History, VOLUME 11

Samuel Seabury – The Case for Frequent Communion

TODAY (Nov. 14) is the Feast Day (in the Anglican Communion) of Samuel Seabury.

In honor of the occasion, we re-publish Seabury’s incisive tract, An Earnest Persuasive to Frequent Communion.

 
 

An Earnest Persuasive
to Frequent Communion
 
PAGE 3

 
 
To people who have a lively sense of their imperfections and failings of this kind–who conscientiously refrain from the Holy Communion, because they fear they are not good enough to come to it, and who do not make the excuse merely for excuse sake, without any intention of ever complying with their duty of frequenting the Holy Table, I would propose the following considerations.

1. That if they stay till they are worthy, in the sense in which they seem to understand it, before they will venture to partake of the Sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood, they will never partake of it at all, but will live all their life, and die at last in the neglect of Christ’s command. For however they may wish it, they never will be free from the unworthiness of coming short. of their duty, from mere weakness of nature. Every created being must be imperfect in this sense. And did those lapses which proceed from infirmity and imperfection render us unworthy to partake in the Christian Sacrifice, no mortal could approach the Altar without sin. Upon this supposition, Apostles and Martyrs, and the best Christians that ever lived, have offended in commemorating their Saviour, and have sinned even by obeying Him. They were all men of like passions with us, and felt the weaknesses of nature as we feel them.–Conscious of their extreme inability to do any good thing without some degree of alloy or mixture of sin, they most humbly acknowledged their unworthiness to perform any of those services which God required of them; but their sense of duty, and fear of disobeying God, made them cheerfully do whatever His law required of them, knowing that God accepteth of what a man hath, and requireth not that which he is unable to give.– The Angels themselves, high and holy as they are in their nature, seem to have some deficiencies of this kind, for God, saith Job, charged even them with folly.

2. That the Holy Communion is not only a commemoration of Christ’s death, but a memorial or representation of His sufferings and death made before the Almighty Father, to put Him in mind of the meritorious sacrifice of His blessed Son on our behalf.

Christ’s offering Himself up to death, and yielding His life for us upon the cross is certainly the most astonishing event that ever happened. And when we consider the benefits thereby procured for us–the pardon of past sin upon our repentance–the gift of the Holy Spirit–and the assurance of a heavenly inheritance to all who believe in and obey Him–we must feel that His sacrifice deserves our grateful remembrance above all other events. But to suppose that the whole duty and benefit of the Holy Eucharist rests here is a mistake. As we are to commemorate and confess Christ before men, and gratefully to acknowledge the wonderful works of love and mercy He has done for us; so we are to make a commemoration or memorial of His precious death and sacrifice before the Almighty Father, and plead before Him the merits of His dearly beloved Son dying for the sin of the world: Not that God will forget, unless we refresh His memory; but because, in so doing, we use the means that Christ has appointed to convey to us the benefits of that sacrifice which He offered for sin. To refuse, or neglect the Holy Ordinance of the Eucharist looks as though we had no grateful sense of Christ’s love in dying for us; or that we did not fully trust to His merits for pardon of our sins, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and eternal life in the kingdom of God.

3. That the Holy Eucharist is a covenanting rite, and by it we keep up communion with God.

By Baptism we enter into covenant with God: Being born of Water and of the Spirit we are born into Christ’s Church, and become members of His Body. By the Holy Eucharist the new life begun in Baptism is nourished, and fed, and strengthened. This undoubtedly is the case with those happy persons who keep their Baptism undefiled. But a broken covenant is of no force: And when it is our unhappiness to break our baptismal covenant, and forfeit our right to God’s promises, by our sins and misdoings–how gracious is God, to permit us, upon our repentance, again to renew it at His Holy Table! again to repeat our vows of obedience, and regain our title to His heavenly promises! It has ever been the doctrine of the Catholic Church, that as when we worthily receive Baptism, we obtain through Christ remission of all past sins,” so when we worthily communicate at God’s Altar we obtain remission of all the sins committed since Baptism. And that it is so, fully appears from the Holy Eucharist’s being an act of communion with God. For when God’s Priest offers up the elements of bread and wine upon the Holy Altar, they are thereby made God’s property; and being blessed and sanctified by prayer and thanksgiving, they become, through the operation of the Holy Ghost, the Body and Blood of Christ in power and effect. They are then returned by the hand of God’s minister, and distributed among the Communicants as a feast upon the sacrifice: And all who partake of them with true faith and repentance are fed with God’s food, and eat at God’s Table; and are thereby assured of His favour and goodness towards them; and consequently must obtain remission of all past sin, otherwise they could not be in favour with God. Accordingly, when our Saviour gave the first intimation of this Holy institution, He expressed Himself in terms that imply not only remission of sins, but all other benefits of His passion, “Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. Behold the Christian’s privilege! and consider what injury ye do to God, what injustice to yourselves, by your wilful neglect of the heavenly feast.

