the fault an exception against or dispensation against the duty nor say one word that might allow or encourage their intermitting of it by reason thereof from whence I think I may safely collect thus much that what the Apostle said to the Corinthians concerning the sin and danger of eating and drinking unworthily was never intended to hinder Men from eating nor designed to be an excuse and plea for Mens not doing so as some are pleased to make it at this day For if it had there is no doubt but he would have given some plain intimation of it or at least have said something from whence Men might have collected that to be his meaning we cannot suppose that he would have been silent in so very great and concerning a case and not have given Men some warning rather than let them run on in a fact which was sure to pull down such judgments upon their heads It seems plain the Apostle had no such thoughts of this matter then as some Men have now he never thought that the sin or danger of doing a duty amiss might be made an exception against doing it at all or that threatening damnation to eating and drinking unworthily should scare Men from eating and drinking at all he takes what care he can that the duty may be performed and the error in doing it effectually reformed but he never makes the danger of the one a dispensation from the other nor lets fall the least word that can be interpreted to such a meaning he tells them indeed what a great sin it is to eat and drink unworthily and he tells them what punishments it makes them obnoxious unto but he doth not therefore tell them they may stay away from the Sacrament for fear of committing the sin or incurring the danger or that it were safer for them to keep wholly from the one than venture the hazard of the other no and he doth not do this when they did actually commit the one and when they did as really suffer under the other Now the Improvement that I make of this procedure of the Apostle and this last named circumstance relating to it is this that therefore the care possibility and fear of eating unworthily should not be thought a sufficient plea for not eating at all the Apostle did not allow or encourage Men to stay away from the Holy Sacrament when they did greatly profane it when they did eat unworthily in the grossest sense much less then may Men stay away from it only upon a suspicion and fear of this and of that punishment that is due to it This I take to be a true way of arguing and worthy of consideration in this matter the Corinthians were extreamly faulty in this thing not only were in danger of eating unworthily but actually did so in the grossest manner and yet the Apostle saith not one word of their staying away upon that reason which he certainly would have done had he thought this cause of just exception and that it had been better for them to stay wholly away from the Holy Sacrament than to contract so great a guilt and incur so dreadful a punishment by their coming amiss and not as they should do This I confess is a negative argument which is not always and in all cases good and concluding yet in such a case as this it certainly is so if a thing be no where said in Scripture which if it were true is very necessary and importing to be known and if it be not said there where it was very proper and necessary it should have been said then we may from that silence of the Scripture conclude against it if we deny this argument we shall hardly be able to make good the sufficiency of the Scriptures or the faithfulness of the inspired penmen of it we must be forced to entertain mean thoughts of the great S. Paul if we can think that he knew of any such things and yet would not reveal it when there was so fair an opportunity for doing so and when it was so very necessary and of such advantage to be known 2. But I shall proceed to add some other considerations which will be as so many rational arguments for the truth of our present collection which was the second way that I promised to make it good by I shall insist upon these five that follow 1. Our Communicating in the Holy Sacrament is a plain necessary duty 2. The possibility of doing it amiss is no greater than of our doing other duties of Religion amiss which yet we our selves count necessary to be done and do keep up the practice of 3. The punishment or danger of doing this amiss is no more dreadful than what may be feared upon the like failure in doing other duties amiss 4. Whatever sin or danger there can be in eating unworthily there is as much or greater in not eating at all 5. The danger of eating unworthily is that which is occasioned only by our own default and which we may correct and get out of the reach of These are plain considerations pertinent to our present purpose and which it will highly concern all that labor under any scruples and fears in this case seriously to weigh and consider well CHAP. IV. I begin with the first of these Considerations which is indeed the foundation of all the rest and which when I have cleared the reasonableness of the other will easily follow the Argument is this the Communicating in the Holy Sacrament is a plain express necessary duty I Should think I need not be put upon the proof of this in a Christian audience nor required to make good that which no one that hath read and believes the Gospel can deny and I must confess to me it is matter of great wonder that any Christians should look upon the Holy Sacrament otherwise than a necessary standing duty and service of their Religion I am very sure it relies upon as plain and express a command and upon as weighty and great a reason as any ministry in Christian Religion either doth or can do and would men consider both these things they could not remain doubtful in this matter they could not look upon the Sacrament as a thing of choice and left to their own freedom whether they would observe it or not but tyed upon them by plain and peremptory precept and made matter of their necessary and fixed duty And to the end that all Christians may look upon and esteem it as such I beg that these few things among many others may be considered by them 1. That the Holy Sacrament is instituted ordain'd and commanded by our Lord in words as express and plain as ever any thing could or ever was commanded by him I shall need for your satisfaction in this but barely to repeat the words of the Evangelists three of whom mention the institution of the Holy Sacrament Mat. 26.26 27 28. and as they were eating Jesus took bread and
very dangerous temptation and a snare and there are two evident ill purposes that Satan intends to serve by it First to keep men in the neglect and disuse of this duty which besides that it is a very great sin as being the omission of a necessary indispensable duty is the neglecting of a thing that is so highly advantageous to all the great purposes of salvation and consequently so very destructive to that malicious and spightful design that he hath against all men I am very confident there is not any one service in Christian Religion that the Devil hath a greater spight against and dread of than the Holy Sacrament nor any thing that it is more his endeavour and interest to prejudice men against and hinder them from Now of all the Stratagems that he can use to this purpose this is the most specious and with all men of any honesty the most taking for to seem fearful of sin and guilt and very shie of any thing in which they fear to incur it is a very specious thing it looks well and is certainly in it self a commendable thing easily embraced and readily swallowed Yea and let me add is as hardly removed when men have once given way to it when men can appeal to their own minds and be able to say that they are afraid of Communicating amiss and sinning greatly in doing so and that nothing but this keeps them from the Holy Sacrament it is a very hard thing to perswade them to it they think they are on the surer side and it will not be an easie matter to make them change I am the more earnest therefore in begging men to take heed of entertaining this opinion it is a dangerous temptation and a snare and that which this subtil enemy under the semblance of a friend puts upon them on purpose to hinder them from an absolutely necessary yea and most advantageous duty by the sin and folly of which he will ruin and destroy them more fatally and successfully than they would be ruin'd by any sin and guilt in Communicating in the Holy Sacrament though they did not Communicate so well and becomingly as they should do Endeavour therefore I beseech you to clear your minds from this superstitious unreasonable fear that men have so generally in this age and to which I wish I could not say the doctrins of some men have been so contributive Fortifie your minds with the steddy and assured belief that there is no more guilt in doing this service amiss than in doing others so nor any reason as I shall endeavour to prove hereafter to apprehend God more inexorable and severe or less merciful and ready to pardon our failings in this than in others You would find this a great ease and relief to your minds and that which would enable you to address to this service of Religion with as much chearfulness and comfort with as good hope of divine mercy acceptance and blessing as in any others But 'till you do endeavor this and get your minds in some good measure cleared from this dreadful apprehension you will never attain to any considerable chearfulness and comfort of mind in it but there will be some trembling and dread upon your spirits some anxious misgivings and abodings of mind which will make this service unpleasant and uneasie to you and at last go near to cause you to sit down in a total neglect of it A second evil design that the Devil hath in this is to render men careless and negligent in all others for by causing their zeal and care to be so great about this he will go near to make it the less in them and by magnifying the guilt of doing this unworthily he will cause the guilt of doing others unworthily to grow less Men may possibly imagine it will not be thus but it is almost certain and ever seen in experience to be so men shall seldom or never appear so extraordinarily zealous and careful in one thing but they may be trap'd and found careless in others and it may be it would be found upon observation to be so in this very instance observe it and you shall find abundace of those very men that seem so over-fearful of sin and guilt in this case to be very careless of it in others and easily surmounting the sense and fear of it and therefore I once more caution men against this opinion it is of very dangerous effects and is intended to serve the very worst and most mischievous designs against them SECT II. 3. THis equal possibility of sin and guilt in doing other services of Religion amiss is not counted by us a sufficient reason to abstain from the doing of them upon That we judge truly in this case and that this possibility of sin and guilt is not a good reason in it self appears clearly upon these two reasons among many others First that it would discharge a man from all services of Religion And Secondly that it is much better to do a duty as well as we can though not so well as we should than to disregard and neglect it altogether 1. If this reason were good it would discharge a man from all services of Religion as well as the Holy Sacrament for there is not any one of these which we are not as apt to fail in doing of as this and none in which a failure is not in it self as offensive and provoking to God both these I have made good already the one relies upon too true experience and the other upon plain Scripture We need but observe our selves and our own temper to see how oft we offend or rather to convince us that we cannot tell how oft we offend and do amiss in our best performances in many things we offend all saith S. James Chap. 3.2 and truly in all things we offend some we cannot discharge any duty of Religon so exactly and so truly as we ought but should God be extream and strict to mark our failings he might most justly reject us and our best performances too Should God deal with us in strict proportions or by those measures that he did with the Jews of old should he refuse to accept any sacrifice in which there were the least imperfection and blemish it were woe with us our hearts might justly tremble within us as oft as we came into his presence and with the men of Bethshemesh might cry out with terror and dread who can stand before this holy Lord God! we should like our guilty protoplast run away from the divine presence rather than come with any comfort or hope into it and always be afraid to offer any sacrifice to him For the reason is equally true in all and if it be good in one case it is so in another if aptness to do amiss and danger to incur Gods displeasure thereby be a good reason to keep men from the Holy Sacrament it is good also to keep them from all other services
