Her Power to preserv him in a great part of All Three especially That which of All was dearest to him He had Long made her heart his Throne and Now desired to have it for his Monument he therefor prayed both the Gods and Her to take care of That life wherein was preserved the remains of his Own To this purpose but infinitely more obligingly spake our dying Lord not in the language of a faint but quiet sickness but in the Agonies of a tormented Soul not in a few Complemental words suddenly offering themselvs to Augustus's mind and perhaps as suddenly flitting out of Livia's certainly dying with her but upon a premeditated Design to settle a lasting Monument whose firm durablness should Fix the fugitive impression and by constant returns perpetually Renew it so to keep his Bloud from Drying up and his Death from Dying His Last Command oght to be as powerful to work Obedience in his Disciples as wer his last Cryes to work Faith in the Centurion since These shewed no less the Strength of his Love than Those did the Vigor of Life at the very point of Death 2. But much more when we further consider that as it was the Last so was it the most Dreadful night This Passover had not onely the same bitter herbs with others but much bitterer Gall. He had the Devil for his guest and he that dipped with him in the dish was about to Betray him And he had his merciless enemies for his attendants waiting with swords and staves to take and destroy him This was That dreadful night wherin his Soul oppressed with horrors complained That it was exceeding heavy even to the death The same dismal night wherin the stabbing agonies of his tormented mind made every pore of his body a wound bleeding great grumos drops and those so plentifully as to run down to the ground The same terribl night wherin the dreadful prospect of his approaching sufferings so confounded his faculties that with dubled and trebled importunities he prayed to have That Cup taken from him for drinking whereof he came into the World The same amazing night wherin he was so near sinking that he needed an assisting Angel to support him under his burthen Even in That most hideos night did his care of This Institution so prevail over All Those Horrors which prevailed over his faculties as to bring him to a truce and he seemed almost to forget what night it was To Forget No but what was incomparably more to Long for it to Desire it With a Desire i. e. with a vehement desire with such a desire as outvoiced all the cries of his terrifying and tormenting passions Could we possibly understand the load that made him complain That his Soul was exceeding heavy even unto death and how much his Longings for This very season outweighed so great a load then possibly may we adjust the esteem he had for This his Dear Institution V. BUT if on the other side we compare the Affection wherewith We Receive it shall I say with that wherewith we find our Lord Recommended it we shall find Solomons words most perversly verified As in water face answereth to face so doth the heart of man to man For as the Reflex is directly Opposite to the Incident answering the Right side with the Left so doth our Obedience shall I say or our Performance no but our Neglect answer our Lords Care He chose the Last night of his Life for the Institution and many answer This by chusing the Last of theirs for the Performance as if appointed to shew forth not His Death but Their own When they have receved the Sentence of death in themselvs and ar immediatly to receve That of God Then first do they think fit to receve the Body and Blood of Christ as a kind of Charm somwhat better than the Sign of the Cross to fright the Devil from seising his own When the Physician hath declared or other Indications make it apparent that there is no hope of returning to Those sins which Therefor only they repent of bicaus they ar Past when the Will is sealed wherin they bequeath That soul to God whereof they had so long given the Devil possession Then in commutation for a whole life spent in contemt of This and All other holy exercises the Minister is sent for som good words spoken Absolution granted and Sealed with This Sacrament And now what uncharitabl Infidel can doubt but that the man is Pardoned in vertu of the One and receved into Eternal joys in that of the Other since our Lord himself promised that Whosoever Eateth his flesh and Drinketh his bloud hath Eternal life or how can This Bread and Wine possibly be imagined ar Any time fuller of Vertu than when so lately receved that the digestive faculty of the stomach hath not at all impaired it BUT others do not Thus put it off to the very Last Many own it if not a Duty yet an acceptabl act of Devotion Laudably thogh perhaps not Necessarily to be performed in the mids of life Yet even Those thogh not in the Same in Another wretched sens make it their Last Care When All other Interests and Inclinations ar served Then perhaps shall This have it's turn But if any thing els crave it however Slight or Trifling it be This Holy Office must yield it Precedence Pretences so Slender that a hundred twisted together shall not be sufficient to draw one from a Gossiping or any other Meeting shall singl be abl to draw him from the Lords Table With Solomons yawning Sluggard he cryes there is a Lion in the way a Lion in the streets when indeed he fears no danger But to his Lust or Ease I had business says one But pray Sir what was That Business Was it greater than what our Lord had in That last horrid Night wherein he forced all his dreadful crouds of griefs and fears to give way to This Care Was it so Importunate that it could not be Neglected or so Urgent that it could not be Delayed or so Suden that it could not be Prevented Didst thou use all indevors to Keep or Dispatch it out of the way Did it Surprise thee just in the nick when thou wert going to the Church and upon the very spot Disable thee from performing thy then fixed resolution Didst thou Wrestle against it with thy utmost Strength and yield to it no otherwise than as to an Invincibl Necessity If so thou art so far excusabl For Necessity hath This only of good nature that it Defends those most who have most Resisted it But if thou hast either Wilfully Draw'n this pretended hindrance upon thy self or Carelesly Suffered it to surprise thee or Tamely Yielded to it or be'n any way Defective in striving against it look how many grains the Hindrance falleth short of Insuperabl and thy Endevors of Perfect so many doth thy Excuse of Justifiable BUT the business which is too Slight may be otherwise Innocent
