John Tillotson

“ Me thinks so often as we read the Institution of it, these words of our dear Lord, Do this in remembrance of me, and consider what he who said them did for us, this dying charge of our best friend should stick with us, and make a strong impression upon our minds: Especially if we add to these, those other words of his, not long before his death, Greater love than this have no man, that a man lay down his life for his friends; ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. It is a wonderful love which he hath expressed to us, and worthy to be had in perpetual remembrance. ”

“ One fault may draw on another, but can never excuse It. It is our great fault that we are wholly unprepared, and no man can claim any benefit by his fault, or plead it in excuse or extenuation of this neglect. A total want of preparation and an absolute unworthiness is impenitency in an evil course, a resolution to continue a bad mad, not to quit his lusts, and to break off that wicked course he hath lived in: But is this any excuse for the neglect of our duty, that we will not fit our selves for the doing of it with benefit and advantage to our selves? ”

“ And shal this charge, laid upon us by him, who laid down his life for us, lay no obligation upon us to the solemn remembrance of that unparallel'd kindness, which is the fountain of so many blessings and benefits to us? It is a great sign we have no great sense of the benefit, when we are so unmindfull of our Benefactour, as to forget him days without number. ”

“ The sum of what I have said is this, that supposing a person to be habitually prepared by a religious disposition of mind, and the general course of a good life, this more solemn actual preparation is not always necessary; And it is better when there is an opportunity to receive without it, than no to receive at all: But the greater our actual preparation is, the better. For no man can examine himself too often, and understand the state of his soul too well, and exercise repentance, and renew the resolutions of a good life too frequently. ”

“ I mean, to examine our past lives and the actions of them, in order to a sincere repentance of all our errours and miscarriages, and to fix us in the steady purpose and resolution of a better life; particularly, when we expect to have the forgiveness of our sins sealed to us, we should lay aside all enmity and thoughts of revenge and heartily forgive those that have offended us, and put in practice that universal love and charity which is represented to us by this holy Communion. ”

“ And why should not every sincere Christian, by the receiving of this Sacrament, and renewing his Covenant with God, rather hope to be confirmed in goodness, and to receive further assistances of God's grace and holy Spirit, to strengthen him against sin, and to enable him to subdue it; than trouble himself with fears, which are either without ground, or if they are not, are no sufficient reason to keep any man from the Sacrament? ”

“ I answer in short, this was the particular unworthiness with which the Apostle taxeth the Corinthians, and which he warns them to amend, as they desire to escape the Judgments of God, such as they had already felt for this irreverent carriage of theirs, so unsuitable to the holy
Sacrament: He finds no other fault with them at present in this matter, though any other sort of irreverence will proportionably expose men to the like punishment. He says nothing here of their habitual preparation, by the sincere purpose and resolution of a good life, answerable to the rules of the Christian Religion ”

“ But now will any man from hence argue, that it is best for a wicked man not to pray, not to hear or read the Word of God, left by so doing he should endanger and aggravat his condemnation? And yet there is as much reason from this consideration to perswade men to give over praying, and attending to God's Word, as to lay aside the use of the Sacrament. And it is every whit as true, that he that prays unworthily, and hears the word of God unworthily, that is, without fruit and benefit, is guilty of a great contempt of God, and of our blessed Saviour ”

“ One would think it were no difficult matter, to convince men of their duty in this particular and of the necessity of observing so plain an Institution of our Lord, that it were no hard thing to perswade men to their interest, & to be willing to partake of those great & manifold blessings, which all Christians believe to be promised and made good to the frequent and worthy Receivers of his Sacrament. Where then lyes the difculty? What should be the cause of all this backwardness, which we see in men to so plain, so necessary, and so beneficial a duty? ”

“ For if we stand upon these Scruples, no man perhaps was ever so worthily prepared to draw near to God in any duty of Religion, but there was still some defect or other in the disposition of his mind, and the degree of his preparation. But it we prepare our selves as we can, this is all that God expects. And for our fears of falling into sin afterwards, there is this plain answer to be given to it; that the danger of falling into sin is not prevented by neglecting the Sacrament, but encreased; because a powerfull and probable means of preserving men from sin is neglected. ”

