Selected quad for the lemma: blood_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
blood_n	drink_v	eat_v	word_n	14,073	5	4.8489	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31858	Sermons preached upon several occasions by Benjamin Calamy ...; Sermons. Selections	Calamy, Benjamin, 1642-1686.	1687 (1687)	Wing C221; ESTC R22984	185,393	504

of God's worship but of those who pretend to the fear of God and care of their souls and yet live at ease in the gross omission of this duty Now amongst the many pleas or excuses with which men satisfy themselves in the neglect or disuse of this holy Communion that which most generally prevails and perhaps with some honest and well-meaning persons is the consideration of the words of my Text He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself So dreadfull is the threatning and punishment here denounced against those who receive this Sacrament unworthily that men are apt to think it much the safer and wifer course never to venture on a duty the wrong performance of which is attended with so great mischief Damnation is so terrible a word and to be guilty of the body and bloud of Christ as it is said v. 27. Whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and bloud of the Lord is so heinous a crime that it may seem the most prudent course for a man to keep himself at the greatest distance from all possibility of falling into it Better never receive at all than expose ones self to so great hazard by receiving I hope therefore it will not be thought altogether unprofitable to entertain you at this time with a discourse on these words wherein I shall endeavour to give you the full meaning of them with the true and just inferences and consequences that may be drawn from them In order to which I shall shew you I. What is meant here by damnation II. What by eating and drinking unworthily III. How far this Text may reasonably scare and fright people from this Sacrament IV. What is the true consequence from what is here affirmed by the Apostle He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself I. What is meant here by eating and drinking damnation to a man's self The original word which is here translated damnation truly signifies no more than judgment or punishment in general of what kind soever it be temporal or eternal So that there is no necessity of translating it here by the word damnation nay there are two plain reasons why it ought to be understood onely of temporal evils and chastisements 1. Because the judgments that were inflicted on the Corinthians for their prophanation of this holy Sacrament were onely temporal verse 30th For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep 2. Because the reason assigned of these judgments is that they might not be condemned in the other world v. 32. But when we are judged where the same Greek word is used which in my Text is translated damnation we are chastened of the Lord that we might not be condemned with the world That is God inflicted these evils on the Corinthians that being reformed by these stripes in this life they might escape that vengeance which was reserved for the impenitent in another life and therefore it could not be damnation that is eternal damnation that was either threatned or inflicted upon them for their unworthy receiving The sum of what the Apostle means seems to be this that By prophaning this holy Sacrament they would pluck down some remarkable judgment upon their heads Of this saith he you have notorious instances amongst your selves in those various and mortal diseases that have been so rise in your City and this God doth to warn you that you may be awakened to avoid greater and worse judgments that are future and eternal Now this punishment was extraordinary and peculiar to that time for there is no such thing found amongst us at this day namely that God doth suddenly smite all unworthy Communicants with some grievous disease or sudden death Nor indeed are men afraid of any such thing though it is very plain that this is the true meaning of the words of my Text that by such prophaneness they would bring down some remarkable temporal judgment upon themselves But I shall not insist any longer upon this but take the word damnation as we commonly understand it and in that sense to eat and drink damnation to a man's self doth imply that by our unworthy participation of the Sacrament we are so far from receiving any benefit or advantage by it that we do incur God's heaviest displeasure and render our selves liable to eternal misery and so proceed II. To enquire who those are that do run this great danger they who eat and drink unworthily Now this phrase of eating unworthily being onely found here in this Chapter for the understanding of it we are to consider what the faults were with which the Apostle chargeth the Corinthians and we shall find them to be some very heinous disorders that had crept in amongst them occasioned by their Love-feasts at the end of which the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was usually celebrated which disorders therefore were peculiar to those times and are not now to be found amongst us as v. 18. First of all when ye come together in the Church I hear that there be divisions among you they bandied into separate parties and v. 21. In eating every one taketh before another his own supper that is Whereas there was a custome when they came together to commemorate Christ's death to furnish a common table where no man was to pretend any propriety to what he himself brought but was to eat in common with the rest this charitable custome these Corinthians wholly perverted for he that brought a great deal fell to that as if it were at his own house and at his own table and so fed to the full whereas another that was able to bring but a little remained hungry With such irreverence and disorder did they behave themselves at the Lord's Table as if they had been met at a common feast this the Apostle calls not discerning the Lord's body that is they made no difference between that heavenly food and common bread they ate the Sacrament as if it were their ordinary meat What saith he v. 22. have ye not houses to eat and drink in ye may e'en as well stay at home and doe this there is nothing of Religion in this nor is this to celebrate the Sacrament according to Christ's institution whereby we ought to represent his death for the world and to commemorate his love and to devote our selves to him in new and better obedience and not to make it a merry meeting onely to fill our own bellies But this was not all for they were also riotous and intemperate in these Love-feasts They play'd the gluttons and were drunk even when they received the holy Sacrament Now this was so notorious and foul a prophanation of the holy Mystery to make it an instrument of debauchery that we cannot at all wonder that God should so severely threaten and punish such an high affront and violation of his sacred ordinance No

