or Few or Many In which Question we ar grow'n very much bolder than St. Augustin He Questioned but durst not Determin between Every day and Som days we boldly Determin against Daily yea Weekly yea Monthly Communions but stablish not Any at all III. IT is manifest say som that Scarceity advanceth and Plenty abateth the valu of every thing Those acts of worship which are Frequently are also Slightly performed and since we cannot keep Both we were better quit Frequence than Reverence For we shall more honor our Lord by doing this more Reverently thogh less Frequently Than more Frequently with less Reverence And in confirmation hereof they vouch not only Experience which sheweth that Those very persons who strained hard to enjoy the Common Prayer when it was not to be had without difficulty contemn it now it is truly Common but as we com now from saying the Authority of our Church too as satisfied with three times in a year This is their Opinion and thus they defend it It were heartily to be wished that the Antecedent wer as fals as the Consequent is weak That there wer as litl Truth in the alleged contemt of Common Prayer as there is Reason thence to be draw'n against making the Communion common as That And it were further to be wished that those who thus pretend to hear the Church would better consider her declared Judgment But This conceit grave as it looks with its countenance of Piety and Prudence we have found to be the very same with that in the Corinthians against which the Apostle leveleth his whole Argument And plausibl as it looks with its Countenance of Conformity to the Church we shall find it more guilty of Non-conformity than what is by its patrons condemned as such And so much the more injurious to the Church bicause it doth not only rob her of het Authority but her Innocence as making her Accessary to the disobedience she condemns And since I ow a duty to the Church as well as to the Question I shall not proceed further 'till I have vindicated Her from so great Suspicion and This from so great a Prejudice as by This pretence they suffer IV. CONCERNING the sens of our Church in this Question it is strange that there should be any Doubt much more that there should be any Error so plainly doth she declare it in her Offices and Rubriks relating to this Sacrament preparatory whereto she hath provided two Exhortations the One shewing the danger of Unworthiness the Other of Forbearance answering the doubl charge of the Apostl Let a man examin himself and so let him eat I doubt this is News to Them who most are concerned in it For if they had do'n the Church and Themselvs the right to Read and Consider That Exhortation which she hath appointed to be read when the Minister shall see the peopl negligent to come they must needs be convinced if not how great the Error is yet certainly how litle the Church favoreth it For what can be said to This Invitation In Gods behalf I bid you All All indefinitely and beseech you for the Lord Jesus Christs sake that you will not refuse to come being so lovingly caled and bidden by God himself And again I bid you in the name of God I call you in Christs behalf I exhort you as you love your own salvation What to this Warning Take you heed lest you withdrawing your selves from this Holy Supper provoke Gods indignation against you And again Consider with your selvs how great an injury you do to God and how sore punishments hangeth over your heads for the same What to this Argument You know how grievous and unkind a thing it is when a man hath prepared a rich Fest decked his Table with all kinds of provisione so that there lacketh nothing but the guests to sit down and yet they who are caled most unthankfully refuse to come c. which of you in such a case would not be moved who would not think a great injury and wrong do'n unto him What to the close of all These things if ye earnestly consider ye will by Gods grace return to a better mind for the obtaining whereof we shall not cease to make our humbl peticions to Almighty God our heavenly Father The Invitation is Universal I bid you All. The charge lieth upon All Persons and at All Times For as often as the peopl the peopl in general are Negligent to com so often is the Minister thus to reprove and warn them and there is no limitation to dispens with Any Person or except Any Time Thus thus it is that the Church incourageth us to dispens with our Duty thus she discourageth Constancy in it Thus she setteth up Reverence against Frequency But since Error cannot subsist without borrowing from Truth let us see what appearances there may be of the Churches countenance in the contrary opinion She declareth say they three times in a year to be sufficient But 1. Churches as well as States ar many times necessietated to comply with the ungovernabl humors of the People And what if our Church have do'n in This Subject as Moses did in That of Divorce bicause of the hardness of the peopls hearts chusing a great inconvenience as an escape from a yet greater mischief The indevotion of the peopl is so incorrigibl that she saw too great reason to fear lest if she should exact the constancy due to it she should thereby rather draw contemt then Guests to the Holy Table and therefor lest by requiring All she should lose All thoght necessary to accommodate her self not to what our Savior Requireth but to what she might hope to Obtene This appeareth by the two first Rubriks which caution against exposing the Sacrament if there be not a convenient number to communicate i. e. if there be not the same number which is necessary for the Grace-cup for so is the number expresly determined to three at least And if she thus doubted of Three when it is so Seldom what could she hope if it were Constantly celebrated 2. Where she may Hope more she Requires more She doth not think the Priests more Obliged to communicate but more Likely to be devout and obedient than the People When therefor there is a competent number of such as in Colleges and Collegiat Churches there often is where they cannot want Opportunity if they want not Piety There she requireth not only three times every Year but once every Week and in This requiring of the Priests she doth more than intimate what oght to be do'n by All thogh she forbear to enjoin it bicause of the too justly supposed hardness of the hearts of the generality 3. Nether is she satisfied with This either in Priest or Peopl When she saith it must be thus often At least she doth not declare This to be the Most that is required by our Lords Institution but the Least that can satisfie her Own Discipline Those
hardness of the peopl's hearts In so corrupt an age we may not stand upon our Lords In the beginning it was not so but yield to his Suffer it to be so now I therefor urge no more but this That it is the duty of every Minister to labor with his people to com constantly and to offer the Holy Communion as often as he can prevail with them to receve it Against this so complaisant Assertion bicause St. Augustin's out-running followers have not only opposed his Let every one do what he thinks best but preferred the Centurions aw before Zacheus's reception therefor must this doubl Error be encounter'd with a doubl Question 1. Whether our Lords Do this take not away our liberty to forbear it 2. Supposing we had liberty to do what we believe best whether it were not better to do it frequently than seldom 1. Our first Question must be Whether our Lords Do this leave us any liberty to forbear when we think it better In this Enquiry we must distinguish between Laws Moral and Positive II MOral Laws ar written in the fleshly tables of the heart whose yielding nature may take impression from the various occurrences of life Those Laws as they ar Dictated by Reason so must they be Interpreted by it and bend to the several requires of the subject matter For the Philosopher cannot so fix the bounds of Vertu but that in many cases the Determination of a Prudent man is necessaty to distinguish it from Vice But God wrote his Positive Laws in Tables of Stone whose rigor was uncapabl of yielding Of such Laws the Will of the Law-giver was the Only Reason and must be the Only Mesure We must do Just so no less nor no more nor no otherwise Reason hath here nothing to do but to deny it self to have the least power to Dispens or Derogate or Commute or any way Decline from the express voice of the Law Uzzah could not then plead the appearance of necessity or the evidence of his good meaning when the danger of the Law was greater one way than that of the Ark was the other way To this surpose ler us reflect upon what we have already observed that our Apostl vouched our Lord's authority that so he might assert both the Truth and Importance of what he delivered For we cannot now deny the Truth without affronting the Apostl's veracity nor the Importance without disparaging our Lord's wisdom for the One must be said to take great care for a subject of no valu or the Other report a falshood We have seen som danger that our Lord's mind might be mistaken as if he either intended to consecrate none but the Paschal Supper or valued the whole office at no higher rate than he used to do outward performances We need no other evidence that the Corinthians might probably believ This than the commonness of This belief now notwithstanding the Apostl's indeavor to confute it in both its members by This declaration which plainly discovereth how much our Lord valued this office how often we must perform it and how litl power we have to abate any thing of it For these reasons he doth not plead here as before in another case of outward decency Doth not appeal to Their Judgments nor offer his Own saith not as cap. 10. I speak as to wise men judge you what I say nor as chap. 7. I give my judgment This say I not the Lord but quite contrary This say not I but the Lord and the consequence is Neither I nor an Angel from heaven must be believed against the Revelation