to speak like one as not declaring rhe Doctrine of the Church but his own Private Thoghts and that how modestly how diffidently how contrary to his stile in other cases This is not the Only Doctrine wherein he took the boldness to depart from the Opinions of his predecessors and in those cases he expressed himself with confidence sufficiently why so timoros now The Reason is as plain as the change In the Other Questions they had not declared their minds plainly in this they had do'n it not only Plainly but Zelously St. Cyprian had said This bread we crave to have EVERY DAY given us lest we who are in Christ and daily receve the Sacrament for the food of Salvation by interposing of any grievos crime while restrained and not communicating we ar forbidden the Heavenly bread we should be separated from the body of Christ St. Basil had said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. To communicate the body and blood of Christ EVERY DAY is good and most profitable seeing himself plainly saith He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath everlasting life now then who can doubt but that often to partake of the life is nothing else but often to live St. Ambrose had said If the Eucharistical bread be daily offered why do'st thou receve it after a Year as the Greekt do in the East Receve That EVERY DAY which may profit thee every day So live that thou mayest deserv to receve every day He that deserveth not to receve every day deserveth not to receve after a year c. Saint Chrysostom complained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in vain is the DAILY sacrifice c. So express and so earnest we see were the Exhortations of other Fathers both Before and In St. Augustin's time that as they gave him sufficient reason to be diffident in declaring his own contrary opinion so do they Us to except against it as singular and out-voted by his equals if it prejudice the Truth we have engaged to assert which whether it do or not we are to judge by his Determination wherein we ar to observ 1. His Design 2. His way of ferving it 1. His Design in determining this Question is the same with that of the whole Epistl which is to perswade compliance in matter of worship The Peace of Christ is dearer to him than his Supper it self which is to serv it and therefor oght principally to be regarded thogh with it's diminution Rectius inter eos fortasse quisquam dirimit litem qui monet ut praecipue in Christi pace permaneant And to This only purpose doth he bring his instance of Zacheus and the Centurion Neque enim litigaverunt inter se aut quisquam eorum se alteri praeposuit He doth not pretend by their Exampls to determin the Question but the Quarrel 2. His Way to serv this good end is by a toleration that every one should do what he thinketh best which he encorageth with This reason that nether of them dishonoreth the body of Christ if saluberrimum Sacramentum certatim honorare contendunt In which last words the good Father may seem to unty the obligation I have so much contended for For if every one may do what he thinketh best if He do not dishonor the body and blood of Christ who striveth to honor the Sacrament by forbearance in sens of his unworthiness then cannot our obligation to constancy be indispensibl but our selvs ar judges of what is best Upon This Authority of so great a Father so confirmed with pios reason have following ages proceeded to the modern way of honoring the Lords Supper Having learned to ballance Reverence against Performance to make the former the more weighty they have loaded it with so many doubts and difficulties that he must be both very good and very confident who will not prefer the Centurions safe and easie complement before Zacheus's costly and troublesom entertainment Thus while every one chuseth to excuse himself as unworthy that Christ should come under his roof He may complain that he hath not where to lay his head And All or at least much of this proceeding from the too much valuing and too little considering the good Fathers words I thoght to rescue both the Truth and Him from so great and unhappy a mistake For as These words will not Require so will not his other writing Permit that we should list Him among our Adversaries He that caled as loud as any other Father He that so earnestly expostulated with the desertors of the Holy Sacrament saying What is the reason O hearers that ye see the Table and come not to the banquet He certainly did not intend to furnish his hearers with an excuse that they did what they thoght best upon the same reason as did the Centurion Nor can we easily so mistake if we regard either the case or his very words Inter Eos and Neuter Eorum restrain his determination to Those two parties between whom he professeth to arbitrate who both of them might plead such good precedents as might entitle them to toleration at least One thinketh it best to communicate Every day Another thinketh it better to do it only upon som certain days The Former voucheth the Apostls and the Hierusalem Church who continued Daily in breaking of Bread as well as in Prayer The Later the Provincial Churches who met the First day of the week to break Bread But how wide is this from our Question wherein One thinketh himself obliged to receive the Holy Sacrament as often as it is offered and another thinketh himself free to take or refuse it as often as he thinketh fit Whether the good Father would have determined This Question Inter Nos in the same manner as he did That Inter Eos is not so apparent as it is that his Instance can here have no place Zacheus had a Command from our Lord to come down and entertene him at his house he did so and honored him by the forwardness of his Obedience The Centurion had no such command and he honored Him by the humility of his excuse Had Zacheus receved no such command who knows but he might have excused himself as did the Centurion Had the Centurion receved such a command who knoweth but he would have receved our Lord with the same alacrity as did Zacheus Had he not his own instance of his servants obedience must have condemned him Both of them honored our Lord but Both cannot be imitated by Us. For either with Zacheus we have a Command or with the Centurion we have None That we have none to receve the Lords Supper EVERY DAY we willingly acknowledge and thereby submit to St. Augustin's determination But whether we have one to receve it as often as it is celebrated that we may understand we must proceed to examin The word of Command DO PART III. Concerning the word DO CHAP. I. We must answer such a Command no otherwise but by Performance I.
