a most awful one and therefore not to be perform'd with disrespect and an irreverent Carriage So that we must be careful both to partake of this Holy Feast when we are called to it and to come to it worthily when we do And this St. Paul prescribes concerning it 1 Cor. 11. Let a man examine himself says he and so let him eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup. v. 28. Let a man examine himself i. e. let him approve himself as the word here rendered examin signifies v. 19 and Chap. 16. v. 3 let him so long try his fitness for it till he see cause to like and approve himself and think he is worthy of it for he would not call unworthy Receivers to the Sacrament but drive them from it as he doth by telling them the extream danger of it v. 27 29. But when once he is so approved and fit to come to it then says he let him not forbear the Feast but hasten to partake in it Let him eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup. Thus are both a careless Forbearance and an indecent unworthy Vsage of this Holy Feast great Indignities to our Blessed Lord and criminal Violations of it It suffers on either hand so that to secure it in its just esteem and due observance both are carefully to be removed And to do what Right I can to this Holy Ordinance and what Service I am able to all such as shall seek help from this Treatise I shall endeavour what in me lies to cure or prevent both in that which follows Now to do this with the greater clearness in Discoursing upon this Subject I shall do these five things 1 st I shall shew What is the meaning of eating Bread and drinking Wine in the Blessed Sacrament 2ly Wherein lies the worthiness of doing it 3ly How much it is every good Christians Duty to frequent it 4ly What great inducements we have to it and how great the Benefits are that come by it which should make us press to it of our selves though it were not commanded 5ly I shall consider those Excuses and take off those Pleas which are most usually made against it And when all this is done I think I shall have said enough both to invite and press men to this Feast and also to a worthy partaking of it that so they may come to it when they are invited and be welcome and worthy Guests when they do PART I. The meaning of Feasting in the Sacrament CHAP. I. Of the meaning of our eating and drinking in the Sacrament The Contents Three Ends of Feasting in the Lords Supper 1 End is in Remembrance and Commemoration of our Saviour Christ and of his dying for us To remember him is not barely to call to mind that once there was such a Person but to think of his particular Quality and Relation to us which are worth remembring as of his being our most Faithful Teacher our most gracious Governour our most intire Friend and noble Benefactor These things usually commemorated by Festivals 2 End is in confirmation of the New Covenant which his Death purchased for us An account of the New Covenant Christs Death purchased it It is ratified in the Holy Sacrament which is shown from the same thing being done in Baptism Circumcision and the Passover which answered to it more particularly 1. From the Words of Institution wherein the Cup is call'd the New Covenant and we are bid to drink of it which was a Covenant-Rite and the Bread Christs Body to the same intent the Paschal Lamb was which was a Federal Conveyance of it 2. From its being a Feast or Sacrifice for Sacrifice is one way of Covenanting with God and by Feasting on it we partake of it 3. From its conveying the particular Blessings of the New Covenant which otherwise than by Federal Promises or Performances are not to be had 3 End is in Ratification of a League of Love and Friendship with those Brethren that Communicate with us and with all others This Chapter summ'd up FIrst I shall shew what is the meaning of eating Bread and drinking Wine in the Blessed Sacrament and what we are to understand by them and think of them when we do them When we come to eat Bread and drink Wine in the Holy Sacrament we must not come only for a Bodily refreshment or for eating and drinkings sake as we do to our common Food For this is to eat as St. Paul says not discerning the Lords Body but as if it were bare ordinary Meat 1 Cor. 11.29 But we must eat and drink with special ends and particular Intentions which may render our eating and drinking not an ordinary Repast but a Religious Feasting upon the Body and Blood of our Lord. And these ends are three 1 st In Remembrance and Commemoration of our Saviour Christ and of his dying for us 2 ly In Confirmation of the New Covenant which his Death procured us 3 ly In Ratification of a League of Love and Friendship with those Brethren that Communicate with us and with all others First We must eat Bread and drink Wine in Remembrance and Commemoratioâ— of our Saviour Christ and of his dying for us By these Actions we must be put in remembrance and call to mind our selves and commemorate or tell it out to others what a good Friend and Saviour Christ has been to us and how at last he died and gave his own Hearts Blood for our sakes And this our Blessed Lord expresly ordered at the time of Institution This do says he both of the eating Bread and drinking Wine in remembrance of me 1 Cor. 11.24 25. To Remember one is not barely to call to mind that once there was such a Person but also to think of their particular Quality and Relation what they are to us or what they have left with us or what they have done for us which is worth Remembring If we bid a Servant remember us we intend he should be mindful of the Commands which we have left with him if a Friend that he should bear in mind the Great Love and Faithfulness which we have always expressed towards him if one we have highly obliged that he should gratefully resent and think of the kindnesses which we have done him or if one lastly whose favour we desire and of whom we have requested any thing that he would be mindful of the Good turn which he promises to do or which we ask of him In desiring any of these or any others to remember us we mean not barely that they should call to mind how once there were such men as we in being but over and above that that they be particularly mindful of the Relation wherein we stand and think of what we have done what we deserve or what we desire or expect from them And this our Blessed Lord intends when in this Holy Feast he Desires and Commands us to remember him He would have
entred and established by it Exod. 24.3 4 5 6 7 8. And thus he did in other Compacts but particularly in all those wherein he promised Pardon of Sin for without shedding of Blood i. e. of some Sacrifice says the Apostle there is no Remission Heb. 9.22 Thus did God in all Contracts of Pardon and Reconciliation require the Blood of some Sacrifâ—ce that therein he might ratifie and confirm them And this was the great Use whereto all Sacrifices of Expâ—ation such as our Saviour Christs is in most signal manner whereon we Feast in the Lords Supper served among the Jews they were solemn Compacts and Stipulations wherein he promised Pardon and they Amendment after any Offences He ingaged to accept the Life of the sacrificed Beast in lieu of theirs and to exempt them because it had suffered and they engaged to amend the Fault which they sought to have atoned and never more to repeat it This 't is plain they did from that Form of Penitential Confession in use among them when they brought an Expiatory Sacrifice to the Lord O Lord I have sinned and dealt wickedly and rebelled against thee in doing this or that now I am sorry for it and ashamed of it and will never more return to it and therefore beg this Sacrifice may atone for it And if they had not thus repented of it the Sacrifice would have been of no avail to the Forgiveness of it For to what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices unto me saith the Lord so long as you shew no Repentance with them But wash you make you clean cease to do evil learn to do well Come now and let us reason together tho' your Sins be as Scarlet they shall be as white as Snow Isa. 1.11 16 17 18. The Sacrifices of God says the Psalmist are a broken Spirit i. e. they must be offered and presented with it a broken and a contrite Heart O God thou wilt not despise Ps. 51.17 Thus were Sacrifices a mutual Stipulation and Engagement consisting of a Promise of Pardon on Gods part and a Promise of Repentance and Amendment on Mans so that they were in the nature of a virtual Contract and Covenant between them And this God plainly intimates concerning them when he tells of his Saints making a Covenant with him by Sacrifice Gather my Saints saith he who have made a Covenant with me by Sacrifice Ps. 50.5 and calls Salt wherewith every Oblation of Meat-offering was to be seasoned the Salt of the Covenant because it was to season all those Sacrifices wherein the Covenant was confirmed Levit. 2.13 And as Sacrifice is one way of Covenanting with God so is Feasting upon it the way of sharing and partaking in it He who joyned in the Feast was looked upon by God himself to joyn also in the Offering to promise all the Duty which it engaged and to partake in all the Blessings which it procured for them They which eat of the Sacrifices says St. Paul are Partakers of the Altar 1 Cor. 10.18 And therefore he forbids them to joyn in the Gentile Feasts where they sacrificed to Devils because that were to partake and have Fellowship with Devils v. 20 21. And thus from this also viz. the Lords Supper being a Feast on Sacrifice it appears to be a Federal Rite because Sacrifice is the great way of Covenanting with God and by Feasting on it we joyn in and partake of it In eating Bread and drinking Wine at the Lords Table agreeably to what the Jews and Gentiles did at their Religious Feasts we feed on the Sacrifice of Christ and that Sacrifice confirmed the New Covenant with Almighty God that being as he says sealed in his Blood so that by our Feasting on it we are made to share in it and give our full Consent thereto 3 ly That our Eating and Drinking at the Lord's Table is a Covenant-Rite appears from all the particular Blessings of the Covenant being conveyed by it which otherwise than by Federal Promises and Performances are not to be had The Particular Blessings promised in the Covenant I say are all conveyed by it Our Saviour tells us of the Bread we eat and of the Wine we drink that they are his Body and Blood This is my Body says he and this is my Blood of the New Testament Mat. 26.26 28. By which altho' we are not to understand that they are so in their Natures yet the least we can understand is that they are so in their Effects i. e. that they convey to us all those Blessings which the piercing of his Body and the shedding of his Blood procured for us Those Blessings are contained in the New Covenant and as I said are chiefly these three viz. the Forgiveness of Sins the Assistance of Gods Spirit to aid and strengthen us and Eternal Life and Happiness and all these the Eating of Bread and Drinking Wine in the Holy Sacrament are designed to convey to us They convey to us Forgiveness of Sins and assure us when we perform them as we ought that God is in Favour and at Peace with us Of this we have sufficient Assurance because we Feast upon a Sacrifice which is Gods Meat and are entertained at his own Table as his Guests whom he has invited and the least which that can mean is that he admits us into a State of Love and Friendliness since we do not invite those we will not be Friends with to our own Tables When any one calls another to a Treat it is a plain Sign he either would be or is or at least makes shew of being reconciled It is a most Natural Sign and now every where is and always was a Note of Friendship and Endearment And as such the Scriptures are wont to speak of it When those whom he had shut out should knock at the door to be let in and claim Acquaintance our Saviour tells us they will say to him We have eaten and drunk in thy presence Luc. 13.25 26. And when he shews his Apostles how high Favour and what great Interest they shall have with him he tells them they shall eat and drink at his Table in his Kingdom Luc. 22.29 30. And when he declares how kind he will be to those that hear his voice and open unto him he â—ays he will come in and sup with them and they wâ—th him Rev. 3.20 So that when God entertains us at his own Table and invites us to Feast with him as he doth in the Holy Communion we may be sure if we come worthily as we ought he is in Friendship with us and our Sins are forgiven And this our Saviour plainly intimates when he tells us at the giving of the Cup that it is his Blood shed for the Remission of Sins and bids us drink of it that so we may have it in our selves and be assured we have received the Atonement And this we must observe is a Privilege which God never
