the Holy Sacrament which their minds may have entertained upon the reason of them CHAP. II. Having in the former Chapter cleared the true sense of these words I proceed in this to the second general that I proposed to draw some general Conclusions from them which may be proper to be considered in the present case and to which I shall reduce as to so many heads what I intend further to say in this discourse the Collections that I purpose are these three that follow 1. That eating and drinking unworthily in the sense of this place is a thing hardly to be committed by Christians in this age 2. The supposed danger of eating and drinking unworthily is not a sufficient reason for Men to abstain from the Holy Sacrament upon 3. The true purpose of this place is to deter Men from irreverence and rudeness in eating and drinking in the Holy Sacrament and ingage them to that devotion and reverence that becomes them that do discern the Lords body These are three material Collections proper to be considered by all scrupulous persons in this case and therefore I shall endeavour to the utmost of my power and skill to discourse them with that plainness and evidence that they require and deserve I begin with the first eating and drinking unworthily in the sense of this Text is hardly to be committed by Christians in this age In order to the clearing the truth of this Collection it will concern me to do these following things 1. Shew what this eating and drinking unworthily was and wherein this sin of these Corinthians did consist 2. Consider the Circumstances that all Christians now are in which set them almost above the possibility of being guilty of it 3. I shall inquire what can be counted eating and drinking unworthily in proportion to this 4. And consider in the last place whether these also be not almost incompetent to Christians especially to any that are concerned in our present case SECT I. IN order to my discharging the first thing undertaken I shall need but to repeat a little of what I said in the explication of this Text and this phrase in it Not discerning the Lords body is certainly the Key to the meaning of eating and drinking unworthily and by considering the one we may come to the understanding of the other and by examining how the case stood with these Corinthians we may easily understand both By their not discerning the Lords body the Apostle means their not considering that this was an immediate service of Religion and that the morsel of bread which they did eat and glass of wine that they did drink were Sacramentally the very body and blood of Christ they put no difference between these sacred Symbolls of our Lords body and blood and common food and drink nor shewed greater reverence in eating and drinking the one than doing so to the other they ate in Gods House just as they did in their own and made no distinction between this and a common meal Yea and which is something worse yet they did this not only thus irreverently but in intemperance and downright drunkenness for so he tells them vers 21. One is hungry and another is drunk How this monstrous disorder happen'd among them hath been hinted already and may more fully now by giving a short account of the ancient practice of the Church in this matter Now that briefly stood thus the Holy Sacrament was usually prefaced unto by a publick feast of Charity which is called in antiquity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Love-Feast to which you have frequent reference in the New Testament to this Feast every one contributed and brought some portion according to his ability of which all feasted lovingly together reserving some portion for the Holy Sacrament which they always celebrated in the close of this Feast Now this grand profanation of this Holy Service happen'd thus instead of feeding lovingly all together of what was thus brought by all each one fed singly upon his own portion by which it came to pass not only that the poor had little or nothing to eat but the rich had too much which brought them to excess and even to plain drunkenness one is hungry and another drunk in which sad condition approaching to the Table of the Lord they were very unfit to consider the sacredness of it and very unlike to pay that reverence that was due to it That both these things contributed to their not discerning the Lords body and in consequence of that eating and drinking unworthily we may fully satisfie our selves by considering the Apostles dealing with them in the latter part of this Chapter where he falls upon this Argument For because they were so grosly ignorant in the reason and design of the Holy Sacrament he explains that fully to them from Verse 22d to the 27th acquainting them with the Author reason and purpose of this institution that it was an immediate service of Religion instituted by Christ himself just before his suffering and instituted to no meaner a purpose than to be a solemn rite of commemorating his death which should be used in his Church till his coming again to judgment For I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you that the Lord Jesus in the same night in which he was betrayed took bread 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 when he had supped saying This cup is the New Testament in my blood this do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew the Lords death till he come And because through their scandalous intemperance preceding they so horribly profaned this service therefore he shews them both the sin and great danger of it and presseth them to a serious care to reform it as you may see in the 27 28 29 and 30th Verses Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examin himself and so let him eat of this bread and drink of that cup. For he this eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself not discerning the Lords body For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep For if we would judge our selves we should not be judged In which words it is plain he refers to this scandalous abuse of theirs aggravating both the guilt and danger of it in words as high and dreadful as could well be thought on that thereby he might bring them to a dread of it and to the use of those means which he prescribes in order to the reforming of it This in short was the eating and drinking unworthily that the Apostle so sharply taxeth and God
