A Complete Body of Divinity
Thirdly, Consider what is represented by the sacred symbols in this ordinance. The broken bread and wine represents Christ's broken body, and his shed blood, Christ suffering for sinners. He is sacramentally crucified before our eyes in that ordinance. Now, if the bread and wine represents to us Christ's body broken for us, and his blood shed for us, it is meet that, in communicating, 1. We meditate believingly on these sufferings. 2. That our hearts be inflamed with love to him. 3. That they be filled with sorrow for and hatred of sin. Then,
1. They communicate unworthily, who do not in their partaking meditate believingly on the sufferings of Christ. Christ will ask that question at communicants, Matthew 16:15. 'Whom say you that I am?' And I would ask beforehand, Do you believe that Jesus the Son of Mary, who was crucified between two thieves without the gates of Jerusalem, was the Son of God, the only Savior of the world, and that Christ? Do you believe that Christ suffered? If you do indeed believe it aright, I say, as Matthew 16:17. 'Blessed are you: for flesh and blood has not revealed it unto you, but Christ's Father which is in Heaven.' And sure I am, if you do believe, you cannot shun to meditate on it at the sacrament. This wonderful sight will dazzle your eyes; a sight of God suffering will blind your eyes as to other objects, and make you retire into yourself, to see and wonder, and with admiration to think on this terrible sight. Do they not act most unworthily here who are not thus taken up? What would you have said of Moses, had he not turned aside to see that great sight, the bush burning, yet not consumed? Exodus 3. Had you been on Mount Calvary, within hearing of Christ's dying groans, within sight of his pierced, mangled, and racked body, and had unconcernedly turned your back, and passed all without notice, would you not say, he had been just had he turned you off that place quick into Hell? Here you have the same sight; and if you behold it unconcernedly, you act a most unworthy part, and oppose yourselves to the most direful effects of his vengeance.
2. Who communicate without love to Christ in exercise. He is represented a king's son in love with a beggar, loving her, and dying for her. O miserable miscreant! does not this affect your heart, who are this beggar? Can there be greater love? John 15:13. What hellish cold has frozen your affections, that this fire cannot warm, nay, melt them! What a heart of a devil have you, that Christ, in his glorious apparel, his red garments, cannot captivate. Be astonished, O heavens, be horribly afraid; tremble, O earth; rend, O rocks; be struck blind, O glorious sun in the firmament, when you see the communicants sitting without love to Christ, when he is sacramentally lying before them, broken, wounded, and pierced with the envenomed arrows of God's curse, and all for them!
3. Who communicate impenitently. Have you pierced him? How unworthy will you be, if you do not 'look upon him whom you have pierced, and mourn for him, as one mourns for an only son, and be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first born,' Zechariah 12:10. Will you come to the table without the tear in your eye? O! unworthy communicants, what has petrified your hearts, turned you into stones harder than the adamant, which the blood of the goat will dissolve? Christ's dying groans rent the rocks, and raised and alarmed the dead; and will you sit stupid? Where sorrow for sin and hatred of it is wanting at a communiontable, there is eating and drinking judgment, which, when it begins to work within you, will make you mourn bitterly, either here or in Hell.
Fourthly, Consider the bread and the wine is offered and given to you at the table of the Lord, in token of Christ's offering himself to you, with all his benefits, 1 Corinthians 10:16; and your taking both, eating and drinking, declares your acceptance of the offer and application of Christ to your souls. Surely then it is meet, 1. That you believe that Christ is willing to be yours. 2. That you do sincerely and cordially accept of the offer.
1. They are unworthy communicants who partake doubting of Christ's willingness to be theirs, with all his saving benefits. Will you not believe him when he gives you a sealed declaration of his mind? To doubt of this, is to say he is but mocking and solemnly cheating you; so that no wonder we say 'He who doubts is damned if he eat.' What though you be most unworthy? he stands not on that. Though your sins be many, the sea of his blood can drain them all, Isaiah 1:18. Micah 7:18. If the devil get in thus far on you, it will be an error in the first concoction; and until you get over it, it is impossible to communicate aright, or get good of the sacrament.
2. Who taking the elements, yet do not take Christ by faith. Then it may be said, as John 1:11. 'He came unto his own, and his own received him not.' Is the bread or cup offered to you, then? by that Christ says, 'Lift up your heads, O you gates, and be you lift up, you everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in, Psalm 24:7. Therefore we ought to set our hearts wide open, clasp him in the arms of faith, embrace and welcome him into our souls. To take the bread in your mouths, and yet to hold Christ out of your hearts, is to put a solemn cheat upon the King of glory, which will bring upon you the curse of the deceiver, Malachi 1:14. 'Which has in his flock a male, and vows and sacrifices unto the Lord a corrupt thing;' and the cheat will be discovered, if you repent not, before the whole assembled world at the great day, to your everlasting confusion. This is to betray Christ, with a witness. Either, then, meddle not with these sacramental symbols, or take him by faith, And if you take him, you must let your lusts go.
