least spark of goodness you will find it shine and glow and spread it self to your infinite joy and contentment of heart Among all the various degrees and conditions of Christian people there will none be found that come hither with sincere affection to do this in remembrance of their Saviour but may go away rejoycing loaded with many Divine benefits Heads of Self-Examination by which we may be directed to find out what sins we are particularly to repent of either before the Sacrament or at any other time which we set apart for Repentance and Humiliation of our selves Wherein are laid before us the several duties we owe to God our Neighbour and our Selves To God FAith or belief of his Word A well grounded Hope in his Mercy Love and Fear of Him above all Trust in him Submission to Him Honour to His Holy Name Word Appointments Thankfulness Worship Repentance To our Neighbour in General Justice which requires a doing by him in all respects as we would be done by and forbids all injury whether it be by drawing him into Sin endangering his Life depriving him of his Peace invading his Bed his Goods or good Name and forbids all Envy and Malice and Covetous desires of what belongs to Him and Charity by which we wish well to him and are disposed to assist and help him In Particular To our Superiors Reverence and hearty Obdience and Submission to our Equals unfained Friendship and Kindness To our Inferiors Gentleness Mercy and a great care of their Souls To our Selves Humility Meekness Consideration Content Diligence and Watchfulness over our Selves Chastity or purity of Heart and Life Temperance in Eating and Drinking Moderation in our Sleep or Rest and Recreations and in our Garb and Expences Hy these Heads we may examine our selves And we must particularly confess wherein we have failed and we must not onl confess the sin but the circumstances of aggravation with which it was attended Of which see the first chapter of this Book And as we must confess with shame and sorrow so we must come to the Sacrament with express resolutions to forsake these sins for the time to come A Prayer before the Sacrament O Most Glorious and for ever Blessed Lord God Thou art and there is none like unto thee in Heaven or in Earth thy Wisdom is infinite thy Power irresistible and thou art of purer eyes than to behold the least iniquity with approbation It is of thy unspeakable Mercy that I am not long ago consumed I blush and am ashamed when I lift up my eyes unto thy Divine Majesty I do in all humble reverence prostrate my self before thee and implore thy gracious favour in the name and Mediation of Jesus Christ the Righteous who ever lives to make intercession for those who come unto God by him I do acknowledge thy many mercies towards me I received my being and my breath from thee I have ever since I came into being been sustained by thee Thou hast preserved mine eyes from tears my feet from falling and my Soul from death My Life and Health my Liberty and all the comforts of my life are intirely owing to thy gracious goodness and bounty But above all thou art to be acknowledged for thine inestimable Love in the Redemption of the World by our Lord Jesus Christ for the means of Grace and hope of Glory Thou hast given thy Son to dye for me revealed thy gentle and holy Laws to direct and guide me promised thy Spirit to assist me propounded Eternal Life to encourage my endeavours I have been received into thy Church by Baptism and promised and professed obedience to thy holy Laws But notwithstanding all these obligations to sincere and universal obedience I have many wayes offended against thy Divine Majesty I have not honoured thee as my Creator nor loved thee as my Father nor obeyed thee as my Soveraign Lord and Master And whereas I have been very sensible of the kindness shewed my by my fellow Creatures I have had but very little sense of the innumerable and underserved favours which thou hast heaped upon me from time to time I have sinned against thee in thought word and deed I have sinned greatly and deserve the death which by my wickedness I have pursued I am guilty after the clearest light and knowledge Here make a particular confession of sin after the most indearing mercies and favours after the most solemn Vows and promises of obedience and the most awakening Judgments I have sinned under sufficient means of Grace and after many experiences of the evil of departing from thee I have contemned and despised thy divine Majesty and suffered my self by an easie and small temptation to be drawn away from thee the fountain of my Life and Happiness and the great lover of Souls O Lord look down from heaven with an eye of pity and compassion upon me a wretched sinner I am less then the least of thy mercies and am vile in my own eyes I beg thy pardon and forgiveness for Christ his sake who came into the World to seek and save that which was lost In a deep sense of the wickedness of my former life and the hainous nature of my offences I approach unto thy Divine Majesty with full purpose of amendment of Life I trust in thy mercy O Lord through Christ Jesus and do with all possible thankfulness keep in memory his precious death And being very sensible how much I stand in need of thy mercy and forgiveness of all my sins and the circumstances of aggravation which have attended them I do declare that I do forgive all my Enemies and that I come before thee with sincere and universal Charity to all mankind Search me O Lord and try my heart and lead me into the way Everlasting I am coming to thy Holy Table to renew the Covenant with thee which I have broken I am unworthy of the Crumbs which fall from thence But most gracious Lord look upon me in Christ Jesus Help me that I may attend upon thee without distraction Work in me all those holy and heavenly dispositions which may render me fit for this service Grant that I may come before thee with lowly thoughts of my self and the most raised apprehensions of thy love in Christ Jesus strengthen my weak Faith perfect my Repentance confirm my resolutions of amendment and enlarge my Charity grant that I may receive Christ Jesus my Lord and that I may walk in him That I may partake of the benefits of his death and of the fruits of his intercession at thy right hand I most humbly beseech thee not only to pardon all my past sins and to speak peace to my Soul but that thou wouldest renew my nature and write thy laws upon my heart Englighten my dark mind rectifie my crooked will sanctifie my depraved affections and purifie all the thoughts and intentions of my Heart and grant that for the time to come I may forsake
