70 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.
and swine to puddle it.' The same author further saith l that in the primitive times, whenever the sacrament was administered, a deacon stood up, and cried in the open assembly, ' Holy things to holy men, holy things to holy men,' thereby debarring all others that were un- holy, and raising the hearts of the holy.
Justin Martyr, who was about the year after Christ 150 — he lived not above thirty years after St John — he, in his Apology to Antoninus the Emperor for Christians, writes thus : ' In our assemblies we admit none to the Lord's supper but such as being baptized continue in pro- fessing the true faith, and in leading such lives as Christ hath taught.' There were three things^ saith this author, that were required of them that were to be received to the sacrament : ' 1. A new birth; 2. Sound- ness in faith ; 3. A promise to live well.' 2
Augustine well observes, ' That as many think the eating of an apple was but a small sin, so many think that the eating of the sacra- ment is but a small sin. But as many horrid sins were vtrapt up in that, so are there many wrapt up in this : 1. Here is pride ; else no man in his wickedness would presume to come to the Lord's table. 2. Here is rebellion and treason against the crown and dignity of Christ ; their hands and lips adore him, as Judas his did, but their hearts and lives abhor him, Eom. ii. 22. 3. Here is theft and sacri- lege ; now if to take away the communion-cup be such a high offence, such horrid sacrilege^ what is it then to take the bread and wine, set apart and sanctified for a holy use by the Lord himself ? 1 Cor. xi. 27, 29. 4. Here is murder, the worst murder, the greatest murder, the cruellest murder ; thou kOlest thyself, thy soul, and as much as in thee lies, God's dearest Son. Now certainly, in some respects, this sin is a greater sin than Adam's was : For, 1. Adam's eating was against a Creator, but thine is against a Kedeemer : now it is more to redeem a soul than to create a world. 2. His was against the word of the Lord ; thine against the blood of the Lord. 3. His struck at the covenant of works ; thine at the covenant of grace. 4. He ate but once ; but thou eatest often.'
' Yea,' Aquinas saith,^ ' the majesty of church discipline should never suffer this, to let open and known offenders presume to come to the table of the Lord.'
It was a worthy saying of Bilson, an approved author,^ ' Suppose any man,' saith he, ' be he a prince, if he will not submit himself to the pre- cepts of Christ, but wilfully maintain either heresy or open impurity, the ministers are to admonish him what danger from God is at the door ; and if he impenitently persist, they must not suffer him to com- municate either in divine prayer, or any holy mysteries among the people of God ; but wholly to be excluded the congregation.' Again,
* Not only the lack of the word and sacraments,' saith the same author,
* but the abuse of either, greatly hazards the weal of the whole church ; yea, casting* holy things to dogs, &c., procures a dreadful doom as well
^ Chrysostom in Mat. horn. 6. Chrysostom in Mat. horn. 83. ChrvsoBtom in Epist. ad Heb. horn. 17.
2 ' Apology,' IxxxT. Ixixviii.— G. » S. T., sub verbo ' diflciplina.'— G.
* Bilson'a ' Christian Subject,' par. 3, pp. 63, 64, 74, and c. 52.
HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 7X
to consenters as presumers, it being the way to turn the house of God into a den of thieves, if profane ones be allowed to defile the mysteries and assemblies of the faithful.'
* 1/ said Calvin, ' will sooner die than this hand of mine shall give the things of God to the contemners of God.' i
Mr Rutherford, that champion for presbyter)', in his ' Divine Right of Church Government,' page 520, saith ' that they are copartners with the wicked who dispense the bread to them who are knowingly dead in sins.' 2 I might multiply many others ; but let these suffice. For a close, let me only say. How the father can be guiltless of the death of his child, that giveth him poison to drink, with this caution, that he telleth him it is poison, I cannot see. Josephus reports of some that profanely searched the sepulchres of the saints, supposing to find some treasures there, but God made fire to rise out of the earth, that devoured them on a sudden.^ Now if God's wrath like fire breaks forth to consume such as wrong but the sepulchres of his saints, &c. , oh then with what flames of fury will God burn up such as abuse not only the sacrament of his Son, but his Son himself ! It was a very great wickedness in Julian to throw his blood in the face of Christ ; but for a wicked communicant to take Christ's own blood as it were running from his heart, and to throw it into the face of Christ, is most abominable and damnable. By all that hath been spoken, you clearly see that unholy persons are to be shut out of the special com- munion of saints here on earth ; and therefore certainly the Lord will never suffer such to have communion with him in heaven. It will not stand with the holiness and purity of God to have fellowship with such in the kingdom of glory, whom he would not have his people have fellowship with in the kingdom of grace.
8. The eighth argument to prove that without real holiness there is no happiness ; that without holiness on earth no man shall ever come to a blessed vision or fruition of God in heaven, is this, The Scripture, that speaks no treason, styles unholy persons beasts, yea, the worst of beasts ; and what should such do in heaven ? ^ Unholy per- sons are the most dangerous, and the most unruly pieces in the world, and therefore are emblemized by lions, Ps. xxii. 21, and they are cruel ; by bears, and they are savage, Isa. xi. 7 ; by dragons, and they are hideous, Ezek. xxix. 3 ; by wolves, and they are ravenous, Ezek. xxii. 27 ; by dogs, and they are snarling. Rev. xxii. 15 ; by vipers and scorpions, and they are stinging, Mat. xii. 34, Ezek. ii. 6 ; by spiders and cockatrices, and they are poisoning, Isa. lix. 5 ; by swine, and they are [still grunting, Mat. vii. 6. No man in this world is more like another than the epicure is like a swine ; the fraudulent person a fox ; the lustful person a goat ; the backbiter a barking cur ; the slanderer an asp ; the oppressor a wolf ; the persecutor a tiger ; the seducer a serpent. Certainly the Irish air will sooner brook toads and snakes and serpents to live therein, than heaven will brook such
* Samuel Rutherford, the saintly writer of the imperishable ' Letters. — Q.
' Joseph. Antiq., lib. xii. 13, and lib. xvi. cap. 11. , • x *
* Unholy persons are, throughout the Scriptures, branded, to their overlaatmg contempt, with the worst appellations.
72 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.