Neither I nor an Angel from heaven much less a mans own humor can any way relax the Obligation Grant therefore now that the Observation be as Tru as the Subject is Unhappy suppose Frequence bring danger of Cheapness must we therefor presume to make it Scarce No doubtless If we will needs hear Reason it will tell us that our Lord knew this as well as We It was so Before and In and Ever Since His days as it is in Ours How then dare any one judge That a sufficient reason to hinder him from Doing this which our Lord judged not so to hinder him from Commanding it Doth not such an one declare himself both Superior and Wiser If thou judg the Law saith S. James thou art not a Doer of the law but a Judge I may add Thou art not only a Judge but an Unjust one if thy sentence rob the law of it's due so much more so by how much greater care our Lord took to have it duly paid III. HE therefor that breaketh This which is not the Least of our Lords Commandments and teacheth men so must be weighed in others scales than those of St. Augustine Not compared with the modest Centurion or forward Zacheus but with the most Disobedient Rebel and the most Unworthy Communicant and even so will be found more inexcusable than the worst For he that Doth This however unworthily payeth Somthing of obedience owneth our Lords Authority is easily Convinced of his Crime But he that saith he needs not do it doth not only deny the Law to have power over himself but assumeth to himself power over the Law and renounceth all Need and therefor all Benefit of Repentance He that Disobeyeth the Kings Law may be a Felon but he that setteth up an Opposit Authority is a Rebel and declaring himself as all Rebels do a most Faithful Subject is thereby the more Unpardonabl He that doth this unworthily is guilty of the body and bloud of the Lord he dishonoreth his Person and that in his Humanity but he that Renounceth any Obligation to do it is guilty of his Crown and Dignity Deposeth him from his Throne and affronteth the Majesty of his Divinity and his pretence of Reason for disobedience whether it be Reverence or his Teachers Authority or what ever els it be it is a Rival to obedience and it 's plausibl Pretences make it so much the more properly Rebellious This perhaps may seem too Severe I grant it nor do I believ our Lord judgeth according to such Rigid mesures but Rigid as they ar they ar Just and may be urged against the Doctrines thogh not against the Persons For if the Preformance be bound upon us by a Positive Law of Christ and Forbearance only by my Own or my Teachers Reason If I prefer This abve That and Justifie my doing so what is this but to say I will not have That but This to reign over me We may not therefor without manifest Deposing our Lord pretend any thing Equal to his Authority but if we will decline our obedience to This Command we must fetch our Warrant from That alone as dispensing with us in such cases as we oppose to our obligation IV. AND this Warrant must be as Express as his Command and it must be either a Countermand or a Dispensation 1. A Countermand may be either Express or Implicit If
Proposition ver 26. is not the Lords Supper but This Bread and This Cup. The Praedicate is utterly useles and wors toward such a design VI. 2. Positively The Proposition pointeth at som Determinate Bread and Cup. The Argument reduced to a Syllogism CHAP. II. Concerning the Clause AS OFTEN AS Pag. 70. I. The unhappiness of this Clause II. The true sons of the words mesured by parallel precepts III. Serviceable remarks 1. With what care the Apostl recordeth this Claus IV. 2. With partiality he treateth the Cup. V. The justice he doth the Bread joining it with the Cup in his deductions VI. The Conclusion with an Objection answered CHAP. III. Concerning the Vulgar interpretation of as often as pag. 85. I. The Distinction between Suppositive and Absolute stated because made the mesure of obligation II. The words of the Author set forth and III. Examined IV. The merely suppositive sens enervates our Lords Command And V. The Apostl's own Argument VI. The two senses ballanced in order to Conscience CHAP. IV. Objections answered pag. 100. I. The First Objection That the Tradition may be novel answered 1. By mater of Fact II. By passing judgment upon it 2. No necessity of difference in point of frequency between the breaking of bread before meat and Grace-cup after it 2. If the Jews Antiquities be against us we may reject their authority III. 3. Seeing a party of them are on our side we may well prefer that party above the opposite So great an agreement as is between them could not be 1. From Chance IV. 2. Nor the Jews conforming their custom to Christs Institution bicause it is incredible they should have such 1. care 2. or wit V. Another Objection That we must have Fests or no Sacrament adjourned VI. A third Objection That the Jews used their Grace-cup in their Houses not their Synagogs Answered by six steps VII The last Objection The universal silence of all Ages Answered 1. By shewing reason why both Primitive and Later ages should be silent and 2. by shewing that the best critiks have observed it CHAP. V. Mater of Fact recorded in Scripture pag. 117. I. A transition to Mater of Fact Not so easily understood as might have be'n expected Two things considerable 1. The Backwardness of the Apostl's in Understanding our Lords mind 2. The means which our Lord used to recommend it unprosperos The night of Institution by its terrors II. Our Lord's conversation with the two Disciples in the way and at Emaus so ordered as to discover the meaning of his Institution as well as the truth of his Resurrection ineffectual upon a contrary reason Their ignorance 'till the coming of the Holy Ghost III. The second observable Their diligence in obeying our Lord's will when discovered That by their breaking of Bread must be meant the Lord's Supper appears by 1. The exercises accompanying it 2. The Phrase expressing it IV. 3. The Place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must signifie the Meeting house where the first Christians held their Conventicles for fear of the Jews V. 4. The time The Apostl's a d Brethren at Hire daily The Remote Churches on the Lo d's day VI. The first day of the week consecrated to this office and for that reason stiled the Lords day dishonored by derivation from the Fourth Commandment cannot be worse profaned than by neglect of this office to which it oweth its sacredness CHAP. VI. The Practice of Antiquity pag. 131. I. The constant Practice of Christ's Church in it's best ages proved by one evidence of each kind viz. 1. Canon the 9th Apostolik II. 2. One Father Justin Martyr 3. One Historian Socrates The Church of Rome under pretence of tradition innovated against the Church Universal III. 4. Enemies of each kind 1. Protestants IV. 2. Papists V. 3. Junior Fathers particularly St. Augustin whose words are recited wherein we must distinguish between Father and Doctor As Father he stateth the question The question and the practice of the Church both in Doctrine and Discipline very different between St. Augustin's time and Ours VI. As a Doctor he determins the question 1. His stile very diffident bicause his Opinion is opposit to all other Fathers 2. His determination reacheth not Our question Yet have later ages caght at his words and strained them beyond his intentions with unhappy success His Syncretism rectified PART III. Concerning the word DO CHAP. I. We must answer such a Command no otherwise but by Performance Pag. 149. I. The cause of our disobedience to this Command too much Fear II. We may not commute Doing for any other service III. The reason why som think best not to do this often and their appeal to the Church of England IV. The Church vindicated V. The two opposite opinions personated The Vniversity Statutes the best comment upon the Churches Rubrike The Greek Church in great Churches celebrateth the Holy Communion every Sunday and Holy day VI. Those who omit the Communion it self greater Non-conformists than those who neglect the Communion Service CHAP. II. We may not omit This duty without warrant pag. 164. I. Necessity may be complied with A doubl question II. Difference between Laws Moral and Positive The Apostl's vouching our Lords revelation a proof of the valu of the Sacrament Fear of cheapness no reason why we should make it scarce III. Omission compared with unworthiness IV. Our Warrant must be either Countermand or Dispensation V. Defect of preparation no Dispensation VI. All other Duties in the same danger CHAP. III. The Obligation ceased not upon the change of the Manner of the Festing in the Church but must be accommodated thereto pag. 174. I. The Apostle hath prevented such a consequence by saying our Lord appointed us to do this 'till he com II. The adequate mesure of our doing this is not Eating but Meeting in the Church As change of the Ceremony hindereth not Perjury from being a sin Nor doth change of the season hinder us from stiling it a Supper III. The Church careful to preserve the memory and titl of Festing VI. The Apostl's argument holdeth by vers 20. more for the Thing than for the Manner wherein we cannot now be guilty as the Corinthians were V. The Equitable and Moral sens of the Argument accommodate to the present manner of Church-meetings VI. Distinguish between yielding and justifying PART IV. Concerning the End In Remembrance CHAP. I. It is the badge of a Christian pag. 183. I. This the only rite whereby we honor our Lords Person Three Considerations 1. Every Religion distinguished from Every other by som proportion This Nature taught the Heathen and Gods Law the Jews II. The New Testament contracteth the multitude of Jewish rites to two whereby Christians ar known as the Knights of the Garter 1. By a rite of admission III. 2. By continual wearing the badge IV. Those distinguishing rites must be highly valued It was mortal to a Jew to omit any of them and to a Heathen to wear them V. This wors in