love When the Passe-over was commanded among the Jews they were most severely commanded to put away leaven when they kept that Feast when we keep this Feast we must be sure to lay aside all malice and hatred to that sense the Apostle expounds that passage to us Purge out therefore the old leaven that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us Therefore let us keep the feast not with old leaven neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth 1 Cor. 5.7 8. He that bears malice in his heart must stand away and not partake of these holy mysteries Such a man will not be welcome to this Table of the Lord. If we like Cain hate our brother God will have no respect unto our offering Gen. 4.5 God is pleased to see us at unity with one another and till then our sacrifice is an abomination unto the Lord. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the Altar and there remembrest that thy brother hath ought against thee leave there thy gift before the Altar and go thy way first be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift Matth. 5.23 24. God is willing to stay for his offering till we are reconciled to one another And as we ought alwayes to have our hearts clear from the malice and bitterness which we are too apt to bear against our brother so especially when we keep this Feast we ought to see to it that we be purged from the leaven For we do now keep in memory the death of Christ And certainly Christ in his death gave a great proof of his love to Mankind and a great example also of forgiveness of enemies And methinks we should be ashamed to remember the death of Christ who died for sinners and prayed for his enemies when we retain our hatred and ill-will against our brother For if we did but rightly consider it we shall find the death of Christ a very effectual means to destroy out of our hearts all malice and ill-will and hatred to one another Well may we forgive one another when Christ forgave his greatest enemies and prayed for his Crucifiers Father for give them for they know not what they do We may well contain our selves and be quiet when we are reproached and falsly accused when our Saviour Who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth yet when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously 1 Pet. 2.22 23. Methinks when Christ hath shewn such a love to us it should be no hard matter for us to love one another When Christ hath paid so great a debt for us we should not readily pull our brother by the throat for every trespass If we did but reflect upon the death of Christ as we ought to do it would kill and destroy that malice and hatred which lodges in our hearts We should not find it so hard a matter to forgive our enemy to do good against evil and to pray for our persecuters and slanderers if we did as we ought to do keep in mind the death of our dear Lord and Saviour But then they that eat of the same bread and drink of the same cup that partake together at the Table of their Lord must needs think themselves obliged to love one another For if eating and drinking together have been thought an argument of kindness and friendship certainly then the partaking together of these divine mysteries must needs call for the sincerest amity and the most fervent charity amongst those that do partake Those that seed at the same Table that retain to the same Lord that wear the same badg and livery that shews to whom they do belong and live by the same Laws and must therefore hope for the same reward these men sure must needs think themselves obliged to love one another Their partaking together of these mysteries is a sure pledge of that mutual kindness which is between them When the Psalmist would describe the greatest profession of friendship and intimacy between himself and his professed friends he does it in these words We took sweet counsel together and walked unto the house of God in Company Psal 55.14 We profess our selves Children of the same houshold and family when we do partake together of this holy Feast We declare that we are members of the same body when we eat of the same Bread and drink of the same Cup which is that provision that heavenly aliment which our Lord hath provided for his Church And therefore we ought to be concerned for one another as members of the same body are We ought to care for the good and benefit each of other and to shew by our lives and actions that we do believe these things to be true We ought indeed to be in perfect charity with all men as we have opportunity to do good unto all men too but more especially are we obliged to do good unto the houshold of Faith The ancient Christians surely understood this very well They shewed a great kindness to those who did communicate with them When they received this holy Sacrament they saluted one another with an holy kiss in token of that mutual love and kindness that was betwixt them And as they had their kiss of love so after the Celebration of this Sacrament they had their feast of love where they did eat together in common in testimony of the mutual kindness which was between them And again they had their labour of love also i. e. They made collections for those that were poor among them or in distress they were not only at peace with one another but they had also a very great compassion for all those that were afflicted But alass we are not what they were that which was to them the bond of unity and love we have made a bone of contention and quarrel We dispute now we do not live we are full of questions and void of charity We are not willing to be so good as those Primitive Christians though we desire to seem as wise as they We are greatly declined from that love and unity that then obtained And we are not willing to be restored to that zeal and fervour which was to be seen in them And now we are run into two great extreams for either we receive this Sacrament with the leaven of malice in our hearts and when we are unprepared for it and then this holy Table becomes our snare Or else we will not receive it at all lest we should be obliged severely to be that which we are not willing to become IV. Another great end of this Sacrament is that we might have a full assurance of Gods readiness to bestow upon us a pardon of our sins and the great mercies of the Gospel which God hath declared himself ready to