killeth it out of the camp and bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation to offer an offering unto the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord blood shall be imputed to that man he hath shed blood and that man shall be cut off from among his people He that killed an Ox yea Goat or Lamb was if he slew a man and rob'd God if he did not expiate the destroyed life and acquire a new title to the flesh by offering it to that he might receive it from the Lord of all This was easily enough performable when the People and Tabernacle travelled and lodged together in the same Camp But when the Camp was disbanded throgh the whole Land and the Tabernacle fixed in one City then did necessity plead for a dispensation from the unpracticable duty And this necessary Dispensation we find granted Deut. 12.21 If the place which the Lord hath chosen to put his name there be too far from thee then thou shalt kill of thy herd and of thy flock which the Lord hath given thee as I have commanded thee and thou shalt eat in thy gates whatsoever thy soul lusteth after In which words God sheweth his kindness to his former Law no less plainly than to his people That must still be obeyed as far as it was practicable and what distance was too great while he did not determin but left it to the piety of the people he thereby obliged them to enlarge it as much as possible AND THEY in thankfulness for the favor thoght no distance great enogh But if the remoteness of their dwellings permitted them not to bring their Meat to the Altar found a way to bring the Altar to their Meat Not really indeed for That the Law forbad but the Representation and more taking for a rule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quod Altare expiat hoc Mensa expiat They gave their domestick Tables the title of Altars and their Meat they stiled Offering Salt they therefor made necessary for the one bicause Gods Law had made it so for the other When they came to That Office for whose sake the Allegory became reasonable the Benediction they removed their Knives upon This express reason because the Law forbad any Iron tool to come upon Gods Altar And by many other Ceremonies indeavored to make the Succedaneum answer the Principal II. TO THIS probably certainly to no better sens must those frequent Expressions of our Christian Fathers be reduced When they speak of the Sacrament of the Altar they use the same Allegory but mean thus much more than the Jewish Doctors that the Holy Fest is not only a Representative Sacrifice as were the Jewish but a Commemorative Doth not set forth what our selves would do if we had opportunity but what our Lord hath actually suffered And if the Jews thoght it sufficient reason to call their own Table an Altar bicause they did what themselves thoght fit to make it Represent one much more may we call That holy Table an Altar and That Holy Meat a Sacrament which not by our own voluntary Act but by our Lords express Command doth not barely Represent but Exhibit his flesh and blood Nor is it sufficient reason that because som strain the Allegory too far we should therefor abhor any use of it Why should it be Unlawful or Unfit yea why should it not be most Proper for Us to borrow the Allegory from the Same Tradition from which our Lord borrowed the Institution Had it be'n Sacrilegios in the Jews to stile their Table by That sacred title our Lord doubtless would not so have justified them by honoring the Tradition Why then should we not think it Equally lawful since it is More proper to give This much Holier Table the same title wherewith the Jews honored their domestick ones without any such warrant WOULD to God we would so imitate the Jews that not only the Lords but Our own tables might some way answer That name For it is to be considered to Our shame but to the honor both of That people and This their Tradition and consequently to the silencing of the Objection we are now answering That the same Piety which induced them so to Consecrate their tables conciliated such Reverence toward them as represented what is due to the Altar it self Philo and Josephus of Old and their Modern Rabins to This day bost of their Sobriety as beyond that of any other people which if true may very reasonably be imputed to the Piety wherewith they thus begin and end their freest intertenements We are apt to mesure others by our selves and because we see too many of our great Tables so unlike Altars that they shun or run down all appearance of Religion bicause we Sit down and Rise like Quakers Riot like Corinthians and Talk like Atheists without any blessing before or after Meat or any mention of Piety but to bafâ—le it while we are eating bicause we have degenerated not only from Primitive Christianity but from the litl Piety practised so lately even by our selvs who a few years since would have be'n ashamed of a Grace-less meat we are therefore apt to believe the Jews as bad as our Selves or our Neighbors and consequently that there could be nothing in their Fests capable of our Lords approbation because there is not in our own But if we remember that our Lord blessed his loaves before he distributed them we must needs think This example better worth our imitation than that of the French and if we believe he did therein comply with the Customs of his Nation and that Those Customs were such as their Rabbins describe we may reasonably both admit that to be true which their Writers bost concerning their Sobriety and impute