without impediment and that there is nothing left in their Souls to oppose their duty Whereas bad people in a quite contrary way give admission to those scruples and doubts into their minds with a secret pleasure and having entertained them let them rest and take up their lodging there very willingly because they will plead their excuse they fancy for not doing their duty and be a defence to their lazyness Worldly mindedness and other naughty affections In short Doubts and Scruples never arise in good mens minds without grief nor stay there without much trouble and therefore they long to be rid of them and are glad when they are discharged because they hinder the performance of their Christian Duty but bad men not only listen to them willingly but embrace them as welcome Guests which they cherish and never part withal without difficulty and some sort of inward displeasure because they desire the Worldly Spirit that is in them should not be left without all excuse but have something to say for it self when it is pressed by the force of Religion against its inclinations Search and try your selves by this mark and the Lord give you a right judgment in all things for Jesus Christ his sake In whom I remain Your Faithful Servant S. Patrick Discourse I. THE NECESSITY OF Receiving THE Holy Communion THE neglect of the Holy Communion of Christ's Body and Blood was so general and so long continued in the late distracted times being laid aside in man whole Parishes of this Kingdom for near twenty years together that in some Ages of the Church it would have been interpreted a downright Apostasie from Christ and a renunciation of the Christian Faith And though blessed be God since the Happy Restauration of his Majesty to his Throne and the settlement of the Church upon its ancient foundations it hath not been so generally neglected yet it is not so much frequented as it ought to be No not upon such great and solemn dayes as this when we are assembled to commemorate that stupendous Grace which our Lord purchased for us by his pretious Blood and bestowed upon his Church in sending the Holy Ghost the Comforter to be a Witness of his Resurrection and Exaltation at God's right hand and to confirm us in the belief of all that he hath taught and appointed in his Church For we content our selves only with the Common Prayers and I wish I could say that they are duly attended and with the Sermon and then turn our backs on that part of the Divine Service which is properly Christian and consequently is above all other most acceptable unto Christ and unto his Holy Spirit Which I shall therefore at this time press upon your Consciences as a means to revive that ancient Devotion wherewith such Festivals as this was kept which now alas is wanting among us And I shall do it from those words of St. Paul 1 Cor. xi 26. wherein he recommends this duty unto us upon this particular account that as oft as we eat this Bread and drink this Cup we do show the Lords Death till he come In which words it is easy to observe these three practical truths The two first whereof are plainly supposed and the other is affirmed and enjoined I. The first thing here supposed is that it is a Christian Duty to eat this Bread and drink this Cup here spoken of that is to receive the Holy Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood II. The second is that it is a Christian Duty which ought to be often performed And then III. It is here plainly asserted that when it is performed the thing designed in it and which we ought to aim at is to show the Lord's Death till he come The last of these will be sufficiently explained in the handling of the other two viz. the Duty and the Frequent repetition of it unto which I shall confine my Discourse And of the first at this time I. THat it is a Christian Duty incumbent upon every one of us to eat this Bread and drink this Cup that is to receive the Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood This is supposed in the words Which are not to be understood as a mere permission that we may do this if we think good and when we think good but as a command of something we ought to do For when he tells us what it is we do when we eat this Bread and drink this Cup in which we show forth Christs Death it plainly implies that it must be done and is not left to our choice whether we will show forth the Death of our Lord or no. Of which more anon when I have laid some other things before you which will convince you if they be considered of the Obligation that lies upon you to the serious performance of this Duty And for our clear and orderly proceeding I shall cast my Discourse into this method I. First I shall show you that there is a plain institution of this Sacrament and a command that it should be received And then II. Secondly I shall show from the practice of the Apostles after â—hat time when they first received it with our Saviour that it was no temporary command but of Everlasting Obligation III. Thirdly That there is more â—han their practice to interpret the meaning and obligation of this command IV. Fourthly That in this Discourse of St. Paul to the Corinthians there are evident proofs of the necessity of its performance V. Fifthly That the very Text shows the same by the end for which it was instituted VI. Lastly That all these reasons are exemplified by the practice of the Universal Church of Christ I. And first let it be considered that this Holy Sacrament is a Divine Institution Ordained Commanded and required by Christ Himself Who the same night that he was betrayed took Bread and blessed it and brake it and gave it to his Disciples and said Take eat this is my Body And he took the Cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying Drink ye all of it For this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins Matth. xxvi 26 27 28. Here is as manifest an Institution of this Sacrament and as formal a Command to take and eat and drink what Christ then gave as can be contrived in words Unless they be plainer which we read in other places for the Institution is recorded by the two next Evangelists St. Mark and St. Luke and here again in this Chapter by St. Paul Which two last named say that our Saviour added these words in the Institution of this Sacrament This do in remembrance of me Luk. xxii 19. 1 Cor. xi 24 25. Which enjoin this duty by as express a Command as those of old Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy And Honour thy Father and thy Mother Which may henceforth be blotted out of the number of the Commandments if we take this to
of his Christian duty as much as hearing the Sermons of the Apostles and Prayers I am loth to spend the time in going about to prove against vain Cavillers that by breaking of bread is here meant this holy action of receiving the Communion and not their bare eating together But to give full satisfaction in that matter let it be briefly considered First that breaking of Bread is here placed in the midst between other holy actions preaching fellowship or communicating to one anothers necessities and prayers and therefore in all reason must be concluded to be it self of that nature not a common but an holy action And besides secondly their eating at a common Table if it be at all mentioned in this Chapter Acts ii under the phrase of breaking bread is spoken of v. 46. and therefore not intended here No nor there neither I shall show hereafter for even in those words also they continued daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking bread from house to house or at home c. the breaking of bread belongs to the holy Communion And to put all out of doubt thus the Syriack an ancient Translation understands it expresly turning it thus in the Eucharist As it doth also Act. xx 7. Vpon the first day of the week when the Disciples came together to break bread Paul preached unto them c. that is when they came to receive the Eucharist saith that Translation which was a part of their Lords days work nay the principal part for this was the thing for which the Disciples came together and not merely to hear the Apostle preach And who can give any reason why it should not be so now as it was then when in familiar speech it was as usual with them to say they would go to Church to receive the holy Communion as it is with us to say in these days we will go to Church to Prayers or to hear a Sermon III. But more than this not only the practice of the Apostles and first Believers after they were divinely inlightned by the Holy Ghost expounds the meaning and the obligation of this Precept to be perpetual but Christ himself showed it so to be after he went to Heaven and was exalted at Gods right hand For appearing to St. Paul to make him one of his Apostles and in order to it revealing himself and the whole Christian Religion to him which he gave him commission and authority to preach He declared this to be a part of his Will and a piece of his holy Religion For I have received of the Lord saith he in this Chapter v. 23 24. c. that which I also delivered unto you that the Lord Jesus the same night he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he brake it and said Take eat this is my body which is broken for you this do in remembrance of me After the same manner also he took the Cup saying This is the New Testament c. Observe here an evident proof that what our Lord did with his Apostles at his last Supper he intended should be done by them and by others when he was gone For sending one who was not then with him nor had any knowledge of him while he was on Earth to preach his Gospel he gives him particular instructions about this matter to take care to see this done in remembrance of him So St. Paul who was the man to whom he appeared and gave a special Commission after he went to Heaven avows to the Corinthians in this place telling them that he delivered nothing to them but what he had received of the Lord and what he delivered to them was this that they should do what the Lord Jesus had done with his Apostles in remembrance of him This he received from him that is it was of the Lords Institution and to be practised by his order and special command and therefore called the Lord's Supper v. 20. When ye come together into one place this is not to eat the Lord's Supper Where it is called the Lord's Supper not because it was eaten by the Lord with his Apostles for at that Supper the Corinthians were not present nor was that now done in this place where they came together but because it was instituted by the Lord both then when he eat that Supper with his Apostles and now again when he appeared to St. Paul and required him to see this practised in the Churches which he converted And accordingly was now practised in this Church at Corinth to whom this Discourse of St. Paul is directed IV. In which we find many things more to prove this to be a necessary Christian Duty which was the fourth head mentioned in the beginning I shall single out two which will make it evidently appear to all unprejudiced minds I. The first is very remarkable that the Apostle takes a great deal of pains and spends a great deal of time in showing the manner how the holy Communion ought to be celebrated among them Which he would not have done if this had not been a necessary duty incumbent on them by vertue of Christs Command and a Divine Institution Do but consider this I beseech you and be at the pains to ponder at your leisure how serious earnest and laborious the Apostle is here in this eleventh Chapter of his Epistle to make the Corinthians sensible by a long Discourse about it after what manner they ought to approach to the Table of the Lord reproving their scandalous behaviour at the Communion directing them how to reform it and make a due preparation to receive the benefit thereof And then tell me or rather tell your selves was there any cause for a reasonable man to write so much to show how and after what manner the thing should be done if the very doing of the thing had not been necessary and under the obligation of a Command Can the manner and way of doing an action be matter of duty and yet that action it self be no duty at all Or can a man of common sense be very solicitous in giving directions how men should order themselves in a place and about a business into which they may never come but let it alone Can the Apostle be supposed to say so and so you ought to eat this Bread and drink this Cup and yet there be no command tying them to eat it and drink it at all And so and so you ought to prepare your selves to partake of Christs Body and Blood and yet after that preparation they might chuse whether they would do the thing for which they were to be prepared Surely we cannot imagine the Apostle to have had so much idle time to spare nay to be so impertinent as to busy himself in ordering the circumstances of an holy action if the action it self had not been a necessary nay a very weighty duty and of exceeding great moment which therefore he was highly concerned and took due care