'till they have a little better strengthened their good resolutions and tempers than to venture presently upon that service which they may abuse and profane by being false to the resolutions they take up and the promises which they make in it This is the case and to the scruple taken up upon it I return these three things in answer and satisfaction to it 1. That every man ought indeed to be true to his vows and promises as near as he can and when he hath taken up such a resolution and given his faith to God he ought to perform it and to do his utmost to stand to it It is certainly a dreadful fault to play fast and loose with God almighty to promise and never take any due care to perform what a man doth promise there is not a sadder instance of a loose careless trifling spirit than to be prodigal in our promises and niggardly in our payments of them to be forward upon all occasions to promise great things to God what reformed what good men we will become and be but yet to be regardless and careless afterwards whether we be such or not and never to apply our selves in earnest to make good what we have promised and to put our good purposes in execution 2. But yet Secondly a mans doing thus afterwards doth not make his Communicating in the Holy Sacrament to be eating and drinking unworthily in any proportion to what is intended in this Text. His having received the Holy Sacrament may aggravate the guilt of his after failure but that subsequent failure doth not so affect his precedent communicating as to render it eating and drinking thus unworthily if the purpose of the mind be then serious and sincere his receiving the Holy Sacrament is far enough from being unworthy or faulty and as I said his failing afterwards doth not affect it all But then do I consider what I say can that purpose of mind be sincere and serious which afterwards is not put in execution doth not a mans failing afterwards to make it good shew that he was perfidious and an hypocrite in making of it why no I say it doth not a man may be in earnest and sincere in making a promise and taking up a resolution and yet possibly fail of making it good afterwards his failing afterwards is no argument that he was not in earnest when he made it it is argument indeed of his carelesness and irresolution but it may arise from a thousand reasons besides his falsehood or hypocrisie when he made it Many a man in the time of affliction and sickness for example makes fair promises to God what he will be and what he will do if God please to spare him and this I doubt not really and in earnest and with a sincere purpose of mind at that time to be or to do as he promiseth and yet afterwards that sense of things may wear of and that purpose of mind abate and that specious promise may come finally to nothing but this is not because the man was not then really in earnest but because afterwards he is careless and trifling and easily led away with temptations that interfere with his former promise and purpose of mind And so I doubt not it may be and too often is with men when they come to the Holy Sacrament their pious purposes for that time may be sincere and in earnest and yet afterwards wear off and come to nothing 3. And therefore Thirdly I affirm a man in this case doth come with one great qualification which should attend his communicating in the Sacrament i. e. a purpose of repentance and reformation and which will most certainly secure him against all possibility of eating and drinking unworthily in the sense of this Text or any like it So that instead of staying away for fear that he should change his mind afterwards he ought I think the rather to come that he may not do so the great reason certainly lies on this side seeing there is not any better course that he can at present take to fasten his good purpose and to secure it of effect than this for by this means he will make his promise more solemn and affecting upon himself cause it to stick the deeper and closer upon his own thoughts and receive that grace most infallibly from God which if he be faithful and true unto his pious resolution will continue and he may be enabled to act according to the intention of it SECT VI. 4. I Add now a fourth thing worthy to be considered in order to our satisfaction in this inquiry viz. that whatever the sense of eating and drinking unworthily is in this Text or whatever men can think to be like it discerning the Lords body will secure them from it What discerning the Lords body means I have shewed already and I need repeat very little of it again it means these two things First putting a difference between the consecrated Elements and common Bread and Wine the looking upon the Holy Sacrament as an immediate duty and service of Religion and consequently performing it with that devotion and seriousness that reverence and respect that men use to shew in other services of Religion the want of this was the cause that made the Corinthians to eat unworthily and provoked God to punish them with sundry diseases and death as he