An affectionate invitation to the Holy communion...

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

AN

Part I

The object of the following tract is to point out, in humble dependence on the Divine blessing, and in as plain and simple a manner as possible, —

I. The nature and design of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

II. Our obligation to attend on this Holy Institution, and our sin in neglecting it.

III. The preparation necessary for a suitable partaking of it.

O AFFECTIONATE INVITATION

I. With respect to the nature and design of the Sacrament of the Lord, I would begin with reminding you of the time, and mode, and circumstances of its institution. It was instituted by Christ himself, in the same night in which He was betrayed, a few hours before He was crucified, immediately after having eaten the Passover with His disciples for the last time. Then it was that He " took bread, and when He had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you : this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also He took the cup, when He had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood, this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.' 9 Such was the institution of this sacrament : and that it was designed, not for the Apostles only, but for the general Church of Christ, appears, not merely from the practice of the primitive Christians under the immediate inspection and authority of the Apostles themselves, but also from the words of St. Paul directly following those which I have just cited, when he says to the Corinthians, " For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till He come ;"* words which plainly intimate that this institution was to remain in use till the second coming of Christ, that is, to the end of the w>rld.

On reading this account of the institution, there is one reflection which forces itself strongly on our minds. Whatever might be the particular object of this institution, it was surely designed for the benefit of those for whose use it was prescribed. Can we suppose that our kind and gracious Redeemer, whose heart was ever full of love to His people, would appoint any ordinance for their use which would not be for their good ? Would He, especially at such a time, when He was on the point of suffering the most cruel torments, and shedding His blood for them, would He then enjoin on them the observance of a ceremony, which would not be highly useful, highly salutary to them ? Would He then have said to them, "Do this" if the thing to be done had not been what he well knew that it would be, for their comfort and happiness ? I dwell the longer on this point, because it is one which directly meets the fears, and scruples, and apprehensions of many persons, who seem to regard this blessed institution with a degree of jealousy and suspicion, as if our merciful Saviour in appointing this ordinance had laid a snare by which they might be entangled and injured ; as if when He had invited them to eat of His bread, and drink of His wine, He had called them to do that, which it would be safer and more prudent for them to leave undone. Does our Divine Redeemer deserve to be thus suspected by us ? Is this a suitable return for all His tenderness and love, to tell Him, when He calls us to His table, that He is only calling us to our hurt, and that it will be better for us to keep away?

My Brethren, have you ever been deterred from coming to the Sacrament by any apprehension of this kind ? Let me beseech you to have more just and honourable thoughts of Him, who loved you and gave himself for you. Instead of regarding with a groundless suspicion those symbols which He gives you of His body and blood, O receive them as pledges of His love, to your great and endless comfort. But to return to our subject. From this circumstance of our Saviour having instituted this Sacrament immediately after having eaten the Passover for the last time, it seems highly probable that he intended this institution, under the Christian dispensation, to take the place of that ordinance in the Jewish Church. As if He had said, " Hitherto you have been taught to commemorate the deliverance of your nation out of the bondage of Egypt, and their preservation from the sword of the destroying angel, by killing and eating the Paschal Lamb, but this deliverance, and this preservation, have always been typical of a greater deliverance, and a more important preservation, even a spiritual deliverance from sin, and a personal preservation from everlasting punishment. These blessings are the purchase of my blood, which I am just about to shed for the sin of the world, and which has hitherto been represented by the blood of the Paschal Lamb. Henceforth you are to commemorate these things in another way. The blood of the true sacrifice having been once actually shed, it will not be expedient that the typical lamb shall any longer be slain. From this time other representations, other symbols, are to be used. This bread which I break, represents my body broken on the cross. Take and eat it in remembrance of my love and of the provision I have made for your souls. This wine represents my blood shed for your salvation. Drink it with a thankful recollection of the blessings and privileges which it has purchased for you. And while you thus eat of my body and drink of my blood, bear in mind, that I have appointed this way for your commemorating these things, in order that by their being thus represented to your outward senses, you may have a more lively apprehension, and a more devout and spiritual feeling of them in your hearts, and that this institution may ever remain as a pledge of my love, and as a seal of the certainty of those benefits, of which the sacrifice that you herein commemorate is the price !"

From this scriptural statement of this institution, surely its nature and design are sufficiently apparent. Can any institution be in itself more plain and simple ?

I now proceed from what has been said, to state, —

II. Our obligation to attend on this Holy Institution, and our sin in neglecting it.

There are many considerations which bear upon these points, and which, if duly attended to, cannot fail of making a suitable impression on our minds.

