Sermons, Treatise · Chapter 24
CHAP. XXIV. That a Godly man may receive the Sacrament unworthily.
HAving ſhown you the qualifications of a worthy Communicant before-hand, and that the actual exerciſe of grace is requiſite at preſent for receiving worthily, I make this Obſervation.
§. 1.
That a man who is in a ſtate of grace, and ſo godly, may yet receive the Lords Supper unworthily, and without effect, not for want of habitual fitneſſe or qualification, but for want of the actual exerciſe of grace at preſent, or becauſe of ſome diſtempers which overtake and ſurpriſe him in the act of communicating. This Point it may be at firſt ſight looks ſtrangely, but upon conſideration will be found too true; For if we look back to the Paſſeover, we finde, that an Iſraelite circumciſed, and ſo qualified to eat the Paſſeover, yea a true Iſraelite might be unclean at the preſent time, and ſo uncapable of keeping it; And we have at home in this Text, an example and a proof of this Point. Theſe Corinthians are looked upon as, and ſuppoſed to be (and no doubt ſome of them were) godly and regenerate perſons, who yet contracted epidemical judgements upon them, Many ſick, weak, &c. and that for a ſinne they little thought of, their undue and unfit coming to the Lords Table; they are diſtinguiſht from the world, verſ. 32, Of whom its ſaid, foreign, verſ. 30. For this cauſe you are judged of the Lord, and chaſtened; and hence the word foreign, is contended to import only temporal judgement in this place. I confeſſe this Point is controverted and diſputed, and more abroad than at home amongſt us. Vaſquez ſeems to me to hold, That it is enough that a man be in a ſtate of grace, and that every godly man receives worthily, or elſe ſhould ſinne mortally; But it is no new Doctrine with us, That a regenerate man may ſinne mortally (as they ſpeak) or commit a ſinne meritorious of condemnation; We muſt not leſſen regenerate mens ſinnes, which in divers reſpects are the greater, becauſe the perſon is regenerate; Even they that are babes in Chriſt, may be carnal, and walk as men, 1 Cor. 3. …. And therefore Cajetan on the other ſide requires actual Devotion, as neceſſary to the fruit of this Sacrament; and his Argument is, Becauſe the Sacrament works according to the manner of its ſignification; And therefore as meat and drink to the end they may nouriſh, do require that we cooperate by ſome act of life, to receive and digeſt them; ſo there is neceſſary ſome act of inward grace to meet with and receive this ſpiritual food, that it may nouriſh and refreſh us; and I hold the Argument good and firm; Nor do I finde any priviledge of a regenerate man, that he cannot commit this ſinne: He may be under a ſpiritual Apoplexy or ſtupidity, as David for a time ſeems to have been: He may be overgrown with a cruſt, a coldneſſe, a ſecurity, and ſo unfit by diſeaſe, though not by death. Chryſoſtome ſaw this truth, when he ſpeaks of ſome that may not eat, becauſe not initiated, foreign, and others, though they be members, yet are foreign, unclean. It's true, It is proper to the godly to receive worthily, but it's proper, Soli ſed non ſemper, only they do ſo, but not they alwayes, and therefore I turn my ſpeech to you, and deſire that you be not render'd ſecure and negligent by this falſe principle, that a regenerate man cannot receive the Sacrament unworthily, for this is the ready way to fall into that ſinne which you imagine your ſelves free from, by taking you off from that ſelf-examination, that trimming of your Lamps, that purging out of the old Leaven, that blowing up of your Graces into act, which is ſo requiſite unto your meeting with your Lord in this Ordinance.
I know that for the moſt part thoſe do charge themſelves with this ſinne of receiving unworthily, that have leaſt cauſe; The worthieſt Communicants are to their own eye the worſt; They never acted their graces lively at the Sacrament; They never felt the preſent delights and fatneſſe of this Ordinance; They have been alwayes incumbred with doubts, with fears and diſtempers, and have often gone away with more anguiſh of ſpirit than they came, and a world of ſuch complaints there are; and I confeſſe it is not ordinary that gracious perſons do ſtand in good opinion with themſelves, but yet Jacobs going away halting from God, was not an argument that he had not prevail'd; Sick people may be nouriſht and ſtrengthen'd with that meat which they cannot taſte or reliſh in their mouth; Grace is more apt to ſee ſinne than it ſelf; for the eye doth not ſee it ſelf, and the more it grows in light, the more tender in ſenſe: In ſpirituals it is true: But I ſhall ſpeak a Paradox, Thoſe diſeaſes we feel and are ſick of, ſeldome prove mortal, that is, when the affections melt with ſorrow, and not the conſcience amazed with horrour, though I would not nouriſh complaints againſt my ſelf, yet I had rather have the ſenſe of Paul, Rom. 7. wherein he complains of himſelf, than his confidence, when he ſaid, I verily thought I ought to do, &c. and I think a proud confidence both a greater cauſe and ſigne of unworthy receiving, than humble fear and ſenſe of imperfection, for even this is a grace to be exerciſed at the Lords Table.