happy medium between these two which always is open and should alwaies be taken by Men in this case viz. to do their duty and do all they can to remedy that which would indispose them for it A Man may be sensible of his indisposition and sorry for it he may endeavour and pray against it implore the divine mercy for the pardon and grace for the removal of it and this he should do but by no means sit down under it and neglect so necessary a service of Religion by reason of it I think it much better and therefore should advise a Man rather to go to the Holy Sacrament though some present indisposition were upon him than so far to yield to the one as to neglect the other I am sure a necessary duty ought to be done and it is much better to do it as well as a Man can then wholly neglect it because he is at present unfit to do it so well as he should Now if Men would consider this and remember that they never do well in staying from the Holy Sacrament upon this reason and that they are not innocent in it did they believe that every time they stay away from it they sin in doing so it would perhaps give some check to that liberty which they commonly take in this case and that they ought thus to believe and thus to consider will appear plain upon these two reasons which I but just name because I have considered them already First that the Holy Sacrament is a necessary service of Religion and it is a Christians indispensible duty to partake of it when he may The Administration of the Sacraments is on all hands granted necessary to the being of a Christian Church and the partaking of them necessary to the being a true member of that Church God hath neither left it to our liberty and choice whether we will receive it at all or not nor whether we will receive it at this time and not that it is our necessary duty and it is our standing constant duty at least every time that the Church doth call us unto it So that upon the same reason that Men think themselves obliged to go to Church every Sunday and joyn in the publick Prayers and Service of it and do not count every little indisposition upon them a discharge from it upon the same they ought to think it their duty to go to the Holy Sacrament every time the Church administers it and that every accidental indisposition can no more excuse them from the one than the other for the neglecting it at any time is neglecting a duty and neglecting a duty is a sin and whatever any present indisposition may do towards the extenuating of it yet it can never warrant or justifie the same And that secondly because that indisposition whatever it be is our own only fault This I have proved before whatever indispositions may be upon us whatever it is that we think renders us at present unfit to communicate it is come upon us by our own only carelesness and neglect we should and with the help of God's grace we might live so as to be reasonably fit for this service at any time and it is our own folly and fault if we be not And if this be true it will soon satisfie any Man in this matter unless he be so gross as to think that one sin can excuse another or that a Man's sins not in neglecting that duty which his own folly and vice hath indisposed him for SECT I. ANd now I resume the purport of this fourth consideration which is this Suppose some present indisposition and unfitness be upon a Man and suppose it could be a sufficient excuse for his not receiving the Holy Sacrament yet it would be so but for that own time only speedy care ought to be taken against it and all endeavour used for the removal of it against the next time for continual unfitness can't possibly excuse any Man from it I lay down this against those that are alwaies complaining of their unfitness for the Holy Sacrament and upon that reason stay always from it hoping to be excused in so doing Few things are more common than this and we see it instanced almost every Day there are some careless negligent persons on one hand that care not to come up to the full communion of the Church and there are some disaffected persons on the other that are prejudiced against it but both sides when pressed to the Holy Sacrament have the same plea of their unworthiness ready to make and think to be excused upon the reason of it One sort of Men plead it honestly and upon real scruple but it is to be feared another sort plead it upon design and use it as an artificial excuse against that which they have no mind unto I shall not consider these sorts of people distinctly and separately but apply my self to the removal of this evil and argue the unreasonableness of it upon such considerations as may be proper for the cure of it from what cause soever it may arise 1. And first I desire to know whether such Men count their unworthiness and unfitness a Sin or not and I ask this question because I really fear a great many do not Men talk of their unworthiness and complain of unfitness and I fear count it a piece of humility to do so and an acceptable thing to confess it without ever reflecting sorrowfully upon it as their great guilt and that which they are obliged to reform It 's no new thing to hear some Men declare tragically against themselves and to seem mighty exact in confessing of those Sins which they are far enough from hating or resolving to amend and we know too many that count it enough to confess their Sins without any care to forsake them And I am very much afraid it is so with too many in our present case they call themselves unfit and unworthy for the Holy Sacrament but I do not see them much concerned or troubled that they are so no nor condemning or thinking worse of themselves because of it And therefore to any that pleads this in bar of his coming to the Holy Sacrament I would make this inquiry in the first place whether they look upon this unfitness as a crime as a Sin in them or not and one would be ready to think that Men could never impose so far upon themselves as not to think so and that they must be under some great delusions if they do let us agree therefore upon this in the first place and we shall better go on to what remains this is really a great fault which Men ought to be sensible of and to grieve for and not to look upon with indifferency and unconcernedness much less to value themselves upon 2. Since then it is and ought to be acknowledged to be a Sin and a very grievous fault I desire they will please to consider and
tell me if it ought not to be reformed and amended one would think there were no need to ask this question nor to doubt whether Men should amend their faults or not this is a thing not to be so much as deliberated about by any that consider what an evil Sin is in it self what a train of mischiefs it draws after it and what a dreadful thing it is to live in that which exposeth a Man to the wrath of an Almighty God and such a thing unfitness for the Holy Sacrament is if it be a Sin. I would therefore have Men as sensible and fearful of Sin in this as they appear to be of it on the other side and then they would no more dare to continue in this than be guilty of the other We see some Men mighty sensible of the Sin of eating and drinking unworthily and very fearful of being guilty of it Now I would fain have them as sensible of the Sin of being unworthy and unfit to eat and as much afraid to continue in it the guilt is the same in both cases and therefore if they be afraid of Sin upon a true reason in one they will be so in the other also I have often said and some Men cannot be told it too often that it is a bad sign to see Men scrupulous and tender only on one side and 't is an unaccountable thing to see Men so fearful of sinning in coming to the Holy Sacrament but never to scruple or be afraid of sinning in staying from it and being unfit to come Starting and trembling at the thoughts of Sin in the one but being regardless and insensible of it in the other 3. If it be then a Sin and what Men ought to amend I ask in the third place when Men intend to set about it and endeavour to become fitter must it be postpon'd and put off as many other good and necessary things are to hereafter and to a time to come no body knows when this is that unaccountable folly that Men are so ready to condemn all others for in other cases and therefore should not allow in themselves here All the great arguments that combine against the folly and danger of procrastinating in repentance and putting off good purposes to hereafter unite against this and Men that can urge them so readily to others in those cases should not resist them themselves in this Besides all which there is one consideration which seems peculiar in this case and ought to be of effect in it and that is that coming to the Holy Sacrament is one good means to become fit and to redress the unworthiness that Men complain of I said once before in this discourse that few Men become more fit by staying from it but many have by coming to it the longer Men stay away the more unfit in all probability they will be and one good way of coming fitly is to come as well as they can So that it is not only here as it is in some other cases the sooner Men set about redressing the unfitness the easier the doing it will be but the very setting about it is a good part of it and I not only say that the longer Men continue unfit the more guilt they contract and the heavier will the burthen of their Sin be the greater hazard they run and put their duty upon the greater uncertainty and chance but they aggravate their unfitness enhanse their indisposition and contribute to the difficulty of removing the same 4. Having got thus far then that this is an evil that it ought to be reformed and the sooner the better in all respects it will easily be considered that if Men do sit down under their unfitness it is plainly wilful and affected Men that know their faults and how greatly they are concerned to reform them and yet do not shew themselves to be greatly in love with them or enslaved to them and Men that will not strive against their diseases seem pleased with them Now in such a case the evil of the indisposition doubles and whatever guilt results from it swells in the same proportion he that wilfully indulgeth to a Sin enhanseth the guilt of it and he that neglects a duty because he cherisheth that which unfits him for it hath a double guilt to answer for involuntary unaffected indispositions that come upon Men by surprise by the violence of temptation or upon the score of unavoidable infirmity are pitiable and capable of mercy but he that cherisheth them to excuse him from duty stands doubly guilty before God. 5. To all which considerations I only add this one more that whether Men do or do not endeavour to redress their present unfitness for the Holy Sacrament they must be let know and they ought seriously to consider that continual unfitness can never excuse them from it The receiving the Sacrament I have shewed is a necessary indispensible Christian duty for which nothing that I know of but natural incapacities can excuse Men much less such moral indispositions as both should and easily may be removed a present accidental indisposition how fair soever it may bid yet can never excuse a single omission of the Holy Sacrament and if so then I am sure no indisposition can excuse the total continued neglect of it And of all things certainly it were most strange if Men should hope to be excused in the continual neglect of their duty upon pretences of continual unfitness to do it this is so abhorrent to human reason that it cannot be believed No Man living will allow it in a Servant in a Child or in any that owes duty to him and therefore hath no reason to hope that God will allow it in himself especially when he considers that that unfitness hath come upon him through his own fault and might be redressed by some competent care CHAP. XI We are now come to the third and last Collection which was made from this Text viz. That the true and only design of the Apostle in these words and in this form of speaking was to engage the Corinthians to that reverence and devotion in the Holy Sacrament that became so solemn a service of Religion as that is I shall not need to stay long on this Argument for I design but two things only upon it and a little will suffice to dispatch them both 1. I Shall endeavour to prove that this is really the sense of these words and the Apostle's great design in them 2. I shall represent the reasonableness of the thing and shew how fit and necessary devotion and reverence is for them that approach to the Table of the Lord. 1. That this is really the design and purport of the Apostle in these words I shall endeavour to make good from these three considerations First what the crime of the Corinthians was that these words were intended to reform Secondly the phrase of the Text in which he endeavours that reformation And thirdly