Wine but to represent the shedding of the Lords Blood by those wounds he received for our sake And for what end do you eat that Bread and drink that Cup but to shew that we are made one with him and have Communion with him in his Death and Sufferings This is the general end of this Sacrament gratefully to commemorate the Death of Christ to show express declare and publish his Death for us and our interest in it in plain and significant actions Which not being performed in obedience to his Command the Faith which we profess in him doth but condemn us of shameful infidelity to him As for the particular ends of it they are as many as the uses are which we can make of his Death and Passion Wherein whatsoever love God the Father showed unto us in giving his dearly beloved Son to die for us whatsoever kindness God the Son expressed in offering himself freely unto the Death and making himself a Sacrifice for our sins and whatsoever confirmation God the Holy Ghost hath since given us of this love and this kindness it is all here commemorated Whatsoever worship honour and service is due to our ever blessed Redeemer and most bountiful Benefactor it is all here acknowledged and after a most peculiar manner and with a special respect to him performed Whatsoever strength we can derive from our Feasting with Christ upon his Sacrifice and from the oblation we make of our selves Souls and Bodies unto him with most powerful Prayers and Thanksgivings whatsoever comfort we can enjoy in Communion with God and in Communion with his Church whatsoever Peace we can have in renewing our Covenant of Friendship with him in remission of sins in receiving the power of the Holy Ghost in the hopes of eternal life in all holy intercourses between Heaven and us all this is to be expected and may be obtained in the Celebration of this Holy Sacrament And therefore as this one thing the Annunciation or publishing of Christs Death and our relation to him is the general end and these comforts these establishments in Faith and Hope and love and obedience are the particular ends of this Institution So all these lay a strong obligation upon us duly to observe it unless we be content to renounce our interest in Christ who hath made this the most solemn badg and authentick mark of our Christianity and the great means of conveying to us the benefits of his Death and Passion as well as a pledge to assure us thereof And this one argument alone taken from the end of its Institution is sufficient to convince us that this Sacrament was intended by Christ to be continued in his Church till he come as my Text speaks that is till his last coming to judge the World for till then it will be useful nay necessary for all these holy ends which I have briefly named And whosoever he be that hopes for mercy at that dreadful day without the careful performance of this duty is a presumptuous person and vainly expects it because he lives in the neglect of the very best way of preparing himself for that great account which must then be made of all our actions VI. But now let us suppose that the words of the Institution had been so ambiguous that they might possibly if we had had no further explication of them have been thought to be limited to that particular feast which Christ did eat with his Disciples and extended no further yet the practice of the Apostles and the practice of the Church in the Apostolical times and in all succeeding times ever since which are the best Interpreters of the Scriptures do expound the words to be a lasting Institution and an Institution of such moment that it ought to be most punctually observed And did not Christs own Apostles think you understand their Masters meaning when he instituted this Sacrament Or if they had not understood him then would they not afterward have understood him when the spirit was so plentifully poured out upon them that they discovered the greatest secrets even the thoughts and designs of mens hearts Hath the universal Church in and after those times and during all Ages since lived in an error and taken up an unnecessary practice or made too much stir about it and been too busy and officious in it Was there not in this very Church of Corinth as the Apostle shows in the next Chapter a miraculous abundance of miraculous gifts the spirit of wisdom the spirit of knowledge the spirit of faith the gifts of healing of working miracles of prophesying of discerning spirits of divers kind of tongues of interpretation of tongues And could not all those gifts all those spiritual powers and supernatural assistances inable them to understand the words of Christs Institution Was not that indeed the true Age of the Spirit Were they not infinitely more inlightned than any can pretend to be now or hope to be hereafter And could they not discover by their illuminations if it had been true that which some vain Enthusiasts dream of that where there was such plenty of the Spirit there was no need of such outward Ordinances as the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Could they not see this so clearly and be so sensible of it as that they should not have been so much concerned as they were about the practice of this duty in that Church if there was no need of it or our Saviour never intended it should be of much moment Nay as that they should not have with such danger to themselves as I noted before have repeated it in their Church if our Saviour never intended any such repetition Surely these things carry such evidence in them that to add more light in so clear a case would be as we say to hold a Candle to the Sun And therefore I shall here make an end of my proofs supposing I have said rather too much than too little in this argument and that you stand fully convinced the Celebration of this holy Communion is not only of divine Institution to be used by the Church in all Ages but must of necessity be duly practised by us if we hope to be saved And if that be true hearken then I beseech you what follows thereupon I. What shall we then think of those who live in the constant neglect of it Suffer me to propose this single plain question to you Whether the willful continuance in any known sin be not a damnable State A state of direct opposition to our Saviour and consequently a state wherein there is no Salvation Can this be denied and it is as undeniable that a constant neglect of a known Precept of Christ a Precept so universally owned so universally practised as you have heard in the Church of God is a wilful sin What is it else or what can make a sin willful but acting against a clear knowledge and conviction and means and opportunities of doing otherways Consider of
verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lords Supper 5. Of this therefore you cannot be ignorant and if you believe it and expect it understanding also what your eating and drinking of that Bread and Wine means and for what end you come to the holy Table what can there remain to be done to make you know certainly whether you may partake thereof safely nay profitably or no but only the last thing I mentioned 6. Whether you intend to do there what the Lord Commands and to receive those benefits which he there imparts Not eating and drinking that is as at a common Table to satisfy your hunger and quench your thirst not receiving with the same common spirit and the same unattentiveness wherewith you receive other food but composing your self seriously as at the Lords Table in a holy place where he is present thankfully to Commemorate his Death to partake of that Sacrifice which he offered for us on the Cross to give up your selves Souls and Bodies unto him and to thank him that you have the honour to be his Servants and that he hath purchased you at so dear a rate as with the price of his own most pretious blood to implore the continuance of his gracious and ready help upon all occasions c. If I say with this Spirit and for these and such like ends you approach to this holy Communion you need not have the least fear of being rejected as unworthy Guests but ought to be confident that you shall be welcome to that holy Feast as those that are faithful unto Christ For wanting none of these conditions which are all that can be thought requisite you want nothing to make you fit and prepared to have Communion with Christ in the merits of his Death which is there commemorated Yes will some perhaps further object there may be something still wanting For how came the Corinthians to be so severely punished as we read they were for their unworthy receiving the Communion if these things be sufficient to make men meet partakers of it Do you not think that they had all the forementioned qualifications and yet they did eat and drink their own Damnation I answer No it is most manifest from the very words which mention their Damnation that they were not thus prepared 1. For first they proceeding to partake of these Holy Mysteries at the end of their Feasts of Charity which was a common meal where they eat and drank all together for the maintaining Brotherly kindness among them they so perfectly confounded and blended these two the Holy Feast on Christs Sacrifice and the common Feast on ordinary food one with the other that they made not the least distinction but did eat this holy Bread and drink this holy Wine as they did common meat and liquors not discerning the Lords Body as you read v. 29. of this Chapter This was one horrid sin which they committed not to consider what they were doing for they went to the Lord's Table as if it had been still their own Table and did not distinguish between this Sacred and their ordinary food 2. One cause of which undiscerning spirit which would not let them see the difference was their riot and drunkenness at that Feast of Charity which ought to have been only a sober refreshment They revelled upon that good chear which should only have filled their hearts with love to God the Giver of all good things and to their Christian Brethren and thereby have prepared them to be partakers of a diviner food which followed the other This was another fearful sin of which you read v. 21. where the Apostle saith that as some were hungry at that Feast of Love and Friendship so others were drunken 3. Which leads me to take notice of a third Crime that the rich despised the poor and that in so vile a manner as not to suffer them to feast with them but to separate from them and to eat and drink by themselves and also to eat and drink up all the provision leaving the poor little or nothing For in eating viz. at the Feast of Charity every one taketh before his own Supper and so it came to pass that one was hungry and another drunken 4. Which suggest this further crime consequent upon the former that they turned a common Feast into a private the rich looking upon what they had brought to it as their own Whereas in truth they had no longer any propriety therein now that they were come together into one and the same place ver 20. Where there ought to have been no difference made between one man and another nor any part of the provision lookt upon as continuing any mans own proper food after it was brought thither for the entertainment of all 5. And that was another aggravation of their guilt that they committed all these crimes in that holy place where they assembled for the most holy action of their Religion to commemorate the Death of Christ ver 22. What have ye not Houses to eat and drink in or despise ye the Church of God c. Which question supposeth that they might in their own private Houses have eaten their own Supper alone by themselves or with whom it pleased them to invite but in the House of God and in his divine presence it was intolerable because there they met upon no private but a publick account to thank God for his love in Christ and to testify their mutual love to each other 6. Which they were so far from doing that they did the quite contrary For true love delights to keep others in countenance but they put such to the blush as were in a poor and mean condition and could bring nothing to the common Table but themselves Who were by the Laws of the Feast and by the rules of Charity to have feasted at the charge of the rich and with as much freedom and confidence as if they had brought the provision themselves but were lookt upon with such scorn that it made them sneak like wretched Beggars that were to be content with the scraps which the rich would leave them That 's the meaning of the last words of that Exprobration ver 22. and shame them that have not that is are not able to bring any thing to eat and drink at the Feast of Charity These were the grievous scandals committed in that Church some of them in the very act of holy Communion and all of them in their preparation to it and in the holy place where they were assembled to worship Christ with mutual affection one to another Which therefore brought down heavy judgments upon them as you read ver 29. He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation or judgment as the margin of the Bible hath it to himself not discerning the Lords body Which that it is spoken of the Church of Corinth the next words shew which inform us also what this judgment