vouchsafed to the Jews no not to the Priests themselves for in all their Sacrifices he would never give them the Blood of Expiation to assure them of their Sins being atoned by it nay nor the Flesh neither in the Great Sacrifice of Expiation which was burnt without the Camp but ordered it always to be poured out upon the Altar or the Ground Exod. 29.12 Levit. 4.25 30 34. And to this 't is like St. Paul may have respect when he tells the Hebrews We have an Altar whereof they have no right to eat who serve the Tabernacle Heb. 13.10 11. They convey to us also the Assistance of Gods Spirit and Grace to aid and strengthen us This is intimated by our Saviour Christ when he calls his Flesh which all must eat i. e. not in its Natural Substance but in its Effects or those Blessings which were purchased by it by the Name of Bread which is a thing that as the Psalmist says strengthens mans heart and gives Nourishment and Support to us I am the living Bread says he which came down from Heaven If any man eat of this Bread he shall live for ever and the Bread which I will give is my Flesh which I will give for the Life of the World Joh. 6.51 In the Sacrament we are called to eat Christs Flesh and drink his Blood not in their Natural Substances as I have hinted but in their Effects and he that eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood saith he dwelleth in me and I in him and when Christ dwells in any Man his Spirit dwells there too so that he cannot want Grace sufficient to assist him Joh. 6.56 And St. Paul alluding to the Power of Wine whose Natural Vertue is to enspirit and enliven Men says That in the Eucharist we are all made to drink into one Spirit i. e. we are all made to share in the same Holy Spirit which is the same to our Souls that a Draught of Wine is to our Bodies a Principle of New Life Strength and Vigour in us 1 Cor. 12.13 They convey to us lastly a Right and Title to Eternal Life and Happiness The Blessed Sacrament was thought anciently to have a peculiar Efficacy in preparing our Bodies for an Immortal State Thus Irenaeus says of it As the Bread that springs from the Earth after it is blessed is not Common Bread but the Eucharist consisting of an Earthly and an Heavenly Part i. e. the Sensible Sign and the Spiritual Thing signified so our Bodies receiving the Communion are not now corruptible as they were before but are put in hope of a Resurrection And St. Ignatius calls it the Medicine of Immortality which is an Antidote to preserve Men from Dying and give them a Life that is Everlasting And to this as 't is not unlike the Prayer at the giving of the Bread and Wine refers That they may preserve our Souls and Bodies to everlasting Life as it was long since in the Form of the Western Church and as it is still in use amongst us But whatever becomes of that Conceit viz. it s preparing our Bodies for it 't is plain that a Right to Life and Immortality is conferred by it Whoso eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood saith our Saviour hath Eternal Life and I will raise him up at the last day Joh. 6.54 and again He that eateth of this Bread shall live for ever v. 58. And if he had not in express Words declared it in all Equity and Reason this might most justly have been presumed For since in this Sacrament God gives us the Body and Blood of his own Son than which nothing can be dearer to him we may justly argue as St. Paul doth and say He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up both for and to us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things Rom. 8.32 Thus are all the Particular Blessings of the New Covenant which Christs Blood has purchased and which God has promised and made over in it conveyed to us in this Holy Sacrament And since they are so it must needs be a Federal Rite and a Solemn Ceremony of Covenantin◠with God because otherwise than 〈◊〉 Federal Performances and Engagements 〈◊〉 are not to be had God has suspended all these Benefits upon our Performance of certain Conditions so that we cannot have them conveyed to us on his part otherwise than by undertaking at the same time for these on our own He will not forgive any Believers their Sins unless they repent of them nor help them to any Graces unless they endeavour after them nor reward them at last with Eternal Life unless they have intirely obeyed him as we have already seen And therefore wheresoever those are bestowed these are either performed or sincerely promised too So that from this Reason also it appears that the Sacrament is a Federal Rite and a Ratification of the New Covenant and of our Baptismal Ingagement because all the Blessings of that Covenant are conveyed by it which otherwise than by Federal Performances or Engagements are not to be had And thus we see upon all these accounts that the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is intended not onely for a Remembrance of the Death of Christ but also for a Renewal and Ratification of the New Covenant which was purchased by it For so much the General Nature of Sacraments which are Covenant-Rites of Baptism which goes hand in hand with it and of the Passover which preceded and answered to it do fairly intimate and so much also the Words of Institution at the Blessing both the Bread and Wine declare and its being a Feast on Sacrifice infers and its conveying all the Blessings of the Covenant proves concerning it And this is the second End of our Eating Bread and Drinking Wine in the Holy Sacrament namely to renew our Baptismal Vow and in most solemn sort to confirm the New Covenant with Almighty God So that when we come to remember our Saviour Christ in this Feast we must come also to give and receive Engagements with our Blessed Lord promising that we will believe all his Words and endeavour after all Virtues and obey all his Laws and repent of all our Faults and then hoping assuredly that his Mercy shall forgive us his Grace and Spirit assist us and his Bounty reward us with Eternal Happiness when we do But besides these Ends of its being in Remembrance of Christ and his Dying for us and in confirmation of the New Covenant which his Death procured us there is yet another 3 ly And that is in Ratification of a League of Love and Friendship with those Brethren that Communicate with us and with all others Eating and Drinking together at the same Table and joyning in the same Feast was always a Note of Friendship and a Profession of Love and Kindness among Men. It is the common way of the World to compose Differences to keep up
Friendliness in Neighbourhoods and to beget Endearment and mutual Love in all Fraternities And this our Saviour intended it should be among us He invites us all to eat of the same Loaf and to Feast at the same Table that we may embrace as Friends and love as Brethren and be knit together in the same Fellowship and Communion We being many says St. Paul are one Bread and one Body for in the Sacrament we are all Partakers of that one Bread which is a firm Bond of Union to make us one also 1 Cor. 10.17 It links us together by the most Powerful Arguments of our being Servants of the same Lord and Sharers in the same Privileges and Members of the same Body which are all most strong Motives to Peace and mutual Kindness and besides all this by our own Solemn Covenant and Engagement also For in coming to this Feast we are not onely excited to it by mighty Reasons which suggest it but are to Covenant and Promise Love to all our Brethren and to plight our Troth for it And thus the Primitive Christians understood it and accordingly made use of it whose Judgment and Practice in this Point were so apparent that the Heathens themselves who looked any thing into their Religion took notice of it For Pliny in his Letter to the Emperour Trajan wherein he gives an Account of the Christians Meetings reports their Communicating to be a Religious Compact and Combination among themselves to do no hurt to each other but to love as Brethren and live as Friends together They assemble early in the morning says he and sing an Hymn to Christ as God and then bind themselves mutually in their Sacrament which is a sacred Oath not to commit any wickedness like a pack of lewd Conspirators but to be no Thieves Adulterers Injurious False and Perfidious Persons and having done these things and given these Assurances of mutual Honesty and Kindnesses to each other they depart home and meet again at a promiscuous and Friendly Treat where they innocently Feast together This then is a third End of our Eating Bread and Drinking Wine in the Holy Sacrament namely to be a Solemn Profession of our Communion and Fellowship with our Brethren and an Engagement of mutual Love and Friendship to those who Communicate with us and to all others So that when we come therein to remember our Saviour Christ and to confirm the New Covenant with Almighty God we must enter into a League of Love with all our Brethren and promise an inviolable Friendship unto them too And thus we see what is the meaning of Eating Bread and Drinking Wine in the Holy Communion and what we must intend and understand by them that we may as the Apostle says discern the Lords Body in them When we Eat Bread and Drink Wine according to Christs appointment we must fix our thoughts upon him and remember what Love and Friendship he had for us what Lessons as our faithful Guide and Instructor he has taught us what Commands as our Lord and Master he has left with us and what inexpressible Things as our most Precious Saviour and Benefactor he has done for us in being made Man and leading a mean and necessitous Life but above all in dying a most ignominious and painful Death for our sakes and that he might purchase us the Favour of God the Graces of the Spirit and Eternal Happiness We must renew that Engagement