our righteousness is as filthy rags The meaning is all men are sinners and their best services imperfect and impure But then the right they have to this Priviledge does not depend on their own merit and worth but as was said before on the promise of God when they enter'd at first into covenant with him whereby he was pleas'd to oblige himself to be their God so far and so long as they continued to be his people 2. Those Members that we have asserted to have a right to the external Priviledges of Christ's Church are not guilty of that unworthiness St. Paul speaks of the sin and danger whereof is so great and this will appear by the description he gives of those unworthy Communicants 1. They discern'd not the Lord's body he that eats this bread and drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of the body and blood of Christ how not discerning the Lord's body It may be they did eat it still as a part of the Jewish Passover they understood not the nature of it what it did represent or for what end it was instituted being ignorant of the infinite value and merit of Christ's blood not at all affected with the greatness of his love nor wrought upon by the infiniteness of his mercy and altogether as void of any sincere affection and gratitude to Christ for that mighty redemption he wrought for mankind as the Jew and Pagan that neither know nor believe in him 2. They were open and scandalous sinners The Apostle charges them with Schisms and Divisions pride and contempt of their brethren sensuality and drunkenness In those early days of Christianity the Lord's Supper was usually usher'd in with a Love-feast that was eaten just before it but so unchristian were these Corinthians that every one took before other his own Supper they run into parties and tho' they had not yet left the place they refus'd to communicate at the same time with their brethren The rich despis'd and excluded the poor that came not so well provided as they from their feast and that which was yet an higher aggravation of their sin the poor were hungry whilst the rich fed and pamper'd their bodies to excess and luxury When ye come together says he this is not to eat the Lord's Supper this is no fit preparation for it for in eating every one takes before other his own supper and one is hungry and another is drunken such Swine as these ought not indeed to come to the Holy Table of our Lord and such as these as I said in the beginning of my Discourse on this Proposition have forfeited their right to it and ought by the Censures of the Church to be excluded This indeed is to be unworthy with a witness to be guilty of the body and blood of Christ or as St. Paul sometimes words it in the case of Apostacy and other hainous sins to crucifie afresh the Lord of life to tread under foot the Son of God and to count the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing that is in an high degree to despise and vilifie the person and sufferings of the most holy Jesus his person as one not worthy to be obeyed and followed his blood as a thing of no value and merit And what could such persons expect but that God would vindicate the honour of his own Son and the infinitely wise contrivance of the redemption of the World by his great undertaking in some remarkable way upon them either in this World by Temporal Judgments for this cause many are weak and sickly amongst you and many sleep or in the next without repentance by their Eternal Damnation Obj. But the Members of Christ's Body that come to this blessed Sacrament and are destitute of saving grace tho' they make a fair profession and are free from scandalous sins are yet in an unconverted condition and this Sacrament is not a converting but a confirming Ordinance Answ Conversion may be taken in a two-fold sense 1. For turning men from a state of open infidelity to the profession of the Christian Faith and indeed till men are in this sense converted they are not to be admitted to the Sacrament neither Jews nor Turks nor any others in a state of Gentilism till by Baptism they are receiv'd into Christ's Church and make profession of his Name can come to it 2. Taking conversion for the turning of those who are already baptiz'd and do profess Christ's Religion from the evil of their ways to a serious and hearty practice of holiness and virtue and so this Sacrament is a converting Ordinance And indeed I do not know any more forceable Arguments to an holy life than what are therein represented to us What can more work upon ingenuous spirits than the discovery of such undeserv'd love and kindness Is it not enough to melt the most frozen heart into floods of tears and joy to behold therein the blessed Jesus shedding his blood to reconcile sinners unto God What can more powerfully captivate the most rebellious spirits into obedience than the assurance of a pardon of their past transgressions by that full propitiatory Sacrifice of the Son of God What can more effectually fright men from sin and folly than the infinite displeasure of God declared therein against all iniquity How accursed a thing is sin will the considering Communicant say that the blessed Jesus who did but take sin upon him was made a Curse for it What a mighty evil must sin needs be when nothing could be sufficient to expiate it but the Blood of God! What an unspeakable malignity must sin have in it when it laid on the shoulders of Omnipotency such a load of wrath as made him complain and sweat and grone and die Again Here we repeat our baptismal Vow to God solemnly engage our selves afresh to be his faithful servants and bind our selves by a new Oath to be true to the Covenant we have made with him and certainly that man must have a mighty love for Sin and Death that can break through all these Bonds and Obligations to come at it 3. The third Proposition That some corrupt and scandalous Members remaining in the Communion of the Church through the want of the due exercise of Discipline in it or the negligence and connivance of the Pastors and Governours of it gives no just Cause for any to separate from her Gives no just Cause That which is chiefly pretended is That the viciousness of those Members do derive a stain and defilement on the whole Assembly and pollute the Worship of God to others as well as to themselves Here therefore I shall shew what is to be done by us that we be no way accessary to others sins and then upon that condition that we cannot be polluted by their sinful company Now many things are to be done by good men who are to joyn in mixt Assemblies that the Communion receive no prejudice by the corruption