press you by these two Arguments and so conclude I. The first is the great concern we have made show of about our Religion and the fears we have pretended lest we should be so unhappy as to lose it If we be in good earnest concerned for it why then I beseech you do we not take care to keep it by being truly Religious Is there any reason to think that they are troubled with fears of losing one half of the Communion who can be content with none at all Or with what Conscience do they find fault with the Church of Rome for taking away the Cup from the People when they themselves live as if the whole Sacrament were unnecessary It is a false zeal which declaims against the Priests receiving alone and doth not bring men to receive with him when they may but suffers him still to remain at the Altar with a very small Company In these things we accuse and reproach our selves demonstrating we are not led by Religion but by humour Worldly Interest or Faction For no man can be thought to be truly solicitous for the preservation of Religion when he makes no use of it nor receives any benefit by it Cannot he live without the name who lives without the thing It we be unseignedly desirous to maintain the estate of Religion here established let us seriously comply with its Institutions and serve God duly in all its Offices being afraid of this above all other things lest God should therefore remove our Candlestick out of its place because we will not walk in the light thereof therefore deprive us of the opportunities of the Holy Communion because we have no list to Communicate Unto which duty let us stir up our selves that it may stir us up to all other For what other way do we know like this nay what other way but this for our preservation II. That 's the second thing We of the Church of England profess to depend wholly upon Heaven in the use of spiritual Weapons alone for our protection in times of danger disclaiming the Lawfulness of taking up Arms to resist the Supreme Power upon the account of Religion Are we not strangely forgetful then if we accustom not our selves to the use of these spiritual means for our safety and security especially this of which I may say as David of the Sword of Goliah there is none like it What account can we give of such foul neglect of him unto whom we say every day there is none that fighteth for us but only thou O God Is not this to expose our selves to be a prey unto our Enemies if ever they have as much power as will to devour us For we openly declare by not seeking aid continually from above in that way wherein we are more likely to obtain it that we depend upon nothing at all but are the most defenceless of all Mankind So they would have thought in ancient dayes when they look'd upon those as left unarmed and naked who were not fortified with the protection of the body and blood of Christ. Which are the words of St. Cyprian who argues thus in his 57. Epistle since the Eucharist is made on purpose that it may be a defence and safeguard unto those who receive it let us arm those whom we would have to be safe against the Adversary speaking of the fight of affliction they were to encounter with the munition of the Lords plenteous fullness For how can we teach or provoke them to shed their blood for the Confession of his Name if entring the Combate we deny them the blood of Christ Or how shall we make them fit for the Cup of Martyrdom if we admit them not first to drink in the Church the Cup of the Lord Consider I beseech you how we in this Church profess to lean only upon the hope of his heavenly grace which is so necessary for us that we acknowledge in another Collect that the Church cannot continue in safety without his succour and therefore pray him to preserve it by his help and goodness Shall we not then seek this succour most solicitously shall we not implore this Heavenly Grace with ardent cries especially in this powerful way of prevailing with him by representing to him what Christ hath done and suffered for his Church which he purchased with his own most pretious blood We abandon all care of our selves when we thus forsake the only help we have to rest upon Nay it is to contradict our Prayers when we say we have no other Hope and yet do not flee to him our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble It is at least a vain and sensless leaning on him which makes us neglect him and lay aside the principal support which he hath left us for our incouragement and comfort in all our distresses If we really depend on him alone we had need apply our selves unto him with warmth of affection and great diligence If we rely on his help and goodness let us take care to please him in all things that so we may obtain the favour either to have the evils turned away from us which we have deserved or to be fortified against them with such a pious constancy that they may be stedfastly indured If we do not thus study to approve our selves his faithful Servants we foolishly confide in him against his own express Declarations that he will not patronize us in Irreligion and contempt of his Authority But if we faithfully obey him then we surely trusting in his Defence need not fear the power of any Adversaries but rest assured that he will keep his Church and Houshold continually in his true Religion that they who do lean only upon the hope of his heavenly grace may evermore be defended by his mighty power through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen FINIS Books Written by the Reverend Dr Patrick and sold by Richard Royston THE Christian Sacrifice A Treatise shewing the Necessity End and Manner of Receiving the Holy Communion together with sutable Prayers and Meditations for every Month in the Year and for the Principal Festivals in Memory of our Blessed Saviour The Sixth Edition The Devout Christian instructed how to pray and give thanks to God or a Book of Devotion for Families and particular persons in most of the concerns of Humane Life The Fifth Edition in Twelves An Advice to a Friend The Fourth Edition in Twelves Jesus and the Resurrection justified by Witnesses in Heaven and in Earth In two Parts in Octavo The Book of Job Paraphrased in Octavo New The Book of Psalms In two Parts Paraphrased in Octavo The Proverbs of Solomon Paraphrased with the Arguments of each Chapter which supply the place of Commenting A Paraphrase upon the Books of Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon With Arguments to each Chapter and Annotations thereupon in Octavo New The truth of Christian Religion in Octavo New The Glorious Epiphany with the devout Christians love to it in Octavo A Book for Beginners or a Help to young Communicants that they may be fitted for the Holy Communion and receive it with profit The Sixth Edition The Works of Dr Hammond in Four large Volumes viz. Vol. I. A Collection of Discourses chiefly Practical Vol. II. A Collection of Discourses in Defence of the Church of England 1. Against the Romanists 2. Against other Adversaries Vol. III. A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the Books of the New Testament Vol. IV. A Paraphrase and Annotations upon the Books of the Psalms A Paraphrase and Annotations upon the ten first Chapters of the Proverbs MS. Thirty one Sermons Preach'd upon several Occasions With an Appendix to Vol. 2.
it I beseech you again and again If willful sins do not actually damn being continued in let us know for what sins they are for which men are damned or do you think there is any such thing as damnation at all Certainly if there be damnation it is for wilful sins and if there be wilful sins they are sins deliberately committed against a known Law and if there be any known Law among Christians this is one that they ought to receive this holy Sacrament in remembrance of their Lord and Masters Death for them and therefore the constant the affected the upbraided the reproved and yet not reformed omission of this duty is most certainly a deliberate nay a presumptuous omission of it or else there is no such thing as presumption in the World What will you think then of your selves I ask again if from time to time from month to month nay from year to year you wilfully neglect a plain an evident an undoubted Precept of our blessed Lord and Saviour a Precept commanding us to commemorate his Death to represent his Passion to admire his Love to praise his Kindness to partake of his Graces to share with him in his Comforts to knit our selves faster to him in holy Obedience and to rejoice in hope of feasting with him and all the Company of the blessed in his Heavenly Kingdom If you have not been hitherto convinced of this duty your sin is the less and may in some measure admit of an excuse But if being now convinced you stand out and still neglect the performance of it then can you not in any wise have the least excuse for your wilful disobedience And if you be not now convinced by these things which have been represented to your minds I must say it is because you wilfully refuse because you will not receive conviction And this wilful refusal to be convinced this shutting your Eyes against the clear light wherein this duty is shown to you is still another wilful sin added to the presumptuous neglect of the holy Communion II. Satisfy your selves about what I have now proposed determine what is like to become of you if you continue in a wilful sin as the neglect of the holy Communion most certainly is when the will of Christ in an express Law commanding it is made known to you and pressed upon you and then I may be the less earnest in beseeching you to remain no longer under this heavy guilt For how can you with your Eyes open run your selves into Eternal Damnation what need is there that I should beseech you not to throw your selves headlong into the Fire that never shall be extinguished It is sufficient to intreat you once more to consider what hath been said to believe it and to keep it in mind and then you will make an amends for former neglects by a more careful and zealous performance of this duty in time to come Especially if you consider how by neglecting this duty you neglect all those invaluable blessings which are represented offered and communicated to us in the right performance thereof This is the only Argument whereby I shall further urge you but I will press it in a few particulars I. And first there is nothing wherein all Christians do more universally agree than this that God in giving his Son to die for us demonstrated the greatest love that was ever shown to mankind Which incomparable love we all agree likewise is represented expressed and recommended to us in the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ And can we think fit then to neglect this holy Communion For do we not therein neglect and undervalue that wonderful love which in the holy Communion is most effectually represented laid before us and exhibited unto us Is the love of God so inconsiderable a thing as to be slighted and passed by with careless neglect Is the Death of Christ wherein that love appeared so small a thing as to be forgotten or seldom thought of and that although he hath instituted a Sacrament on purpose for its Commemoration And do we not forget and slight it when we regard not that Institution and make no such Commemoration I know how loth men are to yield to these convictions and how desirous they are to support themselves in a belief that they neither undervalue that love nor forget this Death though they do not attend at the Table of the Lord. For they remember both they say in their own private thoughts and give God thanks for his inestimable love in giving Christ to die for them But suppose they say true that they have such a sense of God and of our blessed Saviour as not altogether to let them slip out of their minds nor wholly forget their benefits yet let them weigh this seriously that where a known divine institution appointed on purpose for the Commemoration of Christs Death and of Gods love therein manifested is neglected it must be confessed that the same love of God and death of Christ is in a very sinful degree undervalued and forgotten For no Friend will think himself remembred by him who lays aside that very thing which he left him and solemnly desired him to wear in token of his remembrance Let such men consider also that they stand bound not only to remember or call to mind Christs Death privately but openly to make that solemn and publick Commemoration of it which is commanded by our blessed Lord. And in like manner it is not sufficient to have a value of Gods love but we ought to show our esteem of it in the practice of that Institution wherein that love is signally represented to us In brief we deceive our selves if we imagine we remember Gods love in the Death of Christ as we ought to do while we do not express and show our remembrance by that sign and token which he hath appointed as a Testimony thereof If we do it not in this way He will look upon us as forgetful of him and of his love II. And by forgetting that it is not to be conceived how much mischief we do to our selves and others For we are all agreed that the consequence which St. John draws from what hath been now said is good and strong Beloved if God so loved us we ought also to love one another 1 Joh. iv 11. Which mutual love the Apostle presses by such Arguments in that Epistle as demonstrate a man hath nothing of God in him who wants this grace which contains at least one half of the duty of a Christian Do we not need then to have this love inkindled or rather inflamed nourished and increased in us by all means And is there any means so effectual as the consideration the solemn consideration how the great God hath loved us though utterly unworthy of his love nay deserving his heaviest displeasure And where is this represented so lively to us as in the holy Communion Which Christ hath also appointed on