Reverence by bowing their Knees to the Holy Table and turning their Backs upon the Holier Sacrament their Aw putteth them to as great distance as Neglect can and this occasions others to cloak their real neglect under pretence of aw so the slothful joyn with the fearful to plead There is a Lyon in the way Many come only Once in a year as if our Lord intended to consecrate none but the Passover Others not until they are dying as if they were not to shew forth the Lords death but their own Others not at all as if it were the duty of the Priest only because Instituted in the presence of the Apostles only and upon one pretence or other the much greater part of the People never think of it at all no not to their very death In the mean time the most zealous Servants of our Lord lament that his last and therefore not least Command hath lost the Obedience due to it The greatest lovers of Piety that it hath lost one of its greatest supports in the time of greatest need The most affectionate Sons of the Church that she hath in a manner lost a Sacrament an indispensible mark of a true Church The tenderest Friends of Peace that she hath worse than lost her best Cement which is abused to an Instrument of Division And the most Prudent and Pious cry aloud that it is a shame to our Government and a wound to our Religion that our practice should give such a publickly to the Apostle when we read That we are therefor one Bread and one Body bieause we eat of that one Bread Since therefore the Work is equally necessary and Neglected he that shall labor in it will be secure from being blamed as troubling the World with repetitions of trite Discourses BUT then he shall be no less sure of the contrary censure as doing it with New ones and which is worse as vilifying the adorable Sacrament For the Temple of the Sepulchre however venerable for the Antiquity of its Buildings is much more so for the Place they stand on which though they do not so much Honor as Oppress yet whoever should endeavor to rescue it from them should be doubly censured as Sacrilegious both against the Holy Temple and Holier Ground Whoever will measure the Ground whereon the mistaking zeal of former Ages hath built so many and great Mysteries cannot avoid shewing it uncapable to bear them and consequently must run a severe gandelope lashed on one side in behalf of Antiquity and on the other in behalf of the Sacrament II. BUT once throughly convinced of the Fitness yea Necessity of the undertaking these Fears move me no otherwise than to set me forward From the Dignity of the Sacrament I conclude it worthy my service and from the Duration of the Error I conclude it to need it Did not Both these concur I should not have raised Work for the Learned or Game for the Censorious by opposing a popular error in so Sacred a subject Yet lest that which sets me forward to the Work should set me backward in the Success I think it requisite to take such notice of the double Objection as to justifie my self against both its parts 1. ONE part of the Objection concernerh the Dignity of the Sacrament who 's greatness I most heartily acknowledge I confess we may be guilty of the Body and Blood of our Lord in either sense That of the Institution or that of his preceding Doctrine Jo. 6. wherein he interpreteth eating and drinking by believing And therefor we ought to examine our selves before we Receive much mote before we Publish any Opinion concerning it as carefully as before we receive the Sacrament it self But this is so far from a reason against Examination that it pleads for it For as Both ways we may be guilty of Rashness if we Receive unworthily either the Sacrament or the Opinion so may we be of Neglect if we consider not what we are obliged both to Do and to Teach I know a Gentlewoman that hardly escaped falling into water because a poor neighbor that stood neer her and might easily have helpt her forbore that good office upon this reason as she afterward excused her self because she durst not be so bold Whoever accuseth me of boldness toward the Holy Sacrament let him consider whether he would be pleased with such reverence in a time of such need Whatever others do certainly none of those good men who so sadly complain of the neglect will blame him who labors the remedy No though he should abate somewhat both of Fear toward the Sacrament and of Reverence toward those former Ages which teaching men to Dread have by consequence taught them to Shun it Yet is there no such danger For neither will the Institution be a loser if in stead of the Superstitious Dread which contradicts it's Nature we pay it the Obedience which it requires and the Love which it deserves nor true Antiquity if instead of the Middle ages we venerate the First III. 2. TO that OTHER part therefor of the Objection I answer that we ought to take none but the first and best Ages of the Church for our guides in all such Controversies as are capable so to be determined That those which concern Matter of Fact are Such since the Practices of those Ages are visible but not alway their Opinions especially in such Modern Questions as never troubled them to declare their judgments That the publick Offices of Christian Worship are visible and therefor it must needs be a great crime for Later ages therein to depart from their Fathers All this I not only acknowledge but urge and I hope no man will deny that it was as true a thousand years since If therefor it appear that the Middle ages have departed from the First we must nor follow but reform the Error and whoever shall retrive the long lost truth ought not to be look'd upon as a Contemner but faithful Servant of Antiquity and so much the more deserving by how much longer the Error hath continued That this is the present case needeth no other proof than the Records of Matter of Fact never in any case more legible whereby we may easily discover by what steps we are go'n so far from the authentick examples of the Apostles and several immediatly succeeding Ages This though we shall meet another occasion to examine yet for preventing prejudices which perhaps might hinder some from reading so far I conceive fit here to offer in a more contracted Landschape THAT the Apostles and Primitive Christians for some hundreds of years were as constant at the Lords Table as at his House is so manifest that those who wanted not the Tentation ever wanted the Face to deny it And the Evasions whereby some have endeavored to shun the unavoidable Evidence are as plainly false as the denyal it self can be True it is saith the most excellent of them the Apostles did indefinitely admit the
Faithful to the H. C. but they were persons wholely inflamed with those Fires c. and so goes on describing them in such Characters as may very well fit the Apostles themselves but how ill Some if not Most of their Communicating Disciples is too manifest in a certain reproof whereby one of the Apostles themselves charges them with such Debaucheries at the Lords Table as had been inexcusable at their own yet doth not therefor Excommunicate thogh he vehemently Reproves them As long as there was any hope to prevail his Successots labored in the same contention for This Cup of the Lord against That of Bacchus but at last dispairing of success and thinking it better to submit to an Inconvenience than a Mischief changed the Primitive manner of Church-meetings from Feasting to Fasting as upon another kind of necessity they had do'n the proper Season from Evening after Supper to Morning before Day well considering that however ill a Fasting Feast or a Morning Supper might sound yet those or any other Solaecisms were less grievous than such Profaneness as otherwise appeared equally Unavoidable and Intolerable And as they changed the Circumstances of the Celebration so did they the Stile of their Writings from exhorting to Constancy which in those days appeared unquestionable they transplanted all their endeavors into pressing Reverence which they saw too much wanting Wherein that they might answer the then urgent necessity they put all their strength to bow the stick the opposit way spake such glorious things as dazeled the understandings of the Readers and advanced the Sacrament from their Contemt first to their Admiration and thence to their Fear So that which in St. Paul's time was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Chrysostom's was made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was a pretty large stride and soon followed by another For Shunning naturally follows Dreading the people quickly grew willing to avoid if possible the terrible duty which in a while they so deserted that the Priest was left alone without Communicants Nor were the People more willing to keep a distance from the dreadful Table than the Priests were to enclose it to themselves So in super-conformity to our Lord's Institution and his Churches practice the Priest celebrateth the Holy Supper in all Church-meetings and upon worse accounts often without any and in compliance with the Peoples Superstition and their own Interest they dispense with them for Communicating which was another large stride In another Age they widen the useful distance between themselves and the people with a further stride They pass from Dispensing to Forbidding not the whole indeed but a full half And thus at last taking from the people the Need to do any thing and the Power to do more than half they are gotten so far from Primitive Doctrine and Practice that they have rob'd the People of their Right The command of its Power and the Instituion not only of its Power but its Nature The Cup is metamorphosed from a Cup of Eucharist to a Cup of trembling the Performance from a Communion to a Spectacle the Institution from a Command to a Prohibition and the Bread which at first did and still ought to knead all Christs Members into one bread and one body crumbles them into almost innumerable and utterly