duties they neglect and the subsequent sins they commit in consequence of it shall be excused this is to add sin to sin and to mend one thing amiss with that which is really much worse Thou art in danger of eating unworthily at the Lords Table if thou come to it well but whose fault is it that thou art so and what besides thine own folly hath brought thee into that danger and what now wouldst thou neglect thy duty because thou hast made thy self unfit to do it thou may'st do so but then know thou hast now a double crime to answer for one for thy first sin and another for the neglect of that duty it indisposed thee for Consider what the Apology would be that in this case thou couldst make to God and how finely it would sound in thy mouth to tell the plain truth I come not O Lord to the Holy Sacrament as thou hast commanded me but it is because I have unfitted my self for it I know it is my duty to come and a great sin to neglect it but I hope thou wilt pardon me because I have committed another sin that causeth it I came not to thy Table but it was because I was drunk or as bad when I should have come Be thine own Judge doth this sound well would'st thou be pleased thy self with such an excuse as this from a careless Child or Servant and do'st thou think God will take it from thee or canst thou hope that he will pardon thee one sin because thou didst it in consequence of another This is so abhorrent to all sense and reason that one would think no man could relie upon it or could choose but be utterly ashamed of it nothing can be madder than to commit one sin upon the reason of another unless it be hoping that the first sin can expiate and excuse the second So that to conclude this period if men stand accountable to God for unfitting themselves for the Holy Sacrament their neglecting of it can never be excused upon that reason SECT II. THe true consequence from that Concession is what I have remarked in the second proposition viz. that care therefore ought to be taken to remove this indisposition and danger and to put our selves into fitter and better circumstances We are strangely apt to stand idlely lamenting and whining over our own unfitness and unworthiness and as apt to think that will become excuse for us before God for it and attone for the neglect of that duty that we therefore disregard but can any thing be more idle and unaccountable than this for still it is our own wilful fault that we are thus unworthy but it will be our greater fault if we continue so the consequence naturally draws the other way viz. that being sensible of our unworthiness and sorrowful for it as we seem to be we speedily endeavour to remove that unworthiness and in good earnest set about it When that great misfortune befell Israel before the City of Ai of which you have the story Josh 7. and Joshua and the Elders of Israel lay lamenting it before God one whole day you may see how God bespeaks him Verse 10.11 12 13. And the Lord said to Joshua get thee up wherefore lyest thou thus upon thy face Israel hath sinned and taken the accursed thing they have stollen and dissembled c. therefore they could not stand before their enemies neither will I be with you any more unless you destroy the accursed thing from among you Up sanctifie the people and say sanctifie your selves against to morrow it was not an acceptable thing to God to hear them howling and lamenting their miscarriage nor available with him to redress the same the true and acceptable way was to bestir themselves set to their own duty and clear themselves of that guilt that occasioned their overthrow The present supposed case is much like this but the measures of our proceeding in it ought to be exactly the same To set resolutely and vigorously about our duty about bettering our circumstances reforming our Lives and those vices especially that cause this unworthiness and not stand fruitlesly lamenting and bewailing our unworthiness with our Arms folded up without either hope or care to remedy the same vainly thinking it will become excuse for us with God for neglecting our duty which he hath commanded but we foolishly indisposed our selves for Men's duty in this case lies very plain and they themselves can easily prescribe what ought to be done in all others like it If our circumstances be dangerous and we unfit to do our necessary Duty we need not consult what we should do we can direct our selves if we please and think it much better not to sink under our indisposition and wear away our selves and time too in fruitlesly bewailing of it but do what we can to help our selves to get rid of our distemper and to remedy the evil that hangs upon us For if things be a miss they ought to be amended And what evils Men have brought upon themselves by negligence they should endeavour to remedy by diligence and care Thus the whole World acts in all common cases like this if a disease amongst them or a wound or bruise happen to their Bodies or any Limb of it they presently consult how to remove the one and heal the other And at this rate they act in all other like cases as soon as they are sensible of an Evil they endeavour to redress it and their feeling of it quickly excites their care against it And surely then they ought to so do in this case too and so much the rather as the Indispositions of the Soul are more fatal than those of the Body and what is prejudicial to our Spiritual and Eternal welfare much more considerable than what affects our temporal only and I think of all things that affect and endanger that those are most dangerous that betray us into Sin and then hinder us from attending to our necessary duty If Men therefore have any due regard to the Everlasting happiness of their Souls and any sense of their Duty upon their doing which that happiness doth depend they will not they cannot suffer such indispositions to remain upon them which so much endanger the one by keeping them from the other But I have some things yet to urge further against our neglect in this case wich will follow as the undeniable consequences of it and become great aggravations thereof 1. That Men's unworthiness and unfitness is wilful 2. That it is very probable if not certain to increase upon them 3. That their Sense of it and sorrow for it can never be sincere if they endeavour not to redress and remove it SECT III. 1. IF Men that complain of their unfitness and unworthiness to receive the Holy Sacrament and urge one as an excuse to the other do not carefully endeavour to remove that unfitness and whatever it is that renders them so unwrothy it is