purpose to be a sacred Bond of love unity peace and concord among Christians by their all eating of one and the same Bread and drinking of one and the same Cup. Which while they neglect how can they pretend to the love of God or how can they hope to have this mutual love one to another rooted in their hearts when they never or seldom communicate together in the most holy things never own that they are members one of another nor link themselves together by that common tye of Charity which their Lord hath instituted and commanded them to use for this very end among others that they may be knit together in one body be of one mind and heart and live in peace No they are all broken in pieces they are torn in sunder and continue so and hate and malign and bite and devour one another and that with a most implacable rage and malice to the great scandal of Religion the spoiling of humane Society the danger of over-turning Government and thereby ruining all our outward comforts And shall we heighten this guilt by adding this aggravation to it that we love to have it so If we have any kindness left one for another nay any kindness for our selves let us not refuse the means of a cure this Sovereign means which alone will prove an effectual remedy Being a remedy of Gods own prescription and appointment for the quenching all our unnatural heats and the killing all our unchristian hatreds and the burying of all our animosities and quarrels so that they shall never rise again Or if they do be immediately extinguished and laid again in their Graves by laying a new obligation upon our selves in this Sacrament to love one another and to walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour Eph. v. 2. III. In which Sacrament I might represent how many comforts there are contained besides those of love comforts infinitely more satisfactory than those vain those perishing pleasures of which sensual men are so greedy that they make them neglect this holy Communion and thereby lose those divine those heavenly joys which Christ in the serious use of it imparts unto his members But to shorten this Discourse let it suffice to ask you what is there in the love of God towards Mankind which you can think more valuable than the Covenant of Grace by which alone you have the promise of remission of sins assured unto you And consequently how can you forget that most pretious blood which ratifies which confirms and seals that gracious Covenant Or how can you neglect that special means which the love of God our Saviour hath ordained for the preserving the remembrance of his most pretious blood-shedding fresh in your minds If you do truly remember that blood which was shed that body which was broken for you you must at the same time judge it fit and necessary to demonstrate you remember it by making that Commemoration of it which our Lord requires and not neglect to see that represented to the Eye and expressed by real actions lively signifying the Death of Christ which you pretend gratefully to Commemorate in your hearts It is much to be feared that they do but deceive their own Souls who pretend to the one without the other For did not God frame and fashion you in your Mothers Womb And doth not he who framed you there know your frame â—…d your mould better than you 〈◊〉 do your selves And did he not therefore appoint this outward representation of his love in the holy Communion because he knew otherwise you would not be sufficiently sensible thereof What other reason can there be assigned for this Institution but the wise goodness of God who knows that divine things accommodated to sense do by affecting the Eye better affect the heart than it would be affected without such sensible applications This is the reason why he hath made spiritual things to become in great measure sensible in accommodation to our nature and compliance with our frame which he best knows because it is of his own contrivance Who hath clothed our Spirits with flesh and therefore moves the inward powers by 〈…〉 Which if we slight 〈…〉 these means of being affecâ—… 〈…〉 spiritual things which God 〈◊〉 most perfectly understands how our minds may be best moved hath accommodated and appointed for that end it is evident we despise the Wisdom of God or are vainly conceited of our selves and presume to think that we can be as well affected without these outward means and sensible helps which he hath instituted for our spiritual improvement A strange presumption this But which every one is guilty of who contents himself with bare thinking of Christ and of his love in dying forus without the use of those sensible signs which he hath appointed to awaken our minds unto a more lively and deep apprehension and sense of his love than any thing else can give us 〈…〉 which consideratiâ—… 〈…〉 be added that the 〈◊〉 â—…pport and comfort the â—…fe of every Christian Soul is to be in a state of Friendship with God by continuing in the Holy Covenant we have made with him and he with us in Christ Jesus If this be not preserved carefully all true joy in this World is lost together with it Now do you not find your selves too prone to break your Baptismal Vow and thereby to violate that Covenant wherein you stand engaged and sacredly promised to keep And shall not that Covenant after you have violated it be solemnly and speedily renewed that the breach between God and you may be healed and you may notwithstanding look upon him as your Father And is not the Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood appointed for this renewal Do you know any other solemn way of being reconciled again What account then can be given of it that so many having broken this Covenant are not at all concerned to renew it but remain separated from God and from holy Communion with him How come we to be so careless of our Souls so negligent of God so unconcerned in the Covenant of Grace as wilfully continuedly from time to time to forbear that Holy Ordinance wherein not only this Covenant is renewed but so many mercies of God as you have heard commemorated and represented so many joyes so many comforts and spiritual assistances communicated unto us There is no account to be given of this matter no reason that can be assigned but only this that men will not seriously consider either their duty or their interest Or if they do when they are clearly represented to them they forget and lay aside all those considerations and do not immediately pursue them whither they would lead them And so they turn to something else which takes up their thoughts and their time and ingages their affections till they be carried away Captive by the Lusts of the
Flesh and of the World beyond the power of any means that we know of to rescue them from destruction But I hope better things of those who duly attend to what hath been said and that all those who have not now prepared themselves for this Holy Duty of showing forth the Lords Death whereby he purchased among other blessings the great gift of the Holy Ghost which it would have been most proper on this day to have most solemnly acknowledged will speedily set themselves about it and be ready against the next opportunity that is against the next Sunday or at least the next after that and so for the time to come be careful to perform this duty as oft as the Christian Religion requires Which I shall demonstrate in the next Discourse is much oftner than men imagine The end of the first Discourse Discourse II. THE FREQUENCY OF Holy Communion HAving demonstrated in the foregoing Discourse that it is a duty indispensably lying upon all Christians to receive the holy Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood a duty of great weight and importance for the neglect of which I do not see how we can atone by the performance of any other duty whatsoever I proceed to show that it is a duty which ought to be frequently repeated for as oft as ye eat this Bread saith the Apostle and drink this Cup ye do show the Lords Death till he come Which plainly insinuates that they did this often and that it was their duty so to do shall be the subject of this present Discourse And here now in the very entrance of it I must acknowledge that we are not told either in this place of Scripture or any other how often we ought to Communicate or how frequently the Church ought to make this Commemoration of Christs Death and Passion for our sake Of which observation men now make a very bad and preposterous use For finding that our Lord hath only said This do in remembrance of me but no where said when at what time or times it is to be done they imagine that they satisfy his will if they do not wholly withdraw themselves from his Table though they come never so seldom thither And truly by this sort of reasoning that because we are no where told how often we should do this we need only take care to do it sometime or other it may be thought sufficient if we do it but once in our whole life And so dangerous are such conceits which men frame to themselves from such Observations that vast numbers though otherwise not wicked live in a constant neglect of this Duty till they come to die and then upon their Death-Beds calling for this Sacrament and receiving it they think they have fulfilled the will of our Lord in doing this as he hath commanded because though he hath commanded it to be done he hath no where commanded when or how oft it should be done From whence we may certainly conclude that this is a false consequence which men draw from the silence of the holy Scriptures in this matter because it is so dangerous and pernitious that in a manner it quite destroys our Religion by taking away this part of it which is the principal and making it unnecessary as long as a man lives so he be but sure to receive when he is at the point of Death Of that indeed no man can be assured but supposing he doth receive the Communion at the very last gasp he is thus far safe and not guilty of the breach of this Commandment if this consequence be true that because our Saviour hath no where appointed the time or said how frequently we should do this in remembrance of him we do comply with his Institution provided we do it sometime or other Now to destroy this false notion from whence such absurdities flow I shall in the first place show you that the quite contrary naturally and necessarily follows from this observation of our Saviours appointing no time for the performance of that which he required to be done in remembrance of him From whence mens wicked hearts draw this conclusion as I have said that it may suffice to do this now and then though never so seldom I. But the true the genuine and honest conclusion which follows from thence is this that our Lord having named no fixed setled time or times for the performance of this holy action it is an argument that he designed and appointed it as a constant common and ordinary part of the Christian Service which he would have performed in his Church at all times Let those words of Christ this do in remembrance of me be well weighed and there is no man can infer less from thence than that if he had intended this should be done only at some such great and solemn times as the Passover was among the Jews when he first instituted this Feast and eat it with his Disciples he would not have suffered us to be ignorant of his meaning but told us in plain terms that upon some certain days and at some extraordinary Assemblies this should not be forgotten But that he having named no time whatsoever we ought to look upon his words as instituting this holy action to be a part of that Worship Honour and Service which he expected from his people in all their Religious Assemblies For being ordained in remembrance of him it is most reasonable to think he intended this Commemoration should be as constantly made as they met together to acknowledge him for their Lord and Saviour and only Mediator with God the Father And being a Commemoration ordained instead of all the Sacrifices whereby under the Law they daily implored the mercies of God or gave thanks for them it ought in all Conscience to be as continual a rite of Religious Worship as those Sacrifices were And thus when men had upright hearts and unbiassed affections they did honestly understand our Saviours meaning and accordingly made this a constant part of their Divine Service Which is the next thing I would desire you to observe For I would not have you to rely merely on my reasonings and inferences though I verily think this would appear a true way of arguing and a right conclusion unto any unprejudiced mind if we had no more to justify it but as a further evidence of this nay as a full conviction that we ought so to take it I beseech you seriously to consider that II. Thus the Apostles and the first Christians understood the meaning of our blessed Saviour in this Institution And can we have any better Expositors of his words any surer directors of our practice than such great Servants of his who were filled with the Holy Ghost Who never met together to worship God and our Saviour but this was a part and a principal part too of the service they performed in those Assemblies If I can make this good the other will follow for there can no other