which we made when we were Baptized and confirm again that New Covenant with Almighty God which his Blood procured professing that we do and will believe his Word and repent of every Fault and endeavour with his Spirit and obey all not wilfully transgressing any Commandment that so we may have Right to that Forgiveness Grace and Happiness which upon these Terms he has purchased And lastly we must confirm a League of Love and Friendship with all our Brethren professing that we do and will forgive all that injure us and be kind to all about us and never fall into Hatred or cause Difference with any Persons but be at Peace and live in Charity with all the World The Bodily Eating is but the out-side and the least part in this Feast but the chief thing required is this Spiritual Work and Business which is to accompany it So that when our Saviour Christ calls us to Eat and Drink at his own Table he calls us not barely to Feast our Bodies for that is the least thing that he intends but chiefly and principally to employ our Souls in remembring him his Laws and Benefits and among them above all that of his Dying for us in confirming the New Covenant with God and a Covenant of Peace and Brotherly Love with his Members throughout all Mankind CHAP. II. Of the Worthiness of Communicating in the Sacrament The Contents To Communicate Worthily is to do it with such Tempers and Behaviour as are worthy of it and becoming the Things which are meant by it The First End was to remember Christ both first As our Lord and Master which calls for Honour and Reverence in our selves and a Care to maintain his Honour among others For mindfulness of his Commands and Resolutions of Obedience 2. As our most kind Friend and Benefactor which calls for Love and an hearty Affection for him For Joy and Gladness in what we receive from him For Thankfulness for all his Kindnesses particularly in Dying for us And as this Death was a Sacrifice for our Sins the Remembrance of it calls for a deep sense of our own Vnworthiness An utter Abhorrence of our Sins which caused his Sufferings A Resignation of our selves to his Vse as thereby we are become his own Purchase The Second End was to confirm the New Covenant with God which his Blood procured This calls for Sincerity and Faithfulness A Third End was to confirm a League of Love and Friendship with all Christians This calls for Peace and Charity to all Persons and particularly for Alms to the Necessitous A Summary Repetition of these Qualifications A Belief of these Things which carries us on to these Tempers and Performances is the Faith that makes us Worthy Communicants HAving shewn hitherto what is the meaning of Eating Bread and Drinking Wine in the Blessed Sacrament I proceed now in the next place to shew wherein lies the Worthiness of Doing it And this had need be clearly stated not onely because the most considerable Scruple against Communicating lies in it but also because really 't is a Matter of great account and there hangs a great weight upon it For he that eats and drinks unworthily says the Apostle commits a Damning Sin which will destroy him unless he repent of it he eats and drinks Damnation to himself 1 Cor. 11.29 and is guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord v. 27. Now to Do this Worthily is to Do it with such Tempers and Dispositions as become it and are worthy of it For this
Numerous Expensive and Laborious Jewish Precepts so that out of Natural Equity and to shew our Thankfulness for such a gainful Exchange we ought most readily to observe it The Jews were loaded with a Number of Troublesome and Expensive Rites which had no Goodness discernable in themselves nor any thing but the Revelation made by Moses to recommend them to their Consciences Such as the forbearing Swine and several sorts of Flesh the washing of their Bodies upon their touching of any Dead Persons and upon any Corporal Vncleannesses the bringing Offerings and Sacrifice of Fed Beasts at return of Thanks and for Propitiation upon any Offences and many other cumbersome and costly Rites which the Apostle calls the Law of Carnal Commandments Heb. 7.16 and 9.10 and weak and beggerly Elements Gal. 4.9 which were given them not because the things deserv'd it but only that they might be kept imploy'd as useless Exercises are to Children to hinder them from more hurtful Work and so were suited only to the Infancy and Non-age of the World Gal. 4.3 But from all this Burden of Ceremonies under which as St. Peter says they and their Fathers groaned and were oppressed Act. 15.10 by the coming of Christ we are most graciously delivered For he has abolish'd in his Flesh i. e. by his Death wherein he gave his Body for us the Law of Commandments contain'd in Ordinances Eph. 2.15 He has blotted out the hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us hedging in the Church within the Jews and excluding all us Gentiles and took it out of the way nailing it to his Cross Col. 2.14 All this Law of Jewish Ceremonies he has abrogated and procured us a compleat liberty and exemption from it injoining us only thâ—se two cheap and easie Rites of Baptism and the Lords Supper instead of it And if any man has but Common Ingenuity and will return Equitably for what is done and much more if he has any grateful Resentments for so valuable an Exemption he must needs submit with all Thankfulness to this gainful Exchange and Imposition and run to it with as much forwardness as any man would to pay Twelve pence in full Discharge of twenty pound 3 ly It was his Dying and last Command he gave it the very Night before he suffered The same night says St. Paul in which he was betray'd he took Bread and said Take eat this do in remembrance of me 1 Cor. 11.23 24. And this had it come only in the Nature of a Request and not with the Authority of a Command must needs have made it of greatest Power with us For it is great Inhumanity and shews an hard Heart to deny the last Suit of a Dying Person though he were a Stranger to us and base Ingratitude and a Falsification of all Friendship to throw back the last Request of a Dying Friend especially if he is before hand with us and has done much more than his Request comes to for our sakes and the greatest aggravation of all Disobedience to sleight the last Will and Words of our Fathers or Masters or others that have Right over us and Power to Command us And therefore since our Blessed Lord who came upon Earth for no other end but to do us Service yea even to lay down his Life for our sakes after all the Pains and Cost he has been at for us left this as his last Will and both intreated and injoyn'd at parting that we should eat and drink in Remembrance of him if we have any shame we cannot and if we profess any Duty we dare not and if we have any Love for him we will not neglect it but come to it out of mindfulness of our gone Friend and Departed Lord as oft as we shall have opportunity so to do 4 ly It was thought by Christ a Command so material that when St. Paul received his Commission to Preach the Gospel it was by name inserted and particularly specified and this special Designation of it shews that he was more than ordinarily concerned for it I have received of the Lord says he or by his Revelation when I was call'd by him that which I also delivered unto you as from him namely that the same night he was betrayed he took Bread and said Take eat this is my Body which is broken for you this do in remembrance of me 1 Cor. 11.23 24. 5 ly It is a Command which as the Scripture plainly intimates without great danger to our selves cannot either be unworthily kept or neglected Without very great and apparent danger to our selves we cannot come Vnworthily to the Sacrament For he that eats and drinks unworthily says St. Paul eats and drinks Damnation to himself 1 Cor. 11.29 And without a like danger we cannot neglect or keep back from it Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man says our Saviour and drink his Blood ye have no Life in you Joh. 6.53 This the Ancient Church as is well known understood generally of eating his Flesh in the Holy Sacrament which is the great Reason they give for that Practice so common among them namely why Infants are to be Communicated And of this there is great cause to understand it For 't is hard to think of any thing that can support such full Expressions as eating of his Body and drinking of his Blood besides eating Bread and drinking Wine in the Sacrament which he calls his Body and his Blood when he institutes it Mat. 26.26 27 28. And besides in this very place he directs us to his Body Crucified and given for the Life of the World to shew the Eating relates to it as so represented which is no where done but in the Eucharist I am the living Bread says he which whoso eats shall live for ever and the Bread which I will give i. e. to be eaten is my Body Crucified which under that Notion is represented only in the Sacrament or my Flesh which I will give for the Life of the World And except ye thus eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of the Son of Man ye have no Life in you Joh. 6.51 52 53. This Discourse indeed of eating his Flesh in the Sacrament was before the Sacrament it self was instituted But so was his Discourse of Baptism to Nicodemus before Baptism was appointed for the standing Rite whereby all Mankind should be Christned Joh. 3.5 And so was his Discourse to the People of the Death he should dye by being lifted up before he was Crucified Joh. 12.32 33. And so was his Discourse of raising up the Temple of his Body after it should be destroyed before he was raised from the dead Joh. 2.19.21 And so in this very place was his Discourse of giving his Flesh for the Life of the World which they understood not before he suffered more than they did this Sacramental eating of it before the Sacrament was appointed Joh. 6.51 Our Saviour spake several