That Sobriety to those Customs and then we may well believe that the Tradition which made the Table emulate an Altar was so far from Unworthy that it was most Fit to be adopted into the Gospel and dignified with an immortal relation to our Lords Person Our Key therefor is of the most noble metal possible Had it be'n immediatly injoyned by any positive law of God it must have be'n Destroyed Not Perpetuated by the coming of that Body which Abolished such Shadows Yet doth it cary such legible Intimations ever from that very â—â—w and such fair Characters of Natural Religion and that in its prime immortal Article Thankfulness that it may plead as fair for such Preferment as any Custom could possibly do So that we are so far from any need to be ashamed that we may well glory in the Mater of the Key as no way Unworthy its office III. YEA from this discovery of suitableness in point of Worthiness we may derive another in point of Fitness It will invite us to compare our Lords Form of Consecration with som of their Sacrificial as we have do'n his Mater with their Festival and so doing we shall find as great a resemblance between Those
greater Mysteries If saith he I tell you Earthly things and ye believe not how will ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things Meaning by Earthly and Heavenly as St. Paul afterward did Phil. 2.10 and in several other places by the Former the Jewish by the Later the Christian Mysteries whereof he giveth a Specimen in his coming from Heaven his returning Thither and his being There and his crucifixion for the salvation of the world That which we mention This for is to shew that our Lord manifestly adopted the Jewish Tradition of Baptism into the Gospel making it then a necessary badge of a Disciple as he also afterward did when he returned to Heaven requiring his Apostles to go and Disciple all nations Baptising them for this reason bicause whoever believeth and is Baptised i. e. publikely professeth his Discipleship shall be saved By all which it is apparent that our Lord appointed this as a Livree whereby his servants must profess to own Him for their Master if they should by him be own'd and saved III. YET is not this the Adaequate nay nor the Principal badge of a Christian For we receve This but Once and that without our own consent As were we when this Seal was put upon us so was its Impression when we came to age we wer at liberty to Own or Reneg it and whether we do This or That appears by no other visibl mark but only our Receving or Neglecting This more Critical Sacrament in due season appointed by our Lord as a more Lasting and Alway Visible cognisance I say our Lord appointed this Other Sacrament in Due season For had he do'n it sooner his Disciples would have forgotten his Command before they understood it yet could he not forbear to Prophecy of it saying He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath everlasting life But since his Death must needs be understood when he had suffered it even by Those who before knew not what it meant he therefor took the time when it was in a manner Present as fittest for the Institution which was both to Commemorate it and Distinguish his Disciples by such constant Repetitions whereof Baptism was incapable Those who are honored with the Noble Order of the Garter as they are solenly Installed so ar they Obliged ever after to wear the George and the Star as permanent badges of the Honor and Vow they have receved and if Any person however solenly Installed shall afterward lay his Habit aside he doth not only Offend against the Law of the Order but Disclaim his Interest in it as refusing to be esteemed a Brother of that Royal Fraternity This Sacrament is our George and our Star This if we constantly wear not we tacitly renounce our Christianity Those very Persons who perhaps will not Admit certainly do not sufficiently Press this for a Necessary Duty abundantly urge it to other purposes When they are required to assign the marks of a true Church they name Administration of the Sacraments for One and it will troubl any reasonabl man to deny that if the Administration be the mark of a True Church the Reception must be so of a True Member of the Church And som Ultramarine Churches have found it necessary to declare as the Council of Agatha did of old that those who receve not the Sacraments oght not to be reputed as Christians For which censure thogh we have already seen Reason sufficient yet perhaps we may see more IV. 2. THOSE Rites whereby One Religion is Crititically distinguished from Another however slight the Mater may seem ar highly to be esteemed for That office Circumcision is nothing and Uncircumcision is nothing said the Apostl yet was the One mortal in the Old Testament and the Other in the New and Both upon the same Reason He that was circumcised was a debtor unto the whole Law To eat an Apple or any other Fruit of a Tree is a small matter but when the forbearance was made a Sacrament i. e. a Specimen of the new made Creatures owning the dominion of the Creator Then Eating was condemned not only as an act of Misdemeanor but Rebellion and the Smith which thoght it too much that God should be so severe for an Apple might be answered that it was not for the Apple but for the experiment he thereby gave of his disowning Gods authority over him And for This reason did God make Those offences Capital which had otherwise be'n Venial He that was uncircumcised He that kept not the Passover He that brake the Sabbath