account be given why they did this as constantly as they assembled themselves for Divine Service but because they took that to be our Saviours meaning and intention when he said This do in remembrance of me Now there is nothing more apparent in the holy story than this that the Apostles and those whom they first converted made this a daily part of the offices of Religion For we read that when three thousand Souls joined themselves to the Church upon the day of Pentecost they continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and fellowship and breaking of Bread and Prayers Act. ii 42. Where breaking of Bread I proved before signifies their receiving the Eucharist and now observe that the words we translate continued stedfastly which in the Greek are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signify that they were constant and assiduous in this holy action For the word imports frequency as appears from other places particularly from Rom. xii 12. Where there is the same word in the Apostles Command for Prayer and we translate it continuing instant in Prayer And Coloss iv 2. it is joined with watching thereunto with thanksgiving From which Observations we gain this that as frequent and instant as they were in Prayer so frequent and instant they were in breaking of Bread for they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 constant and unwearied in them both alike Now what this constancy or frequency was is expounded in the 46. verse where St. Luke saith they continued the same word again daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking Bread from house to house or at home as the word is better translated in the Margin of our Bibles Where we see that breaking of Bread at home in their own private Houses was as daily as their going to the Temple publickly and can be meant of nothing but their receiving the holy Communion every day For no man can so much as imagine a reason why breaking of Bread should be mentioned as their daily practice at home together with their resort to the Temple service abroad but to signify that they communicated among themselves in the service of the Eucharist or Holy Communion proper to the Faith of Christians as they communicated with the Jews in the service of the Temple common to all the Disciples of Moses You may impute this it is possible to the warmth of their zeal but remember withal that this zeal was grounded upon knowledge which they wanted not in those dayes And the knowledge they had of Christian Religion taught them that when our blessed Saviour commanded them to do this in remembrance of him naming no time when it should be done he meant it should be done always in their Christian Assemblies as the perfection and Crown of that Service for which they Assembled III. And indeed if we had not had these records of the practice of the Apostles and of the first Christians to explain the meaning of our Saviours Institution yet we should have had reason to think it was so in the Apostles days and therefore the meaning of our Saviour because this practice of receiving the holy Communion every Day continued in the Church for some Ages I cannot say in every place for we have no Records of that but rather of the contrary but in many places and in the most famous that are come to our notice and where the vigour of Christian Religion remained and where they were awakened by more than ordinary dangers to consider their obligation Thus we find St. Cyprian in his Exposition of the Lords Prayer takes that Petition give us this day our daily Bread to signify in the spiritual sense our desire to be fit to receive the Eucharist every day for the food of Salvation And in his Epistle to the Church of Thibaris speaking of a more grievous and fiercer fight of persecution hanging then over their heads he tell them therefore the Souldiers of Jesus Christ ought to fortify and arm themselves well against it with an uncorrupt Faith and robust Vertue considering that they did for this end quotidie calicem Christi sanguinis bibere c. every day drink the Cup of Christs blood that they might also be able to shed their own blood for Christs sake In which words he addresses his Discourse to the Laicks as well as the Clergy exhorting all the faithful unto the constancy of Martyrdom which Men Women and Children indured Nay long after this we learn from St. Hierom in his Apology to Pammachius for his Books against Jovinian and other places that this Custom continued at Rome and in Spain as well as in Africk where St. Austin tell us in his famous Epistle to Januarius that in his time some did quotidie communicare c. daily communicate of the body and blood of our Lord though others he acknowledges did it only on certain days St. Basil also begins his Epistle to Caesaria Patritia in this manner to communicate every day and partake of the holy body and blood of our Lord Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a commendable and profitable thing and then adds that they did communicate four times a Week in his Church on the Lords day Wednesday Friday and the Sabbath that is Saturday and on other dayes if the memory of any Martyr fell upon them Nay three or four Ages more after this such a sense of this Devotion remained that Walafridus Strabo in his Book of Ecclesiastical Affairs c. 20. sayes it seems to be very full of reason that Christians especially Clergymen should every day be imployed in divine Offices and when some very grievous spot of mind or body doth not hinder receive the Lords Bread and Blood without which we cannot live imitating the wholsome diligence of the primitive Church concerning whom we read in the Acts of the Apostles that they persevered in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of Bread and Prayers and a little after they continued daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking Bread from House to House c. quoting the words I named before All which and much more that might be said make it apparent that the Church in the best times and the best men in the Church in after Ages lookt upon this as an ordinary part of Christian Worship which Christ intended should be performed in his Church as oft as they Assembled for Divine Service And what other ground could they have for it but this that Christ having confined it to no time they thought in reason it should be taken for a duty he expected from them at all times when they came to worship him and make their thankful acknowledgments unto him IV. And truly we can gather no less from the very nature of this holy action which sufficiently shows it was our Saviours meaning that it should be a daily part of the Churches Service It being as all know a solemn Thanksgiving unto God and a Form of Prayer and Petitioning which every one
confesses are acts of Worship to be constantly performed and also a commemoration of that upon which the efficacy of all our Prayers and Thanksgivings depends viz. the Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross which is here likewise represented unto God as that which appearing always before him in the Heavens intercedes for us and makes all our Sacrifices acceptable to his Majesty And besides all this is the peculiar worship which the Church gives unto Christ as a grateful acknowledgment of his unparallel'd love in laying down his life for us to purchase the most inestimable benefits which he herein also assures unto us and bestows upon us Which is in part declared in these words upon which I have built my Discourse wherein we are told the end of this holy Sacrament is to show or publish the Lords Death that is show it with praise predicate extol and magnify as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports proclaim with our highest praises the loving kindness of the Lord in the glorious work of our Redemption through his most pretious blood But is more fully declared in the very words of the Institution when he said Do this in remembrance of me which show that our doing this is the peculiar honour we do our blessed Lord by making a publick commemoration that he took our nature upon him that he died for us that he obtained thereby a glorious Victory over all our Enemies that he purchased for himself and for us immortal glory and is now at Gods right hand in full power to bestow it upon us In memory of all these things saith our Saviour do this that when I am dead I may always live in your hearts and the knowledge of all these things may go down to all posterity and be commemorated from one Generation unto another for ever with thankful praises but especially the memory of my Death may be transmitted to them and be celebrated with continual acknowledgments For it was but fit that he should be publickly honoured in that which when he suffered exposed him to the greatest contempt And no doubt it was the design of God in appointing this Rite of holy worship to have his Death commemorated with Everlasting praises which for the present had brought him into the utmost disgrace To which purpose is that passage in an Easter Sermon ascribed to Caesarius Bishop of Arles because he intended to remove out of our sight the body which he had taken and to place it in Heaven it was necessary that in the same day he should consecrate for us the Sacrament of his Body and Blood to the end that we should honour by the type that which had been once offered for the price of our Salvation In short this is the proper worship of God Incarnate and of our Crucified Saviour and therefore cannot be thought by wise considerers to have been intended to be left unto uncertainty whether we would perform it or no or when we would be pleased to perform it but to have been ordained as a daily Service which should be continually performed unto Christ Which in truth the continual necessities of the Church require it being the principal Act whereby we have Communion with Christ and partake of the Sacrifice he made on the Cross We are united unto him as Members of his Body in the other Sacrament of Baptism wherein also his holy Spirit is bestowed upon us as a principle of life and motion sutable to our Religion which directs us unto this Sacrament as the chief outward visible means of preserving our Union with Christ by having constant Communion with him and with his holy spirit Whose influences he here communicates unto us for our growth and increase in spiritual life and holiness and we therefore in reason should be desirous constantly to receive because we constantly want them and are too apt to start aside from him unto whom we ought to keep our selves stedfastly united by Faith and Love and uniform universal Obedience Put now all this together that it is an act of holy worship a worship altogether as peculiar to the Church as the Sacrifice on the Cross is peculiar to Christianity the only worship wherewith we honour our blessed Lord and Saviour a Commemoration nay a representation of that which makes all our Services acceptable unto God and the principal way and means whereby we have Communion with Christ from whom we stand in continual need of the Communication of his grace and we shall soon be satisfied that the plainest and most reasonable answer that can be given to those who ask how often did Christ intend we should eat of this Bread and drink of this Cup is this as often as we assemble publickly to worship God our Saviour For there is no worship peculiar to him but this nor is there any wherein we have such Communion with him as in this by which we do truly and indeed participate of the Sacrifice offered unto God upon the Cross as the Jews and the Gentiles did of their Sacrifices offered up on their Altars Thus the Apostle discourses at large in the Chapter before my Text 1 Cor. x. 16 17. c. where he takes it for an undeniable truth that Christians do communicate with God their Saviour in the merits of his Death by receiving the holy Eucharist And thence proves it to be unlawful for them to partake of the Gentile Sacrifices by proving that to eat of their Sacrifices was to be accessory to their Idolatries as the Jews by eating of such Sacrifices as were offered among them did partake of the Altar or did communicate with the Altar that is Communicate with God whose Altar that was upon which the Sacrifices were consumed Which evidently supposes that Christians also did in the Eucharist partake of a Sacrifice and were thereby joined to Christ who was that Sacrifice Which though carried by him into the most holy place of the Heavens there to be presented unto God is no less participated by Christians in this holy Feast of the Eucharist than the Jews did participate of their offerings of thanksgiving on the Altar I know very well it will be objected that by understanding our Saviours meaning in this Institution after this manner we prove a great deal too much and argue our publick service to be defective when it wants this peculiar worship of Christ which he ordained To which I shall only say this that if by discoursing thus we prove no more than is true our worship must be confessed to be but imperfect when the Holy Communion is wanting not so perfect at least as that of the ancient Christians was Which we had much better honestly acknowledge and beseech God to accept for Christs sake of such services as we do perform though in some regard and in comparison imperfect ones than by going about to defend untruths and establish false notions in Religion to make our selves more guilty before God I know also it will be urged
