he has put an end to Circumcision Sacrifices Legal Washings and Purifications and the like and has only instituted Baptism as the Sacrament of our admission into his Church which cannot be thought grievous and troublesome when it is administred but once to a man for his life and the Lords Supper as a standing Rite of Worship and to deny obedience to one easie Command when our Lord has delivered us from such a grievous and unsupportable yoke is a sign that as much as men talk of Christian Liberty they little value that love which purchas 't it at so dear rate Others there are who do not wholly withdraw themselves from the Lords Table but yet think there is no great reason to communicate often so they do it some times though very seldome they comply with our Saviours Institution who has commanded us indeed to eat the Sacramental Bread and drink the Wine in remembrance of him but has not appointed how often this shall be done In answer to this I grant that our Saviour has appointed no fixt and setled times for the celebration of this holy Supper but this seems to me a plain argument that he has instituted this Supper as an ordinary part of Christian Worship if he had intended that we should have received these mysteries only on some set and solemn times he would have told us so but having appointed no time for it we must conclude that this is part of that Worship which he expects from Christians in all their publick Religious Assemblies when ever they meet together to worship God and their Saviour And thus the Primitive Christians understood our Saviour for they never met together for Religious Worship but this holy Feast was part and alwayes accounted the principal part of it In the Apostles dayes this was done every day as is generally concluded from that short history we have of their daily conversation which was spent in the duties and exercises of Religion that they continued daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking bread from house to house did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart praising God the proper work of the Eucharistical Feast and having favour with all the people and we have reason to think it was so in the Apostles dayes when it is evident this custom of receiving every day continued some Ages after So it was in St. Cyprian's time and so it was at Rome in St. Hierom's time and the Apostolical Canons and the Synod of Antioch denounce Excommunication against those Christians who come to Church to join in other Religious Offices but go away without receiving the Lords Supper afterwards as mens zeal in Religion decayed so they abated in the frequenâ— Celebration of this Feast and from every day it came to once or twice a Week or every Lords day till it grew so dis-used that the Church was forced to make provision by her publick Canons that every Christian should at least receive the Supper of the Lord three times a year on the three great Feasts of the Church Christmass Easter and Whitsunday But the Institution of our Saviour confining it to no time seems to make it an ordinary part of Christian Worship especially when it was thus expounded by the general practice of the Apostles and Primitive Christians who were most likely to understand our Saviours meaning that I confess I am so far from thinking it an excuse for communicating seldome that I want a fair Apology to make for our selves for communicating so seldome as once a Moneth unless the degeneracy of the Age the decay of Christian Piety and that little sense men have of the necessity and advantages of this duty be thought a good Apology 2. For we may consider farther that as Christ has instituted this holy Supper so he has instituted it as an act of Religious Worship It is a Sacrifice of Prayer and Thanksgiving to God and to our Saviour It is a commemoration of the Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross a shewing forth the Lords death until he come and therefore is a mysterious Rite of Worship as all Sacrifices were under the Law But to explain this more particularly though briefly I shall consider this holy Feast both as it respects God and as it respects our Saviour 1. With respect to God and so we may consider it as a Thanksgiving or as a Prayer 1. As a Thanksgiving to God for his great and unexpressible goodness in sending his Son Jesus Christ into the World and offering him up as an expiation and atonement for our sins Certainly it becomes us to admire and adore that Infinite Goodness which took pity on us in our low estate and provided a Ransome and Sacrifice and Redeemer for us Who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And when so proper to do this as when we celebrate this holy Feast when we commemorate the Death and Sufferings of our Lord which must needs affect our souls if we be not wholly stupid with a very passionate sense of the love of God and what more proper Sacrament of Thanksgiving and Praise can we use than to present him with the memorials of his stupendious love to let him see that we retain a fresh sense and remembrance of it that we never suffer it to slip out of our minds though it is so many hundred years since Christ suffered and perfected the work of our Redemption You cannot more effectually praise any man than to shew the visible remains and monuments of his Bounty and Charity as the Widows weeping shewed the coats and garments which Dorcas made while she was with them Thus when we offer up to God the memorials of Christs Death and Passion it is a visible Sacrifice of Praise and speaks such kind of language as this Behold Lord here is the token of thy love to us thy own Son bleeding and dying for our sins thy eternal Son the Son of thy love in whom thy soul is well pleased dying upon the Cross a shameful accursed lingring tormenting death scorned and reproached of men and forsaken of God who delivered him up into the hands of his enemies and left him to struggle with the fears and weakness of humane nature without those divine and supernatural supports which he now needed most but least enjoyed We will never forget such love as this we will perpetually celebrate this holy Feast and offer up the memorials of a crucified Iesus as a sacrifice of praise to his Father and to our Father to his God and to our God 2. The Lords Supper may be considered as a Sacrament of Prayer for so the Sacrifices under the Law were alwayes offered with Prayer which were accepted in vertue of the Sacrifice and therefore though all men could not every day attend the Temple Worship especially those who lived at a great distance from the Temple
