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SERMON 9

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By Johnson, Samuel

Samuel Johnson: Sermons

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SERMON 91

But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.

I CORINTHIANS xi.28

Nothing is more frequently injurious to religion, or more dangerous to mankind, than the practice of adding to the divine institutions, and of teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. The doctrines of the blessed sacrament, which, as they are expressed in the holy Scriptures, do not seem to be very dark or difficult, yet have been so perverted and misrepresented, as to occasion many disputes among men of learning, and many divisions in the Christian world. In our own church, many religious minds have been filled with groundless apprehensions, and distracted with unnecessary inquietudes, by mistaken notions of the Lord’s Supper.2 Many have forborne to partake of it, because they have not, in their own opinion, arrived at that degree of holiness, required to it; which they erroneously conceive to be such, as indeed no mere

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man ever can attain. A holiness, which consists in little less, than a compleat exemption from sin, and an uniform, and uninterrupted observance of every precept of religion. They find themselves unable to perform this duty, without imperfections, and therefore they entirely neglect it; not considering, that the same reason is of equal force for the neglect of every duty; since none can be performed by us, in this frail state, without lapses, negligences, and failings; and that God will accept unfeigned repentance, sincere intentions, and earnest endeavours, though entangled with many frailties. They do not consider, that the participation of the sacrament is a duty enjoined all Christians, though all do not rise to equal degrees of virtue, and by consequence, that many must be admitted to the holy table, who have not reached the utmost heights of religious excellence.3 Heaven itself will be accessible to many, who died in their struggles with sin; in their endeavours after virtue, and the beginning of a new life. And surely, they are not to be excluded from commemorating4 the sufferings of our Saviour, in a Christian congregation, who would not be shut from heaven, from the assemblies of saints, and the choirs of angels.5

There are some who neglect this duty, as they omit others, not from scruples of melancholy piety, or mistaken severity, but from supineness and carelessness, or an opinion, that this precept is less necessary to be observed, than some others delivered by the same authority.

Many other notions, not well-grounded, or capable of proof, are entertained of this institution; which I shall endeavour, without giving a particular account of them, to obviate and suppress, by shewing,

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First, what is the nature and end of this institution according to the Scriptures.

Secondly, what are the obligations which enforce the duty of communion. And,

Thirdly, what things are required of them that come to the Lord’s Supper?

First, I propose to lay before you the nature and end of this institution according to the Scriptures.

The account of the first institution of this sacrament is thus delivered by the Evangelist (Luke, xxii. 19.)6 And he took bread and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave it unto them,7 saying, This is my body which is given for you; this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood which is shed for you. This narration is repeated in the epistle to the Corinthians with this comment or explanation, “As often as ye eat this bread, or drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.”8 From these passages compared then it appears, that this sacrament is a representation of the death of our Saviour, appointed by himself, to be celebrated by all his followers, in all ages; to the end that by commemorating his sufferings in a solemn and publick manner, they might declare their confidence in his merits, their belief of his mission, and their adherence to his religion.

It has likewise a tendency to increase this confidence, confirm this belief, and establish this adherence, not only by the new strength which every idea acquires by a new impression; and which every persuasion attains by new recollection, approbation, and meditation, but likewise by the supernatural and extraordinary influences of grace, and those blessings which God has annexed to the due use of means appointed by himself.

By commemorating the death of Christ, as the Redeemer

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of the world, we confess our belief in him; for why else should we perform so solemn a rite in commemoration of him? To confess our belief in him, is to declare ourselves his followers. We enter into an obligation to perform those conditions upon which he has admitted us to follow him, and to practise all the duties of that religion which he has taught us.

This is implied in the word sacrament,9 which, being originally used to signify an oath of fidelity taken by the soldiers to their leaders, is now made use of by the church, to import a solemn vow, of unshaken adherence to the faith of Christ.