afterwards tells them they did not make any difference between this and a common meal in their own Houses they did not take it to be any peculiar act of Religion they came intemperate and drunk to the Lords Table and therefore to be sure were far enough from that reverence and devotion that so sacred a service ought to have been performed with Secondly discerning the Lords body means something more not only to look upon this Holy Sacrament as a solemn and immediate act of Religion but as the Sacrament and immediate representation of Christs body i. e. his body broken and slain for the sins of the world and the Communicating therein to be the commemoration of his death and partaking in the blessed effects of it to look beyond the Elements to that which they are designed to signifie and Sacramentally are to look upon the bread not as common bread but the substitute of Christs body and the wine not as ordinary wine but the figure of his blood and so regarding the whole service both as the most devout and solemn commemoration of Christs death and passion for the expiation of our sins and partaking as truly and effectually in the benefits and blessings of his body and blood as if we did eat and drink that very body and blood themselves This is the great end of this service and the reason of our Lords institution of it and to discern the Lords body is to understand it so and look upon it as such which it is most certain these Corinthians were far from doing either so ignorant as not to understand the reason of
blessed it and brake it and gave to the Disciples saying take eat this is my body And he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying drink ye all of this for this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins Here it is plain the Sacrament is instituted by our Saviour and delivered to his Disciples with a command to eat and drink of it and you meet with the very same words Mark 14.22 23 24. In S. Luke the matter is something plainer where it is not only instituted by our Saviour as the others relate it but a command given for their doing it likewise after his death in remembrance of him Luk. 22.19 And he took bread and gave thanks and brake it and gave unto them saying this is my body which is given for you do this in remembrance of me And that it was not a command that injoyned the doing of this at that time only S. Paul shews clearly in 1 Cor. 11.23 24 25 26. where it is observable that he speaks of it as a thing which our Lord charged him also with as well as the other Apostles For I have received that of the Lord which I also delivered unto you that the Lord Jesus in the same night that 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 when he had supped saying this Cup is the New Testament in my blood this do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me for as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew the Lords death till he come I beseech men to consider what is said in all these places and then to say if any thing can be plainer if there ever was or could be a more plain command than this is do this in remembrance of me if this be not an express command never any was such and if we may disobey this at our pleasure I know not why we may not disobey all others as well 2. It is not only a command a positive institution that relies only upon the will and authority of Christ commanding it but upon a very great and good reason and is recommended upon an argument that shews it to be eternally reasonable and becoming Not only do this as S. Matthew and S. Mark speak but do this in remembrance of me as S. Luke and S. Paul relate the matter which the latter repeats again as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye shew the Lords death till he come These words make it to relie upon a reason that is both becoming and obliging also even until the final coming of our Lord to Judgment for nothing can be more reasonable and fit in it self than to keep up in the Christian Church the solemn and most grateful remembrance of Christs death and they that can think otherwise are unworthy to share in the benefits of it Besides the instituting of it to this end makes it perpetually obliging also I mean to the end of the world and as long as there shall be a Christian Church in it for so long it will be fit to keep up the memory of it and this reason will not only hold but improve and grow stronger in every succeeding age and period of the world in which the sense and memory of it will be in danger to expire and wear off so that every such age will rather have greater than lesser reason to keep up this solemn commemoration of it 3. To these intimations I may add one thing very considerable to our purpose from the practice of the Apostle and the circumstances of his discourse in this Chapter a learned Man hath taken notice of them before me so that I shall but just name them First that the Apostle takes so much pains to instruct the Corinthians in the right way of Communicating in the Holy Sacrament and to reform the profanation of it that they were guilty of Now can any man reasonably think that he would have done this if he had not looked upon it as a necessary duty tied upon Christians by Christs own command and institution Certainly no he that gives direction how to do a duty supposeth the obligation and necessity of it or else he speaks to little purpose And as that great Man speaks can any man think the way and manner of doing an action to be a duty and yet that action it self no duty this is not supposable And we may be sure the Apostle would never have spent so great a part of this Chapter in directing how to eat and drink how to order and prepare themselves for it but