Question 97

It is required—By Christ and by His Church.

that they examine themselves—“Look and behold in quhat estate your hart is in with God, and in what estate your conscience is with your neighbour. Others can nocht try you so narrowlie as ye yourself can; na man can be certain of the estate of your heart and condition of your conscience, and yit ye yourself may be certain of it. . . . Revolve in your memories and remember gif at ony time it pleased the Lord, in His mercy, to turn the darkness of your mind unto light, to make that darkness quhilk was in you to depart. Examine, I say, quhither gif this darkness of the naturale understanding be turned to light, be the working of the Spirit or not: gif thou art become a child of the light, of the day; gif thou art become, as the apostles say, light in the Lord: gif the Lord has at ony time enlightened the eye of the mind, and made thee be thine owin miserie to see the ugliness of thine owin nature, to see the hainous sins in the quhilk be nature thou lyes: gif He has granted thee ane insight of thyself in some measure: And, upon the uther side, if He has granted ane outgett, and has given thee ane insight of the grace of God in Christ Jesus; gif thou have gotten ane insight of the riches of the grace of Christ: Na doubt, the Halie Spirit has begun a good work in thee!” (see Bruce, Fourt and Fift Sermons).

“Again, being so prone as we are to fawn upon ourselves, and to be ignorant as much as may be of our own deformities, without the feeling sense whereof we are most wretched; even so much the more, because not knowing them we cannot so much as desire to have them taken away: how should our festered sores be cured, but that God hath delivered a law as sharp as a two-edged sword, piercing the closest and most unsearchable corners of the heart, which the law of nature can hardly, human laws by no means possibly, reach unto? Hereby we know even secret concupiscence to be sin: and are made fearful to offend, though it be but in a wandering cogitation” (Hooker).

“Search others for their virtues, and thyself for thy vices” (Thomas Fuller).

“No man is fit to communicate, who is not fit to die” (Jeremy Taylor). (See à Kempis, Book iv. chap. vii.)

knowledge to discern the Lord’s body—Discern is a scriptural word, and means in this connection, as always, to understand aright, to discriminate, to distinguish. Now to discern the body of the Lord is to put that distinction and esteem upon it that He and it deserve at our hands. He discerns the body of his Lord who asks himself and answers aright—Whose body is that on the middle cross on Calvary? and why is it there? Of what did its Divine Owner speak when He said, My body is broken for you? In what sense and to what result is that body present in the Supper? and how am I aright to become incorporate with it? To look at our Lord’s body in these and suchlike ways is aright to discern it. “Discern, to separate or distinguish between the sign and the thing signified” (note in English Presbyterian edition).

of their faith to feed upon him—See under “eat and drink judgment.” “No faith, no covenant; no covenant, no seal; no seal, no sacrament” (Dr. Reynolds). Faith is sometimes spoken of as an eye, sometimes as a foot, and sometimes as a hand. Here its action is set forth as that of the mouth of the soul. This metaphor of eating is frequent in the Old Testament, and the great discourse in the sixth of John, taken along with the ordinance of the Supper, has made this figure very familiar to the Christian mind and heart. Faith is there a feeding, assimilating, and nourishing faculty, and Christ, with His word, and work, and grace, is the proper and peculiar food of faith. They who worthily communicate feed spiritually on Christ, and if they examine themselves aright they will see that they do.

of their repentance—See Answer 87.

love—See Answer 42.

new obedience—See Answer 87.

lest they eat and drink judgment—Professor Candlish points out that the Shorter Catechism is here more correct than the Authorized Version of the New Testament, in that it renders the original by judgment rather than by damnation. The Revised Version follows the Catechism in translating judgment. Dr. Maclear, commenting on Mark xii. 40, points out that the words in 1 Cor. xi. 29–32 rendered damnation, discerning, judged, condemnation, are all, in the Greek, parts or derivatives of one and the same original word; and refers to Wycliffe, who imitated the uniformity of the Greek in rendering all these words into forms of the same English word, thus: “He that etith and drinketh vnworthili, etith and drinkith doom to him, not wisely demyng the bodi of the Lord. . . . And if we demyden wiseli us silf we schulden not be demyd, but while we be demyd of the Lord we ben chastised, that we be not dampnyd with this world.” The richer the grace that is despised, the greater the sin: and the deeper will be the punishment of those despisers who perish with the sin of unworthy communicating added to all their other sins. The greater the benefits to worthy communicating, the greater the guilt to those who despise and profane both word and sacrament.

And to part with Robert Bruce’s powerful and savoury sermons: “Now, come on: this may be maid mair clear be a similitude. Ye see amonge worldly princes their custome is, they will not suffer their majesty to be interest in the smallest thing that they love. Quhere can be a smaller thing that concerns the majestie of a prince nor a seall, for the substance of it is but wax? Yit, gif thou disdanfully use that seall, and contemn it, and stampe it under thy feet, thou art counted as if thou didst put hands on the king, and thou wilt be handled aefter sic way. Meikle mair, gif thou come as a sow or a dog to handle the seals of the body and blood of Christ, meikle mair may thou be compted to be guiltie of the body and blood. . . . Take up, therefor, yourselves in time; take your pennieworths of it, for ye wott not how lang it lasts. Crave a mouth to receive, and take this food while ye may have it, or assuredly the time will come quhen ye sall cry for it, and sall not get it: but in place of grace and mercie sall come judgment, vengeance, and the dispensation of wrath.”

Use

By far the best book on self-examination accessible to the English reader is Jonathan Edwards’ Treatise Concerning Religious Affections. The Third Part, showing what are distinguishing signs of truly gracious and holy affections, is one of the best pieces of practical divinity ever written. Discoursing generally of assurance in his introductory remarks, Edwards says: “It is not God’s design that men should obtain assurance in any other way than by mortifying corruption, increasing in grace, and obtaining the lively exercises of it. And although self-examination be a duty of great use and importance, and by no means to be neglected; yet it is not the principal means by which the saints do get satisfaction of their good estate. Assurance is not to be obtained so much by self-examination as by action. . . . Paul obtained assurance of winning the prize more by running than by considering. The swiftness of his pace did more toward his assurance of a conquest than the strictness of his examination.” (Let all young ministers and students of divinity master Edwards.)

Questions

1. Explain Augustine’s famous antithetical saying: At the first supper eleven ate the Lord with the bread; the twelfth ate the bread with the Lord.
2. Describe the case of those of whom Calvin speaks: There are some that receive Christ truly in the Supper, and yet at the same time receive Him unworthily.
3. Can you discern Bengel’s meaning: The question is not about the body of Christ, but rather about the body of the Lord Jesus?
4. See chap. vii. Book iv. of à Kempis.