different there is no correspondence upon which a comparison may be made between them Eph. 4.1 that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called i. e. sutably to it and as becomes those that make profession of it And so in all the places where Christians are exhorted to walk worthy of the Lord worthy of God and worthy of the Gospel the true sense of all which the same Apostle expresseth Phil. 1.27 by letting their conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ And thus in all the places in the New Testament in which Men are either exhorted to endeavor or declared to be worthy of the Kingdom of God and worthy of the future glory you are not to understand worthy in the utmost sense of the word as it means merit in the sense in which that is now become matter of Controversie for that is against the constant sense and language of the New Testament but only as it signifies meet and fit and duly qualified for such glory Just as most of the Schoolmen when they come to talk closely of merit distinguish between meritum ex condigno and meritum ex congruo and when they would assert mans merit before God make it at last to dwindle into meritum ex congruo i. e. no merit at all properly speaking but only fitness and meetness to receive blessing from him and truly I do not know one place where the word is used of Man with respect either to God or future glory or doing his duty but it is used only in this sense for meet and fitting and so as becomes him in all these respects Now according to this sense unworthy must needs signifie unfit unmeet and unbecoming and accordingly you shall find it is used in two places in the New Testament which are all the places I think besides this Cup where it is meet with Act. 13.46 Seeing you judge your selves unworthy of everlasting life and 1 Cor. 6.2 Are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters i. e. are you unfit to make peace among the brethren and to umpire the small differences that happen between them This now is the signification and this the use commonly of the word in the New Testament viz. to signifie unfitly unbecomingly and not always unworthily in the strictest sense of that word But yet this is but the general signification of the word and the particular is to be determined by that particular matter that it is applied unto so that to determine that here in this place we need only to inquire what that particular worthiness and becomingness is which ought to accompany the doing any duty or service of our Religion and eating and drinking in the Holy Sacrament unworthily will and must needs be the contrary to it according to this signification of the word Now the great and necessary qualification to render the doing any service of Religion becoming and fit is great reverence and devotion out of a just sense of the sacredness of that service and the greatness of that God that it is done unto and therefore to perform any such service of Religion irreverently rudely carelessly and profanely is to do it unworthily and is that very unworthiness that our Apostle intends in this place And that we ought to understand it so here I think I may safely conclude from these two further considerations 1. The reason of the thing which will not suffer us to understand unworthily in the strict and rigorous signification of it for then no man in this present lapsed state could avoid eating and drinking unworthily after his utmost endeavour and care not to do so The best and most devout Man living falls short of that worthiness and perfection in doing this or any other service of Religion that it should be done with he fails in many circumstances of that exactness that ought to grace all religious performances The Lord is great and cannot worthily be praised as our old Translation renders that passage Psal 96.4 i. e. It exceeds the power of Man in this imperfect State to praise the great God in that sublime manner that he ought to be praised in many things saith S. James we offend all Jam. 3.2 and in all even our best things it is certain we offend in so many circumstances that should God be extream to mark what is done amiss no service of the holiest man living could expect to be accepted by him Who is sufficient for these things crieth the inspired S. Paul 2 Cor. 2.16 and yet he speaks it but of preaching the Gospel it were perhaps proper to move the question concerning this service and that with some advantage too Who is sufficient or able to perform it worthily and what Man is he that can think he dischargeth it anytime in every circumstance so as he ought to do we may safely enough answer the question and say not one So that the very reason of the thing concludes us to this sense of the expression for otherwise no Man living ought to commucate nor could do so without eating and drinking damnation to himself which I believe the strictest urgers of this place to this purpose do not believe Every Man finds it too true in daily experience and every good Man puts it into his daily confessions that he doth greatly fail fall very short of doing this or any other duty so worthily as he ought to do and consequently doth always eat and drink unworthily if that were the signification of that expression 2. The second thing that concludes us to this sense of eating and drinking unworthily is the expression that the Apostle explains it by afterwards in this Text and we need but let him expound his own meaning in order to our right understanding of it now that he doth in the last clause of it not discerning the Lords body this is added by the Apostle both as an explanation of the precedent phrase eating and drinking unworthily and a reason too of that punishment that is due to him that doth so he that eateth and drinketh unworthily doth not discern the Lords body and he that doth not so eateth and drinketh damnation to himself This expression I shall choose to explain in the second place as being indeed the true Key to this Text and what the import of it is we may easily learn both from the phrase and that particular error and miscarriage of these Corinthians which the Apostle doth here perstringe and which this whole discourse hath a direct regard unto The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies not differencing or distinguishing the Lords body and is the word commonly used to signifie the differencing of meats and other things under the Law and being applied here to the body of Christ in the Holy Sacrament it signifieth plainly the eating and drinking the holy Symbols of it as common things The eating that bread as common bread and drinking that cup as common wine the putting no difference between that
and after the Holy Comunion and we may commonly see that they do so Men have generally more veneration for Religion than to go drunk to Church or dare to appear before God when they are so unfit to do so And yet even these Men have a higher sense of and a greater veneration for the Holy Sacrament than other services of Religion and a mightier horror and dread of coming carelesly and without respect unto it Yea the very same men that dare so irreverently and regardlesly attend other Ministeries of Religion yet are seen to be very serious and devout in this They that can sit at prayers as if God were rather petitioning and praying to them than they to him They that can lay themselves down to sleep at a Sermon and perhaps sooner fall into sleep on a hard bench there than the softest down in their own houses they in a word that can behave themselves in Gods house with as little reverence and shew of devotion as they do in a Warehouse or a Stable yet when they approach the Table of the Lord seem generally very reverent and devout and I hope really are so 5. There is yet a fifth thing that may pertinently be observed as of effect to secure Men against this profanation of the Holy Sacrament and that is their having been so long taught what a mighty deal of preparation is necessary to it and having been so loudly alarmed with the great danger of communicating unworthily in it This hath been the current Doctrin and the common way of dealing with Men for some ages The great business of the good Fathers was not to perswade Men to come to the Holy Sacrament for that they always accounted their necessary duty and till this last age none ever counted to pass for Christians that neglected it and therefore their business was only to direct the zeal and devotion of Christians in this instance and not to excite it to direct and instruct Men how to come acceptably and as they ought and not to argue with them about the duty of coming and therefore there is so much met with in their writings about the necessity and way of due preparation and so little about the obligation to come many books written to instruct Men in the methods of due preparation but there was no necessity of insisting upon that which is our chief task and business at present For in the latter part of this feculent and almost worst of ages Men have run their instructions and doctrins into the other extreme pressed so much the necessity of an extraordinary preparation and aggravated so mightily the danger of receiving unworthily that Men are frighted from the Sacrament rather than invited to it and have thought it as I said before safer to keep wholly from it than to run so great a hazard in the observation thereof These things we find stick fast in Mens minds yet and it is a hard thing to dispossess them of that superstitious fear that these doctrines have struck them with Men are now in more danger to run into the contrary extreme than to fall into this in more danger to stay wholly from the Holy Sacrament upon this dread of it than to run to it carelesly and without any due regard of the sacredness of it Upon these reasons it may I think safely be said that Christians now are in little danger of this sin and almost out of a possibility of eating and drinking unworthily in the sense of this Text and which the Apostle taxeth the Corinthians for SECT III. HAving proceeded so far upon the strict sense of this place and the direct design of the Apostle in it I go on to a material scruple and a very important inquiry very fit to be considered and resolved And that is whether nothing be eating and drinking unworthily besides this doth a Man never eat and drink unworthily but when he comes drunk to the Lords Table doth not this open a gate to very great looseness and carelesness and make communicating worthily a very light and easie thing to what purpose needed the good Fathers of the Church to have taken so much pains to direct Men how to fit and prepare themselves for this service and have pressed the observance of those prescriptions with so much earnestness as they did if this where the only instance in which Men could eat and drink unworthily This I call a very considerable inquiry and therefore I shall endeavour to give it as plain and full satisfaction as I am