yet the time of Morning and Evening Sacrifices were the usual hours of prayer observed by pious and devout men who sent up their prayers together with the Sacrifice Thus Ezra tells us at the Evening Sacrifice I fell upon my knees and spread out my hands unto the Lord my God and to this the Psalmist alludes Let my Prayer be set before thee as incense and the lifting up of my hands as the Evening Sacrifice For since the fall of man we cannot expect that God should hear our prayers for our own sakes we can make no atonement and expiation for our own sins nor offer him any just compensation for them and therefore under the Law God appointed Expiatory Sacrifices to be offered by the Priests who were Gods Ministers and now under the Gospel God has sent his own Son into the World to be both our Priest and our Sacrifice the acceptation of our prayers depends upon the power of his Intercession and the power of his Intercession upon the merit of his blood for with his own blood he entred once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us We must now go to God in his Name and plead the Merits of his blood if we expect a gracious answer to our Prayers Now for this end was the Lords Supper instituted to be a Remembrance of Christ or of the Sacrifice of the Cross to shew forth the Lords death till he come which as it respects God is to put him in remembrance of Christ's death and to plead the Vertue and Merit of it for our pardon and acceptance It is a visible prayer to God to remember the sufferings of his Son and to be propitious to his Church his body and every member of it which he has purchased with his own blood And therefore the ancient Church constantly at this holy Supper offered up their prayers to God in vertue of the Sacrifice of Christ there represented for the whole Church and all ranks and conditions of men For this reason the Lords Supper was called a Commemorative Sacrifice because we therein offer up to God the Remembrance of Christ's Sacrifice and therefore in the ancient Church the Altar or the place where they consecrated the Elements was the place also where they offered up their prayers to signifie that they offered their prayers only in vertue of the Sacrifice of Christ and that the very remembrance of this Sacrifice in the Lords Supper by vertue of its Institution did render their prayers prevalent and acceptable to God and therefore in the very first account we have of the exercise of Christian Worship we find breaking bread and prayers joyned together The efficacy of our prayers depends on the merit of Christ's Sacrifice and the way Christ hath appointed to give our prayers an interest in his Sacrifice is to offer them in the holy Supper with the Sacramental remembrance of his Death and Passion 2. If we consider the Lords Supper as it respects Christ himself and is a Remembrance of him so it contains all that peculiar Worship which the Christian Church payes him as a thankful acknowledgement of his great love in dying for them as will appear if we consider what it is to do this in Remembrance of him For 1. This signifies to keep this Feast as a publick and solemn Commemoration of our Lord we ought to remember our Saviour and think of him as often as we can but this holy Feast is a publick celebration of his fame and memory we must not only think of our Saviour as we do of an absent Friend who is very dear to us but we must remember him as some Nations do their publick Patrons and Benefactors with solemn and festival joyes The Lords Supper is a Feast instituted in honour of our Saviour wherein the whole Church must call to mind his noble acts and shew forth his praises and perpetuate the memory of them from one generation to another We must call to mind his great and astonishing love and recount all his victories and triumphs over Sin and Death and Hell and him who had the power of death that is the Devil We must sing praises to the Lamb of God who was slain and is worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing This is the proper work of a Religious Feast to call to mind the works of God and ascribe unto him the glory due unto his Name This is the true reason of all Religious Festivals The Seventh Day Sabbath was originally instituted in honour of the great Maker of all things who finished the Creation of the World in six dayes and rested on the seventh and was changed to the first day of the Week in remembrance of the work of our Redemption and the Resurrection of our Saviour from the dead The Feast of the Passeover was for a memorial of that deliverance the children of Israel had from the destroying Angel who smote all the first-born of the Egyptians but spared their houses which was but an obscure type of our greater deliverance by Christ of which the Lords Supper is instituted as a perpetual memorial All these holy Feasts were for a remembrance that is to call to mind the wonderful works of God to praise his great name and by a contemplation of his wisdom goodness and power in making and governing the world to inflame our souls with love and joy and wonder till our thoughts and passions grow too big and vehement to be suppressed in our own breasts but break forth into publick songs of praise and thanksgiving And thus we must remember our Saviour in this holy Feast by making publick thankful and joyful acknowledgements of his great and mysterious love and all the mighty things he hath done for the redemption of mankind When our Saviour says Do this in remembrance of me he requires us to keep this Feast with the publick expressions of that love and honour which we bare to his memory as a testimony of our thankfulness to him for all that he hath done and suffered for us as a profession of our faith and hope and trust and affiance in a Crucified Jesus that we own him for our Lord and Saviour and are not ashamed of his Cross nor afraid of any sufferings for his sake 2. The Lords Supper is the peculiar worship of Christ considered as a God incarnate the word was made flesh and dwelt among us the eternal son of God the uncreated wisdom of the Father came down from Heaven and cloathed himself with flesh and blood and became man as we are that he might be capable to dwell among us without that terrour and astonishment which his unvailed glory carries with it which is too bright and dazling for mortal eyes to gaze on and that when he had lived here a poor despised afflicted life in the condition of a Minister and a Servant he might die as a Sacrifice
for our sins this is represented to us by Bread and Wine that he was Flesh and Blood as we are that bread of life which came down from Heaven to give life unto the world This is a great and stupendious Mystery which the Angels themselves desire to pry into the lowest condescension of eternal love but the highest advancement of humane nature above the glory of Angels into a union with the Deity it self How should our Souls triumph in God-man a Saviour of our own race and stock and with a litle variation sing the Song of the Blessed Virgin My Soul doth magnifie the Lord and my Spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour for he hath regarded the low estate of our nature for behold from henceforth all generations even the Angels themselves shall call us blessed for he that is mighty hath done great things to us hath magnified us hath greatly exalted us and holy for ever blessed and glorified be his name How zealous should we be to advance his name and praise who debased who humbled who emptied himself and made himself of no reputation for our sakes when he suffer'd so low a debasement by becoming man and hath so greatly exalted us by it does it not become us in this holy Feast to advance his name to sing his praise to publish his con descending love and with a greater passion and wonder adore the Deity cloathed with our nature how should our hearts leap within us when we see such a visible representation of an humble and incarnate Deity when we see that mysterious bread and Wine which represents to any eye of Faith a God Incarnate a God cloathed with Flesh and Blood a God in the nature and subject to all the sinless weaknesses and infirmities of a man Oh amazing and surprizing sight which does