c. That soul must be cut off from his people bicause God had said of every one of those otherwise slight performances This shall be a sign between Me and You. This dubl care of God as well in Negative as Positive Ceremonies taught his peopl to infer That if a Jew must forbear the Rites of Gentilism then must the Gentile as for the same Reason so upon the same Penalty forbear those of Judaism Since the One no less than the Other was necessary to the Discriminarive which was the Adaequate vertu of the Law As God therefor made it mortal to the Jew to Neglect such Rites so did the Jews make it to a Gentile to Usurp them as thereby robbing them of their proper vertu since by being common to Both they wer disabled to distinguish the One from the Other The Gentile saith the Gemera Babylonica which observed the Law of Moses was guilty of death How so bicause it is said Moses commanded us a Law for an Inheritance It is an Inheritancs to Us not to the Gentile Yea their most Learned Maimonides saith that if a Gentile celebrated a Sabbath thogh he mistook the day yet if he did it with intention to keep the Sabbath he was guilty of death They did not indeed inflict death on such offenders but stripes only yet not without admonition that he was guilty of death thogh not punished with it Since therefor our Lord left us This Law as Moses did His Ceremonial for an Inheritance the Reason being the Same in the Law the Crime must be the Same in the Disobedience V. THE Same in its Reason but incomparably Greater in Haynosness For by how much the Covenant is Better the Law-giver Greater the Redemtion more costly c. by so much more criminal must it be to omit This than any Mosaical Rite And how much That is if we enquire we must do it in the stile of the Author to the Hebrews not to seek satisfaction but to express amazement He that despised Moses 's Law died without mercy under two or three witnesses of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath troden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the Blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath do'n despight to the Spirit of Grace I grant that This dreadful Thunder is not leveled against the neglect of This Institution as
in theit Own Houses This was the Sore and to This must the Plaster be fitted Why must the Plaster be so much larger than the Sore Why must we examin our selvs concerning such Actions or Worthiness whose knowledge hath no Aspect upon this Performance but only Opposit and Malignant Such an Examination as shall excommunicat if not the Whole certainly the Greatest part of mankind He that shall most carefully perform his examination first in That manner which the Apostl prescribeth by Discerning the infinite Distance of dignity between the Lords table and his Own and then in That Manner that our Worthy Author prescribeth between our Lords Body and his Own Soul tho he be the Best of his age yea the best our Lord only excepted that ever was will most clearly discover not only that he is Now Unworthy but that he must despere Ever to be Otherwise Since then the Best Examination of the Best Person will carry him not only Beyond but Contrary to the Apostl's Design Since it will put such an Inconsistency between the Two Precepts that Let a man examin himself will inferr Let him Not Eat and since the Apostl doth not in any kind Intimate that our Worthiness but plainly Declare that our Differencing This from Common bread and wine is to be subject of our Examination IV. HIS Meaning in the words now under vieu can be no More nor Other than This Let a man examin himself whether he well Understand and Consider what he is about to Do Whether he put the due Estimate upon what he is about to Receve Whether he put as great Difference between the Lords supper and a Common fest as there is between the vertues of a litl Common Bread and Wine and those of the Body and Bloud of Christ Whether he go to gratify his sensual appetite with Eating and Drinking or to comply with his governors or neighbors in communicating with them or to fest his soul with Thankfulness and Love toward his crucified Savior with Joy and Delight in Communion with him and such other acts of devotion as so Holy an office requireth Let a man well examin himself concerning this and So let him Eat with appetites suitabl This I say is all that the Apostl's Design can Permit or his Words Declare him to mean by Let a man examin himself He requireth us to look Forward not Backward upon what we ar Going to do in the Church not upon what we Have already do'n there or elswhere upon the Difference between This and Other Bread not upon That between Our Own and Other mens souls Yet to prevent misconstructions I add this Proviso That I neither pretend to disparage the most Severe self-examination as it takes account of our Past actions and Present state of soul For I dare swear with Pythagoras that it is the high-way to divine life Nor to deny that our approch to This holy supper is the Most Proper season for This most Excellent exercise For he that best performeth the One will undoubtedly best perform the Other All that I deny is this That the Apostl in This place setteth up Examining our selvs against Obeying our Lord so as to Forbid any one to Eat if upon examination he find himself Unworthy And I further add thohg I have no such need that if it wer Doubtful yea if it wer highly Probabl If he had so worded his precept that in a Plausibl appearance it might signify som such intention yet is not