Church many more were call'd and admitted into it by Baptism than what were sanctified by his Spirit or should be admitted into his Heaven 4. The many corrupt and vicious Members in the Churches which the Apostles themselves had planted is another proof of this The number whereof in all likelihood could not have been so great had they been so cautious and scrupulous as to admit none into them but whom in their judgments they thought to be really holy In the Church of Corinth there were many that had not the knowledge of God that denied the Resurrection of the Dead that came drunk to the Lord's Table that were Fornicators unclean and contentious Persons In the Church of Galatia there were many that nauseated the Bread of Life and made it their choice to pick and eat the rubbish of the partition wall which Christ had demolisht The Rites of the Law which expired at the death of Christ they attempted to pull out of their graves and to give a resurrection to them They were so much gone off from the Doctrine of Christianity to weak and beggarly Rudiments observing days and months and times and years that by reason of this their superstition St. Paul signifi'd his fears of quite losing them and that his labour was bestowed upon them in vain Amongst all the seven Churches in Asia there was not one but what had receiv'd such Members into it that were either very cold and lukewarm in their Religion or by their vicious lives proved a reproach and scandal to it The Church of Sardis so swarm'd with these that St. John tells us that there were but a few names in Sardis that had not defil'd their garments Now if the Apostles of our Lord who had the extraordinary assistances of the Holy Ghost for the discerning of Spirits at that time and were thereby enabl'd far beyond what any of their Successors can pretend to to distinguish betwixt the good and the bad did notwithstanding admit many meer formal Professors into the Church of Christ we may conclude that they apprehended that 't was the will of Christ it should be so 5. No other rule in admitting persons into the Church is practicable Whether Persons are really holy and truly regenerate or no the Officers of Christ who know not the hearts of men cannot make a certain judgment of they may through want of judgment be deceiv'd through the subtilty of hypocrites be impos'd upon through humane frailty passion or prejudice be misguided and by this means many times the door may be open'd to the bad and shut against the good Now that cannot be suppos'd to be a rule of Christ's appointment which is either impossible to be observ'd or in observing which the Governours of his Church cannot be secur'd from acting wrongfully and injuriously to men In sum Christ hath entrusted the power of the Keys into the hands of an Order of Men whom he hath set over his Church and who under him are to manage the Affairs of it but these being but earthen vessels of short and fallible understandings he has not left the execution of their Office to be manag'd solely by their own prudence and discretion but hath given them a certain publick Rule to go by both in admitting persons into his Church and in excluding them out of it for the one the Rule is open and solemn profession of the Christian Faith for the other open and scandalous Offences prov'd by witnesses 2. The second Proposition is That every such Member has a right to all the external Priviledges of the Church till by his continuance in some notorious and scandalous sins he forfeits that right and by the just censures of the Church for such behaviour he be actually excluded from those Priviledges For the explanation and proof of this Proposition these three particulars are to be done 1. What 's meant by external Priviledges 2. What kind of Offenders those are that forfeit their right to them and ought by the Censures of the Church to be excluded from them 3. Upon what the right of those Members that have not so offended is grounded 1. What 's meant by external Priviledges As there are two sorts of Members in Christ's visible Church so there are two sorts of Priviledges that belong to them each sort having those that are proper and peculiar to it according to the nature of that relation they bear to the Head and their fellow Members 1. There are Members only by foederal or covenant-holiness such as are only born of water when by Baptism they were united to Christ and the Church and took upon them the Profession and Practice of the Christian Religion Now the Priviledges that belong to these are of the same make with their Church-membership external and consisting only in an outward and publick Communion with the Church in the Word and Ordinances 2. There are Members by real and inherent holiness such as are not only born of Water but of the Spirit also when by the inward operations of the Holy Ghost their Souls are renew'd after the Image of God and made partakers of a Divine Nature And the Priviledges that belong to these are not only the forementioned ones but together with them others that are sutable to their more spiritual relation inward and such as consist in the especial and particular care and protection of God the pardon and remission of their sins by the Blood of Christ and the gracious influences and comforts of the Holy Ghost All comprehended in that Prayer of the Apostle for his Corinthians The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all Amen Now 't is of the first sort of Members and that sort of Priviledges that belong to them that the Proposition is to be understood 2. What kind of Offenders those are that have forfeited their right to and ought by the Censures of the Church to be excluded from those Priviledges This the Apostle hath plainly told us and our own Church in its Exhortation to the Sacrament fairly intimates I have wrote unto you says St. Paul not to keep company if any man that is call'd a Brother be a Fornicator or Covetous or an Idolater or a Railer or a Drunkard or an Extortioner no not to eat Not only as much as can be to have no familiar conversation with him in civil matters tho' some must be had whilst we are in this World but also and more especially to avoid communion with him in religious exercises and how that is to be done the Apostle tells us viz. not by forsaking the Church our selves but by doing our utmost endeavours to have him cast out of it So it follows Therefore put away from among your selves that wicked person And In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ when ye are gathered together and my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ
