A Christian Directory, Part 2: Christian Economics

Quest. IV. May a man that hath knowledge, and civility, and common gifts, come and take this sacrament, if he know that he is yet void of true repentance, and other saving grace?

Answ. No; for he then knoweth himself to be one that is uncapable of it in his present state.

Quest. V. May an ungodly man receive this sacrament, who knoweth not himself to be ungodly?

Answ. No; for he ought to know it, and his sinful ignorance of his own condition, will not make his sin to be his duty, nor excuse his other faults before God.

Quest. VI. Must a sincere christian receive, that is uncertain of his sincerity, and in continual doubting?

Answ. Two preparations are necessary to this sacrament: the general preparation, which is a state of grace, and this the doubting christian hath; and the particular preparation, which consisteth in his present actual fitness; and all the question is of this. And to know this, you must further distinguish, between immediate duty and more remote, and between the degrees of doubtfulness in christians. 1. The nearest immediate duty of the doubting christian is, to use the means to have his doubts resolved, till he know his case, and then his next duty is, to receive the sacrament; and both these still remain his duty, to be performed in this order: and if he say, I cannot be resolved, when I have done my best; yet certainly it is some sin of his own that keepeth him in the dark, and hindereth his assurance; and therefore duty ceaseth not to be duty. The law of Christ still obligeth him, both to get assurance, and to receive; and the want both of the knowledge of his state, and of receiving the sacrament, are his continual sin, if he lie in it never so long through these scruples, though it be an infirmity that God will not condemn him for. (For he is supposed to be in a state of grace.) But you will say, What if still he cannot be resolved whether he have true faith and repentance, or not? what should he do while he is in doubt? I answer, it is one thing to ask, what is his duty in this case? and another thing to ask, which is the smaller or less dangerous sin? Still his duty is both to get the knowledge of his heart, and to communicate: but while he sinneth (through infirmity) in failing of the first, were he better also omit the other or not? To be well resolved of that, you must discern, 1. Whether his judgment of himself do rather incline to think and hope that he is sincere in his repentance and faith, or that he is not. 2. And whether the consequents are like to be good or bad to him. If his hopes that he is sincere, be as great or greater than his fears of the contrary, then there is no such ill consequent to be feared as may hinder his communicating; but it is his best way to do it, and wait on God in the use of his ordinance. But if the persuasion of his gracelessness be greater than the hopes of his sincerity, then he must observe how he is like to be affected, if he do communicate. If he find that it is like to clear up his mind, and increase his hopes by the actuating of his grace, he is yet best to go: but if he find that his heart is like to be overwhelmed with horror, and sunk into despair, by running into the supposed guilt of unworthy receiving, then it will be worse to do it, than to omit it. Many such fearful christians I have known, that are fain many years to absent themselves from the sacrament; because if they should receive it while they are persuaded of their utter unworthiness, they would be swallowed up of desperation, and think that they had taken their own damnation (as the twenty-fifth article of the church of England saith the unworthy receivers do). So that the chief sin of such a doubting receiver, is not that he receiveth, though he doubt; for doubting will not excuse us for the sinful omission of a duty (no more of this than of prayer or thanksgiving): but only prudence requireth such a one to forbear that, which through his own distemper would be a means of his despair and ruin; as that physic or food, how good soever, is not to be taken, which would kill the taker: God's ordinances are not appointed for our destruction, but for our edification; and so must be used as tendeth thereunto. Yet to those christians, who are in this case, and dare not communicate, I must put this question, How dare you so long refuse it? He that consenteth to the covenant, may boldly come and signify his consent, and receive the sealed covenant of God; for consent is your preparation, or the necessary condition of your right: if you consent not, you refuse all the mercy of the covenant. And dare you live in such a state? Suppose a pardon be offered to a condemned thief, but so, that if he after cast it in the dirt, or turn traitor, he shall die a sorer death; will he rather choose to die than take it, and say, I am afraid I shall abuse it? To refuse God's covenant is certain death; but to consent is your preparation and your life.

Quest. VII. But what if superiors compel such a christian to communicate, or else they will excommunicate and imprison him; what then should he choose?