irreconcilable divisions IV. FOR many who are willing to be freed from an Obligation are not so to be rob'd of a Right and the corruptions of Rome being now so swollen and suppurated that they could no longer hold from breaking Most if not All the Reforming Churches equalled the People with the Priests as in their Right to the Cup so in their Obligation to receive it Nor doth the Church of England put any other difference between them but only in her hopes concerning their Obedience To the Priests therefor from whom she apprehended better hopes she Enjoyneth but to the People she only Recommendeth constancy in the performance By the former keeping up her claim by the latter yielding to Necessity which yet she would not so far do as to leave even the People at liberty but enjoyneth That three times at least in every year which by her Injunctions to rhe Priests she more than intimateth desireable at least once in every week This moderation toward the People the Nonconformists heretofore complained of For Mr. Gartwright the chief opposer of the Liturgy in Q. Elizabeth's time and the Author of the Altare Damascenum the most violent censurer thereof in King James his time would have all who are in the Churches Communion forced to receive the Lords Supper condemning them who abstein out of fear as guilty of Superstition and not to be born with and had more authority for This than other of their complaints But the Melancholy proper to that Sect would neither permit them to tarry long in That Extreme nor stop till they came to the other For they now take up for Piety That fear which their predecessors condemned for intolerable Superstition While they had the Sceptre they laid aside the Holy Table as useless to any other purpose but That of bringing their people to examination when upon restitution of our Government there appeared danger of restoring this Institution to it s abolished power they moved in a publick Conference that the Rubrike which requireth every Parishioner to Communicate at least three times in every year might either be wholely left out or so curtailed as to enjoyn no more but this That the Communion should be celebrated three times in every year provided there were a competent number to receive it Which to hinder they employ their utmost diligence For even those among them who yield it lawful to conform in our other offices of Pubick Worship will by no means do it in This. V. NOR are our own Divines those of the former Age I mean altogether free of this humor Whether out of deference to the later Fathers or an opinion that the Obligation being self-evident needeth not be pressed or a conceit that Aw conduceth more to the advancement of Godliness or for whatever other reason plain it is they have been more industrious to advance the honor of this Institution by our Fear than by our Obedience For they make the Conditions of worthiness so strict and the Obligation to the performance so slack as if they designed to fright us from the one and free us from the other depending doubtless upon our Church-Rubrikes and Constant Practice for prevention of the inconvenience and not intending to deal with the Sacrament as some say our Rich the 2d was dealt with after his deposition served a la royale with store of costly Dishes his Esquire taking the Essay and all other pomps of Grandeur but not permitted to tast any thing and so destroyed with Hunger and Ceremony But to those who since the Restoration have written on this subject we must not deny our just acknowledgement that as there is greater need so have they used greater
who com not So often At least must be punishee as Non-conformists those who com not much Oftner thogh they fall not under her Discipline do under her Reproofs as we com now from hearing We can no more infer Three times a Year sufficient for the Communion bicause the Church doth not punish those who come so often than Once in a month to be sufficient for Divine Service because the Law punisheth not those who com so often Rules of Government have mesures different from Rules of Devotion Our Church seemeth to have taken her mesures from the Council of Agatho and Eliberis which declare That those who do not communicate on the Fests of Nativity Easter and Pentecost are not to be accounted Catholik She manifestly declareth her judgment to agree with what we have all this while be'n proving Not every Sunday but almost for every other Holy day she hath appointed a preparative Vigil that we may examin our selvs with Fasting and Prayer and every Festival hath its proper Communion Service to be read at the Time and Place of the Lords Supper Just in the same circumstances as Justin Martyr hath described the practice of the Church in His days when the Reader and Preacher have do'n their offices when the Catechumens are dismissed with the Benediction of The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ c. Then doth the Priest go to the Holy Table accompanied in Collegiat Churches and Chappels with one or two assistants There to read the Communion Service every Holy day throughout the year V. LET us now suppose a Priest of ether party about to read the Communion Service at the Holy Table declaring what he believeth to be the Churches meaning in that office and it will not be hard to judge which of the two will best deserv her thanks He that will make her satisfied with his three times in a year must speak to this purpose Behold hither am I com'n in conformity to the Customs of the Primitive Church and the Constitutions of our own The first Churches celebrated the Lords Supper every Holy dry and Ours ordaineth the Communion Service to be read every such day in the same circumstances After the Benediction with an Offertory at the Holy Table Here am I and my brethren ready to assist me to communicate to you and with you If any Isaac demand Here is the fire and the wood but where is the Lamb Here are all other requisites but where is the Bread and Wine Know that our Church doth as litl intend a Communion as Isaac did to be Sacrificed She doth not indeed affront your sences by Consecrating the Elements without Communicating them as doth the Church of Rome but she is no less willing to withold them from you She is content you should communicate thrice every Year that the memory of the Institution be not quite lost but would have you mannerly and modest not constant and importure guests com by such intervals as may becom the awe due to so venerable a Mystery not with such constancy as may signifie familiarity with it For however our Lord intended and the Apostls and best ages of the Church conformed themselvs to his Intentions that his Supper should be the constant office in every Church meeting yet experience hath proved such Constancy prejudicial to its Honor and therefor our Church hath taken this midl away constantly to do somwhat in obedience to the Lords Institution yet to forbear the complete office in reverence to his body and blood that as plenty hath made it cheap so scarcity may advance its value To this purpose must such an one speak that will father such an opinion upon the Church But he that pleads for constancy may borrow a better speach from St. Chrysostom who complains Here we wait and none com or from St. Augustin who expostulates What cause is there O hearers that ye see the Table and com not to the Banquet Yea or from her Own Exhortation now mentioned which assisted with her Rubrik prescribing to the Priests once every week at the least will complain not only of deserting the Table when furnished but of Discoraging the Ministers from furnishing it as constantly with the Holy Fest as they do with the Office which supposes it For thus may such an one speak Here we attend in conformity to our Lords Institution the Practice of the Primitive Church and the Injunctions of our Own to communicate with you the Lords Supper We do not indeed bring forth the Bread and Wine bicause it is too manifest that in so doing we must either expose them to contemt by not using them at all or use them our selves alone The choice is hard and the Church of Rome hath chosen the Later but without escaping the Former For how can That be caled a Communion as by the Apostl it is where One takes all to himself or how is the holy Supper rescued from contemt when all but one are idle spectators not vouchsafing to be guests at the divine Supper Our Church hath taken the best cours that in so great a streight she could to avoid Both sides of the inconvenience That our Lords body blood may not be so exposed she forbids us to celebrate the Communion unless there be a competent number to communicate and to avoid loss of any opportunity she directs those who intend to communicate that they signifie their readiness by sending their names in convenient season to the Curate By the One she provides that the Fest be not dishonored for want of Guests and by the Other that the Desirous be not hindered for want of the Fest And lest this omission of bringing Bread and Wine should be mistaken for an intimation that it is not our duty to receve them she hath provided that upon Every Holy day we be put in mind of our Obligation Yesterday Eve was consecrate to Fasting and Prayer for This very purpose that we might thereby prepare our selvs to receve the Holy Supper this day And now that the Common Prayer is ended and the rest of the people who are not capable to communicate ar dismissed with their blessing according to the practice of Christ's Church in the best ages we com up to the holy Table in this its proper place and season to read the Communion-service that you may understand there oght to be a Communion joined with This Service if you would not be wanting to your duty in receiving it You know we dare not adventure to expose the holy Viands without giving you a weeks warning nor dare we give you such warnings as Frequently as we desire much less as Gonstantly as we ought bicause we sind you too backward to entertene even Those too rare Invitations which we give you But that you may see with what regret we submit to That necessity you thus put upon us Our Church is careful clearly to intimate how much more she Wisheth than she Dareth to Command What reason
