high praises or at the lower of melting humblings If the fire flame rise high thou hast more comfort If it smoak God will not quench-it and that 's some comfort Some have a finer taste and relish their meat with higher gust and more delight than others and yet others be nourisht as well as much as they So haply some receive Christ with greater delectation and yet thy soul may be nourisht as well as theirs CHAP. XXIV That a Godly man may receive the Sacrament unworthily HAving shown you the qualifications of a worthy Communicant before-hand and that the actual exercise of grace is requisite at present for receiving worthily I make this Observation § 1 That a man who is in a state of grace and so godly may yet receive the Lords Supper unworthily and without effect not for want of habitual fitnesse or qualification but for want of the actual exercise of grace at present or becaUse of some distempers which overtake and surprise him in the act of communicating This Point it may be at first sight looks strangely but upon consideration will be found too true For if we look back to the Passeover we finde that an Israelite circumcised and so qualified to eat the Passeover yea a true Israelite might be unclean at the present time and so uncapable of keeping it And we have at home in this Text an example and a proof of this Point These Corinthians are looked upon as and supposed to be and no doubt some of them were godly and regenerate persons who yet contracted epidemical judgements upon them Many sick weak c. and that for a sinne they little thought of their undue and unfit coming to the Lords Table they are distinguisht from the world vers 32 Of whom it s said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 30. For this caUse you are judged of the Lord and chastened and hence the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is contended to import only temporal judgement in this place I confesse this Point is controverted and disputed and more abroad than at home amongst us Vasquez seems to me to hold That it is enough that a man be in a state of grace and that every godly man receives worthily or else should sinne mortally But it is no new Doctrine with us That a regenerate man may sinne mortally as they speak or commit a sinne meritorious of condemnation We must not lessen regenerate mens sinnes which in divers respects are the greater becaUse the person is regenerate Even they that are babes in Christ may be-carnal and walk as men 1 Cor. 3. 3. And therefore Cajetan on the other side requires actual Devotion as necessary to the fruit of this Sacrament and his Argument is BecaUse the Sacrament works according to the manner of its signification And therefore as meat and drink to the end they may nourish do require that we cooperate by some act of life to receive and digest them so there is necessary some act of inward grace to meet with and receive this spiritual food that it may nourish and refresh us and I hold the Argument good and firm Nor do I finde any priviledge of a regenerate man that he cannot commit this sinne He may be under a spiritual Apoplexy or stupidity as David for a time seems to have been He may be overgrown with a crust a coldnesse a security and so unfit by disease though not by death Chrysostome saw this truth when he speaks of some that may not eat becaUse not initiated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and others though they be members yet are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unclean It 's true It is proper to the godly to receive worthily but it 's proper Soli sed non semper only they do so but not they alwayes and therefore I turn my speech to you and desire that you be not render'd secure and negligent by this false principle that a regenerate man cannot receive the Sacrament unworthily for this is the ready way to fall into that sinne which you imagine your selves free from by taking you off from that self-examination that trimming of your Lamps that purging out of the old Leaven that blowing up of your Graces into act which is so requisite unto your meeting with your Lord in this Ordinance I know that for the most part those do charge themselves with this sinne of receiving unworthily that have least caUse The worthiest Communicants are to their own eye the worst They never acted their graces lively at the Sacrament They never felt the present delights and fatnesse of this Ordinance They have been alwayes incumbred with doubts with fears and distempers and have often gone away with more anguish of spirit than they came and a world of such complaints there are and I confesse it is not ordinary that gracious persons do stand in good opinion with themselves but yet Jacobs going away halting from God was not an argument that he had not prevail'd Sick people may be nourisht and strengthen'd with that meat which they cannot taste or relish in their mouth Grace is more apt