Answ. If he could do it without his own soul's hurt, he should obey them (supposing that it is nothing but that which in itself is good that they command him).77 But they have their power to edification, and not to destruction, and he must value his soul above his body; and therefore it is past question, that it is a smaller hurt to be excommunicated, and lie and die in prison, than to cast his soul into despair, by doing that which he thinketh is a grievous sin, and would be his damnation. But all means must be used to cure the mistake of his own understanding.

Quest. VIII. Is not the case of a hypocrite that knoweth not himself to be a hypocrite, and of a sincere christian that knoweth not himself to be sincere, all one as to communicating; when both are equally in doubt?

Answ. No: for being and seeing are things that must be distinguished. The one hath grace in being, though he see it not; and therefore hath a right to the blessings of the covenant; and therefore at once remaineth obliged both to discern his title, and to come and take it: and therefore if become doubtingly, his sin is not that he receiveth, but in the manner of receiving, that he doth it doubtingly; and therefore it will be a greater sin not to receive at all, unless in the last mentioned case, wherein the consequents are like to be worse to him. But the other hath no true repentance, or faith, or love in being; and therefore hath no right to the blessings of the covenant; and therefore, at present, is obliged to discern that he is graceless, and to repent of it: and it is not his sin that he doubteth of his title, but that he demandeth and taketh what he hath no title to; and therefore it is a greater sin in him to take it, than to delay in order to his recovery and preparation. Yea, even in point of comfort, there is some disparity: for though the true christian hath far greater terrors than hypocrites, when he taketh himself to be an unworthy receiver, (as being more sensible and regardful of the weight of the matter,) yet usually, in the midst of all his fears, there are some secret testimonies in his heart of the love of God, which are a cordial of hope that keep him from sinking into despair, and have more life and power in them, than all the hypocrite's false persuasions of his own sincerity.

Quest. IX. Wherein lieth the sin of a hypocrite, and ungodly person, if he do receive?

Answ. His sin is, 1. In lying and hypocrisy; in that he professeth to repent unfeignedly of his sin, and to be resolved for a holy life, and to believe in Christ, and to accept him on his covenant terms, and to give up himself to God, as his Father, his Saviour, and his Sanctifier, and to forsake the flesh, the world, and the devil; when, indeed, he never did any of this, but secretly abhorreth it at his heart, and will not be persuaded to it: and so all this profession, and his very covenanting itself, and his receiving, as it is a professing-covenanting sign, is nothing but a very lie. And what it is to lie to the Holy Ghost, the case of Ananias and Sapphira telleth us. 2. It is usurpation to come and lay claim to those benefits, which he hath no title to. 3. It is a profanation of these holy mysteries, to be thus used; and it is a taking of God's name in vain, who is a jealous God, and will be sanctified of all that draw near unto him.78 4. And it is a wrong to the church of God, and the communion of saints, and the honour of the christian religion, that such ungodly hypocrites intrude as members: as it is to the king's army, when the enemies' spies creep in amongst them; or to his marriage-feast to have a guest in rags, Matt. xxii. 11, 12.

Object. But it is no lie, because they think they say true in their profession.

Answ. That is through their sinful negligence and self-deceit: and he is a liar that speaks a falsehood, which he may and ought to know to be a falsehood, though he do not know it. There is a liar in rashness and negligence, as well as of set purpose.

Quest. X. Doth all unworthy receiving make a man liable to damnation? Or, what worthiness is it that is so threatened.79

Answ. There are three sorts of unworthiness, (or unfitness,) and three sorts of judgment answerably to be feared. 1. There is the utter unworthiness of an infidel, or impenitent, ungodly hypocrite. And damnation to hell fire, is the punishment that such must expect, if conversion prevent it not. 2. There is an unworthiness through some great and scandalous crime, which a regenerate person falleth into; and this should stop him from the sacrament for a time, till he have repented and cast away his sin. And if he come before he rise from his fall by a particular repentance, (as the Corinthians that sinned in the very use of the sacrament itself,) they may expect some notable temporal judgment at the present;80 and if repentance did not prevent it, they might fear eternal punishment. 3. There is that measure of unworthiness which consisteth in the ordinary infirmities of a saint; and this should not at all deter them from the sacrament, because it is accompanied with a greater worthiness; yea, though their weakness appear in the time and manner of their receiving: but yet ordinary corrections may follow these ordinary infirmities. (The grosser abuse of the sacrament itself, I join under the second rank.)

