Works, Book 1 · Discourse 46
DISCOURSE XLVI.
1 COR. 10. 5.
But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the Wilderness.
THIS verse consists of two parts. 1. The condition under which the unworthy eaters of Manna and drinkers of the Rock Spiritual were; and consequently of the unworthy receivers of the Sacrament of the Body and Bloud of Christ: forasmuch as they ate the same Spiritual meat, and drank the same spiritual drink which we do. This their condition is said to be Of those with whom God is not well-pleased: For with many of them (saith my Text) God was not well-pleased. 2. The second thing here is, The danger of those unworthy receivers in regard of the punishment which followed them; For they were overthrown (saith our Apostle) in the Wilderness.
To speak of the first; I will consider the words first in general, and after in special, as they specially concern the receivers of the holy Seals of God.1 Cor. 10. 5. In general therefore it is to be observed, That it is the greatest degree and measure of unhappiness and misery in the world to be out of the favour of God, or to be one of those with whom God is not well pleased: For our Apostle here intending no other thing but to express a wretched and unhappy condition, utters it in this Phrase, of being such with whom God is not well pleased. This comprehends in it so much misery, that the very naming of it he thought was sufficient to make the Corinthians fear and tremble, when they should consider of that Spiritual Table, of that tremendum Mysterium, as the Fathers call it; and not to handle it with rash and unholy hands at the first, or to diet themselves afterward, upon so heavenly a receipt, with …usting after evil things.
How vain therefore is the opinion and practice of worldlings, who esteem the favour of men and worldly reputation the highest pitch of Blessedness; who are ambitious of no other Happiness but this; and lastly, who spend their time, their care, their means, nay lose (at least hazard) the favour of God it self, to compass the favour and esteem of men; who admire none but those who have gotten this! But alas! there is no happiness at all but to be of those foreign, in whom God is well pleased, to be in esteem and reputation with God through Iesus Christ, *Matt. 3. 17.in whom alone he is well pleased. All Happiness without this is no better than extreme misery: Nay this supposed and so much desired happiness of being in reputation with the world is so far from making the owner happy, that the earnest seeking and desire thereof is incompatible with the state of true Happiness indeed. For so I think our Apostle would be understood, Gal. 1. 10. If I pleased men (saith he,) I should not be the servant of Christ. Hence foreign, men-pleasers, in our Apostle's style, are opposed elsewhere unto foreign the servants of Christ, (Ephes. 6. 6. Not as men-pleasers, but as servants of Christ;) and to foreign those that fear God, Col. 3. 22. as though foreign & foreign, men-pleasers and God-pleasers, could not stand together, according to that our Saviour also saith Iohn 5. 44. How can ye believe (saith our Saviour) which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour which cometh from God only?
All this notwithstanding, I suppose is to be understood of high prising of the favour of men, with a neglect of the favour of God in regard thereof: which though it may seem at the first sight a most unreasonable sin, and such as no man should be guilty of; yet is it so common and so usual, that it hath gotten to be enthroned in Wisdom's chair; and many Aarons there be which worship this C…; many who would seem wise, which are over head and ears in this folly: For it is no unusual thing to hear men excuse their neglect of pleasing God, by alledging that otherwise they must have fallen into the displeasure and disesteem of men.
Otherwise, who knows not that there are things wherein men may be lawfully pleased, such as are things indifferent, especially if it may work a further good? And therefore in these S. Paul will confess that himself had studied to please all men; and willeth others to do the like, Rom. 15. 2. Let every one of us please his Neighbour for his good to edification; Vers. 32.and in this Chapter, Give no offence, neither to the Iews, not to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God. But we are not so much sick of this as of a worse disease; we deal as is reported of him in the Fable, who offered his God the shells, and kept the kernels unto himself: in trifles and things of small moment we vouchsafe God our service and obedience; but as for main matters, because they concern us so deeply and nearly, here God must be content to want our duty; whilst we apply our selves in all our words and actions as may most likely gain us the favour and good opinion of men, though hereby we earnestly run into this incomparable misery to be one of those with whom God is not well pleased.