to see sinne than it self for the eye doth not see it self and the more it grows in light the more tender in sense In spirituals it is true But I shall speak a Paradox Those diseases we feel and are sick of seldome prove mortal that is when the affections melt with sorrow and not the conscience amazed with horrour though I would not nourish complaints against my self yet I had rather have the sense of Paul Rom. 7. wherein he complains of himself than his confidence when he said I verily thought I ought to do c. and I think a proud confidence both a greater caUse and signe of unworthy receiving than humble fear and sense of imperfection for even this is a grace to be exercised at the Lords Table CHAP. XXV Of the Graces which are to be exercised and set on work in the Use of this Sacrament § 1 THe Graces which are to be exercised and set on work in the Use of this Sacrament are pointed at and taught us by the Ordinance it self For when the Apostle bids every man to examine himself he should leave us in a wildernesse and wide world for he tels us not of what but that the Ordinance it self is the Rule of this examination and doth bespeak those graces which make us fit to come unto it This is the way that Chemnitius goes whereby to finde what those graces are which inable us to receive the benefit and effect here to be expected And to me it seems an excellent way For hereby the Communicant as I have often said is made suitable to the Ordinance and the examination is kept within its bounds So that if any should quarrel and say You require such things of us as you have no warrant for You lay burdens of your own invention we appeal to the Ordinance it self and require nor more nor lesse than may be deduced from it
them to the happier part the regenerate for they are smoaking flax and bruised reeds under the sweet promise of Christ to be blown up and to be strengthened and so would I have them comfortably in their self-examinations to reckon themselves As likewise all men in the world may compendiously reckon themselves under sinne and wrath and in state of damnation upon and by the argument which is the convictive argument of the holy Ghost Joh. 16. 9. All men are under sinne that believe not in Christ Of sin becaUse they believe not in me and it reaches all the world Not believing in Christ proves every man under sin if not propter infidelitatem for their unbelief therefore Thomas and other Schoolmen deny it as to them that never heard of Christ yet ratione infidelitatis by Reason of their not believing The wrath of God abides upon them as all confesse and as the Scripture speaks These four things may serve as motives to this duty of self examination and there are two more that rather look like directions therein Fifthly The Rule of this self-examination must be according to the properties of a Rule a known and certain inflexible Rule that is not partial to or against us for how shall we proceed from examination of our selves to judge our selves vers 31. if the processe be not regulated so as the judgement may be true and certain therefore the word of God must be that Canon or measure by which if we will not be deceived we must be tried for that must judge us another day by a false standard or a false touchstone or false rule we discern nothing and therefore when thou goest about this work banish all thy own flattering Reasons all other mens foolish and fraudulent comforts and counsels Let the Word of God sit upon thee and stand or fall before that Tribunal Seest thou not how the Pharisee flatter'd himself judging himself by his own traditional exercises The young man flatter'd himself All this have I done Paul shows upon what confidences he flatter'd himself and indeed every man will be in good estate if he may judge by his own fancy flattery or conceit but false mediums beget but fallacies in conclusion and our souls are betray'd and undone by Lesbian rules a sincere heart will not stand to that test knowing that flesh and bloud may speak good to me as the false Prophets to Ahab and the word of God speak evil as Michaiah did unto him God is not pleased that any man should bear false witnesse against or for himself We may neither proudly and partially acquit our selves upon false and flattering perswasions nor on the other hand deny the least evidence of grace and of the Spirit in our selves wherein the godly do often deserve blame by slighting and undervaluing the work of grace in their hearts There are proud self complaints as well as self flatteries The Word is the most impartial Judge of our state or of our actions Sixthly It 's necessary to stick upon the work of self-examination untill we bring it to an issue and be able to make a judgement upon our own selves for we are apt to pull off the plaister when it begins to smart before it hath done its work and are unwilling to set up all our Reasonings and bring them to a non plus and so we never know our selves never judge our selves sometimes a man is Sermon-shaken and his heart begins to tremble and to Question with it self and if he would but follow the stroke he might come to finde out his condition but he lets the iron cool again and like Felix when he trembled he dismisses Paul till another time This the Apostle shews us in these words Jam. 1. 