Let us consider, in the first place, by Whom this ordinance was appointed, — Who it was that said, "Do this." It was Christ Himself. It was the Divine Author of our holy religion. It was He, whom we profess to believe in, to belong to, and to obey, — whom we acknowledge as our Saviour, — whom we expect to meet as our Judge. He it was who appointed this institution, and has commanded all His disciples to observe it. Has the command of Christ no weight with us ? Are we not bound to regard His authority? Can we justify our living in a constant neglect of an act which He has commanded us to perform? "If it were some great thing which we were commanded to do," some painful, severe, laborious act of self-denial which Christ had enjoined, should we not do it? Would it not be our duty, as His servants and subjects, to comply with His injunctions?

Could we on any ground excuse or justify disobedience ? How much rather then when He saith to us, Eat of this bread, and drink of this wine? The simplicity of the command, and the ease with which it may be obeyed, greatly increase our obligation to attend on this institution, and our sin in neglecting it. And how can we call ourselves disciples of Christ if we do not the things which He commands ?

Let us consider again that this injunction comes to us not only as a command which we are bound in duty to obey, but in a more engaging and interesting form, as a request with which we are strongly urged to comply. It is a request made to us by a friend, the best friend we ever had in the world, and that friend, a dying friend, dying for us, in our stead, and for our benefit, and with his dying breath bequeathing us this pledge and token of his love, and importuning us often to make use of it for his sake. Can we justify the not complying with such a request, urged by such a person, at such a time, and under such circumstances ? If some kind and dear relation, to whose affection and generosity we were deeply indebted, should leave us a ring, or a picture, or some other memorial of his regard, and should request us at some stated times to look upon it with a grateful remembrance of our benefactor, should we not feel this to be a request with which we were constrained to comply? Should we not be ashamed, when the stated times arrived, and we were reminded of our duty, and the memorial itself were produced, should we not, I ask, be ashamed to turn our eyes another way, and refuse even to look upon this token of his love ? But, my brethren, where is the difference, if when invited to the table of our Lord, we should constantly turn our back on this sacred ordinance, and refuse to partake of these pledges of His dying love ? Ought we not to feel shame at showing such ingratitude, such want of proper feeling towards our gracious benefactor ? With what comfort or confidence can we hope to meet Him at His coming, if we now habitually neglect to meet Him at His Table ? Rather, shall we not he covered w r ith confusion of face, when He shall reproachfully inquire of us, " Was this your love to your friend ? Was this your gratitude for the blessings of redeeming mercy ? You would not even bear me in remembrance, though I appointed you the means of doing it, and urged you to make use of them."

Let us consider, in the third place, that by absenting ourselves from the Lord's Table, we seem, in a manner, to deny Him, and to intimate that we do not really belong to Him. Communion with Him in the ordinances of his own appointing, is a sign and a badge of our attachment and relation to Him. By what mark is the Christian peculiarly distinguished, but by his profession of faith and hope in Jesus Christ? At baptism he takes upon himself this profession, and he is signed with the sign of the Cross in token that he shall not hereafter be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified. But if he regularly turn his back on the Holy Communion, does it not seem as if he were ashamed to confess this faith ? If he acts in the same manner as they do who profess no faith in Christ, how does he show the difference between himself and them ? If whenever a commander should raise his standard, and expect his soldiers to muster around it, any who had been enlisted under his banner should constantly decline attending, and instead of joining the leader whom they professed to obey, should be seen at that very time among the ranks of his enemies and opposers, what opinion should we form of the fidelity and loyalty of such persons ? or by what proof could they convince us that they were really attached, and wished well to the cause of Him, whom they thus openly disowned ? Christians are to show that they belong to Christ, and that all their hope is in Him, and they are to show this in the face of the world. But how do they show this, if, when bidden to His Supper, with one consent they make excuse, and refuse to come ? My brethren, when you have been going out of the church on a Sacrament Sunday, has your conscience never smitten you with the thought that you were fleeing from your post, and deserting the colours under which you had engaged manfully to fight? Have you never heard a voice in your ears, saying, " Will ye also go away ?"