thanks to God that he is pleased to make that our duty which is so much our interest and for our advantage He obliges us to renew our Covenant with himself which it is our greatest interest to do He obliges us to that which tends to our own happiness and welfare and without which we could not but be miserable He will have us remember the death of our Saviour and his love he shewed us He will have us partake of a Sacrament that does not only bring us nearer to himself but also unites us faster in the bond of love to one another He would that we should partake of these Mysteries which are the seal of his Covenant and give us great assurance of his readiness to pardon our sins That is in one word God would have us be happy and he does oblige us to be so 'T is our advantage that he designs in all this His love is without any interest but that of ours Who would not enter into Covenant with so good a God who would not remember the love of so dear a Lord Who would not be knit fast to his brother in closest bond of love Who would not have assurance of the pardon of his sins These are the greatest blessings that we are capable of receiving the greatest that Heaven can bestow upon us What can be more desireable than to be at peace with God and at unity among our selves What more reasonable or more to be wished for than that we should remember the love of our Saviour and receive a good assurance of the pardon of our sins And this is the design as you have heard of this blessed Sacrament It is appointed for such blessed purposes as these How suspicious or shy soever we be of it this is the errand it comes about It hath a design to make us more holy and more happy than we were This is all the plot which it hath upon us God hath not only been pleased to give us his Son to die for our ransom but he gives him again in this Sacrament for our food and nourishment O the unspeakableness of Gods kindness to us Methinks every man should break forth into his praises methinks he should say Bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thine iniquities who healeth all thy diseases who redeemeth thy life from destruction who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies who satisfieth thy mouth with good things Psal 103.2 3 4 5. Methinks our mouth should be filled with praise and thanksgiving to God for these his kindnesses to our Souls 4. Hence we may learn what great reason we have to embrace so blessed an opportunity of becoming better Great are the benefits which would redound to us from â— frequent and a devout Communion And certainly this service must needs be welcome to that Soul that is weary of his sins and heartily and earnestly desires to be rid of them For it lays a most severe obligation upon us to search our hearts and amend our ways and set things straight between God and our own Souls This service obligeth us to that which every pious Soul would chuse of it self It binds us to be faithful servants of God to be hearty lovers of our brother to be grateful acknowledgers of the love of Christ and diligent seekers after the pardon of our sins Who would not welcome such a blessed opportunity that loves his God and is weary of his sins Who is it that desires to lead a new life that would not be glad of so excellent a service 'T is to be feared we are too much wedded to our sins when we refuse this service which would divorce them from us 'T is much to be feared we have no great sense of the love of our dying Saviour when we will not upon his command Do this in remembrance of him Or that our sins are no burden to us when we despise the evidence of our pardon If we did but worthily partake of this Sacrament we should be more fit to live and more prepar'd to die We should be more fervent in our services to God and more sincere in our love to our brother the love of Christ would constrain us to obedience and his Commandements would not be grievous to us This would put an end to our unnatural differences and quarrels it would restore love and charity it would deliver us from our slavish and dreadful fear of death In a word it would change this Earth into a kind of Heaven and him that is now a cold professor of Religion it would make this Sinner become a Saint and a zealous doer of the will of God Such a mighty change would a frequent and a worthy participation of these mysteries introduce into the world It would bring back the primitive spirit into the hearts of Christians when Communions were frequent and devout then did every holy and good thing obtain And were they again restored the Devils Kingdom which hath now gotten ground would not only shake but fall to the ground This would overturn his strong-holds as the barly-cake of Gideon did the Tents of the men of Midian And therefore no wonder that he labours so greatly by his instruments to prevent this which would subvert his Kingdom And this is so effectually done that now the professors of Christianity either partake amiss or not at all This is the case of many I wish I could not say of the most of Christians Nay and those that do not receive at all are grown witty too they think they can defend themselves from being guilty of a default I shall not here examine what they have to say for themselves but yet this I shall say that the command of our Saviour for our Communicating is so plain and the reason of it so great that nothing can discharge us from it but either the impossibility of doing it for want of opportunity which we cannot plead or a countermand from him that gave us the law which we must never expect Nothing else can discharge us not our common excuses not our mistaken and scrupulous Consciences which cannot evacuate the Law of God for hereafter we shall be judged not according to what we ween or are of opinion in the case but by a more sure and unerring rule the VVord of God I conclude this particular only adding that if we diminish or take from the Word of God and deny that to be our duty which the Word of God requires we have too much reason to fear that God will take away our part out of the book of life Rev. 22.19 CHAP. III. I Shall now proceed to shew how we may become worthy partakers of this Sacrament of our Lords Supper which was ordained for such great ends and conveys so great a blessing to all those that partake of it as they ought For there is something to be done by us before we can be prepared for so great a