24. he goes away from the glasse and straightway forgets what manner of man he was and therefore he saith we must look into the glasse and continue therein resolving to be deaf to flesh and bloud friends carnal counsels and by the Rule of the Word to bring the Question to an issue whether pro or con for us or against as §. 4. Considerations about examining our selves in order to the Lords Supper § 4 I have laid down these six Rules which are of good Use and great service in the examination of our selves at all times or at any time Now I come to the particular businesse of the Text which is self-examination in order to our worthy coming to the Lords Table for that 's the work which lies before us And for your better instruction I shall draw down your thoughts in order to the point by certain considerations 1. The Rule of this self-examination is the very Ordinance according to Christs Institution heretofore recited You see the Apostle doth not particularly number or rehearse what the graces or what the requisites are upon which interrogatories the examination must be made He saith not Let a man examine himself of this and of that but Let a man examine himself The Reason is that which I learn from Chemnitius That if the Ordinances Chem. exam de Euchar. be the Rule by which the examination is to be made then it will follow that what such a representation of Christs death and sufferings and such a demonstration of Gods offended Justice as is here made what such an offer and exhibition of Christ his body and bloud unto us for communion thereof doth bespeak and require of us That frame of spirit those affections those graces are requisite unto the Communicant which what they are hath been already deduced from the nature of the Ordinance it self and by me declared 2. They being known what they are it follows that a man examine himself whether they be in us for else we cannot come suitably to the Ordinance nor take and eat the body and bloud offer'd to us the effect and fruit of self-examination being to know our own selves 2 Cor. 13. 5. Whether Christ be in us Whether we be in the faith To know what graces are required is no point of self-examination but whether we be in some measure furnisht with them or no and by the duty enjoyn'd it is easily inferr'd That a man may know whether he have those graces for else all examination was unprofitable and vain and known they are by reflexion and insight into our selves as a man knows his thoughts his own purposes his meaning and can tell them to another being asked so we may know the graces and workings of the Spirit in our hearts Qui credit fidem suam videt in Austin de trin l. 13. c. 1. corde suo saith Austin that is except such a darknesse and smoak be within that they appear not as sometimes clouds arise and cover the face of the Sun but that is not for want of an eye but for want of clearnesse in the object and then if there be a vapour upon the glasse it makes no reflexion And there is great Reason that a man should not only have
shed for many for remission of sinnes saith Matthew which is shed for many saith Mark which is shed for you saith Luke And all these together are my Text at this time § 1 In this Sacrament Mirificè lusit Satan saith an excellent Authour Satan hath play'd his pranks and Chamier de Euchar. l. 6 c. 1. §. 1. tried conclusions upon Divines how he could infatuate aad make them mad such cart-loads of perplexities alterations absurdities and wilde fancies have they been possest with in the agitation of this point and discussion of these very words which as a Reverend D. Rainolds Medit. Divine saith truly are clear and easie to a spiritual ear or minde it is the carnal fancy that perplexes all and corrupts the Text which had been clear if the water had not been muddied with dirty hands so Nicodemus understands Christ carnally in matter of Joh. 3. Regeneration and talks of entring again into our mothers womb So the Disciples of Capernaum understand that excellent Doctrine of Christ John 6. about eating his flesh and drinking his bloud of the very Cannibal eating of mans flesh and bloud The very antidote he gave them would serve here John 6. 