Thus the sacrament is a kind of repetition of baptism, the means whereby we are readmitted into the communion of the church of Christ, when we have, by sin, been separated from it; for every sin, and much more any habit or course of sin long continued, is, according to the different degrees of guilt, an apostacy or defection from our Saviour; as it is a breach of those conditions upon which we became his followers; and he that breaks the condition of a covenant, dissolves it on his side. Having therefore broken the covenant between us and our Redeemer, we lose the benefits of his death; nor can we have any hopes of obtaining them, while we remain in this state of separation from him.

But vain had been the sufferings of our Saviour, had there not been left means of reconciliation to him; since every man falls away from him occasionally, by sins of negligence at least, and perhaps, by known, deliberate, premeditated offences. So that some method of renewing the covenant between God and man was necessary; and for this purpose this sacrament was instituted; which is therefore a renewal of our broken vows, a re-entrance into the society of the church, and the act, by which we are restored to the benefits of our Saviour’s death, upon performance of the terms prescribed by him.

So that this sacrament is a solemn ratification of a covenant renewed; by which, after having alienated ourselves from Christ by sin, we are restored, upon our repentance and

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reformation, to pardon and favour, and the certain hopes of everlasting life.

When we thus enter upon a new life by a solemn, deliberate, and serious dedication of ourselves to a more exact and vigilant service of God, and oblige ourselves to the duties of piety by this sacrament, we may hope to obtain, by fervent and humble prayer, such assistances from God as may enable us to perform those engagements, which we have entered into by his command, and in the manner appointed by him. Always remembering, that we must use our own endeavours, and exert our utmost natural powers, for God only co-operates with the diligent and the watchful. We must avoid sin, by avoiding those occasions which betray us to it, and as we pray that we may not be led, we must be cautious of leading ourselves, into temptation.1

All sin that is committed by Christians, is committed either through an absolute forgetfulness of God, for the time in which the inordinate passion, of whatever kind it be, predominates and prevails; or because, if the ideas of God and religion were present to our minds, they were not strong enough to overcome and suppress the desires excited by some pleasing, or the apprehensions raised by some terrible, object. So that either the love or fear of temporal good or evil, were more powerful than the love or fear of God.

All ideas2 influence our conduct with more or less force, as they are more or less strongly impressed upon the mind; and they are impressed more strongly, as they are more frequently recollected or renewed. For every idea, whether of love, fear, grief, or any other passion, loses its force by time; and, unless revived by accident, or voluntary meditation, will at last vanish. But by dwelling upon, and indulging any idea, we may increase its efficacy and force, make it by degrees predominant in the soul, and raise it to an ascendant over our passions, so that it shall easily overrule those affections or appetites which formerly tyrannized within us.

Thus, by a neglect of God’s worship and sacraments, a man

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may lose almost all distinction whatsoever of good and evil, and having no awe of the divine power to oppose his inclinations to wickedness, may go forward from crime to crime without remorse. And he that struggles against vice, and is often overcome by powerful temptations, if, instead of giving way to idleness and despair, he continues his resistance; and, by a diligent attendance upon the service and sacraments of the church, together with a regular practice of private devotion, endeavours to strengthen his faith, and imprint upon himself an habitual attention to the laws of God, and a constant sense of his presence, he will soon find himself able to avoid the snares of sin; or, if he fall into them by inadvertency, to break them. He will find the fear of God grow superior to the desires of wealth, or the love of pleasure; and, by persisting to frequent the church and sacraments, and thereby to preserve those notions of piety from being effaced or weakened, he will be able to persevere in a steady practice of virtue, and enjoy the unspeakable3 pleasures of a quiet conscience.

Thus it appears, that the blessed sacrament is a commem-oration of the death of our Lord; consequently, a declaration of our faith; and both naturally, and by the cooperation of God, the means of increasing that faith. And it appears also that it is a renewal of our baptismal vow, after we have broken it by sin; and a renovation of that covenant by which we are adopted the followers of Jesus, and made partakers of his merits, and the benefits of his death.

This account has almost anticipated what I professed to treat of Secondly, the obligations which enforce the duty of communion.

For the obligations to any duty must bear proportion to the importance of it; and the importance of a duty must be rated by the effect which it produces or promotes; and, therefore, as the benefits which we receive from this sacrament, have

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been already shewn, the necessity of it is sufficiently apparent.