would engage them to do so in this too I need not inveigh against this temper mens own reason would they but hear it would make them ashamed of it at present I only add that this argument which keeps men from a necessary duty instead of encouraging them to it can never be divine or true nor can it be safe to relie upon it so that although men were not able to see or answer the sophistry of it nor shew wherein the falshood of it did lie yet it would be its own confutation for that argument can never be of God which perswades men to live in the neglect of a duty that his commands have made necessary And therefore when we come to weigh arguments in this case we should always incline most to those which teach us our duty and encourage us in it because this is certainly the safer side Nay I add further that were our minds purely pendulous were there arguments on both sides of the question that appeared equally true and concluding so that we were not able to put a difference between them nor knew which to incline unto yet this alone were enough to turn the scales One doth invite and encourage me to do my duty what I see the plain command of God for the other doth discourage and fright me from it and therefore if I were not able to discover by any internal signatures on which side the truth doth lie yet this external consideration is sufficient to determine my choice for it is certainly more safe to do my duty as well as I can than wholly to neglect it and that argument which encourageeth me hereunto is certainly on the surer and safer side And therefore to conclude this period since we do proceed by this rule in all other cases we should proceed by it also in this since we do not permit the possibility and fear of doing other duties amiss to detain us from them we should not suffer it to keep us from this CHAP. VI. The third Consideration that I proposed as an argument for this second Collection is this The Punishment threatned to eating and drinking unworthily is no greater than what may be feared upon our doing other services of our Religion amiss and is threatned thereunto THis is an argument that ought clearly to be proceeded upon because it comes up directly to that which some men make the chief exception against coming to the Holy Sacrament and which they commonly urge this place in defence of they tell us they are loth to be damn'd and I readily grant they have good reason to be so but they are much more unwilling to damn themselves and for this they are not to be blamed neither Now both these they say they are greatly afraid of if they come to the Holy Sacrament unworthily for damnation is here expresly threatned to him that doth thus yea he is said to eat and drink his own damnation Now what I have already said before might go a great way towards taking off this exception and if Men remember the true notion of eating and drinking unworthily in this place it would go near to relieve wholly their fear in this thing for I have shewed that it is not every failure in receiving the Holy Sacrament that brings a man within the reach of eating and drinking unworthily in the sense of this Text but only that gross and scandalous profanation of it that the Corinthians were guilty of or something that in true proportion answers to it And consequently that it is not every such failure that brings a man within the danger of that damnation that the Apostle speaks of men need not presently fear being damned upon every error and little failure in doing their duty they have a more merciful God to deal with who doth not weigh men by grains and scruples but rates their services as he doth their lives by the general frame and bent of them and provided that men do their duty and honestly endeavour to do it as well as they can hath promised to accept them though many imperfections stick to them and such as should he deal in strict justice might cause him to reject and abhor them In short it is only that monstrous profanation of the Holy Sacrament which the Corinthians were guilty of that makes a man to eat and drink unworthily in the sense of this Text and therefore only that or somthing as bad that brings him in danger of that damnation which is here threatned so that unless men be guilty of the same sin they have no reason to fear the same punishment But I shall not put the satisfaction of this scruple only upon this but consider it in it self and examin whether there be any thing in it fit to be made an exception against this service in order to which I shall endeavour to do these two things 1. Give the true sense of the phrase and shew how men mistake in their apprehension of and deductions from it 2. I shall shew that if men did not mistake the meaning of it yet they do not deal justly and fairly in neglecting the Holy Sacrament upon that reason SECT I. THE first thing to be performed to our present purpose is to give the true meaning of this phrase and there are two expressions which will need explication First Damnation and Secondly eating and drinking damnation to himself The first word to be explained is damnation a word that makes a dreadful noise and carries terror in the very sound of it it indifferently signifies any judgment or punishment whatever but it is commonly appropriated and restrained to signifie that terrible punishment in Hell which God hath prepared for all obstinate and impenitent sinners Now the thing chiefly incumbent upon me is to shew what the signification of it is in this place and to inquire whether the circumstances of it do require us to restrain it to this dreadful punishment as those that make this objection always understand it for if men mistake in their understanding it thus then they mistake in their exception too and the reason of it falls to the ground I shall need to do very little more than repeat what I said in the literal exposition of the Text to my present purpose where I shewed First that the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of a very general and indefinite signification and is indifferently used to express any judgment or punishment from God or man temporal or eternal upon the body or the soul or both and accordingly is used in Scripture also somtimes for temporal sometimes for eternal punishment for any external chastisement in this world as well as those eternal ones in the next it were easie to instance the places in which it is used in both significations were the thing necessary or not well known From this signification therefore of the word we cannot infer any thing certain here it may signifie the one or it may signifie the