can you imagin for her putting so great a difference between her Injunctions to the Priests and those to the People By our Lords Institution ether the People are not at all obliged or they are cqually so with the Priests Why then should Three times in a year be sufficient for the One and no less than Every Sunday for the Other There can be no other reason but This that thogh there be not more Due yet there is more to be Hoped from the Priests From them therefor she requireth that when they have opportunity they communicate every Sunday At least And how much more they might and would do better to exceed that Least This Communion-service plainly declareth whereby our Church keepeth up the claim to that constancy which in the Primitive Church was practiced of closing every Church-jest with the Lords Supper Would you duly heed it you could not miss either the Churches Doctrine concerning your duty or opportunities to perform it She hath plainly enogh shew'n her Readiness to perform Her part and Your obligations to do Yours Try us Try us by the way she hath directed Signifie your willingness by sending us your names and if you then have not as many Communions as Communion-services let the whole blame lie upon us But while on the Churches part there are such Invitations and on Your part such neglects She may well take up St. Paul's self-justification Your blood be upon your own heads I am clean Such must the Languages be of those that on either side shall pretend the Church of England's authority and if it can be questionable which of the two is the better Expositor of her Rubriks possibly it cannot be put to a better Umpirage if it need any then that of our University And by her Statutes the Communion-service is never read in the University-Church without a Communion nor the Common Prayer without them Both. These Statutes have added Holy days of Our own to those of the Church but still with conformity to This rule We begin every Term as with Common Prayer so with the Communion Nothing therefor can be more apparent than the sens of the University which sure you cannot think ignorant of the Churches Doctrines And it may be worth som consideration that this is the practice of the Greek Church to this very day in their great Churches For thus saith the Learned Mr. Smith an ocular witness At such solemnities the holy and august Sacrament is alway celebrated and that with great pomp and ce emony and indsed is not only a necessary but the principal part of the Festival And that we may not mistake as if this were spoken only of the Principal Fests he saith afterward upon another occasion In the great Churches the Priests celebrates the Sacrament upon the solem Festivals and upon Sundays and at other times upon occasion In the obligation of the Peopl also they com not behind but advance a step further than our Church for saith the same Author The Laiks ace obliged to receve the Blessed Sacrament four times a year With which law of their Church they most readily comply none omitting it especially at Christmas or Easter unless hinder'd by real and urgent necessity In order to their better preparation the preceding Fests i. e. the four Lents fore-spoken of are appointed and observed VI. AND let me provoke the otherwise-minded to Emulation Will they own such Ministers for Conformists if such there be as for many Months and perhaps whole Years together Omit to read the Communion-Service will they not think it the duty of the Church-wardens to Present and of the Bishop to Punish such as Disobedient to the Churches Orders and Mutilators of her Offices Why then must They Escape Presentment yea why must they pass for the best Church-men who for Months and perhaps whole Years together omit either Offering or Receiving That Communion which That Service professeth to celebrate and so by Neglecting the One Expose the Other Let those now who bost themselves the tru Sons of the Church shew themselvs such not by much Talking but Studying her Thoghts yea her Declarations A good son will act not only the express Commands but the Inclinations of his Parent he will Enquire and by all competent indications Search and where there are manifest tokens that More is Desired than Expressed will do not only what the Command makes Necessary but whatever such Indications shew to be Well-pleasing Since therefor the Church so plainly intimateth that she Recommendeth More then she dares Command how can Those pretend themselves her affectionate Sons who do not only Neglect to comply with her so clear Intimations but downright Disobey Those Commands which she plainly imposeth as Necessary to her Communion Where is now that zele for the Church Have we no better way to shew it than by contending for a Vesture or a Gesture Do we think her such a coquet as to prefer a Ribon or a Lace before her Necessaries I speak not this to justifie any Neglect or Disobedience toward the slightest Injunctions of our Governors but by comparing the weightier maters of the Law with tithing mint and cummin to prove that Those who ar earnest to have these things do'n oght not to leave the other undo'n I might further urge that Those ar the worst sort of Non-conformists who not only Deny Obedience but Slander Those very Constitutions which require it and so make themselvs not only Disobedient children but False accusers for they can hardly avoid that dubl character who both refuse to communicate with her in This of all others most sacred and solen office and accuse her as accessary to That very Disobedience which themselvs practice no less against Her Injunctions than our Lords But it is not my business to accuse my brethren further than is necessary to the vindicating of my mother which I hope I have abundantly do'n so as to be secure from having her Name abused to the protection of an Error so Opposite to her Constitutions CHAP. II. VVe may not omit This duty without warrant I. Necessity may be complied with A duble question II. Difference between Laws Moral and Positive The Apostl 's vouching our Lords revelation a proof of the valu of the Sacrament Fear of cheapness no reason why we should make it scarce III Omission compared with unworthiness IV. Our warrant must be either Countermand or Dispensation V. Defect of preparation no Dispensation VI. All other duties in the same danger HAVING thus do'n right to our Church I now com to do it to the Question which is not the same in Our days as in St. Augustin's It is nor whether we ought to receve every Day but Whether we ought to do it upon every opportunity How frequent those Opportunities ought to be it is not the Peopl's business to enquire nor mine to determin It must needs be as necessary for the Officers as for the Constitutions of the Church to yield to the invincibl
unworthiness in Prayer as Those by unworthiness in Communicating Is our Lord Man only is he not God also Is he God of the Sacrament only is he not of Prayer also Is preparation therefor necessary for That only is it not equally necessary for This This were enogh But it is further considerabl that the case is very unequal on both sides For whereas unworthiness is more objected in bar to the Lords Supper the Scripture hath spoken much more against it in relation to Prayer For we shall hereafter find a more proper occasion to observ that the Apostl here reproveth not the unworthiness of the Person but only of the Performance Upbraideth not the Corinthians with any other sins but only such as are committed against the Lords Supper it self and in the manner of its celebration Doth not say the Lords Supper is turned into sin if the Communicant be guilty of Other sins But Solomon Prov. 15.8 saith expresly The Sacrifice of the wicked is sin and again chap. 21.27 The Sacrifice of the wicked is abomination David Psal 50. expostulateth in God's name that they presume to tread his courts and take his name into their mouths and the Prophet Isa 4. describeth God sick of his own Ordinances bicause unworthy persons celebrated them Jeremiah and Amos speak the same language So that if we take our mesures from Scripture we find much greater reason to examin our selvs and upon sens of our personal unworthiness to forbear Prayer than the Lords Supper Whence then this so gross partiality Why should we take That unworthiness as a Prohibition from This duty which we think not one from the other Were the truth duly considered it would appear that the difference lieth not in the greater or less sacredness of the Duties but our own greater or less Sens of their Benefits It is not Reverence but want of Appetite not Fear so much as want of Love that keepeth us at distance Pretendedly Reverential and Really Neglective Why do we not els use either the same Reverence or the same Boldness toward Both Both equally require Worthiness and Both equally require Performance with This difference that in the One we remember the Lord in the Other our Selvs But in Both we rob God of his due thogh in several kinds In the Lords Supper we own Preparation and There we deny Frequency In Prayer we own Frequency and there we deny Preparation so the One we Perform unworthily and the Other we Forbear unworthily and wipe our mouths and say we have do'n no wickedness Say not I plead now for Irreverence in the Communion or Forbearance of Prayer No! Religion is not to Compound with our Corruptions but to Destroy them will no more connive at Unworthiness in Prayer for fear lest Gods Throne be as much Deserted as his Table than at Unfrequency in Communicating for fear lest Irreverence should be as rude with his Table as his Foot-stool There is no necessity that we perish either by Poison or Starving By DO THIS we ar not Invited only but Commanded so to Honor our Lord as