The Badges of Christianity, Book 3 · Chapter 15
Chap. 15. Of examination before the Lords supper.
WHat the Supper of the Lord is, what are the parts and vses thereof, and what an heauenly banket it is for al worthy receiuers, hath hitherto bene sufficiently declared now it followeth to set downe aExamination necessarie before wee come to the Lords table.the way and means how we may come …. For the whole fruit of this Sacrament standeth in the right partaking thereof. The right manner standeth in preparing ourselues to come, and in examining ourselues before we come. No great thing can bee done well, without good care and endeuour. In all humane bCicer. de offic. lib. 1things of any importance, nothing is attempted or atchiued without some preparation more or lesse going before, according to the nature of the matter. Before men sit downe to eat or drinke their ordinary food, before they sleepe, before they wash, before they walke, before they work, some preparation goeth before. Before cIerem. 4, 4the ground is tilled, it is prpared. Before the dExod. 19, 10law was deliuered, before the Saboth was sanctified, before the sacrifice was offered, before the Passeouer was killed, before the worde was receiued, before prayers were vttered, the heart was in some sort prepard. One of the greatest duties required of vsus, is to dy well: whereunto all our life should be a preparation, and eueryevery day should be a meditation of death, that we may not be found vnready and vnprepared eMath. 25, 13when the bridegroome shall come. So the Supper of the Lord being an excellent misterie and the food of our soules, whereby we receiue Christs body and blood: there is required of eueryevery one, a trying, prouing, and examining themselues, least, seeking comfort by their comming, they bring vponupon themselues iudgement through want of preparing. This trueth deliuered, hath the witnesse and consent p2 Chr. 35. 6of many Scriptures for the confirmation thereof. The Prophet 2. Chron. 35. saith, Kill the passeouer, and sanctifie your selues, and prepare your Brethren, that they may do according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses. And the holy man Iob, when the daies of the banketting of his children were gone about, sent and sanctified them, and rose vp earely in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. Also the wiseman …. 4. Take heede to thy foote when thou enterest into the house of God, and be more neare to heare, then to giuegive the sacrifice of fooles, for they know not that they do euill. Likewise the prophet Ieremy, Lament. 3. Wherefore is the liuing man sorrowfull? Man suffereth for his sinne: let vsus search and try our waies, and turne againe to the Lord. To the same purpose the prophet Dauid saith, Psal. 4. Tremble and sinne not, examine your owne heart vponupon your bed and be still: and Psal. 119. I hauehave considered my waies, and turned my feete into thy testimonies. The Apostle Paule is very direct in this point, as Gal. 6. 4. Let eueryevery man proue his owne worke: and then shall he hauehave reioycing in himselfe onelyonly, and not in any other. Also 1 Cor 11. Let a man examine himselfe, and so let him eate of this bread, and drinke of this cup: where he speaketh of purpose of the Lordes Supper. So then, it is a duty required of all persons that come to the Lordes Table, or any other exercise of religion, to search their owne heartes and consciences narrowly, how they bee affected and disposed touching the discharge of this duty.
And if wee would farther consider the necessity of this examination: we fhould finde it standeth vponupon many sufficient gReasons of this duty of Examinationreasons and causes as vponupon certaine foundations that cannot be remoued. Doe we not see men when they come into the presence of some honourable and Noble person, hGen. 41, 14to addresse themselues to doe it with all renerence? Ioseph being sent for, to come before Pharaoh King of Egypt, shaued his hed, and changed his raiment: and pro, 23. When thou sittest downe with a ruler at meate, consider diligently what is before thee. Therefore, when wee sit at the Lordes table to sup with him, and are admitted to be his welcome ghuests: we ought much more to be caresul to sanctifie our soules with al solemnity. Consider with me a little our own practise. We will not put our ordinary meates in a dish vnwashed, nor our common drinks into a cup vnclensed: and shall we put the signes of bread and Wine which are chosen instruments to conueigh Christ vntounto vsus, into vnsanctisied soules, vnprepared heartes, and … consciences? Doth not our sauiour Christ reproue such hy pocrisie, when he saith, iMatth. 16, 3Ye can discerne the face of the skie; and … you not discerne the signes of the times? And if that vpper chamber, wher the supper was first administred, were trimmed and garnished: should not our hearts be prepared, into the which it is receiued? Shall Christ himselfe offer to come into our houses: and shal not we sanctifie our harts to entertain such a ghest? This were to great carelesnesse and contempt.
