Sacrament which is to consecrate our selves to God in Christ Jesus and that is not to be done without a very serious Use of this Ordinance in which we acknowledge with the deepest Humility that our Souls and Bodies and all the Gifts and Graces we have are the Effects of his Bounty and declare our unfeigned Purposes to speak and act and think as he would have us and dedicate our selves to his Service professing that we will use the Blessings he hath given us to his Glory and the Good of his People will resign our selves to his Providence and be content with the Lot and Portion he shall think fit to assign us and be thankful for Afflictions too as well as for Prosperity they being both his Gifts and Blessings and say and confess under the various Dispensations we shall meet withal Lord not as I will but as thou wilt And who can forget himself so much as to think that all this may be done without a serious Behaviour IV. The Church of Rome at this Day makes strange Work with Consecration of the Elements in the Supper of the Lord. And though they are told by one of their own Popes Gregory the Great that the Apostles consecrated only with saying the Lord's Prayer yet they boldly according to their Custom place Consecration in the Priests muttering these Words Hoc est Corpus meum hic est Sanguis meus This is my Body This is my Blood over the Bread and Wine Which Words partly by their own secret Virtue and partly by virtue of the Priest's Office immediately upon their being secretly pronounced change the Bread and Wine into the substantial Body and Blood of Christ whereof we shall have Occasion to speak more largely in the Sequel And this is their Consecration contrary to the Sense of the Primitive Church which was of Opinion that Consecration was performed by Prayer and Praises And though some think that Christ used a peculiar Form of Consecration which is either lost or the Church did not think necessary to preserve yet that Fancy is altogether needless since we are told by the inspired Writers that Christ gave Thanks In which he either observ'd the usual Form used in the Passover Blessed be God who hath created the Fruit of the Earth and Blessed be God who hath created the Fruit of the Vine Or Blessed be thou O Lord our God King of the World who bringest forth Bread out of the Earth and Blessed be thou O Lord our God King of the World who createst tbe Fruit of the Vine Or some other though it is more probable that he did not vary from the common Practice of the Jews in this Particular And what is this but Consecrating the Elements and Sanctifying of them For every Creature of God is good and not to be refused for it is sanctified by the Word of God and by Prayer saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 4. 4 5. The Greek Church at this Day lays the Stress of Consecration upon the Prayer of the Holy Ghost as they call it whereby the Holy Spirit of God is invited to come down and make a Change in the Bread and Wine In our Church we joyn Prayer and Praises and the Words of Institution which is the safest Way and such as no rational Person can find fault with though the Words of Institution are sufficient in this Case which we discover in our Practice when the first Consecrated Bread and Wine are spent and the Number of the Communicants require a new Consecration V. Though the Gospel tells us only in general that Christ gave Thanks yet we cannot but suppose that they were particular Things he praised the Divine Bounty for and it is very rational to conclude that he gave Thanks 1. For the Providence of God which watches over Mankind and brings forth Fruit out of the Earth to satisfie the Desire and natural Appetite of Man God the Creator of all Things provides Food and Sustenance for all his Creatures He causes the Grass to grow for the Cattel He sends the Springs into the Valleys which run among the Hills they give Drink to every Beast of the Field the Wild Asses quench their Thirst the Lions receive their Prey from him He it is that hath appointed Toads and Snakes to be proper Meat for the Stork and Flies for the Nourishment of Spiders for some Birds of the Air he hath design'd Variety of Seeds and Worms of the Earth for others He provides Leaves for Caterpillars and those Insects for the Use of other Animals and the young Ravens that make a noise and upon that Account are said to cry to him are fed and maintain'd by his Power He prevents the Crocodile from doing excessive Mischief by making the Ichneumon his Enemy and the lesser Fishes prove a Prey to the greater by his Order In all these Things the Divine Providence displays it self and because the rest of the Creatures are not endow'd with Reason to celebrate God for his Bounty he hath placed Man in the Earth and enrich'd him with an Angelical Soul to be the Trumpet of his Glory and to take notice of God's feeding his Creatures of all sorts and sizes and particularly the Children of Men and when he sees Bread before him the Staff of Humane Life to admire the Wisdom Power and Goodness of the Almighty And upon this Account it was that Christ as Man and Mediator gave Thanks and when he took Bread blessed the Author of it who had made it agreeable to Man's Nature and gave it Strength to nourish him sent the Former and the Later Rain to nourish the Seed in the Ground and gave his Sun-shine to warm and ripen the Corn into Perfection 2. It was not God's Providence alone that he gave Thanks for but for the more indearing Expressions of God's Love to Mankind too And this we need not wonder at when we read how at other Times he magnified his Father's Goodness to sincere Believers particularly Matth. 11. 25. I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast hid these things from the Wise and Prudent and hast revealed them unto Babes No Man ever saw the immense Charity and Goodness of God to the lapsed Progeny of Adam in those lively Characters that he did We can only speak of it with stammering Tongues and give some faint Descriptions of it but He felt it The Sense of that Love over-spread his Soul and he saw the Heighth and Depth and Breadth and Length of it He beheld the Miracles of this Love in all the amazing Circumstances and what it was for God to give a Son to redeem a Servant to expose a Lamb to buy a Wolf and to let an innocent Sheep be led to the Slaughter to ransom Swine He saw how that Compassion extended it self and what it was for the Word to be made Flesh and to run about to seek the lost Sheep and when he had found it to rejoyce over it and
beautifie the Meek with Salvation Let the Saints be joyful in Glory let them sing aloud upon their Beds let them praise the Name of the Lord for his Name alone is excellent his Glory is above the Earth and Heaven III. See here how rich a Meal God the Father prepares for our Souls even the crucified Body of his Son Shall we look upon that Celestial Food with dull and careless Thoughts Can we behold this costly Bread and forbear crying out Lord for ever give us that Bread Christian if thou meanest to be saved by the crucified Body of thy Lord thou must needs eat of it Not only thy Mouth must eat the Sacramental Bread and chew it but thy Soul must ascend and employ her self in eating of the crucified Body represented by that Bread Thy Soul thy Mind thy Will thy Affections must have the greatest Share in eating at this Table Thy Body hath little to do here that is only the Chariot that brings thy Soul to this Banquet Thy Soul not being engaged and busie here in Thinking Admiration Resolution Love and Joy the Cringes and Bowings of thy Body will be insignificant The End of our common Eating is Assimilation and in our ordinary Meals we therefore eat Food agreeable to our Bodies that it may be united to our Substance mingle with our Blood and become one with our Bodies So here our Souls must feed on the crucified Body of the Lord Jesus that we may become one with him All Creatures may be said to be one with Christ as he is God as he is their Creator in which respect he fills Heaven and Earth with his Presence and is not far from every one of us and in him we live and breath and have our Being Nay in a more particular manner every Professor of Christianity may be said to be one with him as he professes the same Religion which Christ taught his Disciples But this is not the Union aimed at in this Sacrament nor can the Union which respects our Profession only give any great Comfort to a Christian. The Union designed by this Sacrament is effected by the Spirit of Christ Jesus and the Soul that unfeignedly see◠here on the crucified Body of her Master gets the same Spirit that dwelt in her crucified Lord which produces the same Graces in her that shined in that great Shepherd of Souls and the same Mind the same Temper the same Disposition in substance at least though not in the same Degree is effected and produced in her by this Spirit as we see Rem 8. 11. Phil. 2. 5. And this is that Union every true Communicant is to aim at and from hence flows a Communion with Christ in all his Privileges and Glories whereby the Soul is raised up together with Christ and made to sit together with him in Heavenly Places though not by way of actual Enjoyment as yet but by getting a Right and Title to those Privileges as the Apostle informs us Ephes. 2. 6. By feeding on this crucified Body the Soul is nourished and gathers Strength against her spiritual Enemies becomes bold in Temptations resolute in Dangers couragious in spiritual Enterprizes The Soul that comes to feed on this crucified Body and comes not with this Intent comes in vain comes only to stare upon the Cross but not to be refreshed by it The Soul that after the Sacrament yields wilfully to the same Temptations it did before is ensnared by the same sinful Pleasure that ruin'd it before is led Captive by the same Lusts that intangled her before certainly feeds not on the crucified Body of the Lord Jesus because the Contemplation of that Crucifixion works no suitable Effects which if it did the Soul would unfeignedly destroy the Body of Sin according to the Apostle's Rule Rom. 6. 6. and offer up her Body a living Sacrifice holy acceptable unto God as it is said Rom. 12. 1. Make the Body obedient to Reason and Sense to Faith and the Flesh to the Spirit and it would keep under the Body and bring it into Subjection as St. Paul did 1 Cor. 9. 27. i. e. it would deny the Body those Satisfactions which are manifest Hindrances to the Things of the Spirit it would force it to Temperance to Hardships to Industry and Laboriousness in God's Service it would strive and take care that the Body might become a Temple of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6. 19. 〈◊〉 what the Soul doth in this Ordinance would leave such a Sense upon us as would not only enable but constrain us to glorifie God both in Body and Soul as the Scripture requires 1 Cor. 6. 20. These are the blessed Effects of eating the crucified Body of the Lord Jesus And the Soul that feeds on that Body will find these happy Consequences it will not go away empty from this Meal and though for the present it doth not see all these Effects yet there is that Impression made on her by this Eating that these Effects will afterward discover themselves in her Life and Conversation The PRAYER O My God! What Care dost thou take of my immortal Soul that it may not starve Thou hast made large Provision for my Body in the Earth in the Air and in the Water The Earth brings forth Herbs and Roots and Cattel to feed it The Air affords Fowl and Feather'd Creatures to nourish it The Water provides Fish for it But none of all these can satisfie my Soul that must have a spiritual Diet and rather than it shall want thou hast given thine own Son to be her Food O mysterious Love Can I after tbis have low and mean Thoughts of thy Goodness O sweetest Jesu if my Soul feeds not on thee if must die and be separated from thy glorious Presence for ever If it feeds on thee it is made for ever Oh! be thou my most beloved and most delightful Food Thy crucified Body alone can keep my Soul from fainting Thy Death must yield me Life Thy Sufferings must give me Joy Thy Agonies must afford me Comfort Thy Torments must work mine Ease Thy Nails and Thorns must be my Bed of Roses Nothing else can give my Soul Rest. When the Snares of Death and Hell encompass me I will lay hold on these Horns of the Altar here I shall be safe safer than in the Arms of Angels Thou that diedst for me livest for ever to intercede for me and having such an Advocate I may come boldly to the Throne of Grace O let me not survey this glorious Provision made for my Soul with carnal Eyes O let me ponder seriously not with flying and transient but with steady and fixed Thoughts how thou hast favoured how thou hast loved how thou hast dignified this miserable Soul of mine that I may rejoyce in thee for ever and ever Amen CHAP. XII Of remembring Christ in this Sacrament or doing what we do here in remembrance of him The CONTENTS The Death of Christ Jesus the principal thing to be
the Alphabet that we might not look upon Letters in a Book without thinking Lord be thou the First and the Last in all my Actions Let me begin with thee and end with thee Be thou my Book let me read the Characters of thy Love and rejoyce in thee for ever For this Cause he is styled a Shepherd that whenever we cast our Eye upon a Man of that Employment we may beg of Christ to feed us with his Spirit And a Lamb that whenever we see one we may intreat him to cloath us with his Innocence And a Sower that whenever we see the Husband-man throwing Seed into the Ground we may beseech him to manure the Ground of our Hearts that we may be neither barren nor unfruitful in the Knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he that thus remembers him in Season and out of Season will without dispute be the better able to remember him in this Sacrament And to such a Soul David's Saying may justly be applied The Righteous shall be had in Everlasting Remembrance surely he shall not be moved for ever Psal. 112. 6. The PRAYER O Blessed Redeemer who didst remember me when I had forgetten thee and thoughtest of me when I did not regard thee When I lay buried in the common Mass of Corruption thou didst not disdain to think on this forlorn Creature Thou didst pity me thou sawest my Misery and it grieved thee at thy Heart Thy Bowels yearn'd over me and thou didst spread thy Mantle over me O happy Remembrance I had been lost if thou hadst not looked upon me I had been undone if thou hadst not cast thine Eye upon me yet how loth have I been to think of thee What an Aversion have I had from remembring thee How have I shifted off all serious Reflections on thy Love I have more delighted in Trifles than in thee How sweet have the Thoughts of my Corn and Wine and Oil been to me and how tedious how irksome all Contemplation of tbee When thou hast sometimes put me in mind of thy Sufferings how have I suffered Worldly Thoughts to drive thee out of my Mind How justly mightest thou turn thy Eyes away and hide thy Face from me O Sweet O Glorious Object Appear in thy Beauty appear in thy Glory to my Mind that I may be throughly convinced that nothing deserves my Thoughts so much as thy self I am resolved to remember thee with greater Delight and Constancy Help thou me Should not I remember thee who hast in a manner forgotten thy self to remember me I can remember a Temporal Deliverance and shall not the Deliverance of my Soul procured by thy Death be remembred by me I can remember a Disaster which hath some Years agone befallen me and shall not I remember the infinite Misery from which thou camest to rescue me I will think of thee in the Night-Watches I will think of thee when I lie down when I awake when I rise again In the great Ordinance of thy Supper I will in a most solemn manner think of thee Teach me to remember thee here with Joy with Pleasure with Comfort to my Soul Here let my Thoughts of thee be sweet Whenever I think on thy Cross let me remember how by thy Charity I was freed from the Curse of God Thou becamest a Curse for me Ought not this Mercy to be remembred for ever Write it in my Mind engrave it upon my Heart let this Remembrance be easie to me Chase away all Unwillingness all Backwardness to this Duty from my Soul Oh let it become natural and make this Remembrance profitable to me that my Inward Man may be renewed by it Day by Day and abound in Love and the longer I live the more conformable I may be to thee sweet Jesu to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be all Honour and Glory for ever and ever Amen CHAP. XIII Of the other Element or Part of this holy Sacrament viz. the Wine and the Cup Christ made use of in the Institution of the Eucharist The CONTENTS Red Wine in all probability made use of by Christ in the Institution of this Sacrament As also Wine mixed with Water Too great a Stress laid upon this Mixture by the Roman and Eastern Churches The Cup Christ used in this Sacrament pretended by the Romanists to be in their Possession The Cups made use of by the Ancient Churches what Matter or Substance they were of examined On the Sacramental Cup anciently was engraven the Figure of a Shepherd and a Lamb. The Cup in process of Time changed into Silver Pipes Christ gave the Cup to the Disciples as well as the Bread for weighty Reasons to shew that the Bread and the Cup are of the same Worth and that those who receive the one should receive the other also The Abuse of the Church of Rome in denying the Cup to the Laity laid open Their Reasons and Arguments answered Why Christ made use of Wine in this Sacrament discovered in five Particulars The Reasons why he made use of a Cup and no other Vessel An Enquiry made why Christ took the Cup after he had done with the Cup in the Passover The Cup in this Sacrament contrary in its Effects to Circe's Cup among the Heathens None fit to drink of this Cup but Men of Valour and Courage This Cup very comfortable to all distressed Spirits The Prayer I. THough it be not very material to know what Wine it was Christ made use of in the Institution of this Sacrament what Colour it was of or whether it was pure and unmix'd yet we have Reason to believe that it was Red Wine and Wine mix'd with Water Red because this was the usual Wine among the Jews and therefore called The Blood of the Grape Gen. 49. 11. And when the Royal Prophet would express God's Vengeance upon the Wicked and Incorrigible by Wine he saith The Wine is red Psal. 75. 8. And this sort of Wine did best represent the Blood of Christ which was to be spilt for the Sins of the World and to make a considerable Figure in this Sacrament And to this purpose is that famous Prophecy Esay 63. 1 2 3. Who is this that comes from Edom with died Garments from Bozra Wherefore art thou red in thy Apparel and thy Garments like him that treads in the Wine-Fat Which Words as by the Consent of Interpreters they relate to Christ's Death and bearing the Burthen of God's Anger for our Transgressions so they at once express the Blood of Christ and the Colour of the Wine that was most in use among the Jews and consequently 't is very likely that Christ made use of Red Wine in this Ordinance And as it was Red so it is probable it was Wine mixed with Water this also being customary in that Country as we see Prov. 9. 2. in which our Blessed Master lived during his Abode in the World The Evangelists indeed mention no such Thing but in general only tell
