The Communicant's Companion (continued)
3. We must see to it, that we be religiously meek and peaceable. We must not only come from this ordinance in a calm and quiet frame, but we must always keep ourselves in such a frame. By the meekness and gentleness of Christ, (which the apostle mentions as a most powerful charm,) let us be wrought upon to be always meek and gentle, as those that have learned of him. The storms of passion that are here calmed, must never be suffered to make head again; nor must the enmities that are here slain, ever be revived.
Having eaten of this gospel passover, we must all our life long keep the feast, without the "leaven of malice and wickedness." Having been feasted at wisdom's table, we must always abide under the conduct and influence of that wisdom, which is "first pure, and then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated." God was greatly displeased with those that, after they released their bond-servants, according to the law, recalled their releases, and brought them into subjection again. And so will he be with those who seem to set aside their quarrels when they come to the sacrament, but, as soon as the pang of their devotion is over, the heat of their passion returns, and they resume their quarrels, and revive all their angry resentments; thereby making it to appear, that they did never truly forgive, and therefore were never forgiven of God.
Let those that have had communion with God in this ordinance, be able to appeal to their relations and domestics, and all they converse with concerning this; and to vouch them for witnesses, that they have mastered their passions, and are grown more mild and quiet in their families than sometimes they have been; and that even when they are most provoked, they know both how to hear reason, and how to speak it. Whatever others do, let us never give occasion to the enemies of the Lord to say, that the seriousness of religion makes men sour and morose, and that zeal in devotion disposes the mind to peevishness and passion; but let us evidence the contrary, that (he grace of God does indeed make men good-natured, and that the pleasures of serious godliness make men truly cheerful and easy to all about them. Having been here sealed "to the day of redemption, let us not grieve the Holy Spirit of God," that blessed dove; and that we may not, "let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evilspeaking, be put away from us, with all malice." 4. We must see to it, that we be strictly sober and chaste. Gluttony, and drunkenness, and fleshly lusts, are as great a reproach as can be to those that profess relation to Christ, and the expectation of eternal life. It becomes those that have been feasted at the table of the Lord, and have there tasted the pleasures of the spiritual and divine life, to be dead to all the delights of sense, and to make it appear that they are so, by a holy indifference to them. Let not the flesh be indulged to the prejudice of the spirit, nor provision made for the fulfilling of the lusts thereof. Have we been entertained with the dainties of heaven? Let us not be desirous of the dainties of sense, nor solicitous to have the. appetite gratified, and all our enjoyments to the highest degree pleasing. When our Lord had instituted his Supper, and gave this cup of blessing to his disciples, he added, "I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine:" now welcome the bitter cup, the vinegar, and the gall; teaching us after a sacrament to sit more loose than before to bodily delights, and to be better reconciled to hardships and disappointments in them. It was the sin and shame of the Israelites in the wilderness, that while they were fed with manna, angels' food, they lusted, saying," Who will give us flesh to eat?" And they sin after the similitude of that transgression, who, when they have eaten of the bread of life, and drunk of the water of life, yet continue to be as curious and careful about their meat and drink, as if they knew no better things, and had their happiness bound up in them; as if the kingdom of God were in this sense meat and drink, and a Turkish paradise were their heaven. Surely they that are of this spirit serve not our Lord Christ, but their own bellies.
But if they thus shame themselves who indulge the flesh, though their reason remains with them; what shall we think of those who, by their intemperance, put themselves quite out of possession of their own souls, unfit themselves for the service of God, and level themselves with the beasts? A Christian, a communicant, and yet a tippler, a drunkard, and a companion with those that run to this excess of riot! This, this is the sin that has been the scandal and ruin of many, who, having begun in the spirit, have thus ended in the flesh; this is that which has quenched the Spirit, hardened the heart, besotted the head, debauched the conscience, withered the profession, and so has slain its thousands, and its ten thousands. Against this sin, therefore, the Lord's prophet must cry aloud, and not spare; of the danger of this, the watchmen are concerned to give warning; and dare those who partake "of the cup of the Lord, drink of the cup of devils?" Can there be so much concord between light and darkness, between Christ and Belial?
No, there cannot; these are contrary, the one to the other. If men's communicating will not break them off from their drunkenness, their drunkenness must break them off from communicating; for these are spots in our feasts of charity; and, if God be true, "drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Let me, therefore, with all earnestness, as one that desires to obtain mercy of the Lord to be faithful, warn all that profess religion and relation to Christ, to stand upon their guard against this snare, which has been fatal to multitudes. As you tender the favor of God, the comforts of the Spirit, the credit of your profession, and the welfare of your own souls here and hereafter, take heed of being entangled in any temptations to this sin; shun the society of these evil-doers, abstain from all the appearances of this sin; watch and be sober; he "that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, has made us unto our God kings and priests." Are we priests? This was the law of the priesthood, and it was a law made upon occasion of the death of Nadab and Abihu, who probably had "erred through wine." "Do not drink wine or strong drink, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation." Are we kings? "It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; lest they drink and forget the law." It is not for Christians to drink to excess, and to allow themselves in those noting's and revelling's, which even the sober heathen condemned and abhorred.
Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, and lasciviousness, are likewise lusts of the flesh, and defiling to the soul, which, therefore, all those must carefully avoid that profess to be led by the Spirit: they are abominable things which the Lord hates, and which we also must hate. Are not our bodies temples of the Holy Ghost? Dare we then defile them? Are they not members of Christ? And shall we make them the members of a harlot? Let those that eat of the holy things, be holy both in body and spirit, and "possess their vessels in sanctification and honor, and not in the lusts of uncleanness." Let those eyes never be guilty of a wanton look, that have here seen Christ evidently set forth crucified among us; let not lewd, corrupt communication proceed out of that mouth into which God's covenant has been taken; let not unclean, lascivious thoughts be ever harbored in that heart in which the holy Jesus vouchsafes to dwell. Let those that have eaten of wisdom's bread, and drunk of the wine that she has mingled, never hearken to the invitations of the foolish woman, who courts the unwary to