things by Anticipation in sundry places as from this last instance 't is plain he did in this which though his Hearers did not at that time fully understand yet they would afterwards so that when other Reasons evince him to have spoke in this place of the Sacramental eating of his Body and Blood the Sacrament's not being yet instituted is no good Proof or Argument against it Thus is this necessity of eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood as ever we would hope for Eternal Life by it spoke of the Lords Supper wherein we Feast upon it And that it should be so has no wonder in it For it is no more than is expresly spoke of Baptism which is but of equal Rank with it both being alike Duties and equally required For of that 't is said He that Believes and is Baptized shall be saved Marc. 16.16 And except a man be born again of Water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Joh. 3.5 But besides this Proof of the danger of neglecting the Sacrament because our Lord tells us we have no Life in us without it it may also appear from the danger of neglecting the Jewish Passover which answer'd to it and was the same to them as this Feast is to us wherein Christ our Passover is Sacrificed for us And as for the danger of neglecting that it was great indeed no less than of being cut off from Israel which was the punishment God had threatned to it Whosoever in the Feast of the Passover eats leaven'd Bread from the First day to the Seventh day that Soul shall be cut off from Israel Exod. 12.15 Thus necessary is it for all men who would please God to frequent this Ordinance and to come to the Holy Sacrament when they are call'd to it They have Christs express Command for it who by injoyning it has required Obedience in such an instance as best shews their particular Reverence and Love to him and to ingage them the more to it has freed them from all the load of Jewish Ceremonies and imposed no heavier burden than it and Baptism instead of them and to make it have the more effect has left it among the last words which he spake to them and to shew it was a matter of no small moment would have it expresly specified in St. Paul 's Commission and tells them That unless they come therein to eat his Flesh and drink his Blood they have no Life in them and will punish the neglect or abuse of it as he did of the Jewish Passover which answer'd to it with Excision All which shew the Greatness of the Duty and how much it is every mans Concern who would hope to have the Favour of God or go to Heaven And as this appears from the obliging Import and Expressness of the Command about it so doth it 2 ly From the obliging Nature of those things which are meant by it For therein we publickly own Christ and his Religion and solemnly remember him and confirm the New Covenant with Almighty God and a League of Friendship with our Brethren and are vouchsafed the highest Honour and receive Tokens of the greatest Love and injoyment of present Graces and Pledges of future Glories from him all which no Ingenuous man will and no Good man ought to refuse when he is call'd to them 1 st In the Sacrament I say we publickly own Christ and profess his Religion This was always understood to be the meaning of Feasts on Sacrifices both among Jews and Gentiles they that would eat of the Sacrifice offer'd to any God or Idol were looked on to have Fellowship and Communion with him and thereby to own their joyning in that Worship and Service which was paid to him Thus St. Paul tells us it was among the Jews for they that ate of their Sacrifices were partakers of their Altars And thus he tells us it was among the Gentiles and that they who Feasted in the Idol-Temples on the Sacrifices made to Devils did thereby declare their Communion with them and had Fellowship with Devils And the same is true of the Feast of the Lords Supper which upon this account he makes parallel to and compares with them In Israel after the Flesh says he they who eat of the Sacrifice are sharers in the Worship or Partakers of the Altar And in the things which the Gentiles Sacrifice to Devils they who Feast on the Sacrifices have Fellowship with Devils And therefore you that Feast with the Lord at his Table and thereby have Fellowship with him must not mix Light and Darkness Christ and Belial together and by Feasting with Devils at theirs have Fellowship with them too You cannot drink the Cup of the Lord and the Cup of Devils you cannot be partakers of the Lords Table and the Table of Devils since that were to unite the most opposite Interests by holding Fellowship and professing your selves to be the Servants of Christ and of the Devil also 1 Cor. 10.16 18 20 21. Our joyning in the Holy Communion is our avow'd owning of Faith in our Crucified Lord and of our adherence to him By eating at his Table of broken Bread and Wine poured out which are the Representation of his Death we tell it out to all the World that we are the Servants of that Lord and Worshippers of that Jesus who gave himself to be Crucified and to Dye for us As often as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup saith St. Paul ye do shew forth the Lords Death till he come Ye shew forth his Death i. e. ye tell it abroad and profess to all the World that he dyed for you and is Lord over you and that you own him so to be 1 Cor. 11.26 Thus is our eating Bread and drinking Wine at the Lords Table an open profession of his Religion and a Token whereby we give out to all the World who see what we do that we belong to him It is a most solemn sign of our Relation to Christ and a publick Badge of our being Christians And this sure no man will decline when there is a fit occasion who is not ashamed of his Lord nor Repents of his Profession But if he is really a Follower of Christ and would be thought one he will let all the World know it by joyning in this Feast which is the most Solemn Badge and Authentick Mark which Christ has appointed of it 2 ly In coming to the Holy Sacrament according to our Lords appointment we solemnly remember him and think of the Relation wherein we stand and of the benefits which we have received from him Do this says he in remembrance of me 1 Cor. 11.24 25. And when he is call'd to remember his most precious Saviour who has both lived and dyed to make God his Friend and to do him Service there is no man sure that has any thing of Shame or Ingenuity left in him who will shew backwardness and
begin to make excuses For has not he done enough for us to deserve to be thought of Do not all the inexpressible Favours he has gain'd and all the exquisite Pains he underwent for our sakes most justly challenge to be held in remembrance He left unutterable Glories and submitted to all sorts of Earthly Calamities and took unwearied Pains and shewed Invincible Patience and laid down at last his own Life to save our Souls and must all this be forgotten now 't is done and quite buried in silence What man of any Ingenuity that has been happy in such a Friend can be averse to remember him What man that has been blessed in such a Saviour can ever decline the Thoughts of him Unless we will shew our selves grossly stupid or intolerably proud and both ways Monsters of Ingratitude we must needs be ready to Celebrate the memory of such a Person when we are called to do that Honour to him and none that would be thought a man much more a Christian must ever refuse to remember his Saviour Christ and give him Thanks when in the Sacrament he is call'd to it in Christ's own Name and by his special invitation 3 ly In eating Bread and drinking Wine at the Sacrament we confirm the New Covenant with Almighty God In this Feast as has been shewn we assure him that we will Repent of every sin as ever we hope that he will forgive us and will endeavour with his Grace after every Virtue as ever we expect that he should assist us and obey every one of his Commandments as ever we look that he should Crown us with Eternal Happiness and believe that for Christs sake we shall have this Pardon Grace and Eternal Life upon these Terms and not otherwise for all these Duties we give him our Word and Promise and on that Condition for all these Blessings he gives us his Seal and Assurance back again And what man is there who pretends to the Name of a Christian who will refuse to do this when he has an Authentick Summons nay even a Friendly Invitation will he not Repent that he may be forgiven nor endeavour after such Graces as he wants that Gods Spirit may help him to them nor obey all his Saviours Laws that he may be happy in Heaven nor believe that Christ has purchased these Benefits for us at Gods hands upon these Terms but that without performing them we shall never have them If he will not do all this why doth he make any pretence to Religion If he is unresolv'd and suspends about any of these Particulars why doth he profess himself a Christian For these things are the very substance of Christianity and the Life and Soul of all Religion No man can belong to Christ without them and when he was Baptized and came to him he solemnly undertook and ingaged for them And therefore if any man will refuse to make God his engagement of this Faith Repentance and Obedience when he is call'd to Promise and Profess them he revolts from his Baptismal Vow and if he persists in that mind may as well renounce his Profession and turn his back on the whole Christian Religion 4 ly In eating Bread and drinking Wine at the Lords Supper we confirm a League of Love and Friendship with all our Brethren this being one end as I have shewn of this meeting to profess our selves in perfect Peace and Charity with all men And who now that owns himself a Christian can seek shifts and shun this when God calls him when his Saviour that dyed to make God Friends with him asks him to be Friends with all the World can he refuse him When he invites him to be at Peace with all his Members and to embrace them all as Brethren can he fly from him If he shun this he may as well shun every thing else and quit all claim to his Religion For by this says our Saviour shall all men know that you are my Disciples if ye have Love one to another Joh. 13.35 And unless ye forgive men their Trespasses says he again neither will your heavenly Father forgive you yours Mat. 6.15 And he that says he Loves God and yet hates his Brother saith St. John is a Lyar. 1 Joh. 4.20 And if it be possible saith St. Paul and as much as in you lies live peaceably with all men Rom. 12.18 Love and Peace and mutual Friendship and Beneficence are the great Duties which Christs Law prescribes and which all his Followers must be forward at all times to make profession of And therefore if any man turns away from declaring them when God calls him to them he turns his back of the most Signal Duty of his Religion and will not come to that whereby above all things else he should declare himself a Christian. 5 ly In Feasting with God at the Holy Sacrament we are vouchsafed the highest Honour and receive Tokens of highest Love and injoyment of present Graces and Pledges of future Glory from him and these no man ought to refuse when he is call'd to them He vouchsafes us the greatest Honour For he calls us to his own Table and tells us he is most glad to see us there and that the oftner we come the welcomer shall we be to his Supper he invites us as his own Guests and thereby seeks our Company and Acquaintance and treats us as his Friends and Confidents which Honour is so high that greater cannot be shewed us He gives us the surest Tokens of highest Love For he calls us to Feast upon the Body and Blood of his own Son i. e. upon those Blessings which the breaking of his Body and shedding of his Blood procured for men and shews us plainly that he is still of the same mind and is glad that for our sakes he parted with him For his inviting us to eat the Body and drink the Blood of Christ in this Holy Supper imports as much as if he should say to us Lo here my dear and only Son whom I gave to shed his own hearts Blood a Ransome for your Souls When I did it your sins were most provoking and render'd you utterly undeserving of it and since you have received it you have not been affected as you ought but have shewed your selves most unthankful for it but yet all this doth not make me Repent of what I have done or grudge you the Benefit of him I am come here freely to present you with him and invite you and exhort you nay intreat you to accept him Eat his Body and drink his Blood i. e. those Benefits and that Expiation which was purchased by it I freely give them without grudging nay I shall take it extreamly ill if you refuse them For I would by all means have you receive the advantage of him I gave him once for you and now again I give him to you I am still of the same mind to part with my own dear Son for your sakes and
