cases that are too hard for your selves to resolve and where you need their special help 3. That you lovingly admonish them that you know do intend to communicate unworthily and to come thither in their ungodliness and gross sin unrepented of That you shew not such hatred of your Brother as to suffer sin upon him Lev. 19. 17. But tell him his faults as Christ hath directed you Mat. 18. 15 16 17. And do your parts to promote Christs Discipline and keep pure the Church See 1 Cor 5. throughout Direct 6. When you come to the holy Communion let not the over-scrupulous regard of the person of the Minister or the company or the imperfections of the ministration disturb your meditations nor call away your minds from the high and serious imployment of the day Hypocrites who place their Religion in bodily exercises have taught many weak Christians to take up unecessary scruples and to turn their eye and observation too much to things without them Quest But should we have no regard to the due celebration of these sacred Mysteries and to the Minister and communicants and manner of Administration Answ Yes You should have so much regard to them 1. As to see that nothing be amiss through your default which is in your power to amend 2. And that you joyn not in the committing of any known sin But 1. Take not every sin of another for your sin and think not that you are guilty of that in others which you cannot amend or that you must forsake the Church and worship of God for these corruptions which you are not guilty of or deny your own mercies because others usurp them or abuse them 2. If you suspect any thing imposed upon you to be sinful to you try it before you come thither and leave not your minds open to disturbance when they should be wholly imployed with Christ Quest But what if my conscience be not satisfied but I am still in doubt must I not forbear Seeing he that doubteth is condemned if he eat because he eateth not in Faith for whatsoever is not of Faith is sin Answ The Apostle there speaketh not of eating in the Sacrament but of eating meats which he doubteth of whether they are lawful but is sure that it is lawful to forbear them And in case of doubting about things indifferent the surer side is to forbear them because there may be sin in doing but there can be none on the other side in forbearing But in case of Duties your doubting will not disoblige you else men might give over praying and hearing Gods Word and believing and obeying their Rulers and maintaining their Families when they are but blind enough to doubt of it 2. Your erring Conscience is not a Law-maker and cannot make it your duty to obey it For God is your King and the Office of your Conscience is to discern his Law and urge you to obedience and not to make you Laws of its own So that if it speak falsly it doth not oblige you but deceive you It doth only ligate or insnare you but not obligare or make a sin a duty It casteth you into necessity of sinning more or less till you relinquish the error But in case of such duties as these it is a sin to do them with a doubting Conscience but ordinarily it is a greater sin to forbear Object But some Divines write that Conscience being Gods Officer when it erreth God himself doth bind me by it to follow that error and the evil which it requireth becometh my duty Answ A dangerous error tending to subversion of Souls and Kingdoms and highly dishonourable to God God hath made it your duty to know his Will and do it And if you ignorantly mistake him will you lay the blame on him and draw him into participation of your sin when he forbiddeth you both the error and the sin And doth he at once forbid and command the same thing At that very moment God is so far from obliging you to follow your error that he still obligeth you to lay it by and do the contrary If you say You cannot I answer Your impotency is a sinful impotency and you can use the means in which his Grace can help you and he will not change his Law nor make you Kings and Rulers of your selves instead of him because you are ignorant or impotent Direct 7. In the time of administration go along with the Minister throughout the work and keep your hearts close to Jesus Christ in the exercise of all those Graces which are suited to the several parts of the administration Think not that all the work must be the Minister's It should be a busie day with you and your hearts should be taken up with as much diligence as your hands be in your common labor but not in a toilsome weary diligence but in such delightful business as becometh the guests of the God of Heaven at so sweet a feast and in the receiving of such unvaluable gifts Here I should distinctly shew you I. What Graces they be that you must there exercise II. What there is obiectively presented before you in the Sacrament to exercise all these Graces III. At what seasons in the administration each of these inward works are to be done I. The Graces to be exercised are these besides that holy fear and reverence common to all worship 1. A humble sense of the odiousness of sin and of our undone condition as in our selves and a displeasure against our selves loathing of our selves and melting Repentance for the sins we have committed as against our Creator and as against the Love and Mercy of a Redeemer and as against the holy Spirit of Grace 2. A hungring and thirsting desire after the Lord Jesus and his Grace and the favour of God and communion with him which are there represented and offered to the Soul 3. A lively Faith in our Redeemer his death resurrection and intercession and a trusting our miserable souls upon him as our sufficient Saviour and help And a hearty acceptance of him and his benefits upon his offered terms 4. A joy and gladness in the sense of that unspeakable mercy which is here offered us 5. A thankful heart towards him from whom we do receive it 6. A fervent Love to him that by such Love doth seek our Love 7. A triumphant Hope of life eternal which is purchased for us and sealed to us 8. A willingness and resolution to deny our selves and all this world and suffer for him that hath suffered for our Redemption 9. A Love to our Brethren our Neighbours and our Enemies with a readiness to relieve them and to forgive them when they do us wrong 10. And a firm Resolution for future obedience to our Creator and Redeemer and Sanctifier according to our Covenant II. In the naming of these Graces I have named their objects which you should observe as distinctly as you can that they may be operative 1. To