that he looked on it as a duty necessarily incumbent on them nor be so impertinent as to concern and busie himself in directing the circumstances of an action which was not necessary to be done but arbitrary and at their pleasure whether to do it or no. The second circumstance is what I observed before that he did this even when the Corinthians run a very great hazard and incurred a grand guilt by their profanation of this service and coming so unworthily to it Certainly had the Apostle looked upon this as any thing less than a necessary duty he would have gone another way to work with them he would have discoursed to them at another rate and have told them it were much the better and safer way to stay away from the Sacrament than incur so great guilt and punishment by coming so unworthily this would have been the advice that a great many Men now according to their principles would have given to them and indeed do give themselves and others too But it is evident the Apostle speaks not one word to this purpose nor knew of any warrant he had to do so he had no authority to grant them any indulgence or licence to stay away though they were apt to come so very unfitly He was to recommend it as a necessary duty and to press the serious and becoming observation of it but he had received no warrant from the Lord to dispense with that observation he would have them to look upon the Sacrament as a necessary standing service of their Religion to count it their duty to eat and drink and his province was only to direct them how they might do it acceptably and not to their condemnation These Considerations are sufficient to convince all Christians that this is a plain necessary indispensable duty instituted and intended by our Lord to be a standing service in his Church 'till his second coming to judge the world And its being so becomes one very good argument to our present purpose and a good foundation to superstruct the truth of our observation upon for that which is necessary must be done and the
the things that he prescribes in order to it 1. Of the first of these I have given account already and shewed that this crime of the Corinthians which he so sharply taxeth was a monstrous shameful disrespect and irreverence to the Holy Sacrament to which I shall only add that it was occasioned by these two precedent errors and miscarriages First their not discerning the Lords Body Secondly their intemperance in eating and drinking in the love-feast that preceded this Service 1. They did not discern the Lords Body they did not know or they did not consider that this was a solemn service of Religion and that there was a mystery in it they did not understand the reason of its institution that the Bread was Sacramentally the Body of Christ and the Wine in the same sense his Blood that both were to represent his Sufferings and Death and that our partaking of them was religiously to commemorate and gratefully to adore the love of God to sinners therein In plain terms as both the Sacramental Bread and Wine was part of what they had eaten and drank in the love-feast just before so they looked upon them to be still the same and but only a concluding morsel and a grace Cup with which that feast was to be ended for that as we ought to know was the common custom among the Jews and these Grecians too to conclude their feasts with a Loaf or small parcel of Bread of which every one took a little piece and a Glass or Bowl of Wine of which every one drank in token or in pledg of that unity and love that then was and afterwards should continue among the ghests that had then feasted together Now being so ignorant and uninstructed as it seems they were in the reason of the Holy Sacrament they might easily slip into this mistake and knowing that their former feast was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a feast of love and instituted to be a means of creating and continuing love among them they might easily take the Sacramental Bread and Wine being a portion of what they had eat and drank before to be but a tessera cheritatis such a pledge and token of love among them as was used at their other feasts This is the true state of this matter and it gives us one plain account of the irreverence and profanation of the Holy Sacrament which these persons were guilty of and how strange soever the thing may appear to us yet when these circumstances are considered the wonder ceaseth and the reason is plain 2. And yet this was not all nor the worst in this matter for their intemperance was worse than their ignorance and would more fatally prejudice their reverence and devotion intemperance in eating and drinking is the greatest hinderance of devotion possible and plain gluttony and drunkenness utterly inconsistent with it Now this you find the Apostle charging them roundly and plainly with at least the richer sort of them v. 21. one is hungry and another is drunk which though it may seem very strange and one would think incompetent to a Christian yet we have a plain account given us also how this happened For these love-feasts were upon a common stock to which every one contributed his single portion the poor you may well think could bring little or nothing but the rich brought more every Man saith the Apostle according to the ability which God had given And perhaps among these Corinthians than whom no Grecians were more vain proud every one might strive to exceed the other Now hitherto all was tolerably well only bating that some vanity might mingle with these contributions but here was the first fatal miscarriage these richer persons instead of casting in their symbols to the common stock feasted upon their own single portions and having much to