able It seems to consist of several parts to all which I shall endeavour to suit proper answers in these following propositions 1. Whatever Men may say or think in this matter this only is that eating and drinking unworthily that the Apostle means in this place and to which he threatens this punishment This I have cleared already and need not stand repeating it again not considering the Lords Body but eating the Holy Sacrament as a common meal being as regardless and intemperate at the Lords Table as Men commonly are at their own was that sin of the Corinthians which the Apostle here taxeth and which he calls eating drinking unworthily Now if Men would consider this it would be one good step towards their satisfaction in this case and of good use towards the removing their fear of eating unworthily For why should men fear incurring the same guilt unless they committed the same sin and while they are very sure they shall not commit the one why should they discourage and afflict themselves with fears of the other It is neither safe nor fair dealing to apply passages of Scripture beyond their own proper intendment and few things have done more harm in Divinity than this As we cannot establish or prove the truth of doctrines from the bare chiming of words or because some sayings may be found in Scripture that seem to found to our sense and purpose no more ought we hastily to extend reproofs and threatnings beyond their own proper matter As for example to make this clear in a parallel case Every failure of a Clergy-man in the discharge of his publick duty is not presently to be thought to be Nadab and Abihu's offering of strange fire nor is presently to expect the like miraculous punishment from heaven No more ought we to conclude that every failure in eating and drinking the Holy Sacrament is presently that eating and drinking unworthily that the Corinthians were guilty of or that every Christian is therefore liable to the same damnation that we think they were threatned withal The Corinthians did not discern the Lords body made no difference between the Sacrament and a common meal came drunk to the Lords Table and in a condition that made them utterly unable to pay any respect or reverence to the Symbols of their Lords body and blood and therefore were sharply threatned and punished too but what is all this to thee that even tremblest at the thoughts of
danger of doing it amiss will not excuse the neglect of it And this I advise all scrupulous and timorous persons in this case to possess their minds in the first place with the steddy and serious belief of as a thing that will go a great way towards silencing all their exceptions against coming to the Holy Sacrament where scruples and fears may at any time arise in their minds let them remember this is a necessary duty and it will be a good answer to them all I may sin in coming to the Lords Table but it is my necessary duty to come I fear I shall eat unworthily but God hath expresly commanded me to eat What then What shall I resolve to stay away I am sure that is to sin against a plain command of my Lord and to neglect that which he hath made my necessary duty What then shall I do Why the way is plain and the solution is easie I will resolve by Gods grace to do my duty and endeavour with his help to do it as well as I can this is the true conclusion from these premisses and the only safe way to take in this case For if it be a necessary indispensible duty it must engage our care to do it and to do it as well as we can it s being necessary must ingage our obedience and care to do it and the danger of doing it amiss must ingage our utmost caution and care to do it as well as our poor power will enable us The possibility of doing it amiss will not excuse our neglect of it only it should ingage our utmost heed that we do not contract a guilt nor incur a danger by any voluntary failing or wilful carelesness in the doing of it CHAP. V. The second Consideration that I named as an Argument for the Truth of our Collection is this The possibility and guilt of doing this service of our Religion is no greater than of doing others amiss which yet we count necessary to be done and our selves do keep up the exercise of THis will be a considerable addition to the former and I shall endeavour to drive it to an issue by an induction of several dependent propositions 1. Men are as incident to failures in doing other duties of Religion as in doing this every whit as apt to do them amiss as they are to do this so I will instance in the two most stationary and common I mean prayer and hearing Gods word we are as subject to failures in these as we are in this and if we consider ourselves shall soon confess we are so The truth is the thing is too evident and others may see it as well as our selves I am not very willing to enter upon this theme because I would not indulge to any thing that may but look like reflection but certainly if any will but observe our common carriage in the Church both at Prayers and Sermon he will be tempted to think our zeal and devotion is but small nor our selves very much concerned whether we discharge these duties as we should or no. Those that so commonly set themselves to gaze and look upon others as if they had no other errand hither but to see how others are dressed and who is the finest and those on the other hand that lay themselves down to sleep and perhaps can sooner do it in Gods house than in their own Surely both these sorts are far enough from that devotion and zeal that serious and close application of mind that all the services of Religion should be performed with and need not be told how grosly they fail of discharging these services of Religion as they ought If I might be allowed to argue from plain evidence and matter of fact I think I might cast the odds on this side and adventure to say that men do not so commonly fail in doing this duty as they do in others I never yet saw a man sleep at the Holy Sacrament or need to be awaked when the Holy Symbols were to be administred to him Men are then generally serious and thoughtful earnest and zealous and closely intent upon what is before them So that if we may judge by appearance and plain fact the Service of the Holy Sacrament is performed with fewer failures than other services of Religion commonly are but if upon experience we find that Men fail as commonly in other services of Religion as this it will serve my turn at present Let me beg a Man to consider himself well and then to give me in the sum of his own experience whether he do not find himself as incident to failings in other services of Religion as this How hard a matter doth every man find it to keep his heart close to God and his thoughts from rambling abroad even when he is upon his knees in prayer who is there so intent and servent in spirit upon whom some vain and wandring thoughts do not break in even in the time of his most solemn devotion It is the common complaint of all good men and I never yet discoursed with the best man of this case who did not bewail it Or where is the man that so reveres the Word of God and is so awfully and religiously intent upon the hearing of it who is not many times diverted by idle thoughts and vain avocations and sallies of mind and who sees not that there are but few that can hold out watching with Christ one hour I am very confident I shall have experiece on my side and ready to subscribe to this truth that men are really as incident to failures at other times as this and find it as hard a matter to pray or hear Gods word so as they should and so as to have hopes of divine acceptation in doing of them as it is to do so in the Holy Sacrament yea perhaps as I said before much harder And as I dare appeal to common experience so I think I can produce some good reasons for the truth of this observation For first the aids and assistances of Gods good spirit and grace are as ready for us and may as reasonably be expected by us in this service of Religion as any others So that if we cry out as S. Paul did who is sufficient for these things and declame never so tragically and passionately upon our own utter inability to do any thing that is good yet we may encourage and comfort our selves with the hopes of the divine grace that is ready to assist us and can be sufficient for us and that in this service of Religion as well as others or if there be any difference it may be in this it may be more ready and plentiful than in others for upon the same reason that S. Paul calls this a drinking into the same spirit 1 Cor. 12.13 upon the same may men expect more plentiful effusions of that spirit in this than in other ministries of Religion And Secondly there are the
would engage them to do so in this too I need not inveigh against this temper mens own reason would they but hear it would make them ashamed of it at present I only add that this argument which keeps men from a necessary duty instead of encouraging them to it can never be divine or true nor can it be safe to relie upon it so that although men were not able to see or answer the sophistry of it nor shew wherein the falshood of it did lie yet it would be its own confutation for that argument can never be of God which perswades men to live in the neglect of a duty that his commands have made necessary And therefore when we come to weigh arguments in this case we should always incline most to those which teach us our duty and encourage us in it because this is certainly the safer side Nay I add further that were our minds purely pendulous were there arguments on both sides of the question that appeared equally true and concluding so that we were not able to put a difference between them nor knew which to incline unto yet this alone were enough to turn the scales One doth invite and encourage me to do my duty what I see the plain command of God for the other doth discourage and fright me from it and therefore if I were not able to discover by any internal signatures on which side the truth doth lie yet this external consideration is sufficient to determine my choice for it is certainly more safe to do my duty as well as I can than wholly to neglect it and that argument which encourageeth me hereunto is certainly on the surer and safer side And therefore to conclude this period since we do proceed by this rule in all other cases we should proceed by it also in this since we do not permit the possibility and fear of doing other duties amiss to detain us from them we should not suffer it to keep us from this CHAP. VI. The third Consideration that I proposed as an argument for this second Collection is this The Punishment threatned to eating and drinking unworthily is no greater than what may be feared upon our doing other services of our Religion amiss and is threatned thereunto THis is an argument that ought clearly to be proceeded upon because it comes up directly to that which some men make the chief exception against coming to the Holy Sacrament and which they commonly urge this place in defence of they tell us they are loth to be damn'd and I readily grant they have good reason to be so but they are much more unwilling to damn themselves and for this they are not to be blamed neither Now both these they say they are greatly afraid of if they come to the Holy Sacrament unworthily for damnation is here expresly threatned to him that doth thus yea he is said to eat and drink his own damnation Now what I have already said before might go a great way towards taking off this exception and if Men remember the true notion of eating and drinking unworthily in this place it would go near to relieve wholly their fear in this thing for I have shewed that it is not every failure in receiving the Holy Sacrament that brings a man within the reach of eating and drinking unworthily in the sense of this Text but only that gross and scandalous profanation of it that the Corinthians were guilty of or something that in true proportion answers to it And consequently that it is not every such failure that brings a man within the danger of that damnation that the Apostle speaks of men need not presently fear being damned upon every error and little failure in doing their duty they have a more merciful God to deal with who doth