the Sacrament and both these still remain his duty to be performed in this order And if he say I cannot be resolved when I have done my best Yet certainly it is some sin of his own that keepeth him in the dark and hindereth his assurance and therefore duty ceaseth not to be duty The Law of Christ still obligeth him both to get assurance and to receive and the want both of the knowledge of his state and of Receiving the Sacrament are his continual sin if he lie in it never so long through these scruples though it be an infirmity that God will not condemn him for For he is supposed to be in a state of Grace But you will say What if still he cannot be resolved whether he have true Faith and Repentance or not What should he do while he is in doubt I answer It is one thing to ask what is his duty in this case and another thing to ask Which is the smaller or less dangerous sin Still his duty is both to get the knowledge of his heart and to communicate But while he sinneth through infirmity in the failing of the first were he better also omit the other or not To be well resolved of that you must discern 1. Whether his judgment of himself do rather incline to think and hope that he is sincere in his repentance and Faith or that he is not 2. And whether the consequents are like to be good or bad to him If his hopes that he is sincere be as great or greater than his fears of the contrary then there is no such ill consequent to be feared as may hinder his communicating but it is his best way to do it and wait on God in the use of his Ordinance But if the perswasion of his gracelesness be greater than the hopes of his sincerity then he must observe how he is like to be affected if he do communicate If he find that he is like to clear up his mind aed increase his hopes by the actuating of his Grace he is yet best to go But if he find that his heart is like to be over whelmed with horror and sunk into despair by running into the supposed guilt of unworthy receiving then it will be worse to do it than to omit it Many such fearful Christians I have known that are fain many years to absent themselves from the Sacrament because if they should receive it while they are perswaded of their utter unworthiness they would be swallowed up of desperation and think that they had taken their own damnatioa as the Twenty fifth Article of the Church of England saith the unworthy receivers do So that the chief sin of such a doubting receiver is not that he receiveth though he doubt for doubting will not excuse us for the sinful omission of a duty no more of this than of Prayer or Thanksgiving But only Prudence requireth such a one to forbear that which through his own distemper would be a means of his despair and ruine As that Physick or Food how good soever is not to be taken which would kill the taker Gods Ordinances are not appointed for our destruction but for our edification and so must be used as tendeth thereunto Yet to those Christians who are in this case and dare not communicate I must put this Question How dare you so long refuse it He that consenteth to the Covenant may boldly come and signifie his consent and receive the sealed Covenant of God for consent is your preparation or the necessary condition of your Right If you consent not you refuse all the Mercy of the Covenant And dare you live in such a state Suppose a Pardon be offered to a condemned Thief but so that if he after cast it in the dirt or turn Traytor he shall die a sorer death will he rather chuse to die than take it and say I am afraid I shall abuse it To refuse Gods Covenant is certain death but to consent is your preparation and your life Quest 7. Wherein lieth the sin of an Hypocrite and ungodly person if he do receive Answ His sin is 1. In lying and hypocrisie in that he professeth to repent unfeignedly of his sin and to be resolved for a holy life and to believe in Christ and to accept him on his Covenant-terms and to give up himself to God as his Father his Saviour and his Sanctifier and to forsake the Flesh the World and the Devil when indeed he never did any of this but secretly abhorreth it at his heart and will not be perswaded to it And so all this Profession and his very Covenanting it self and his Receiving as it is a Professing-covenanting-sign is nothing but a very lie And what it is to lie to the Holy Ghost the case of Ananias and Sapphira telleth us 2. It is usurpation to come and lay claim to those Benefits which he hath no title to 3. It is a prophanation of these holy Mysteries to be thus used and it is a taking of Gods Name in vain who is a jealous God and will be sanctified of all that draw near unto him 4. And it is a wrong to the Church of God the Communion of Saints the honour of the Christian Religion that such ungodly Hypocrites intrude as Members As it is to the Kings Army when the Enemies Spies creep in amongst them or to his Marriage-feast to have a guest in rags Mat. 22. 11 12. Object But it is no lie because they think they say true in their Profession Answ That is through their sinful negligence and self-deceit And he is a lier that speaks a falshood which he may and ought to know to be a falshood though he do not know it There is a lier in rashness and negligence as well as of set purpose Quest 8 doth all unworthy receiving make a man liable to damnation Or what unworthiness is it that is so threatned Answ There are three sorts of unworthiness or unfitness and three sorts of Judgment answerably to be feared 1. There is the utter unworthiness of an Infidel or impenitent ungodly Hypocrite And damnation to Hell fire is the punishment that such must expect if Conversion prevent it not 2. There is an unworthiness through some great and scandalous crime which a regenerate person falleth into and this should stop him from the Sacrament for a time till he have repented and cast away his sin And if he come before he rise from his fall by a particular repentance as the Corinthians that sinned in the very use of the Sacrament it self they may expect some notable temporal judgment at the present and if Repentance didnot prevent it they might fear Eternal punishment 3. There is that measure of unworthiness which consisteth in the ordinary infirmities of a Saint and this should not at all deter them from the Sacrament because it is accompanied with a greater worthiness yea though their weakness appear in the time and manner of their