eat and drink did eat and drink accordingly and commonly to that excess as to be downright drunk by that time they came to the Holy Sacrament which was always celebrated at the end of these feasts of such a portion of Bread and Wine as was separated out of the publick offertories Now coming to the Holy Sacrament in this sad condition no wonder if they profaned it indeed and shewed so little reverence and regard to it a drunken Man is every way as unfit for devotion as an ignorant Man can be but when Men are both these no irreverence can seem strange that they are guilty of These two things occasioned this terrible irreverence and profanation of the Holy Sacrament that our Apostle chargeth them with and from which these words are intended to reform and affright them for the future and by considering this we may surely collect what the great purpose of them was for as when we know a disease we can guess easily what the design of the Physick prescribed in cure of it is so by considering what the errror and miscarriage of these Corinthians was we may conclude what the design of the Apostle is in these words which he useth in remedy of it and therefore since the great fault of them consisted in their horrible irreverence and want of respect to this service we can assure our selves that what he intended was to reform that fault and bring them to that reverence and devotion that became a service of Religion and that so solemn too as he had instructed them the Holy Sacrament was So that since their eating and drinking so irreverently and profanely was that eating unworthily that he speaks of their doing this worthily would be by communicating with that Religion reverence and devotion that became a service so sacred as that was This I am confident is really the sense of these words and a true account of the Apostle's intent and meaning in them the consideration of which would be a great relief to scrupulous and timorous persons in this case and let them see how much others pervert and they themselves mistake the sense of this Text who conclude every error and miscarriage in communicating to be that eating and drinking unworthily which the Apostle so sharply blames and so severely threatens in these words I conclude by only adding this observation if eating and drinking irreverently and profanely be that eating and drinking unworthily which the Apostle means in this place then eating and drinking with that reverence and devotion that becomes such a service of Religion will set Men above the danger of that unworthiness and if to bring Men to this was the only thing he aimed at then Men do very ill to put other sences upon this Text and to fright themselves and others with the sound of words that do not concern them SECT I. THere is a second thing also I told you to confirm us in this account of the Apostle's meaning here and that is the phrase of the Text both that in which the Sin and the cause and the punishment of it too is expressed 1. The word expressing the Sin is unworthily
shall leap too far and never think himself removed enough from it till he sits down quite in the other extream The Nature of Man is sullen or impetuous and like a restive beast either unwilling to stir at all or to run away without any restraint or moderation and our spightful enemy is watchful and cunning and knows too well how to impose upon us It is indifferent to him in which extremity we fix since he knows both to be equally destructive to us and therefore he not only willingly permits but sometimes purposely pusheth on a transition from one to the other that he may the more effectually secure our destruction Since he not only gratifieth our humor and affectation of novelty and change thereby but cheats us into an opinion of being Converts and having quitted our sins when alas we have only shifted the Scene but the same act is continued still the same evil sticks close to us only it appears in another Garb and is acted in a differing instance There are not many instances in which all this is more unhappily visible at this day than in Mens deportment and carriage towards the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper from despising it on one hand Men come to dread it on the other and from thinking any preparation almost too much they come to believe that none is enough for it Time was when Christians crowded to this Holy repast as the Doves do to their own windows and the good Fathers of the Church were imployed in directing them how to come and not in perswading them to it heretofore want of due preparation was the crime but now neglect and contempt is the great guilt Men cannot have arguments against their coming unduly and unpreparedly to the Lords Table but they carry those arguments too far and make them to conclude against their coming at all That which S. Paul used as an argument to reform one Error among the Corinthians we have improved into an excuse of a worser among our selves and what he intended to shew the danger of coming amiss we make use of to fright our selves from coming at all Our duty lies in the middle and both these extremities are equally distant from it it is the latter of these which is the great distemper of this time and which this discourse is designed to endeavour the cure of and in order thereto to consider those words of S. Paul 1 Cor. 11.29 which sound so terribly to some men and which they have improved into so great an exception against coming to the Holy Sacrament for whosoever eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself not discerning the Lords Body From which words a great many Men have taken up a superstitious fear and dread to approach the Table of the Lord and from thence have