AND thus much for the general consideration of these words. The special (which now I come to) is, That the unworthy Receivers of the Sacraments are in the number of those men with whom God is not well pleased. Of unworthy Receiving and Receivers I make two; the one à parte antè, by undue preparation, the other à parte pòst, by unholy demeanour and conversation afterward. The former is unworthy to approach this Table at all, the other to have approached it. And of both these were the Fathers in the Wilderness guilty: For Manna being both their ordinary and sacred Food, their unholy and lustful demeanor upon the former eating made them continually unprepared Receivers for the future. And so it is with us, An unholy life upon the first receiving is a great part of our unworthiness for the second; yea more unworthy are we then made than we had been upon the like conversation at the beginning: For to have broken so solemn a Promise to God as we bound our selves in at the first time, doubles our sin; and to have already abused so precious and gracious a gift which God then gave us, makes us doubly unworthy ever to find the like favour any more. As in Physick for the body a Preparative is required before, and a good and careful diet to be observed after; so is it here: as also a distempered diet after Physick received will do more hurt than it would before; so is it here.
Now because it is Sin which makes us lose the favour of God, and it alone which makes him not well pleased with us; that we may behold how justly God's displeasure is kindled by this unworthy Receiving, let us a while consider wherein the Sin thereof consisteth: which will appear
1. In the correspondence of the Receiver and the thing received. It is written Deut. 22. 9, 10. Thou *So in Levit. 19. 19. Thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed.shalt not sow thy Vineyard with diverse kinds of seeds; Thou shalt not plough with an Ox and an Ass together: Whereby it appears, That God Almighty loves not to have things unsutable and incompatible joyned together; it is an unpleasing spectacle unto him. But*2 Cor. 6. 14. what fellowship hath light with darkness? what agreement between the holy Sacrament and a prophane heart? who will put precious water into filthy vessels, or wholesome wine into foul casks? It is the ground of Ioshua's speech (Iosh. 24. 19.) to the children of Israel, You cannot serve the Lord, (saith he) for he is a holy God; that is, whilst you are wicked, the Righteous Lord who loveth Righteousness will not accept of your services. Again, Almighty God hath ever required a correspondence between his holy Ordinances and those who were to be partakers of them. Thus the Shew-bread was appointed only for*Levit. 24. 9. Aaron and his Sons, because they were holy; the*Ch. 6. 25, 26. Trespass and *Ch. 7. 6.Sin-offering must be eaten in the holy Place, because it was most holy. The same thing is implied by our Saviour's proverbial precept,Matt. 7. 6. Give not that which is holy unto the Dogs. And which of us all would not be offended at a Dog, if we should see him devour the meat appointed for our Childrens Diet? Even such in God's account, and no better, are wicked persons. Beware of Dogs, beware of Evil-workers, saith S. Paul, Phil. 3. 2. and Apocal. 22. 15. Without the City of God are Dogs, Sorcerers, Whoremongers, &c. Now we know (Exod. 19. 13.) that no Beast might touch the Mountain when the Lord appeared on Mount Sinai: So none of those whom God accounts in the number of Beasts (as all who have beastly affections) may approch in Christ's presence, or come unto his Table. Wherefore, as God saith, Be ye holy, because I am holy; so may it be said unto all communicants,Lev. 11. 44, &c. Be ye holy, because the Sacrament is holy. Whence it was a worthy custome in the ancient Churches for the Bishop or Deacon to proclaim at the holy Communion foreign, Holy things for them that are holy, holding in his hand the holy Sacrament. And good reason why; For where this holiness is not, there, in stead of comfort, the Heart is more and more corrupted. Even as the Spider gets strength of poison from the sweetest herbs and flowers; so the prophane Heart is strengthened in wickedness by receiving this holy and heavenly Food.
2. The hainousness of this sin is aggravated in respect of the thing received: 1 Cor. 11. 27.for our Apostle elsewhere saith, The unworthy receiver becomes guilty of the Body and Bloud of Christ; that is, he is guilty of offering contumely, injury and indignity unto him. S. Paul, when he disswades Husbands from misusing their Wives, gives this for a reason, Eph. 5. 29.No man ever yet hated his own flesh: And may not I reason thus, Let no man offer injury unto Christ, because he is flesh of our flesh? yea he is our Head, and a wound or maim given to the Head is more odious and dangerous than to another part. To offer violence to a common person, is a fault; to strike a Magistrate, a greater; but to wound a King, who is the Lord's Anointed, is a sin in the highest degree. O what a hainous sin is it then to offer violence to, and as much as in us lies to strike and wound the Son of God, the King of Kings and the Lord of Glory!