Quest. XI. What is the particular preparation needful to a fit communicant?

Answ. This bringeth me up to the next direction.

Direct. V. Let your preparation to this sacrament consist of these particulars following. 1. In your duty with your own consciences and hearts. 2. In your duty towards God. 3. And in your duty towards your neighbour.

Marks of sincerity

I. Your duty with your hearts consisteth in these particulars. 1. That you do your best in the close examination of your hearts about your states, and the sincerity of your faith, repentance, and obedience; to know whether your hearts are true to God, in the covenant which you are to renew and seal. Which may be done by these inquiries, and discerned by these signs: (1.) Whether you truly loathe yourselves for all the sins of your hearts and lives, and are a greater offence and burden to yourselves, because of your imperfections and corruptions, than all the world besides is, Ezek. vi. 9; xx. 43; xxxvi. 31; Rom. vii. 24. (2.) Whether you have no sin but what you are truly desirous to know; and no known sin, but what you are truly desirous to be rid of; and so desirous, as that you had rather he perfectly freed from sin, than from any affliction in the world, Rom. vii. 18, 22, 24; viii. 18. (3.) Whether you love the searching and reforming light, even the most searching parts of the word of God, and the most searching books, and searching sermons, that by them you may be brought to know yourselves, in order to your settled peace and reformation, John iii. 19-21. (4.) Whether you truly love that degree of holiness in others which you have not yet attained yourselves, and love Christ in his children, with such an unfeigned love, as will cause you to relieve them according to your abilities, and suffer for their sakes, when it is your duty, 1 John iii. 14, 16; 1 Pet. i. 22; iii. 8; James ii. 12-15; Matt. xxv. 40, &c. (5.) Whether you can truly say, that there is no degree of holiness so high, but you desire it, and had rather be perfect in the love of God, and the obedience of his will, than have all the riches and pleasures of this world, Rom. vii. 18, 21, 24; Psal. cxix. 5; Matt. v. 6. And had rather be one of the holiest saints, than of the most renowned, prosperous princes upon earth, Psal. xv. 4; xvi. 2; Psal. lxxxiv. 10; lxv. 4. (6.) Whether you have so far laid up your treasure and your hopes in heaven, as that you are resolved to take that only for your portion; and that the hopes of heaven, and interest of your souls, hath the pre-eminence in your hearts against all that stands in competition with it, Col. iii. 1, 3, 4; Matt. vi. 20, 21. (7.) Whether the chiefest care of your hearts, and endeavour of your lives, be to serve and please God, and to enjoy him for ever, rather than for any worldly thing, Matt. vi. 23; John v. 26; 2 Cor. v. 1, 6-9. (8.) Whether it be your daily desire and endeavour to mortify the flesh, and master its rebellious opposition to the Spirit; and you so far prevail, as not to live, and walk, and be led by the flesh, but that the course and drift of your life is spiritual, Rom. viii. 1, 6-10, 13; Gal. v. 17, 21, 22. (9.) Whether the world, and all its honour, wealth, and pleasure appear to you so small and contemptible a thing, as that you esteem it as dung, and nothing in comparison of Christ, and the love of God and glory? and are resolved, that you will rather let go all, than your part in Christ? and, which useth to carry it in the time of trial, in your deliberate choice? Phil. iii. 7-9, 13, 14, 18-20; 1 John ii. 15; Luke xiv. 26, 30, 33; Matt. xiii. 19, 21. (10.) Whether you are resolved upon a course of holiness and obedience, and to use those means which God doth make known to you, to be the way to please him, and to subdue your corruption; and yet feeling the frailties of your hearts, and the burden of your sins, do trust in Christ as your righteousness before God, and in the Holy Ghost, whose grace alone can illuminate, sanctify, and confirm you, Acts xi. 23; Psal. cxix. 57, 63, 69, 106; 1 Cor. i. 30; Rom. viii. 9; John xv. 5; 2 Cor. xii. 9. By these signs you may safely try your states.