Fifthly, Consider this ordinance is a seal of the new covenant, 1 Corinthians 11:25. 'This cup is the new testament in my blood.' Christ has covenanted and left in his testament to his people all things necessary for them. His word in itself is sufficient security; but guilt is a fountain of fears; and we are guilty, and therefore fearful souls. And therefore, that it may be more sure to us, he has appended this seal. It is meet then, 1. That they be in the covenant who partake. 2. That we take the sacrament as a seal of God's covenant to us. 3. That we believe more firmly.
1. They are unworthy communicants who are not in covenant with God, and yet come to his table. It is a profaning of God's seal to set it to a blank. It is a feast for friends, not for enemies, Canticles 5:1; and if you come in a state of enmity, you can expect no kind entertainment; 'For can two walk together except they be agreed?' Amos 3:3; yes, you will get a sad welcome such as the man got who wanted the wedding-garment, Matthew 22:11, 12. If there be not a mutual consent, it is no marriage: and if there be no marriage, you have nothing ado with the marriage-feast.
2. They that use it as a seal of their covenant with God, and not of God's covenant with them. Surely the sacrament is an obligatory ordinance to obedience; but this is not the principal end of it, but rather to be a seal of God's covenant with us. The reason why so many afterwards appear to have been unworthy communicants, is, that they go to that ordinance rather to oblige themselves to obedience, than to get a full covenant sealed to them for obedience. All our strength lies in Christ; and worthy communicants go to Christ in the sacrament to get influences of grace secured to them under his own seal, that they may in time of need afterwards know what quarter to betake themselves to for supply.
3. They whose faith of the benefits of the covenant is not more confirmed. This is to sit down at the table, but not to taste of the meat that is set thereon. Why does the Lord give us such encouragement, and yet we grow never a whit stronger in faith; and though he give us new confirmations, yet we have never a whit more confidence in him? Would not a man think himself affronted to be thus treated?
Sixthly, Consider this ordinance is appointed for strengthening our souls, for the nourishing of the Lord's people, and their growth in grace. It is a supper, a feast where Christ is both maker and matter, whose flesh is meat indeed, and whose blood is drink indeed. The Lord's people must needs have food to nourish the new man, and grace will decay unless it be recruited. If this be so, then it is meet, 1. That communicants be spiritually alive. 2. That they actually feed spiritually at this holy table.
1. Graceless souls must needs communicate unworthily. Where there is no grace there can be no strengthening of it. There can be no communion between a holy God and an unholy sinner, Proverbs 15:8. God will not make Nebuchadnezzar's image of mystical Christ. We must be born from above before we can be capable to feed on Heaven's dainties. It was the custom of Egypt, not of Canaan, to bring dead men to feasts. They are rather to be buried out of God's sight. An unregenerate soul at the Lord's table is a monster that has not a hand to take his meat, nor a mouth to eat it, nor a stomach to digest it, Hebrews 11:6; and all that can be expected, is, that he will come away twice dead. Therefore, 'examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith; prove your own selves: don't you know your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except you be reprobates?' 2 Corinthians 13:5.
2. They that do not actually feed at this table; for which cause grace in exercise is necessary. He is an unworthy guest that does not eat his meat. It is dangerous to be in a spiritual sleep at the Lord's table; therefore the church prays, Psalm 80:18. 'Quicken us, and we will call upon your name.' Now, the food set before us there is Christ's body and blood, John 6:55; that is, Christ himself as crucified for our sins. By faith we feed upon him; faith realizes the sufferings of Christ; it looks upon Christ as the common treasury of all grace, as the principle of life, and root of holiness. It eyes the promise for the conveyance of grace into our souls; looks on the sacrament as the golden pipes conveying the golden oil; and thus applies Christ, his merits and benefits to the soul, getting into his wounds, the clefts of that rock that was smitten to give nourishment.
Seventhly, It is appointed for the remembrance of Christ. Christ is gone to Heaven; and his people are apt to forget him. This ordinance is a memorial of his death, and herein he is to be remembered. If so, then it is meet, 1. That they who sit down at his table know him; for there can be no remembering without knowledge of and acquaintance with him. 2. That he be remembered gratefully.
1. Those partake unworthily who are ignorant persons, and are unacquainted with Christ. Those that have been always blind, cannot remember the light. Ignorant souls will, as blind men, deal blows at the Lord's table, making themselves guilty of the body and blood of Christ. It is not only necessary that we have the knowledge of the principles of religion, but that we be taught the same by the Spirit, and in conversion be acquainted with the Master of this feast. Ignorant people cannot discern the Lord's body.
2. Who do not remember him affectionately. To remember his dying love is our great work; to remember how seasonably he undertook the work of saving sinners, Psalm 40:7; how faithfully he performed all, how willingly and constantly he obeyed and suffered. What do men sit down at the Lord's table for, if they neglect this? And this cannot be done aright, but the soul will be suitably affected.
Lastly, It is appointed to be a sign and token of the communion of saints, to signify, not only our communion with Christ, but with one another; not only our union with Christ, by faith, but with one another by love, 1 Corinthians 10:17. It is meet, then, that we sit down at this table in love.