63. The words that I speak they are spirit and they are life that is their spiritual meaning is lively and if we could agree on this then we should give our Hooker l. 5. p. 359. selves more to meditate with silence what we have by this Sacrament and lesse dispute the manner how for this heavenly food is given for satisfying empty souls and not exercising our curious and subtil wits for it often comes to passe that curious sifting and disputing Hooker Eccles Pol. l. 5. p. 364. too boldly chils all warmth of our zeal and brings soundnesse of belief into great hazzard § 2 The words have been and are interpreted in divers senses the most notable I have Observed to be five I Hooker speaking of Ancients lib. 5. pag. 362. say the most notable for there are more 1. That Christ is present in this Sacrament by his efficacy and power to realize and exhibit vertue to and by the Ordinance Nec ullo modo se absentat divina Majestas a Ministeriis Cyprian de Caena and other Ancients 2. That Christ his very body is present with or in or under the outward elements as the Consubstantiatists or Lutheran saith 3. That Christ is really present but modum nescimus we know not the manner how and in this dark some of our learned men spoke of late to what intent they best knew 4. That there is a real turning of the substance of Bread and Wine into the very substance of Christs Body and Bloud Thus the Papists or Transubstantiatists 5. That the Bread and Wine are sacramentally Christs Body and Bloud or the memorials thereof symbolically representing and exhibiting to the faithfull Christians himself and so say We. § 3 And yet all parties in their difference professe themselves clear and that they follow the true naked and literal sense in their judgement Chemnitius that learned Examen de Eucbar p. 65. Col. 1. Luther an professes That he imbraceth that sense which holds the true and substantial presence of Christ in the Supper which the words in their proper and genuine and usual signification hold forth The Papist professes That he hath the very plain letter of the words and the sense literal So farre as Lapide I know not whether with more confidence or impudence saith That if God ask him at the day of Judgement why he held so he will confidently say Tu docuisti Thou hast taught me We are as clear Vide Lee in Annot. in loc that we follow the true proper literal sense and that saith a learned man Upon my soul there is no such D. Jo. Burgesse Kneeling at Sacramâ—nt p. 113. turning of the Bread into Christs Body as the Papist affirms §. 4. This is my Body § 4 I shall open the words severally This is my Body about which there is the greatest heat and quarrel In the Rite of the Paschal Supper when the bread Cameron Myrothec in Mat. 26. Scaliger de Emend lib. 6. pag. 536. was given there was a solemn signification put upon it This is the bread of affliction and our Saviour transferring that bread into his Supper gave a new signification This is my body In the first Rite there was no turning the substance of bread nor yet in this second Mouliu Bucklet p. 471. For our clearer understanding we must constantly hold these two things 1. That Christ gave bread 2. That this bread was his body First Christ gave bread to his Disciples at this Supper for that which he took which he blest which he brake was bread He took bread and that he gave saying This is my body which is broken for you for the bread was broken as a signe that his body should be crucified and bread the Apostle cals it after consecration thrice in this Chapter vers 26 27 28. and 1 Cor. 10. 16. The bread which we break and ver 17. We are all partakers of that one bread and he cals it so not becaUse it was bread before for he might so have called it wheat a man might be called a boy ripe wine verjuice but becaUse it is so except all our senses be put out and extinguisht with the bread Secondly This bread is Christs body What body Even his own natural body which is given for you Luk. 22. 19. which is broken for you as in my Text What bloud Even that which is shed for you Matth. 26. 28. Luke 22. â—0 But how can this be it 's impossible that bread while it is bread as we have proved it is should be Christs body or wine while it's wine should be his bloud It 's very true that it is impossible Disparatum de disparato non proprium praedicatur therefore we must seek for a possible Calvin in 1 Cor. 11. meaning and of necessity conclude with Calvin Sacramentalem esse loquutionem that it is a sacramental form of speech the signe bears the name of the thing signified as in vulgar and in Scripture language for in Scripture both signs figuratively representing or sacramentally sealing do bear the name of the things represented or sealed as Gen. 40. 12. The three branches are three dayes vers 18. The three baskets are three dayes Gen. 41. 26. The seven ears of corn are seven years the seven kine are seven years Ezek. 37. 11. These dry bones are the whole hoUse of Israel Dan. 2. 38. Thou O King art this head of gold Dan. 7. 17. The four beasts are four Kings Gal. 4. 25. This Agar is mount Sinai Revel 17. 9. The seven heads are seven mountains So in sacramentals Circumcision is called the Covenant Gen 17. 13. And a token of the Covenant v. 11. And a seal of the righteousnes of Faith Rom. 4. 11. The Lamb is