To be guilty of death and shedding of the bloud of any innocent man, is a fearful sin;Psal. 51. 14. and this made David cry out, Deliver me, O Lord, from bloud-guiltiness. How fearful is it then to be guilty of the Body and Bloud of Christ! Whose heart is not moved against the Iews, when he hears or reads their villanies and violence offered to our Blessed Saviour? But Chrysostome gives us a good Take-heed, Take heed (saith he) lest thou be guilty in the like kind, by unworthy receiving of the blessed Sacrament: He that defiles the King's body, and he that tears it, offend both alike; The Iews tore it, thou defilest it. Here are (saith the same Father) diversa peccata, sed par contumelia; some difference of the sin, but none of the contumely therein offered.
Ioseph and Nicodemus their pious devotion in begging and embalming the Body of Christ is worthily recorded and commended to all generations;2 Cor. 10. 5. Mary Magdalene in bestowing that box of precious oyntment upon his holy head hath gained to her self endless honour, in stead of her former infamy: So if receive and handle worthily this Mystical Body of Christ, our portion shall be with honourable Ioseph and pious Mary Magdalene; our memories shall be as theirs, blessed, and our Souls as theirs, to receive unspeakable comfort: but if we come unworthily, we joyn with Iudas and the Iews, and are guilty, as they were, of the Body and Bloud of Christ.
AND thus much of the first thing I propounded, The state of unworthy Receivers of these holy Mysteries, that they are men in whom God hath no pleasure and therefore woful and lamentable. The second thing now to be spoken of is, The danger of such unworthy Receivers in regard of the Punishment which followeth them: which as concerning the Fathers, my Text saith, was, That they fell, or were overthrown in the Wilderness. In the back or outside of which words appeareth only a Temporal Punishment, which kind seemeth not so appliable in the times of the Gospel as it was in time of the Law. Howsoever we see in the general, That it is true that the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain; Iudgment shall selfe either here, or at least hereafter, upon all prophaners and misreceivers of those Sacred pledges, upon which is called the Name of Christ our Saviour and Redeemer.
But for the kinds of these punishments, whether Temporal only, or Eternal, or both; I answer, The Fathers under the Law had Temporal as well as Eternal; we in the Gospel chiefly Eternal, and yet sometimes Temporal.
That ours are chiefly eternal or of the life to come, the words of our Apostle elsewhere shew evidently,1 Cor 11. 29. Whosoever eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh his own damnation. This is certain, and this is more than all the torments, pains and miseries that this world hath, though Phalaris and his Craftsmaster were alive again to invent new ones. No tongue is able to express, no heart is able to conceive the woe and miseries which the damned Soul in Hell is subject unto, which are as endless as they are easeless. And though this be great enough, yet hath not (nor is) the unworthy Receiver always been freed from suffering something even in this life. We know the Apostle would have the Corinthians take notice of the Wrath of God upon divers of them, for receiving the Sacrament unworthily. For this cause (saith he) are many sick and weak amongst you, and many are fallen asleep. 1 Cor. 11. 3….Indeed Fathers correct not their children at riper years after the same fashion they did when they were young and little: So hath God not the same Discipline under the Gospel which he had under the Pedagogi… of the Law, as Chrysostome saith; he doth not so often scourge offenders with the rods of Temporal chastisements, but rather reserves for them Eternal torments; yet who doubts but the hand of God is upon many unworthy Communicants, even by sorrow, sickness, death, and sundry other chastisements of this life?
But for the times under the Law, the words of my Text speaking of being overthrown in the Wilderness, would seem to imply there was no further thing which befell the unworthy eaters of Manna in the Wilderness, and so our Apostle's argument from hence should infer no more to us in the times of the Gospel.