to Fest our own Souls CHAP. III. The Obligation ceased not upon the change of the Manner of the Festing in the Church but must be accommodated thereto I. The Apostle hath prevented such a consequence by saying our Lord appointed us to do this 'till he com II. The adequate mesure of our doing this is not Eating but Meeting in the Church As change of the ceremony hindereth not Perjury from being a sin Nor doth change of the season hinder us from stiling it a Supper III. The Church careful to preserve the memory and title of Festing IV. The Apostl's argument holdeth by vers 20. more for the Thing than for the Manner wherein we cannot now be guilty as the Corinthians were V. The Equitable and Moral sens of the Argument accommodate to the present manner of Church-meetings VI. Distinguish between yielding and justifying BUT there is yet another way Obligations without either Countermand or Dispensation from the Author may fall by the sinking of the Ground they ar bilt upon Upon the death of our Parents we ar no longer obliged to honor their Persons but only their Memories and upon this account all that we have said seemeth to free us from any other duty towards This Institution but that of speaking and thinking honorably of it For if This be bilt upon a Festival Tradition then will the Apostl's declaration of our Lords will oblige Us to do This as often as They did That His argument must be good against the Corinthians and All other Churches that might irreverently Fest in the Church But when the Council of Laodicea banished Festing thence they sent This Sacrament into the Same banishment with it This we cannot deny since the Apostl hath so declared it an inseparabl Adjunct to That but still an Adjunct which therefor must accompany its Subject whether in Life or Death We must do This as often but only as often as we do That which Now we never do This Objection deserveth our Answer not so much for its dangerosness as for the occasion it ministereth for a more clear stating our duty in accommodation to so great a change And to cut off at one blow all its power we must observe that the Apostl hath prevented it by an express claus added to vers 26. which shews This not to be Mortal as ar our Parents we must shew forth his death not only while Festing continueth an Ecclesiastical exercise but till he come Whereby he putteth it out of the Churches reach in point of Duration as before he had do'n in point of Constancy He had proved it to be our Lords Constitution not to be omitted in any of their Church Fests bicause They must do This as often as they drank That Grace-cup And that this humor might not fall upon another part he further tells them That thogh they should omit the very Grace-cup it self yea those very Fests which it must attend or what ever other way they should invent All must be unable to free them from the Immortal obligation which they had as litl power to Abolish as to Intermit since it must equal the World in Duration as well as their Fests in Constancy This therefor though a positive Law is no less Indispensibl than a Moral and the Church hath as much power to Dispens with the Law against Murther as with This whether by sapping the Foundation or battering it with a Contrary doctrine II. EITHER therefor That Council which forbad Festing in the Church was Heretical and then future ages must restore it by postliminium or else the adequate foundation of this duty was not Eating but Meeting in the Church And that This later is the case we have the Apostl's clear Intimation at least if not his express Declaration For however at That time their Festings wer as frequent as their Meetings and on the other side their Misdemeanors were not in the manner
shall not think any thing more probabl than This that wer they now aliv they would change their Stile with the so changed state of the Question and Correct or Confute whatever they have said in abatement of the Obligation to Constancy in the performance For proof hereof I give you the words of the excellent Person whom I have so often created as an adversary To such persons as these he speaks of Neuters in Religion not so bad as to deserv Excommunication nor so pios as to be discernably in the state of grace I can give no other advice but that every one take his mesures of frequency by the Laws of his Church and add what he please to his numbers by the advice of a Spiritual guide who may consider whether his penitent by his conjugation of preparatory actions and heaps of holy duties at that time usually conjoined do or is likely to receve any Spiritual progress And a few lines after To such persons as these the Church hath made Laws for the set times of their Communion Christmas Easter and Witsuntide wer appointed for all Christians that were not Scandalos and openly Criminal by P. Fabianus and this constitution is imitated by the best constituted Church in the world our dear mother the Church of England and they who do not at these times or so frequently communicate ar censured by the Council of Agathon as unfit to be reckoned among Christians or members of the Catholik Church Now by these Laws of the Church it is intended indeed that all men should be caled upon to discuss and shake off the yoke of their sins and enter into the salutary state of repentance and next to the perpetual Sermons of the Church she had no better means to engage them into the returns of Piety hoping that by the grace of God and the blessings of the Sacrament the repentance which at these times solenly begins may at one time or other fix and abide By which and many other words of this admirabl person it appeareth That thogh he denied our Lords Institution to amount to a Command lest the Sacrament by too much Familiarity might lose that Awe which he thoght most useful to make it Powerful yet did he upon other grounds suppose every one obliged to such Frequency as Wise and Pios persons judge most conductive to Godliness which as it was our Lords designe in his Death must needs be the best mesure of our behavior toward it's Representative St. Chrysostom expressly declared This I speak not that you may absent your selvs but that you may com worthily And we may well believ the same to have be'n the intentions of All our pios divines wer there No Other reason for it but This That otherwise Their Own injunctions must be as insignificant as our Lord's For if it be not necessary for us to Receve the Lords Supper neither will it be so to Prepare our selvs in such manner as they prescribe in Order to it And then all those Cautions against Unworthiness and Directions for Self-Examinations may be serviceabl perhaps to other purposes They may be useful to try the truth of our Repentance when upon other reasons we may set our selvs to that work but 'till then may well be laid aside notwithstanding any obligations deriveabl from This Institution Since therefor All obligations but such as ar bound upon us by our Lord and his Apostl ar too weak since contrary to All Expectation as much as All Law we have seen this greatest office of the Church sequestred but not restored with it's Officers Since the declared intentions of our pios Predecessors ar so grossly not onely Disappointed but Inverted that it is generally thoght as much more Safe as more Easie to Forbear the whole than to venture upon such difficulties and Dangers as ly in the way to the performance we may very well believ them so far from fondness toward their formerly Hopeful but now Unhappy opinion that they would be as forward as any of our present Divines to contribute to the remedy which the present state of the Church calls for II. 2. MY secund Protest is That I am so far from any design to rob the Sacrament of its due Reverence that I have already said sufficient to secure me from any such suspicion were I not now obliged to speak such things as look't upon in separation from my task may represent me half a Corinthian But this is the necessary consequence of opposing errors For Truth is usually seated like Vertu between two Extremes whereof whoever opposeth the One must seem to defend the Other The zeal of som Fathers for Aw toward the H. St. is taken as an implicit denial of our obligation to Constancy and then improved to a contrary obligation to Forbearance And while I renounce this Later I may seem to break those bonds in sunder whose Obligations I do not pretend either to Break or Unty but only so far to Slacken that they may not by too streght binding disable us from performing our necessary duty I therefor here invert St. Chrysostom's Protest This I speak not that you may com Vnworthily but that you may com Constantly I dash not One part of the Apostl's cautionary precept against the Other to the destruction of Both no nor put asunder what he hath joined together But I endevor to shew how he hath so fitted the One to the Other that they ar not onely Consistent but Serviceabl each to other For when he yoked Let a man examin himself with let him eat c. there was no strife between them and som ages they drew very lovingly and prosperosly together But after ages made the former draw cross and too hard for the later The Greek Church appointeth a Lent preparatory for every of the four Solemn tides whereon the peopl ar obliged to Communicate And such among our selvs as think it a necessary duty only upon those three great Festivals which ar attended with their Octaves suppose it Ushered with an Octave of preparation But the first ages which celebrated it every Sunday and other Holidays could allow it no more than the ' foregoing Eve I deny not for it cannot be avoided that if we conform to them in the One we must also do it in the Other More than every such Eve the necessity of most mens affairs will not allow nor the constitutions of our Church be satisfied with less Whether this be more agreeable both to the Apostl's mind and the honour of the Sacrament it self than either of the other we com now to consider And first we must see what is said on the other side II. THAT I may here again keep my self from any suspicion of injustice I give you our worthiest Adversares opinion in his Own words First he layeth down This for his foundation No man is fit to Communicate who is not fit to dy And having thereupon raised several completeth all with This coronis The