as much puzzle our passions as our faith and is as much too big for our love and joy and wonder as it is for our finite and narrow understandings and yet oh how pleasant it is to be lost in the contemplation of such love and condescension as this to find an object too big for our highest raptures and ecstasies of devotion where we launch out beyond the sphere of words and thoughts and are swallowed up in silence and wonder This is one great design of the Lords Supper that we may celebrate the praise and glory of an Incarnate God 3. The Lords Supper is the proper worship of a Crucified Saviour for here we see his body broken and his blood shed for our sins it is a Feast upon the Sacrifice of the Cross wherein we visibly declare and profess our Faith in a Crucified Saviour and return him our joyful praises for his great love in dying for us here we offer up our selves Souls and Bodies to him as the purchase of his blood Souls fired with zeal and devotion and transported with a passionate admiration of his dying love a love without any bounds or measure without precedent or example a love stronger than fear or shame or death a love which had no cause but it self which did not find but make its object which pitied us when we did not pity our selves which suffered such hard such unsufferable usage from the hands of sinners to deliver them from those punishments which they had deserved from God and can we do less than love him who hath loved us first than live to him who hath died for us and give up our selves to be governed by him who gave himself a ransom for us Blessed Iesus thou hast conquered thou hast captivated us by thy astonishing love we are thine we give up our selves to thee take the intire possession of us we lay our selves and our dearest concernments at thy feet use us as thou pleasest we have no greater ambition than to serve thee and to advance thy name and glory whether in life or death riches or poverty honour or disgrace we will follow thee whither soever thou leadest us though it be to the Cross and through the valley of the shadow of death and will rejoyce that we are accounted worthy to suffer shame for thy sake and account the reproach of our Lord greater riches than all the treasures of this world Nay in this holy Feast we do not only admire and praise his dying love but extol his power and conquest over death that he was dead indeed but is alive and hath the Keys of hell and death Our Lord is risen again and become the first-fruits of them that sleep and now in the death of our Saviour we see the eternal conquest of death and the grave for by death he hath destroyed him who had the power of death that is the Devil and delivered them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory thanks be to God who hath given us the victory through our Lord Iesus Christ at this holy Table we feast on the spoils of death this is that bread which giveth life to the world by putting an end to death and becoming the principle and earnest of Immortality Glory be to this mighty conquerour whom all the powers of darkness could not detain prisoner this is our crucified Lord who died with scorn and ignominy but rose again with glory and power we do not eat the Sacrifices of the dead but feed on a living Saviour So that you see the Lords Supper contains in it self or is admirably fitted to all the parts of Christian worship which is no more than expressing that in words and actions which is represented by visible signs in this holy Feast we cannot beg of God the pardon of our sins or any blessings which we want either Temporal or Spiritual but in the merit of that Sacrifice which is here represented the proper subject of Christian praises and thanksgivings is the work of our redemption and the worship of an Incarnate and Crucified Saviour must relate either to his great humility and condescension in becoming man his great love in dying for us or the glory of his resurrection and that power to which he is now advanced at the right hand of God all which is either signified or represented in the Supper of our Lord and therefore that question how often we should communicate at the Lords Table is easily answered by another how often we are bound publickly to worship God and our Saviour Christ for the Lords Supper being instituted by our Saviour as a sacred and venerable rule for worship for so I must beg leave to call it for want of a more proper name and fitted to all parts of Christian worship ought to be as often repeated as we worship our Saviour and publick worship is very lame and imperfect without it For if it be urged that it is sufficient to pray to God in Christs name and to praise him for that wonderful manifestation of his goodness in all the
Sinners reasonably expect from God and much less challenge it as a right that he should redeem them from that state of Misery into which they had brought themselves by such an amazing stupendious and incomprehensible expression of his Love as the Incarnation and Death and Sufferings of his own Eternal only begotten and well-beloved Son Here is such a height and depth and length and breadth of the Love of God as passeth all Understanding this is Grace free Grace the Riches of Grace the abundant Riches of Grace And therefore this brings us under such Obligations of Love and Gratitude as infinitely excel all the Obligations of Natural Justice Now we are not our own but are bought with a price and therefore must glorify God both with our Bodies and Spirits which are God's We are now redeemed not with corruptible Things as Silver and Gold but with the precious Blood of Christ as a Lamb without blemish and without spot who gave himself for us to redeem us from all Iniquity and to purify to himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works As the whole Oeconomy of Man's Salvation by Christ is the effect of meer Grace and Love so Gratitude is the only true Principle of Gospel-Obedience to serve God out of a prevailing sense of his Goodness to feel that constraining Love and Power of Christ's Love engaging us to live to him who died for us For those Men greatly mistake the Nature and Obligations of Gratitude who think that Gratitude leaves them at liberty to do or not to do it as they please whereas the Obligations of Gratitude especially in our present Case are infinitely more strong and forcible than those of Justice and the punishment of Ingratitude proportionably great For how shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation if we refuse to hear him who spake from Heaven to us if we have troden under-foot the Son of God and counted the Blood of the Covenant wherewith we were sanctified an unholy Thing and have done despite unto the Spirit of Grace Since then we are now under such powerful Obligations as the Love and Grace of God declared to us in the Gospel of his Son to love serve and worship him we should consider how unkind and ungrateful it is especially in those who call themselves Christians to slight or neglect the Worship of their God and Saviour certainly such Men cannot expect to be saved by Christ after all he has done and suffered for them when they will not thank him for it when they will not go to God in his Name As nothing is more infamous among Men so nothing does more provoke God than such rude Affronts of his Goodness to sin against the Grace of the Gospel and those surprising Discoveries and