But we may farther enforce this practice upon ourselves and others, by considering, first, that it is a positive injunction of our blessed Saviour, which, therefore, all those who believe in him are bound to obey. That to dispute the usefulness, or call in question the necessity of it, is to reform his religion, and to set up our own wisdom in opposition to his commands; and that to refuse the means of grace, is to place our confidence in our own strength, and to neglect the assistance of that Comforter, who came down from heaven according to the most true promise of our blessed Saviour, to lead the apostles out of darkness and errour, and to guide them and us into the clear light and certain knowledge of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ.

If we consider this sacrament as a renewal of the vow of baptism, and the means of reconciling us to God, and restoring us to a participation of the merits of our Saviour, which we had forfeited by sin, we shall need no persuasions to a frequent communion. For certainly nothing can be more dreadful than to live under the displeasure of God, in constant danger of appearing before him, while he is yet unappeased, and of losing the benefits of our redemption. Whoever he be, whom sin has deluded and led away, let him not delay to return to his duty, lest some sudden disease seize upon him, and the hand of death cut him off for ever from any possibility of reformation, while he is indolent and voluptuous, irreligious and profane. It will be too late to bewail his supineness, and lament his folly, when the dreadful and irrevocable sentence is past, and the gates of hell are closed upon him.4 “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found; call ye on him while he is near! Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”5

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But lest, instead of obtaining pardon, we aggravate our sins, by coming unprepared to the holy table, let us consider, Thirdly, what is required of them that come to the Lord’s Supper.

With respect to the preparatory duties requisite to a worthy reception of the sacrament, Saint Paul has left this precept; “Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread.” Which will be easily explained, by recurring to what has been already said of the nature of the sacrament.

By partaking of the communion, we declare, in the most solemn manner, in the presence of God and man, that we hold the faith of Jesus; that we are his followers, who expect eternal salvation from his merits; and, therefore, that we engage ourselves to that obedience to his commands, and that strictness and regularity of life, which he requires from those who place their confidence in his mediation. We profess, likewise, that we sincerely and humbly repent of those offences by which we have separated ourselves from him; and that, in consequence of this profession, we unite ourselves again to the communion of the church.

Nothing can be more reasonable before this solemn profession, than that a man examine himself, whether it be true;6 whether he really and unfeignedly resolves to accept the conditions of salvation offered to him, and to perform his part of the covenant which he comes to ratify; or, whether he is not about to mock God; to profess a faith which he does not hold, and a purity which he does not intend to aim at.

The terms, upon which we are to hope for any benefits from the merits of Christ, are faith, repentance, and subsequent obedience. These are therefore the three chief and general heads of examination. We cannot receive the sacrament, unless we believe in Christ, because by receiving it, we declare our belief in him, and a lying tongue is an abomination to the Lord.7 We cannot receive it without repentance, because

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repentance is the means, by which, after sin, we are reconciled to God; and we cannot, without dreadful wickedness, by partaking of the outward tokens of reconciliation, declare that we believe God at peace with our souls, when we know, that by the omission of repentance, we are yet in a state of voluntary alienation from him. We cannot receive it, without a sincere intention of obedience; because, by declaring ourselves his followers, we enter into obligations to obey his commandments. We are therefore not transiently and carelessly, but frequently and seriously, to ask ourselves, whether we firmly believe the promises of our Saviour; whether we repent of our sins, and resolve, for the future, to avoid all those things which God has forbidden, and practise all those which he has commanded. And when any man is convinced, that he has formed real resolutions of a new life, let him pray for strength and constancy to persevere in them; and then let him come joyfully to the holy table, in sure confidence of pardon, reconciliation, and life everlasting.

Which that we may all obtain, God of his infinite mercy grant, for the merits of Jesus Christ, our Saviour; to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit, three Persons and one God, be ascribed all honour, adoration, and praise, now and for ever! Amen.