4. That the Holy Eucharist is one of the instituted means of grace and holy living–the appointed instrument of conveying the Holy Spirit to us. That this is the doctrine of the Church appears from her Catechism and Office of Communion. In answer to the question, “What are the benefits whereof we are partakers thereby?”–by receiving the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist–she answers, “The strengthening and refreshing of our souls by the Body and Blood of Christ, as our bodies are by the bread and wine.” And in one of the exhortations to the Communion she speaks of Christ’s being given, “not only to die for us, but also to be our spiritual food and sustenance in that Holy Sacrament.”

If then you seriously wish to become better Christians and more worthy to communicate with God at His Holy Altar, the most effectual method is, to prepare yourselves for the solemn office by careful examination of your past lives –by settled resolutions to forsake your sins and live better for the time to come–by mortifying your unruly appetites and passions by fasting and self-denial–by earnest prayer to God that He would give you true repentance, and His Holy Spirit, to enable you to bring your good resolutions to a happy issue–and then to go to the Holy Altar–humbly and firmly trusting that God will accept you and bless you, and seal to you the remission of your sins–that He will impart to you the inestimable blessing of His Holy Spirit, and make you partakers of all the benefits of Christ’s redemption.

To me it is, and to all good Christians it must be, an afflicting circumstance, in congregations who seem to have a serious sense of religion, and of their duty to frequent the worship of God, and who apparently join with devotion in the common service of the Church, to see so few who act as though they really believed the religion they profess. For when people turn from the highest act of Christian worship, and refuse to commemorate the love of their Saviour in dying for them by communicating at the Holy Table in the unity of His Church, How is it to be known that they are Christians, beyond the mere profession?

Most of you, I trust, would undergo great uneasiness should your children, through your fault, die without Baptism. But to receive Baptism is not a more express command of Christ than to receive the Holy Communion; and why there should be more solicitude about the one than the other, I cannot conceive.– It is just as necessary that the new life we receive in Baptism should be continued, as that it should be begun. Now all life must be continued by the use of such food as is proper to it–the natural life by natural food–the spiritual life by that which is spiritual. God has provided and ordained the food of this world for the support of our natural life; and He has provided and ordained food in His Church for the support of our spiritual life. If we refuse this food held out to us in the Holy Communion, we deprive ourselves of our spiritual sustenance, and leave the soul to famish, just as the body would famish without the nourishment of bodily food. To complain, therefore, of your weakness and unworthiness, while you neglect the means God has appointed to increase your spiritual strength, and all holy and Christian tempers and graces, is as unfair and uncandid, as for a man to complain of a weak and sickly habit of body, while he wilfully refuses the food that is necessary to his bodily health.

And,

What account can you give to God for the abuse or neglect of the means of grace and holy living which He has appointed and required you to use? You must not plead weakness, for you refuse tq be strengthened–nor unworthiness, for you reject the most powerful means of becoming better. In any thing but religion, the absurdity of such a conduct would not escape your censure. And why it should not be condemned in religious matters as much as in any other, I see not. Religion is of more importance to you than any worldly business can be, and ought more sensibly to affect you.

The sick man, who complains of his aches and pains, and who laments his misfortune in being obliged to bear such a load of misery and disease as must shortly put a period to his life, and yet obstinately refuses all the remedies which can alleviate his distress and restore him to health, because they are bitter, or not exactly suited to his taste, becomes the object of our compassion–we pity his unreasonable and foolish conduct. Is then his conduct more reasonable, who complains of his spiritual maladies, confesses ” there is no health in him,” laments his unworthiness and weakness, and bemoans his deficiencies in Christian virtue, and yet refuses the means God has directed to cure the diseases of the soul, to strengthen the weakness of nature, and make him partaker of the worthiness of His own beloved Son, because the process is disagreeable to his sensual nature?