Let us consider, in the fourth place, the loss

which we are sustaining, and the injury which

we are doing to our own souls, by not frequenting

the Holy Communion. That it is an institution designed for the benefit of those who partake of it, we have already seen, and that it does really prove a blessing to those who rightly partake of it, we cannot doubt, when we reflect on the power and character of Him who appointed it. As an act of faith and obedience when performed as such, and accompanied with a grateful recollection of the mercies and promises of the Gospel, it must have a very salutary and beneficial effect on all who are engaged in it. The very circumstance of having the pledges of our Saviour's love, and the emblems of his body and blood, literally placed before our eyes, sensibly reminding us of His grace and mercy, of His death and sacrifice, and visibly assuring us of the truth and certainty of all that He hath done and suffered for our salvation, cannot but have a very strong tendency to increase our faith and confidence in Him, and to strengthen our resolutions of henceforth living more faithfully and closely to Him. Numbers of living Christians can testify to the peace and consolation, and even joy, which they have thus felt, while partaking of this heavenly feast, and can declare how deeply their hearts have been affected, and their souls strengthened and refreshed, at this sacred ordinance. Besides, every exercise of faith is an act of communion with Christ. It is by faith that a union with Him first is formed. It is by the same faith that it is afterwards maintained ; and while we ascend to Christ in faith, He descends to us by His Spirit, and thus we have fellowship with Him and with the Father. But to partake of this Holy Sacrament is an especial act and exercise of faith, and, consequently, especial communications of the Spirit may be reasonably expected to accompany it. If Christ delights to meet and make glad His people in His ordinances, in what ordinance may they so certainly hope that He will visit and refesh them, will impart to them spiritual blessings, and make them glad with the light of His countenance, as in that ordinance which He has especially appointed them to use for the express purpose of remembering Him and the blessings which He has purchased for them, for testifying their faith in Him, and for solemnly renewing, as it were, their covenant with Him ? But all these benefits we are voluntarily losing by absenting ourselves from this Holy Communion. Neglecting the

Lord's table, we are forsaking our own mercies. We are criminally depriving our souls of that spiritual food and sustenance which is provided for them, and consequently of spiritual health, and growth, and strength, which cannot but be sensibly affected by such a privation. I come now to speak, —

III. Of the Preparation necessary for a suitable partaking of the Lord's Supper.

By this Preparation I do not mean any particular mode or course of preparation which is to be performed previously to the act of communicating : of such performances, the best thing I can say, is, that they are good or evil according as they are used, and according to the effects which they produce. If persons find that by any prescribed course of reading and religious exercises before they come to the Sacrament, a spirit of real devotion, of humility, piety, and charity is promoted in them, — then let them use such means so far as they have time and opportunity. But if, on the contrary, the prescribed course in question is resorted to merely as a formal, superstitious service, (as, for instance, when persons will excuse themselves from coming to the Sacrament on the alleged plea, that they have not had time to go through their Week's Preparation,) and if thus the use of it tends merely to foster a self-righteous, pharisaical spirit, — then it is plain that in such cases a prescribed course of preparation is evil, and does mischief instead of good.

The Preparation of which I am speaking, is the preparation of the heart; that state of heart which the true Christian habitually possesses, which does not consist in mere feelings, and which qualifies him at any time for a profitable partaking of the Lord's Supper. Are persons really humbled under a sense of their sins, of their sinful nature, and sinful life ? Do they sincerely desire to be freed from the punishment, the practice, and the pollution of sin 'i Do they look to Jesus Christ as the only sacrifice for sin, by whose blood alone their sin can be washed away, and their soul cleansed ? Do they entertain a devout and thankful remembrance of what He has done and suffered for them 1 Do they desire, and through His grace resolve, to resist the Devil, the world, and the flesh, and to lead a righteous, sober, and godly life, a life of faith in 2*

Jesus Christ, and of obedience to His holy will? If such be their permanent convictions, desires, and resolutions, they have that preparation of heart of which I speak, and with which they may partake, and ought to partake of the Holy Communion, whenever an opportunity may offer. Should persons, while such is the habitual state of their heart, be surprised, as the Virgins were, while they slumber and sleep, with a summons to the marriage supper, they should not on that account decline the invitation, and exclude themselves. Having oil in their vessels, they should trim their lamps as speedily as they can, and hasten to partake of the feast, though of course, if a longer notice be given them, they will take the opportunity of more closely inspecting their wedding garment, and of more studiously seeking to have their soul in that condition which will best qualify it for meeting their Lord, and for enjoying the provisions of His Table.