Manifestations of the Divine Goodness argue so brutish so diabolical a temper of mind such a perfect contrariety and contradiction to the Nature of God that such Men must naturally sink into the lowest Hell for those who have no sense of the Gospel-Grace who cannot be conquered nor affected with all the Charms of so powerful a Love are as incurable as Apostate Spirits Fourthly Another Aggravation of the Guilt of this Sin is That those who are baptized and professed Christians and I suppose I write to none else are under the Obligation of their Baptismal Vow to worship God and therefore to neglect his Worship is Perjury and breach of Covenant it is an Apostacy from Christianity though they still retain the Name of Christians And dost thou know what this is thou profane Wretch who thinkest it lost time to serve God who canst not spare so much time from worldly Cares or from thy Sports and Pleasure as to attend the Worship of God in the Assemblies of Christians Wast thou ever Baptized and dost thou know what the signification of Baptism is That thou art taken into Covenant with God and hast obliged thy self to serve and worship him that thou art incorporated into the Christian Church and therefore obliged to live in the Communion of the Church that is to frequent Christian Assemblies and to join in all the Parts and Offices of Religious Worship and art not thou afraid to deal falsely and treacherously with thy God For Vengeance is mine saith God I will repay it It is a dreadful thing to fall into the Hands of the Living God To have our Portion with Hypocrites and Unbelievers signifies in the New Testament the greatest miseries of the next World Now as Unbelievers signifies such Infidels as obstinately refuse to believe the Gospel when it is fairly proposed to them So Hypocrites does not only signify as some Men mistake the word those who counterfeit Religion who make a fine external shew and appearance of Piety and Devotion when they are rotten at the Heart but it signifies those also who live contrary to their Profession who are suppose nominal and titular Christians who have been baptized in the Name of Christ and own his Religion as the Religion of their Country but live lewd and profligate lives make no Conscience of worshipping God nor ever think of saving their Souls These are the Men who are proposed as the Patterns and Examples of the severity of God's Judgments to deter any Man from imitating their wickedness lest they be punished with Hypocrites and Unbelievers Those who are baptized into the Christian Church into the Faith and Worship of Christ do not only forfeit all the Blessings of the Covenant by renouncing or contradicting their Baptismal Vow in an habitual course of a wicked and licentious Life but become obnoxious to all the Threatnings of the Gospel in their utmost severity which is a much worse state than the poor Heathens are in who never heard of Christ for they shall not be judged by the Gospel which was never preached to them and therefore shall not be condemned by the Gospel neither as St. Paul tells us That as many as have sinned without Law shall also perish without Law and as many as sinned in the Law shall be judged by the Law And by the same Reason we may add As many as have sinned in the Gospel shall be judged by the Gospel Now to perish without the Law signifies a much easier punishment than to be judged by the Law and to be judged by the Gospel signifies a great deal more than that for as God hath increased his Grace to Man-kind so he has always annexed severer Punishments to the abuse of it Thus our Saviour tells us It shall be easier for Sodom and Gomorah in the day of Iudgment than for Capernaum Sodom and Gomorah were as vile infamous Places as were in the World and God destroyed them by very memorable Judgments by raining Fire and Brimstone on them from Heaven but yet they never enjoyed those means of Grace which Capernaum did where our Saviour himself preached in Person and confirmed the Truth of his Doctrine by many mighty Works and therefore they should
Truth in love may grow up to him in all things which is the Head even Christ From whom the whole Body fitly joined together by that which every Ioint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh encrease of the Body to the edifying of it self in love The Christian Church is a House and Building and Temple of God but this House and Building is not raised with loose and incoherent Stones but all the Building fitly framed together groweth into a Holy Temple in the Lord. All those Expressions whereby the Scripture describes the Unity of the Christian Church signify one Communion as our Saviour prays for his Disciples that they all may be One and for all those who in after Ages should believe on him That they all may be One as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the World may believe that thou hast sent me From whence it appears that our Saviour speaks of an external and visible Union which may be seen and taken notice of in the World How frequent are the Exhortations to Christian Love and Unity Fulfil ye my Ioy that ye be like-minded having the same Love being of one accord and of one mind This was that new Commandment which Christ gave to his Disciples as the badg of their Discipleship A new Commandment I give unto you that you love one another even as I have loved you hereby shall all Men know that ye are my Disciples if ye have love one to another And wherein this mutual Love expressed it self we learn from the first Pattern of the Christian Church And they continued stedfast in the Apostle's Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of Bread and of Prayers that is in all the Parts and Offices of Christian Communion this is essential to Christian Love to continue in the Communion and Fellowship of the same Body that there may be no Schism in the Body but all firmly united by the common Bonds of Love and Peace and therefore in St. Iohn's Time those Hereticks who separated themselves into distinct Conventicles are said to go out from among them They went out from us because they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us that is in our Fellowship and Communion but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us Now if this Argument be good it necessarily infers that indispensable Obligation which lies upon all Christians who will be owned for Members of that one Body of Christ to live in Communion with each other The Unity of Mind and Spirit of Love and Affection and the Unity of the same Faith is necessary to Christian Union but this Union is made external and visible by Christian Communion and our daily experience tells us how impossible it is for Men to love like Brethren like Members of the same Body who are not of the same Body but divide themselves into distinct separate Churches under different Laws Government and Discipline Now if Christian Love and Union be so necessary a Duty of Christianity consider what the Evil of Schism is which rends the seamless Coat of Christ and divides his Church into so many little Parties and Factions Christ has but one Body and those who separate from the Body of Christ are no longer of his Body and the Ancient Christians did believe Schism to separate Men from Christ and to put them out of a state of Salvation It was an acknowledged Principle among them That there was no Salvation out of the Church and that