duty in that Jehojada 2 Chron. 23. 19. that set porters at the gates of the hoUse of the Lord that none that was unclean in any thing should enter in The diseased or dropick man is angry and frets sore against those that keep water from him but they are his best friends that do it 2. The admittance of ignorant malitious unclean scandalous drunkards blasphemers and such manifest works of the flesh of which it 's said that those that do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Gal. 5. 19 21. will render the Lords Table a common Ordinary a common lane a common shore and fill the Church of God and the society of Saints with all prodigious lusts and heresies as if it were a stie of unclean swine and what an ulcerous body would that Church be where such a common liberty doth reign when so many spoâ—s should be in your feasts of love Jude â—2 so much old leaven to leaven the lump by their example when as the Apostle in the case tels us a little leaven would do it and therefore purge it out saith he purge out 1 Cor. 5. 6. that leaven while it is little For as when the multitude a major part of a Town or City becomes infected who shall shut them up Si contagio peccandi multitudinem invaserit saith Austin then farewell all censures And therefore if any shall encourage the Church to keep as I may so say open hoUse in this Grotius de imperio pag. 233. case doth little less considering the corruption of men that would account such a liberty a warrant than if I should counsell you to plant weeds in your Garden or bring stones into your Vineyard 3. This would give occasion and advantage to separation and put into the hands of men an argument to withdraw from such society and communion and to rend themselves off from the body so corrupted not that I justifie separation upon such ground as I intend to shew hereafter for the people were blame-worthy that abhorred the offerings of the Lord for the wickedness of Eli his sonnes 1 Sam. 2. 17. and yet their wickedness was to be abhorred which gave the occasion Wo be to him by whom the offence cometh The Matth. 18. 7. mouth that blasphemeth the truth and way of God is wicked but the sin of him that opens that mouth is also to be condemned We are told Ezra 6. 21. that all such as had separated themselves from the filthiness of the Heathen of the Land came to the Passeover and if we separate not from the filthinesse of the Heathen there are many that will separate from the filthinesse of the Church and we shall in vain call them back into a hoUse infected with the plague when once they are broken out 4. The Church hath little or none other way as the Church to keep the holy things from being profaned to correct the sins and lapses of her children Ezek. 22. 26. to preserve it self from being gangren'd to defend and wipe off scandals but this way of privation of priviledges and calling of the peccant from her Communion shutting this door against rebellious children and what should the Church have done all the while the Civil Magistrate gave no assistance if they had not Used this power of their own to maintain themselves free from scandals and heresies and to keep the credit of their corporation which otherwise would be the most contemptible corporation in the world and of no better credit than Algier or any City of miscreants for if God have deposited his Word and Ordinances with his Church and committed them to it the case is hard if they might not put to the door against unjust invaders of her priviledges as if one should commit a Vineyard to be kept and not allow a hedge to be made about it Now all men know that almost all the coercion or correction that lies in the Churches hand is the debarment of priviledges of the Church that is of the Sacraments for the Word lies open to all as the outward Court to all comers and as for civil punishments they are neither proper nor the Churches the rod belongs to Moses And whereas it may be said The Church hath the word of God and by that they denounce judgement declare sinne wound the profane prohibit the unworthy from this Table I grant it and it is a necessary and proper means but withall I say If a City or Common-wealth have Laws proclaimed and expounded and penalties set forth and declared but no execution of any restraint or punishment no power to correct or punish I need not tell you how full we should be of thieves and felons for all that Thus much be said in confirmation and maintenance of my general Position That the Lords Supper is a barred Ordinance which I have endeavoured to make good by evidence of Fact by evidence of Scripture and by evidence of Reason for the satisfaction of your scruples if any be and the settling of animosities Much more might have been said and argued upon the point For if the very Heathens in their idolatrous Sacrifices by their light of Reason did no lesse as appears by their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Callimachus