people might bring their offerings more freely though they did not receive together with him And they magnified his operation so much till at last it brought forth this prodigious conceit that he held the very natural Body and Blood of Christ in his hands after the Consecration Which fancy obtained the more easily by the help of the Wafers now mentioned which having neither the form nor figure of Bread nor being like any sort of food used in the World served to banish out of peoples minds the thoughts of any such thing as Bread which they received in the Holy Communion See here again how men have spoiled our most excellent Religion by neglecting the constant practice of it For this Doctrine of transubstantiating the Bread into the very natural Body of Christ is the more absurd because in reality there is not so much as true Bread presented unto the Priest to transubstantiate if such a feat could possibly be wrought For the best Christians after these Wafers were introduced lookt upon them as unfit for consecration being unworthy of the name of Bread and not being at all broken and therefore did ad Christum Ecclesiam nihil pertinere not at all belong to Christ or his Church as Bernoldus a Priest of Constance adventured to speak in the Eleventh Century For he is that ancient Writer whom Cassander mentions as the Expounder of the Roman Order and commends as a pious prudent person and well skilled in the Ecclesiastical Traditions excepting only the indignation he expressed at the reducing of the oblations of Bread for the use of the Sacrifice into this form of Wafers much different from the form of true Bread which he called therefore in contempt mites of nummulary oblations being in the form of little pieces of money and ascribes to them an imaginary shadowy lightness which deserve not the name of Bread they are so thin and inveighs against them in more and sharper words than these which Cassander in his Book of Liturgicks cap. 27. saith he thought it not expedient to transcribe in that place But what he hath transcribed abundantly shows how wise and good men resented this change in the Sacrament by reason of which the Divine Service and the Religion of the Ecclesiastical office as that Author speaks was much every way confounded IV. Lastly This very thing hath turned the holy Communion in that Church into a propitiatory Sacrifice offered up to God both for the quick and the dead Which hath proved a most horrible abuse having no other original than that now named the people 's not communicating but leaving the Priest alone at the Altar Who being loth to lose the oblations as well as the peoples Company began to speak very high things of the saving efficacy which from this action of the Priest alone redounded even unto those who did not Communicate with him Which opinion being once received as a popular conceit men gave money freely and abundantly for private Masses out of a perswasion that thereby they should procure remission of sins both for themselves and for others both for those alive and those who were dead By which things I hope you see the great mischief of neglecting the holy Communion which hath even undone the Christian World for it hath spoil'd Christs holy Religion and turned it into quite another thing by most gross depravations of it Which have had this effect even upon us who are called Reformed that they have rooted out the principal part of Gods Service from among us and made it lame and imperfect For the Church of Rome having retained the custom of celebrating the Communion every day but turned it into a Sacrifice for the quick and the dead though none but the Priest partake of it this is the use which the Enemy of Mankind hath tempted us to make of their abuses to perswade our selves that so long as private Masses are abolished we need not trouble our selves to be frequent in the Celebration and Communion of the Eucharist Now this is even according to the hearts desire of our grand Adversary the Devil who can be content with such a Reformation as this while we retain the very root and foundation of all the abuses which we have reformed viz. Negligence in frequenting this Holy Sacrament Which I hope we shall be careful also to reform at last if men will but lay to heart such things as I have laid before their Eyes Which let us see that though the particular time of communicating be not named in Christs Institution yet that is no argument we may take our own time for it and do not offend God so it be done some time or other but quite contrary that our Lord intended it should be performed at all times when we assemble for Divine Service Thus the first and best Christians understood it thus they practised and transmitted this practice unto Posterity who for some Ages continued it and though it be not continued till these times yet we are forced to acknowledge that the remembrance it importeth as that excellent man Mr. Thorndike speaks is so proper so peculiar to the profession we make that our Assemblies never look so like the Assemblies of Christians as when it is celebrated But are really naked without it or at least want the Crown of that Service for which we assemble that most excellent piece of Service which is peculiarly appropriated to the worship of our blessed Lord and Saviour By the neglect of which the love of God and the love of one another is deplorably decayed and the Christian Religion also so depraved that they who reformed it in many things have not been able to restore it to its integrity And therefore now that God hath put it into the heart of our pious Metropolitan to call upon us and enjoin us to live more strictly according to the Rules and Orders of our Religion by celebrating the holy Communion at all our more solemn Assemblies I hope none of us will be any longer disobedient and refractory to so godly a motion but rather forward to comply with the Command of God and of our Governours It may not be in the power of man perhaps so to command the occasions of this World as that all should be always disposed to communicate yet in so great a number as here come together to worship God there cannot but always some persons or other be found who are not so encumbred but they may be fit if they please to receive the holy Communion with us Certain I am it ought so to be and what ought to be may be and will be if the reason upon which it depends be duly considered If it be not so that for want of persons disposed to communicate the holy Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood cannot be celebrated every Sunday it is a wilful neglect for which nothing can be alledged but too much love of this World which arises from too little a sense of the
love of our blessed Saviour and too small valuation of his inestimable benefits Which I beseech you let us awaken our minds to weigh and ponder and then we shall make it part of our business to contrive our affairs in this World in such a manner that there never want some Company at the Holy Communion And it is no hard matter so to order things that some receiving one Sunday some another all may receive at least once a Month. What should hinder if we have any mind to it and will set our selves about it what can stand in the way of such a blessed and comfortable Reformation as this Of which though we have not heard a word from the great pretenders to Religion in an Age wherein so much hath been talkt of the Reformation of the Church yet all the true Children of it who understand and seek its good are sensible that the continual celebration of the Eucharist and the Discipline of penance to preserve the people in a disposition fit to receive it are such points of reformation in the Church as the great man before-named expresses it that without restoring these all the rest is but mere noise and pretence if not mischief And these are the things at which the Order of our Church aims for as it earnestly sighs and groans as you read in the Commination towards the restoring of publick penance which is the only means established by the Apostles to maintain the Church in condition to communicate continually so it enjoins as you have heard the continual celebration of the Eucharist in Cathedral and Collegiate Churches and Colledges every Sunday at the least which supposes it would be still more agreeable to its desires if it were done also upon other Festivals Now what should hinder us I ask again from coming thus near to the primitive Devotion though we do not come up quite to the utmost perfection of it Unless it be the fancy which works in many minds that to Communicate three times in the Year as the Church injoins every Parishioner at the least to do is sufficient for any Christian Which may well be called a fancy since it is manifest the Church names three times in a Year as the very lowest degree of Devotion less than which it would account prophaneness and I have demonstrated that we have little or nothing to say for our Communicating so seldom as once a Month but only this that in most places it is no oftner administred In the Mother Churches it will hereafter be more frequently which will in some measure conform us to those ancient Churches which communicated every Sunday For all the Country Churches in the Diocess being but parts of the Mother Church it may be truly said the holy Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood is administred once a Week in all our Churches Where I beseech you let us never want a competent number of Communicants And that we may not do not any longer imagine that you show sufficient respect to our Saviour if you resolve to come thrice a Year I wish every one were careful of doing so much but let me further tell you they that set themselves such a stint will be in danger too oft to fall short of that And therefore it is far safer and more becoming to aim at and endeavour after higher attainments by coming more frequently to the Table of the Lord. Hear how sharply that great person St. Chrysostome inveighs against those that contented themselves with receiving only at the Festivals especially at Easter It is in his third Sermon upon the Epistle to the Ephesians where having expounded the last words of the first Chapter which represent our blessed Lord as the Head of the Church advanced far above all principalities and powers c. He thus begins his Sermon Let us reverence our Head let us think with our selves of what Head we are the Body a Head to which all things are subject what an honour is this to be in some sort viz. in our Head advanced above the Angels and the Archangels Let us reverence then this kindred this affinity which we have with Christ our Head Let us fear lest any of us be cut off from this Body lest any of us fall away lest we appear unworthy of our relation to him If any body had set a Diadem or a Crown of Gold upon our Head would we not have laboured by all means not to appear unworthy of those liveless stones And yet now that there is not so little as a Diadem put upon our Head but Christ himself which is infinitely more is become our Head we make no account at all of it The Angels reverence it the Archangels and all the Heavenly Powers do him honour we only who are his Body neither for this reason nor for the other have any considerable regard to him What hope then is there of our Salvation Think upon that Royal Throne think upon that exceeding great honour God hath conferred upon thee and it will be more powerful than Hell fire it self to affright thee into a due regard towards him With a great many more such like efficacious words which I do but abridge he presses his people to the greatest purity of life and then at last comes in particular to press them from this Argument to a religious care of receiving the holy Communion I see saith he many of you receive the Body of Christ but it is rather from custom and for order sake than out of reason and understanding If it were the holy time of Lent saith one or if it were the Epiphany that is Christmas Day saith another who would not prepare himself to partake of the Holy Mysteries Is it then Christmas is it the time of Lent that makes a man a worthy Receiver I thought it had been sincerity of Soul holiness and purity of Life With these come always without these thou hast no right to come at all For as oft as you do this you show the Lords Death quoteing my Text that is you make a Commemoration of the Salvation wrought for you and of the benefit Christ bestowed upon you Consider then how abstemious how careful were they who did partake of the old Sacrifices under the Law What did they not do What expence were they not willing to make They were always purifying themselves that they might partake of the Altar But thou coming to a Sacrifice at which the Angels are astonished circumscribest the business and confinest it to certain periods of time thou wilt receive it at Easter at Christmas then thou wilt be pure and clean to partake of it But how wilt thou appear before the Tribunal of the Lord Jesus who darest with impure hands and lips to touch his Body For so it is at other times you will not come no not though you be pure but at Easter you will needs come though you have lately perhaps been bold to commit some great transgression O the power of
