Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

SECTION XVI.

The Doctrine of Remission of Sins, in and by the Eucharist, not an Encouragement to Vice, but an Incitement to Virtue.

re

IT has been apprehended, with some appearance of reason, that the doctrine of repeated remission of sins by a peated participation of the Eucharist, may be favourable to perseverance in wickedness. It certainly would be so, if it taught men, that by merely remembering an historical event, or merely performing a formal rite, (an act of implicit obedience,) they could be cleared from all past guilt, however enormous, and delivered from all dread of punishment, however well deserved*.

[ocr errors]

But

"* It has been thought somewhat strange, by those who have imbibed wrong notions of the case, that all Christian Privileges should be supposed to follow a

K4

single

But no such doctrine is maintained by any Christian society, nor by any individual,

single duty, when they really belong to the WHOLE SYSTEM of duties. But when it is considered, that these privileges are never annexed to this single duty, in any other view, or upon any other supposition, but as it virtually carries in it, or in the idea of worthy reception, ALLDUTY, the main difficulty will vanish; for, it may be still true, that those Christian privileges go along with the whole system of duties, and with nothing short of it. We never do annex all Christian privileges to this single duty, but as this duty is conceived, for the time being, to contain all the rest for that we take to be implied in receiving worthily. Let the same objection be argued in a very common case of oaths to a Government, or of subscription to articles, to which many State privileges and Church privileges are ordinarily annexed: What, may some say, shall all those privileges be given merely for the labour of repeating an oath, or writing a name? No, certainly: The outward work is the least and the lowest part of what the privileges are intended for, if it be any part at all, in a strict sense: The privileges are intended for persons so swearing, or so subscribing, upon a presumption that such oath carries in it all dutiful allegiance to the Sovereign, and that such subscription carries in it all conformity in faith and doctrine to the Church establishment. Of the like nature and use are our Sacramental ties and Covenants, They are supposed, when worthily performed, to carry in them all dutiful allegiance to God, and a firm attachment to Christ; a stipulation of a good conscience

and

vidual, whose mind is in the least degree improved by reading, by hearing, and by due reflection.

The Sacrament is no Sacrament to those who receive it without repentance, and a firm purpose to lead a new life; a life of holiness which, together with piety, includes all moral virtue. No man, though he may eat the bread and drink the wine, can receive the Sacrament, properly speaking, while he has a

and, in a word, universal righteousness, both as to
faith and manners: all which is solemnly entered into
for the present, and stipulated for the future, by every
sincere and devout communicant. Therefore in an-
nexing all Gospel privileges to worthy receiving, we do
not annex them to one duty only, but to all, contained,
as it were, or summed up (by the supposition) in that
one. All the mistake and misconception which some
run into on this head, appears to be owing to their
abstracting the outward work from the inward wor-
thiness supposed to go along with it; and then calling
that a SINGLE DUTY, which, at best, is but the shell
of duty in itself, and which, in some circumstances (as
when separate from a good heart) is no duty at all, but
a grievous sin; a contempt offered to the Body and
Blood of Christ, and highly provoking to Almighty
God."
DR. WATERLAND.

secret

1

secret intention to run into the same sins which he professes to relinquish with abhorrence, declaring, in the most solemn manner, in the Communion Service, "That he earnestly repents of his past offences, is heartily sorry for them; that the remembrance of them is grievous unto him, and the burden intolerable."

The disposition of the worthy receiver is so much improved by a due participation in the solemn rite, that it is impossible he should leave the Altar Table with a design to relapse into sin, under the encouragement of repeated remission. He cannot but consider such conduct as diabolical, and calculated to provoke most justly the wrath and indignation of that God whom he has just endeavoured to propitiate. An intention to repeat his sins, and a worthy reception of the Sacrament, are incompatible.

He may, indeed, fall into sin after communion, from the violence of temptation; from inadvertency, and from the frailty of human nature; but he cannot consistently with the hypothesis on which

I argue,

I argue, that he received worthily, he cannot, I say, sin purposely and presumptuously, "that grace may abound," and with an intention to receive the Sacrament again and from time to time, in order to obtain an acquittal for past of fences and to begin them again, If he should plunge into his former sins, or any new ones, tempted with the prospect of absolution, whenever he chooses to receive the Sacrament, his conduct is a proof that he was NOT A WORTHY RECEIVER, and that he had no just ideas of the solemn rite; and it is also certain that he will be disappointed in his wicked purpose. His former sins were not remitted to him, though they might have been to every other Communicant who, at the same time knelt with him at the Altar, and partook worthily. His sins were retained; and in his heart he must know it, for he must know his own hypocrisy and unworthiness. His own heart must condemn him.

Common sense decides the point, that no remission is granted to the unworthy receiver,

« ForrigeFortsett »