Moreouer, waigh with me the profit that commeth to our selues to moue vsus to this examination. The comfort is great, the fruite is excellent, the benifit is vnspeakeable to those that partake the mystery of the Supper worthily, they receiue christ, they receiue remission of sinnes, they receiue saluation, they receiue assurance of eternall life. For, if the woman diseased kMath 9, 20with an yssue of blood, loe twelue yeare, comming behind Christ and touched onelyonly the hemme of his garment, was made whole: then assuredly the spirituall receiuing of the body and blood of christ shal not bring lesse profit, if the faith be equall, which notwithstanding is wholly lost without preparation. Ponder with me also how by neglect of this triall of our selues, not onelyonly this profit is lost, but the Sacrament it selfe is after a sort defiled. For, howsoeuer it be in it selfe by the ordinance of God an holy and heauenly banket, yet to the vngodly, vnregenerate, and vnsanctified, it becommeth vnholy and wholly earthly, lHag. 2, 14as the prophet Haggai teacheth, Chapter 2. If a polluted person touch an holy thing, it shall be vncleane. The person must be holy that will hauehave sound profit by the holy thinges of God: the man that is vnholy, defileth every thing he toucheth, the polluted Person polluteth all thinges. For as, to mTit. 1, i5the pure all thinges are pure, but vntounto them that are defiled and vnbeleeuing is nothing pure, but euen their mindes and consciences are corrupted: so the prophane Person defileth all thinges, and turneth wholesome meate into noysome poyson. We must therefore vse sanctifyed thinges with sanctfyed hearts: and for spirituall meate we hauehave spirituall vessels.
Furthermore, marke the great danger & punishment that is procured and purchased by this want of preparation. For, the vn worthie receiuer is guilty n1 Cor. …, 27of the body and blood of Christ as the Apostle specifieth, 1 cor, xi. Whosoeuer shall eate this bread, and drinke the cup of the lord vnworthily, shall be guiltie of the body and blood of the Lord. And againe, He that eateth and drinketh vnworthily, eateth and drinketh his own iudgement, because he … not the lords body: for this cause many are sick and weak among you, and manie sleepe. Where he teacheth, that such as come vnworthily, vnreuerently, and otherwise then such misteries should be handled, doe despise and treade vnderunder their feet Iesus Christ himselfe, prouoke the Lords …, and bring on themselues swift damnation. Not that he is carnally and bodily present, but because the reproache which is vsed in the signes, toucheth the bodie and bloode of Christ signified by them. Euen as if a man shoulde rent, disgrace, deface, spit vppon, tread and trample vnderunder his feet, and villanouslie abuse the image, seale, and letters patents of a Prince, he should be adiudged oRens Iae sae Maiestatis.guilty of a grieuous crime against the person of the Prince himselfe, not which hee receiueth but despiteth: so, such as come vnthankefully and vnworthily to this supper, are guilty of his body, not which they hauehave eaten, but which they hauehave refused and reiected being offered vntounto them, and therefore are guilty of their owne death, inasmuch as God with the signes offereth his owne sonne.