of some of its Members They are frequently to exhort and advise them for this end are we plac'd in the communion of Saints and tho' to instruct the Flock God hath appointed a whole Order of Men on purpose yet is it also the Duty of every private Christian in his place and calling to exhort one another daily whilst it is call'd to day to consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works They are prudently and with much affection to admonish and reprove them we must not be so rudely civil as to suffer sin to lie upon them without disturbance so runs the Precept Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thy heart but thou shalt rebuke thy Brother and not suffer sin to be upon him and if any man be overtaken in a fault says the Apostle ye that are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness considering that thou also may'st be tempted They are to bewail their sins and to pray for their reformation this is the true spirit and temper of a good man he cannot see God dishonour'd his Laws trampled upon his Brother wilfully undoing himself but he must be deeply touch'd and affected with it Rivers of water run down my eyes says the Psalmist because men keep not thy law And when in Ezekiel's time the Jewish Church both Priests and People were very much corrupted the Holy Ghost gives it as the particular mark of the faithful and upright not that they separated but sighed and cryed for all the abominations that were done in her Of the same holy frame and disposition of mind was St. Paul he could not mention those in the Church at Philippi who whilst they profest Christianity shew'd themselves by their sensuality and earthly-mindedness to be enemies to the Cross of Christ without sorrow and tears Of whom says he I have told you often and now tell you weeping that they are enemies to the Cross of Christ whose God is their belly c. They are to avoid as much as they can their company especially all familiarity with them and tho' in order to their conviction and reformation and in such cases where necessary business requires it and the publick Worship of God can't be perform'd but in conjunction with such persons I may be in their company without blame yet in all other cases I am to shew my dislike and abhorrence of their sins by shunning their society If any man obey not our Word by this Epistle note that man and have no company with him that he may be asham'd Again says the same Apostle I wrote to you in an Epistle not to keep company if any man be a fornicator or an idolater or c. with such an one no not to eat If private and often repeated Admonitions by himself or before one or two more will not do they are then to tell the Church of them that by its more publick Reproofs the scandalous Member may be reclaim'd or by its just Censures be cut off from the Communion If he shall neglect to hear them tell it to the Church Our Church hath given every Minister of a Parish power to refuse all scandalous and notorious sinners from the Lord's Supper and as slack and as much disus'd as Discipline is amongst us were such persons more generally inform'd against and complain'd of they would not find it so easie a matter to continue in their offences and the Church together You see by what means the Church may either be clear'd in some measure of such publick Offenders or the Members of it together with the Ordinances of God secur'd from infection by their fellowship By this did the Primitive Christians shew their Zeal for their Religion as well as by suffering for it They were infinitely careful to keep the honour of their Religion unspotted and the Communion of the Church as much out of danger as they could from the malignant influence of bad examples for this reason they watch'd over one another told them privately of their faults and when that would not do brought them before the cognizance of the Church And tho' lapsing into Idolatry in times of persecution was the common sin that for some Ages chiefly exerciz'd the Discipline of the Church yet all Offences against the Christian Law all Vices and Immoralities that were either publick in themselves or made known and prov'd to the Church came also under the Ecclesiastical Rod and were put to open shame and pennance this was that Discipline that preserv'd their Manners so uncorrupt and made their Religion so renown'd and triumphant in the World and how happy would it be for us in this loose and degenerate Age as our own Church expresses her wishes and desires were it again in its due force and vigour restored and resettled amongst us But if after all imaginable care and endeavour by private Christians some scandalous Members through the defects of Power in the Discipline or of Care and Watchfulness in Governours should remain in the Church whatever pollution those whose Office it is to rebuke with all Authority may draw on themselves by suffering it private Members that are no way neither by consent nor councel nor excuse accessary to their sin can receive none for sin no otherwise pollutes than as it is in the will not as it is in the understanding as it 's chose embrac'd and not as it 's known I may know Adultery and yet be chast see Strife and Debate in the City and yet be peaceable hear Oaths and Curses and yet tremble at God's Name Noah was a good Man in an evil World Lot a righteous person amongst the conversation of the wicked neither is there any more fear of pollution from wicked men in Sacred than in Civil Society Our Saviour and his Apostles were not the least defil'd by that society they had with Scribes and Pharisees nor by that familiarity they had with the accursed Judas tho' he eat the Passover with them and they kept him company after they knew him to be a Traytor What pollution did Abel receive from Cain when they sacrific'd together Or Elkanah and Hannah from Eli's debauch'd Sons when at Shilo they worshipt together The good and bad indeed communicate together but in what not in sin but in their common duty and tho' to communicate with sin is sin yet to communicate with a sinner in that which is not sin can be none Communion is a common union many partaking of one thing wherein they do agree now the common union of the good and bad in the Church is not in evil but in hearing of the Word in receiving of the Sacrament and in other holy Ordinances and Exercises when therefore some do evil the communion in spiritual things is not polluted because evil is no part of the union in common one with another but the error of man by himself out of the Communion which he