Schismaticks were out of the Church I dare not judg any Man's final State as not knowing what merciful allowances a merciful and compassionate Lord may make for the Errors and Mistakes Frowardness and Peevishness of his Disciples but yet I wish that all Persons concerned would seriously consider that St. Paul makes all other Attainments whatsoever of no value without Charity that this is that Divine Principle which unites us to God and to one another that he makes Schism a Work of the Flesh and when he reproves the Corinthians for that Schism which was among them though it was not broke out into actual separation yet he calls them Carnal For are ye not carnal for whereas there is among you envyings and strife and divisions are ye not carnal and walk as Men So far is Separation from being an Argument of more perfect and excellent Christians that it is a Work of the Flesh and the Symptom of a Carnal Mind But I do not intend to discourse this fully but it is a certain Argument that that Man does understand nothing of Christian Religion who makes light of Schism without so much as considering what guilt he involves himself in nothing could be a more effectual Cure of Schism than a serious consideration of the evil and danger of it That pain we feel in tearing one Member from another and that mischief the whole Body suffers by it which becomes maimed and imperfect by the want of the least and most inconsiderable Member makes us careful to preserve our natural Bodies from any Rent or Schism and were we living Members of the Mystical Body of Christ had we that natural love sympathy and fellow-feeling for each other as the Members of the natural Body have we should find Schism and Separation as painful to us as it is to part with one of our Members and be as sensible of the want of Christian Communion and the discharge of these mutual Offices of Charity in exhorting admonishing reproving comforting praying for and with each other which cannot be performed in a state of Separation as we are of the want of the service of any Member which we have lost It is a certain sign that Member does not belong to the Body which feels not the pain of such Convulsions and Schisms Thirdly Another Question I would ask these Men is Whether they do in their Consciences believe that Communion with our Parish Churches is unlawful And there is some reason to ask this for it is easily observed that there are a great many who are Christians at large and as occasion serves can either go to Church or to a Conventicle Now if they make Conscience of any thing we may conclude that when they come to Church they do not think it a sin so to do or that there is any thing so unlawful in our Worship as is sufficient to justify a Separation for if they may lawfully communicate with us once they may do so always by the same Reason from whence it follows that there can be no necessity of Separation and then Separation must be a sin Some indeed say That it is a sufficient reason to separate even from a True Church and a lawful Communion to join in fellowship with a purer Church and to enjoy purer Ordinances
and reverence for their spirial Guides This may be thought an inconsiderable thing and only a word by the by for my own Profession but let it be for whom it will Religion never did nor ever is like to flourish when the Ministers of Religion are despised when their counsel is slighted and contemned Their Office is to be the Guides of souls and unless men look upon them as such it renders their Office useless to the souls of men and this is all I mean by a respect and reverence to their spiritual Guides to reverence their counsels reproofs and censures and to apply to them in all cases which concern their souls Now when men have been trained up in the knowledge of Religion by their Spiritual Guides and have found the benefit of their instructions it makes them naturally reverence their judgements and advise with them in all difficult cases a thing much out of use now and we see the sad effects of it in the lives of too many 4. By the publick instructions of Youth those may learn the first principles of Religion who are too old indeed to be Catechized but yet very much want it it is almost incredible to think how ignorant many men are of the very first rudiments of Christianity who are baptized in their Infancy indeed but were never catechized all our Sermons are in a manner lost upon these men who can never be brought to understand Religion unless you teach them as you do Children which would be thought a great affront to their age and long profession and therefore the best and modestest way of instructing these men is to instruct Children when they are present which may be of great use to them if they be sensible of their own ignorance and do not disdain instruction I shall add but one thing more and so conclude this argument that when I speak of instructing Children I would not have you think that I only mean such young Children as are just able to repeat the Catechism by heart but are not capable of giving any other answer to what you ask but what they find in their Books such Children as these are scarce capable of any instruction nor can it much edifie the Congregation to hear them repeat imperfectly the words of the Catechism but I principally mean such young men who are capable of learning who can understand what is said to them and make a reasonable answer at least with a little help and instruction We live now in an Age wherein it is thought a reproach for those to be catechized who are got out of their hanging-sleeves as soon as they are old enough to learn a Trade they think themselves too old to learn their Religion But is Religion then so easie a thing that every youth of sixteen or seventeen is past his Catechism Is it a greater reproach at such an Age to be instructed in Religion than it is to learn Arithmetick and Merchants accounts I readily grant such young men ought not to be treated like Children to be made repeat only the words of the Catechism as School-Boyes do their Lessons but there is a manly way of instruction which will not unbecome their years but much contribute to their increase in Christian knowledge could this point be once gained to perswade Parents and Masters to send such to be catechized as are capable of instructions I should not doubt in a short time to see very happy effects of this so much despised and neglected duty CHAP. VI. Concerning the great Neglect of the Lords Supper THe last miscarriage I shall at present take notice of is the general neglect of receiving the Lords Supper for though thanks be to God this practice is in some measure restored among us and we now with joy observe more frequent and numerous Communions than have been for many years last past yet this holds no proportion at all to those great numbers of professed Christians who neglect it wholly or communicate very seldome Thus to turn our backs on the Lords Table is a very great reproach to Christianity and infinitely dangerous to mens souls because the Lords Supper is the most excellent and the most beneficial part of Christian Worship and indeed one would think that there needs nothing else to perswade any man to so advantageous a duty but true understanding the nature of it My present design will not admit of a large discourse and therefore I shall bring what I have to urge into as narrow a compass as I can and 