Callimachus and Procul ô procul este profani in Virgil Away away all you that are profane If both Heathens and the Church of God had some that did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 survey the Sacrifices that they had no blemish that might disable them from being presented to God If in the Olympick games or masteries Chrysost hom 17. ad heâ— the Crier made Proclamation If any man come out and accUse this Combatant or Antagonist that he is a thief a slave c. being a dishonour for a Gentleman a Free-man to enter lists with such a fellow If the old Druids in France had a form of Excommunication Caesar Commentaries out of their Society and it was accounted a mighty punishment If the Essens a Sect among the Jews in Christs time had it in Use to cast out of their Society such as were offensive as Josephus tels us If the Synagogues had a form of dissynagoguing offences Grot. de imp pag. 232. though they abUsed it as all Church-censures are when they spare the carrion-Crows and vex the Doves I say if all this and much more why then should this be accounted a new and unreasonable either Doctrine or practice I end this point with a reQuest That every one of you would rather labour and study to prevent all occasion of using this course than to remove the old Land-marks §. 8. Who may not be denied this Ordinance The second general Position is this That though this Sacrament be a barred Ordinance denied to some yet it cannot be denied to any baptized visible Professour of the Gospel but upon such grounds and in such manner and order as God hath appointed or allowed And this takes off the
If the Rule of Analogy or proportion may be here allowed and I believe that had not the profit of the Courts more swaid then point of conscience this Suspension of act had not been a crime For the Schoolmen generally allow the Dhrand part 4. Dist 9 Quaest 5. aliique Minister to deny the Sacrament to any that is in mortal sin if it be but notorious by evidence of fact And so much for this point which I have spoken the more unto becaUse it is a Question that may often come to hand even in our times and the places in which we live and only with this intention that I would have the Sacraments on their wheels and yet so that their male administration bring not epidemick judgements upon us as the receiving unworthily did on the Church of Corinth CHAP. XX. Whether a Godly man lawfully may or ought to stand as a Member of and hold Communion in the Ordinances of God with such a Congregation as is mixt as they call it that is where men visibly Scandalous in Life and Conversation are mingled with the Good in the Participation and Vse of Divine Ordinances Or VVhether this Mixture of Heterogeneals do not pollute the Ordinances and the Communion to the Godly so as they are concerned to Separate from such Communion § 1 BEfore I make particular Answer to this Question I must tell you That all serious and weighty Christians have caUse to lament the levity and inconstancy of people of our times and the spirit of Separation which so easily puts them upon wing to practice and plead for separation as they did for Divorce upon every caUse Matth. 19. 3. There are many make but a humour of it being ignorant of the greatnesse of the sinne of renting asunder the Unity and Union of the body of Christ which Chrysostom aggravates Homil. 11. in Ephes and recites a saying of a holy man before his time he means Cyprian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which might seem a very bold speech and that is That the bloud of Martyrdom cannot wash off this stain which many account an ornament not a sinne Among other principles of Separation this which I have now to speak unto that we must excommunicate our selves from Gods Ordinances if men of wicked life be not excommunicate for fear of pollution by them is Donatistical and urged by Parmenian the Vide cap. 21. Epist ad Parmenianum alibi Donatist and answer'd by Austin many hundred years ago and now retrimed and revived being called a new truth as we commonly call a new fashion that which lately come up though about fourty year ago or in our memory it was a fashion laid aside and rejected And the truth is That the Reason of this Separation seems plausible to easie capacities such as the Apostle cals Rom. 16. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the simple becaUse it pretends to set up holinesse both of Ordinances and people but if it be weighed by the standard of Scripture will be found too light and the two sorts of complainers directly opposite to one another will be found erroneous both them that complain of any hedge at all about the Sacrament and they that complain and therefore separate becaUse the hedge is not so sufficient as may keep off every undue intruder Let us then by Scripture Rule lay down the Answer to this Question and that orderly and in certain Theses § 2 First I shall grant That the very notion and nature of the Church denotes a separation God separates his Church from Infidels and them that are extraneous and strangers to the Covenant He separates them to be his inheritance his peculiar tReasure above Levit. 