Editorial Notes

1 This, the first of two communion sermons (the other being Sermon 22), lacks the distinction of style and thought that has characterized all the sermons printed before it and most of the sermons to follow. The editors are not prepared to withdraw it from the canon, since its literary quality is well above that of the sermon they have relegated to Appendix C (see Introduction, pp. xxxiii-xxxv) and since it in no way contradicts SJ’s own beliefs and is in fact now and then closely parallel to his conversations and writings on the sacrament of communion. For SJ’s own strong personal responses to this sacrament, see Yale I.132, 260 and passim, Life, IV.524, and Waingrow, p. 245. For a discussion of this sermon, see Quinlan, pp. 92-96. Professor Quinlan argues that, in preparing it, SJ may have followed notes he had made on four sermons by Samuel Clarke.

2 Cf. the “Life of Thomas Browne,” (Yale XIX.340), where SJ criticizes Christian zealots who would, because of an overscrupulous conscience, exclude from the church those who fall short of perfect conduct, and Rambler 8, where he advocates self-examination as a necessary preliminary to repentance but cautions “pious and tender minds, that are disturbed by the irruptions of wicked imaginations, against too great dejection, and too anxious alarms; for thoughts are only criminal, when they are first chosen and then voluntarily continued” (Yale III.45).

3 See Life, IV.122, where Boswell discusses several points of view, including SJ’s, on the preparation necessary for receiving communion.

4 SJ’s firmest verbal association with communion is commemoration. See Yale I.64, 74, 130; also p. 102 below, and Sermon 22, pp. 233, 234.

5 Compare the similar argument (Life, II.171-72) in defence of a repentant person whose application for ordination had been opposed, “because it was alledged that he had been guilty of fornication five years before. JOHNSON. ‘Why, Sir, if he has repented, it is not a sufficient objection. A man who is good enough to go to heaven, is good enough to be a clergyman.’” Boswell dissents.

6 Both verses 19 and 20 are cited in the ensuing sentences. To retain the emphasis of the original, we have here retained the italic type of the 1st ed., which is not, however, coterminous with the quotation, as it usually is.

7 “gave unto them” (Luke xxii.19); “gave it to [them]” (Prayer of Consecration in the Communion Service, Book of Common Prayer).

8 I Corinthians xi.26 (“For as often ... and drink this cup....”).

9 In the Dictionary SJ defines sacrament as “1. An oath; any ceremony producing an obligation. 2. An outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. 3. The eucharist; the holy communion.”

1 Compare SJ’s comment, “There is a certain degree of temptation which will overcome any virtue” (Life, III.237).

2 That is, “mental images.” See Life, III.196-97.

3 “Not to be expressed; ineffable; unutterable” (Dictionary, 4th ed.). In the examples quoted by SJ, Hooker and South apply the term to divine comfort. Samuel Clarke (Works, 1738, I.353) refers to God’s “unspeakable Mercy.” See also II Corinthians ix. 15 and I Peter i.8.

4 Nothing in the rest of Sermon 9 attains the peculiarly Johnsonian eloquence of this and the preceding two sentences.

5 Isaiah lv.6-7. This is the text of Sermon 2. Untypically, this quotation and the next one are not printed in italic type, which in the Ist ed. is used for most quotations; they are punctuated with double quotation marks, which appear before and after the citation and at the beginning of each quoted line.

6 Self-examination is a practice recommended by the Church of England. It is particularly enjoined upon his readers by William Law, who urges its practice every evening. See Serious Call (1729), pp. 459-80. See also Robert Nelson, Companion for the Festivals and Fasts of the Church of England, esp. p. 11. SJ admired, recommended, and used Nelson’s compendium (Life, II.458 and n. 3).

7 “Lying lips are abomination to the Lord” (Proverbs xii.22).

Transcription

Document Details

Document TitleSERMON 9

AuthorJohnson, Samuel

Creation DateN/A

Publ. Date1788

Alt. TitleN/A

Contrib. AuthorN/A

ClassificationSubject: Corinthians; Subject: Scripture; Subject: Luke; Subject: Sacrament; Subject: Sin; Subject: St. Paul; Subject: Eucharist; Genre: Sermon

PrinterN/A

PublisherT. Cadell

Publ. PlaceLondon

VolumeSamuel Johnson: Sermons

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