“ And then the Apostle's meaning is, that if we would censure and examine our selves, so as to be more careful for the future, we should escape the Judgment of God in these temporal punishments: But when we are judged, we are hastned of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. But when we are Judged; that is, when by neglecting thus to judge our selves, we provoke God to judge us; we are chastned of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world; that is, he inflicts these temporal judgments upon us to prevent our eternal condemnation. ”

“ And the same consideration should likewise make
us afraid to receive this Sacrament unworthily, without due Preparation for it, and without worthy effects of it upon our Hearts and Lives. Because of that dreadfull sentence of condemnation, which at the second coming of our Lord shall be past upon those, who by the profanation of this solemn Institution trample under foot the Son of God, and contemn the blood of the Covenant; that Covenant of Grace and Mercy, which God hath ratified with Mankind by the Bloud of his Son. ”

“ And if we had a just esteem of things, we should account it the greatest infelicity and judgment in the world to be debarred of this priviledge, which yet we do deliberately and frequently deprive our selves of. ”

“ And if any man hunger, let him eat at home, that ye come not together unto judgment: Where the Apostle plainly shews both what was the crime of unworthy receiving and the punishment of it. Their crime was, their irreverent and disorderly participation of the Sacrament; and their punishment was, those temporal judgements which God inflicted upon them for this their contempt of the Sacrament.
Now this being, I think, very plain; we are proportionably to understand the precept of examination of our selves, before we eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. But let a man examine himself ”

“ The greatest indisposition that can be for this holy Sacrament is ones being a bad man, and he may be as bad and is more like to continue so, who wilfully neglects this Sacrament, than he that comes to it with any degree of reverence and preparation, though much less than he ought: And surely it is very hard for me to come to so solemn an ordinance without some kind of religious awe upon their spirits, and without some good thoughts and resolutions, at least for the present. ”

“ So that as often as we approach the Table of the Lord, we should comfort our selves with the thoughts of that blessed time, when we shall eat and drink with him in his Kingdom, and shall be admitted to the great Feast of the Lamb, and to eternal Communion with God, the Judge of all, and with our blessed and glorified Redeemer, and the holy Angels, and the Spirits of Just men made perfect. ”

“ Because he resolves to be a rebel, and then his pardon will do him no good, but be an aggravation of his Crime. Very true; and it will be no less an aggravation that he refuseth it for such a reason, and under a pretence of modesty does the most imprudent thing in the world. ”

“ I That every degree of Imperfection in our preparation for this Sacrament is not a sufficient reason
for men to abstain from it; for then no man should ever receive it: For who is every way worthy, and in all degrees and respects duly qualified, to approach the presence of God in any of the duties of his Worship and Service? ”

“ A father commands his son to ask him blessing every day, and is ready to give it him ; but so long as ge is undutiful to him in his other actions, and lives in open disobedience, forbids him to come in his sight. He excuseth himself from asking his fathers blessing, because he is undutiful in other things, and resolves to continue so. This is just the cause of neglecting the duty God requires, and the blessings he offers to us in the Sacrament, because we have made our selves incapable of so performing the one as to receive the other, and are resolved to continue so. ”

“ And because this work of examining our selves concerning our state and condition, and of exercising repentance towards God, and charity towards men is incumbent upon us as we are Christians, and can never be put practice more seasonably, and with greater advantage, than when we are meditating of this Sacrament, therefore besides our habitual preparation by repentance and the constant endeavours of a holy life, it is a very pious and commendable custom in Christians before their coming to the Sacrament, to set a part some particular time for this work of examination. ”

“ Heretofore men used to be restrained from great and scandalous vices by shame and fear of disgrace, and would abstain from many sins, out of regard to their honour and reputation among men: But men have hardned their faces in this degenerate Age, and those gentle restraints of modesty which governed and kept men in order heretofore, signifie nothing now a-days. Blushing is out of fashion, and shame is ceased from among the children of men.
But the Sacrament did always use to lay some kind of restraint upon the worst of men ”

“ If a man that lives in any known wickedness of life, do before he receive the Sacrament set himself seriously to be humbled for his sins, and to repent of them, and to beg God's grace and assistance against them ”