20 24. 1 King 8. 53. other people and they also do and ought to separate themselves from communion with Devils in idolatrous service and worship Nehem. 9. 2. Come out from among them and be ye separate 2 Cor. 6. 17. This is not necessary to be a locall Separation for present There was a mixt multitude of uncircumcised people No just Proselytes as Mr Selden saith with Israels De Synedriis cap. 2. in the wildernesse after their separation from Aegypt but this separation is moral or foederal God cals them propounds the terms of his Covenant they professedly submit and accept Exod. 19. 5 8. and now they are separate set apart sanctified by dedication unto God and his service and are called no more Heathens Infidels but Saints Gods people believers Christians or the like § 3 Secondly All that are thus separated by their professed submission unto and acceptance of the Covenant are not true members of Christ or of his body All the people when God did but generally propound a Covenant to them professed with open voice their yeeldance and the Lord acquiesced in it Exod. 19. 5 8 9. and the same people when they heard the particular Laws of that Covenant profest again they would do them Exod. 24. 3. and so it became as we say Done and done on both sides and yet he that should affirm all these though newly baptized to be truly regenerate were very wide of the truth for there are many reputative members that are in the visible Society and fellowship of the Church and it's Ordinances that are but Jews outwardly and they are saith the Apostle no Jews and yet they are circumcised and eat the Passeover and communicate in Ordinances and if we will not be captious in words are true members of the visible Society yet no members of Christs mystical Body nor yet can they be dispossest by us of their right unto Ordinances for we have no judgement of their spiritual and inward Estates nor any Command nor any Rule to dispossesse them nor any example of God himself who lets the corn and chaff lie together in area and separates them locally in horreo as Austin speaks and this body howsoever consisting of members heterogeneall yet being taken together in grosse or in the lump hath very sublime and honourable compellation both in the Old Testament A holy Nation a Exod. 19. 5 6 c. Kingdom of Priests Gods special tReasure and in the New The Kingdom of God the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 25. 1. for so the Gospel net that contains both good and bad is called and so the whole knot of wise and foolish Virgins and yet it 's plain that in this Kingdom there are children that are to be cast out and scandalous persons for Doctrine and them that work iniquity for Practice that are to be gathered out at last Mat. 13. 41. § 4 Thirdly Whereupon we grant That it 's rare and hard to finde a visible Church in any Age or time that was without corruption or mixture of good and bad in it They that talk of purity of Churches may more easily finde in the world a body that hath never a frecken or spot than a Church without corruption and yet both a body and a
is not guilty of the Body and Bloud of the Lord which was never offer'd to him in this Sacrament No aggravations of sinne are like to the aggravations of the sins of wicked Christians their guilt is not of so high complexion that never knew of Christ either we must be saved or we cannot be so easily damned the weight of sins against Christ is heavier than of those that are meerly against the Law of God We are the earth that drinks in the rain that cometh upon us If we bear briars and thorns we are nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned Heb. 6. 7 8. 2. How many do that they think least of and are guilty of that they once imagine not themselves to be guilty of but few of a thousand will own this guiltinesse of the Body and Bloud of Christ and yet as often as they do or have eaten and drunk at this Table unworthily so often they have incurred and renew'd this guilt Do not they say at the last day When saw we thee an hungry or in prison Did the Jews think they pierced their true Messiah There are not many Christians in name and profession such that can be convinced that they hate and despise Christ as much as the very Jews that crucified him which yet may be demonstrate by clear arguments The Jew honour'd the name of the Messiah and expected great things of him and yet hated and rejected him blindfold and so we call Christ Saviour and Lord and besprinkle him with sweet water but his reign and government over us we utterly despise and hate and prefer a sordid lust far before him CHAP. XXXII The Danger of this Sinne. § 1 4. THe fourth thing expounded