For answer hereunto, I must call to mind something which I have spoken heretofore, namely, That under the Law Spiritual blessings were enwrapped in corporal, and conveyed under and with them as it were in pledges; which made the Iew so highly to esteem of worldly prosperities, and of those who enjoyed them, as accounting them God's special Favorites. So also were Spiritual and Everlasting plagues hidden under the curtains of Temporal judgments; which were to those upon whom they fell as woful pledges of them, and therefore made the Iew account them accursed who were overwhelmed with worldly adversities. To come therefore to the words of my Text: Canaan was a Type and Pledge of the Heavenly habitation; The Wilderness signified our Pilgrimage in this wild, ragged, rocky and barren world; To fell in the Wilderness was a wofull sign of falling short of the Heavenly Canaan, and deprival of Eternal life; those who fell there, especially upon occasion of sin, being such as to whom God sware in his wrath, Psal. 95. 11.that they should not enter into his rest; as it is in the Psalm we say every morning. Thus we see how the unworthy eaters of the holy Mysteries in the Wilderness were not only liable to plagues in this life, but that those plagues served them as Seals of their condemnation in the world to come; and therefore if we also eat the same Spiritual meat, and drink the same Spiritual drink unworthily, we shall eat and drink our own condemnation.
Having thus seen the wretched condition and woful danger of those who come unworthily to this Spiritual Table; the serious consideration hereof may stand up like the Angel with the flaming sword, to keep every Adam from eating of the tree of Life. It should make every one tremble who approacheth the Lord's Table with unwashed hands, I mean, a foul conscience: whose hearts are full of wickedness, whose heads full of ungodly imaginations, and their hands defiled with wicked actions,2 Kings 9. 22. how unworthy are they to come at this holy Banquet! As Iehu said to Iehoram, What hast thou to do with peace? So may I say here, What have those to do with the Sacrament, the Mystery of peace? Indeed the Sacrament is a Robe to cover the repenting sinner, but no cloak to a prophane Receiver of it: such a one shall find it like the forbidden fruit of Paradise, the bane of the Eater; and like a fair bait swallowed with a deadly hook, the death of the Receiver.
Who being guilty, would drink of that cursed water (Numb. 5. 22.) which made the thigh to rot and the belly to swell? and who being guilty of gross sin, will dare without Repentance to take that Sacrament which shall make him guilty of the Body and Bloud of Christ, and become an occasion of his condemnation?
It is a pitiful thing when the Psalmist's curse befalls any,Psal. 69. 22. Let their Table be a snare: But that this holy Table should become a snare to a Christian soul, is more than lamentable.Matth. 26. 24. Our Saviour said of Iudas, It had been good for him if he had never been born; and so may we say of such, It had been better they had never been Receivers of this holy Sacrament, for, alas! they have eaten and drank their own damnation: they had better have eaten some venemous thing, or drank some deadly poison; for it would only have killed the body, but by eating and drinking the Sacrament unworthily they have damned and destroyed both soul and body for ever.
Lastly, This danger may admonish every one of us to come worthily unto this Sacrament: For as Manna was unto ev…y man's taste according to his will, (as*In Ep. 118. In primo populo unicuique Manna secundum propriam voluntatem in ore sapiebat. See this emphatically expressed in Wisdom 16. 20, 21 S. Austin will have it;) so is the Sacrament to every one according to his worthiness. As therefore the Chamber was trimmed wherein our Saviour kept his Passeover, and ordained his holy Manna; so should be Chamber of every Christian soul be cleansed from wickedness and adorned with Grace that comes to receive Christ in this Sacrament. The washing of the Disciples feet afore Supper, what doth it else call for but a cleansing of our hearts before we communicate? We are unwilling that men should see us come to this Table with foul hands; and should we not be more careful lest God should see us come with foul hearts.
It will not be enough to say to our Saviour with them in the Gospel,*Luke 13. 26. We have eaten and drank in thy company, we have been at thy Table: We must come thither as we should. For as corporal food doth rather hurt than nourish a body abounding with evil humors: So the Soul being fraught with vices, this heavenly food rather killeth than comforts it. As Adam in the state of his Integrity might freely take and taste of all the Trees in the Garden, (one only excepted,) but after his transgression he was justly restrained: So doth the Lord admit us unto his Table, if we come worthily; otherwise we are no welcome guests unto him. Therefore as it was said to Moses when he came near the presence of God,Exod. 3. 5. Pluck off thy shooes, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground: So let all of us put off the shooes of our corruptions, and then we may approach with comfort to the holy Table of the Lord.