Could you flatter yourselves with the opinion that you are as good as you need be–as good and pious, and holy as God requires you to be –it would be unreasonable in me to wish any alteration in your conduct. But when I compare your behaviour in respect to the Holy Communion with Christ’s positive command, ” This do in remembrance of Me,” and see you live in the open violation of it, I cannot but be anxious for you–and anxious for myself too, lest my remissness should encourage you in a conduct so irreconcilable with the Word of God, and the directions of His Church. And as nothing but a regard to my duty, and an earnest desire to do you good in your most essential interest, could have drawn these free expostulations from me; so I beg you will receive this address as the effort of a heart disposed to do you every service–that wishes to lead you to the embraces of the God of love, to the arms of the blessed Redeemer, and to the consolations of the Holy Spirit of peace.

If what I have said be agreeable to the truth and nature of our Holy religion, your own good sense will enable you to see how indispensably necessary your attendance at the Holy Altar is, to keep up your union with Christ, and through Him with the Father. For how can you be living members of Christ’s Body, without partaking of that nourishment by which the whole Body is fed and kept alive? And you will at the same time see the necessity of your communicating frequently–even as frequently as God shall bless you with the opportunity. The cravings of natural hunger make you impatient till it is appeased with food; and the health of the body requires that this food be supplied several times in a day. Faith is the hunger– the earnest desire of the soul. They who are blessed with it will hunger and thirst after righteousness, i. e. obedience to God. They need no exhortation: For they will bless God for, and gladly embrace, every opportunity of testifying their ready obedience to a command from which they receive such large supplies of grace and consolation.

The Church of England requires that all her members “shall communicate at the least three times in the year, of which Easter to be one.” This regulation evidently proceeded from necessity, and was occasioned by the backwardness of the people to communicate frequently. For in Cathedral and Collegiate Churches all the Clergy are directed to communicate every Sunday at the least, except they have a reasonable cause to the contrary. And in the Communion-office she directs the Proper Prefaces to be used for several days together–upon Christmas-day, and seven days after–upon Easter-day, and seven days after–upon Ascension-day, and seven days after–and upon Whitsunday, and six days after. It is evident it was her intention that the Communion should be administered on all these days, and I believe it is done in all the Cathedral and Collegiate Churches.

The general practice in this country is to have monthly Communions, and I bless God the Holy Ordinance is so often administered. Yet when I consider its importance, both on account of the positive command of Christ, and of the many and great benefits we receive from it, I cannot but regret that it does not make a part of every Sunday’s solemnity. That it was the principal part of the daily worship of the primitive Christians, all the early accounts inform us. And it seems probable from the Acts of the Apostles, that the Christians came together in their religious meetings chiefly for its celebration. And the antient writers generally interpret the petition in our Lord’s prayer, “Give us this day,” or day by day, “our daily bread,” of the spiritual food in the Holy Eucharist. Why daily nourishment should not be as necessary to our souls as to our bodies, no good reason can be given.

If the Holy Communion was steadily administered whenever there is an Epistle and Gospel appointed, which seems to have been the original intention–or was it on every Sunday–I cannot help thinking that it would revive the esteem and reverence Christians once had for it, and would shew its good effects in their lives and conversations. I hope the time will come when this pious and Christian practice may be renewed. And whenever it shall please God to inspire the hearts of the Communicants of any congregation with a wish to have it renewed, I flatter myself, they will find a ready disposition in their minister to forward their pious desire.

In the mean time, let me beseech you to make good use of the opportunities you have; and let nothing but real necessity keep you from the heavenly banquet when you have it in your power to partake of it.

May the consideration of this subject have its proper effect upon every one of you! And the God of peace be with you–” make you perfect in every good work to do His will”– keep you in the unity of His Church, and in the bond of peace, and in all righteousness of life–guide you by His Spirit through this world, and receive you to glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

All glory to God.

 

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C. Christopher Smith is the founding editor of The Englewood Review of Books. He is also author of a number of books, including most recently How the Body of Christ Talks: Recovering the Practice of Conversation in the Church (Brazos Press, 2019). Connect with him online at: C-Christopher-Smith.com


 
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