a Probabl Sound of any One expression worthy to be ballanced against so Express a command of our Lord and so industrious an Endeavor of the same Apostl to urge it as we have found in the Context For it is Good Law and Good Reason that no Law can be repeled but by Express terms and therefor I still insist upon my demand Where is that Express DO NOT which may Countermand our Lords DO THIS CHAP. IV. Answereth Reason Objecting Allegories I. A Transition from Scriptur to Reason and by the way notice taken of Allegories of a midl Nature between both II. The Allegory of Covenant and Seal answered and retorted III. The Allegory of Member likewise answered IV. The Allegory of Sons and Enemies V. A General answer to all objections of this kind I. I HAVE now do'n what I proposed as Necessary and all that I conceve Possibl for a full discovery of the Apostl's meaning in That unhappy discours which as it is the Only Comment we have upon our Lords Institution so hath shared it's sufferings somtimes Mutilated somtimes Racked somtimes Rob'd of it's due sens somtimes Laden with more than it can bear and by all ways Tormented that it may say somthing in Justification of That Omission which he designed to Prevent or Condemn I have given so regular and exact account of every Word and every Aspect of words that as I am sure no man ever Hath so I may boldly believ no man ever Will match it with any other I have acted Both parts Opponent and Respondent On That side I have traced the Process of his Argument Viewed every Design and every Medium and every Claus as it servs either in the One or the Other Office On This side I have reduced the Inferences from Contradicting to Serving the Positions they depend on I have shewen that as the Former half which conteineth Positions hath be'n so Robbed of it's due that it cannot make good the charge in the Universality wherein it is laid down So hath the Later half be'n Rack't that it may speak more than either the words can bear or the Apostl's designe suffer That he cannot intend to Forbid Every person that findeth himself Unworthy or to make Self-examination an Hinderance to the Performance which it is to Serv. And I may boldly say that in the Former half there is not a word which doth not Help in the Later half there is not any that Hinders the obligation of Constancy in Every unexcommunicate person obliged by Every word disobliged by None If therefor we will appeal to Scripture and take the regular way to Understand it we ar upon as Secure ground as any Rules can make us Yet shall we quit This place of Advantage and descend to the Plain field allowing Reason to plead what it can to the contrary But before we can reach the Plain we ar encountered with a Midl sort of Evidences shall I call them or Colors laid upon Scripture ground precarios Allegories improved to a pretence of Reason These since they ar mere Colors no better Subjected than in Allegories must for That very reason be Insufficient to Convince us of Any thing but This that Those who make use of Such arguments want Better II. SOMETIMES we ar told that This Sacrament is the Seal of the New Covenant and we ought not to see Gods Seal to a Blank c. In this Plea ther ar two terms by explication whereof we ar to understand its force 1. Covenant 2.
For that from the Godly there is no danger to the Sacrament and consequently that in Them Frequecy is commendable is not doubted The only question is concerning the Unworthy but we oght also to consider that concerning Them is a counterquestion no less important For when we inquire on One side Whether there be Danger that the Sacrament may suffer dishonor by such mens Unworthiness it is worth inquiring whether there be not SOM hope that it may Gain Honor by their Salvation I say SOME hope For if there be Any such Hope however Short of such Fear in point of Probability it will so exceed it in point of Valu as abundantly to outweigh it's defect in Bulk For 1. The loss of Many Sacraments will be abundantly recompenced by the gain of One Soul Be the odds so great as in a Lottery yet since One happy draught will more than answer a Multitude of Blanks especially when there is nothing to be Lost but the labor of Drawing it must needs more conduce to the honor of the Sacrament and its Author to adventure upon the Smallest Hope That way than to forbear upon the Greatest Fear the Other way 2. The Salvation of One impenitent sinner is more valuabl than the cherishing of Many already converted The good shepherd will leav ninety and nine to seek pasture rather then suffer one strayer to perish in the wilderness 3. The odds in point of number lieth the other way it wer a happier world than ever we ar like to see if there wer but ninety and nine sinners for one just person that needs no repentance Their very numbers wroght in our Lord compassion to the Multitude and it wer strange if he should intend to let the greater part of mankind perish for want of This food 4. Here is no need to leav the Flock for Salvation of the Strayer Wer there not sufficient for Both we might perhaps plead it unfit to take the childrens bread and cast it to Dogs but the Lords tabl is as capabl to receve All comers as was the wilderness to afford room for never so many thousands and the Bread is not like those two cours loaves but like That which came from heaven and covered the whole face of the earth it hath both plenty and vertu sufficient to answer All Palates and All Needs however different no less Salutiferos to the Sick