2. When this is done, you are also to try the strength and measure of your grace; that you may perceive your weakness, and know for what help you should seek to Christ. And to find out what inward corruptions and sinful inclinations are yet strongest in you, that you may know what to lament, and to ask forgiveness of, and help against. My book called "Directions for weak Christians," will give you fuller advice in this.

3. You are also to take a strict account of your lives;81 and to look over your dealings with God and men, in secret and in public, especially of late, since the last renewal of your covenant with God; and to hear what God and conscience have to say about your sins, and all their aggravations, Psal. cxxxix. 23; 1 Cor. xi. 28.

4. And you must labour to get your hearts affected with your condition, as you do discover it; to be humbled for what is sinful, and to be desirous of help against your weakness, and thankful for the grace which you discern.

5. Lastly, you must consider of all the work that you are to do, and all the mercies which you are going to receive, and what graces are necessary to all this, and how they must be used; and accordingly look up all those graces, and prepare them for the exercise to which they are to be called out. I shall name you the particulars anon.

II. Your duty towards God in your preparation for this sacrament, is, 1. To cast down yourselves before him in humble, penitent confession, and lamentation of all the sins which you discover; and to beg his pardon in secret, before you come to have it publicly sealed and delivered. 2. To look up to him with that thankfulness, love, and joy, as becomes one that is going to receive so great a mercy from him; and humbly to beg that grace which may prepare you, and quicken you to and in the work.

III. Your duty towards others in this your preparation, is, 1. To forgive those that have done you wrong, and to confess your fault to those whom you have wronged, and ask them forgiveness, and make them amends and restitution so far as is in your power; and to be reconciled to those with whom you are fallen out; and to see that you love your neighbours as yourselves, Matt. v. 23-26, 44; Jam. v. 16. 2. That you seek advice of your pastors, or some fit persons, in cases that are too hard for yourselves to resolve, and where you need their special help. 3. That you lovingly admonish them that you know do intend to communicate unworthily, and to come thither in their ungodliness, and gross sin unrepented of: that you show not such hatred of your brother, as to suffer sin upon him, Lev. xix. 17; but tell him his faults, as Christ hath directed you, Matt. xviii. 15-17. And do your parts to promote Christ's discipline, and keep pure the church. See 1 Cor. v. throughout.

Direct. VI. When you come to the holy communion, let not the over-scrupulous regard of the person of the minister, or the company, or the imperfections of the ministration, disturb your meditations, nor call away your minds from the high and serious employment of the day. Hypocrites who place their religion in bodily exercises, have taught many weak christians to take up unnecessary scruples, and to turn their eye and observation too much to things without them.

Quest. But should we have no regard to the due celebration of these sacred mysteries, and to the minister, and communicants, and manner of administration?

Answ. Yes: you should have so much regard to them, 1. As to see that nothing be amiss through your default, which is in your power to amend. 2. And that you join not in the committing of any known sin. But, 1. Take not every sin of another for your sin, and think not that you are guilty of that in others, which you cannot amend; or, that you must forsake the church and worship of God, for these corruptions which you are not guilty of, or deny your own mercies, because others usurp them or abuse them. 2. If you suspect any thing imposed upon you to be sinful to you, try it before you come thither; and leave not your minds open to disturbance, when they should be wholly employed with Christ.

May we receive from an unworthy minister?

Quest. 1. May we lawfully receive this sacrament from an ungodly and unworthy minister?