Wherefore seeing the presence of God moueth, seeing our owne profit perswadeth, seeing our owne practise furthereth, seeing the defiling of the Sacrament and the danger of vnworthy receiving teacheth, and lastly seeing our owne iudgement in humane affaires (when the daunger is not so great, nor the losse so certaine) cryeth out for this necessary preparation: it standeth vsus vponupon, before we enter into this holy worke (whereunto of our selues wee are more vnfit and vntounto warde, and which in it owne nature is most profitable) to set our selus before the Lord, who shal examine and iudge the quicke and the dead: to search into our owne wayes and to keepe a sessions in our own soules: to looke into our secret and hidden corruptions, how wee hauehave gone forward or backward in golinesse: to try whether we hauehave a knowledge, feeling, and disliking of our sinnes, and whether we hauehave any feare of Gods iudgments, or faith in his promises, or hope in his merciemercy: to iudge our selues, that we may not be iudged of the Lord: to labour to find out our speciall sinnes, striuing against them by earnest praier to God, and condemning them for euer in our selues. If we would thus iudge our selues, wee should not be condemned with the world. Let vsus be grieued for our naturall blindnes. Let vsus acknoledge confusion of faces to be due vntounto vsus. Let vsus deepely imprint in our owne harts the horror of our sins past and present. The more wee perceiue and discerne our own vnworthinesse, the greater shalbe our fitnes to come to this Sacrament: and the lesse we espy our owne imperfections, the more we incuire the danger of Gods iudgements. So then, to touch vsus with true …, and to break our stony hearts in pieces with remembrance of our daily offences, let vsus often meditate on the death and passion of Christ, who was forsaken, scorned, buffeted, and crucified for vsus: he was led as a lambe to the slaughter and shunned not the shame of the Crosse: then the powers of heauen & … wer moued, pMath. 27, 45Iudea was darkned, the earth quaked, the stones claue in sunder, the the graues opened, the Sunne was in the ful-moone eclipsed, the vaile of the temple was rent, the dead were raysed, the theese repented, the centurion glorified God, and the whole order of nature was changed. All these thinges … set before vsus the he inousnesse of our sins, and the greatnesse of gods wrath, which could not be appeased, but by crucifieng of the body and by shedding of the blood of Christ, which is represented to vsus, as in a glasse, in this Supper. Thus wee hauehave shewed by testimonies and effectuall reasons, that, as in the passe-ouer they were commanded to chuse them a lambe qExod. 12, 3on the tenth day, but to kill him on the fourteenth, so that they had 4. daies liberty betweene the separating and the killing of him, for preparation and sanctification of themselues: in like manner, in the supper, which is the same to vsus that the passe-ouer was to the …, the spirit of God chargeth this duty vponupon vsus, that we prepare our harts reuerently thereunto.
Now, as we hauehave seene the necessity of this examination: vse. 1.let vsus consider what vses are to be made thereof. Is it required of all communicants that come to the Lords table, … to examine themselues? Then from hence it follo weth, that all men are bound to know the word of God, and to be skilfull in the scripture, that thereby they … be able to try their owne hearts, and examine themselues by that rule. But if the rule be vnknowne, the tryall spoken off cannot be made, the examination commaunded cannot be practised. Especially there is required of vsus the knowledge in the doctrine of the law, not onelyonly to be able to rchearse the words, but to know the end and mcaning of them, the speciall branches of them, what are the duties commaunded, what are the sinnes condemned: for by rRom. 3, 20the law commeth the knowledge of sinne, and the Apostle had not knowne sinne, sRoman 7, 7but by the law: for hee had not knowne last, except the law had sayd, thou shait not lust. As then, he that will try Golde from copper, must hauehave his touch stone: so he that will rightly examine his obedience, must familiarly be acquainted with the Canon of the scriptures. This our Sauiour teacheth Ioh. 5. Search the scriptures, for in them ye thinke to hauehave eternalllife, and they are they which testisie of me.