things than his Favour that is ashamed of him in a sinful and adulterous Generation and is more taken with the Things that are seen than with the Things which are not seen though confirmed by Divine Promises and a Thousand Miracles So that it is evident that he that comes not to this Sacrament with Resolutions and Desires to value him above all cannot be a very worthy Receiver 2. Such a Person undervalues his miraculous Love and is supposed to esteem it no more than the Love of a Servant or the Love of an ordinary Friend He doth not value it as the Love of Him in whose Power it lay to make him everlastingly miserable he values not the unparallell'd Condescention that appears in it the infinite Humility that shines in it the inexpressible Grace and Favour that runs through the whole Frame prefers Dross and Dung before it contrary to the Apostle's Example Phil. 3. 8. will not understand the Need he has of Christ nor the dreadful Consequences of his Sin nor what it is to be freed from the power of the Roaring Lion and from Condemnation from Eternal Mournings and Lamentations from being swallowed up by the fierce Anger of the Lord Mercies so great and a Love so much beyond all that this World affords that God thought the very hearing of it would make Men â—eap for Joy and immediately leave all and follow Christ. 6. It is to eat and drink without sincere Reconciliation to our Neighbours who have offended or provoked us to Anger Where either our Forgiveness is slight and superficial or we forbear to vent our Spâ—een and Malice and Ill-will for a time with an intent when a fair Opportunity offers it self to let the Party feel the weight of our Anger like Joab who was a great Master in the Art of dissembling and could connive at the Injury Absalom had done him give him fair Words fawn upon him and introduce him to the King but when a convenient time came re-pay'd it home with a witness Where we are either averse from Reconciliation or make but a shew of it and eat and drink at this Table we cannot be supposed to eat and drink worthily For 1. In this Case we can have no hope that God will be reconciled to us God's Reconciliation to Man depending upon Man's reconciling himself to his Neighbour so that where this is wanting the other is impossible as is evident from Matth. 18. 35. He that can have no just Hope of God's being reconciled to him comes to this Sacrament to very little purpose or if he come with Hopes of his Favour he must hope that God will prove false to his Word which can never make him a worthy Receiver So that his Hope can be no other than that of the Hypocrite the Character of which we have Job 8. 13 14. His Hope shall be cut off and his Trust shall be as the Spider's Web. He shall lean upon his House but it shall not stand He shall hold it fast but it shall not endure An ill-grounded Hope must needs be a bad Preparative for this Table where nothing is so acceptable as Sincerity and both the Reconciliation and the Hope of Mercy being destitute of this Qualification the Soul is under very ill Circumstances A sound Hope we are told makes not ashamed Rom. 5. 5. The Hope we speak of cannot but cause Shame and Confusion when God shall demand of us how we could have the Courage to hope for his Mercy when he hath expresly told us that he is resolved to shew none as long as we are unacquainted with it in Offences and Trespasses committed against us by our Neighbours 2. Add to this That a Person communicating under such Circumstances shews he hath something that is dearer to him than God's Reconciliation even his Lust and Ill-Nature And what is this but to prefer Darkness before Light the Suggestions of the Devil before the Motions of God's Spirit a blustering Passion before the Meekness of the Holy Jesus Bondage before the Freedom of the Gospel and a Blast of Honour before the soft and still Voice of the Holy Ghost 'T is true If such Persons were asked whether they do so they would have the Confidence to deny it for Men are loth to have their Sins anatomiz'd and drawn in their native Colours but God still judges of us by the tendency and complexion of our Actions not by the soft and plausible Names we put upon them and if our Actions speak so much God passes his Verdict of them according to what he finds at the bottom Tho' we may be unwilling to speak out yet God is not afraid to declare what he sees and finds and therefore where Men will not be heartily reconciled and yet venture to Eat and Drink at this Table God's judgment of us can be no other than this That our perverseness and ill humor is dearer to us than his being reconciled to our Souls and surely such a person cannot Eat and Drink very worthily 7. It is to Eat and Drink without any serious Thoughts Where we come to this Table with Thoughts as loose as they were in a Tavern or Market place where we take no care to contract those Beams of our Minds so as to unite and fix them on the Scene before us or on somthing relating to it whether it be our being Created after the Image of God and our Apostacy from that state and the ruin and misery which came with that violent Stream or the great necessity of being renewed to that Image and the way that 's opened to that Renovation by the Blood of Jesus or the Honour and Privileges God offers us by his Son or the advantages we receive by being Christians and having an interest in the benefits of his Passion or the Glory of the other World which we are made capable of by the Death of him who was the Lord of Glory or the Holy Ambition we see in the Saints of old to be made partakers of that Glory and their Industry and Care and Pains they took to attain unto it and the Joys they found in the remembrance of Christ's Sufferings or the Attributes of God his Wisdom Holiness Justice Mercy Power Love and Good-will to the Children of Men all which appears in the Sacrifice offer'd for us c. As these particulars are the most proper objects of our Thoughts at such times so he that lets the thoughts of his Trade Business and other worldly Concerns to engross his Understanding and go in and out at their pleasure doth not come with that Respect and Reverence requisite in the participation of this Ordinance Not but that such Thoughts may accidentally and by the wicked diligence of evil Spirits that always hover about us invade the Mind upon such occasions but it 's one thing to be surpriz'd with such imaginations contrary to our design and purpose and another to give them Entertainment without any serious opposition of their
assert God's just Anger against Sin and keep off the fatal blow from Man at once defend God'ds Right and establish Man's Felicity and thereby put the poor miserable Worm in a capacity of becoming Heir to the Riches of God who was an Heir of the Treasures of Wrath and a companion of Blessed Spirits who had deserv'd to howl with Apostate Spirits a Child of Light who was a Son of Darkness and a Servant of Righteousness who was a Slave of Sin I say the Holy Ghost supposes that he that seriously believes all this will think nothing too good for God will not stand out against so great a Mercy will fight no more against so great and so good a Master but will submit to him be ready to run at his Commands give himself up to the Will of so great a Benefactor and will be hearty and sincere in serving him Now the unworthy Receiver being so far from doing this so far from turning to God with all his heart and with all his mind that he refuses the Dominion of God will be a Slave to his Sin still and had rather obey the Devil than this most bountiful Master who hath done so much for him by doing so denies that Christ's Body and Blood was sacrific'd for him for if he believ'd it he could not do as he doth and tho' he may protest by all that 's Good and Sacred that he believes it yet Words and Compliments will not absolve him and if talking were believing no Man that professes Christianity would ever be damn'd What doth a Malefactor's pleading at the Bar that he is not guilty signifie when the Evidences are strong and the Matter of Fact is prov'd against him Belief that doth not touch the Heart or renew the Mind or spiritualize the Affections is mere Infidelity and where this Belief is not to be found the Sinner is accused of denying the Mercy he pretends to believe And to this purpose saith the Apostle They profess that they know God but in their works they deny him Tit. 1. 16. So that the unworthy Receiver i. e. He that receives and yet will not reform whatever his Profession may be in his Actions he denies that Christ was Sacrific'd for him and therefore makes himself guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. 2. He Eats and Drinks unworthily makes himself guilty of jesting with the Body and Blood of Christ As the Fathers of the Council of Eliberis speak He plays with the most tremendous things for in coming he seems to confess that by the Death of the Son of God his miserable Soul was redeem'd and a Pardon purchas'd for him and the Heavens made to bow to him and the good Will of God procur'd to save him for ever and yet he doth not think all this worth forsaking a sinful Lust or shaking a pleasing Dalilah from his Bosom and what is this but playing with the Body and Blood of Christ Should a Man make a very curious Harangue in commendation of his Neighbour compare him with Salomon for Wisdom with David for Sincerity with Jonathan for Faithfulness with Josiah for Piety for Generosity with Moses for Chastity with Joseph for Patience with Job with St. Paul for Courage with St. Peter for Zeal with Absolom for Beauty with Zacheus for Charity with Abraham for Hospitality nay with Angels for clearness of Understanding and for Purity of Life with Seraphim And when he hath done abuse and reproach him or do that which he cannot but know must be offensive and irksome or prejudicial to him gives the Spectator just occasion to think that all that flanting Panegyric was only a jocular thing design'd rather as an essay of Wit than as any real affection to the Virtues of the commended Party The unworthy Receiver doth in effect the same for his coming to this Sament is a tacit Commendation of Christ's Crucified Body and Blood whereby he seems to applaud the wonderful Works that Christ hath done for him and to proclaim to all the standers by what an Obligation that Death is to mortifie the body of Sin and to be true and faithful to him that did not count his Life dear to do him good and yet having no real purpose within whatever external Declaration he may make to become a new Man but after he hath been at this Table when temptations assault him temptations to his former sins yields to them as easily as ever plainly declares he was in jest when he seem'd to magnifie this Munificence of his Saviour and from hence it must follow that he is guilty of playing with the Body and Blood of Christ. 3 He that Eats and Drinks unworthily seems to wish that Christ may dye again and upon that account is guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord for in that Christ's Death is not efficacious to pull down the strong holds of Sin in him or rather in that he will not let that death prevail with him to the mortifying of his sinful Lusts he seems to wish for an iteration of that Death which may be more powerful and have a greater influence upon the destruction of his Sin It is a Declaration as it were that the Death of Christ as the case stands doth no good upon him and therefore since the Death of the Son of God must be the means to break the power of Sin in him he stands in need of another death of that Saviour which may do greater miracles upon his Soul or sinful Temper Christ's Death indeed must break the reigning power of Sin but then a Person in whom this effect is to be wrought must apply that Death think upon it warm his Heart with the Consideration of it ruminate upon the Motives of it and upon the greatness of his own Sin that occasioned it and upon the vast Advantages that flow from that Death and be restless with God to make it effectual to his Soul For to think that this Death will do the work without our Labour or Industry or pondering the weight and moment of it is to imagine that God will deal with us as with Brutes that have no understanding As Christ died once in the end of the World so his Death spreads his Virtue to all Penitents from the beginning to the end of the World But wherever it works a serious Reformation it must be improv'd by Faith and Thoughts and Prayer and Contemplation and should Christ dye a thousand times if these means be neglected his dying so often would signifie little to the inconsiderate Spectator This is the monstrous Fancy of some Men that they hope the Mysteries of Religion will or must change their Hearts without any trouble of their own which Conceit must needs make them contemptible in the sight of an All-wise God who sees them neglect the Powers and Faculties he hath given them The unworthy Receiver therefore finding no good by this Death of the Lord Jesus for it makes no alteration in his
afford matter of comfort to think at such times that the same Jesus who was crucified will ere long appear in Glory with all his mighty Angels to give those that have followed him in the Regeneration full possession of the purchas'd Glory However at the best the Celebration of this Feast at night was but a circumstantial thing and therefore the Church is not obliged to keep to it circumstantial things depending much upon conveniency or inconveniency which vary in several Ages and this was the reason that though standing at the eating of the Passover was a commanded circumstance Exod. 12. 11. yet the Jewish Church in after Ages varied from it even by Christs own Approbation and turned that posture into leaning as I shall have occasion to shew more largely in the Chapter about Kneeling at the Communion The Church therefore sins not in Celebrating this Feast at any other time especially in a circumstance barely related not commanded Yet as I said before because this Spiritual Feast kept up in all Churches is still in imitation of Christs Supper and that Supper is religiously remembred in it and the same essential things together with the scope drift and design of all are still preserved it is not unfitly called the Lords Supper still so that if any man seems to be contentious about the name We have no such Custom neither the Churches of God 1 Cor. 12. 16. IV. Yet this is no Argument but that it may also lawfully be called and expressed by other Names and this we find the Christian Churches have done from time to time Tertullian was the first that called it a Sacrament taking the Name from the Oaths the Roman Soldiers took that they would be true and faithful to their Emperor and the rather because we vow Allegiance and Fidelity in this Ordinance to the great Master that died for us Others have call'd it an Oblation because we offer up our humble Prayers and Supplications to the God and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ and our Souls and Bodies too when we remember this Beneficial Death Sometimes it hath been call'd a Sacrifice because it is not only a commemoration of the wonderful Sacrifice of Christs Death but we chearfully offer up the Sacrifice of our Praises for this inestimable Mercy The name of Communion occurs frequently in the Writings of the Ancients because all sincere Christians are hereby tyed in a bond of mutual Love participate of the same Bread are Fellow-members of the Mystical Body of Christ and have Communion with Christ their Head and enjoy all the same Benefits of his Death and sufferings The word Eucharist is used as often as any other because Thanksgiving and Magnifying the Goodness Mercy and Charity of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost are a great part of the Service here The name Mass which they of the Roman Persuasion and even the Lutheran Churches make use of as it was not known in the Church for the first Four hundred years after Christ so the Original of it was this When the Lords Supper was to be celebrated after Sermon the Deacon or some other Officer of the Church called to the People that did not or were not to receive in these words Ite missa est Depart the Congregation is dismissed In time that which was only a Preliminary circumstance of the Lords Supper was applied to the whole Office and the Service was called Missa or Mass a word which the Romanists make a great stir with and turn into a perfect Charm and a monstrous Sacrifice to the great disparagement of Christs Sufferings and the Benefits that accrue thereby to true Believers Some of their Writers make it a Hebrew word and fetch it from the Old Testament others derive it from the Greek others from the Northern Language and though it expresses less then any of those Names we mentioned before yet hath this swallowed up all the rest and the more superstitious in the Roman Church are almost afraid to call it by any other Name and the Mass is that which both young and Old both learned and unlearned among them have most frequently in their Mouths though few of the Vulgar know what it means I omit here many other Names appropriated by Writers to this Mystery such as Collect Oeconomy Liturgy Dominical Agenda Anaphora Synaxis c. partly because I intend no Critical History and partly because by the names I have already spoken of this Sacrament is usually known in the Western Churches That we do so often call it a Mystery is because the things discovered and imitated here do altogether depend upon Divine Revelation and are such as Flesh and Blood understand not and the Secrets of which none but a Person enlightned by the Spirit of God apprehends to any purpose and which transcend all the Arcana or hidden points of Heathen Divinity V. The name of the Lords Supper puts us in mind that this Holy Feast differs from Common Suppers 1. In that Common Suppers are for the support of Nature this for the support of Grace and Goodness in our Souls The former are intended for the strengthning of the Body this for the corroboration of our Faith and Hope and Love Our Common Supper represents to us the Ordinary Providence of God which opens its hand and fills the desire of every living thing This Gods extraordinary dispensation which shews at what cost and charges we are made the Children of God and fitted for everlasting habitations The former gives us an account of the Blessings of Gods Left this of the favours of his Right Hand The former bids us look into the nether this into the upper Springs of the Divine Clemency 2. In our Common Suppers our Spirits may unbend and our Minds and Tongues take liberty of thinking and speaking of things relating to our necessary Employments in the World in this our thoughts must rise mount up with Wings as Eagles pierce the Clouds and fix on the Riches of Divine Love retire from the World view God and his glorious Attributes and unite with that excellent object improve themselves into Contemplaâ—ion and adore the Mystery of Redemption In the former no other Preparation is required but what we are to bring with us to common affairs and businesses i. e. Gravity and Sobriety but in this the Heart must be prepared the Soul chafed the Affections warmed prayers offered Ejaculations press into Gods presence and Self-examination dispose the Soul for the visits of the Holy Ghost that it may be a worthy Guest at so great a Table and the rather because God is in a special manner present here for wherever Providence displays its brighter beams of Love there God is eminently present that makes Heaven what it is because there the Divine Goodness shines most gloriously In this Sacrament are set before us more then ordinary Characters of Gods Love the Angels of Heaven saith St. Chrysostom stand round about the Altar and while the Minister