Answ. Whoever you may lawfully commit the guidance of your souls to, as your pastor, you may lawfully receive the sacrament from, yea, and in some cases from some others: for in case you come into a church that you are no member of, you may lawfully join in communion with that church, for that present, as a stranger, though they have a pastor so faulty, as you might not lawfully commit the ordinary conduct of your soul to. For it is their fault, and not yours, that they chose no better; and (in some cases) such a fault as will not warrant you to avoid communion with them. But you may not receive, if you know it, from a heretic, that teacheth any error against the essence of christianity. 2. Nor from a man so utterly ignorant of the christian faith or duty, or so utterly unable to teach it to others, as to be notoriously uncapable of the ministry. 3. Nor from a man professedly ungodly, or that setteth himself to preach down godliness itself. These you must never own as ministers of Christ, that are utterly uncapable of it. But see that you take none for such that are not such. And there are three sorts more, which you may not receive from, when you have your choice, nor take them for your pastors: but in case of necessity imposed on you by others, it is lawful, and your duty. And that is, 1. Usurpers that make themselves your pastors without a lawful call, and perhaps do forcibly thrust out the lawful pastors of the church. 2. Weak, ignorant, cold, and lifeless preachers, that are tolerable in case of necessity, but not to be compared with worthier men. 3. Ministers of scandalous, vicious lives. It is a sin in you to prefer any one of these before a better, and to choose them when you have your choice; but it is a sin on the other side, if you rather submit not to one of these, than be quite without, and have none at all. You own not their faults in such a case, by submitting to their ministry.

Quest. 2. May we communicate with unworthy persons, or in an undisciplined church?

Answ. You must here distinguish if you will not err:82 and that, 1. Between persons so unworthy as to be no christians, and those that are culpable, scandalous christians. 2. Between a few members, and the whole society, or the denominating part. 3. Between sin professed and owned, and sin disowned by a seeming penitence. 4. And between a case of liberty, when I have my choice of a better society; and a case of necessity, when I must communicate with the worser society, or with none: and so I answer,

1. You ought not to communicate at all in this sacrament with a society that professeth not christianity, if the whole body, or denominating part, be such: that is, 1. With such as never made profession of christianity at all. 2. Or have apostatized from it. 3. Or that openly own any heresy inconsistent with the essential faith or duty of a christian. 4. Or that are notoriously ignorant what christianity is.

2. It is the duty of the pastors and governors of the church, to keep away notorious, scandalous offenders, till they show repentance; and the people's duty to assist them by private reproof, and informing the church when there is cause. Therefore, if it be through the neglect of your duty, that the church is corrupted and undisciplined, the sin is yours, whether you receive with them or not.

3. If you rather choose a corrupted, undisciplined church to communicate with, when you have your choice of a better, cæteris paribus, it is your fault.

But on the contrary, it is not your sin, but your duty, to communicate with that church which hath a true pastor, and where the denominating part of the members are capable of church communion, though there may some infidels, or heathens, or uncapable persons violently intrude, or scandalous persons are admitted through the neglect of discipline; in case you have not your choice to hold personal communion with a better church, and in case also you be not guilty of the corruption, but by seasonable and modest professing your dissent, do clear yourself of the guilt of such intrusion and corruption. For here the reasons and ends of a lawful separation are removed; because it tendeth not to God's honour, or their reformation, or your benefit; for all these are more crossed by holding communion with no church, than with such a corrupted church. And this is to be preferred before none, as much as a better before this.

Quest. III. But what if I cannot communicate unless I conform to an imposed gesture, as kneeling or sitting?

Answ. 1. For sitting or standing, no doubt it is lawful in itself: for else authority were not to be obeyed, if they should command it; and else the church had sinned in forbearing kneeling in the act of receiving, so many hundred years after Christ; as is plain they did, by the canons of general councils (Nic. i. and Trull.) that universally forbade to adore kneeling, any Lord's day in the year, and any week day between Easter and Whitsuntide; and by the fathers, Tertullian, Epiphanius, &c. that make this an apostolic or universal tradition. 2. And for kneeling, I never yet heard any thing to prove it unlawful; if there be any thing, it must be either some word of God, or the nature of the ordinance, which is supposed to be contradicted.83 But, 1. There is no word of God for any gesture, nor against any gesture: Christ's example can never be proved to be intended to oblige us more in this, than in many other circumstances that are confessed not obligatory; as that he delivered it but to ministers, and but to a family, to twelve, and after supper, and on a Thursday night, and in an upper room, &c.: and his gesture was not such a sitting as ours. 2. And for the nature of the ordinance, it is mixed: and if it be lawful to take a pardon from the king upon our knees, I know not what can make it unlawful to take a sealed pardon from Christ (by his ambassador) upon our knees.