Hating God Want of Zeal Distrusting him Not praying to him Vnthankfulness Discontent in our present Condition or Repining at his Ordering Fearlesness or Venturing on any thing tho' we know it will offend him Common Swearing Perjury Prophaneness Disobedience Sins against our Brethren at large where are Sins of Injustice as Murder False-witness Slander i. e. Defaming them with False things Lying Vnfaithfulness or Breach of Promise Theft Oppression i. e. Wronging one who cannot cope with us in Contention Extortion or Depressing in Bargaining Circumvention or going beyond our Brethren Vncharitableness as Wickedness i. e. A Delight in doing Mischief and making others Work Despising and hating them that are Good Giving Scandal to Weak Brethren i. e. Laying in their way an Occasion of Sin Envy Rejoycing in Evil Vncharitableness in Alms Suffering false Stains to stick upon them when 't is in our power to vindicate them Evil-speaking or Divulging any Ill we hear or know by them Censoriousness i. e. A proneness to Blame or Condemn them Back-biting Whispering Railing Vpbraiding them with our Kindnesses Reproaching them with their own Faults Mocking them for their Infirmities Difficulty of Access Affronting them Vncourteousness Vncondescention Vnhospitableness towards Strangers Surliness Malignity or putting the worst Sense on what is said or done by others Vnquietness Vnthankfulness Anger Variance Bitterness Clamour Hatred and Malice Implacableness or Difficulty in being appeased after any Offences Revenge or Returning Ill for Ill Cursing Enemies Hastiness and Rigour in exacting Punishments Discord as Vnpeaceableness Emulation or Provoking one another Pragmaticalness or being Busie-Bodies
then do not despise me for thine own Mercies and thy Sons sake in whose Holy Name and Words I further pray as he hath taught me Our Father which art in Heaven c. A Prayer and Thanksgiving After the SACRAMENT I Thank thee most intirely O! my God for calling me this day to thy own Table to shew me how thine only Son freely dyed in my stead and to assure me that now for his sake thou art fully Reconciled and wilt live in me by thy Grace now at present and raise me up to be Eternally happy with thy Self at last of all which thou hast given me the surest Pledges in his precious Body and Blood What can I render to thee Holy Father or to thee my dearest Saviour for so incomprehensible a Benefit I admire thy marvellous Love and magnify it above all things Thy Praise shall ever be in my Mouth and I will tell out thy wondrous works with Gladness And may all Hearts adore and every Tongue confess that thou Holy Jesus art the Saviour of the World and the Son of the Father whom Heaven and Earth must Honour and call Blessed for evermore Pardon O! Good God the unaffectedness of my dull Heart in the receipt of so inestimable a Treasure and fill me with Desires some way suitable to my needs and the richness of thy Mercies that whenever this Cup of Blessings shall again over-flow my Heart may run over with Joy and Thankfulness also Let me never forget the Love I have received and the Peace I have Seal'd and the Promises of New Life I have made this Day but as thy Grace has help'd me to them so keep me in a lively sense of them and inable me always to fulfill the same to my Lives end Now thou hast given me the Blood of Expiation to shew we are Friends O! never let me be guilty of any thing to break the Peace which is now so solemnly ratified betwixt us Now I have vow'd Obedience to thy Laws to be Humble Chast Temperate Just Charitable Patient Devout and entirely resign'd to thy Will and Pleasure O! let me not start back again from these Holy Promises for ever Now I have received my Blessed Lord never suffer me to do any thing unworthy of him now I am Partaker of his Body and Blood let his Holy Spirit go along with them and then I shall be what I ought when I am in his keeping My sins which I have renounced will return again except he chase them away and my false Heart which now seems fixt for God will revolt unless he establish it O! Sweetest Saviour let thy Body be my Food thy Strength my Guard thy Spirit my Life and the sense of thy Favour my greatest Joy and Comfort Go on Graciously to accomplish what thou hast now begun in me and let me ever be secure and happy in thy Custody Be it even so for thine own sake Blessed Jesu And then where there is time for it or afterwards where theâ—â— is not may they go on and say Give thy Grace O Holy Jesu to all the World and let all who were Redeemed by thy Blood acknowledge thee to be the Lord and become thy Worshippers and Faithful Servants Make all Christians Conscientious Practisers of that Holiness which they profess and above all inspire them with uniting Principles and charitable Hearts that by their loving one another as thou hast loved us all the World may know they are thy Disciples Let all Governours Rule with Wisdom and Justice and Subjects obey with Love and Chearfulness Let the Priests of the Lord be Exemplary in their Lives and Discreet and Diligent in their Labourâ— having a most compassionate Love for Souls and let the People be Humble and Towardly most desirous to hearken and fully bent to follow wise Instructions Be a help at hand to all that need and are afflicted Send supplies to all that are in want and assist them contentedly to depend upon thee Raise Friends to the Widow and Fatherless the Prisoners and Captives and all that groan under Oppressors who are thrown upon thy Mercy Give Repentance Patience and Resignation to all that are sick and Ease when thou seest it convenient for them Be a Comforter to all troubled Consciences helping them to an acceptable Holiness and enlightning their minds about all causeless Scruples that they may not fear where no Fear is Succour all that are tempted with such a measure of thy Grace as may inable them to stand in all their Tryals Think particularly on all my Friends who are especially indeared to me by their Kindnesses or Acquaintance on all my Relations in the Flesh on all that Pray particularly for me or desire my Prayers Teach us all to desire what thou approvest and then grant us whatsoever as desired Prevent us in all our Actions and Guard us against all Dangers and Relieve us in all Straights and grant that we may always make thee our Stay and Confidence and take all things well which thou orderest for us Shorten all our Sorrows and prevent all our Sins and fit us all for that Eternal Kingdom which thou hast prepared for us for Jesus's sake in whose Holy Name and Words I further pray unto thee Our Father c. Being sensible how plain minds who are ready to do it so far as they are inabled are oft-times at a Loss for their Daily Devotions and not knowing but this Treatise may fall into some such Hands I have added two Prayers which such Persons may say Morning and Evening in their Families A Morning Prayer FOR A FAMILY O God who art the Giver of all good Gifts and the Father of Mercies We thine unworthy Servants intirely desire to praise thy Name for all the Expressions of thy Bounty towards us Blessed be thy Love that gave thy Son to die for our Sins to put us in a way of being happy if we would obey thee and after all our wilful Refusals of thy Grace still hast patience with us and hast added this one Day more to all we have mis-spent already to see if we will finish the Work thou hast set us to do and fit our selves for Eternal Glory Pardon Good Lord all our former Sins and all our Abuses of thy Forbearance for which now we are sorry at our Hearts and give us Grace to lead more holy Lives and be more careful in improving all future Opportunities Make thy self present to our Minds and let thy Love and Fear rule in our Souls in all those Places and Companies where our Occasions shall lead us this Day Keep us Chaste in all our Thoughts Temperate in all our Enjoyments Humble in all our Opinions of our selves Charitable in all our Speeches of others Meek and Peaceable under all Provocations Sincere and Faithful in all our Professions and so Just and Vpright in all our Dealings that no Necessity may force nor Opportunity in any kind allure us to defraud or go beyond our Neighbours