with the multitude to the House of God with the voice of Joy and Praise O let me consider it is the All-seeing God in whose Presence I stand and that the Holy Angels are sent to observe my Devotion Give me sober Thoughts holy Affections devout postures steddiness of Mind ardent Desires modest Looks a grave Behaviour especially when I am going to contemplate the precious Sacrifice offered by the Son of God for the Sins of the World let all that is within me turn into holy breathings represent that comfortable Object in lively Characters to my Understanding that I may think nothing unworthy of my Saviour banish from me all undecent Thoughts or if thou dost not think fit to free me from Temptations encourage me however to resist them vigorously that I may discover my Zeal for thy Glory by my abhorrency of all Imaginations that exalt themselves against the Obedience of Christ Jesus Amen CHAP. IV. Of Eating the Lord's Supper The Nature of it and how it is to be Eaten The CONTENTS A great difference betwixt coming to the Lord's Supper and Eating the Lord's Supper Several Reasons why Men come though they do not Eat as they ought to do What Eating the Lord's Supper is viz. To Eat it with a relish of the Benefits of Christ's Death with longings to be conformable to Christ in his Graces and to Eat it with unfeigned Resolutions to resist Temptations Much depends upon the manner of any Religious Performance Conversation with God with our selves and with the Holy Angels a great means to Eat as we ought to Eat The Prayer I. THat there are many who come to the Lord's Supper and yet Eat not the Lord's Supper as they ought to do is evident from Experience and will appear more fully in the sequel of this Discourse when we shall tell you what it is to Eat and Drink unworthily When some of the looser sort of the Corinthian Christians 1 Cor. 11. 20. came drunk to this Sacrament it 's certain they only eat the Bread of the Lord but not the Bread the Lord as the Fathers speak and if Simon Magus Acts 8. 13. came to this Feast as I am apt to believe he did for in those days they that were baptized were soon after admitted to the Lord's Supper as appears from Act. 2. 41 42. this must necessarily have been his case and who can doubt of this Truth that in the Age we live in sees so many come to this Royal Supper and go away unreformed untouch'd and unconcerned than which there cannot be a greater sign that they do not eat the Supper of the Lord though they approach and feed upon the External Elements And Men may very easily know it by such Marks as these 1. If they come without any sense of the designs Christ had in Instituting this Sacrament one of which certainly was to engage us to the generous contempt of the World in imitation of him who for the Glory set before him not only undervalued the Pomp and Grandeur of the World but endured the Cross and despised the shame as we are told Heb. 12. 2. And when we see Men and women approach the Table of the Lord with all the Gaudes and Gayeties their vain desires prompt them to like Ranters rather than Penitents more like soft Sybarites than frighted Disciples dressed to allure Mens eyes more than to invite the Crucified Jesus into their Souls like players rather than like Christians And when we see how the very next day after this Feast if they stay so long they quarrel fight contend and fall out about the trifles of the World run to Theatres and Play-houses and with as great greediness as ever pursue the Riches and Glories and Fashions of the World how can we imagine that such Persons came with the sense of the aforementioned design of Christ in instituting this Sacred Feast 2. If they come without any sense of the love of God of which there is so curious a Picture drawn in this Sacrament as is enough to make even the most hard hearted Heathen weep And what sense of this Love can we suppose to have been in Men when after their Receiving they do not so much as look into a Bible to see what Precepts and Commands of Christ they mean for the future to be more observant of Is it possible such Men had sense of the Love of God upon their Spirits that day they receiv'd the Holy Elements when the next day they offend him as boldly as ever and hug the same sins they entertained several years before and are now as little concerned to please God as they were some Months ago and consequently such Persons come to the Lord's Supper yet do not eat as they ought to do for none eat it truly but such as eat with this sense and where this sense is it will make the Soul cautious of offending God II. Yet such Guests are very common at this Table which would make a wise Man wonder why they will come at all when their coming signifies so little and as will appear afterward doth them more harm than good Yet the Reasons may easily be guess'd at For 1. Conviction brings them to it They are convinced that coming is a commanded Duty not a thing indifferent and that they may not seem dispisers and contemners of so great a Law they come though they put strange Fire in their Censers Conviction hath great power even upon unregenerate Men It made Felix tremble Acts 24 25. and Judas throw down the Thirty Pieces of Silver the reward of his Treason in the Temple Matth. 27. 4. and Simon embrace Christian Baptism Act. 8. 13. And where a Man is teazed and haunted by his Conscience he 'll do something to stop his mouth and though he doth it but slovenly yet he 'll bribe Conscience with this trifle as we do Children that cry for a Jewel with a Rattle and in this manner Conviction Works upon some Men and Women and that force puts several upon coming to the Lord's Table 2. Their Office and Employment obliges them to receive and that makes not a few appear at this Table The Law of the Land excluding Men from publick Offices and Charges that receive not the Communion we may very justly believe that abundance come to satisfie the Statute more than their Conscience and fear of losing or missing of the Office they are ambitious of hath a stronger influence upon them than the fear of losing God's Favour not but that a man may Eat the Lord's Supper to his great comfort and edification because an Act of Parliament commands it at his entrance upon an Office for a man who fears God may make use of any occasion to receive and consequently may make his present Office an opportunity of coming to the Sacrament But I speak my just fears that many receive on this account whom neither Love to God nor to their own Souls could have obliged to come had it
And from hence flows the joyful Exclamation of the Apostle Gal. 2. 20. Nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ lives in me and the Life I now live I live by Faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me For this Faith enlightens the Soul gives it clear Apprehensions of Christ's Love makes her active and lively and teaches her to overcome the World 1 John 5. 4. 4. This Remembrance is making Approaches to Heaven and Eternal Happiness Every fresh Remembrance is another Step to Paradise What an Encouragement is this to come to the holy Sacrament Every time we thus remember the Death of Christ we get nearer to the Throne on which the victorious Son of God sits triumphing over Hell and Devils For the oftner he is remembred thus the more our Souls are elevated and become more spiritual in their Aspirations and the farther we proceed in Grace the nearer we come to Glory Heaven in Scripture is compared to an Hill and is the Mount where God is seen Every time we come to the Table of our Lord and remember him thus we climb higher and mount up with Wings as Eagles till at last we reach the Top where there is a perfect Calm no Air no Wind no Tempest no infectious Breath to disturb the Conquerors IV. But though the Death of Christ be the chief Object of our Remembrance at this holy Table yet that is no Argument but that we may lawfully remember some other Things relating to his Person or Greatness or Holiness particularly 1. His Divine Life before he was Incarnate A Life which no mortal Tongue can describe A Life in the Explication of which the blessed Cheruhims themselves must fall short A Life known to none but to him who knows all who hath Life in himself and is the Life and the Father of the Spirits of all Flesh. How truly might he say to the Jews Joh. 8. 58. Before Abraham was I am He was indeed from all Eternity lived in the Bosom of the Everlasting Father and his Life was most pure some holy most peaceable most pleasant most glorious A Life of infinite Content of infinite Satisfaction of infinite Joy and of infinite Love A Life spent in Eternal Love of the great Fountain of Divinity the express Image of which he was A Life employed in kind Thoughts to poor Mortals and in Divine Contrivances how their Misery might be retriv'd their Bands loosen'd their Dangers overcome their Enemies vanquished and their Souls advanced to Celestial Mansions A Life undisturbed by the Noise of Wars unacquainted with Tumults free from all Annoyances unmolested by the Disorders of a giddy and confused World A Life of Eternal Calmness which no Waves no Billows no Wind no Storms no Tempests could discompose A Life of perfect Serenity and immense Sweetness A Life employed in the Eternal and Incomprehensible Enjoyment of his own Perfections and which the inspired King gives us a very lofty Description of Prov. 1. This life Christ lived before he was pleased to visit this benighted World with his healing Beams and it concerns us to remember this Life that from that Consideration his Humiliation in coming to dwell among us may appear in livelier Colours 2. To this may be added His laborious Life here on Earth after he was Incarnate A Life despicable from his Infancy contemptible from his Cradle A Life of Poverty a Life of great Misery of Distress and a Thousand Inconveniencies A Life he lived to let us know that the meanest and most miserable outward Condition is no Lett or Impediment to our being beloved and esteemed in Heaven A Life he lived to shew with what Patience and Courage we are to bear the Troubles that a merciful God lays or sends upon us A Life he lived to declare to his Disciples that through many Afflictions they are to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and are not to promise themselves great Ease and Rest here but are to look for a Recompence in the Resurrection of the Just A Life employed in doing good to shew that we are not to be idle here but to busie our selves in that Work which will give the greatest Satisfaction even working out our own Salvation with Fear and Trembling A Life he lived for our sakes to facilitate our Access to Pardon and the Throne of Mercy A Life he lived to make our Lives comfortable and the Remembrance of this Life must needs inhaunce our Esteem of his unparallell'd Goodness who could and would deny himself both in the Glory of his Divinity and the Comforts of this present Life for our Good and the Welfare of our Souls The Preceding Considerations reduced to Practice I. CHrist's Example makes it lawful to set up Monuments of Mercies and to preserve the Memory of any signal Deliverance or Providence either by External Symbols or by keeping Anniversaries and Days of Devotion Indeed this was a very ancient Practice countenanced by God and warranted by his Approbation It was from hence that Moses preserved a Pot of Manna to put After-Generations in mind how God had fed his People in the Wilderness And Moses said This is the thing which the Lord commandeth Fill an Omer of it to be kept for your Generations that they may see the Bread wherewith I have fed you in the Wilderness when I brought you forth out of the Land of Egypt Exod. 16. 32. It was from hence that Aaron's Rod budding blossoming and bearing Fruit was kept in the Ark to tell Posterity how miraculously the Priestood was established in the Line of Aaron and for a Token against the Rebels as the Holy Ghost speaks Numb 17. 10. It was from hence that Joshua commanded Twelve Stones to be taken out of the River Jordan That this says he may be a Sign among you that when your Children ask their Fathers in time to come saying What mean you by these Stones Then ye shall answer them That the Waters of Jordan were cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord when it passed over Jordan And these Stones shall be for a Memorial unto the Children of Israel for ever Josh. 4. 6 7. In imitation of these Precedents the Jewish Church afterward of their own Accord unanimously agreed to keep an Anniversary to remember their Deliverance from the Rage of Haman Esth. 9. 17. Both Eusebius and Sozomen tells us of a Statue which the Woman who was cured by our Saviour of her Bloody Issue erected to his Honour at Caesarea which lasted a considerable time till Julian the Apostate pulled it down and erected his own in the room of it After such Examples who can think it unlawful for a private Christian to keep either a Fast or a Day of Thanksgiving when either some signal Affliction hath befallen him or some remarkable Mercy hath happen'd to him and to spend that Day in Exercises of Devotion whereby he may either work his Soul into greater Detestation of
yet surely it will transform a Soul sick to death into a lively and healthful constitution though with the Woman in the Gospel she hath lain under her distemper a considerable time II. Among the Scythyans as Herodotus tells us there was a custom for the Princes of the Country to meet once a year at a certain Feast where a Cup was set upon the Table a Cup of Honour which none durst presume to drink of but such as had signaliz'd their Valour in Battel and kill'd more or less of their publick Enemies Though this Sacramental Cup is too High too Sacred and too Lofty a thing to be compared with Cups used at the Feast of Barbarians yet I may take occasion from hence to tell you that this Holy Cup is fit for none to drink of but such as have either shewn or are at least resolved to shew their Valour against their Spiritual Enemies Christian if thou hast fought with the Old Serpent encountred the Hellish Dragon wrestled with Powers and Principalities exprest thy Courage against Temptations defied Goliah the Lion and the Bear the World the Devil and the Flesh or art resolv'd to be a Champion for thy God and fight the Battels of the Lord Thou art that valiant Man that may drink of this Cup Thy God will give thee leave to drink of it with other Hero's with the greatest Worthies with Men of whom the World was not worthy with Men whose Faith hath advanced them above the Stars and who are to shine as the Sun in the Firmament in their Father's Kingdom Let no despairing Thoughts no suggestion of the Devil no slavish Fear no pretence of Unworthiness discourage thee from touching this Cup or drinking of it It 's mingled for thee for thee it is prepared The King expects thee at this Feast thou art called to this Banquet Thus shall it be done to the Man whom the King of Heaven intends to Honour What If thou hast not slain thy Thousands with Saul nor thy Ten thousands with David What if thou hast not brought thy Two hundred Foreskins of the Philistins to thy Lord and Master thou dost a greater act in conquering thy Thoughts thy Desires thy Passions thy Appetite thy vain Imaginations than if thou hadst laid Countries waste ruin'd Kingdoms or bound their Kings in Chains and their Nobles with Fetters of Iron Such Honour have all all his Saints III. Hear this thou fainting Soul that groanest under the burthen of thy Sins goest heavy laden with Sorrow and like Rachel wilt not be comforted Behold thy Lord and Master touched with the feeling of thy infirmities and afflicted in all thy afflictions who waits to be Gracious and loves to converse more with a weeping Publican than with a jovial Herod he reaches forth a Cup to thee a Cup of Joy a Cup of Gladness a Cup of Comfort It is this Sacramental Cup. Drink of it thou thirsty Soul Why shouldst thou fear This Cup is design'd for labouring Souls they that have born the heat and burthen of the day are to taste of it It is design'd to recreate design'd to refresh desing'd to revive design'd to support their Spirits Dost thou believe this Christian Dare to believe it Take thy Saviours word for it and triumph in the Promise The Mercy may be too big for thee to ask but not too big for him to grant Thou hast a Master to deal withal who gives like himself like a King like a Prince whose Stores are inexhaustible Let no Senacharib deceive thee regard not what such a Rabshakeh says Hearken not to the frightful Stories of thine enemies who rejoyce to see thee discourag'd are glad to see thee forbear drinking of this Cup and think it their interest to keep thee from that which may and will give thee everlasting health I have read of a precious Stone of considerable value that dropt no Man knew how into the Holy Cup while the Priest was administring the Sacrament There needs no precious Stone to drop into this Cup to make it of greater value That which is in it is of greater worth than Ten thousand Worlds It represents that which neither Pearls nor Rubies nor Diamonds can counter-balance The Papists boast much of the Gifts of their Popes how Sylvester gave three Golden Cups to be used in the celebration of the Eucharist How John the Second gave a Cup of Gold weighing Twenty pound How Gregory the Second and Leo the Third presented their respective Churches with Cups all beset with precious Stones What if thou canst bring no such Presents to God thou bringest a better when thou bringest a Spirit a Heart a Soul lamenting and mourning because thou hast departed from him contented thy self with a form of Godliness and under the profession of Religion hast denied him in thy actions A Heart toucht with the sense of the unreasonableness odiousness and loathsomness of all this and finding a relish in the things of God and of Salvation qualifies a Man more for comfortable drinking of this Cup than if with the Wise Man he had offer'd Gold and Myrrh and Frankincense to Christ Jesus Is not this the Cup whereby my Lord divineth saith Joseph's Steward Gen. 44. 5. Christian by drinking of this Sacramental Cup thou may'st divine thy future happiness guess at what will become of thee hereafter make conjectures of thy Glory and conclude that thou shalt feel the comfort of drinking the Cordials of a Blessed Eternity The PRAYER O Jesu Great Fountain of all Goodness who didst drink of the bitter Cup which my Sins had mingled I am sensible there was no sorrow like thy sorrow which was done unto thee and wherewith the Lord afflicted thee in the day of his fierce anger How was thy Spirit disturb'd How sore amaz'd was thy Soul How dismay'd thy Mind To such an exceeding heighth of Grief and Sorrow did the Sense of the incumbent load of my sins and the prospect of calamities hanging over my head together with the reflexion on my wretched condition skrew up thy Affections innumerable evils encompass'd thee thou sawest the wrath of God flaming out against my Sin and trembledst Thou stoodst before the mouth of Hell which I had deserv'd and wast astonish'd Thou with thine own Heart Blood didst quench the wrath of Heaven O how am I obliged to adore thy Love O everlasting Father What Charity was it not to spare thine own Son but to deliver him up for us all What pity and compassion was it O thou Eternal Son of God thus to pour forth thy Blood What Affection what tenderness to my Soul O thou Eternal Spirit hast thou express'd in inspiring my Blessed Redeemer with Charity more than Human and in supporting him to undergo all pressures with invincible patience If I forget thy Love sweet Jesu let my right hand forget her cunning What an encouragement is here to believe thy Word which I see so punctually accomplish'd The antient Prophets foretold that Christ should