… then we search them, they will giuegive vsus light to search our …. And the Apostle requireth the Colossians, tIohn 5, 39to hauehave the word of God dwell plentifully in them in al wisedome. Wherefore, he that said, examine your selues, ment we should also know the scriptures, and especially the law of God, which must be the glasse of our uColo 3, 16liues to behold our offences: and the very ground-worke of this examination.Iam 1, 23, 24
Againe, we are charged to try out our waies, and examine vse. 2our selues? Then we learne from hence, to acknowledge a difference between baptisme and the lords supper. For baptisme is due to the whole church, and eueryevery member thereof, whether old or young, to all infants, who are the children of faithful parents, that hauehave giuen their names to Christ, and are entred into the profession of the Gospell. And howsoeuer confession of faith & fruits of repentance, are required of the elder sorte, (as wee hauehave shewed) yet touching infants it is susficiēt if they be born in the church, of such as are members of the church. But the Supper of the Lord belongeth only to such as are able to examine themselues, to try their owne harts, and to remember his death, which things cannot agree with children. As we see in the passe-ouer, not all the children of the faithfull were admitted thereunto: but onelyonly such as could enquire and require a reason thereof, bExod, 12 26and did desire to be instructed of their parents, and such as had learned to make the law a frontlet before their eies, and a signe vponupon their hands, that so the doctrine of God might not depait out of their mouths. Besides, if we consider the outward workes in both the Sacraments aright, cThis ouerthroweth the opinion of Innocentius, Augustine, Musculus. & others, who teach it to be … and needfull that children be admitted to the Supper, Innocent. 1. epift. ad patr. concil. Mile. August. epist. 107 ad Vitalem. Muscul. loc. … de Euchar.we shall plainely see the truth of this diuersity. For, in Baptisme the action of the minister is to wash the body with water, which requireth not discretion in him that is to be baptized, fo rasmuch as we can clense and wash the things that are without reason, without vnderstanding, without sense, and without life. But in the sacrament of the supper, a reuerent giuing, an attentiue hearing, a certaine vnderstanding of that which is spoken, a wise receiuing and eating, and a carefull considering of whom to take, and what to take is required into the outward work: how much greater iudgement is required, to know that God the father giueth the body and blood of his sonne to be receiued by faith? Thus then, this examination maketh a distinction betweene both the sacramentes of the new testament, and sheweth, that it is not necessary to the saluation of infants, that they com to the Lords table.
Thirdly, seeing no man must presume to come thither without a serious examination of himselfe: it dFiue sorts of persons barred from the lords supperdebarreth from the Lords supper fiue sorts of persons, to wit, children, furious and mad men, ignorant persons, prophane persons, and all sorts of insidels. First of all, if there be a necessity of searching and trying our selues, it excludeth all infants and children in age, who vnderstand not what the holy spirit speaketh in this Sacrament, what God the father offereth, what the Sonne performeth, and what faith receiueth, they know not what it is to eate christ spiritually, and to be nourished by him effectually. Secondly, all foolish, furious, and mad men, being such as want the vse of naturally gifts of reason, wit, descretion and iudgement, the defect whereof, whatsoeuer they are in age and yeares, maketh them as children in gifts, not being able to examine themselues, are to be separated. Thirdlyly, howsoeuer many hauehave yeares of discretion, and the common vse of naturall gifts of vnderstanding: yet, if they neither hauehave the knowledge of God, nor the knowledge of themselues, nor the knowledge of the doctrine of the Sacramentes, and other fundamentall points of religion, they are not to be admitted but refused.
Fourthly, if they hauehave all these things, and want neither ripenesse of age, nor yeares of discretion, nor vse of reason, nor knowledge of the doctrine which is according to godlinesse: yet if they remaine prophane, vngodly, vnrepentant, stubborne, malicious, reuenging, open contemners of God, of godlinesse, and of his word, idolaters, adulterers, blasphemers, drunkards, and such in whom appeareth no amendment of life, these and such like are not interessed in this Sacrament.