fallen into an unchristian neglect and disregard of this service apprehending some extraordinary guilt would be contracted and some mighty danger incurr'd by any little failure in it above what may be feared or contracted in any of the other services of Religion though they do not perform them so well as they ought to do To this purpose you may hear them argue at this rate You see what a mighty great deal of preparation is necessary to our receiving the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper and that upon no less a hazard than eternal damnation you hear the Apostle saying expresly that whosoever eateth this Bread and drinketh this Cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord and eateth and drinketh damnation to himself And what now would you have us to do We are very sensible of our own infirmity and know too well how far we shall fall short after all our care of being worthy to ingage in such a sacred service of Religion or discharge it so worthily as we ought to do and therefore since we know this beforehand is it not much safer to sit still than to run so great a hazard choose rather not to eat and drink at all than to damn our selves by doing so unworthily This is really the case and these are the reasonings of too many men the great danger of eating and drinking unworthily frights them from this service and they chuse rather wholly to neglect their duty than to venture so great a stake upon the undertaking of it This is that error and fault of Men that I would vindicate these words of S. Paul from having any influence upon and I am very confident whether I can successfully do this or not the Apostle was far enough from any such intention or thought in them his meaning was only to direct to carefulness and reverence in doing this duty and by no means to discourage or fright Men from it In the prosecution of this design I have proposed to do these three things I. To give a plain though short account of the sense of these words II. Draw some general deductions from them which I judge proper to satisfie these fears of Men and take off those objections which they make against coming to the Holy Sacrament upon the reason of them III. To make some plain practical reflections upon the whole Argument CHAP. I. The first thing proposed in this Discourse is to give a plain Exposition of these Words to which purpose it will be necessary to consider the import of three Expressions in them 1. WHat is the true sense of eating and drinking unworthily in this place 2. What discerning or not discerning the Lords body means 3. What we are to understand by damnation and by eating and drinking damnation in this Text. By considering these we may perhaps gain something towards the understanding the true intent and meaning of the Apostle in this place and freeing our minds from those affrightments which men are fallen into from their mistaking of it 1. In order to the understanding the true meaning of eating and drinking unworthily it may not be unexpedient to consider what the signification of the word is in other places that secondly we may better know what there is to determine the sense of it in this place 1. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render unworthily may perhaps best be understood by considering what the signification and use of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is which it is the opposite unto Now though that do indeed signifie worthy in the strictest and most rigorous sense of worthy yet in the New Testament it is oftner used to signifie that which is fit and becoming or at least as often used in this sense as the other Thus to instance in a few places in Luke 3.8 bring forth fruits worthy of repentance that is such as are becoming repentance or as 't is rendered Mat. 3.8 meet for repentance in Rom. 8.18 for I reckon that the sufferings of this present world are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in Christ i. e. they are vastly
it or so grosly irreverent and careless as not to consider it for had they done either much more both they could hardly have been guilty of such profaneness or of eating and drinking unworthily as they did And that is what I would say in this period that whatever the sense of eating and drinking unworthily is in this place the discerning the Lords body will secure men from it and this I shall endeavour to make plain in these following considerations 1. The not discerning the Lords body is here made the reason of their eating and drinking unworthily this I have cleared already to be the reason both of the sin and punishment too from whence it is plain that discerning the Lords body would secure from both for if men eat and drink unworthily because they do not discern the Lords body then if they do discern it they will not eat unworthily for the old rule is true in morality as well as nature and will hold in this instance as well as others take away the cause and the effect will cease 2. But Secondly this appears clear in the nature of the thing for there is a direct and immediate vertue and power in discerning the Lords body to cause in men all those qualifications that render them meet for this service and sufficiently secure them from eating unworthily as the Corinthians did yea and from doing so in any sense like unto them For First in general if men discern the Lords body they will presently perceive that this is a most sacred solemn service of Religion and not any ordinary thing and by this will not only be admonished of that reverence and devotion that it ought to be performed with but strongly induced to it Men naturally have some sense of reverence and aw upon their minds when they are addressing themselves