or equivocation declare themselves willing ready and resolved to perform the things agreed upon God what he promises and Man what he engages to do For God consider'd as the Father Everlasting promises here to treat us as his Children to be tender of our Spiritual and Eternal Welfare to seek our good and turn all things to our good to pass by the Unkindnesses and Indignities we have offer'd to him to forgive and throw them into the depth of the Sea to impute them no more to count us innocent to justifie us here and like a Father to provide an Eternal Inheritance for us i. e. to glorifie us for ever The Son of God consider'd not only as the Eternal Wisdom of the Father but as Mediator and Redeemer of the World promises to be our Intercessor and Advocate with his Righteousness to cover our Infirmities with his Wounds to cherish our Souls to answer all the Arguments and Objections of the Devil against us and to be our Friend our Brother our Shepherd â—nd our New and Living Way to his Father's Bosom The Holy Ghost doth promise to enlighten us to be our Guide in the dark to comfort us in all our Tribulations to teach us how to pray to assure us of God's love to fill us with joy in believing to increase our Graces to strengthen us in all Difficulties to support us in our Spiritual Dangers to arm us with Arguments against Temptations and to give us a Right to a future happy Resurrection This is the mighty promise God makes to poor Sinners in the Sacrament On the other side we that come to the Table of our Lord and do not intend to come in vain do solemnly promise particularly to the Eternal Father that we will own that relation with joy and walk as his Children not fashioning our selves according to our former Lusts in our ignorance but be holy as he that hath call'd us is holy that we will no longer live like Rebels and Prodigals under the Name of Children but make good that Glorious Title by our Lives shine as Lights in the World and endeavour to be spotless and blameless and by our Lives and Actions and good Works glorifie our Father which is in Heaven We promise here to God the Son and the Great Redeemer that we will not only accept of his purchas'd Blessings but submit to his Scepter too and that he shall be not only our Saviour but our Sovereign King and Master also to whom we will think our selves obliged to submit in all things that he shall say unto us in his Gospel that his Life shall be the pattern of ours and his Example and Command shall do more with us than our Gain or Appetite or Interest that we will be loyal to him who redeem'd our Lives from Destruction and will act as Spiritnal Subjects in his Spiritual Kingdom We promise also to God the Holy Ghost That we will not only expect his Benefit and Comforts but be guided by his Motions That we will not reâ—â—st his Checks and Reproofs but hearken to them whenever our Hearts do smite us That we will not prefer the Dictates of a Lying Devil before his Lively Oracles nor joyn with the Motions of our Fâ—esh against his Intreaties and Obtestations That we will make much of his gracious Visits and take heed we do not by our Sins and Follies defile the Temple of the Holy Ghost That we will cherish his kinder Influences and take care that the Grace and Talent he confers upon us be not buried in the Earth or laid up useless in a Napkin And this is a Scheme of the solemn Covenant a Believer a Receiver a Communicant enters into with the Holy Trinity in this Tremendous Sacrament a Covenant that ought to be more sacred than the Leagues of Princes and more religiously observed than the Treaties and Engagements of the dearest Friends VI. This Covenant we enter into first of all in our Baptism when our Age is Tender our Desires Innocent and our Souls like soft Wax fit for any Impression and consequently fit for the Impress of the Divine Image and though that Age be not capable of entering actually into a Covenant with the Lord of Heaven and Earth yet it 's enough that our Parents and Friends who have Power over us do then make this Covenant with God for us dedicate us to his Service appoint us Candidates of Holiness and consecrate us early to the performance of the Conditions required in this Covenant a Charity just and a genuine effect of Paternal Care which as it loves the Child should share in their Temporal Enjoyments so it cannot but desire it should participate of the Blessings of this Covenant And since these Blessings are not to be had without the Obligation of Faith Repentance and Obedience though the Child cannot actually exercise these Virtues yet being offer'd to God upon these Conditions the Parents do not only shew their good Will to have the Child enrol'd in the Book of Life but lay the strongest Obligations on the Child to stand to the Terms of the Covenant when it comes to display the Glory of its Rational Faculties and therefore may expect an actual Conveyance of the Spiritual Blessings of this Covenant to the Child by the secret Operations of the Holy Ghost which Blessings the Child hath a Right to till enticed by Lust and the Vanity of the World it grows proud rebellious and shakes of the conduct of its Guide viz. The Spirit of the Holy Jesus For God knows the World and the Devil watch the first rising of the Sun I mean the first Appearances of Reason and seek to obscure and darken them by Mists of Sensuality into which Pit the Young Man that was in his Infancy dedicated to God too often falls and there lies and sleeps and many times awakes not till Death summons him to the dreadful Bar of Heaven Where it is so that the Covenant we enter'd into in the Morning of our Days is forgotten slighted and polluted with Filthiness and superfluity of Naughtiness what can we think but that the intended Blessings of the Covenant cease and die and are withdrawn from the degenerate Creature and the Promises of God being our Father our Saviour and our Comforter are null'd at least the performance of them suspended till the Apostate comes to himself again This early perfidiousness too common and too general discovers the absolute necessity of renewing this Covenant when we are able to understand the greatness and importance of the Contract and to enter into that Bond in our own Persons especially in the Supper of the Lord and there solemnly to engage our Souls to the performance of the Conditions required on our side upon which what God hath graciously promis'd will effectually be perform'd again an offer not to be slighted for it is an argument of infinite Patience and Goodness that God will give the Backslider leave to enter into the broken Covenant and
persons and that to all Eternity All this is represented to us in this Sacrament a Saviour groaning and weeping and sighing under the burthen of our Sins and thereby giving notice that if we grow not weary of Sin we shall weep and groan and sigh for ever and shall not the dreadful Spectacle fill my Soul with abhorrency and detestation of what I see so signally punished Shall not I run away from it and say to it Get thee hence thou evil and unclean Spirit touch me not what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols And if this Holy Sacrament be so great a preservative against Sin surely we cannot too often make use of it especially since we see how easily Sin doth beset us how often we are tempted to it and how we are daily encompassed with suggestions and provocations to it 2. This frequent Communicating cannot but be a mighty engagement to a pious emulation of the Virtuous and Gracious Life of the Ever-Blessed Jesus There is none but knows how frequent going into company that is of such a Temper and seeing their Manners and way of Acting is apt to produce assimulation of Disposition in the persons that frequent it That Society a Man frequently resorts to gives a tincture to his Nature and Inclination and consequently the frequent seeing and conversing with the Holy and Gracious Jesus in this Sacrament is very likely to have the same effect For in this Ordinance we do not only come to see him Bleeding and Dying for his Enemies but to look upon his eminent Virtues too his wonderful Meekness his deep Humility his unparalell'd Patience his chearful Submission to the Will of God his admirable Self-resignation his unshaken Contentedness his generous contempt of the World and his steady living in the thoughts of future Bliss and Glory Can I see these Virtues shine in his noble Soul and remember that they are set before me to raise my desires of being like him and believe that God expects and requires of me to transcribe them on my Temper Can I see how lovely how amiable and how beautiful these Graces are how in the midst of all his troubles they proclaim him to be the Son of God and in despight of all the contempt and scorn of Men and Devils speak him to be a favourite of Heaven Can I see how in the midst of all the Affronts and Derisions and Indignities he endured these Graces still made him amiable glorious in a Storm bright in that dismal Night-dress Illustrious in Misery Magnificent in Poverty Can I see how these Diamonds glister in the black Jet in which they are placed and notwithstanding the dull matter that doth encompass them are Diamonds still of an infinite value prized by God esteemed by Angels magnified by all good Men agreeable to Reason conformable to Gods Nature Can I see all this and continue stubborn and obstinate and an enemy to these Virtues Is not this enough to make me enamour'd with them to oblige me to long for them and to cause a disquiet in my Soul till it be possess'd of these inestimable Treasures And if this Sacrament be such an engagement to this pious Emulation and endeavour after the same gracious Qualifications is it not fit is it not expedient is it not reasonable is it not necessary that I should communicate frequently and Eat often and Drink often at this Table except I am afraid of being too lively too good or too serious 3. This Sacrament is a mighty promoter of fervent Charity and since the frequent exercise of this Charity is necessary frequent Comunicating must be so too this being the cause or incentive to the other That in an eminent manner it promotes and encourages Charity and Love to our Fellow Christians Concord and Unity Peace and Amity readiness of Mind to do good and bowels of Kindness to our Brethren none can doubt that 's sensible what Charity is represented in this Ordinance Here I see how the Great Commander of Heaven and Earth offers Reconciliation to a desperate Offender and whereas the Offender should be the first that should seek and implore God's Pardon God prevents him and with his Royal hands unask'd bestows upon him a Patent of Grace and Mercy Here I see how the Supream Judge who hath absolute power over our Life and Death is willing to be friends with a wretch that owes him Ten thousand Talents and willing frankly to forgive him all to discharge him of all his Debts and to supersede all Actions against him Here I see how the Everlasting Father is ready to receive the Prodigal into his House again to admit him to his Table who had spent all his Substance in riotous living ready to kill the fatted Calfe for him to put a Ring on his Finger and to betroth him to himself in Righteousness Here I see how he before whom all Nations are as Grashoppers offers to embrace the Worm that hath resisted him spoken ill of him prostituted his Glory expos'd Religion and studied and contrived ways to dishonour him Here I see the Son of God ready with the Balsom of his Blood to anoint the Wretch that made the Wounds and dying for the Men the multitude of whose Offences hath seemed to vye with the number of God's Mercies Here I see how infinite Light offers to twist its Rays with loathsome Darkness and how the greatest Prince proceeds to those excesses of Humility as to give the greatest Sinners room and entertainment in his Banqueting-House to call them Brethren and Friends and sheep of his Flock than which there are scarce more endearing Titles All this I behold here and shall not such a wonderful Scene of Charity blow those little sparks of Affection I find within into greater flames Can I see here what God hath done for me who have acted more treacherously against him than my greatest Enemy ever did against me and shall not this raise Compassion in me to my Fellow-servants and move me to lay down all Wrath and Enmity to them whose Injuries are but Fleabites in comparison of those I have offered to the Best of Beings And if this Sacrament be so strong an engagement to this Charity it stands to reason that frequent Communicating must be necessary too the rather because we are so often in danger of breaking the bond of Peace and dissolving the cement which must hold and knit Christians together So that 4. This frequent Cammunicating cannot but be acceptable to God and this he declared in the example of the Primitive Believers whose frequent receiving did so incline the Favour of God toward them that the Evangelist takes notice Acts 2. 47. The Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved In this the Divine Bounty expressed its liking of their frequent repairing to the Table of the Lord This was not only a reward of their frequent Communion but God made that frequency a motive to others to embrace the true Religion Nothing
Open still new Springs of Love when I come to this Sacrament of thy Everlasting Love that the New Springs may still give new life to my Soul new courage to do thy Will new Power to tread on Serpents new resolutions to conquer all that stops my way And thus my dearest Lord transform me by the renewing of my Mind that I may prove what is the Holy acceptable and perfect Wall of God Amen Amen CHAP. XVI Of the Perpetuity of this Ordinance and the Necessity of its Continuance to the World's End The CONTENTS St. Pauls Command to the Corinthians of shewing forth the Lord's Death till he come not to be understood of Christ's coming to them in the Spirit but coming to Judgment This proved largely by many arguments The reasons laid down why this Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is to last to the end of the World Christ's coming to Judgment proved to be a very proper object of our Contemplation in the Recieving of the Holy Eucharist and a help to Patience and Faith and confidence in the Goodness of God God's Marvellous care of our everlasting welfare shewn in tying us up in Bonds of Obedience in this Ordinance Men who look for Grace and Salvation as they are bound to make use of the means of Grace so they are obliged to make use of this The wretched state of those who neglect to shew forth the Lord's Death in this Sacrament The same temper required in Recieving the Eucharist that we desire to be in when we shall be summoned to Judgment The Prayer I. THat this Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is a standing Ordinance and to last to the end of the World St. Paul expresly tells us 1 Cor. 11. 26. For as often as you Eat this Bread and Drink this Cup ye do shew or do ye shew the Lord's death till he come Whereby is plainly meant Christ's coming to judge the World and this hath been the unanimous belief of the universal Church since the Apostles time unto this day which makes us justly wonder at the boldness and ignorance of Quakers and other Enthusiasts who have presumed to abolish this Ordinance in their Conventicles pretending that this Sacrament was fitted only for the Infancy of the Christian Church but intended it should cease when Christ should come to them in the Spirit and having already received Christ as they fancy in their first Conversion and Regeneration they foolishly and ridiculously imagine that they have no need of receiving him again in the use of the outward Symbols tendered to Christians in this Sacrament Puffed up with this airy conceit they run into this Sinister and Childish Interpretation of the Apostle's words contrary to the sense of all Christian Churches as if Till he come were as much as Till he come to you in the Spirit to which impertinent Exposition nothing could possibly lead these silly Men but the Spirit of error and contempt of all human Learning and undervaluing the common dictates of Reason and a monstrous Spiritual Pride which not only swells them with an opinion that they are wiser than all the Christians in the World besides but tempts them to other insolencies and Prophanations of the Written Oracles of the Holy Ghost and therfore lest weak Capacities should be ensnared by such specious pretences it will be necessary to shew the unreasonableness of this interpetation 1. There is not the least Syllable not the least hint given us in all the New Testamenâ— that this Sacrament after it was once instituted was ever to be abolished which made not only the Apostles introduce it into the Christian Congregations while they lived but all the Churches planted and founded by them retained and continued it knowing nothing to the contrary but that this Ordinance was to be perpetual and Eternal and therefore as they had recieved the necessary use of it from those who laid the foundation of their Religion so they propagated the same to their posterity Nay among the Hereticks that left and separated from the Church there were very few but what preserved the use of this Sacrament in their Congregations and though they had the insolence of Blaspheming other Mysteries of Christianity yet this Ordinance they were afraid to abolish being sensible that it was one of the Corner stones of Christianity And who could imagine otherwise that considered how this Sacrament succeeded in the room of the Passover which was Item enough that it was to last for ever for as the Passover after its first Institution was to last to the end of the Jewish Oeconomy that expiring with Christ's Death so this succeeding was an argument that it was to continue while the dispensation of Christianity should last and that is to the end of the World 2. No Man will deny but that those three thousand Souls converted by St. Peter's Sermon did receive the Holy Ghost for St. Peter expresly promises them Acts 2. 38. Repent and be Baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the Remissions of Sins and ye shall receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost and this was very common in those days for true Penitents to receive the Holy Ghost immediately upon their Baptism and sometimes before their Baptism as Cornelius and his Company Act. 20. 44. 48. And though by the Holy Chost in those places are meant the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost speaking with Tongues healing diseases c. Yet it must be granted that in their conversion they had the Sanctifying Spirit of God sent upon them yet these very Persons that â—nd so received the Spirit continued in breaking of Bread and in Prayer as we are told Act. 2. 42. And that by breaking of Bread there is not meant sitting down to their private and ordinary meals is evident from hence because it is mentioned as a part of their Devotion and publick Worship to which their ordinary Diet cannot be referred and therefore it must be the Encharist or this Sacrament of the Lord's Supper that 's meant by it for by that Term it was usually expressed in the Primitive Church as we see 1 Cor. 10. 16. 3. Those very Corinthians to whom the Apostle writes in the place aforementioned and gives a Command to shew forth the Lord's death in this Sacrament till he came had already received the Spirit of God as we read 1 Cor. 2. 12. Now we have received not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given us of God and to this purpose he adds 1 Cor. 6. 11. Such were some of you but ye are Washed but ye are Sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God These Men then had received the Spirit of God and therefore when the Apostle writing to them chap. 11. Saith that they should shew forth the Lords death till he come most certainly he cannot mean till he came
to you in the Spirit for they had received this Spirit already and he was already come to them in the Spirit and what sense would it have been to say Ye that have received the Spirit of Christ must shew forth his death till he come to you in the Spirit just as good sense as if a Man should say Ye that are in London must do such a thing till you come to London so that if this were the sense the Apostle must have contradicted himself or spoken that which no body knew what to make of It follows therefore that since by his coming in Scripture is frequently meant his coming to Judge the World as Rev. 22. 20. 1 Cor. 4. 5. Luc. 18. 8. That here it hath the same sense because without it the words will not bear a reasonable construction 4. The design of the Apostle in this 11th Chapter is to rectify several mistakes and errors and abuses that were crept in among the Corinthians in their administration and eating of the Lord's Supper and this is intimated v. 17 18. So that his intent in writing to them must be to inform them how they were to behave themselves in the use of this Ordinance what exorbitancies they were to abandon what evil customs they were to retrench what vulgar errors they were to beware of and consequently his intent could not be to abolish this Sacrament or to teach them to use it no longer than Christ should come to them in the Spirit He that gives a Man directions about a good work in what manner he is to perform it what he is to take heed of in the practice of it what Rocks and Stumbling-blocks he is to shun doth not perswade him to leave the good work undone or to neglect it but chalks out to him only the way he may walk in with safety doth still allow the work to be of Eternal Obligation only that it may be acceptable to God bids him beware of the Shelves and Sands he may run upon in the prosecution of it and though in reformation of abuses the thing it self which gave occasion to the abuse is very often cancell'd and taken away yet that Rule holds only in things indifferent In Duties and things Commanded such as the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is this could not be practised for if Ten thousand abuses were committed about Prayer yet Prayer would still be a Duty and therefore the Apostle reforming the errors of the Corintâ—ians in the administration of this Sacrament cannot be supposed to abrogate the Sacrament it self for as he saith v. 20. He had received it of the Lord i. e. by way of a commanded Duty which therefore could not be abolished 5. Let us admit of this odd expression of Christ's coming to them in the Spirit if a Man have received the Spirit of Christ that 's so far from being a sufficient reason to justifie his staying away from this Sacrament that it is a powerful motive to come to it not only because he that hath the Spirit of Christ will be sure to do what Christ Commands him but because the Spirit of Christ must be cherished preserved kept warm and made much of which is not to be done but by frequent contemplation of God's Love and Charity and compassion to our immortal Souls whereof this Sacrament doth not only put us in mind but gives us a faithful representation The Spirit of God within us must be preserv'd by the use of such means God hath appointed and since this Sacrament is one of these means he that neglects it cannot promise himself a long continuance of that Spirit in his Soul and what if Men that have frequented this Ordinance have found no good by it for that must be their own fault and because they come to it like Swine no wonder if they come away from it in no better condition 6. Though it is readily granted that true Believers in their first conversion receive the Spirit of Christ yet that puts no stop to their receiving larger and greater influences of it by the use of this Sacrament As Grace is begun in their first conversion so it is increased by a conscientious use of this Ordinance The coming to it doth not abate the power of this Spirit but advances it This Ordinance being a Spiritual Ordinance the Spirit of Christ is the more likely to exert its virtue in a sincere Believer that frequents it The Cross of Christ which is Foolishness to the Greek is Wisdom to the Spiritual Man and the more he looks upon it with suitable Devotion the greater courage and strength he will receive from it to fight the Battels of the Lord. The Spirit of Christ that works in a true Believer works by rational Arguments by Arguments that are most apt to prevail with rational Men and since nothing can be a more effectual Argument than the Love of Christ manifested on the Cross and particularly in the Sacrament of the Cross it must follow that the first operations of Christ's Spirit in the Soul are no hindrance to his farther operations in this Holy Sacrament 7. It 's true in this Sacrament external Symbols and Elements are made use of but that 's not at all improper or inconsistent with a Gospel state nor do these Symbols hinder any Man from worshipping God in Spirit and in Truth but rather promote it If under the Gospel Men may make no use of external tokens to put them in mind of Spiritual things the Apostle was out in his Divinity when he tells us That the invisible things of God are clearly seen being understood by the things which are made even his eternal Power and Godhead Rom. 1. 