to bestow him on you I have nothing better wherewith to present you but with him in this Holy Feast I do and what higher Tokens can I give of the unbounded Love I bear you He gives us present injoyment of many invaluable Graces For the Lords Supper is a Treasury of Blessings conveying to all those who worthily partake of it the Pardon of their Sins and Spiritual Assistances and Heavenly Improvements and growth in all Virtues and strength against all Temptations as I shall shew under the next Head And lastly He gives us the surest Pledges of future Glory For when he offers us his own Son we may be sure he will not stick at any thing else since he has nothing that is in any comparable Degree so precious and dear to him as he is This Gift is a Faithful Earnest and certain Pledge of every thing else which he can give us For he that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him freely give us all things says St. Paul Rom. 8.32 Thus in the Blessed Sacrament are we vouchsafed the greatest Honour and receive Tokens of highest Love and injoyment of present Graces and Pledges of future Glories from Almighty God And what man now will refuse all these when he is invited to them Who can turn his back upon that Ordinance wherein God calls him that he may give Honour to him and shew by the highest Tokens how he Loves him and confer upon him present Graces and give him Pledges of future Glories and assure him what Regard he has of him and how happy he intends to make him Common Ingenuity and Good manners nay every mans own private Interest and Self-advantage oblige him most readily to embrace and not to sleight or so much as slowly to accept of such offers So that if any Person really believes that all this Honour is shewn this Love expressed these Graces given or these Glories assured to him in the Communion he must needs think himself highly obliged to come to it and never cast about to seek shifts and make excuses or express a backward and unwilling mind when he has an Invitation and an Opportunity so to do And thus we see that not only our Lords express Command for it but also the obliging Nature of those things which are meant by and of those employments which are imply'd in it are a strong and an indispensable Obligation on all grown Christians who are capable of it to frequent the Holy Sacrament For therein they are call'd by their Saviour Christ publickly to profess his Religion and their Communion with him and thankfully to remember him and to confirm the New Covenant with God and a League of Love and Friendship with their Brethren and to receive Vouchsafements of highest Honour and Tokens of greatest Love and injoyment of present Graces and Pledges of future Glories from him all which are things that no Christian man ought to stick at or decline but with all forwardness to close with as often as he has an Opportunity and sit occasion for them And thus it appears now much all the Disciples of Christ who are grown up to it and understand it for no Duty obliges an incapable Subject are bound to frequent this holy Sacrament It is their Duty to come to the Communion as it is to come to Church to be Chast Sober Humble Just or to perform any other Precept of their Religion For they have their Saviour Christs express Command for it who by injoining it has required Obedience in such an Instance as best shews their peculiar Reverence and Love to him and to ingage them the more to it has freed them from all the load of Jewish Ceremonies and imposed no heavier burden than it and Baptism instead of them and to make it take the more effect left it among the last words which he spake to them and to shew it was a matter of no small moment would have it expresly specified in St. Paul 's Commission and tells them That unless they come therein to eat his Flesh and drink his Blood they have no Life in them and will punish the neglect or abuse of it as he did the neglect of the Jewish Passover which answer'd to it with Excision And the Nature of those things which are meant by it and of those Employments which are to be exercised at it most straightly oblige them to it For therein they shew they have Fellowship with Christ and appertain to his Religion and thankfully remember him and Seal the New Covenant with God and a League of Love and Friendship with their Brethren and are vouchsafed the highest Honour and receive Tokens of the greatest Love and injoyment of present Graces and Pledges of future Glories from him which are things that every Ingenuous man will and every Good man ought to do and no man when he is call'd to it can honestly decline that professes himself a Christian Thus is it a necessary Duty in every man to come to the Sacrament as it is to come to Church or to other parts of Worship And when once we are of Age for it and have a fit opportunity and occasion offer'd we are in strict Duty ingaged and by a bond of many Cords as we have seen obliged so to do 1 st I say we are bound to it when once we are of Age for it The Duty of this Holy Sacrament lies in such things as suppose a competent Understanding and due Knowledge of Religion in those who must discharge them For therein we are to remember Christ both what Commands he has left with us and what he has done and suffered for us and this we cannot do till first we have learnt them We must ingage to be at Peace to do Justice and shew kindness to all our Brethren and this supposes that we know first what Offices of Love and Acts of Justice are due to them We must consent to the Terms of the New Covenant and this implies that first we should understand them In Baptism indeed we enter'd into it before we had any knowledge of it but that was because God who deals with us after the most favourable manner of Men who allow grown Persons to bear the Parts and federally to undertake for Infants in things conducing to their Advantage admitted our Sponsors that knew it very well to stand as our Representatives and in way of Proxies to Covenant and undertake for us But the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is to be our own Act and an express assenting in our own Persons to what they undertook and this cannot be done till we are come to years and are able of our selves to judge of it Till we are grown up then to the Age of Competent knowledge in Spiritual Affairs we are not capable of discharging aright the Duty of this Sacrament And till we are so we are not obliged to it since no Duty obliges an incapable Subject
wherein he is to be remembred 1 Cor. 11.24 And so 't is also in St. Luke where the Words are Peremptory for the Apostles administring and so answerably for the Peoples receiving it without any intimation of the eating it self being indifferent and uncommanded which that Evangelist would not so unwarily have expressed if Christ had so intended it And our Lord shew'd us not only that he has commanded this Sacramental eating but that he has commanded it as a necessary thing when he tells his Hearers that except they thus eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of the Son of Man they have no Life in them Joh. 6.53 And this necessity of it is further manifested from the necessity of the Passover among the Jews which answered to it for at every Return of it they were to be cut off from Israel whosoever presumed to omit it Exod. 12.15 And if there were no express Command for it yet are the things we are call'd to in it all of that obliging Nature and such necessary Duties that without Sin they cannot be declined By all which as we have seen this Sacramental eating and drinking is evidently proved to be a plain Duty and under a peremptory Commandment When therefore in this place the Apostle says of our drinking of the Cup Do this as often as ye drink it he doth not intimate that we may do it as seldome as we please or as if it were under no Law or express Precept He uses the words as often not because 't is an Arbitrary Act and there is no Duty in it but because though it be a Duty we have not always opportunity for it and so cannot always be performing it For as has been shewn there is a Command to Communicate and that as all other Affirmative Laws binds us to it at all times when a fit occasion is offer'd When we eat and drink in the Sacrament we must remember Christ and when we have an opportunity to eat and drink in it we are obliged to it as the Jews we saw were to the Passover which answered to it who were to be cut off from Israel when at any time they omitted it So that to Communicate is no Arbitrary Act but an indispensable Duty and peremptory Command still And since it is thus necessary a Duty in every grown Christian to come to the Holy Sacrament it must needs be a great and dangerous Sin in any of us when we neglect and abstain from it We must not think it an indifferent thing but make Conscience of keeping off from the Holy Communion as we do of keeping off from Prayers of Swearing doing Wrong being Proud Incontinent or Drunken For it is expresly and straitly forbidden by God as well as they and we incur his Anger and till we repent and do so no more cannot regain his Favour when we are guilty of any of them A neglect of the Lords Table therefore is a Sin which although God may excuse in those good Souls who because of their over-high Veneration for it and Fear of their own Vnworthiness to partake in it in the honesty of their Hearts think they ought not to come to it Yet will he not excuse in them when they are better inform'd and much less in others who neglect it because they are careless of it or too Wicked and Impenitent to receive it He may excuse it I say in those Good Souls who in the honesty of their Hearts through Ignorance or Error were held back and because of their over-high Veneration for it and fear of their Vnworthiness to partake in it thought they ought not to come to it An innocent Ignorance or mistake of an honest mind may plead our excuse before God in this as well as in other Duties For in all of them Christ has such a Sense of our Infirmities as that he can have Compassion on the Ignorant and those that err or are out of the way Heb. 5.2 So that if after an upright indeavour to be rightly inform'd in it some Good Minds shall happen to mistake their Error will not be imputed It may be through the loose Discourses of some or the general Practice of the World who by being so seldom at it seem to set lightly by it they think themselves not obliged to it Or again through the extream Rigidness of the Discourses of others who require such extraordinary things to it as very few have attain'd they think themselves always unworthy and unprepared for it and that they should sin and eat their own Damnation in it But if they fall into these mistakes about it which make them abstain from it after an honest indeavour to be rightly inform'd about it their Ignorance may plead their Excuse and make their Neglect to be connived at God will not account it to them as a sin because they knew it not but were mistaken For in this as well as in all other Cases to him that knows to do Good and doth it not to him 't is Sin Jam. 4.17 But though God may bear with this neglect of the Sacrament in Good men whilst they are thus innocently misled Yet will he not excuse it in them when they are better inform'd and much less in others who neglect it because they are careless of it or too Impenitent to receive it He will not excuse it even in them when they are better informed Their only plea for their not doing of this Duty is that after the best search they could make they did not know they were bound to it or that with safety they could perform it and when once their Understanding is inlightned this plea is removed so that afterwards they can find no relief at all from it They abstain then when they know if they are truly Penitent they might and ought to come and that abstinence is wilful and unless they repent of it and amend it will end in their Condemnation For to him that knoweth to do Good and doth it not to him 't is Sin Jam. 5.17 And much less will he excuse it in others who are careless of it and too Impenitent to receive it If they are hindred from the Lords Table out of Slothfulness or are unworthy of it by Reason of their Impenitence those are not their Excuse but their own Damning Fault and they must expect to bear the punishment of it To tell God I did not come to the Sacrament because I would not Repent is to tell him I would not come and promise to be Good because I was resolved to continue Wicked and that is a very odd way of excusing it Impenitence is no excuse but a most damning Sin and therefore if we have no other cause to give why we did not come we must needs be liable to Condemnation If any of you therefore who shall peruse this Treatise have refused Gods invitation formerly and have kept back from this Feast by what I have here said you may see your Fault and