sense the very Body and Blood themselves and by the grace and blessing of God upon them to convey to us all those effects and benefits which the very Body and Blood and our feeding upon them could do Then certainly we cannot but pay all possible adoration to Christ when we partake of them nor partake of them without the profoundest reverence that our Souls are capable off And as I may well think that those who can be rude irreverent and profane when they partake of these Holy Symbols would be so to Christ were he visibly and corporally present so I may safely say that upon the same reasons that we would pay respect and reverence to our Lord were he so present we may and we should pay it when we partake of those things which he hath instituted and commanded us to observe as representations and memorials of him The truth is the argument in this case is rather too great than any way defective and upon every good Heart the effect must be according It can scarce fail of running our devotion into rapture and our reverence into extasie and transport to consider that the great God should put such an honor upon poor creatures not only entertain us at his own Table but give us his own Sons Body and Blood and all the blessed effects and benefits of them to feed upon Lord what is Man that thou art so mindful of him or the Son of Man that thou so regardest him and what name is bad enough for that Man whom such love and condescension such Majesty and such Blessing will not engage and strike into the profoundest reverence and devotion when he actually communicates in the Blessed Pledges of them all CONCLUSION ANd now I have brought this discourse to its designed conclusion and have little more than to beg of God that it may have at least some part of that effect upon Men that was designed in it I do think a scruple of this nature necessary to considered and I have endeavored to satisfie it as well as I can and I hope no Man will blame the undertaking how defective soever he may think the performance to be Is it not great pity that any scruple should keep Men in a total negligence of a necessary duty and cause them to think themselves innocent in it Is it not a strange thing and lamentable that Men should lye under such fatal mistakes as to think themselves at liberty whether they will obey the last dying command of their dear Lord or that their love and homage to him can consist with a constant disregard of it Is it not pity that Men should be easily perswaded to slight that which is so mighty advantageous to all the great purposes of the Spirit and Salvation and in which the greatest kindness and honour is offered to Men that God can put upon them Is it not pity and a shame that so many should call themselves Christians and of the Church of England too and yet neglect that which is the highest duty of Christianity and the great band of communion with the Church Is it not a shame for a Church to be without Sacraments or for that Church to have members that never communicate in them If any things in the World can be pitiable these things are so And if any thing can be necessary it must be to consider what that thing is that is the great cause of them Now this I would fain hope is a fear that Men have taken up upon the reason of what is said in these words I would gladly hope that it is neither obstinacy in some nor carelesness in others that keeps them from the Holy Sacrament but only fear and scruple in all fear of coming unworthily and incurring that Damnation that is threatned by the Apostle to all that do so come If this be the case of Men they are really pitiable and it is for the sake of them that this discourse hath been undertaken in which I hope somthing hath been offered that may be considered to good purpose and Men may find their account in 1. For first Men by attending to it may understand what the notion of eating and drinking unworthily is and upon what reason the Apostle chargeth the Corinthians with it viz. their not discerning the Lords Body their being drunk at the Lords Table as well as their own and putting no difference between these and common things and that no Christians now can be guilty of the like Sin but by somthing that sets them as far from discerning the Lords Body and paying due respect to it as they were 2. And secondly by considering this Men may perceive both how far they themselves are from the Sin and how little they need to be afraid of the same danger if they find that by the grace of God they are secured from the one they may confidently hope that his mercy will secure them from the other 3. They may hence also learn what a reasonable measure of knowledge devotion and care will most certainly set them above all possibility of this unworthiness and of that damnation threatned to it 4. And fourthly by considering that it is their necessary duty and the mercies and compassions of God as great and ready to pardon the common infirmities of humanity in this as in any other Services of Religion they may learn to slight and surmount all their fears in this as they do in them and to come with as much chearfulness sense of duty and hopes of divine acceptation in this as in others 5. This discourse may be of some use to the directing and encouraging Men in their preparations for this Holy Sacrament and not fright them by the labour difficulty length of time and curiousness of preparation that some have accidently done The effect of all which should be the ridding Mens minds of those unreasonable and superstitious fears that they have too generally taken up in prejudice against the Holy Sacrament and addressing themselves conscionably and chearfully unto it And I have nothing more but to beg them to give it this effect to take heed that they shut not their eyes against clear light that they pretend not scruples to keep them in the neglect of a known necessary duty and that they cherish not those scruples and wilfully retain them against all reasonable ways of satisfaction there is not a worse nor a more dangerous temper of mind than this and he that considers that for this cause God gave up the Heathen to a reprobate sence to vile affections and left them at last to follow things which reason and nature did abhor had need to fear transcribing the same temper of mind lest he succeed in the same dreadful punishments It were certainly much better to look upon our scruples of this sort to be as they really are diseases of our minds and be as desirous and ready to have the cure of them as we are of the diseases of our Bodies to give God Almighty thanks whose providence orders us these helps for the one as well as the other That so as the Apostle speaks both he that sowes and they that reap may rejoyce together The one for that they are satisfied and relieved and the other for that God hath honoured him so far as to be an instrument in it Which I pray God almighty grant may be the issue of all at last Amen FINIS