search for leaven against the Passover Pesach c. 1. S. 1. that they should do it by the light of a Candle We had not need be in the dark when we go about such a work as this is and we had need have a clearer light than that of our own Consciences is The Law of God is an unerring rule by this we must try and search our selves And therefore we had need know this Law or else we shall not be able to judge our selves by it and consequently very unfit to approach unto the Table of our Lord. By this Law we may find out what we have done amiss This glass will discover our spots And though we may think our selves very innocent yet upon our trial we shall find many things amiss For the Commandment is exceeding broad we are very apt to say with the man in the Gospel all these things have we kept from our youth up Matth. 19.20 But we consider not how far the Law of God extends and reaches We are commanded to have no other gods before the Lord our God We perhaps are ready to think that we do not break this Law till we fall down and worship some new Deity But we are much deceived in this For by this precept we are obliged to love God above all things to pray to him fear him trust in him give him thanks and in all things to prefer him above all the things of this present World And therefore if we find our selves devoid of the love of God or which is all one full of the love of this World and of our sins if we find we love or fear or trust in any thing more than in him that we do not give him hearty thanks for his mercies nor yet heartily pray for his grace and assistance we may certainly conclude that we are offenders against the Law of God We are commanded that we should not kill Now not only he that sheds his brothers blood but he that hates him and censures him is guilty of a breach of this Law He that hates his brother is a murderer 1 Joh. 3.15 Again when we are forbidden Adultery we are guilty when we look on a Woman to lust after her For the Law as was said afore is exceeding broad It does not only oblige the outward but the inward man It does not only forbid us to do but also to think any evil When it commands a duty it must be supposed to require all those things which are the means that lead us to it And when it forbids a sin it must be thought to forbid whatever would induce us to it We have reason to think our selves guilty not only when we do directly break the letter of the Law but when we transgress against the inward and spiritual meaning of it We are guilty not only when we commit a sin our selves but when we make others to sin nay when we do not reprove and hinder others when we can There are many wayes by which we become transgressors And there is no better way to find out our iniquity than by comparing our lives with the Law of God If those men did but carefully do this who now pride themselves as better than their neighbours they might find very foul spots where as now they think all their wayes clean This would shew them those faults which their pride and lust will not now let them see Our Conscience is many times but an imperfect light and is always so when 't is not enlightned from the Law of God 'T is that Rule by which we are to measure our selves And therefore if we would find our sin let us take this light to direct and guide us in our search 3. We must be very particular in this search That we are sinners we may easily find but we must not satisfie our selves in this but must find out our particular sins which we are guilty of For if in order to our pardon we must confess and forsake our sins we had need find them out if we do not do this it is not like we should confess them and forsake them For how can we be thought to confess and forsake those sins which we are ignorant of And if we do not this what hopes can we have of pardon Indeed where we cannot by our utmost search find out every sin we may yet hope for pardon if we humbly and penitently beg it with the Psalmist who prays to God to cleanse him from his secret faults Psal 19.12 But this we may hope when we cannot find out our particular sin when we can do that we must know it is our duty to do it in order to our confession and our parton In which the Reader may be assisted by the heads of self-examination at the close of the Book called the Whole duty of Man And a thing very advisable it is that we should have ready by us at such times as this a most particular Catalogue of our sins and that we do in our private prayers as particularly confess them to God It is very easie and common to confess our selves sinners to God but there is a great cheat in that general confession and if we would have pardon we must be more particular 4. We must not only make a particular search after our sins but we must also well consider of the degrees and aggravations of them For all sins are not alike There are many circumstances that do encrease our guilt and therefore if we would not hide our fault we must search after these things Now there are several things which do greatly enhance our guilt and make our sins more exceeding sinful that give them a deeper dye and stain Now every sin is a transgression against the Law of God but yet there are some sins which are more hainous than others 1. As for example when our sin is such as is not only against the Law of God but against our own Conscience also when we know the Law and our Conscience does make a faithful report of it and yet we will commit it He that knows his Masters will and doth it not shall be beaten with many stripes This is no small aggravation of our guilt when we rebel against the light This rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft We have no manner of excuse left us in this case and therefore ought to humble our selves greatly under such sins as these are 2. Again when we are vincibly and culpably ignorant and bribe or blind our Consciences our guilt is also greatly aggravated Perhaps we will not know our duty that we may not be though obliged to do it Or we have certain arts to bribe our Consciences or have found out ways to stop their sentence This is a most hainous aggravation of our guilt and comes up very near to that which was named last He is not only a very wicked servant that refuses to do what he hears his Master command him but he