not weigh men by grains and scruples but rates their services as he doth their lives by the general frame and bent of them and provided that men do their duty and honestly endeavour to do it as well as they can hath promised to accept them though many imperfections stick to them and such as should he deal in strict justice might cause him to reject and abhor them In short it is only that monstrous profanation of the Holy Sacrament which the Corinthians were guilty of that makes a man to eat and drink unworthily in the sense of this Text and therefore only that or somthing as bad that brings him in danger of that damnation which is here threatned so that unless men be guilty of the same sin they have no reason to fear the same punishment But I shall not put the satisfaction of this scruple only upon this but consider it in it self and examin whether there be any thing in it fit to be made an exception against this service in order to which I shall endeavour to do these two things 1. Give the true sense of the phrase and shew how men mistake in their apprehension of and deductions from it 2. I shall shew that if men did not mistake the meaning of it yet they do not deal justly and fairly in neglecting the Holy Sacrament upon that reason SECT I. THE first thing to be performed to our present purpose is to give the true meaning of this phrase and there are two expressions which will need explication First Damnation and Secondly eating and drinking damnation to himself The first word to be explained is damnation a word that makes a dreadful noise and carries terror in the very sound of it it indifferently signifies any judgment or punishment whatever but it is commonly appropriated and restrained to signifie that terrible punishment in Hell which God hath prepared for all obstinate and impenitent sinners Now the thing chiefly incumbent upon me is to shew what the signification of it is in this place and to inquire whether the circumstances of it do require us to restrain it to this dreadful punishment as those that make this objection always understand it for if men mistake in their understanding it thus then they mistake in their exception too and the reason of it falls to the ground I shall need to do very little more than repeat what I said in the literal exposition of the Text to my present purpose where I shewed First that the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of a very general and indefinite signification and is indifferently used to express any judgment or punishment from God or man temporal or eternal upon the body or the soul or both and accordingly is used in Scripture also somtimes for temporal sometimes for eternal punishment for any external chastisement in this world as well as those eternal ones in the next it were easie to instance the places in which it is used in both significations were the thing necessary or not well known From this signification therefore of the word we cannot infer any thing certain here it may signifie the one or it may signifie the
worthily as they should and yet it is too notorious that this fear of damnation doth not restrain them from them It is a hard saying but it is too true those very men that are so very scrupulous and so very fearful of damnation in this yet appear openly regardless and proof against all fear of it in other things wherein it is as reasonable and necessary to be feared There are too many men on one hand that can live and persist obstinately in plain Schism allow themselves in rebellions and the most factious courses opposing government speaking evil of dignities pride and uncharitableness judging and rash censuring of their brethren fraud and hypocrisie injustice and knavery and all sorts of such spiritual vices as these without the least remorse And I would to God I could not say as truly that there are too many on the other hand that will allow themselves in open debauchery make no conscience of raillery and profaness of intemperance and uncleanness of whoredom and drunkenness and that cursed humour of Swearing which hath obtained so among us to the shame of the Nation and for which it mourns There are too many I say of both sorts that live without any apprehension or fear of damnation in these things who yet when invited to the Holy Sacrament or reproved for the neglect of it seem wonderful scrupulous and fearful of damnation if they should come to it and think to excuse the neglect of one with their fears of the other which they always plead in vindication of it Now I appeal to the reason of all men whether this be fair and honest dealing or whether it be not plain collusion and subterfuge were there any true reason to fear damnation here which yet I have shewed there is not yet men were not just and fair in pretending so much fear of it in this and yet surmounting so easily that fear in others I have told you before in this discourse often and I shall have occasion to tell it you again that it 's a bad sign to see men scrupulous only in some few things and there is not a plainer mark of an hypocrite than to be shie and fearful of sin and damnation in some lesser things but venturous and regardless of it in others that are perhaps far greater It was this which our Saviour so often charged upon the Pharisees and for which he so sharply condemned them as a pack of fulsom errant hypocrites and men had need to look to it for they will draw upon themselves the same imputation if they be of the same temper and practice If the fear of damnation therefore influence you in this one let it in Gods name do so in other instances that are more gross and obvious If the fear of damnation in this be true and sincere it will do this for damnation is still the same thing and equally to be dreaded but if it do not it is plain you use it as subterfuge and artifice you proclaim your own insincerity and hypocrisie in it and the excuse it self not only aggravates but becomes part of the crime I have added this Consideration only ex abundanti and to argue with some men even upon their own pretences and if they will honestly reflect upon it it will hardly fail of some effect on them but to others that are really scrupulous and fearful of damnation upon every failure to receive the Holy Sacrament so well as they should and argue their fears upon the reason of this Text to these I say the former Consideration will be sufficient since it is not this eternal damnation that the Apostle means in this place And let me add that if eternal damnation be not threatned to the Corinthians here who so shamefully and grosly profaned this holy service much less is it presently to be feared by those who receive it as well as they can though not so well as they should if so extream gross and scandalous a profanation be not threatned with it surely every small failure needs not fear it CHAP. VII I advance now to the fourth Consideration which I proposed for the truth of our present Collection viz. That whatever sin or guilt there is in eating and drinking unworthily there is the same yea there is greater in not eating and drinking at all THe truth and reasonableness of this relies upon a reason that I have made good already and that is that eating and drinking in the Holy Sacrament is a necessary indispensible duty tyed immediately upon all Christians by the command of their Lord and that upon a reason which will ever have effect upon all those that have any love and respect to him yea which will still improve and in every age grow stronger and stronger I shall not and I hope I need not resume this argument because I have discharged it pretty well already and therefore shall little more than give in the heads of what hath been more fully represented 1. First Then I have observed that the command for this duty is as positive and express as any command for any other duty either is or can be and this we shall be satisfied of if we look into the story of it's institution This is related by three Evangelists and almost in the very same words Mat. 16. from 26. to the 29. Vers As they did eat Jesus took bread and blessed it and brake it and gave to the disciples and said take eat this is my body and he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying drink ye all of this for this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins The same you have also in the other two Evangelists S. Mark Cap. 14.22 23 24. Verses and in S. Luke also Cap. 22.19 20. Verses in all which places our Lord doth not only Addminister this Holy Sacrament himself but expressly commands them to do so likewise Do this in remembrance of me This that you have seen me do do you take care to do also after that I am gone from you in which words it is plain that our Lord institutes this and enjoyns it to be a standing service in his Church and to be observed and practised by all the members of it For First The Apostles were at this time Christs little flock the first fruits of that Church which he was going to plant in the world and it is plain in the story that he administred it to them all And Secondly If we are to respect them here peculiarly as Apostles whom he designed to be the first and chief Pastors and governors of the Church the argument is equally concluding still for making it their duty to Consecrate and Administer the Holy Sacrament he doth make it the duty of others also to partake of it and to have it administred to them And if we take in part of the Ecclesiastical story to this Acts the second Chapter at the latter
duties they neglect and the subsequent sins they commit in consequence of it shall be excused this is to add sin to sin and to mend one thing amiss with that which is really much worse Thou art in danger of eating unworthily at the Lords Table if thou come to it well but whose fault is it that thou art so and what besides thine own folly hath brought thee into that danger and what now wouldst thou neglect thy duty because thou hast made thy self unfit to do it thou may'st do so but then know thou hast now a double crime to answer for one for thy first sin and another for the neglect of that duty it indisposed thee for Consider what the Apology would be that in this case thou couldst make to God and how finely it would sound in thy mouth to tell the plain truth I come not O Lord to the Holy Sacrament as thou hast commanded me but it is because I have unfitted my self for it I know it is my duty to come and a great sin to neglect it but I hope thou wilt pardon me because I have committed another sin that causeth it I came not to thy Table but it was because I was drunk or as bad when I should have come Be thine own Judge doth this sound well would'st thou be pleased thy self with such an excuse as this from a careless Child or Servant and do'st thou think God will take it from thee or canst thou hope that he will pardon thee one sin because thou didst it in consequence of another This is so abhorrent to all sense and reason that one would think no man could relie upon it or could choose but be utterly ashamed of it nothing can be madder than to commit one sin upon the reason of another unless it be hoping that the first sin can expiate and excuse the second So that to conclude this period if men stand accountable to God for unfitting themselves for the Holy Sacrament their neglecting of it can never be excused upon that reason SECT II. THe true consequence from that Concession is what I have remarked in the second proposition viz. that care therefore ought to be taken to remove this indisposition and danger and to put our selves into fitter and better circumstances We are strangely apt to stand idlely lamenting and whining over our own unfitness and unworthiness and as apt to think that will become excuse for us before God for it and attone for the neglect of that duty that we therefore disregard but can any thing be more idle and unaccountable than this for still it is our own wilful fault that we are thus unworthy but it will be our greater fault if we continue so the consequence naturally draws the other way viz. that being sensible of our unworthiness and sorrowful for it as we seem to be we speedily endeavour to remove that unworthiness and in good earnest set about it When that great misfortune befell Israel before the City