20. Christ indeed abolished the burthensome Symbols of the Ceremonial Law but did no where tell us that he would leave no Symbols at all in his Church to remember him by And though we grant what the Apostle saith Col. 2. 20. 21. Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the Rudiments of the World why as though living in the World are ye subject to Ordinances touch not taste not handle not Yet it plainly appears from his discourse that he reprehended no other but Judaizing Christians who having embraced the Christian Religion were still observant of the Ancient Ceremonies which Moses while the Church was in its Minority had given to the Jewish People such as were distinctions of Meats and Drinks touching dead Bodies or any thing that was defiled with Leprosie touching any thing unclean whether Man or Beast c. whereof a large account is given in Levit. 7. 21. So that this Saying doth not reverse the Symbols used in the Holy Sacrament they being of another nature and instituted upon a different design and so far from evacuating a Spiritual Worship that those become most Spiritual persons that frequently exercise themselves in a devout use of it and therefore what arrogance must it be for Men to think themselves wiser than Christ himself and
on in the Imagination of their Hearts but Sinners who are ambitious of a clean Heart and of a new Spirit not Sinners that will keep their Sins but Sinners that are weary of them not Sinners who still find Sweetness in their Sins but Sinners who are sensible of the Bitterness of them not Sinners who make a Mock of Sin but Sinners to whom Sin is a Grief and Burthen not Sinners that make a Covenant with Hell but Sinners that break that Covenant to be the Lord's Free-men So that not to be free from Sin is not to eat and drink unworthily Nor 3. Doth all Dulness in holy Duties make a Man an unworthy Receiver There is a Dulness indeed which proceeds from an Aversion to the holy Commands of the Gospel from a voluntary Stupidity of Mind and want of Relish of Spiritual Things and this without all peradventure is very prejudicial to the Soul and a bad Preparative for the Communion and no small Impediment to the Grace of God But there is a Dulness which is the Result of Faintness when the Spirits are spent and the first Intenseness of the Mind is worn out In such Cases a Dulness and Deadness may easily rise but much against our Wills and to be sure without our Approbation Nor is this Dulness to be seen only in Temporal Concerns but even in Spiritual Duties and Devotions When the first Heat of Devotion in the Morning is over and the Spirits of the Blood which were the Porters that serv'd to carry up our Prayers on high are in some measure tired the Soul that after this applies her self to the holy Communion in the publick Congregation may want that Liveliness and Briskness of Thought Desire and Affection because the first Flames which were strongest in the Morning when we rose are spent Now This Dulness doth not make a Person an unworthy Receiver And the same Judgment we are to make of that Dulness which rises from natural Imperfections and Sicknesses incident to good Men as well as bad such as Lethargies Dropsies Scurvy Consumption and other Distempers which are either beginning or are come to a considerable Strength Neither the one nor the other if they seize us at the Communion do make us unworthy Receivers 1. Because God doth not judge of us so much by the present Liveliness and Activity of our Spirits as by the Sincerity of our Souls Where the Soul is bent to please God doth not regard Iniquity in her Heart and preserves so much of Fear upon her Mind as makes her that she would not offend God wilfully though it were to gain the Kingdoms of the World is willing to be better inform'd to have her Errours discovered to her is desirous to be strengthen'd in the Inward Man is still ready to embrace any Good suggested to her from the Word of God or the Ministers of his Ordinances there the Soul hath reason to bless God for the Sincerity that is in her and to believe that notwithstanding her present accidental or involuntary Dulness he will meet her in this Sacrament with a favourable Aspect bid her welcome and give her the glorious Blessings she expects in the Holy Communion For if there be first a willing Mind it is accepted according to what a Man hath and not according to what he hath not saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 8. 12. If that Soul finds a present Dulness is willing to be rid of it is so far from being pleased with it that it is her Burthen would be more lively in her Desires if she could there God will certainly spread open his Arms to her and receive her 2. Because God rejects no Person for what he cannot help I know this is the common Plea of all unconverted Sinners When they are exhorted to close with God and to cashier their known Sins or are reproved for continuing in them the String they harp upon is this That they cannot help it But not to mention that by thinking or saying so they make God a Lyar who saith they can help it if they will use the Means the Holy Ghost prescribes 't is evident to all wise and considerate Men that this pretence of Impossibility is nothing but Resolution and Obstinacy to continue in the State they are in And therefore when I say that God rejects none for what they cannot help the meaning is for what he sees and knows they cannot help As a Christian who upon the account of his Conscientiousness is cast into a Prison or Dungeon God will not reject him for not frequenting the publick Ordinances so here for the Dulness that seizes upon pious Christians in their holy Performances God will not withdraw his Kindness especially where he sees that either the faintness of their Spirits or the prevailing Distempers in their Bodies baffle all their repeated and reiterated strivings to be lively and affectionate in their Addresses to God and particularly in the holy Communion In this case God regards rather the brave Intention of the honest Believer and his swimming against the Stream than the Want of what he desires Nor will he condemn him for not doing that which he would do and cannot And the same is to be said of those blasphemous Suggestions I mention'd and gave an Account of Chap. 14. Sect. 7. ¶ 4. They being things which no Man can help for Who can hinder the Devil from tempting him if detested they cannot make the Person that resists and abhors them an unworthy Receiver though they should fly or dart into his Mind in the Act of Receiving All that can be done to them is to abominate them when they come in and though they may be the Devil's Sin who frames these fiery Darts and shapes them on his Anvil yet they are not Sin to the assaulted Person who saith I renounce the Devil and all his Works There is no fighting of them with Swords and Spears they are not to be cut in pieces with Knives or Axes are not to be expelled by Forks and Weapons Resistance and Detestation and Prayer and Declarations of our contrary Belief is all the Force that can be used and while this is done the Soul is safe under all those Skirmishes of the Enemy Nay Who can promise themselves a greater Welcome to this Table than those that resist Temptation Resistance is a Vertue and a Sign the Soul is touched with a Sense of God 'T is a Character of Grace and Abhorrency of Evil a Fruit of the Spirit and those that are led by the Spirit cannot but be worthy Communicants Whatever Temptation we meet withal while we consent not we preserve the Safety of our Souls And though it is true that these blasphemous Suggestions come in sometimes so thick and so fast and make those strange Impressions on the Mind that the Patient cannot well tell whether he consents to them or not yet it being in a manner impossible we should consent to things our very Nature abhors and which we
importunity Not the later but the former makes the Communicant an unworthy Receiver For 1. Hereby the Holy Spirit is excluded from taking possession of our Souls a Guest the Soul hath reason to make preparation for and from whose Presence it may date its fruitfulness and happiness Serious Thoughts invite him to our House and are the best attractives of that Glorious Light These are the Bed where he sows his noble Seed and on these he moves more powerfully than he did on the Waters of the first Creation by these we caress illapses and court his kinder irradiations As God's Majesty is described Psal. 104 3. That he makes the Clouds his Chariot and walks upon the Wings of the Wind so it may be said of Holy Thoughts in this Sacrament they are the Chariot and Vehicle on which the Spirit of the Holy Jesus makes his entrance into our Soul These dispose the Soul for his Gracious Communications and put her into a capacity of being Blessed and Enlightned by him where he spies these he addresses himself to the Soul in the language of the Spiritual Bridegroom Cant. 5. 1. I am come into my Garden my Sister my Spouse I have gathered my Myrrhe with my Spice I have eaten my Hony-comb with my Hony I have drank my Wine with my Milk Eat O friends yea drink abundantly my Beloved Which are nothing but Rhetorical Expressions of the Gracious Influences the Spirit of God is willing to confer on the Soul that makes preparation for him sweeps the House of the Rubbish of vain Imaginations and by Pious Contemplation makes the Chamber ready for his Entertainment and tho' these Expressions run all in the strain of the Perfect Tense yet in Holy Writ the Perfect and the Future Tenses are used promiscuously and as the Future many times stands for the Perfect so the Perfect Tense very often stands for the Future and the future Blessings are expressed by what is past to assure us of the certainty of them and that the Soul hath no more reason to doubt of them than if it did already actually enjoy then 2. Want of serious Thoughts is a kind of prophanation of this Ordinance Profanation of Holy Things consists not only in reviling and reproaching or actual perverting them to what is ill and forbidden but also in not using of them with that decency and seriousness which ought to be the proper Concomitants of them The Jews therefore Mal. 1. 12 13. are said to profane the House of the Lord not because they turned it as their Fore-fathers into a Den of Thieves or Mansion of Idolatry but because they did not bring suitable Oblations and those they brought were brought with an unwilling Mind and they look'd upon the Service of God as tedious and wearisome and did not offer such Incense as was pure nor such Sacrifices as were whole and sound and without blemish And certainly not only he prophanes God's Name that tears it with his Oaths and Curses and Blasphemies but he also that gives it not the Honour that is due to it Profanation of the Lord's Day is not only to sit Drinking and Revelling at home or to spend it in Play and Sports and Pastimes and Rioting and Drunkenness but not to sanctifie it by publick and private Devotion and if so not to bring Holy Thoughts to this Ordinance to the Altar of God and to the Cross of Christ must be a Profanation of these Mysteries as he that puts no Oil to the Lamp extinguishes its Light as much as he that blows it out Holy Thoughts are part of that Honour and Veneration we owe to this Ordinance and as Men count it an affront not only to be beaten but not to have that respect given them which is due to their Rank and Quality so God hath for greater reason to look upon it as a profanation of this Sacrament where Men bring not with them Thoughts pertinent to the Majesty and Holiness of the wonderful Things manifested and represented here and he that profanes this Ordinance cannot be supposed to Eat and Drink worthily IV. But it is not enough to give an exact description of the Sin the danger of it is the next thing we must speak of And this St. Paul says 1 Cor. 11. 27. is making our selves guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. A great guilt certainly to be counted a murtherer of the Son of God and to be reckon'd among Jews and Infidels that embru'd their hands in the Blood of the ever Blessed Jesus for so much the Apostle's words import and if the unworthy Receiver incurs this guilt he needs no other argument to discourage him from his Sin and Impiety The Charge is dreadful nor must we therefore think that it is only spoke in Terrorene to fright People as we terrifie Children with strange things not that there are such things in being but to make them desist from their unlucky Enterprize or Frowardness No God need not make use of Bugbears nor must we imagine that what he saith hath the least shadow of untruth As dreadful as this Charge is he means what he says and speaks what he thinks and unworthy Receiving is neither more nor less than making our selves guilty of the Body and Blâ—â—d of the Lord Jesus And how this is done by him that Eats and Drinks unworthily deserves consideration 1. He that Eats and Drinks unworthily makes himself guilty of denying that the Body and Blood of Christ was sacrific'd for him As they that dishonour the Christian Râ—ligion by their covetousness and unrighteousness and lewd practices are said To deny the Lord that bought them 2 Pet. 2. 1. because they live as if Christ had not bought them or had not redeem'd them from Iniquity So the unworthy Receiver being loth to mortifie his known and voluntary Sins even in the act of Receiving denies that Christ was Sacrific'd for him His unwillingness to reform is a tacit denial of the Mercy and a Sign that he doth not believe it heartily For the Holy Ghost supposes that he who believes it with any seriousness will be affected with it and stand amaz'd at this Act of God even at this infinite immense unsearchable and incomprehensible Love that he who needs not the society of Men or Angels and can be Etenally happy without them should yet have that value and respect for Mankind who were his Prisoners and had forfeited their Lives to his Justice were the objects of his Wrath and had justly deserv'd to be banish'd from his Gracious Presence for ever as to find out a remedy whereby they might be restored to his Favour freed from their slavish Condition and admitted to his Bosom and such a Remedy as might at once assert his Justice and declare his Mercy and in order thereunto freely generously and without compulsion part with the Eternal Son of his Bosom prepare a Body for him a Body which might be capable of Dying and fall a Sacrifice at once
that Account makes himself guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. Our Church therefore in her Confession before the Sacrament obliges all those that come to receive to say We do earnestly repent and are heartily sorry for these our Mis-doings Now he that is heartily sorry for his known Sins will watch and strive against them and take heed he doth not through Carelesness rush into them again which the unworthy Receiver not being from the Heart resolved to do involves himself in that Guilt we speak of The Preceding Considerations reduced to Practice I. HEre I cannot but take notice of the great Errour of the First Council of Toledo celebrated about the Year 400. after Christ which made a Canon that he who had no Wife but instead of a Wife a Concubine ought not to be kept or debarred from the holy Communion provided that he content himself with one Concubine and add no more 'T is evident that such a Conjunction is Filthiness and Uncleanness condemned by the Apostle Gal. 5. 19. Marriage it is not and Carnal Copulations without it are mere Fornications as we see Heb. 13. 4. And therefore such Persons if admitted to the Communion could not but eat and drink unworthily Nor doth it mend the matter that Leo I. Pope of Rome approved of that Canon for that only shews that Popes are as fallible as other Men nay more subject to mistake as they are very jealous of their Riches and Grandeur and Temporal Interest Bellarmine to excuse this Fault alledges that by Concubine in that Canon was meant nothing but a lawful Wife only married and taken without a Portion or publick Solemnity But this Conjecture must be false because both in the Civil and Canon-Laws Concubines are Persons distinguished from lawful Wives and but a better Name for Whores And as that Concil did very ill to admit such Persons that were known to live in such Sins to the Sacrament so they did as ill to prohibit Ministers Widows if they married again or took a second Husband the use of the Communion as if an honst Marriage were more scandalous than Fornication And though a Bishop or Pastor of the Church is ordered by the Apostle 1 Tim. 3. 2. to be the Husband of one Wife yet how doth it follow from thence that his Widow when he dies must never marry again II. There is a great difference betwixt Receiving unworthily and being unworthy to receive Every Man that thinks himself unworthy to receive these Mysteries is not therefore an unworthy Receiver Alas If we go to the Worthiness of the Person that comes to this Table Who of us can be said to be worthy to come before so holy so jealous so great a God Or Who of us is worthy of that incomprehensible and diffusive Love represented to us in this Ordinance If we reflect on the marvellous Purity of the Divineâ—Nature Who of us can be thought worthy to approach it The best of us have reason to cry out at the sight of that Tremendous Holiness Unclean Unclean There are few of us who have not reason to complain to use the Words of Thomas de Kempis that they are yet so carnal so worldly so unmortified in their Passions so full of disorderly Motions of the Flesh so unwatchful over their outward Senses so often entangled with vain Thoughts and Fancies so vehemently inclined to external Comforts so negligent of the Ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit so prone to immoderate Laughter and Immodesty so indisposed to Tears and Compunction so strongly inclined to the Ease and Pleasures of the Flesh so dull to Strictness and an holy Zeal so curious to hear News and to see gaudy Sights so slack to embrace what is humble and low so covetous of Abundance so niggardly in giving to pious Uses so close in keeping what Providence hath bestowed upon them so inconsiderate in speaking so unbridled to Silence so loose in Manners so covetous after Gain so greedy after the Meat which perishes so deaf to the Word of God so apt to sit still so slow to labour so watchful to idle Tales so drowsie in God's Service so hasty to make an end of their Prayers so inconstant in Attention so cold in Devotion so undevout in the holy Communion so quickly discomposed so seldom wholly gathered into themselves so suddenly provoked to Anger so ready to take Displeasure at their Neighbour's Actions so prone to judge so severe in Reprehension so jolly in Prosperity so impatient in Adversity so often purposing much Good and yet performing little There are very few of us who have not reason to deplore such Defects as these and then Who can be worthy to feast with the King Invisible Immortal Blessed for evermore But it is God that makes us worthy He will not count us unworthy if we strive against these Errours if we labour to conquer them if we will not be Friends with them if we proclaim War against them if we are resolved whatever we venture to be rid of them if we will not hug them in our Bosoms if we will open the Everlasting Doors and let the King of Glory come in if we will hate what he hates and love what he loves and will continue our Hostility against those Lusts which interfere with his just Right and Prerogative He will not go to the utmost rigour with us He will deal gently with us liker a Father than a Judge To let us go on in our Offences without Remorse or a serious Care to please him he cannot and such is his Holiness that he must not He considers our Frame that we are Dust and therefore will not take advantage of every accidental Miscarriage But he considers withal that he hath given us his Gospel and Everlasting Motives and his Holy Spirit whereby we may certainly master the Corruptions we find stirring in us though not immediately yet by degrees if we are but willing and labour and wrestle and are active and do not suffer our selves to be overcome by Laziness and the Satisfactions of this present World And upon these Terms he is willing to count us worthy Receivers O Sweetness incomparable O Condescention ineffable beyond all that Kings and Princes express to their Subjects What Christian that is acquainted with this Frame this Spirit this humble and tractable Temper this Resolution and this Willingness and that feels these Characters in his Soul can after all this forbear coming upon a pretence of being unworthy Coming to this holy Table with such Purposes with such Designs with such Qualifications let him be confident that his Father his Saviour his Redeemer will bid him welcome This spiritual Frame Christian will make thee worthy Thou comest not to this Sacrament to give God any thing but to receive a Blessing from him Thou comest not hither to contribute any thing to his Happiness but to open thy Mouth wide that he may fill it Thou comest not hither to proclaim thy