On the subject of Preparation, indeed, there is one excuse so very generally urged against coming to the Lord's Supper, that I feel it necessary to give to it a distinct and prominent notice. When invited to communicate, persons justify a refusal, either openly or secretly, upon the ground of their unworthiness : " We cannot approach the Lord's Table, for we have no fitness for it; we are univorthy"

Now, my Brethren, if the person who pleads this excuse, really pleads it under a deep feeling of genuine humility ; if he is so truly sensible of the burden and defiling nature of his sins as to condemn himself on account of them, and with the humble publican to stand afar off, and to cry for mercy, I can only say, that of all persons in the world, such a one is most fitted to draw near with faith, and to take this Holy Sacrament to his comfort. For whom are the blessings of the Gospel provided ? To whom are its promises addressed ? Is it not to the contrite in heart, the poor in spirit, the mourners for sin, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness ? Are not these the persons to whom the invitations of the Gospel are sent, and who are pressed, and urged, and in a manner compelled to accept them? And what is the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper but an exhibition of the grace and riches of the Gospel ? And who are the persons that are welcome there, but the very persons whom the Gospel calls ? To every one then who answers this description, to every one whose conscience is tender, whose faith is weak, whose fears are great, I would freely say, "Lay aside your doubts. It is for such as you that this Table is prepared. Fear not. Talk not of your unworthiness. Only be willing ; only believe ; only come. You will be a welcome guest, and a meet partaker of those holy mysteries. The Lord hath already prepared your heart. O turn not away from the feast which he has provided for you."

If, however, those who plead their own unworthiness urge this plea, on the supposition that they must bring with them to the Table of the Lord some worthiness of their own, which will give them a claim, — something belonging to themselves, which will make them worthy guests at His Table, — I must tell such plainly, that they know not the first principles of Christianity. No man can ever have any such worthiness. If any one thinks that he has or can have any thing of this kind, he is vainly puffed up in his fleshly mind, and knoweth nothing as he ought to know. My Brethren, what you ought to bring with you is a broken and a contrite heart. Pray to God to give you this. Renounce your own righteousness. Trust only in the great and manifold mercies of the Lord. Draw near to Him with a humble spirit, and He will in no wise cast you out.

But those, who use this plea of unworthiness^ have sometimes another meaning. Conscious that they are living in the allowed indulgence of some sinful practices, or some unchristian tempers, which they have at present no intention to discontinue and subdue, they know that they are not Jit for communicating at the Lord's Table. They have light enough to see that a course of sin is incompatible with receiving the Sacrament, but they have not grace enough to break off from their sinful courses. They are determined to continue in them, and therefore, they plead, that they are not Jit to receive the Sacrament. And they plead aright. They are not Jit for this sacred ordinance. And for what religious duty are such persons Jit? Are they Jit to join in the service of the Church? Can they take a part in its confessions, petitions, and thanks givings ? Are they fit to say the Lord's Prayer ? Can they say to God, " Our Father?" No ! The Devil is their father ; for by their own confession they are workers of iniquity, and, consequently, children of the Devil. O, my Brethren, if there should.be any of you, whose hearts at this moment tell you that this is your present state, think, I beseech you, how awful and perilous it is. Acknowledging yourselves unfit to come to the blessed Saviour of sinners for pardon and life, are you fit to die ? You know that you are not fit to die. You intend to repent hereafter, but you will not do it now. Now you will go on in sin against light and knowledge, against conscience and conviction. Now, when invited to Christ you will refuse to come. O beware, lest when you may desire to come, you find the door shut against you ! u Now is the accepted time ; now is the day of salvation." May the Lord in His mercy grant you repentance unto the acknowledging of the truth, that you may recover yourselves out of the snare of the Devil, who are thus taken captive by him at his will !

PART IL

It shall now be my endeavour to remove a stumbling-block, which has often stood in the way of many devout and serious persons, who have otherwise been disposed to attend at the Table of their Lord. The. obstacle to which I allude arises from the introduction of certain expressions into the Communion Service of our Church, which, taken in their plain and most obvious sense, seem to convey a meaning different from that which they are intended to convey. The minister, in the exhortation which at the time of celebrating the Holy Communion he addresses to the congregation, is directed to remind them, that " as the benefit is great, if with a true penitent heart and lively faith we receive that Holy Sacrament, so is the danger great, if we receive the same univorthily. For then we are guilty of the body and blood of Christ our Saviour ; we eat and drink our own damnation, not considering the LoroVs body/ 9

These are the expressions in question; expressions which certainly, at first sight, assume a formidable appearance, and which, if interpreted according to the sound alone, may readily prove a stumbling-block to many sincere, but weak and uninstructed Christians. Let me then observe to you, in the first place, that these are scriptural expressions, and are taken from the eleventh chapter of St. Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians, in which he is speaking so much at large on the subject of this Sacrament. In endeavouring, therefore, to obviate any occasion of stumbling which they may furnish, I will show you, first their original signification as they are used by the Apostle, and, secondly, their meaning as they are introduced into the Service of our Church.