And this is a state of such Horrour and Astonishment as no man that looks upon it can abide in it is a condition of such extream danger as no one in his Wits can willingly indure So that if any of those who are Impenitent will but be at the pains to lay to heart and consider of the sadness of their state they can by no means persist in it but will run with haste to Repent and instantly set about the amendment of their ways that so they may be delivered from it And as soon as ever they do so this hindrance is gone and they are worthy to come to the Holy Communion For that which fits us for it is not an high Pitch and Perfection in saving Virtues or Ecstatick Degrees and Transports in Devotion as I have shewn but such true Repentance and change of Life either in Deed or at least in Will and Purpose as makes us acceptable and honest Christians so that whatever we were before whilst we continued impenitently wicked we are meet Partakers of this Holy Feast now we have Repented and are fully resolv'd to become Obedient and need not scrupulously draw back but come to it gladly when we are call'd and expect a Friendly welcome when we do And thus I have consider'd this great and most common plea whereby so many are kept back from the Holy Sacrament viz. their thinking themselves unworthy of it and unfit to receive it and shewn plainly that no ill man can be excused and that no good man ought to be hindred by it And the Result of it is this If any Person tells me he cannot come to this Feast because he is unworthy to join in it I must tell him again That he must not only be afraid of unworthy coming to it but also of unworthy abstaining from it and that unless he is impenitent and still unresolv'd to leave all his Sins he is worthy of it and that if such Impenitence is the cause of his not coming it is no excuse for it and that he must consider of the danger and misery of that state and so Repent and get out of it and when once that is done he will be worthy since every Penitent is welcome to it If he is truly Penitent he is worthy and if he has not Repented yet he must instantly Repent that he may be worthy and then let him not hold off from this Heavenly Banquet but chearfully approach to it when he is invited 2 ly Others who cannot positively say they are unworthy of it are yet kept back from the Holy Sacrament because of the great danger of unworthy Communicating Damnation being said to be eaten in it which seems to make abstaining from it the safer side He that eats and drinks unworthily says St. Paul eats and drinks Damnation to himself 1 Cor. 11.29 Now in Answer to this I shall observe that by Damnation is meant 1. A Damning sin which is deadly to any man till he Repent of it and such are both unworthy eating and sinful abstaining so that they are equal as to that Point 2. Temporal Death and Punishments which were inflicted on the Corinthians for their Intemperance at this Feast and other Disorders which were peculiar to those times and are not usual now in ours so that the Fear of them need not discourage us from it 1 st I say By eating his own Damnation the Apostle means not that he shall inevitably be damn'd for it but only that he commits a Damning Sin which will prove deadly to him unless he Repent of it and this is true not only of unworthy eating but also of sinful abstaining so that they are equal as to that Point He means not I say that he shall inevitably be Damn'd for it And this is plain because for Christs sake God has promised to forgive us all our sins upon Repentance and therefore this of unworthy receiving among the rest Nay as for this their unworthy eating the Apostle tells the Corinthians in that very place that when they are Judg'd or Condemned for it it is not to consign them to but to deliver them from Eternal Torment When we are Judg'd says he or Condemn'd for this Fault i. e. to be sick and weak which God inflicted because of it we are not in Anger Punish'd but in Mercy Chastned of the Lord by present Sufferings that we should not at the last day be Condemn'd with the World to Eternal 1 Cor. 11.30 31. But only that he commits a Damning Sin which will prove deadly to him unless he Repent of it He that eats this Bread and drinks this Cup unworthily says he shall be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. i. e. Unless his Repentance that Gospel Remedy for all sin prevents it he shall be liable to be punish'd not only for an abuse in Meat and Drink as if it were only Common Food but for violating and prophaning the Body and Blood of Christ which he should have discern'd in it 1 Cor. 11.27 29. And this is true not only of unworthy eating but also of sinful abstaining from it For that our Lord has expresly forbidden as I have shewn and that too in such sort as shews he lays a great weight upon it so that we most highly offend him in it and cannot expect to regain his Favour till we Repent and Amend it and therefore they are both equal as to that Point We shall be Condemned without Amendment for unworthy eating and so we shall too for sinful abstaining and therefore if the Fear of Damnation be of Force with us it must keep us off from both of them and neither suffer us to neglect this Feast nor to prophane it but ingage us to come to it worthily i. e. with Penitent Hearts whensoever we are call'd thereto 2 ly By Damnation the Apostle means Temporal Death and Punishments which God did then inflict on unworthy Communicants And this was not for all unworthiness but particularly for their Intemperance at this Feast and other Disorders which were peculiar to thâ—se Times and are not usual now in ours so that the Fear of them need not discourage us from it By Damnation I say he means Temporal Death and Punishments which God did then inflict on unworthy Communicants This he plainly intimates when he sets down weakness and sickness and death as the Penalties whereto they were Condemn'd for their unworthy usage He that eats and drinks unworthily says he eats and drinks Damnation to himself whereof you have many sad Examples now in Corinth for for this very Cause of unworthy eatting many now are weak and sickly among you and many sleep 1 Cor. 11.29 30. And this God inflicted not for all unworthiness but particularly for some high and heinous Disorders such as their open Schisms and gross Intemperance crept in by occasion of their Love-Feasts which Prophanations were peculiar to those times and are not now usual or any where to be seen in
to make him think of shewing Favour and being kind to us It is the Blood of Propitiation Rom. 3.25 that makes peace between God and Men Col. 1.20 and speaks better things than the Blood of Abel calling for Life and Salvation as that did for Destruction Heb. 12.24 And 't is the Representation of that Blood now in heavenly places that gives Christ himself such absolute Power with God and makes him sure to prevail whensoever he intercedes for us For by it he entered into the Holy Place where the Mercy-seat or Propitiatory was Heb. 9.3 5.12.24 and where he ever lives to make intercession for us Heb. 7.25 So that the great Argument which either Christ our high Priest now in Heaven offers for us or which in our Prayers we can plead for our selves is his own Death and Sufferings Now this is set before God in every Prayer and in all Acts of Religion in all which we use Christs Name and desire to be heard and hope to prevail through his Mediation But in the Sacrament it is done more perfectly and with greater Solemnity and that too by Gods own appointment For one chief end of the Holy Sacrament is to Commemorate the Death of Christ i. e. to set it out in solemn shew and make mention of it not only before men but also to Almighty God This do in Remembrance or Commemoration of me says our Saviour Luc. 22.19 And as oft as ye do it says St. Paul ye shew forth the Lords Death i. e. both to God and Men till he come 1 Cor. 11.26 Thus do we no where so livelily and advantageously set out this great Argument of being heard as in the Holy Sacrament which we may justly hope will be the more observed and have the more effect because it is not done of our own heads but by Gods own special Direction and Appointment And where the Argument is most advantageously set out we may expect the better effect and greater force from it And this the Ancient Christians thought accounting their Prayers were not like to be so Powerful at any time as when this Commemoration of Christs Death the only Plea for being heard accompanied them And therefore at the Sacrament they used to pray not only for themselves but also for all others and to recommend any Person or thing to God which was dear to them thinking they could never so advantageously as at that time sue for them Thus in the General is the Holy Sacrament a most likely means to obtain for us all Mercies because it is the most effectual course in all Religion to recommend our Prayers which must procure them for us 2 dly In Particular 1 st It seals to us the Pardon of our Sins for the peace of our Consciences 2 ly It increases and confirms in us all our Graces 1 st It seals and confirms to us the Pardon of our Sins for the peace of our Consciences In the Holy Sacrament God calls us to give us a full Pardon by giving us that Blood which was shed for the remission of Sins and which is the Blood of Expiation and having received that at his hand if we are true Penitents we need not doubt but that our sins are expiated and he is reconciled The Sacrament it self as we have seen is nothing less than a soâ—emn Confirmation of the New Covenant which promises Remission of Sin to all that truly repent of it So that when with Penitent Hearts we come to joyn