they help to prepare thy Soul for the Possession of that Inheritance which shall last for ever III. Worthy Receiving of the Lord's Supper is the best Preparative for Death No Man can die uncomfortably that makes it his Business as often as he comes to this Table to receive worthily Death cannot hurt him let it be natural or violent untimely or orderly for by this worthy Receiving he hath laid up a good Foundation against the Time to come Death may destroy his Body but cannot kill the Soul Death may fright him but it cannot undo him It may dis-lodge his Spirit but it drives it to a nobler Habitation It may expel the Guest but it gives him a Title to a better Building His worthy Receiving gives him an Interest in Christ's Death and because Christ lives he shall live also Death may come blustering and make a Noise but in that Whirlwind his Soul rides to Heaven Let his Death come by Sword or Famine or Torment or Fire or Water it makes no Alteration in his Happiness To him to live is Christ and die Gain And he knows who hath said I am the Resurrection and the Life The worthy Receiver never dies for he lives in Christ who abides for ever Christ will not suffer that Soul to perish in which he hath been pleased to make his Habitation He is concern'd to secure her Happiness and his Eyes are open upon her to do her good Her worthy Receiving arms her against the Fears of Death and scatters the Mists which Death doth cast before her Eyes Receiving worthily makes the Soul a sit Habitation for the Spirit of God and If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you Rom. 8. 11. IV. As the unworthy Receiver when Sickness or some other heavy Judgment lights upon him hath reason to believe that it is for his unworthy Receiving so he that wilfully neglects coming to this holy Sacrament may very justly conclude that all the Troubles and Miseries that befall him do in a great measure befall him for that Neglect 'T is hard to determine which is the greater Sin whether Receiving unworthily or not Receiving at all both will admit of great Aggravations And as these Sins are in a manner equal so it is not irrational to conclude that the Judgments threatned to the one may be inflicted for the other too As the Jews say of the Golden Calf that an Ounce of that Sin is an Ingredient into all the Calamities that came upon them so there is not a Cross that the wilful Neglecter of this Sacrament feels or endures but he hath reason to think that this Neglect contributes towards it and all his Miseries call to him though he will not hear the Voice not to neglect so great Salvation and if all these Calls cannot awaken him into a Sense of his Duty how must his Reckoning swell and how inexcusable must he be whom neither the still Voice of Prosperity nor the shriller Sound of Adversity can convince Take eat this is my Body and Drink ye all of this is a Duty as much as doing by others the same that we would have others to do us It will appear and be made out one Day that this was not an Evangelical Counsel only which the more Religious Sort that are ambitious of the highest Place in Heaven need only mind if they please It was said to all the Disciples that represented the Church-Militant And if thou professest thy self a Member of that Church thou art no more excused from the Performance of it than thou art from coming to Church and attending the other Ordinances of God But if these Motives cannot prevail God hath Enforcives which shall but from these Good Lord deliver us The PRAYER O God! When thou with Rebukes dost chasten Man for Iniquity thou makest his Beauty to consume away like a Moth Hear my Prayer O Lord and give ear unto my Cry hold not thy Peace at my Tears Oh let the Afflictions which have befallen me and which thou shalt hereafter think fit to send upon me help towards the strengthening of my Faith in Christ Jesus Thou hast sometimes laid thy Hand upon me thy Afflicting Hand and I have taken no notice of it Thou hast smitten me and I have not looked up to Heaven from whence the Stroak did come Thou hast corrected me and I have not been the better for it I have been like a Beast before thee so foolish was I and ignorant Oh teach thou me Let me read my Duty in my Crosses And whatever Trouble comes upon me let that Trouble direct me to the Cross of my dear Master the Lord Jesus Enlarge my Contemplations of the Cross of Christ by the Crosses that knock at my Door Let these make me more zealous to participate of the Benefits of the Cross of Christ. In these Crosses and Troubles let me find Motives to come with greater Seriousness to the Table of my crucified Redeemer Let these prompt me to run to the Tree which yields the Fruit of Righteousness Let not these discourage me from loving thee but rather inflame my Affections to make thee my Hope and Fortress my Light and my Salvation Let me look upon the Joy that all my Troubles will at last end in and take Comfort in all my Tribulations Imprint this Belief upon my Soul that thou knowest better what is good for me than my Carnal Heart I am apt to hanker after the Flesh-pots of Egypt but let me see the richer Table in thy Kingdom I am apt to be fond of these outward Comforts Oh quench my Thrist after them Let me see clearly that to feed on thy Love is better Diet than this Earth affords Give me thy Peace not as the World gives but as thou usest to give thine own People Oh! give me what I want Thou knowest my Necessities better than I. Give me better things than my Flesh desires even those which may preâ—erve me by thy Power through Faith unto Salvation through Jesus Cheist our Lord. Amen CHAP. XX. Of Spiritual Weakness Sickness and Death the Second Temporal Judgment inflicted sometime on the Unworthy Receivers of this holy Sacrament The CONTENTS The Eucharist a Cure for all Diseases yet many continue weak and sick after it The Cause shewn to be in themselves The Signs of Spiritual Weakness Sickness and Death God inflicts these Spiritual Judgments upon Unworthy Receivers by degrees The Justice of it vindicated in four Particulars Spiritual Weakness and Sickness proved to be a greater Judgment than the Corporal Of the End of our Eating and Drinking worthily at this Table which is Spiritual Health and wherein that consists Spiritual Judgments more common than Men think or suspect Our Souls are capable of Diseases as well as our Bodies Several Instances and Proofs given of it The Cure of Spiritual Weakness
Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 2. 2 3 4. weak and sickly Persons have need of Milk we use it in Bodily Diseases when they have weaken'd the Body and it seems it 's necessary also for the recovery of Souls weaken'd by Sin but then the Milk is not such as Cows and Sheep and Goats do give but it is the Word of the Lord which endures for ever and to apply our selves to pondering and meditating in it and to make it the rule of our life and manners is drinking of that Milk 2. To pull out the Right Eye and to cut off the Right Hand Matth. 5. 29 30. i. e. To shun those Looks and Actions which are Provocations to Sin As he that means to recover of Bodily sickness must avoid all things that would irritate the morbifick matter so he whose Soul is sick and would be cured must carefully avoid the occasions of those sins which have made him sick and he that would be drunk no more must avoid the Company that used to perswade him to intemperance and he that would be tempted no more by the Harlot that drew him in must not come near her house Prov. 5. 8. 3. Not to repine at the bitter draughts Christ gives you to drink of but to say as he in his Agonies The Cup which my Father hath given me shall not I drink it Joh. 18. 11. Whether this bitter Cup be the Cup of Mortification of Fasting of Severities of being reveng'd upon thy self and of deep Humiliation or the Cup of Bodily affliction if he bids you drink of it it must be thankfully taken else expect no cure and that which ought to encourage us to drink of it is this that this bitterness will end at last in sweetness unspeakable and ineffable Consolations 4. To sell all with the Merchant in the Gospel to get the Pearl of Price i. e. God's love and favour Matth. 13. 45 46. The meaning is nothing must come in competition with the great concern of your Salvation nothing must be suffered to be laid in the Ballance with Eternal Happiness whatever would prejudice that must be rejected and left to those that know not how to prize it To secure that all must be ventur'd and if even Father and Mother should be the tempters to discourage us from it even their Friendship must be lost and all that we expected from them counted unworthy to be compared with the Glory which ere long shall be revealed in us The PRAYER MOST Glorious God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Heaven is thy Throne and the Earth is thy Foot-stool Where is the House that Man can build unto thee And where is the Place of thy Rest Thou dwellest not in Temples made with Hands yet in an humble sound sincere and pure Heart thou hast promised to fix thy Habitation Oh that my Heart were so When shall I be rid of my vain foolish wicked and dangerous Thoughts Oh! When wilt thou purge and cleanse this House from the Rubbish which annoys it When wilt thou adorn my Soul with profound Humility which may be an Invitation of thy Gracious Presence How apt am I to look off from Thee How apt to mind poor transitory Things How little am I acquainted with that Fervency of Spirit which I see in others Great Physician Heal thou me Thou hast healed Thousands Oh let me be one of that Number It may be of all that Multitude there was none so miserable as I am yet no Spots no Stains are too hard for Thee to wash out I have delighted in my Filthiness and with the Swine taken pleasure in the Mire Oh Let me consider how nobly I am born and hate that mean and servile Spirit I am born of God So thy Apostle tells me Oh Let my God be ever in my Heart and let me do God-like Things even Things that savour of Heaven and a Super-natural Temper Touch my Soul sweet Jesu Touch it with the Rays of thy Favour in this Sacrament that I may seek after Thee alone think on Thee alone and love Thee alone Chase away all sinful Sickness from me and make me sick of Love that joyfully without Tediousness I may continue in Well-doing Thou art a Saviour Be thou so to me and save me from my Sins Give me an healthful Soul a good Conscience and a sound Mind and Purity of Heart and with that Purity frequent Rejoycing in thy Name Tranquility of Spirit Multitude of holy Thoughts Innocence of Life ardent Love and Everlasting Charity Let no Temptations defile me but let these rather purge and joyn and unite me to Thee Give me a constant Zeal for thy Honour and Glory and let me be for ever delighted with thy Praises Amen Amen CHAP. XXI Of Damnation which the Unworthy Receiver Eats and Drinks to himself The CONTENTS The Word made use of by St. Paul in threatning Unworthy Receivers ambiguous on purpose to fright them from the Sin How Men eat and drink their Damnation in this holy Sacrament The Justice of God in inflicting Damnation on Unworthy Receivers vindicated The Threatning of Damnation being denounced by St. Paul to the prophane Corinthians that came drunk to this holy Ordinance how that can be applied to sinful Men in this Age who are not in a possibility of coming drunk to the Lord's Table since the Eucharist is with us administred and received in the Morning and most of those who come do come with some Preparation Whence it comes that Damnation doth not fright Men more it being the greatest Misery Man is capable of The Severity of this Threatning puts Communicants in mind what a Value and Esteem they are to have for the Death of Christ. Yet it is no just Discouragement from Approaching with sincere Desires and Resolutions to become conformable to Christ Jesus The Prayer I. THE Judgment the unworthy Receiver pulls upon himself is not only Temporal but Eternal too To this End I have already told you that the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used by the Apostle in his Threatning denounced against unworthy Receivers signifies not only Judgment in general but also Damnation And indeed the Holy Ghost doth purposely make use sometimes of ambiguous Words especially in Threatnings to rouze Men the more from their Slumber and to give them notice that if the lesser Punishment threatned in the Expression is either delayed or cannot prevail that then the greater included in the same Word shall take place Thus the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sheol in the Old Testament used much in Threatnings import both the Grave and Hell and in Comminations against wicked Men it doth not only signifie an untimely Grave but a far greater Punishment beyond it even Eternal Darkness and Everlasting Howlings to shew that if the former Danger cannot fright the later shall when it is too late to repent And so here the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 including both Temporal Judgment and Damnation we must believe the Apostle hath
Villanies and Abuses And dost not thou remember something like this in thy self O my Soul When thou hast engaged in a Sin that hath been heinous and dreadful hath not that Sin wanted Support from other Sins And hath it not forced thee to call in other Follies to maintain it How hast thou defended thy Theft or Uncleanness with a Lye and that Lye with another Lye and the second Lye with an Imprecation and that Imprecation with a constant Asseveration of the same Falshood How hath one ill Word brought in another And how hath the Neglect of Charity provoked thee at last to Malice and Injuriousness 66. And as soon as it was Day the Elders of the People and the Chief Priests and the Scribes came together and led him into their Council WHat Haste do these Men make to ruin their immortal Souls For fear they should not dye their Souls with a Guilt deep enough they get up early And do not these Men's Proceedings put thee in mind O my Soul of the Haste thou hast made to Everlasting Destruction How early hast thou got up to offend thy God! How often hast thou begun the Day with vain and sinful Thoughts How often hath the first Word thou hast spoken in the Morning been an ill Name or an angry Expression How often hast thou made it thy first Contrivance in the Morning how to be revenged on such a Person and as soon as it hath been Day hast gone and executed thy premeditated Malice And hast not thou done so as to other Sins How early in a Morning have thy Lusts ingrossed thy Thoughts as if thy first Thoughts and Actions had been the Devil's Due and that God were to have his Leavings 67. Saying Art thou the Christ Tell us And he said unto them If I tell you you will not believe AND hath not this been thy Temper O my Soul How often hath God told thee that thou art in danger and yet thou wouldst not believe How often hath he assured thee that thou canst have no Share no Benefit in Christ's Merits except thou repentest and yet thou wouldst not believe How often hast thou been told that Christ died that thou mightest die to Sin and yet thou wouldst not believe How often hath the Spirit of God endeavoured to convince thee that except thou dost examine thy self whether thou art in the Faith or no thou canst not be sure of Salvation and yet thou wouldst not believe him Oh how often hath it been proclaimed in thine Ears that thou canst not love God except thou prefer his Will before thy Gain or Pleasure and yet thou wouldst not believe And whom couldst thou blame if God should condemn thee as an Unbeliever who hast resisted the known Truths of his most holy Oracles 68. And if I also ask you you will not answer me nor let me go THus hast thou dealt with thy Conscience O my Soul Thou hast neither permitted it to censure thy Actions nor suffer'd it to ask thee any Question When thou hast done something amiss and it hath checked thee how hast thou dashed its Reprehensions When it hath condemned thy Pride and Censoriousness how hast thou bid it meddle with its own Business How often would it have asked thee which way thou hopest to be saved and thou hast turned away from the Motion How often hath it been ready to demand of thee whether the Courses thou takest are agreeable to the Rules of the Gospel and thou hast presently diverted the Suggestion Nay how often hath it actually expostulated with thee why no Warning no Threatning could prevail with thee and thou hast put it off like Felix to come and discourse with thee another Day when thou art more at leisure 69. Hereafter shall the Son of Man sit on the Right Hand of the Power of God O My Soul Thou hast been in a manner as confident of thy sitting at the Right Hand of God as Christ himself yet without any solid Ground Oh how ready hast thou been to apply the Promises of the Gospel without regarding whether thou didst fulfil the required Conditions How often hast thou flatter'd thy self that thou shalt see God in Glory when at the same time thou hast lived in Sins which exclude Men from the Kingdom of Heaven See through what Sufferings the Son of God enters into his Glory And canst thou think thou shalt reign with him except thou suffer with him Before he took possession of his Kingdom he fought his Way through all Opposition And canst thou hope to be conformable to him in Bliss except thou art content to be conformable to him in his Work and Labour of Love 70. Then said they all Art thou then the Son of God And he said unto them Ye say that I am THis Question which the Priests and Elders among the Jews put captiously to our Master the Lord Jesus I have reason O my Soul to put to thee in good earnest Art thou a Child of God or not If thou art what mean the Vanities thou doatest upon What means that Fondness of the World that fills the Chanels of thy Heart What means thy Averseness from imitating the Primitive Saints in their Self-denials If thou art a Child of God why wilt not thou be governed by the Spirit of God Why hath thy sensual Appetite so much power over thee And why art thou so loth to be holy as thy Father in Heaven is holy If the Actions of a Child of God are no part of thy Life how dwells thy Heavenly Father's Nature in thee And when all the Children of God must strive to have the same Mind in them which was in the Son of God how comes thy Mind to be so carnal and so wedded to Things below 71. And they said What need we any farther Witness For we our selves have heard it of his own Mouth VVHat these Men say maliciously of Christ God may too truly say of thee O my Soul What need is there of any farther Witness when thine own Mouth bears witness against thee Wert thou to appear before the great Tribunal at this Instant how justly might God condemn thee by thine own Confessions How justly might he say to thee Thou didst confess that Heaven is not to be got with a Wish Why then wouldst not thou bestow more Care and Pains about it Thou didst confess that thou canst do any thing in the World for Profit sake sit up at Night work hard go tedious Journeys put thy self to a great deal of Trouble for a Sum of Money Why then wouldst not thou bestir thy self for far greater Profit even an Eternity of Joy and Glory Thou didst confess that he that would not work deserved not to eat And how then canst thou expect to enjoy the Bread of Life even my Everlasting Kingdom when thou didst not care for working and couldst do more for Twenty or Forty Shillings than for the Everlasting Riches The XXIII Chapter of St. Luke's Gospel Paraphrased