of Ai of which you have the story Josh 7. and Joshua and the Elders of Israel lay lamenting it before God one whole day you may see how God bespeaks him Verse 10.11 12 13. And the Lord said to Joshua get thee up wherefore lyest thou thus upon thy face Israel hath sinned and taken the accursed thing they have stollen and dissembled c. therefore they could not stand before their enemies neither will I be with you any more unless you destroy the accursed thing from among you Up sanctifie the people and say sanctifie your selves against to morrow it was not an acceptable thing to God to hear them howling and lamenting their miscarriage nor available with him to redress the same the true and acceptable way was to bestir themselves set to their own duty and clear themselves of that guilt that occasioned their overthrow The present supposed case is much like this but the measures of our proceeding in it ought to be exactly the same To set resolutely and vigorously about our duty about bettering our circumstances reforming our Lives and those vices especially that cause this unworthiness and not stand fruitlesly lamenting and bewailing our unworthiness with our Arms folded up without either hope or care to remedy the same vainly thinking it will become excuse for us with God for neglecting our duty which he hath commanded but we foolishly indisposed our selves for Men's duty in this case lies very plain and they themselves can easily prescribe what ought to be done in all others like it If our circumstances be dangerous and we unfit to do our necessary Duty we need not consult what we should do we can direct our selves if we please and think it much better not to sink under our indisposition and wear away our selves and time too in fruitlesly bewailing of it but do what we can to help our selves to get rid of our distemper and to remedy the evil that hangs upon us For if things be a miss they ought to be amended And what evils Men have brought upon themselves by negligence they should endeavour to remedy by diligence and care Thus the whole World acts in all common cases like this if a disease amongst them or a wound or bruise happen to their Bodies or any Limb of it they presently consult how to remove the one and heal the other And at this rate they act in all other like cases as soon as they are sensible of an Evil they endeavour to redress it and their feeling of it quickly excites their care against it And surely then they ought to so do in this case too and so much the rather as the Indispositions of the Soul are more fatal than those of the Body and what is prejudicial to our Spiritual and Eternal welfare much more considerable than what affects our temporal only and I think of all things that affect and endanger that those are most dangerous that betray us into Sin and then hinder us from attending to our necessary duty If Men therefore have any due regard to the Everlasting happiness of their Souls and any sense of their Duty upon their doing which that happiness doth depend they will not they cannot suffer such indispositions to remain upon them which so much endanger the one by keeping them from the other But I have some things yet to urge further against our neglect in this case wich will follow as the undeniable consequences of it and become great aggravations thereof 1. That Men's unworthiness and unfitness is wilful 2. That it is very probable if not certain to increase upon them 3. That their Sense of it and sorrow for it can never be sincere if they endeavour not to redress and remove it SECT III. 1. IF Men that complain of their unfitness and unworthiness to receive the Holy Sacrament and urge one as an excuse to the other do not carefully endeavour to remove that unfitness and whatever it is that renders them so unwrothy it is
plain that unworthiness is wilful and affected He that being Sick seeks not after his cure or will not use those remedies that are prescribed in order to it stands responsible for all the pain that he feels and all the miseries and evils that attend his sickness and he that being in thraldom endeavours not his enlargment hugs his chain and is in love with his Prison And it is certainly thus in the present case He that hath made himself unfit to receive the Holy Sacrament and takes no care to remove that which brings that unfitness upon him whatever it be stands doubly guilty before God and his latter error is much worse than the former Whatever of Inprudence or Carelesness or Temptation or Surprise there might be in the first there can be nothing but wilfulness and obstinacy in the second there may possibly be somthing to extenuate the Guilt of the one but the other is plainly wilful and presumptuous Whatever I will not strive to remedye I plainly choose and it 's a plain sign I am reconciled to that which I willingly lie under If I bore mine Ear it 's a sign I love my Master and court Slavery and how much soever I may afterwards regret the consequences of this or how many inconveniences may insue upon it yet I am only accountable for them all and they are really mine own choice and there is as much of a Man's will in continuing quietly under an evil as there was at first in choosing of it Nay we may go somthing further yet and avow this unfitness upon a Man to be improved now into artifice and design Whatever the unfitness and unworthiness may be in it self or whatever it was at first it is now used and cherished as subterfuge and plea it rendered him unfit for hit Duty at first and now it shall be improved into argument and excuse against it I cannot aptlier illustrate this than by the practice of those Beggers that either make artificial Sores or cherish and keep open real ones that they may use them as motives to Charity from others and indulgences for Idleness in themselves This they say is a common practice among such Persons and certainly as they are the worst of Beggers that beg under such umbrages and of all vagrants those most worthy of correction that chuse to be so rather than work to maintain themselves in an honest calling so those Men that make improvement of their Sins and cherish them upon design and plead them to exempt and excuse from Duty are of all other Sinners the most fulsom the most abominable and furthest from the Charity and Mercy of God. Upon which plain reason it must needs appear evident that unfitness to receive the Holy Sacrament in such a case can never excuse the neglect of it but will rather greatly aggravate the Guilt of that neglect how sufficient a reason soever it might be in it self for Mens staying from the Sacrament yet it ought not and it reasonably cannot be pleaded by them because they have both volentarily brought it upon themselves and refuse to be relieved from it It is plain artifice and choice and kept up on purpose to exempt and excuse them from their Duty 2. Secondly such a Man's unfitness to receive the Holy Sacrament will by being neglected increase still upon him I suppose Mens unfitness to receive the Holy Sacrament must arise from some Sin that sticks fast to them and which they live in I know nothing but Sin that unfits any Man for the Holy Sacrament nor any thing but neglect to repent of it and reform from it that gives it that effect This I take to be certain and I make it the Foundation of what I am going to say on this Argument for therefore care ought to be taken to get rid of this Sin in some competent measure by repenting of it and resolving against it and begging Gods Grace to enable us to do so for otherwise I ask what a Man can expect or think of Thou art unfit to receive the Holy Sacrament by reason of such a Sin or such a miscarriage Well but wouldst thou have this unfitness to continue on thee or be redress'd If thou art resolved still to continue so unfit by indulging thy Sin and living in it and obeying all the motions of it then I have nothing more to say to thee but that thou mayest as well cast off all regard to other services of Religion as this Thy Religion is contradiction and nonsence and thy Life is open defiance to it But if thou wouldst have it removed and become fit for this Holy Service then the only way to this purpose is to set thy self vigorously and in earnest about the redressing of it by care to repent and reform from it and not to sit still idly pining and bewailing of it For otherwise first thy Indisposition will certainly still continue and dwell upon thee No Man can reasonably expect that Sin should pass off of it self and leave him of its one accord it sticks too fast and roots too deep when it hath once taken hold of us It is just like weeds in a rank soyl it is well if our utmost industry and care can keep them down or clear on 't But without that care they will certainly grow and spread and in a little time over-run all And he that finds it too often a very hard matter with all his industry and care his watching and praying and striving to master a Sin and subdue a vicious inclination may easily presage the fate of that Man that sits still under his Sin and never strives against it but foolishly expects it should leave him of its own accord Nay secondly such a Man's unworthiness will still increase and grow upon him For vice like other things is of a growing nature and seldom sticks at the same stay human nature as I said but now is a very rank soyl and vice is a seed too sutable and agreeable to it and when we consider how subtil and industrious the Devil is to cherish this seed and cultivate this Ground we may well conclude to what a monstrous extremity it will in time grow if great heed and care be not taken against it So that if Men be in earnest when they plead their unworthiness to receive the Holy Sacrament and keep from it upon that reason then the natural consequences of that should be the using all possible and speedy care to get that unworthiness removed otherwise they must be content that it continue and grow upon them and that themselves perish everlastingly under the effects of it And then there is a third thing to be considered to this purpose viz. that among all the arts and methods of redressing our unworthiness and becoming fit for the Holy Sacrament the Communicating in it is one of the chiefest no Man in the World ever became more worthy and fit by staying away from it but many have become so
by going to it One of the best ways that I know of for a Man to come to the Holy Sacrament as he should is to come to it as well as he can This is that advice that I would give to every timorous Person in this case if thou fear thou canst not go so well fitted as thou shouldst be sure to go as well as thou canst I am very confident by this means thou wilt still grow better and better the truth of this hath been attested by the happy experience of many a good Man and it relies upon very good Reason too For besides that God is always ready to accept and cherish the Day of small things and to give more Grace and strength to him that really and honestly doth his best according to the present proportions and measures that he hath I say besides this this Holy Sacrament is that very means that he hath appointed to confer this Grace upon us in and the means which we are to use in order to our receiving it from him So that if Men want Power and Strength to master their Sins and to get clear of their present unworthiness I know no better course for them to take than to lye at this Bethesda where Angels attend and where the Communications of the divine Spirit and Grace are always ready for them that accept them and step down into these Holy Waters for them 3. But there was a third thing that I proposed to consideration here And that is that without this care to redress Mens present unworthiness all their pretences of sorrow and regret for it are plain Hypocrisie and fraud And this I argue upon these two plain reasons First because it shews them to be in love with their disease to hug their unworthiness and to cherish it to be excuse and dispensation from duty And secondly not to deal truly with God and their own Souls in staying from the Holy Sacrament upon the reason of it for either they think coming to the Holy Sacrament to be their Duty and what they have a mind unto or not if not then they may stay away without alledging their