with-drawing himself from the holy Communion and in not acquainting those with the crimes which he pretends for the cause of his withdrawing who were concerned to redress them IV. And lastly suppose that after information given they who are concerned do not take care to redress those things but such scandalous Livers be still admitted to the Communion yet this not being the fault of private persons but of those who have power to exclude them it ought not to keep any good Man or Woman from the Table of the Lord. For there can be no reason why any man should be hindred by this from doing his own duty because another man doth not discharge his And let it here be seriously considered that if this were a just hindrance it would have hindred Christ and his Apostles and the primitive Christians from communicating For there was ill Company among the very first Communicants Judas the Traytor in all likelihood being there when our Lord himself administred And in this Church of Corinth it is evident there were such disorders that many did eat and drink their own Damnation and yet it did not hinder good Christians from partaking with them to their Salvation And the very truth is if this were a sufficient reason to hinder us from Communion it ought also to hinder us from being Christians and make us forbear to become members of any Church or profession For there is no Church but consists of a mixt multitude good and bad and therefore compared by our Saviour unto a Net wherein all sorts of Fish were caught Math. xiii 47 48. and unto a Field wherein wheat and tares sprung up which must grow together till the Harvest lest by an indiscreet indeavour to gather up the Tares the Wheat be also rooted up with them ver 24 25 29 30. And therefore this scruple driven home will destroy Christianity as it hath done in some places where men have divided and subdivided till by their separation from them whom they accounted wicked they have crumbled into nothing and left no Church at all remaining but what was in their particular person That is none for the Church is a Society and there is no Society nor can be any but we may find some exception or other against every person in it and particularly against such persons who judging others unworthy to Communicate with them abstain on that account from the holy Communion For besides the suspition of rash judging and pride that is in the thing they are apparently guilty of a gross sin in not coming to the holy Communion of Christs Body and Blood according to his Commandment The secret reason of which perhaps they do not declare and so others have as much authority to judge them unworthy as they to judge others and by this means all of them if this be a just excuse may let the holy Communion alone I hope you see by this short Discourse whither such exceptions as these lead and therefore that you will no longer be guided by them but notwithstanding the faults you think you can find in any person there present be perswaded by the weighty reasons you see for it to do your own duty at the Table of the Lord. III. Where we should have more Company than is usually seen there were it not for another hinderance arising not from others but from mens selves alone Who are wont sometimes to say we would come to the Table of the Lord being convinced it is our duty if we were worthy of so great a benefit but we are deterred from it by the consideration of our many sins or great frailties We have at least too many diversions by business too many avocations by the affairs of this World for I am alway in a hurry saith one I have no leisure to examine my self or I am not disposed for so serious a work saith another We had better forbear than be rash say all of this sort it is safer to honour the Sacrament by a fearful and reverent abstinence from it than by a careless and unprepared forwardness to partake of it prophane it In a word we conceive our selves to be utterly unfit therefore we dare not come to it Now in answer to this third Exception against the performance of this duty which hath a shew of humility in it and looks like a pious care not to do good things in an ill manner I have many things to propound to your consideration which are so convincing and will so unmask the dangerous deceit that lurks under such pretences that they will not suffer you to be cheated by it any longer I. And in the first place every one who complains of his unfitness and makes that the reason of his not coming to the Holy Communion ought to consider both whose fault this is and whether it be not likely he shall grow still more unfit every day than other that is be more in fault by not receiving it For you will not you cannot say it is our Saviour's fault who commands you to come that you are not sit to come to it Whose fault is it then but your own And why do you not then amend it lest you still grow greater strangers to him nay Enemies by evil works and by continuing to neglect the means of living better For this very unfitness which you alledge for your forbearing the Communion is your sin and will you turn your sin into an Apology and make it serve for your Plea for the neglect of a plain duty Can you think that this will pass at the Bar of the Divine Judgment when you appear before it Dare you thus excuse your neglect of the Sacrament by acknowledging another crime When an accusation a just accusation lies against you will you then go about to turn it into a defence of your self as you are bold to do now I come not to the holy Communion it is true but it is because I am unholy I am sensible of the looseness of my life which is not strict enough I am not in Charity or at best I am Worldly minded and too much distracted with the affairs of this life This is the plea of some men who do not mind how after a strange manner they make one sin an excuse for another For this is the plain sense of their Plea God we hope will be merciful to us in forgiving one sin because we commit another which is the cause thereof Pardon that is the neglect of the Sacrament because they neglect to fit themselves for it For none can deny that it is one sin not to commemorate the Death of Christ as he hath appointed and it is also another to neglect a due preparation for it And so instead of amending one such men add another to it heaping evil upon evil and aggravating their Condemnation by their very pleas and excuses Of which they could not be thus senslesly guilty were this plain truth duly considered that there is the same
people Consider then in what disposition do you think you stand for Society with Christ in Eternal Life and Bliss in the Heavens if you are not disposed to have Communion with him in this holy Sacrament here upon Earth What likelihood can you fancy of having His Company there if He cannot have your Company here That which keeps you from the one will exclude you from the other I mean those things whatsoever they be that make you unmeet to partake of his Table at present will make you unmeet to feast with him in his Heavenly Kingdom hereafter The terms of admission unto both are the same for he that duly partakes of the holy Communion hath an earnest given him of Everlasting Bliss and therefore there cannot be different terms of exclusion but the very same also That is those sins which exclude men from the Kingdom of Heaven are they which exclude them from the pledge and earnest of it in this holy Sacrament And those sins which do not shut the gate of the Heavenly Kingdom against them cannot be a bar to their receiving the Sacrament Satisfy your selves what those sins are of both sorts and you will withal satisfy your selves that you are not unfit to come to the holy Communion unless you be unfit to enter into Heaven and if you be unfit for that I do not see how you can rest satisfied if you have any care of your Souls till by becoming capable to be received thither you become capable to be entertained at the Lords Table For which every sudden passion every rash word every sin that is committed by surprise against the setled purpose of our Souls and serious indeavours will not make us utterly unfit because such things will not shut us out of Heaven But those gross those deliberate and habitual sins that bar the Door of Heaven against us are the same that put a bar against our coming to the Lord's Table and the same that keep us from partaking of that are they that will keep us from being partakers of the other And therefore resolve what it is fit for you to do the matter being come to this short issue that if you are not fit for the Lord's Table neither are you fit for Heaven if you hope you are so fit for Heaven that you shall not be thrust out of it then are you not unfit for the Lord's Table Why then do you not come thither when you cannot stay away without acknowledging that you have no interest in Christ and his Eternal Love So the ancient Doctrine was as we learn from St. Austin who in his first Book concerning the deserts and remission of sins Cap. 24. tells us that in his Country they called Baptism SALVATION and the Sacrament of Christs Body by no other name than LIFE from an ancient and Apostolical Tradition as he thinks whereby the Churches of Christ hold for certain that no body can attain either Salvation or Life in the Kingdom of God without Baptism and the participation of the Table of the Lord. Which none can gainsay is thus far true that we know of no other gates but these Christ hath appointed no other to let us into his Kingdom and that they who are unworthy to partake of the holy mysteries of his Kingdom cannot be worthy to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven it self VI. If obstinacy as he speaks a little before in that Book did not knit its stubborn sinews against the force of evident truth I might here make an end But some still persist in their exceptions and say if we be not unfit yet we fear we are and how shall we free our selves from these fears and jealousies which extreamly disturb our minds and put us into such disorder that we cannot compose our selves for the holy Communion In the last place therefore I answer to this by asking a few plain and easy questions upon which if you will Examine your selves you will soon arrive at satisfaction Do you not make profession of Christianity Do you not believe what that Religion teaches Do you not indeavour impartially to practice according to that belief Do you not discern or distinguish the Lord's Body that is make a difference between this holy food and other meat and drink Do you not understand the ends for which it was appointed What can hinder you then from partaking of the Lords Body if therein you intend those ends Here is a sure and infallible Test unto which if you bring your selves you may try thereby whether you be fit or no to have Communion with Christ in this holy Sacrament and determine the case with such certainty as to be no longer perplexed with doubts and fears about it 1. The first of these questions need not be long considered for by receiving Baptism and being present at the Prayers where the Creeds are openly owned you make a profession of Christianity and therefore you are thus far fit and have a right and title to come and make this profession still more solemnly at the Table of the Lord. 2. The second also is soon resolved whether you believe with your heart what you profess with your mouth For these doubts and fears which you have lest you should receive the Communion unworthily and thereby incur the divine displeasure suppose Faith in Christ as the Lord and Judge of the World and that you look upon this as one part of a Christians Duty which ought to be performed with care and great circumspection 3. The third also need not cost you much labour for by reading over the rules of life delivered in the Gospel and comparing your manner of life with them you may be satisfied whether you impartially indeavour to practise according to your belief That is do you not willingly rest under any habit of sin which excludes from this Sacrament as they do from Heaven but make it your serious business to break them all Then you ought to use this means among others which God hath appointed and call upon him for his aid without which nothing can be effected in this sort of Supplication for weaknesses bewailed and indeavoured daily to be reformed do not exclude us from either of them But they rather require our diligence and constancy in the receiving this holy Sacrament that we may grow strong in the Lord and in the power of his might Which we therefore want because we neglect this means of obtaining it or are possessed with such vain fears as quite damp that Faith which should be exercised in the use of it 4. For which fears there is no cause when you are thus qualified provided also you discern the Lords Body in the holy Communion that is consider what that Bread and Wine imports which you see upon the Table of the Lord what they signify and represent unto you and what spiritual grace is imparted to you by their means which your very Catechism teaches you is the Body and Blood of Christ which are