16 17 18. 3. To believe that Jesus of Nazareth who appear'd in Days of Pontius Pilate and was Crucified is that Son of God and our Redeemer and Mediator and is both God and Man in one Person Act. 10. 38. Rom. 1. 3 4. 4. To believe that without Faith Repentance and an holy Obedience to the Commands of the Gospel we have no interest in Christ's Death and the Benefits of it Heb. 5. 9. 5. To believe that there is an Heaven and Hell and Eternal Rewards and Punishments after this Life according to the good or evil Lives of Men 2 Thess. 1. 5 6 7 8 9 10. 6. To believe that the Dead Bodies of Men shall Rise again in the Great Day of Judgment 2 Tim. 2. 17 18. 7. To believe that the assistance of God's Holy Spirit in order to a sound Faith and true Repentance is a Gift which may be had by earnest Prayer Luke 11. 13. 8. To love God with all our Hearts and with all our Souls and with all our Minds i.e. with great Sincerity Matth 22. 37. 9. To rely upon God and trust in him in all dangers and necessities whatsoever and firmly to believe that all things will work for our good if we love him Rom. 8. 28. Heb. 13. 5 6. 10. To believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the revealed Word of God and to read and search and meditate in these holy Scriptures in order to know we must do to be saved John 5. 39. 11. To prefer the Will of God before the Will and Favour of Men when these two come to clash or interfere one with another Act. 5. 29. 12. To live and walk in a lively sense of God's Omniscience and Omnipresence Act. 23. Luk. 1. 75. 13. To have great high and reverend thoughts of God and conceptions suitable to his infinite Wisdom and Goodness and Power 1 Pet. 3. 15. 14. To let our Speech be always with Grace season'd with Salt that we may know how to answer every Man Col. 4. 6. 15. To be frequent and serious and attentive in praising of God and praying to him for his Help Assistance and Protection especially Night and Morning Luke 2. 37. Eph. 6. 18. 16. To walk worthy of our Baptism even in newness of Life Rom 6. 3 4. 17 To make great Conscience of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper to come often to that Holy Table and to prepare and examine our selves in order to our worthy receiving of Pardon and Remission of sins 1 Cor. 11. 26 28. 18. To express willingness and alacrity in God's service and to be ready unto good Works Tit. 3. 1. 19. To have pure aims and designs in Holy Duties and good Works viz. The glory of God and the good of others Matth. 6. 22. 1 Pet. 4. 11. 20. To be zealous and fervent in Devotion and in expressing our love to God Tit. 2. 14. Rev. 3. 19. 21. To bring a very serious mind with us to the House of God and to behave our selves there with all decency and gravity 1 Cor. 11. 22. 22. To be not only a hearer of the Word but a doer of it also Jam. 1. 22. 23. To fix our Thoughts upon God in the publick Prayers of the Church and to offer to God the desires of our Hearts in joyning with the Congregatian in their Prayers Rom. 15. 6. 24. To sanctifie the Lord's Day both in private and in publick Acts 20. 7. Rev. 1. 10. 25. To be subject to Principalities and Powers and to obey Magistrates Tit. 3. 1. 26. To obey our Pastors and Teachers that have the rule over us and to submit our selves to them as those that watch for our Souls Heb. 13. 17. 27. To maintain our Ministers and to communicate to them in all good things Gal. 6. 6. 28. Faithfully to discharge the Duties of our respective Relations As 1. Husbands to love and honour their Wives Eph. 5. 25. 2. Wives to be obedient and subject to their Husbands Eph. 5. 22. 3. Parents to provide for the Souls and Bodies of their Children 1 Tim. 5. 8. 4. Children to honour their Parents all their days Eph. 6. 1. 5. Masters to encourage their Servants to Goodness and to be just in paying them their Wages Eph. 6. 9. 6. Servants to serve their Masters in singleness of heart fearing God and to please them well in all things Col. 3. 22. 7. Ministers to be patterns of good Works Tit. 2. 7. 8. Widows to trust in God and to continue in Supplications and Prayers night and day 1 Tim. 5. 5. 9. Virgins to mind those things that may please the Lord Jesus 1 Cor. 7. 32. 29. To learn to be very meek and humble upon all occasions Matth. 11. 29. 30. To hunger and Thirst after Goodness and Righteousness Matth. 5. 6. 31. To purifie the Heart or inward Man from evil Desires and Affections and to season it with holy Thoughts and Contemplations Matth. 5. 8. 32. To labour to make Peace among dissenting Neighbours and to be peaceable our selves and as much as in us lies with all Men Matth. 5. 9. Rom. 12. 18. 33. To rejoyce in being reviled and persecuted for Righteousness sake Matth. 5. 11. 12. 34. To be merciful kind tender-hearted and charitable and ready to forgive Eph. 4. 32. 35. To edifie others by our Conversation and to preserve them as much as in us lies from Sin and Damnation Matth 5. 13 14. 36. To love our Enemies to bless them that curse us to do good to them that hate us and to pray for them which despitefully use us Matth. 5. 44. 37. Rather to lose our Right than quarrel and go to Law about small things Matthâ— 5. 39 40. 38. To use great simplicity in our Speeches and Answers Matth. 5. 37. 39. To give and to lend to our poor Neighbor what is reasonable Matth. 5. 42. 40. To humble our selves sometimes before God by fasting Matth. 6. 16. 41. To be confident God will provide for us in the use of honest and lawful means Matth. 6. 31. 42. To seek God's Kingdom and its Righteousness with more earnest Affections than temporal Things Matth. 6. 20 33. 43. To reform our selves before we seek to reform others Matth. 7. 5. 44. To do to others what we would have others do to us Matth. 7. 12. 45. To enter in at the strait Gate and to deny our selves in our Honour Ease and Pleasure for a better Life Matth. 7. 13. 46. To confess and own Christ and his Religion before Men Matth. 10. 32. 47. To be industrious in the discharge of the Duties of our Calling Rom. 12. 6 7 8. 48. To love without Dissimulation Rom. 12. 9. 49. To be patient in Tribulation Rom. 12. 12. 50. To rejoyce with them that do rejoyce and to weep with them that weep Rom. 12. 15. 51. To condescend to Men of low Estates Rom. 12. 16. 52. To provide things honest in the sight of all Men Rom. 12. 17. 53. To
Father and to look upon him as his God as his Lord and as his reconciled Father and this willingness is the Plant God loves to water with Celestial Dew Indeed it is a Plant of his own planting and an effect of his writing his Law in the inward Parts and upon that it follows I will forgive their iniquity and remember their Sins no more Jer. 31. 33 34. But this doth properly belong to the fourth preparatory Duty which is Self-resignation whereof more in the following Chapter The Preceding Considerations reduced to farther Practice I. COnfession of Sins is no such trivial slight and easie thing as Men commonly make of it The Confession that a great many Men make to God in Publick especially while their Thoughts are wandring their Eyes staring upon sensual Objects their Souls feeling no compunction no remorse no grief and their minds without any lively apprehension of God's Holiness and their own Vileness such Confessions instead of obtaining God's pardon and forgiveness are preparatives and attractives of his Indignation Alas Sinner that 's no Confession where thy Lips only speak thy Sorrow and Offences and thy Heart still goes after Covetousness In this case thou dost but speak into the Air whilst thou confessest not with shame and confusion of Face and with purposes strong and Masculine strong as Mount Sion to offend thy God wilfully no more such Confessions reach not the Throne of Grace and Mercy but like Smoke are dispers'd in the ascent and cause no delight but in the powers of Darkness who are glad to see thee play with Religion and jest with Devotion II. It is a certain Rule where Men are loth to forsake their Sins they will be loth to confess them too There are divers Actions of Human Life which being very pleasing to the Flesh and suited to the humour of the Age and such as preserve our Credit and Reputation with Men which we overlook take to be no Sins indeed are loth to be depriv'd of them and therefore do not so much as mention them in our Confessions Search thy Heart Christian and take a serious view of thy Dress thy Habit thy Looks thy Behaviour thy Speeches and thy Conversation and see whether thou hast not reason to suspect many things of being contrary to the stricter Rules of the Gospel yet thou art loth to know them loth to own them loth to confess them as Sins and all because thou hast no mind to part with them Thy wanton looks and glances thy lascivious gestures and postures and dresses thy striving for places and discontent at other Men's omitting to give thee the Honour thou fanciest to be due to thee thy despising and scorning thy Neighbour in thy Heart thy touchiness at Trifles thy secret Injustice thy careless and unprofitable Talk thy gaudy Attire which feeds thy Pride thy delight in imitating the looser and more wanton sort of People thy mispending thy Time in dangerous Sights and Recreations thy neglect of reading the Word and praying with thy Family thy easie exceptions at thy Neighbour's Actions thy wilful misconstructions of Men's words thy hidden things of dishonesty thy doing evil that good may come out of it thy extenuations of Sin thy putting favourable names upon what thou art loth to leave c. What Man of sense and who reads the Word of God but must suspect that these things and such like are disagreeable to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ And yet because thou wouldst fain preserve and keep all these or some of these or others that are not unlike these thou art willingly ignorant of their sinfulness or wilfully forgettest them or dost carelesly pass them by and confessest only such Sins as thou canst not well avoid acknowledging Thou thinkest if once thou confessest these things to be Sins thou must be forc'd to leave them for indeed it is perfect impudence to tell God that I sin against him in such things and yet to go on in committing of them And therefore the only advice that can be given in this case is this Look upon Heaven as worth doing any thing to gain it and thou wilt not be afraid either of knowing thy particular Sins or of confessing of them or of bending the force and powers of thy Soul against their insinuations III. We may easily guess at the reason why a carnal Man wonders at the stir a Penitent keeps to be reconciled to God He sees not he knows not what Poison there is in Sin A Person who never troubled his Head much about Religion seeing a Man or Woman take on for their Offences accuse themselves condemn themselves and inflict Judgments of Fasting of Mortification and of Self-denial upon themselves no doubt will admire what ails the Fool to keep such a whining and howling and put himself to such needless troubles to recover the favour of God which he fancies is to be had at as easie a rate as Children's Smiles and Infants Tears Indeed if the love of God may be had with a wish and a Man could no sooner send for it but have it or were it a thing we could command to attend us at a minute's warning prostrations and lyings on the Ground and Sackcloth and Alms-giving in larger proportions and all the rigorous Ceremonies of Repentance would be Phantastical and a mere distemper of the Brain but when the Men whom God favoured much vouchsafed his Inspirations to and who conversed with the fountain of Wisdom with him that is the Way and the Life did all this and much more and recommended the same Acts of Mortification to their Successors and God himself expresses the welcome Dress of Repentance as to the External part in such things as these Jer. 6. 26. Jer. 7. 29. There we must give Men leave to laugh to wonder and to think us distemper'd for doing so Stange Men should not see the necessity of denying their Bodies in that ease and latitude they are so apt to take in order to a better Life when is evident that the Flesh in the Circumstances it is under naturally is in a continual fermentation of evil desires and covets altogether sensual satisfactions without considering whether they are agreeable to Reason or no and like Salomon's Horse-leech cries still Give Give And if a Man give his Eyes or Taste the pleasure they desire to day to morrow they shall still crave more so that if a severe Mortification do not stop and cast them off especially if he intends to be saved he will continue a carnal Man to his dying day It hath been the practice of all the Primitive Saints to inflict seasonable Judgments on themselves not one but the greatest part have taken that way and the reason is clear for we must become Saints by the Spirit of the Cross which is evidently a Spirit of Mortification both of Soul and Body The design of Holiness is to make us conformable to the temper of our Saviour and if his Spirit be
love thee feel XI O Saviour Gentle as the Spirit that in the shape of a Dove lighted on thy Sacred Head Teach me that Meekness which look'd so amiable in thy Life Expel the evil Spirits of Wrath Anger and Pride and Envy out of my Soul Speak the word and these Winds and Waves will obey thee Let thy gentleness make me great When I shall have overcome my wrathful and proud Inclinations and O! let the Sacrament I am going to help me in the Conquest then shall I be great and glorious in thy sight XII Great Shepherd of my Soul whose Wounds are full of Sweetness full of Mercy full of Charity Let thy Wounds prove the most powerful Remedies to rid me of my Corruptions When any impure Thoughts rise in me let thinking of thy Wounds crush them when sluggishness in Religion assaults me let thy Wounds and the remembrance of them make me vigilant in thy service and when in the Holy Sacrament I think of thy Wounds let all my vain imaginations expire XIII Great Friend of my immortal Soul Such a friend is not to be found in all the World as thou hast been to me for thou hast laid down thy Life for me O let me make much of thy friendship and cherish it by being meek and humble and merciful and patient as thou wert that thou mayest be my Friend when I dye and after Death receive me to thy self O confirm and seal thy Friendship to my Soul in the Blessed Sacrament and let the same Spirit move in me which raised thee from the dead XIV O Thou who hast wash'd me from my Sins with thine own Blood chuse I beseech thee my Heart for thy Dwelling place adorn and replenish it with thy Gifts and Graces make me to loath all transitory things make me poor in Spirit cure in me the itch of Self-love throw down all pride and eagerness after the Riches of this World and make the Holy Sacrament I am going to a mean to adore thee in Spirit and in Truth and to persevere in Goodness to the end XV. Great Comforter of all weary and laden Souls Circumcise my Heart from all evil Thoughts and Words and Actions and Comunicate thy self unto me that I may never be separated from thee or ever be deprived of thy Comfort Draw my Soul after thee in the Holy Sacrament and let that Blessed Ordinance powerfully stir up my Heart to love thee XVI O Thou who art the door of thy Sheepfold By thee let me have access to thy Father's Love And as in the Holy Sacrament thou openest thy Bosom to me so let me run and seek shelter there Chain me to thy self by Bands of Love and let no Temptation defile me O keep me that I may never cowardly faint at any adversity XVII Thou who hast endured contradictions of Sinners against thy self Be thou ever in my mind and teach me to bear Calumnies and Reproaches with great tranquility of Mind Let me refer all difficulties to thee and with silence expect thy Grace and Comfort and let the Blessed Sacrament so influence my Soul that I may fear none but thee XVIII Great Captain of my Salvation I am going to learn to fight the good fight in the Blessed Sacrament of thy Love Let thy great example there encourage me to fight against all Ambition and Ostentation against Censoriousness and Uncharitableness against all Intemperance and Gluttony against all proud and covetous Thoughts against Guile and Hypocrisie against discontentedness and misitrinst of thy Providence Against such Enemies give me grace to fight over these let me triumph that having striven lawfully I may at last be admitted to the Glorious sight of thy Sweet Self and be charm'd with thy Love for ever CHAP. XXVII Of the proper Acts of Devotion when we come to the Holy Table The CONTENTS Private Acts of Devotion must be forborn while the Congregation joyns in common Addresses to Almighty God General Acts of Devotion relating to the wonderful Love of Christ and our Love to him Particular Acts of Devotion at the Consecration and Receiving of the holy Symbols I. THE following Acts are fittest to be used before the Prayers of the Church usual at the Communion do begin or before the Minister of the Ordinance comes to us with the sacred Symbols and while others are Communicating II. While the Minister of the Ordinance is engaged in the Prayers of the Church these Ejaculations must be forborn our Duty during the publick Devotions being to joyn with the Congregation in their common Addresses to God These Acts of Devotion are either General or Particular The General I call those which respect the Love of the Lord Jesus The Particular those which are to be exercised at the Consecration and Receiving of the Consecrated Bread and Wine General Acts of Devotion at the Lord's Table I. GReat Saviour of the World Thou art infinitely amiable worthy to be loved by all to whose Ears the joyful Message of thy Love doth come I rejoyce in the Knowledge of thy Love I count my self happy that I am born under the Shadow of thy Gospel in which thy wonderful Love to the Children of Men is manifested I desire no other Knowledge 'T is enough that I know thou hast loved me beyond Example I desire to count all things Dross and Dung for the Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ. II. O my Jesus I am not worthy to love thee Yet because thou biddest me love thee and hast told me that my Soul was created on purpose to love thee I chearfully resign my Love and Affection to thee I desire to love thee I wish for nothing more than that I may passionately love thee Whom have I in Heaven to love but thee And there is none on Earth that I desire to love more than thy self For thou art altogether lovely and thy Love surpasses all the Love of Friends and the dearest Relations I have III. O my blessed Redeemer I desire to love thee with all my Heart and with all my Strength Thou gavest me this Heart and this Strength And on whom can I bestow it better than on thee the Author of it Oh that all that is within me might be turned into Desires and Inclinations and Sighs and Languishings and Breathings after thee For I cannot express what thou hast done for me What thou hast done for me is beyond all the Kindness that the greatest Men ever did or can do for the meanest and poorest Creatures IV. Great Advocate of my Soul Thou seest my Desire to love thee Make it strong and powerful Take a Coal from the Altar and give it Fire that nothing may hinder the Flame from mounting up that nothing may weaken this Desire nothing may break it nothing may tire it nothing may mingle with it that is unclean or contrary to thy Love V. Great Object of my Desires Make me a Martyr of thy Love Make me willing even to die for love of thee Raise a