unworthiness as well as by doing so But if they be sincere in their acknowledgment then they should be as fearful to neglect their Duty as to come unfitly to it there must necessarily be as great a Sin in that as there can be in this yea there must needs be so much the greater by how much it is better to do somthing of our Duty than nothing at all to do it imperfectly than to disregard and neglect it altogether It 's almost a certain sign of a Hypocrite as I have often said to be very shy and fearful of sining in one case but regardless and bold in another and he that is not as fearful of Sin in staying from the Holy Sacrament as coming unfitly to it is fearfull only on one side and shall never have that pretence accepted or counted sincere and therefore to conclude this period if Men be unworthy they should endeavour to become worthy otherwise they are hypocrites in that pretence and instead of excusing their not coming to the Holy Sacrament it shall greatly inhanse and aggravate the Guilt thereof CHAP. IX The third thing proposed to Consideration on this head is this An ordinary competent endeavour and care with Gods common grace may suffice to remove this unworthiness and put men out of the danger of it THis consideration I lay down on purpose to meet with a further exception that Men make in this case for Men may grant this unworthiness to be their own fault that care ought to be taken to redress it and that it were well if it were so and yet be discouraged from advancing further because of the great labour and difficulty which they think is necessary to the redressing of it Many Men labour under this prejudice and are frighted and discouraged from fitting themselves for the Holy Sacrament by the mighty difficulty that they think there is in doing so There is so much time to be allowed and so much labour and pains used to this purpose and some cannot spare so much of their one and others are loth to be at the trouble of the other and upon this reason sit still and are discouraged from ever undertaking or going about it Now in order to the satisfying this exception I propose this consideration that an ordinary competent care will be sufficient to this purpose it is no such difficult a matter to render a Man competently fit for the Holy Sacrament and so to get above the danger of Eating and Drinking unworthily that he seems so fearful of In the managing of this Argument I shall proceed in this following method First I shall premise a consideration to prevent all prejudice or mistake in what I am going to say Secondly I shall consider what the Apostle prescribes to these Corinthians in this place by way of remedy against Eating and Drinking unworthily Thirdly Examine it upon the reason of the thing consider what is necessary to Eating and Drinking worthily and what time or labour is sufficient by way of preparation thereto SECT I. THe Consideration I would premise is this that I am not going to lessen any Man's esteem of the Sacredness of this Service or his care to prepare and fit himself for it as well as he can I said in the beginning of this discourse how very apt Men are to run out of one extremity into another and how hard it is to reform one error of Men so as that they shall not fall into the extremity on the other side and I observe that Men are very incident to the same error in this matter it 's a hard matter so to speak against Men's being too scrupulous as that they shall not take occasion thence to become careless and so to reform the error of thinking every preparation for the Holy Sacrament too little as not to give them some encouragement to think that any preparation at all is enough My business at this time is against the first of these Errors upon which Men are or appear to be mighty scrupulous and fearful of coming to the Holy Sacrament even to superstition upon an opinion that so very great and exact preparation is necessary to fit Men for it and that upon no less a danger than Damnation So that they are really frighted from any thoughts of coming to it The danger of coming unprepared is so amasing and frightful and the pains and labour of preparing a Man's self so very great that they choose to stay away rather than incur so great a danger or take so very much pains to avoid it This I say is the great Error that I am now to reform and therefore have need to caution the Men I speak to and desire them to consider that while I endeavour to cure this superstitious fear and dread on one hand I do not encourage them to run
that require great reverence and devotion and a very differing respect and carriage from what those things to be done in your own Houses do From whence as it is evident that eating and drinking in Gods House with as little reverence and Religion as they did in their own was the fault so what he designed in this discourse was to bring them to that reverence that became the House of God and those sacred Services of Religion that it was set apart and appropriated unto 2. The second thing that he useth to the same purpose is instructing them fully in the nature and reason of this service which it seems they were so ignorant of this he doth from v. 23. to 27. where he lets them know first that it was the last institution of our Saviour a little before his being betrayed The Lord Jesus in the same night that he was betrayed took Bread and when he had given thanks he brake it and said take eat this is my Body which is broken for you after the same manner also he took the Cup when he had supped saying this Cup is the New Testament in my Blood. And therefore this was a great deal more than that common concluding morsel and draught which they had taken it to be it was a solemn Service of Religion an immediate institution of Christ and therefore to be observed with another kind of temper carriage than they had profanely treated it with 3. And the sober and serious consideration and remembrance of all this is what he prescribes in the third place as the most effectual cure of this miscarriage v. 28. Let a Man examine himself and so let him eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup let him examine himself whether he understand these things whether he know and consider wherefore this Service was instituted Let him consider what a sacred Service of Religion this is and what a measure of reverence and devotion becomes him who doth approach the Table of the Lord and there partake of the symbols of his most precious Body and Blood. The consideration of all this will most effectually cure and restrain from all this rudeness and profanation and powerfully ingage to that awe and reverence that must needs possess all those that discern the Lords Body and understand what they are doing when they eat that Bread and drink that Cup. From these three things I think it sufficiently plain that rudeness and irreverence towards the Holy Sacrament was the great fault of the Corinthians which the Apostle so taxeth here and endeavours to reform and that therefore to bring them to reverence devotion and a sence of Religion in it is his great design in all this discourse 4. There is a fourth thing that perhaps may be pertinent to observe here to the same purpose that is what he adviseth verse 33 34. Wherefore my Brethren when ye come together tarry one for another and if any hunger let him eat at home This I confess seems more directly to concern the love-feasts and to respect the redressing those faults that they were guilty of in them but yet they do ultimately refer to the Holy Sacrament for feasting together charitably like friends and Brethren and eating and drinking at home that they might not do so then to intemperance and excess would preserve them in the fitter temper for this Service and from that intemperance and disorder that was one great cause of their scandalous irreverence and profanation of it But I need no artificial and collateral arguments in this case the matter is made plain by the former considerations which are all pertinent and direct to this purpose and render what I am contending for evident So that it is really a wonder why many Men should make such a pother and stir about the sense of this place and the meaning of eating and drinking unworthily to the perplexing the minds of scrupulous Persons and frighting them from such a necessary part of their duty as communicating in the Holy Sacrament certainly is CHAP. XII And now there is only the second and last thing remaining upon our hands For having shewed that to bring them to devotion and reverence in the Holy Sacrament was his design it will be proper now to shew how reasonably he might undertake that task and how becoming it is for them and us and all that engage into that service A very little may suffice on this because the reason of the thing is plain and because it is the common practice of all the services in our Religion this is commonly revered most and how indevout and careless soever Men are in others yet they are alwaies seen serious and devout in this the truth is Men rather offend on this hand than the other I do not mean in being too devout and reverent at the Holy Sacrament for that they never can be but I mean in thinking so highly and awfully of it as to be possessed with even a superstitious fear of it which the great design of this discourse hath been to remove and in order thereto to rectifie some mistakes of Men that may have contributed to the same So that it is only to prevent that roving extravagant fancy of running into extreams which I told you in the beginning of this discourse giddy minds are so incident unto that I add this in the conclusion of this discourse let Men see that I do not encourage any Mans light opinion or disesteem of the Holy Sacrament but contend for it as earnestly as any Man and to that purpose go on to remark the reasons upon which the becomingness and necessity of it doth rely I shall need little more than just to name them SECT I. ANd first I desire it may be considered that this is an immediate Service of Religion it is an institution of our dear Lord and the observance of it an immediate act of worship and expressiono four Homage and duty to our God. How much soever Men may indulge to carelesness and indifferency in common matters yet the universal reason of all Mankind consents in this that Religion is a serious thing and that the profoundest reverence and devotion becomes them who ingage into the services of it and worship their God. Common sense teacheth Men to distinguish between a Temple and a common House and that Mens carriage in the one should be very different from what it is or may be in the other and those persons that can behave themselves as lightly and irreverently in the Church as on Stage c. affront Religion and the service of it give the open lie to their one pretentions in ingaging into it Keep thy foot when thou enterest into the House of God and be not hasty to offer the Sacrifice of Fools saith Solomon Eccle. 5.1 and they that do not both keep that and their whole Man too do not possess themselves with an awfull reverence of that great God they come to adore there and