that is grievous punishment was For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep Now what is all this to you who are not guilty of any such crimes For no such scandals as these are committed among us now adays any where And therefore why should you fear so much as the judgment or sentence to suffer the grievous punishments now mentioned seeing you are not guilty of their faults Which I have purposely represented as they are set down by the Apostle that finding your selves free from them you may not fright your selves away from the Communion by a dread of that damnation which fell upon them But will not fall upon you who cannot be accused of their Crimes nor of any other like to them if you discern the Lords body and in a solemn manner come to commemorate his Death and Passion renouncing all your evil wayes and being in perfect Charity with all men Upon such God will pour down his blessings and not plague them with Diseases Sickness and untimely Death much less with Eternal Damnation to suffer the punishment of Everlasting Fire Which as it is not meant in the Apostles words as I have shown elsewhere so will not be the portion of those who come thus prepared to the Table of the Lord but rather of those who stay away out of a pretence of unworthiness when the true reason is because they will not be at the pains to prepare themselves to partake of it Or if it be timorousness of spirit and a scrupulous fearfulness that keeps them from it let them seriously weigh what hath been proved in this Discourse that they have the same reason to be fearful they shall not enter into Eternal Life For they that are not fit to have Communion with him in these Types and Figures of him how can they be presumed to be fit to have the immediate sight and injoyment of his Divine Majesty And what serious Christian is there that can live with any comfort who hath no hope of that How can he be quiet or take any rest till he hath rid himself of every thing which he thinks makes him unmeet to have fellowship with Christ in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood that so partaking of it religiously he may have no cause not to look upon himself as an heir through hope of Gods Everlasting Kingdom by the merits of the most pretious death and passion of his dear Son Who invites all those to come and feast with him that abide in no habitual sin such as shuts out of the Heavenly Kingdom and they ought to come without any fear of provoking his Majesty without any apprehension of danger to themselves thereby nay draw near with faith and take this holy Sacrament to their comfort and high satisfaction and to the joy of the Church of Christ which is highly honoured by having abundance of worthy persons in it fit to communicate with their Lord at his Table Such worthy Communicants let us all for our parts study to be by resolving now and indeavouring ever hereafter to quit all known sins and to live suteably to our Christian profession and Belief Then let nothing hinder you from taking frequent occasions of presenting your selves to the Lord at his Table Let no scruples fears and doubts that stick in your mind hinder you but rather get them pulled out by some skilful hand Do not believe you are religious because you are scrupulous but rather suspect your selves not to be so because you neglect the great duty of Religion And of this be scrupulous above all other things lest you offend God by not coming to the Communion or rather do not dare to be so bold and fearless in a matter of such great danger Let not the fault of others who communicate be a stop to your performance of that duty That is if they sin one way let not that tempt you to a sin of another kind If they go wrong on the right hand be not you moved thereby to turn too much to the left Let not the danger of unworthy receiving deter you from receiving but only from receiving unworthily Of which there is the less danger if you be really afraid of it for that will move you to be careful to prevent it And remember that nothing will make you more unworthy than neglect of it And therefore let not the thoughts of your imperfections hinder you for they will always hinder and staying from the holy Communion is not the way to be more perfect but coming to it Nay let not the breach of your resolutions by relapsing into sin after you have communicated keep you from communicating again but rather come the sooner and take the first opportunity that is presented you to renew your Covenant with God to strengthen your Christian resolutions to fortify your selves against temptations and to obtain assurance of a pardon for the unfaithfulness to your Saviour To fall is not so dangerous as not to rise again presently after we are faln Much less let business hinder for if you be honestly imployed in honest business it is part of your preparation for the holy Communion And let no man say he wants time to fit himself to receive it for this is in effect to say he wants time to live well Of which if you take a constant care that 's the main preparation And for the composing your mind and considering the ends for which you go to the Lords Table take as much time as your condition of life and the circumstances of your condition will allow and that is sufficient Be not hindred from the Heavenly Comforts of which you may there partake by an opinion of the necessity of a long examination of your selves before-hand for that necessity arises only from long neglect of the Communion Receive frequently as the first Christians did and then you will be as ready for this on all occasions as you are for other duties of holy Worship For you will be well acquainted with the state of your own Souls and with the nature and end of this part of your Religion especially if you take some account of your selves every day which will make your account short and easy before the Communion And let not dulness and indisposition be thought a reason why you should forbear to receive it but rather come thither to be quickned And if you continue dull there yet beliâ—ve you have pleased God by doing as he commanded though not so lively as you desired Let us not hear any man say I have not profited thereby and therefore had as good stay away For it is very profitable to do our duty constantly to express our gratitude to God to receive the tokens of his Love to tye our selves faster to him in renewed resolutions of holy obedience to be put in fear of offending him and in hope of his favour and there is no man that with any kind of care partakes of the holy Communion
should be duly performed II. To which add this consideration that had not this been a divine Institution and the practice according to it a duty incumbent on them it is not to be conceived that the Apostle would have suffered the Corinthians to have run so great a hazard as they did by the rude manner of doing that action if they might innocently have omitted it and without any guilt not have done it at all Nor would the Corinthians themselves have been so unreasonably cruel to their own Souls as to have incurred the dreadful danger of Damnation and Death by an unprepared participation of this Sacrament if they could have satisfied themselves that it was no duty to participate or not of such consequence but that it might with safety be let alone He that eateth and drinketh unworthily saith the Apostle eateth and drinketh damnation to himself and for this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep That is the divine judgment being passed against you hath seized on you and struck many of you with sicknesses others with infirmities aches and pains and some with Death for your riotous eating of the Supper of the Lord. Doth it not concern you then unless you be content to lie still under this scourge of God till you be all cut off to be better advised and not expose your selves in this manner to the wrath of God which it is plain by terrible Executions is more than kindled against you Now unto what course doth he direct them that they might avoid these Judgments Doth he advise them to abstain from the Holy Communion for fear of prophaning it to forbear to come to the Table of the Lord lest there he stretcht out his hand against them and gave them their Deaths wound This had been the shortest and the safest way according to the ignorant resolutions men make in this present Age to prevent the danger of Damnation unto which the Apostle no doubt would have charitably directed them if he had not known that the thing it self was a duty and such abstinence from it a sin He could not otherways have refrained when he beheld the Sword of Divine Vengeance thus hanging over their Heads and many already lie bleeding under it being strucken down to the ground by Sicknesses Plagues and Death he could not I say in this lamentable case have abstained from calling to them with the greatest earnestness and compassion saying why do you thus venture your Souls and Bodies to destruction Why do you not rather stay away and wholly forbear to approach to the Table of the Lord where you are in danger to be undone for your unworthy receiving the sacred pledges of Gods love But we hear no such language because the Apostle had not thus learnt Christ nor thus received of the Lord. Who commanded and expected that they should not abstain from the Sacrament as the manner now is but come to it net rudely indeed as they did but in an holy decent and prepared manner Which it had been in vain to discourse of if it would have been as well or would have sufficed to abstain from the act of receiving This was an invention not thought of in those early dayes when they took themselves not to be Christians if they did not frequent the Holy Communion as St. Paul proves they were not good Christians if they did not take care to come in an holy manner unto it That 's the thing to which he presses them and the only way he knew of to avoid Damnation Abstaining from the Communion would not secure them but let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup ver 28. Not to eat and drink of that holy food he could not give them a licence He had no such authority but lay under an obligation to enjoin the doing of the thing and to press it earnestly as a duty that could neither be safely omitted nor practised without serious Examination of themselves that they might not come together to condemnation v. 34. To come together for this purpose to eat and drink that Bread and that Cup there was a necessity their only care was that it might not be to condemnation Which things being well considered do convincingly demonstrate that this is not only a duty but a weighty duty strictly enjoined and not to be omitted no not in that Church where the profane doing of it had brought down Death and destruction upon them from Heaven V. The same is evident from the end for which our Lord instituted this Sacrament and commanded us to receive it which is the publication of the Lords Death till he come That 's the meaning of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye do show you do publish the word signifies and tell it abroad you profess this and declare it to all the World that Christ died for you and is Lord over you having purchased you by his blood and that you own him so to be and are the Servants and Worshippers of that Jesus who gave himself to be Crucified and to die for you This is the general meaning of this holy action Wherein we publickly own Christ and profess his Religion and give it out to all the World who see what we do that we are his and that we are sensible of it nay glory in it and intend to continue his for ever Now who can have the confidence to call himself a Christian and not think he stands bound thus to own Christ Crucified And therefore he is bound to do that whereby he doth own him which is to receive the holy Sacrament Which as often as we do we show forth the Lords Death and as often as we neglect we do as good as say we are ashamed of him and of his Cross or that we repent of our Christian Profession For if to do this be to show forth Christs Death then not to do it is to stifle and smother it as much as in us lies so that no such thing as the Death of our Lord should be published or known in the World This I am sure is a true consequence and our neglect of this duty will be thus interpreted by our blessed Lord when he shall come to take cognizance of it Why will some say we testify the contrary every time we say the Creed when we make an open and solemn confession of our Faith in him But let such persons observe how they argue in this against themselves For our Lord in whom they profess to believe requires that we should not merely in words though never so express but in plain actions also represent his Death and Passion for our sakes and thereby our high obligations to him That 's the Doctrine of the Apostle in this place For to what end do you break the Bread but to show the breaking i. e. the wounding and crucifixion of the Lords Body And to what end do you pour out the