to devotion and when they ingage into the services of Religion And so they will have here also when they consider what a solemn service of Religion this is and hath always been esteemed to be in the Christian Church and truly they can hardly be otherwise if they have any sense of Religion or any dread of the Almighty upon their Spirits And Secondly if men discern the Lords body here so as to understand the special reason of this institution that it is to commemorate the mighty love of our Lord in dying for us that it is to be a religious solemn representation of his meritorious bitter death and passion for our sins they will find that it will even naturally beget in them repentance and faith and joy and charity and thankfulness and a very high sense of the love of God and Christ towards poor sinners These are the highest and meetest preparations for the Holy Sacrament and those qualifications that fit us for the receiving of it and the death of Christ is the highest argument and most powerful means of effecting these in men that God Almighty hath to offer or can use with them The Apostle seems to count it irresistible and such a one as cannot miss of effect upon men that consider it 2 Cor. 5.14 The love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then all were dead c. And truly if Men do thus judge if they do seriously reflect upon the transcendent and amazing love of Christ in dying for the salvation of sinners it will even constrain them to repentance and faith and love almost whether they will or no if the grace of God be irresistible in any argument of the Gospel it is certainly so in this and I will adventure to say it is so far so here that those are monsters of Men or they do not consider things as Men that can resist and defeat the effect of it So that the Holy Sacrament being so sensible a commemoration of this death the very visible representation of it the evident crucifying of Christ before our eyes as the Apostle speaks Gal. 3.1 the true discerning of it and of the Lords body in it will be of the same effect to produce all these things in us I appeal to the experiences of good men for the truth of what I say let them tell you what a mighty efficacy they find in the Holy Sacrament to this purpose and how powerfully they feel their hearts moved to these things by it and truly if we consider the natural causality of things we shall be inclined to think it almost impossible it should be otherwise let us consider them a little singly 1. As for repentance whether it imply sorrow for sin a sense of its mighty evil and danger and a resolution against it or all these together as indeed it doth what can effect this in me if the Holy Sacrament do not can I see the Lords body broken and his blood poured out as I do in the Holy Sacrament for sin and to make the great attonement to the divine justice for sin I say can I see this without a sorrowful reflection upon my own sins which had a hand in this suffering Or can I doubt what a mighty evil sin is which could not be expiated by a meaner sacrifice than the death and suffering of the Son of God or of how dangerous and insupportable effect that punishment must be which the Son of God could not bear without horror and astonishment without fainting and death or lastly can I consider all this without some resolution and purpose to reform from sin and to beware of that whose consequences and issues I see to be so dreadful and insupportable I am sure I cannot consider these things but they will have some effect upon my mind and I am sure if they have not I do not duely consider them 2. And as for faith whether it respect the gracious declarations or kind promises or terrible threatnings in the Gospel or all these can I doubt the truth of any of these when I see the son of God die to confirm it can I question whether God be gracious and ready to forgive sin when I see him exposing his own Son to death that he may with honor do so can I doubt his promises to all penitent sinners when I see the truth of them sealed in his Sons blood or can I think that the divine threatnings of wrath and vengeance against all impenitent wretches will not most certainly be executed on them when I see God inexorable to his own Son and letting him suffer and die rather than permit sin to pass unpunished In a word the whole Covenant that God hath made with man the new Covenant of grace and mercy which the Gospel is the joyful publication of is here as it used to be of old ratified and confirmed by blood and the blood too of the Son of God which is such an assurance and confirmation of its truth as can never fail us and beyond which our faith cannot desire a greater 3. And then as to a mighty sense of the
excuse against doing a duty which men have contracted by their own only fault and which with any competent care they may remove But because this is an argument that may afford some things very pertinent to be observed by men in this case I shall branch the purport of it into some distinct propositions which when I have confirm'd I shall briefly remark the influence that each hath upon the conclusion that I contend for I shall comprehend all I purpose to say in these four that follow 1. That men are in danger of eating and drinking unworthily is purely and solely their own fault so that they cannot be excused from eating upon the reason of it 2. This danger ought to be removed and care taken to put themselves into better circumstances otherwise it is wilful and affected and so instead of excusing their not eating it will highly aggravate the same 3. An ordinary competent endeavour and care with Gods grace may remove it so that upon that reason also their neglecting of it becomes highly