was the danger of this sinne He eats and drinks judgement to himself if he be a godly man that eats and drinks unworthily or haply also damnation if he be an hypocrite for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may respectively extend to both A strange phrase it is to eat and drink judgement but it is allusive and per mimesin as sure as he eats of the Bread and drinks of the Cup unworthily so sure is judgement to follow thereupon or to accompany it for he eats judgement but it is to himself not to others except they be partakers in his sinne which may be divers ways So as we have reason to insert in all our prayers Lord forgive our nostra aliena our other mens sins but without partnership in the sinne we need not fear share in the judgement He eats it to himself and therefore that argument of the Donatist which is rise now a dayes Si corruptis sociaris c. If you be joyned with wicked men how can you be clean If you pray with them hear with them receive the Sacrament with them was answer'd by Austin True saith he if we be joyned but that is not in bodily presence locally but by consent or allowance and so we are no more joyn'd then Christ and the Apostles were joyn'd with Judas at the Passeover or Supper who I believe was not defiled by his presence as neither were those guests that came in to the marriage by the presence of him that had no wedding garment It 's true example may defile by contagion and infection but allowance and consent defiles by accessarinesse unto the sin §. 2. The Application § 2 How precious an Ordinance is this Supper and yet how dangerous There is life and death set before you It 's on one side a refreshing cloud on the other a flaming fire so by the same water and way were the Israelites saved and the Aegypians attempting the like were drown'd Thus Christ also is a precious stone to believers a stumbling and a crushing stone to unbelievers and the Word is a savour of life and a savour of death Some mens eyes are open'd by it and some are shut The same Ark is to Israel a glory to the Philistims a scourge Here is honey in the same rose to the Bee and poyson to the Spider and it is according as you eat and drink worthily or unworthily We reade in Scripture that when people cried to Christ for cure usually he put it upon their faith According to your faith and If thou canst believe and we never reade of any one that cried that he was put by for want of faith for if they gave never so little account Lord I believe help my unbelief it was accepted The benefit of this Ordinance is according to your Faith Repentance and if you can give but any account of them to God you may drink Christ out of this Rock but if you be in sinnes of love and delight and come in your wickednesse you take the Sword by the point not by the haft and you shall smart for your presumption Secondly The horrible thunder of the Apostle in this place is not to deterre but to prepare Communicants An humble soul is affrighted with the terrour and dare not draw nigh this fiery Mount but it is not spoken to affright from the Sacrament but to enforce a due preparation When the destroying Angel rode his circuit the Israelites lay secure within the line of bloud This bloud here offer'd will protect thee from this condemnation threatned if thou flie to it But Thirdly The ignorant that are without knowledge and the scandalous without repentance who are by the common vote of men excepted against as unfit Communicants they may know that this is a dreadfull eating and drinking which is accompanied with such a guiltinesse and wiâ—h such judgement and yet this fiery Sword will not keep them off they will be rushing in to this Tree of Life It is not envy malice or partiality but it is charity to entreat you not to lust so eagerly after those Quails which while they are in your mouths the wrath of God is like to fall upon you both of you have marks enough of condemnation upon you Desire not to adde more be sure the King will survey and view his guests you cannot scape in the croud What if you be taken from the Table and cast into utter darknesse It concernes me to give you warning If you take the Allarme and first labour for knowledge and seeke repentance by the means appointed to beget them and to beget you unto God Well If not then it concernes the Church to shew you mercy in making stay of you from falling into the fire For Fourthly The eating and drinking of the Lords Bread and the Lords Cup unworthily is a sinne dangerous to Common-wealths and Churches for it brings judgement Epidemick judgement so it did upon this Church of Corinth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this caUse many among you are sick and die Haply they had some common and mortall sicknesse or mortality and knew not the caUse of it Happy we if we knew the particular caUse of Gods angry visitations sinne in the generall we acknowledge but we owne not our particular