Seal 1. COVENANT This Notion we must not contemn bicaus it carrieth our Lords authority This saith He is the cup of the New Testament or Covenant in My bloud plainly ballanceing the New Covenant against the Old and his Own Bloud against that of the sacrificed Heifer which we find stiled the bloud of sprinkling This therefor must be so Sprinkled as That was upon the Whole promiscuos Peopl not to distinguish the Elect from the Reprobate but as Then the Jew so Now the Christian from a Heathen c. Even in the Old Covenant ther was Flesh and Spirit the Seed of the Loins and the Seed of the Faith He was not a Jew which was one Outwardly and Circumcision was not of the Flesh but the Spirit whose Praise was not of Man but of God Yet that outward Performance which had no Praise if unaccompanied with the Spirit was Necessary even without it sufficient to Condemn if Omitted thogh not sufficient to Approve it Naked Thus was it in the Old and thus is it in the New Covenant The Sacraments ar Outwatd badges every Visibl Christian must wear them that his Profession may be Visibl but No man may Rest in them as sufficient for Salvation For Those only have a right to the Promises of the Covenant who perform it's Condicions to All the rest the Covenant is lost and consequently so ar the Seals Yet doth This no more Prohibit or Dispens with a mere Outward Christan to receve the Sacrament than it did a Jew to receve Circumcision keep the Sabath or wear any other Cognisance prescribed by the Law And 2. TO SEAL a Covenant importeth an Obligation for the Future not an Account of the Past The Apostl tells the Galations that He that is Circumcised is a debter to keep the whole Law not that he is discharged as having Kept it We therefor most willingly grant what ever the Allegory demands viz. That by Doing This we new Seal the Covenant made in Baptism Repete all our Vows New tye all our Obligations which our Corruptions or Infirmities may have slackened since the last Sacrament But to say that bicaus This is the Seal of the Covenant therefor none may receve it who hath not already performed all it's Articls is to say that no man may seal an Indenture who hath not already do'n what thereby he Covenanteth to do i. e. It is not Lawful 'till it be Needless LET the otherwise minded be requested to consider Ar not all the congregations promiscuos obliged to make pubik profession of their Faith And doth not Faith import Holiness Where then is the Difference what the Reason why he who is not in Covenant in the strictest sens may not as well Communicate in the Lords Supper as he who hath not Faith in the strictest sens may Profess his belief I can shew a reason why he may Better do it but can imagin none why he may not do it as Well He that publikly maketh Profession of his Faith declareth himself to Have Faith and if he have it not he is a Lyar a notorios Lyar a solen Lyar in the face of God and his Angels But he that Receveth the Sacrament maketh no such bost Vaunteth not as the Young man in the Gospel All these have I kept from my youth up Saith not I have Paid but I am a Debtor to the whole Gospel and thankfully embrace it's gratios offers made by my Lord and purchased with his Bloud This is plain Sens and This is constant Practice If therefor it be a kind of Forgery to set this Seal to a Blank it is no less Criminal to Tear it off from our Lords Charter which giveth every Visibl Christian a Right to it III. AT OTHER times we ar told we ar not to partake our Lords Body if we be not his Members and his Members we ar not if we have not his Spirit Be it so This will not exclude Any Christian For St. John saith Hereby know we the Spirit of God Every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is com'n in the flesh is of God by which we perceive what Latitude the word Spirit is capabl of and what force there is in the Allegory That the whole Body and every particular Member must partake the same Flesh and Bloud the whole Crearion forbids us to deny That the Church is the body of Christ and every one of us Members in particular the Apostl hath expressly taght us The conclusion must needs be that the celebration of This Sacrament is the Duty both of every Church and every Member The Administration of Sacraments is generally acknowledged an essential requisite of a true Church and it must be very strange if the Reception of them should not be so of a true Member of such a Church BUT as it is in All Natural bodies so is it in This Mystical Every Member must have both Outward Frame and Inward Spirits answerabl to its place in the Body and its relation to the Head And every Member of Christ must answer it's relation both by an Outward Profession and Inward Life whereof thogh the Former be Insufficient without the Later yet is it Necessary in Order thereto For by outward Offices of worship we do not onely Exercise spiritual life when we have it but Dispose our selvs to Attein it So there is a Two fold Membership By the One we Ptofess our selvs Christians by the Other we Are so Yea by That very Profession we Ar so far So as to be both Intitled to all Priviledges and Obliged to all Duties which belong to Members of Christ IV. AGAIN we ar told That This is the Bread of Sons and must not be given to Enemies The Former claus if the Syrophaenician woman hath not answered our Lord himself hath For in directing us to call God Father he hath given as a right to the Bread as well as the title of Sons And to the Later the Apostl hath furnished us with an answer For if when we wer Enemies Christ died for us if our Enmity did not hinder him from giving us his Bloud it self much less will it from allowing us it's Representative Our Catechism teacheth us to say I was by Baptism made a Member of Christ a Child of God and an Inheritor of the Kingdom of heaven And though we know that the washing away of the filth of the flesh will be far from Saving us if we answer it not by a good conscience toward God Yet is every Baptised and Unexcommunicate person however unworthy admitted to the priviledge of joining with the Church in All such Offices as call God our Father and Christ our Head And All such persons ar honored by the title of Faithful in the writings of the Apostl's and Primitive Fathers Baptism is urged as necessary to incorporate into Christs visibl body even those who ar not capabl to understand it Hearing is pressed as a duty upon those who receve not the truth in the Love
to wash them The Necessity of the H. C. thus stated Let the condicions of worthiness be multiplied and enforced with what rigor you please Let them be more intolerabl than plucking out Both eyes and cutting off Both hands so they be indispensibl No reasonabl man will be thereby frighted from the Lords table but every one will be so from his sins since he every where carieth about him the same guilt and danger thogh he com not Nor will the Scrupulos be at all distracted with doubts whether it be best to com or forbear since this will be no other than to question whether it be best to be Singly or Dubly gilty Singly if he com with unworthiness or Dubly if he dishonor the Lords table both by Forsakeing and Profaning it the one in Reality the other by Imputation And this must needs be the opinion of the good Alms-giver above-praised who would not suffer the peopl to go away without the Communion but broght them back when they were already go'n out of the Church an importunity which he would never have used had he not believed it more sinful to Omit the duty than to perform it unprepared as they wer whereof no better account can be given than this that our obligation besets us behind and before and layeth such hand upon us that we cannot fly from it's presence but must necessarily fly from our sins bicaus this is the only way left us to escape the judgments threatened to unworthy Communicants and whether such an ordinance be a converting one or no I shall no further dispute from Scripture but proceed to consider Reason V. REASON will persuade that the Sacrament must be a converting Ordinance He that will deny this must impute the Defect either to the Unfitness of our Lords Death toward such an effect or 2. To the Insufficiency of the Sacrament to set it forth or 3. To our Lords denial of his ordinary Blessing In One or All of These must the Defect needs ly for if they All concurr Nothing is wanting to a saving efficacy 1. The defect cannot ly in the Death of Christ which the Apostl so often tells us he suffered to This very Purpose The Scripture speaketh I say not more Clearly but sure more Frequently of his dying for our Sanctification than for our Justification to redeem us from the Works than from the Wages of Sin If it sound ambiguosly when the Apostl saith he died to redeem us from all iniquity he cleareth it by an immediat explication to purchase to himself a peculiar peopl zelos of good works What can be spoken plainer than this That he died to redeem us from our vain conversation that he carried our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sin might live to righteousness to leave us an exampl that we should follow his steps c. And had the Apostls be'n silent plain Reason would have taught it us For as in Law without shedding of bloud there was no remission so was there no need of more than the mere death of the Sacrifice so much the fitter for That service by how much more Pampered Why then must our Lord be so unhappily unlike his typical Oxen why might he not have be'n sacrificed like Them by One blow and No pain closing a Full and Easie Life with a Death as Easie What could the Law have expected from Him beyond what the Jews