culpable and inexcusable 4. Though men may have been careless and slipped their opportunity at one time yet they may and ought to use more care against another for pretences of continual unfitness or unworthiness cannot excuse them SECT I. THe first proposition is this this danger of eating and drinking unworthily in any sense of unworthiness like this in the Text is purely and solely mens own fault and therefore they cannot hope to be excused upon the reason of it I put the proposition here in the largest sense that can be desired and do not confine it only to the sense of eating and drinking unworthily intended in this Text. I believe I need not stay proving that the Corinthians fact was a gross and inexcusable fault owing to their own ignorance and intemperance nor that any Christian that should be guilty of the like now were more inexcusable than they This will readily be acknowledged by any that considers what hath been said before viz. that all Christians are in such circumstances now and so fully instructed in the nature and design of this service that such a profanation of it now would become the most impardonable thing in the world But therefore I propose the case more indefinitely let what men please to think eating and drinking unworthily in any proportion to this in the Text be allowed to be so yet still I say this is owing purely to their own fault if it be upon them and incurred solely by their own carelesness There are I confess some little imperfections and failings incident to men which it may be their utmost industry and care while in this lapsed state cannot get free from but these are such as need not come into our present account for they neither put mens persons out of Gods merciful favour nor their services out of his gracious acceptance These shall never be put upon our account but pardoned upon the merits of our dear Saviour and that general repentance which God hath promised to accept in that covenant of mercy and grace which he hath sealed to us in his blood But over and beyond these whatever we can think brings us into the danger of eating unworthily it is occasioned only by our selves and our own fault As for example let it be the looseness and unholiness of mens lives their impenitence uncharitableness worldly mindedness intemperance sensuality or their being disturbed and cumbred with the business and cares of this life or any other vice whatsoever in proportion to these yet surely all these are our own guilts and we have none but our selves to charge them upon I know too well how forward men are to excuse their faults and willing to transfer their guilts upon something beside themselves but besides that at the great day all mouths will be stopped and all vicious men become palpably and inexcusably guilty before God I say beside this I never yet saw the man whom I could not make sensible of his own interest in his crimes and whose own mind hath not convinced him that he might have done better Were our transgressions necessary and unavoidable they were not sins for necessity is subject to no law and where there is no law there is no transgression and to argue that men cannot but do amiss is to argue them innocent in doing so for what men cannot avoid they cannot help and where there is no liberty and choice there is no more sin than there is in a stone that falls down and kills a man. It will not seem perhaps very pertinent or proper here to reflect upon the doctrines that have given men any reason or encouragement to think otherwise of their crimes I look upon them but as so many desperate shifts that men have been put upon to shake off the remorse and anguish of their own accusing minds the uneasiness of which hath made them willing to charge every thing yea God himself rather than endure the torment of their own reflections such for instance is the doctrin of absolute fatal irresistable decrees in God by which some men are concluded under an inevitable necessity of sining the irresistable inclinations of humane nature to sin the insuperableness of those temptations to evil that are continually urging and solliciting of us These are doctrins that are either plain blasphemy against God or impardonable reflections upon his justice or the high'st affronts to his grace in derogating from the sufficiency of it I am sure God is holy and cannot tempt any man to sin much less force and necessitate him to it and how urging soever the inclinations of nature or importunate the temptations to sin may be yet the divine grace is stronger and sufficient if men be true to it to enable them to surmount both and I appeal to the experiences of men whether they do not feel their own minds sting and gird and convince them they might have done better than they do So that after all the endeavors and wrestlings of men in this case and after all the doctrins that others have propagated to help them in them men must lay their hands upon their mouth and take the guilt and shame of their sins upon themselves only and I think most assuredly that man would sin grievously and make the heap of his guilts much greater that should not confess sincerely that whatever was amiss with him or done so by him was purely and solely his own trespass and fault Now if this be so and whatever danger we can be in of eating unworthily must be cast only upon our selves and must be acknowledged our own indiscretion and folly only then it will undeniably follow that it cannot be a sufficient excuse for not coming to eat in the Holy Sacrament for I hope men do not think that one fault can excuse or attone for another nor imagine that because by one sin they have brought themselves into an unfitness for their duty that therefore all the