in it we come to stipulate and secure a Pardon of all our Offences which will give us all the security of it that Covenants and Promises can make us Whensoever we Repent indeed we have Gods promise of Forgiveness which may comfort our hearts after any Sin not only in the Communion but in every Penitential Prayer and Confession But in the Sacrament this Promise is again repeated and in most solemn manner Sealed and Confirmed to shew us that God is still of the same mind and to give us a renewed and a sensible assurance of it And when God has thus set his Seal to it and a Penitent Soul has just received his Word and Bond for it it need not question but he is reconciled and unless it starts back from these penitential engagements and falls afresh into new Provocations will always continue so to be And thus the Sacrament is the most effectual means to calm the Fears and quiet the Consciences of all true penitents If once they make sure of their own Repentance after any Fault it doth that in an ordinary way which an Angel from Heaven and a special Revelation would do in extraordinary i. e. it lets them know their Sins are Pardoned and that God is their Friend For therein they receive from him the Blood of Expiation a plain proof their Sins are atoned for and forgiven and therein there is an express agreement and solemn Covenant of Peace and Reconciliation between God and them which is confirmed by this Feast of his own prescribing and having this Instrument of his own appointment which they may look upon as his Hand and Seal to it they may chearfully depend upon it and rest satisfied in their own mind 2 ly It increases and confirms in us all our Graces These Graces are ordinarily such as we bring along with us which we either have already practised or are fully purposed and resolved so to do For therein God gives Grace only to the Worthy Communicants and those Communicants only are Worthy who Repent of all their Sinâ— and are wholly determined to lead a New Life in Obedience to all his Commandments It is not a Sacrament intended to give strength in Grace to those that have nothing of it for it is our Spiritual Meat and Bread as our Saviour calls it Joh. 6.51 55. the use whereof is not to give Life to a Dead Person but Strength and Nourishment to a Living It is not designed to turn an Impenitent Man into a true Penitent or to make an Ill man Good for every impenitently ill man is an Unworthy Receiver and eats his own Damnation which is a Curse and not a Blessing so that he is not the better but the worse by it But it is intended to make a Good Man Better to carry on Repentance in those that have begun it and to confirm and enlarge every Virtue in those who are already possessed of it If we come to it with Faith or Belief of the Scriptures particularly of Gods promises to pardon our Sins for Christs sake upon our Repentance and to help us to any Graces upon our indeavours and to make us Eternally happy upon our entire Obedience it strengthens and assures it if with Love of our dear Lord who dyed for us it increases it if with Thankfulness for his kindnesses particularly that of giving his own Life for ours it makes us more sensible of it if with hearty Repentance and full purpose of amending all our Sins
seem sufficient to inforce a due Attendance on it And when once Men are so disposed and seriously resolv'd to communicate I shall add a few things to assist them in a right Discharge of it and so conclude this Subject When we come to the Holy Sacrament to commemorate the Death of our Bleeding Lord whose Body there is represented as broken and his most precious Blood as shed on our account we are to shew forth an affectionate and hearty Thankfulness for so invaluable a Kindness and an intire Resignation of our selves to his Vse and Repentance of all our Sins fully purposing to amend them all thenceforwards and an universal Peace and Charity towards all our Neighbours all which we must excite in our own Souls by due Considerations 1. We must shew forth an affectionate aâ—d hearty Thankfulness for so invaluable a â—â—ndness And what Soul can be slow to 〈◊〉 this who considers how infinitely our 〈◊〉 Lord has deserved of us For he has got us the most precious and glorious things which Heaven it self could afford that all our Sins should be freely pardoned and that the Holy Ghost that Immense Eternal and All-sufficient Spirit should come in at all times to our help and that we should be in no less Quality than the Sons of God and Heirs of a Kingdom who are assured of eternal Joys and Glories in another World And ought not Gifts so august and superlatively excellent to be most affectionately acknowledged He has bought all these to bestow upon us at the dearest Rate not onely taking the most unwearied Pains but also paying the highest Price and laying down his own most precious Blood for the Purchase And must not such astonishing Kindness which was affrighted by no Hazards nor stopt at any Difficulties nor declined any Sufferings not the Suffering of Death it self for our sakes be always held in a most thankful Remembrance And in all this he had no Ends of his own to serve of us but was led on purely by the Pleasure he takes in our Happiness he was not won by our Deserts for alas we were his profest Enemies who had nothing to shew but highest Provocations he was not wearied out with the importunity of our Intreaties for it came as undeserv'd so altogether unask'd whatsoever he did for us he was â—ot moved by the Mediâ—tiâ—n of Friends â—or whom alas had we to intercede for 〈◊〉 And shall not such amazing Love and Goodness so frankly shew'd without any Eye at 〈◊〉 or Private Interests without 〈◊〉 or Deserts nay in spite of all Discâ—uâ—agâ—meâ—ts and highest Provocations be entertain'd with greatest Joy and grateful Acclamations He has been an infinitely endearing and entire Friend to us without any Inducement but his own most generous Kindness and against all Discouragements and beyond all 〈◊〉 and under the most frightful Hazards and at the highest Expences giving his own Soul even to Death for a Ransom to redeem ours And whensoever we hear or think of this I am confident it will not be difficult for any of us to embrace him with Hearts full of Love and high Desires and pay him most intire Thanks and burst out into Songs of Praise and find it a most joyful Business so to do What am I my dear Lord will a devout Mind then say that thou shouldest leave the Right-hand of God and come to visit me Hadji thou no Ease in thy own Breast so long as I lay plunged in Misery And couldst not thou be Happy in Heaven nor enjoy thy self amidst all the Joys and Glories of that Blissful Plaâ—â— unlâ—ss I were there too to bâ—ar thâ—â— Company How â—arnest thou being so highly exalted and the Eternal Son of God to have any Affectionate Concern at all for me Was nâ—t I a defâ—rred pâ—lluted Wretch and thy profest Enemy And werenâ—t either of these enough to turn away thy Face from me But if notwithstanding all this thy overflowing Goodness would put th◠〈…〉 something for my sake why must thou come thy self upon the Earth nay come to bleed and die to Redeem me Am I dearer to thee than thy own Life that thou shouldest part with it to save me Dost thou love me better than thou lovest thy self that thou wilt shed the last Drop of thy own Hearts Blood to make me happy Blessed Jesus how unfaâ—â—â—mable is thy Grace and what an unsearchable Depth of Love is this which thou hast opened to us O how happy do I think my self in it and how doth my Heart rejoyce at the Remembrance of it Lord I love thee dearly and long to love thee more Would I had the Heartâ— of a Seraphin that I might be all over Love and neither wish nor think of any thing besides thee Would I could feel my Soul affected to that degree which I desire and thou infinitely deservest of me I wish no greater Pleasure than to be found perfect in thy Love and to have thee so dear unto me that I can contemn all the gilded Vanities and Allurements of the World at the thoughts of thee O! do thou fill me with an Affection full and absolute like thine own that I may love thee infinitely as I am beloved by thee Possess me with such a Sense of thy Love and such Thankfulness for all thy Favours as is worthy of thee tho' should I offer the utmost Acknowledgments which the most affected and enlarged Heart can pay I should not give the thousandth part of what I owe thee Let all the Angels adore thy glorious Goodness and all the Sons of Men so long as they have a Tongue to speak set forth thy Noble Praise for thou O sweetest Jesu art the Son of the Blessed the Joy and Glory of the World the Lamb of God and the Saviour of Mankind who wast slain for our sakes and art alive again and sittest now for ever at the Right-hand of Power in the Glory of the Father that Angels may submit to thee and all the World may worship thee sing of thee and praise thy Goodness Power and Glory to all Eternity 2. We must shew our selves reconciled to all who have any ways offended us and that we are in Peace and Charity with all Persons And this we shall not think much to do if we consider how highly our dear Lord is concern'd for them and how earnestly he sues in behalf of them for then we shall be readily brought to it on his account tho we might be more averse to it on their own He has loved them so well as to shed his precious Blood for them and can we find in our Hearts to hurt any Person when we see him giving his own Life to save him He owns them as his Friends and Brethren and is not that enough to make us kind to see that he is so near akin to them He has made them Members of his Body and thereby Parts of his own self and can we study Revenge against them when he comes in at