First, St. Paul having given an account of the institution of this Sacrament, and having said to the Corinthians, " As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come," immediately adds, " Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord;" and again, in a verse after, he proceeds, " for he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body." The first thing to be inquired into for the understanding of these expressions, is the meaning of the term " eating and drinking unworthily ," and for this purpose we must advert to the particular circumstance in the Corinthian Church, which, in reference to this subject, the Apostle in this chapter notices.

We there find, to our great surprise, that the Corinthians, (some of them, at least, for we cannot suppose that the whole body of the Christians at Corinth were equally guilty in this respect,) in their celebration of the Holy Communion, conducted themselves in such a manner, as to incur the severe reproof of the Apostle. " When ye come together," says he, at the 20th verse of the chapter, "into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper." The way in which they kept this institution was so contrary to the design of it, so different from the way in which they ought to have kept it, and even so scandalous in itself, that they could not be correctly said to keep it at all. Their eating was 3 not eating the Lord's Supper. In fact, they made a common meal of this sacred ordinance, nay, they actually turned it into an occasion of sensuality and carnal indulgence. Observe the Apostle's words : " For in eating, every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken. What! have ye not houses to eat and drink in ? Or despise ye the Church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you ? Shall I praise you in this ? I praise you not." When, after having thus animadverted on their disorderly conduct, we find the Apostle immediately stating, by way of contrast, the pure, simple design, and holy tendency of this institution, and then proceeding in these words, " Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup unworthily" — it is obvious that he uses this word unworthily in reference to the disorderly and shameful conduct, on which he had been animadverting. The manner in which the Corinthians had behaved at the Lord's Table was most unworthy of the institution, and they who had thus eaten and drunken of it, had eaten and drunken unworthily. They had profaned this sacred ordinance by their indecent and irreverent behaviour, " not discerning," as St. Paul says, "the Lord's body;" that is, not distinguishing between this heavenly feast, and a common entertainment; — not observing the due and respectful distinction which there was between the Sacramental Supper, which Christ had appointed for the spiritual benefit of His people, and an ordinary meal in their own houses. This is clearly what St. Paul here means by the term, eating and drinking unworthily. It is eating and drinking the blessed pledges of redeeming love in a riotous and disorderly manner ; for such had been the way in which the Corinthians, whom he is censuring, had eaten and drunk. And thus, he goes on to say, they were "guilty of the body and blood of Christ" and " did eat and drink their own damnation" These are the terms which require to be next explained.

To be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, means to be guilty of profaning them, — to be chargeable with treating them contemptuously, — and so with a measure of the same guilt which they incurred, who nailed His sacred body, and shed His precious blood on the cross. So that, in fact, by thus eating and drinking unworthily, they ate and drank their own damnation. By attending on this sacred ordinance in the manner described, they had exposed themselves to the Divine wrath and punishment. No doubt this was the case. By such a profane abuse of holy things they had committed a sin, of which, as of every other sin, the wages were death. But there is no intimation whatever, that the Apostle considered this sin as unpardonable, as an offence, however great, of which they might not savingly repent. The very contrary, indeed, is implied throughout the whole passage ; and even the persons who had been guilty of this great indecency are exhorted to " examine themselves, and so to eat of that bread, and drink of that cup." In fact, much of the difficulty of the passage, and the trouble which it gives to tender minds, lies in the word Damnation, a sense, which the original word often bears, but which it need not necessarily bear. It is frequently rendered " Condemnation" a word of less formidable sound, and still more frequently "Judgment" the very word which is here put by onr translators in the margin of the Bible, and which, perhaps, in this place would have better conveyed the meaning of the Apostle ; for it is plain, as the whole connecting passage obviously shows, that by this word Saint Paul intended chiefly to describe those temporal punishments and corrections to which the Corinthians had by their misconduct exposed themselves. What does he immediately add? — " For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." God had punished their profaneness and presumption by afflicting them with divers diseases, of which some had died. The design of these judgments, as the Apostle expressly says, was to benefit those who were afflicted with them, that by examining and condemning themselves for their sinful conduct, they might escape a heavier condemnation. " For if (says he) we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world." I hope that, from this explanation, the expressions in the passage where they stand, may be clearly understood. I hope it plainly appears 3* that the Corinthians, by the irreverent and disorderly manner in which they had come to the Lord's Table, and had behaved themselves there, had contracted a degree of guilt, which called for very deep repentance, and of which, unless they did repent, they might expect to be visited with severe corrections. Let us now see, —