then delicios to Healthy and where there is enogh and to spare it wer strange our Lord should intend any one should perish for hunger 5. Here is no adventure but of the troubl to Take and eat The shepherd needs not toyl himself with Wandering quest of the Lost sheep nor with shouldering home the Found Our Lord is not in danger to lose any more Bloud the greatest loss that can com must fall upon That already spilt which at worst takes no Life from our Lord thogh it bring None to the Recever No wounds or stripes can reach his Body The greatest danger is lest the shadow of his body passing by should now as in his life-time fall upon som Lepers and cleanse them without Hinderance to his Progress or Prejudice to his Better disciples So that if there be any healing saving vertu in This other shadow of his body and bloud to say he forbids Any to com within its reach for This very reason bicaus they Need it is so farr from honoring him as a good Physician that it represents him wors than his very Accusers of whom he asked which of You of You my envios backbiters Which of You having one sheep c. If therefor our Blessed Redeemer have any right to what David said of the Father His honor is great in Our salvation his Dishonor must be proportionably great if he deny so cheap a means of it as shall not cost him the troubl of a Journy to seek but only the Mercy to Admit such as need it III. 2. SECONDLY This Sacrament hath a converting vertu This ' thogh it need no other proof but only the application of That general rule that In Religion That is always Truest which is Best yet bicaus such a work cannot be overdo'n I shall further prove it 1. By the Authority of the Apostls and 2. By Reason shewing that Morally it must needs be so 1. If we consider what the APOSTLS thoght of This Sacrament we shall find they look't upon it as a Spiritual Panacaea for All distempers of Christ's mystical body a rich Treasure for All Arguments and All Characters When St. Jude would Character the worst men he borroweth his black from This Sacrament if not from This Discours These saith he ar spots in your Fests of Charity while they fest with you foeding themselvs without fear When the Epistler to the Hebrews would set forth the gilt of Apostacy most graphically he doth it by treading under foot the Son of God and That by counting this blood of the Covenant wherewith they were sanctified an unholy thing In This Epistl St. Paul seemeth to affect this Topik upon all occasions When he would admonish them to put from among them the Scandalos person Let us saith he keep the fest without leaven bicaus Christ the Passover is sacrificed for us When he would dehort them from fellowship with Idols he argueth from the inconsistency of the Lords table and the table of devils When he would exhort them to provide for the poor he appointeth the first day for the Offertory bicause consecrated to the breaking of bread and Here when he would reprove them for their debaucheries in Gods hous to set forth the hainosness of the crime he proveth that thereby they becom gilty of the Body and Bloud of Christ I say when he would reprove them for their debaucheries in Gods hous for I must now add to what I have already said that as those Debaucheries were the true Occasion of the whole discours so was the Lord's Supper employed as the best Argument whereby to convince them of the hainosness of That crime that whatever thoghts they might otherwise have had concerning such Profaneness in Gods Hous they might by This new Argument understand it greater than they wer aware of And what better argument could he have urged in such a case Should he have empleaded them at the Moral bar He knew them proof against such lectures of their own Philosophers strenuosly but unprosperosly declaming against them Should he have pleaded Natural Religion He knew that They and their Fathers had time beyond memory do'n the same in their Templs Should he then urge the great difference in purity between the true God and Divels This were proper but remote the impression might be sufficient Plain but not sufficiently Deep it might convince their Reason but not so powerfully move their Affections But This interest of the body and bloud of Christ as it was new and properly Evangelical so was it utterly unanswerabl upon any account either of reason or custom And that
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
nothing of the due Metal not only pass for Current in the Kingdom of God but bear a greater Valu than such pieces as com out of his own Royal Mint can God be pleased with such performances as please not the Votary himself can he be so much Better pleased with them that One of them shall be reputed payment for Multiplied omissions of Duty Or which is more pertinent to our present enquiry can such an exercise destroy the kingdom of the Devil in the unwilling Soul c. I grant Somthing hath be'n do'n toward it The man hath be'n put in mind of his need of Christs bloud and the Love that first Spilt it and now Offered it and This hath somwhat awakened the sens of the Obligation he hath to Lov and Serv him which cannot but make som impression upon his mind which for som time and in som mesure may check his lusts and quicken his care All this I hope and for This very reason complain that the good sparks should dy away which by Repetition of the same exercise might be blowen up to such a vigoros Flame as might wholly Destroy those lusts which ar now a littl Disordered but not Subdued For the