expect in their Messiah the Son of David a Life Victorios and glorios closed with a Death suitably glorios in the Bed of honor One Drop of bloud perhaps certainly the singl Death however Easie or Honorabl of a Person of infinit valu must in justice be sufficient to satisfie a Father so Willing to receve satisfaction To what purpose then All the this way Needless and to him incomparably more Grievos Other Sufferings Why a Life so Poor so Despised so Hated so Laborios Why a Death so Painful so Shameful so Intolerabl Why but for the Apostl's reason To leave us an exampl that we should follow his steps which as they shewed us the way so did they smooth it for us that no man might think much to take up his Cross and follow such a Leader SUCH a leader as Caesar who did not say to his Soldiers Go but Com make them follow him if not for Valor yet for Shame It became him who was to bring many Sons to Glory to make the Captain of our Salvation perfect by sufferings and such sufferings too that none of his followers shall ever be able to upbraid him as requiring More To deny therefor that such a Death is fit to Redeem us both from the Service of sin and Fear of suffering is to giv the Scripture the Ly and to take from our Lords death it's Vertu VI. 2. AND Secundly to Deny this Sacraments sufficiency to set forth our Lords death is yet if possibl a greater affront both to our Lord and his Apostl Both of them expressly declare This for it's Adaequate designe As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye shew forth the Lords death till he com What the Apostl said to the Galatians that Christ was evidently set forth crucified among them was not so much ascribed to Preaching as to This Sacrament which so evidently sets it forth to All senses that whoever consideringly receveth it may say not only we have heard with our ears but we have seen with our Eyes we have looked upon our hands have handled our mouths have tasted and our bowels have be'n strengthened with the bread of Life What Orator can com neer an ordinary Painter in setting forth a mans countenance By how much the Ey is tenderer than the Ear by so much is the Mind more affected by it Now This Sacrament setteth forth the Death of our Lord not to the Ear as Preaching doth but to the very Ey and that not as a Picture but as a Drama it so Commemorates as to Act the Tragedy so Describes as to Exhibite it's Benefits How much more potent such visibl Rhetorik is than the most powerful Preaching Antony made a memorabl experiment He imployed all his Eloquence to stir up the peopl of Rome to revenge the death of Caesar He magnified his Wisdom his Industry and his Valor he recounted his Victories celebrated his Vertues lamented the cruelty of his Death Then he recited his Testament and from the Legacies therein bequeathed proved the greatness of his Love to them in his life their Champion after death their Benefactor All this the peopl heard thogh with Grief yet with Patience But when he produced his Robe when he shewed the Holes and the Bloud wherewith the murdering Poniards had Pierced and Stained it then did those visibl Orators not only Move them to Anger but Transport them to Rage they snatched up Weapons and Firebrands and missing the Persons destroyed the Dwellings of the Conspirators Such is the Designe such the Rhetorik of
above the Laity in their own The Former by exalting this their proper tradition above the joint practice of all other Churches and the Later by putting the People at distance from the Altar and consequently from the Priest who must needs appear more worthy of reverence by the privilege he had to Partake the Sacrament while the People must only Adore it II. I QUESTION whether All their Doctrines put together I am sure not any One singl hath so much of Popery both Form and Matter as our modern way of robbing the Lords Supper of due constancy 1. This is the Soul and Life of Popery To Equal Tradition with Scripture and engross to themselvs the power of declaring what is Tradition This is the Pope's tripl Crown by this he dominereth over the Conscience and Understanding of the whole Christian world And This Particular Tradition is the first-born of That invention and the most valiant of the whole race None like it in Boldness for it first durst openly affront the whole world none like it in Atchievments for it hath triumphed not only over the Church Universal but over the Apostl himself 1. With the Church Universal she hath hereby dealt as her Nero did with her Predecessor-city Among all his pranks none like That of firing the City and then enenlarging his House upon the ruines If a City be to the whole World as a singl House is to a whole City then to make a Private Tradition devour the Universal Tradition of the whole World was another kind of Neronian fire and the title of Roman Catholik an exact tally of Roma domus fiet c. 2. With the Apostl she hath dealt if possibl more rudely turned his own artillery upon himself baffled him with his own weapon For He that he might convince the Corinthians that our Lord required constancy pleadeth a private Tradition I have saith he receved of the Lord what I delivered to you The Church of Rome employeth the very same evidence Trueth only excepted in direct opposition to This very Tradition of the Apostl receved and practised by all the Churches of Christ for having no other pretence to rob the Lords Supper of This constancy I have saith she receved it by tradition that it is not to be celebrated every Sunday The Corinthians could not oppose any thing to the Apostl's testimony concerning His tradition without giving him the ly nor was there any other way for Other Churches to avoid This of the Church of Rome And who durst be so rude to the capital Church of the Empire If All the Christian World have so venerated that Imperial Church as to sacrifice to her authority their own eyes who but a race of impudent Heretiks will question her veracity after so many ages of possession And if in such a Question as This the whole Catholik Church yielded to her authority with what fore-head can any other Church much more any private Person oppose her in any Other For if after such a concession This same Church shall pretend a Tradition that it is the duty of every other Church to yield themselvs up to her conduct by implicit Faith and blind Obedience what is this more than is already granted He that hath given up his eyes so as not to discover the brightest evidence must contradict himself if he believ them in any less manifest For it is to deny his own concession viz. that the Church of Rome is to be believed against all contrary evidences whenever she shall declare tradition This therefor as it was the First and Greatest essay so it is the most Prosperos that that the Church of Rome ever made or can make of an unlimited power over the Word of God and the Understandings of Mankind 2. This is the most Material Articl the Greatest limb of Popery Both sides agree to make this Sacrament the adaequate Test whereby to distinguish a Romanist from such as they call Heretik and This was the first step whereby it mounted to the controverted adoration When once it was obteined that Other offices of publik worship might be celebrated without This it was not hard to gain one step more for if it be as Well in point of Duty it must seem Better in point of Prudence to make it Venerable by Distance than Cheap by Familiarity And if it be Best to make it Venerable then will it be best to speak the Most that can help to make it so and when once it came to This that he speaketh Best who speaketh Most what wonder if Alexander claim adoration But to Adore the Sacrament and Trample upon the Institution To pretend that This is but a Positive Law and therefor subject to the Churches power and then with an express non obstante not only to Universal tradition but to our Lords Command to forbid the One half to the Peopl exalting their own Authority in the One and their Wisdom in the Other against His This was a jump which even the Church of Rome it self durst not make but after long exercise of omnipotence And as she herein exceeded all her Former Ages so doth she in This All her Other Doctrines In Other Doctrines they cheat men of their mony by scaring them with Purgatory soothing them with Indulgences wheadling them with Merits cullying them with Absolution upon the Priest's own terms fooling them with Foppish ceremonies c. But by This they pull out their very Eys forbidding them to believe any of their Senses If countermanding that singular Law which is appropriate to our Lords own Person if tearing away that badge which himself made the cognisance of his Church if to affront him in Both his Natures his Divine by derogating from his Authority and his Humane by defacing his Image can deserv the title then must This above All Doctrines be most worthy to be stiled Antichristian In brief and plain Ether the Church of Rome is to be followed in opposition to the Church Universal or the Church Universal in opposition to the Church of Rome If the Church of Rome be to be followed why do we deny implicite Faith to any her Other traditions If the Church Universal be to be followed why do we forsake her in This point of Constancy which she paid the Sacrament 'till the Church of Rome out-faced her III. VVE have seen by who 's Prescription this Phlebotomy hath be'n exercised let us now enquire with what Success And this will occasion another Question viz. Whether of the two we have more reason to be ashamed of The Practice is two-fold and ether part is answered by its proper success On the One side the Sacrament is rob'd of Constancy and That is followed by loss of tolerable Frequency On the Other side That Loss is recompensed by Veneration and This is followed by as great Mischiefs as the Author designed Benefits 1. By loss of CONSTANCY we have lost tolerabl Frequency The Obligation ones untyed and Latitude allowed without any other limit