Lastly, it excludeth and shutteth out all such as are without God in the world, all Atheists, Insidels, Turkes, Iewes, and Heretikes, all such as hauehave not yealded themselues to the Church of GOD, and hauehave not made profession, of their faith, and such as are worthily excommunicated from the Church by the power of the keies: Whereby we see, that al infants and children that want years, all furious and foolish persons that want the vse of reason, all blind and ignorant persons, that want the knowledge of God and of themselues, all vnrepentant persons that bring not with them faith and repentance, all infidels and vnbeleeuers with others that are out of the bosome of the church, are to bee kept backe from this Supper, being such as either cannot or will not submit themselues to this holy necessary duty of examination, thereby hauing no right or title to come to his table. For such as hauehave not the church to be their mother, cannot be nourished with this meate of the church, to wit, the Supper of the Lord.
Fourthly, if all persons are to prepare themselues to this Sacrament: then none are willingly and wilfully to abstain vse. 4and refraine from comming vntounto it. For as such sinne grieuously, who present themselues vnworthily to this blessed communion: so do they greatly offend on the other side, that ofset purpose absent themselues from this spirituall banket prouided for them. God is dishonored both these waies, as well by receiuing vnreuerently, as by abstayning carelesly from this Sacrament. For he lyeth vnderunder an heauy eIer. 48, 10curse deseruedly, that doth any of the Lords works negligently. Euen as the patient, which being sicke maketh no account of the dyet which the Physition hath prescribed, is no lesse blame worthy, then he that abuseth it disorderly, in as much as both sorts do it oftentimes to their danger and destruction: so is he no lesse faulty, that maketh that reckoning of the receit which the chiefe Physition of our soules the Lord Iesus hath appointed, then he that misuseth and misapplyeth the same, because both do it with great perill and hazzard to themselues. We know that such, as, being bidden fMatth. 22, 7by the King to the wedding of his Sonne, made light of it and refused to come, were destroyed as wel as he that, came without his wedding garment. We know when the word of God is preached, which is gRom. 1, 16the power of God to saluation to all that beleeue, such as absent themselues from the hearing of it, perish iustly, as wel as they that come without faith and repentance. We know when the passeouer was celebrated, such persons as were negligent to obserue and keepe the same according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses, were to be cut off from his people, hNum. 9, 13Because they brought not the offering of the Lord in his due season, they shal be are their sin. In like manner such as neglect to come to this communion, and abstaine from it, for feare of communicating vnworthily, depriue themselues of great comfort. And this is the very cut-throat of al godlines and religion. For why doe they not, by like proportion of reason, refrain from inuocation and calling vponupon the name of god, for feare of praying amisse? And why may they not absent themselues from hearing the word of God, fearing to hear amisse? So that if this pretence were a lawful warrant to abstaine from the Lords Supper for feare of vnworthy receiuing, we might bid all godlines farewel, in asmuch as it openeth a gap for men to abstaine from performing all duties of piety and godlines. Wherfore, let not such persons flatter themselues with vaine excuses and lying words that cannot profit, neither daube with vntempered morter, saying, we are vnworthy, we cannot come: rather let them labor to shake off their vnworthines, and to cast away iHeb. 12, 1euerything that presseth down, and the sin that hangethso fast on, that so they may be worthy receiuers. Let them not contemne the commaundement of christ which saith, take ye, eate ye, do this in remembrance of me. Christ hath commanded, we must obey: he saith, come: shall we be so vnthankfull to say, we will not come? He calleth, shall we not answer? He biddeth his ghests, shall we make excuses? He sendeth his messengers and prepareth his feast, shall we not prouide and prepare to eate thereof? He offereth himselfe vntounto vsus, shall we contemne the blessed remembrance of his death and passion, euen the price of our redemption, and shut our selues from the communion which the faithfull hauehave with him and one with another? So that wee are to perswade our owne hearts, that God is prouoked to anger, as well by negligence in abstaining, as by vnworthinesse in receiuing the Supper.