thou throw back a Soul that would hang it self upon thee wilt thou disdain an Heart that is desirous after thee and would fain be no longer it s own but thine that thou mightest use it as it may best serve and honour thee O Blessed Jesu do not reject it for it is the Purchase of thy Blood Let not all that be thrown away which thou hast already done for it for want of thy further Care and Conduct of it Accept me Good Lord who here unfeignedly devote my self unto thee that both my Soul and Body and all I have may be employed as thou seest fit to order me I am nothing I have nothing and I desire nothing but to be with thee to be filled with thy Grace and obey thee perfectly that so I may have nothing of my self but do all things thro' Christ dwelling in me And when we thus Resign our selves to our Saviour's Use we must heartily repent of all our Sins faithfully promising never more to yield to them but to amend them all thenceforwards To Repent particularly of all our Sins we must first discover them by taking some Catalogue of Christian Duties and examining our own Hearts at every one Whether we have consented to transgress them And where we find we have there we must bemoan our selves and fully resolve That if God will be pleased to pardon what is past we will never yield to do the like again And what Man will not thus stedfastly resolve to leave all his Sins that has the patience to consider what will be the End of his Continuance in them For by that we shall infinitely offend our Saviour Christ who gave his own Life for ours and whom therefore we are bound to please above all Persons we shall certainly lose the Joys of Heaven and Eternal Happiness a Loss which the whole World put together cannot recompence we shall unavoidably be dâ—â—med to Hell-fire and Eternal Torments which is the utmost heighth of Misery that can possibly befal us This will infalâ—ibly be the Effect of our Perseverance in any Sins we find our selves guilty of And now let us ask our own Souls Whether we love them so well that we will â—ndure all this rather than forâ—go them Shall I prize my Sin to that degree as for its sake to act despite to my dearest Lord who died for me Must it be dearer to me than his Love that I should dishonour and offend him whensoever it bids me Is this the Return I make to my truâ—st dearest Friend to side with his professed Enemy Is this my Thankfulness for all his Kindness to stick to a Lust that aims at nothing but my Destruction rather than to him who gave his own Life to save mine Thou lovest it dearly O my Soul but canst thou value it at such a Rate as to part with Everlasting Life for it Hadst thou rather have it than enjoy the Face of God and be for ever Happy Art thou content for the short and unsatisfying Pleasures it affords to lose all the Joys and Glories of a Blessed Eternity Wilt thou die sooner than be divorced from it and accompany it even into the Flames of Hell and the midst of Eternal Torment God forbid will every May say whose Heart is thus particularly posed that ever I should be so desperately mad and unaccountably wicked I cannot despite so dear a Lord or throw away the Eternal Joys of the Heavenly State or endure the Smart of Hell and the insupportable Load of Everlasting Torment No Man can bear it and I stand amazed to think of it And therefore since this will be the Effect of my wicked ways I am resolved from this Moment to renounce them and by the help of God will never return to them any more Thus let the Drunkard think with himself on his Cups the Sâ—â—earer on his Oaths the unjust Man on his unlawful Gain the Contentious on his Quarrels the unclean Person on his Fornication and forbidden Pleasures the Revengeful Man on his spiteful Carriage the Slanderer and Evil-speaker on his reproachful Words Back-bitings and Defamations and every other Sinner on his particular Sins and when they seriously consider that this Saviour must be lost this Happiness of Heaven forfeited and this eternal Anguish and Extremity of Pain endured if they persist in it they will instantly resolve to forsake it and never yield to be guilty of it again O Blessed Lamb of God who hast redeem'd me with thy Blood will every Contrite Heart then cry out I am utterly ashamed to look thee in the Face considering all the cruel Usage I have brought upon thee I scarce know how to think of Feasting on thy precious Blood now I am most earnestly invited to it since mine own Sins have shed it I am alas a most polluted Creature who have daily offended in Thought Word and Deed against thy Divine Majesty My Pride and contempt of God and Sensual Lusts and Covetous Desires and uncharitable Practices have cried aloud for Vengeance on me and that Cry would not be silenced unless thou my dearest Saviour wouldst die in stead of me Of all these Offences I am guilty and the horrour of that Guilt would fright me from thee were it not that thou freely callest me to accept of Mercy I come Lord in obedience to thy Word and with an humble and a penitent Heart most earnestly entreat thee to have pity on me I am sensible of these and all my Errours and utterly ashamed that ever I committed them I am weary of them and fully purposed by thy Graâ—e to become a New Man or else I durst not ask to be forgiven My Heart shall never more joyn with them nor will I ever hereafter yield to live in such ungrateful and wicked ways again They nail'd thy tender Hands and Feet to the accursed Tree and thrust the Spear into thy Side and can I then endure to see or any longer side with them They made God who is the Author of all I have and hope to enjoy my utter Enemy and shall I then be still a Friend to them They would bring me to eternal Destruction both of Body and Soul and whilst I consider this is it possible I should have any more to do with them No Blessed Lord I hate them and am utterly resolved from this time forth for ever to abandon them They have been the Shame of my Life and are now the Sorrow of my Heart as alas when thou enduredst such Anguish for them on the Cross once they were of thine I loath my self by reason of them and will never consent any more to live in them and with an humble and a contrite Heart beseech my Heavenly Father that thro' the Merits of thy Blood I may be forgiven And wilt not thou O God who sentest to seek after me whilst I was an open Rebel now meet me graciously as thou didst the Prodigal Son when I return again to my
Eating and Drinking not being to satisfie Hunger but for Sacred Ends 't is fit we come to it with a suitable and a Sacred Carriage and in that consists the Worthiness of the Usage Were it onely a Feast on Common Food we should behave our selves worthily at it by thanking God for it and being Temperate But being a Feast wherein Religion is concerned and whereat we are to remember the Death of our Lord and to Seal the New Covenant with God and a League of Love with all the Christian World to the doing this worthily and as 't is fit we should there is more required For we deal very unworthily in remembring the Death of our Lord if we are not thankful for it and in ratifying the New Covenant with God if we are not sincere in it and in promising Love to all the Christian World if we are in enmity and hatred These Religious Ends must be answered with a Religious Temper and a Devout Carriage and then they are treated as they ought and as their Worth requires This is signified by several Copies which in 1 Cor. 11.27 read not barely Whosoever shall eat this Bread and drink this Cup OF THE LORD VNWORTHILY but whosoever shall eat this Bread and drink this Cup of the Lord VNWORTHILY OF THE LORD i. e. in a way unworthy of him which clearly shews the Unworthiness to consist in the want of those Tempers wherewith 't is sit our Blessed Lord who is commemorated in it should be treated And this the Apostle plainly intimates when he places the unworthiness of Eating in not Discerning or rather Discriminating the Lords Body and putting a difference between it and Common Food by a different Carriage and Behaviour at it He that eats and drinks unworthily says he eats and drinks Damnation to himself for such unworthy usage which lies in his not discerning or rather not discriminating the Lords Body 1 Cor. 11.29 Thus doth a worthy Eating of the Sacrament consist in answering its Sacred Ends with Sacred and suitable Carriage and Dispositions And therefore that we may see what Behaviour is worthy of it 't is fit we run over those several Ends and inquire what Tempers every one of them requires of us Those Ends are Three 1 st To Remember Christ our Blessed Lord and Saviour and particularly his Dying for us which call for Love Joy Gratitude Obedient Resolutions and such like Tempers 2 ly To Confirm the New Covenant with Almighty God which is not worthily done by us unless we come to it in Sincerity and Faithfulness and with full Purpose and Performance of that Repentance and Obedience which we profess and promise 3 ly To Confirm a League of Love and Friendship with all our Brethren and Fellow-Christians which requires that we lay aside all Envy Hatred and Malicious Thoughts and come to it in Peace and Forgiveness of all that have any ways offended us If we Believe all these things which Christ our Great Prophet has revealed to us and our Faith shews it self in these Tempers and carries us on to these Performances we are Worthy Communicants and have that Faith which will render us welcom Guests at the Lords Table and acceptable to him at all other times 1 st One End of our Eating Bread and Drinking Wine at the Lords Supper is to remember Christ not onely as our Prophet and Teacher which I do not make a Distinct Head now because the Belief required to that is exercised thro' the whole Action and falls in at all the other but as our Blessed Lord Saviour and Benefactor and above all his Benefits particularly to remember his Dying for us and this to do it worthily calls for Love Joy Gratitude Resolutions of Obedience and other such like Tempers The Remembrance of any thing absent and long since past brings it back into our Minds and gives a sort of Presence to it And therefore when things are brought to our Remembrance they should work upon us and affect us as if they were before us When we remember our Saviour Christ then we must bear the same Mind towards him as we should if we saw him and were conversing with him and that will consist in these Things that follow We must Honour him and resolve to Obey him as he is our Lord and Master and Love him and Delight in him and give Thanks to him as he is our Friend and Benefactor and be humbled under the sense of our own Vnworthiness and abhor our own Sins as they brought him to bleed and die for us and resign up our selves both Souls and Bodies to his Vse as we are bought with his Blood and are thereby become his own Purchase 1 st In Eating and Drinking in the Lords Supper we are to remember Christ as our Lord and Master and to do that worthily we must remember him with Honour and Reverence and with mindfulness of his Commands and Resolutions of Obedience which are Duties we owe and should pay to him were he present with us 1 st We ought to remember him our Lord and Master with Honour and Reverence These Tempers Lordship and Authority always call for whensoever they are lodged in any Persons A Son honoureth his Father saith God and a Servant his Master if then I be a Father where is mine Honour and if I be a Master where is my Fear Mal. 1.6 Honour the King says St. Peter and Servants be subject to your Masters with all fear 1 Pet. 2.17 18. And Render to all their Dues says St. Paul as Fear or Reverence to whom Fear Honour to whom Honour is due Rom. 13.7 But when this Authority is in the most absolute and full Degrees and is joyned with the highest Excellencies and tempered with the most Endearments and guided by the most surpassing Goodness as it is in Christ Jesus it calls for them most especially For he is every way wonderfully accomplished and has all those Endowments in their greatest Perfection which of right can challenge or are fit to excite them For he is boundless in knowledge he understands all things and infinitely wise in Counsel able to suit Means to every End and bring about every Purpose and surpassing in Might so that he may do what he pleases and holy in all his ways and faithful in all his Promises and just and equitable in all his Dealings and Glorious in his Divine Essence being the very Brightness of his Fathers Glory and the express Image of his Person and Supereminent in Power having all Authority in Heaven Earth put into his hands and yet in the midst of all these Excellencies and the height of all this Greatness which are apt to puff us up with Pride and Contempt of others he is unspeakable in Love and wonderful in Condescensions vouchsafing to leave Heaven where he was Equal to God and be made in fashion of a mean Man for our sakes and unwearied in