1. Shew you the great evil and sinfulness of this neglect and 2. Examine what are the true causes or occasions which tempt men to such a neglect 1. The great evil and sinfulness of this neglect and the most effectual way to convince men of this is by explaining those many obligations which lye on us to a frequent celebration of this mysterious Feast 1. And I shall first argue from the Command and Institution of our Saviour which certainly is sufficient to make it a standing and necessary duty to all who profess themselves his disciples Now the Institution of this Feast runs in the form of a command So St. Matthew tells us as they were eating viz. the Feast of the Passeover Iesus took bread and blessed it and brake it and gave it to the disciples and said take eat this is my body and he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying drink ye all of it for this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins The same account St. Mark and St. Luke give of it and almost in the same words so does St. Paul which he received by revelation from Christ himself So that those men at least are guilty of a very great sin who never celebrate this heavenly Feast if it will be acknowledged a sin to break a plain express institution of our Saviour and very great numbers there are of such men in our Church if at least they may be said to be in the Church who never received the Lords Supper who call Christ Lord and Master but do not the thing which he has commanded And there are two very considerable aggravations of this sin 1. That it is his last and dying command which usually has great sacredness and authority in it though it be but the command nay but the desire of a Friend this command he gave his Disciples the same night wherein he was betrayed when he was just about to offer his soul in sacrifice for sins when he was preparing to encounter with scorn and reproach with rage and malice with the shame and exquisite pains of the Cross and it is an ill requital of the love of our dying Lord that we will not obey his dying commands 2. That our Saviour by the Institution of this holy Feast has delivered us from all the numerous troublesome expensive Ceremonies and Institutions of the Jewish Worship
and all the Vessels of the Ministery were sprinkled with blood nay not only this general Covenant was confirmed by Sacrifice but all good men when they offer Sacrifices to God are understood to make renew or confirm their Covenant with him whence is that expression in the Psalms Gather my Saints together unto me those that have made a Covenant with me by Sacrifice Thus the death of Christ did ratifie and confirm the Gospel Covenant between God and men and therefore the blood is called the blood of the Covenant and to feast on the memorials of his death and passion is a signification that we are in Covenant with God and God with us that we still own our Covenant and are resolved still to do so it is to put God in mind of his Covenant with us and us of our Covenant with him and if we have been guilty of any breach of Covenant with God by venturing upon the commission of any sin when we have with tears bewailed our sin and renewed our repentance here we must renew our Covenant and by approaching the Table of our Lord declare that though we are sinners yet we are not Apostates that we still own our Covenant and by the Grace of God which we now implore and hope to receive resolve to continue stedfast in it while we live And is not this an inestimable priviledge to be in Covenant with God and to have this Covenant as it were signed and sealed to us as often as we please by a foederal Rite of God's own appointment especially is it not a mighty favour for such frail sinners who are so exposed to temptations and so often conquered by them to have liberty granted upon their sincere repentance to return to Gods Table and to renew their Covenant and to be received again into Covenant by God Is it not a mighty affront to God when he invites us to his Table as those who are in Covenant with him to live in so great a neglect of it Is it not a kind of renouncing our Covenant when we refuse to own it by such publick solemnities as he himself has appointed for that purpose 2. These Religious Feasts signifie a state of Peace and Friendship with God and therefore those Sacrifices of which the Sacrificers were allowed to eat are called Peace-offerings in the Law of Moses Under the Law it was not permitted to them to eat of the Sin-offering that Sacrifice which was offered for the expiation of sin but when they had offered a Sacrifice for sin they might then offer a Peace-offering and feast before the Lord on the Sacrifice as a token of peace and reconciliation with God And thus it is under the Gospel Christ offered himself once for all a Sacrifice or Offering for sin and has obtained eternal redemption for us and therefore there is no more expiatory Sacrifice to be offered for sins but when through the frailty of humane nature and the powerful temptations of flesh and sense of the World and the Devil we have defiled and polluted our consciences with sin and guilt instead of those particular Sacrifices for sin which the Iews were directed to offer we must offer up the Sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart to God that is we must truly repent of our sins and turn from them and arm our selves with powerful resolutions against them for the future and then we may approach the Table of God and receive the pledges of his love and the fresh assurances of our pardon and acceptance through our Lord Jesus Christ. We do not use to receive and entertain any at our Tables but those who are our Friends or at least are not our enemies others are intruders and if they be not turned out again yet must make themselves welcome and indeed a Covenant made by Sacrifice alwayes signifies a Covenant of Peace and such to be sure the Gospel Covenant is of which the Lords Supper is the Seal and Sacrament a Covenant of peace and reconciliation between God and men None ought to come to this Table but the Friends of God as all holy men and all true humble penitents are and such men shall be sure to receive a joyful welcome and all the peculiar marks of Gods favour for such this holy Supper it self is to all worthy receivers 2. In the Supper of our Lord we do not only eat at his Table but we feed on his body not as if in a carnal sense we eat his natural flesh and drink his blood as the Church of Rome teaches contrary to the common sense and experience of mankind and without any colourable pretence from Scripture or Primitive Antiquity but we eat his flesh and drink his blood in such a spiritual manner as they are exhibited to us in the Sacrament of his own Institution As to explain this in as few words as may be The Lords Supper I told you before in General did answer to a Feast upon a Sacrifice in the Jewish Law And now I add that it is a Feast upon the Sacrifice of Christ who dyed upon the Cross and bore our sins in his own body upon the Tree and therefore it is called eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ. For under the Law the Iews did in a literal sense eat the flesh of the Sacrifice for part of it was burnt upon the Altar and part they eat and this eating of the Sacrifice did give them a right and interest in the vertue of the Sacrifice and all the blessings purchased by it Now though Christ dyed upon