of some with terrors 2. By studying more the terrible words of eating and drinking damnation to themselves if they do it unworthily than all the expressions of Love and Mercy which that Blessed Feast is furnished with So that when the viewes of infinite Love should ravish them they are studying wrath and vengeance to terrifie them as if they came to Moses and not to Christ 3. By not understanding what maketh a Receiver worthy or unworthy but taking their unwilling infirmities for condemning unworthiness 4. By receiving it so seldom as to make it strange to them and increase their fear whereas if it were administred every Lords day as it was in the Primitve Churches it would better acquaint them with it and cure that fear that cometh from strangeness 5. By imagining that none that want assurance of their own sincerity can receive in Faith 6. By contracting an ill habit of mistaken Religiousness placing it all in poring on themselves and mourning for their corruptions and not in studying the Love of God in Christ and living in the daily praises of his Name and joyful thanksgiving for his exceeding Mercies 7. And if besides all these the Body contract a weak or timorous melancholly distemper it will leave the mind capable of almost nothing but fear and trouble even in the sweetest works From many such causes it cometh to pass that the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is become more terrible and uncomfortable to abundance of such distempered Christians than any other Ordinance of God that which should most comfort them doth trouble them most Quest 1. But is not this Sacrament more holy and dreadful and should it not have more preparation than other parts of worship Answ For the degree indeed it should have very careful preparation And we cannot well compare it with other parts of worship as Praise Thanksgiving Covenanting with God Prayer c. Because that all these other parts are here comprised and performed But doubtless God must also be sanctified in all his other worship and his Name must not be taken in vain And when this Sacrament was received every Lords day and often in the week besides Christians were supposed to live continually in a state of general preparation and not to be so far from a due particular preparation as many poor Christians think they are Quest 2. How often should the Sacrament be now administred that it neither grow into contempt nor strangeness Answ Ordinarily in well Displined Churches it should be still every Lord's day For 1. We have no reason to prove that the Apostles example and appointment in this case was proper to those times any more than that praise and thanksgiving daily is proper to them And we may as well deny the obligation of other Institutions or Apostolical Orders as that 2. It is a part of the settled order for the Lords day's worship and omitting it maimeth and altereth the worship for the day and occasioneth the omission of the thanksgiving and praise and lively commemorations of Christ which should be then most performed And so Christians by use grow habited to sadness and a mourning melancholly Religion and grow unacquainted with much of the Worship and Spirit of the Gospel 3. Hereby the Papists lamentable corruptions of this Ordinance have grown up even by an excess of reverence and fear which seldom receiving doth increase till they are come to worship Bread as their God 4. By seldom communicating Men are seduced to think all proper Communion of Churches lieth in that Sacrament and to be more prophanely bold in abusing many other parts of worship 5. There are better means by Teaching and Discipline to keep the Sacrament from contempt than the omitting or displacing of it 6. Every Lord's day is no oftener than Christians need it 7. The frequency will teach them to live prepared and not only to make much ado once a Month or Quarter when the same work is neglected all the year beside even as one that liveth in continual expectation of death will live in continual preparation When he that expecteth it but in some grievous sickness will then be frightned into some seeming preparations which are not the habit of his Soul but laid by again when the disease is over 2. But yet I must add that in some indisciplined Churches and upon some occasions it may be longer omitted or seldomer used no duty is a duty at all â—imes And therefore extraordinary cases may raise such impediments as may hinder us a long time from this and many other Priviledges But the ordinary faultness of our imperfect hearts that are apt â—o grow customary and dull is no good reason why it should be seldom any more than why other special duties of Worship and Church-Communion should be seldom Read well the Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians and you will find that theâ— were then as bad as the true Christians â—re now and that even in this Sacrament they were very culpable and yet Paul seeketh not to cure them by their seldomer communicating Q 3. Are all the Members of the visible Church to be admitted to this Sacrament or Communicate Answ All are not to seek it or to take it because many may know their own unfitness when the Church or Pastors know it not But all that come and seek it are to be admitted by the Pastors except such Children Idiots ignorant persons or Heriticks as know not what they are to receive and do and such as are notoriously wicked or scandalous and have not manifested their repentance But then it is presupposed that none should be numbred with the adult members of the Church but those that have personally owned their Baptismal Covenant by a Credible Profession of true Christianity Quest 4. May a Man that hath knowledge and civility and common gifts come and take this Sacrament if he know that he is yet void of true repentance and other saving Grace Answ No for he then knoweth himself to be one that is uncapable of it in his present state Quest 5. May an ungodly Man receive this Sacrament who knoweth not himself to be ungodly Answ No For he ought to know it and his sinful ignorance of his own condition will not make his sin to be his duty nor excuse his other faults before God Quest 6. Must a sincere Christian receive that is uncertain of his sincerity and in continual doubting Answ Two preparations are necessary to this Sacrament the general preparation which is a state of Grace and this the doubting Christian hath and the particular preparation which consisteth in his present actual fitness And all the question is of this And to know this you must further distinguish between immediate duty and more remote and between the degrees of doubtfulness in Christians 1. The nearest immediate duty of the doubting Christian is to use the means to have his doubts resolved till te know his case and then his next duty is to receive