Litl that this hath do'n is a sufficient evidence how much More might be do'n if so hopeful an exercise were duly Prosecuted with such Constancy as we have found required by our Lord and comes now to be considered by Reason in counterballance to its rival Solennity and this we do by steps 1. Multiplied repetitions one time or other will probably hit the mark He who is missed by Many a Sermon and Many a Communion may happily be struck to the heart by the Next There was a time when One Sermon converted Thousands but miracles ar ceased and now Many perhaps Thousands of Sermons ar necessary to convert One Yet can we not charge God as wanting to Necessary means since the Miraculos efficacy is supplied by the Moral power of multiplied Repetition Too many of those who Separate These ordinances in their Practice do them the right to Join them in their Discourses pleading the same color of reason against frequency in Preachings and Communions and those who do Not but will have These rare for reverence sake and Those frequent for their effects sake need no other evidence of the Weakness of their Objection against Frequence in the Communion than it s too great Strength whereby it will cast down what they would keep up so that they ar reduced to This choice either that Preaching must be Less frequent for fear of the Objection or the Objection renegued lest Preaching should be rob'd of Frequency for preservation of Reverence And as the Objection is equally Deficient so is Frequency equally Useful to Both. Who knoweth but That Sermon or That Communion which he is forsaking may be the critical One which is to convert him When an Affliction hath bruised or a Blessing melted the heart When the man hath Lost a friend or Escaped a danger when a Neighbors unexpected death hath warned him of his Own frailty or a good Angel hath unaccountably stirred the pool and he is by som secret disposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 set in due order and almost perswaded to be a Christian then the Sermon or Communion coming upon him in his soreness prevaileth by nicking the critical Opportunity We know not the secret walks of Gods providence nor the advantages of Som seasons above Others by influences imperceptibl that therefor we may not miss the Proper but Vnknowen one it will concern Every man to say of Every one This is the day of the Lord This is That singular hour wherein I am to receve That flesh and bloud of Christ which must save me He that truly considers the valu of Salvation and his own need of it will not think much to ly in the way that Jesus of Nazareth Passeth by or rather wherein he Cometh on purpose to heal and save 2. Repetition both Preserveth the otherwise decaying Power of former acts and addeth new of its own The sturdiest oak is felled by Many of those stroaks whereof every particular one was inconsiderabl but if they com at such distance that the scratch rather than wound which the first made be healed up before it be secunded the tree may be a litl moved but not at all weakened If a man be but Litl yet if he be At all affected if he do but consider What he Doth or Oght to do if he think on the Death of Christ and it's Reason if he indevor to commemorate it in due manner or but consider that he oght so to do These Acts of Consideration and Reflection however weakly performed contribute their litl proportion toward the great work as every stroke of the oar doth to a long voyage but will soon be caried away by the contrary stream if it be not quickly renewed For as in Bodies so in Souls there is continual Deperdition and there needeth continual Reparation The Symbols do as truly represent Our Need as their Principals Vertu This Flesh is meat indeed and This bloud is drink indeed as in their Cherishing and Strengthening Vertu so in the Constancy wherewith they ar to be receved and Those who ar so easily satisfied with far Distant Communions seems to Betray the Weakness of their spiritual Life by That of their Appetite 3. Repetition will improve the power of Every Singl Act by making the Agent more expert No Tutor like Exercise It teaches us to do those things both Easily and Perfectly which to the inexpert appear not only Difficult but Impossibl And upon this account is Frequency so far from a hinderance that it is of all moral means most Proper to bring us to Worthiness That Self-examination which all Christians confess necessary before we com to the Lords table is by the best Philosophers prescribed before we go to sleep and Seneca incorageth his Lucilius to the practice upon This consideration that Exercise will make it as Easy yea as Pleasant as Profitabl For the same reason it is adviseable that we stablish several Periods the end of every Week for the past Week of every Moneth for the past Moneth of every Year for the past Year and every eve of the Communion for the Interval from the Last which Intervals were they left to our discretion we oght to shorten as much as possibl even for This very Reason that by Frequence we may learn to examin our selvs still Better so that if we have no other Obligation nor no other Design but to com as Worthily we must com as Frequently as Possibl So in the Result Worthiness must not be Opposed to Frequency as it's Rival but Proposed as it 's Encoragement For whether we ey the Honor of the Sacrament in the Abstract or the Vertu of it in Reference to the Salvation of mankind They ar Both promoted more by the Constancy of our Approaches than by the Awfulness of our