the Cross for us yet he could not in a literal sense give us his natural flesh to eat for he was to rise again from the dead with a glorious and incorruptible body and ascend up in the same body to Heaven and there to continue united to this humane but glorified body till he return again to judge the World This Sacrament of his body and blood was to be celebrated in all parts of the World where a Christian Church should be planted and though he himself who is over all God blessed for ever more is present also in all places and especially in all the Assemblies of his Disciples who meet to worship him yet his body though glorious and perfect as a body can be yet is but matter still and therefore confined to one place and cannot at the same time be at Rome and Constantinople nor in ten thousand places at once more remote than they and this Sacrament is to be celebrated his flesh eat and his blood drank as long as the Church and the World lasts and it is contrary to the nature of a body to be so often eat and yet continue the same body and at best were the thing possible it would be no better than an inhumane and barbarous Rite to eat the flesh of a man and of our Friend And therefore since by the Institution of God a Sacrifice for a Peace offering was to be
the very case the Apostle mentions for the things which he says have a shew of Wisdom are either the worshipping Angels ver 18. which has a shew of Humility that such mean and guilty Creatures dare not immediately approach to God without the Intercession of Angels who are the great Ministers Friends and Favourites of God or those Ordinances and Rudiments of the World touch not taste not handle not 20 21. which he calls the Doctrines and Commandments of Men ver 22. by which he means either the Jewish Laws of abstaining from certain Meats forbid by the Law of Moses or the Pythagorean abstinence from the use of Women or from eating any living Creature or as it is most probable both of them These are those things which have a shew of Wisdom in Will-Worship and neglecting the Body but indeed are not true Wisdom nor an acceptable Worship of God a great many such things we may find in the Church of Rome such as their praying to Saints and Angels and the Virgin Mary their Fastings Penances and Pilgrimages c. which are made substantial parts of Religion but Circumstances and Ceremonies of Worship were never reckoned among them till now by any antient or modern Expositors Now tho Will-Worship were in this place condemned by the Apostle and these things condemn'd as parts of Will-Worship yet the Church of England is not concerned in it as having nothing in her Worship like these things and we must not apply the Name of Will-Worship any farther than the Apostle has applyed it or to such things as are analogous to what he condems for Will-Worship but yet it does not appear that this voluntary Worship is condemned by the Apostle or has the least ill Character affixed to it 2. The second Accusation is Superstition a Name which is at all adventures given to every thing which Men dislike in Religion and being a Name of Reproach serves instead of all other Arguments especially when they have no other at hand Thus to pray by a Form to wear a Surplice to kneel at the Lord's Supper are all superstitious Ceremonies and so they may for any thing They know who most frequently use this Word without understanding what it means and no Man need be at any greater trouble to vindicate the Church of England from the charge of Superstition than to explain the Nature of it which will soon convince them of their mistake in applying it Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which by Tully is rendred Superstitio is by St. Austin called demonum cultus the Worship of Demons that is of Angels or dead Men and in this Sence St. Paul at Athens when he observed the Inscription of their Altar to an unknown God says that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is more Superstitious than others i. e. that they worshipped more Gods or Demons than other Heathen Nations and possibly with more Devotion and Religious Observances But then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a great dread and fear of their Demons and Gods and therefore is made equivalent to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a dread or fear of God And as a Learned Man observes this was originally owing to the belief of a divine Providence and consequently of Rewards and Punishments in this World and the next for which reason Epicurus tho he did not deny the Being of a God yet he removed him out of the World and would not allow him to be Maker of the World nor to intermeddle in humane Affairs and those who believed a divine Providence he rejected under the Notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Superstitious fearers of the Deity Hence he represents the design of his Philosophy to be to deliver Men from Superstition that they might live without fear of any invisible Powers or infernal Judges of whom their Poets especially told such frightful and tragical Stories and therefore in other places Superstition is made by him equivalent to the fear of Death or the fear of punishment after Death And in this Sence Superstition is nothing else but a Nick-Name for Religion or such a fear of God as is the beginning of Wisdom but this was so troublesome and irksome to the Atheistical Philosopher that he endeavoured to deliver himself and Mankind from the belief of a Divine Providence or future Account as in our Age for the fame reason too many deny the Being of God and endeavour to laugh and droll themselves into Atheism that they may live secure from the fear of Punishment But tho every bad Man desires to do this yet few can attain to it the belief of a God sticks close to their Minds and t is equally different for them to deny his Being as to despise his Power and therefore they live in a perpetual dread of God as an observer of their Actions and a severe Judg and can form no other Notion of him but as of a powerful domineering imperious Tyrant And therefore Maximus Tyrius makes this the difference between a Religious and Superstitious Man that a Religious Man goes to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without any servile Fear and Horror which we now commonly oppose to a Filial fear which is mixt with Love and Reverence as a Son Loves and Honours his Father which is the true Spirit of Religion but a Superstitious Man is horribly afraid of God as a powerful Tyrant Hence Plutarch observes that an Atheist does not believe that there is a God and a Superstitious Man wishes there were none And hence it comes to pass that as Superstition makes Men fear God so it teaches them to flatter him for it is the natural temper of Fear to fawn and crouch and by the basest and most servile Submissions to court the Favour of an imperious Lord and it is as natural for those who are Proud Severe and Imperious to love to be flattered and therefore those Men who look on God only as Almighty Power which is soon provoked and cannot be resisted hope to appease so angry a Being by some servile and flattering Submissions Whence it is Maximus Tyrius represents a truly pious Man as God's Friend and a Superstitious Man as his Flatterer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now the true Reason of this Difference between the Religious and the Superstitious Man is this that a truly Religious Man is one who conforms himself to the Divine Nature and admires the Wisdom of God's Laws and the Beauty and Perfection of Vertue and therefore instead of this servile fear of God he loves him as the most excellent Being and securely hopes in him as the most kind Father and bountiful Benefactor and delights to pay him such Homage and Worship as is suitable to his Nature and Perfections But a Superstitious Man is one who is in love with some Vice or other which he fears God will punish him for but cannot and will not part with it and therefore fears God and flatters him and invents such Arts to appease