hath forbidden us How strange is this for men out of a dread of damnation to neglect their duty and yet at the same time not to be afraid to live carnal and sensual lives Never therefore let any amongst you so long as you continue in your sins plead that you are afraid you should offend your Saviour if unworthily you eat his body and drink his bloud and therefore dare not communicate for your daily practice confutes this pretence whilst you notoriously break his Laws and violate his Authority and scandalize his Religion You pretend fear of damnation no such matter this is not the true reason of your abstaining from this Sacrament You are rather afraid the Sacrament will engage you to leave those sins you have no mind as yet to part with that it will put you upon the practice of those duties which are inconsistent with your profit pleasure or secular interest You are not afraid of displeasing God but of being too strictly tied and bound to please him You are afraid lest that solemnity should raise some scruples in your minds which you have no leisure to consider of You would not be troubled with such a serious business you suspect you shall not be able to sin so securely and quietly after it as now you do Let not such therefore as neglect this duty invent any such pitifull excuses but confess plainly that they love sin and the world too much that they prize them above the benefits purchased by Jesus Christ that they resolve to go on in their wickedness for some longer time and that therefore they do not come to this Sacrament They are loth to engage themselves so solemnly to doe that which they find in themselves no heart or will to perform This indeed is the secret thought of many men though indeed it is a very foolish one for they are very much mistaken who think themselves at greater liberty to doe evil whilst they abstain from this Sacrament for Christians are engaged by receiving this Sacrament to no other obedience than they were before by their Baptism it doth not so much oblige us to new duties as enable us to make good those obligations which our profession of Christianity hath already laid upon us 5. And Lastly If the receiving of this Sacrament were an indifferent rite or ceremony that might be done or omitted at pleasure then indeed the great danger there is in receiving it unworthily might in a great measure justify our omission of it But what if the danger be as great and the hazard equal of not receiving it at all as of receiving it unworthily where then is our prudence or safety when to avoid one danger we run into another every whit as great when for fear of displeasing God we disobey a plain command and for fear of damnation commit a damnable sin for I can call it no less to live in the neglect and contempt of this holy institution It is not very easie to determine which is the greatest affront to God or doth most highly provoke him never to perform our duty or to perform it after a wrong manner never to pray at all or to be present at prayers but not to mind or regard what we are about never to receive this Sacrament or to receive it often but make no difference between what we and drink there and what eat we do at our own houses But however he that receives this Sacrament although it be after an undue manner seems to me to shew somewhat more respect to God and his commands than he who wholly neglects it And besides there is hardly any wicked man that dares come to the Sacrament without some good thoughts and resolutions or who is not for a little time before and after the receiving of it more carefull of himself and his actions and though this doth not last long but he soon returns to his former wickedness yet however this is something better than continuing in sin and wickedness without any intermission or cessation Moreover such an one uses the best means of becoming better which by God's grace at some time may prove effectual whereas he that casts off all these duties is in a more desperate and irreclaimable state In short were there neither sin nor danger in omitting this Sacrament and yet so great hazard in the receiving it unworthily prudence and interest might engage us to chuse the safest side and not to meddle with it at all but if we expose our selves as certainly to God's anger and displeasure by wholly neglecting this duty as by performing it unduly then these words of the Apostle can be no pretence or excuse for our abstaining from this Communion For would not this be an odd way of arguing because intemperate eating and drinking is very prejudicial to our health and often breeds mortal diseases therefore 't is better never to eat or drink at all would it not be madness lest we should kill our selves by a surfeit to resolve to starve our selves by obstinate fasting And this shall bring me to the fourth and last thing I propounded to discourse of which was IV. To shew what is the onely true and just consequence which can be drawn from what is here affirmed by the Apostle He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself which is this that forasmuch as our Saviour hath plainly commanded all his Followers and Disciples to doe this in remembrance of him and yet on the other side there is so great danger in doing it unworthily that we should neither omit the duty for that would be a plain transgression of our Saviour's command nor yet be careless in the performance of it And this is the inference which the Apostle himself makes not that the Corinthians whom he blames so much for their unworthy receiving this Sacrament should therefore forbear coming to it any more at all but for the future they should examine themselves and partake of it with greater reverence and devotion than they had used to do Let the danger of receiving unworthily be never so great the consideration of this ought onely to make us so much the more carefull to receive it after a right and acceptable manner and to put us upon greater watchfulness over our selves when we meddle with such sacred things This is the use we ought to make of these words of the Apostle not rashly or precipitantly without due preparation or consideration to rush upon this holy Sacrament but seriously to mind the end and design of it and so duely to affect our spirits with the things represented to us by it that they may make lively and lasting impressions upon us and we may bring forth the fruit of all in a holy and unblamable conversation in the world To end all I would not have any thing I have now said upon this subject to you so interpreted or understood as in the least to take away from the reverence you have of