whose immediate service Religion is will not only offer the Sacrifice of Fools but of somthing worse not only defeat the end and acceptance of their worship but turn it into guilt and an argument against them 2. It is not only a service of Religion but the highest and most solemn service of it so it hath been alwaies accounted in the Christian Church and for that reason she hath used to consummate and end all others with it it is her most august and Solemn Sacrifice the great and chief rite of Prayer and her most devout and solemn Eucharist and expression of praise And let me add if it may signifie any thing with this Generation it is the only band and testimony of our full communion with the Christian Church our Baptism admits us into the Church gives us a right to all the priviledges and blessings of it and our going to Church and ingaging into the standing Services of Religion may procure us the Name of Christians and cause the World to repute and take us for such but it is this Holy Sacrament that makes us to be in full Communion with Christs Church It is a vain thing for Men to say they are no Papists no Sectaries c. they are Protestants of the Church of England when they do not communicate in Sacraments with her they may be of any Church or of no Church for all they do without this and for any thing I know to the contrary they do as actually cut off themselves from the communion of the Church by the neglect of the Holy Sacrament where they may have it as they can do so by Heresie Apostacy schism or can be cut off by the highest censures of the Church herself This is a thing that ought to stick fast upon some Mens thoughts for if there be no Salvation out of the Church of Christ and those be not in this Church that do not join in her communion and those do not do this who do not communicate in her Sacraments then some Mens conditions must be very hazardous and then we may assert the necessity as well as duty of the Holy Sacraments in order to Mens Salvation the necessity I mean of them where they may be had Nay I know not why I may not say more viz. that the neglect of this Holy Sacrament doth as really forfeit Church membership as the want of Baptism doth hinder it and those that live and dye amongst us without receiving the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper are no more true members of our Church than they that dye unbaptised those that have been admitted into the Church and come not up to the terms of its communion may forfeit that membership as truly as they who were never admitted into it cannot pretend to it For though Men may enter their names into a society yet unless they submit to the Laws and usages of it they will neither be accounted members of it nor suffered to injoy the immunities and priviledges thereof 3. I add it not only is and hath ever been accounted the highest service of the Church but that in which we are thought to have a nearer access unto and a more intimate communion with God than in others I do not urge its being so lively and visible a representation of that which is the most affecting meditation in Christian Religion and that upon this reason the Apostle tells the Galatians that Christ had been set forth before their Eyes and Crucified among them Gall. 3.1 though that alone were argument enough to ingage Men to all reverence in it But I argue it upon another reason namely that herein we are admitted to the Table of the Lord where we not only feed with him but feed upon him we eat his Flesh and drink his Blood we partake of him and are incorporated into him we are made one with him and he with us we dwell in him and he in us as our Church speaks I do not here undertake the dispute about Transubstantiation that hard word and that worser thing which the Church of Rome hath taken upon her to teach as an article of necessary faith contrary to the nature of a Sacarament to the plain sence of Scripture to the doctrine and beliefe of the Primitive Church and Fathers of it and to the common sence and reason of all Mankind It is a doctrine that came forth with the doctrine of their infallibility and methinks 't was very fit those two monsters should be born together to let the World see how Gigantick the faith of a Romanist is and I will say those that can believe the infallibility of their Popes after so many instances of their having erred and contradicted one another may believe the doctrine of transubstantiation contrary to all and the plainest evidences of things that it is possible for Mankind to have But I am not for admitting dispute or controversie into this discourse and therefore let that Doctrine pass as a thing more monstrous and abhorrent to humane reason than any that is to be met with even in the Pagan Poetick Theology And yet notwithstanding all this I add and still assert that we do as truly and to all real effects partake of Christ in the Holy Sacrament as if we did literally eat his Flesh and drink his Blood our advantage is as real and true by the one as it could be by the other The Church of England is for a real presence of Christ in the Holy Sacrament but it is that real presence which the Primitive Church and good Fathers of it were for and meant when they spake to that purpose viz. a real Spiritual presence a conferring all the great effects and benefits of his Body and Blood as truly as if they themselves were actually present there A Spiritual presence is as real a presence as a Bodily and the effects and benefits of Christs Body and Blood are real things too So that the Body and Blood of Christ may be said to be really and truly there where all the effects and Blessings of them are really bestowed and the Church of England doth truly say that they are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper when all the real benefits and effects of them are taken and received by them This I am pretty well assured is all that the Primitive Church and Fathers meant by the real presence and this is sufficient both for our faith and comfort too and while we are satisfied and assured of this we neither need more nor are obliged to puzle our selves about any further questions Now this surely is such an argument and obligation to reverence and devotion in this service as can never miss effect upon them that entertain the thoughts of it For if we do thus discern the Lords Body and take the Bread and Wine in the Holy Sacrament not only to be the signs and symbols of our Lord's Body and Blood but in a Sacramental
sense the very Body and Blood themselves and by the grace and blessing of God upon them to convey to us all those effects and benefits which the very Body and Blood and our feeding upon them could do Then certainly we cannot but pay all possible adoration to Christ when we partake of them nor partake of them without the profoundest reverence that our Souls are capable off And as I may well think that those who can be rude irreverent and profane when they partake of these Holy Symbols would be so to Christ were he visibly and corporally present so I may safely say that upon the same reasons that we would pay respect and reverence to our Lord were he so present we may and we should pay it when we partake of those things which he hath instituted and commanded us to observe as representations and memorials of him The truth is the argument in this case is rather too great than any way defective and upon every good Heart the effect must be according It can scarce fail of running our devotion into rapture and our reverence into extasie and transport to consider that the great God should put such an honor upon poor creatures not only entertain us at his own Table but give us his own Sons Body and Blood and all the blessed effects and benefits of them to feed upon Lord what is Man that thou art so mindful of him or the Son of Man that thou so regardest him and what name is bad enough for that Man whom such love and condescension such Majesty and such Blessing will not engage and strike into the profoundest reverence and devotion when he actually communicates in the Blessed Pledges of them all CONCLUSION ANd now I have brought this discourse to its designed conclusion and have little more than to beg of God that it may have at least some part of that effect upon Men that was designed in it I do think a scruple of this nature necessary to considered and I have endeavored to satisfie it as well as I can and I hope no Man will blame the undertaking how defective soever he may think the performance to be Is it not great pity that any scruple should keep Men in a total negligence of a necessary duty and cause them to think themselves innocent in it Is it not a strange thing and lamentable that Men should lye under such fatal mistakes as to think themselves at liberty whether they will obey the last dying command of their dear Lord or that their love and homage to him can consist with a constant disregard of it Is it not pity that Men should be easily perswaded to slight that which is so mighty advantageous to all the great purposes of the Spirit and Salvation and in which the greatest kindness and honour is offered to Men that God can put upon them Is it not pity and a shame that so many should call themselves Christians and of the Church of England too and yet neglect that which is the highest duty of Christianity and the great band of communion with the Church Is it not a shame for a Church to be without Sacraments or for that Church to have members that never communicate in them If any things in the World can be pitiable these things are so And if any thing can be necessary it must be to consider what that thing is that is the great cause of them Now this I would fain hope is a fear that Men have taken up upon the reason of what is said in these words I would gladly hope that it is neither obstinacy in some nor carelesness in others that keeps them from the Holy Sacrament but only fear and scruple in all fear of coming unworthily and incurring that Damnation that is threatned by the Apostle to all that do so come If this be the case of Men they are really pitiable and it is for the sake of them that this discourse hath been undertaken in which I hope somthing hath been offered that may be considered to good purpose and Men may find their account in 1. For first Men by attending to it may understand what the notion of eating and drinking unworthily is and upon what reason the Apostle chargeth the Corinthians with it viz. their not discerning the Lords Body their being drunk at the Lords Table as well as their own and putting no difference between these and common things and that no Christians now can be guilty of the like Sin but by somthing that sets them as far from discerning the Lords Body and paying due respect to it as they were 2. And secondly by considering this Men may perceive both how far they themselves are from the Sin and how little they need to be afraid of the same danger if they find that by the grace of God they are secured from the one they may confidently hope that his mercy will secure them from the other 3. They may hence also learn what a reasonable measure of knowledge devotion and care will most certainly set them above all possibility of this unworthiness and of that damnation threatned to it 4. And fourthly by considering that it is their necessary duty and the mercies and compassions of God as great and ready to pardon the common infirmities of humanity in this as in any other Services of Religion they may learn to slight and surmount all their fears in this as they do in them and to come with as much chearfulness sense of duty and hopes of divine acceptation in this as in others 5. This discourse may be of some use to the directing and encouraging Men in their preparations for this Holy Sacrament and not fright them by the labour difficulty length of time and curiousness of preparation that some have accidently done The effect of all which should be the ridding Mens minds of those unreasonable and superstitious fears that they have too generally taken up in prejudice against the Holy Sacrament and addressing themselves conscionably and chearfully unto it And I have nothing more but to beg them to give it this effect to take heed that they shut not their eyes against clear light that they pretend not scruples to keep them in the neglect of a known necessary duty and that they cherish not those scruples and wilfully retain them against all reasonable ways of satisfaction there is not a worse nor a more dangerous temper of mind than this and he that considers that for this cause God gave up the Heathen to a reprobate sence to vile affections and left them at last to follow things which reason and nature did abhor had need to fear transcribing the same temper of mind lest he succeed in the same dreadful punishments It were certainly much better to look upon our scruples of this sort to be as they really are diseases of our minds and be as desirous and ready to have the cure of them as we are of the diseases of our Bodies to give God Almighty thanks whose providence orders us these helps for the one as well as the other That so as the Apostle speaks both he that sowes and they that reap may rejoyce together The one for that they are satisfied and relieved and the other for that God hath honoured him so far as to be an instrument in it Which I pray God almighty grant may be the issue of all at last Amen FINIS