They partake, then, unworthily who sit down at this table with malice and envy in their hearts against others, Matthew 5:24, 25. If we forgive not others their injuries to us, God will not forgive us. This leaven must be purged out, if you would be a holy lump. Some will make a fashion of reconciliation before the sacrament; and when that is over, they are just as they were before: but God will not be mocked.
II. The next general head is to show, what judgments unworthy communicating exposes people to. It exposes them,
1. To bodily strokes, as the Corinthians felt, 1 Corinthians 11:30. 'For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. One falls into a decay of strength, another takes sickness after a communion, another slips off the stage. Some give one reason for it, and some another. But, O! unworthy communicating is often the procuring cause of all. What a dreadful distemper seized Belshazzar when he was abusing the vessels of the temple! Daniel 5; but the sin of unworthy communicating is more dreadful.
2. To spiritual strokes, strokes upon the soul, blindness of mind, hardness of heart, searedness of conscience, etc. The Lord will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain; he will let guilt lie on him. Hence some after communions are let fall into scandalous sins; some meet with greater darkness and deadness than ever before, and some with sharp desertions.
3. To eternal strokes. As to such as are out of Christ, unworthy communicating will damn them, as well as gross sins in the life and outward conversation, and no doubt will make a hotter Hell than that of Pagans. Murder is a crying sin, but the murder of the Son of God is most dreadful, and the Mediator's vengeance is most terrible.
And they are said to eat and drink judgment to themselves; which I conceive, imports,
1. That the hurt which comes by unworthy communicating comes upon the person himself, not on Christ, whose body and blood he is guilty of; for themselves has a relation not to others, but to Christ. They may eat judgment to ministers and fellow communicants, if they have a sinful hand in bringing them to the table. Only, though the slight is given to Christ, yet it rebounds upon the man himself, and lies heavy on him with its consequences. They do interpretatively murder Christ, in so far as they abuse the symbols of his broken body and shed blood; but they can do him no harm; they kick against the pricks, which run into their bodies and souls.
2. That they themselves are the authors of their own ruin. They take their death with their own hand, like a man that willfully drinks of a cup of poison, and so murder their own souls. And O what a dreadful thing is this for a man to perish by his own hands!
3. That they shall be as sure of judgment upon them for their sin, if repentance prevent it not, and cut the thread, as they are of the sacramental bread they eat, and the wine they drink. Death is in the cup to them, and it will go down with the elements into their affections.
USE. Beware then of unworthy communicating. Profane not the holy things of God by your rash approaches to this ordinance. If the love of the Lord Jesus will not allure you to a conscientious performance of this duty in a holy manner, let the terror of God affright you. Behold life and death are set before you. Venture not on the sword point of vengeance, even the vengeance of his temple. O sinner! hold your hand. Do not wound the Lord of glory, and bring innocent blood on your head. O wound not your own souls with the wound of an enemy! Provoke not God to give you blood to drink.
Objection 1. We had better refrain than run such a risk. Ans. If you cannot think on parting with your lusts, but you must either communicate keeping them still, or not at all, then assure yourselves, God will avenge this contempt of himself and his Son upon you, and you shall fall into the hands of the living God through eternity, Luke 19:27. If you think of being better disposed afterwards, you deceive yourselves; for the longer you keep your sins, it will be the harder to part with them. And who knows if ever your eyes may see another such occasion? But if you mind to part with your sins now, and be in earnest for communion with God in that ordinance, then you will make conscience of, and sincerely endeavor worthy communicating, which will be accepted; for it is a gospel, not a legal fitness, that we urge.
Objection 2. But that terror confounds me when I think of approaching the Lord's table, lest he be provoked to strike me dead on the spot, or I get my damnation sealed. Ans. Satan labors either to make us feed without fear, or else to fear so as we cannot feed. But look you to God through the veil of the flesh of Christ, and so you will see an atoned and pacified God. If such fear seize you, then acknowledge God is just if he should do to you as you fear: but because you need a Savior, and he has commanded you to accept of him, take him, though with a trembling hand; and having nothing to bring with you, come to get all. Say, Lord, if you should confound me before all the people, you are just; but I plead mercy through Christ; and if you will give me your grace, I am content to be a monument of grace. I have nothing, but I am content to be your debtor for all. And so you will find a reviving.
I shall only say, 1. Examine yourselves as to your state, your frame, your graces, your wants, etc. and know how matters stand with you. Take a look of your former ways, and turn to the Lord with your whole heart.
2. Put away the strange gods that are among you. Look what sin has been indulged, and let this be the parting time; for one leak will sink the ship, Psalm 66:18.
3. Employ Christ for suitable preparation. Use the means, but look to him alone for the blessing.
4. Lastly, Do this work that you would do if you were to die on the communion-sabbath. In death we go to Christ, in the sacrament he comes to us: and who knows but some of us may get our provision there for another world, either in mercy or in wrath? But happy they who set themselves for dying furniture.
I have put Boston's section on "The Lord's Prayer" on its own page.