an offended and angry Deity as a Slave would do to pacify his Lord. And here is the true Original of all that which we call Superstitious Worship which is nothing else but such a Worship as Superstitious Men pay to God to appease his Anger and to flatter him into a good Opinion of them For Superstition is properly seated in the Mind as Religion is and that is a Superstitious Worship which serves the Ends of Superstition as that is true Religious Worship which expresseth the sincere Devotion of the Mind and is fitted to the Nature and Ends of true Religion This was the Original of those numerous Sacrifices which were offered by the Heathens at least they were abused to this Purpose by Superstitious Minds to appease their angry Gods by the Blood of the Sacrifice instead of their own especially those barbarous Sacrifices of Men and Children which it is impossible should ever have any other Original than Superstition For Men must be in a horrible dread and fear of God and entertain very frightful Apprehensions of him before they can either persuade themselves to offer or believe that God will accept of such Sacrifices To the same Original is owing their worship of Demons and Inferior Deities as Intercessors for them to the more powerful God for Men who are afraid endeavour to make all the Friends they can to a powerful Adversary and it not only makes a shew of Humility as the Apostle speaks that Men dare not go directly to God but imploy his great Ministers to speak for them but it signifies also a great dread of him for had Men right apprehensions of the Nature of God and were conscious to themselves of a sincere Love and Reverence of him and a desire to please and to be like him they would be no more afraid to pray to him than a Child is to ask his Father for what he wants Thus Superstitious Men who have a mind to appease God and to keep their sins endeavour to court and flatter him with an arbitrary and external Worship either with a pompous shew such as was their carrying the Images of their Gods in Procession which was so magnificent a sight that many Christians were tempted to be present at it which was condemned and censured by the Ancient Fathers or with publick Feasts and Sports their Solennes Ludi instituted in honour of their Gods in which so many ancient Christians suffered Martyrdom or frequent Washings and Purifications or external Severities to their Bodies as Whippings and cutting themselves till the Blood gushed out as the Priests of Baal did or by prostituting their Wives and Daughters and defiling themselves in honour of their Wanton Deities Or by abstaining from certain Meats and being initiated into the Mysteries of their Religion by severe and troublesome Methods In these and such-like things consisted that superstitious Worship which the Heathens paid to their Gods in such external Rites as were expensive costly or troublesome which they thought apt and proper to atone for their sins and flatter their angry Gods into a good liking of them while they continued in sin Their Worship did not consist in any real and substantial acts of Piety and Devotion were not designed and had no tendency in them to make them more like to God or to do any real Honour to his Nature and Perfections but were an external piece of Pageantry like the crouchings and fawnings of Slaves to their Imperious Lords And thus a superstitious Mind may turn even Divine Institutions into a superstitious Worship as the Hypocritical Jews did who had no respect to the nature and signification of those external Rites of Worship which God appointed but doted upon the Letter of the Law and thought to please God with the external performance of them They gloried in the Circumcision of the Flesh but made no regard to the Circumcision of the Mind and Spirit they thought it enough that they descended from Abraham by Carnal Generation but took no care to imitate the Faith of their Father Abraham They boasted of the Temple of the Lord which was the visible Symbol of God's Presence with them and residence among them tho they made it a Den of Thieves They punctually observed their New Moons and Sabbaths and Solemn Assemblies tho they defiled themselves with all manner of wickedness insomuch that God abhorred his own Worship as much as the Pagan Superstitions and tho he instituted it himself yet denies that he required it from them When you come to appear before me Who hath required this at your hands to tread my Courts And thus profest Christians may and do turn the Institutions of our Saviour into the grossest Superstitions when they think it sufficient to carry them to Heaven that they are baptized and call themselves Christians and say their Prayers and hear Sermons and receive the Sacrament without attending to the end of all this which is to transform them into a Divine Nature to purify their Minds from all earthliness and sensuality and thereby fit them for the happiness of a Spiritual World The sum of all is this That Superstition is not properly in any Act of Worship but in the Mind Divine Institutions may be abused to Superstitious Purposes and Humane Institutions which are meer Matters of Decency and Order may be used without Superstition The Superstition of Heathens Jews and Christians differ in their Acts but agree in their Principle too great a Fear and Flattery of God But yet from what I have discoursed we may collect some plain Rules to judg what is Superstitious and what not and when we may be charged with Superstition and when not For 1. Then Men are certainly Superstitious when they think they shall please or displease God meerly by doing or not doing some indifferent things which he has neither commanded nor forbid To think to please God and to make him our Friend by any Arbitrary Rites and Usages in Religion is to think that God may be flattered by external and insignificant Complements which is the true Spirit of Superstition and to think that God will be displeased with us for doing some indifferent Things which he hath no where forbid argues a superstitious dread and horror of him so that we dare not use that liberty which he has no where restrained touch not taste not handle not that is to forbid doing those things which God has allowed or at least not forbid is more certainly an Act of Superstition than to do those things which God has not commanded for Men may do what God has not commanded without any superstitious Conceit about it but they cannot forbid doing what God has not forbid without placing Religion in not doing it and to make any thing an Act of Religion and to think to please God with it which is no Act of Religion is certainly superstitious 2. Then Men are guilty of Superstition in the external Acts of Religion whether they be instituted by