Axes no noise of War no Armies of Aliens to fright us from the Publick Ordinances that we can meet and remember our Crucified Master without fear without disturbance without danger and that instead of being discountenanced in the Service we have all the encouragement that Authority can give and our Magistrates are nursing Fathers which not only allow of our frequenting the House of God but also compel us to come in How did the excellent David bemoan himself when through the Malice of Saul his Antagonist he was forced away from the Publick Offices of the Church How much happier did he think Swallows and Sparrows to be than himself which had liberty to build their Nests about the roof of the Temple and there to lay their Young Psal 84. 1 2 3. While he must be content with wishes and breathings after the Courts of the Lord and strangers cast it in his Teeth of often Where is now thy God! Psal. 42. 2 3. We that have all the external advantages of Religion and are even cloy'd with the plenty of Spiritual Provision cannot imagine the lamentable condition that persecuted Christians are in who are forced to serve the Lord with fear and to attend his Ordinances with trembling who are not permitted to sing the Songs of Zion in a strange Land and therefore must hang their Harps upon the Willows sit weeping by the Rivers of Babylon and hear the Enemy roar in the midst of the Congregations of the Lord. Yet if the liberty we enjoy makes us wanton and the plenty God gives us tempts us to licentiousness if instead of growing better it makes us worse and the Glory of our Temple proves an occasion of dishonouring that God who dwells in them if our going up to Mount Zion makes us proud and the means of Grace whereof we have such store are improved into quarrels and dissentions if instead of Glorifying God for this affluence we fall out among our selves and instead of letting our Light shine before Men espouse the works of Darkness if instead of being obedient to the Faith we disgrace it by our infidelity and instead of the power of Godliness content our selves with the Form of it if the Manna we have doth not make us Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness and the great Truths God hath vouchsafed us do not make our Lives great and exemplary we have reason to fear God will remove our Candlesticks from us and send a Famine of the Word God did so to Jerusalem and did so to the Eastern Churches and we being like them may justly expect the same Judgments II. The Church is the House of God keep therefore thy foot when thou goest to the House of God Eccles. 5. 1. As Men that walk in danger look to their steps and take care where they set their Foot so he that enters into the House of Prayer had need enter with great cautiousness and watchfulness for the comes before a God who sees his Thoughts takes notice of his Designs and knows the secret recesses of his Soul observes his Looks and Postures and Behaviour and will at last call him to an account for his carelesness and irreverence Were these things seriously thought of how could the generality of us come into this House with no greater awe and with as loose Affections as if they were going to a Play How durst we stare about in Prayer How could we let our Thoughts rove and wander while we seem to be engaged in Devotion How could we hear with that indifferency How could we apply our selves to the Duties required of us with that coldness which is so visible in most Congregations How could we turn our Services into mere Formalities and stand before the great God unconcerned and return from his House without a relish of the Mysteries of Godliness To see what decency and gravity Men observe in the Presence of a Prince and to think how little regard we have to the Presence of a Glorious God in the House which he is pleased to call his Tabernacle and Dwelling-place is enough to make the Holy Angels conclude that in the midst of his Temple we are Infidels to see how supinely some sit at their Prayers as if they were praying to a Stock or Stone to see how others compose themselves to sleep as if the God they come to worship with Baal were asleep too and they came to honour him with that posture to see how some come to shew their Bravery here and to be seen and taken notice of and to be admired by Spectators to see how others strive for Places for Superiority and the chief Seats in these Synagogues and there vent their Pride their Anger and their Malice where they ought to express their greatest Humility and Charity to see how others talk here of their worldly Concerns or if they do not talk of them act and behave themselves as if they thought of nothing else where they are to mind only the great concerns of their immortal Souls to see all this what can we infer but that Men have no Sense of the Tremendous Majesty on High No sense of the Mysteries the very Angels desire to look into These things My Brethren ought not so to be When therefore thou goest to the Temple of the Lord remember the Magnificence of that God at whose Footstool thou goest to worship When thou enter'st in at the door of this House leave there thy Worldly thoughts and Carnal desires and come fill'd with the Spirit into the Tabernacle of the Lord Sit and Stand and Kneel there as before the Searcher of all Hearts resolve to come away from thence edified and with greater store of Spiritual Blessings than thou hadst before In praying fix thy Thoughts upon Him who heareth Prayer and if thou dost thou canst not but appear in such a posture as doth best express thy inward sense of his Greatness and Holiness In hearing apply the general Admonitions and Exhortations and Reproofs to thine own Soul In Reading make some spiritual reflection on the Examples Precepts Promises that are before thee In singing mind the Matter more than the Tune and let thy Heart bear part in the Exercise In receiving the Supper of the Lord let not the outward humble posture be all the Service thou performest but fix the eyes of thy Understanding upon the Cross and there contemplate the Mercy that flows from it and from thence take Fire and Courage to abound in love to God and Man At thy going in beg of God to prepare thy Heart At thy coming out beg that thou may'st not lose the things that have been wrought in thee and this is to keep thy foot when thou goest into the House of God The PRAYER O Thou in whose Temple every Man speaks of thine Honour whose Glory no mortal Man can sufficiently express whose Goodness no Tongue is able to display whose Holiness transcends all the Perfections we see here below Overawe my Spirit when I go
works upon strangers more to joyn themselves to the Mystical Body of Christ than to see the Professors live up to their Principles and maintain the rules their Master hath given them This enforces even such as are Aliens to the Commonwealth of Israel to encourage one another in the Language of those votaries we read of Psal. 122. 1 2 3. Let us go into the house of the Lord our Feet shall stand within thy Gates O Jerusalem Jerusalem is builded as a City that is compact together whither the Tribes go up the Tribes of the Lord unto the Testimony of Israel to give Thanks unto the name of the Lord for there are set Thrones of Judgment the Thrones of the House of David Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem they shall prosper that love thee Peace be within thy Walls and Prosperity within thy Palaces for my brethren and companions sake I will now say Peace be within thee because of the House of the Lord our God I will seek thy good So that what the Apostle 1 Cor. 14. 22. says of the gift of Tongues the same may be said of frequent Communicating that it is a sign to them that believe not Hereby they are perswaded to believe seeing the Professors act like persons that believe what their Master hath said This frequent Communicating shews their Zeal and Unity and there is no Man vers'd in Ecclesiastical History but knows how much these two prevailed with Infidels to come in to the Sheep-fold of Christ Jesus It being evident therefore that this frequent Communicating is very acceptable to God how can we say we love him if we are loath to do what we know will please him The Father hath not left me alone saith our Saviour because I do always the things that please him Joh. 8. 29. And the same may be applied to the frequent Communicant the Father will not leave him alone He will be sure to guard him though a thousand fall on his side and ten thousand on his right hand yet he 'll take care that no evil shall happen unto him for he doth those things that please him III How often a conscientious Christian is bound to Communicate the Scripture hath not thought fit to determine That it ought to be done often the Apostle doth sufficiently intimate 1 Cor. 11. 26. but there is no Law extant in the whole Gospel that saith So many times a Year or Month or Week you shall appear at the Lord's Table and from hence rose that variety of customs in several Churches we mentioned before And what Socrates observes in this point is very probable that that variety of practice derived its Original from the various Judgments and Constitutions of Bishops in their several Dioceses which with their posterity past into a Law yet though they varied in Times and Days and Hours yet it 's easier to gather from those various customs that all made conscience of coming frequently to the Holy Communion till Ignorance and Vice invaded the Priesthood as well as the Laity and when the Priests became regardless of this Ordinance no marvel if the Laity did either despise or neglect it And most certainly to Communicate once or twice or thrice a Year cannot be called frequent eating of this Bread and drinking of this Cup for this is to do it but seldom and is an argument that we are not very solicitous to gain or preserve our Master's Favour and good Will which is ever kept warm by frequent Addresses and Importunity It was therefore an unworthy act of Pope Innocent the Third in the Lateran Council in the year 1215. to make a Canon for Laymen that it was sufficient for them to Communicate but once a year for hereby they fell into great Ignorance Debauchery and Sensuality and that which should have restrained them from Sin being so seldom administred to them they sunk daily into greater barbarity This Petrus Cluniacensis was so sensible of that having understood of the Petrobrusians that they had a Communion but once a year he thus expostulates with them You say once only but Christ and his Apostles say not once or twice or thrice or an hundred times or a thousand times only but as often as you do it There is a great difference between as often and once or twice Here is the beginning of numbers but the other expression exceeds all numbers here is more singularity but in the other is infinite multiplicity The Arabians have a Proverb Visit seldom and you increase Love but however this Maxim may hold among Men I am sure it is not so with God who in the commendation of his Servants lays their stress up-the assiduity in his Service and therefore when the Holy Ghost speaks in the praise of Anna the Prophetess he gives her this Character that though she was a Widow of about fourscore and four years yet she departed not from the Temple but served God with Fastings and Prayers night and day I know this is not spoken with respect to this Sacrament but all that I prove from it is this that the assiduity and frequency of Divine Worship is that which God is pleased to make a sign not only of his Love but our Sincerity too His kindness to our Souls advances with our Importunities and frequent Adorations cause frequent influences of his Love and since the Holy Ghost hath not thought fit to resolve how many times in the year we are to Communicate on purpose to leave room for our Free-will-offerings the Examples of the Saints of old are a very safe Rule to go by in our civil Affairs where a Statute is wanting Customs and Presidents are a Law and we think it reasonable it should be so and when St. Paul calls to us in the style of a Command Brethren be followers of me and mark them that walk so having us for an ensample Phil. 3. 17. The Examples of the Saints of old will be found to be of greater force in our practise than is generally believed and though the antient Churches have had different customs in this particular yet that which most have agreed on may justly oblige us to imitation However nothing is more certain than that we are placed under Governors whose lawful Commands we are to obey and as the Governors of the respective Churches have power to order the circumstantial and decent part of Divine Worship so he acts most safely that conforms to the constitutions of the Church he is of and since in the Church we are Members of both to prevent contempt of this Sacrament by too frequent coming and Peoples hardning their Hearts in Sin by a too long neglect of it it is thought fit to receive the Holy Communion once a Month we have not only great reason to conform to that order but to thank God we are encouraged to this frequent Devotion In some particular Churches among us a Communion every Lord ' Day is kept up according to the Primitive Rule however
a Month is a just distance to take notice what progress we make in Goodness and what effects the last Communion hath upon our Spirits and though I can alledge no express Command for it out of the Word of God yet there is a Command which imports as much even this Obey them that have the Rule over you in the Lord and submit your selves for they watch for your Souls as they that must give an account that they do it with Joy and not with Grief Heb. 13. 17. But these Arguments are needless to a Soul that hath a lively Sense of the Love of God Love will run without a driver and there needs no pulling or haling him to the Communion who hath seen and tasted how sweet and how gracious the Lord is That inward Sense will make him come frequently whether his Superiours command him or no. He that doth nothing in Religion but what his Governoâ—s force him to doth not yet understand what that means The Love of God is shed abroad in our Hearts He that hath this Sense finds a Law within stronger than the Law of all Superiors and which hath greater power with him than all external motives He that loves Christ fervently will love to be with him frequently and since the Communion Table is the place where Christ hath promised to him he 'll be as often there as he can except Sickness or some such inevitable impediments hinder him the rather because here Men hear the joyful sound of Pardon and walk in the light of Godâ—s Countenance Psal. 89. 15. IV. But because I foresee it will be objected here That frequent Communicating will abate our esteem and veneration of this Sacrament as all things when grown common and familiar are apt to breed contempt and carelesness It 's fit I should answer and remove that pretended stumbling-block And therefore 1. It cannot be frequent Communicating consider'd in it self that abates our Zeal and Fervor to this Ordinance for let the Communion be never so frequent the Arguments and Motives are still the same their Grandeur Strength Force and Power is still the same still these are able to kindle holy Fire on the Altars of our Souls to raise admiration of God's Mercies aud to enliven our Spirits into Conscientiousness and severity of life and if this be the natural tendency of these Motivies at one time it is so to another and consequently the abatement of our esteem and veneration is not the necessary effect of frequent Communicating and in this the Primitive Believers are a signal instance who though they Communicated some every day some every Lord's day yet did not that frequency lessen their Veneration of these mysteries It rather increas'd and cherish'd it and we have reason to ascribe their contempt of Sublunary Contents their Courage in Adversity their Valour in Persecution their ardent desires after another Life their invincible Patience under reproaches their Constancy in the severest Tryals their wonderful Joy in Troubles and their prodigious Self-denials to this frequent Communicating This as it was a means to set their Master always before their Eyes so it left an aw upon their Spirits not to dishonour him by their lives This was a perpetual curb to their Lusts and having his Image constantly before them made them walk as Children of their Father which is in Heaven so that if frequent Communicating be not the necessary cause of an abatement in our veneration of this Sacrament it must be some other accidental thing which may be remedied that must occasion it And therefore 2. Some decay in the Receiver some indisposition in the inward Man must be charged with this dis-esteem of the ordinance and it is not the frequent Communicating that is the cause but want of care and watchfulneâ—s in the Communicant Indeed where People approach this Holy Table frequently and bring no Hearts with them no desires after a better Life do not think it worth while to spend serious thoughts on the Death they are going to remember come to it without any design of being like Christ premise only a few Prayers out of Custom touch the Ark with unwashen hands dive not into their hearts nor do prepare themselves for this Banquet thrust themselves in as the Guest in the Gospel without suitable Ornaments do not plow up the fallow Ground or do not make it soft and Mellow with Meditation and Praises and consider not what they come for or to what end and purpose they give their attendance at the Altar there we need not wonder if frequent Communicating abates their esteem and veneration of this Sacrament but this is their Sin and frequent Communion is not to be blamed it 's their love to the World that will not suffer them to bring that attention watchfulness and devotion with them as is requisite to the comfortable use of this Ordinance a Sin which must be deplored and like the cursed thing in the Camp of Israel removed before they come to see the goings of God in the Sanctuary The Covetous Man abates not in his esteem of his Wealth and Treasure though he look upon it every day and the reason is because his Affections are set upon it and were our Affections set upon him from whose fulness we all received Grace for Grace our frequent Communicating would be so far from lessening our esteem of this Sacrament that it would render it more lovely and more amiable to our Souls Two Men of the same Trade live together the one grows rich the other continues poor the one thrives the other decays because the one is industrious the other lazy one minds his business the other lies in Ale-houses and Taverns This is the Case here if some fall into a disesteem of the greatness of this Ordinance by frequent Communicating it is because they take no pains with their Souls before they Communicate whereas others who are laborious and careful though they recieve never so often they go on from strength to strength till every one of them appears before God in Sion V. But since frequent Communication requires frequent Preparation and frequent Preparation is a thing that Persons who have much business in the World cannot attend how can it be supposed necessary for such to Communicate frequently Though Preparation be a Subject that I intend to spend a distinct Chapter upon yet something may be said of it here by the by and by way of anticipation to shew the weakness of this excuse and the vanity of this exception And therefore 1. Business is either lawful or unlawful If it be unlawful no conscentious Man must either involve himself in it or continue to mind it for whoever applys his Thoughts Desires or Affections to any business of that nature puts himself in a state of Damnation and hangs over Hell fire by a very weak and feeble Thread even this Transitory Life which if it chance to break his Soul is lost in a word unlawful business makes a