Eighteen sermons preached in Oxford 1640 of conversion, unto God. Of redemption, & justification,…

3. The third action requisite to a worthy Comer, is cleansing of himself. I would fain come, may a man say, to the Lords Table, having such need of it, as I have, and having such an appetite and desire to feed on Christ; but I am to come before a great King, therefore I must wash mine hands in innocency. In the Gospel according to Saint Mark, the Jews found fault with Christs Disciples, because they came with unclean or common hands: For so the word signifies, and is so used by the Apostles as equivalent thereunto. I have learned to call nothing common or unclean. Now when I come to meet the Lord in his Ordinances, I must put off my shoes from off my feet, for the place where I stand is holy. Wash your hands you sinners, and purify your hearts you double minded. The purifying of the soul is that ⟨p. 450⟩which is required of every worthy Communicant. We come now not to receive life, but strength, and that it may strengthen us, we must of necessity cleanse our selves. A stomach over clogged with choler what ever meat be taken into it, it turns it into its own nature: so is it here, unless the vessel be clean, Quodcunque infundis, acessit. Christ Jesus the purest thing in the world is to come into my soul, as into a sanctuary, and shall not I fit, trim and garnish it to receive him, but leave it as a Pig-sty? Know therefore that thou comest unworthily when thou comest with unwashed hands. The people were to be sanctified when they came to receive the Law. And so must we if we will receive the benefit from the business in hand: But I cannot stand on all. I pass from this therefore to the second thing I proposed, and that was;

3. The third action requisite to a worthy Commer, is cleansing of himself. I would fain come, may a man say, to the Lords Table, having such need of it, as I have, and having such an appetite and desire to feed on Christ; but I am to come before a great King, therefore I must wash mine hands in innocency. In the Gospel according to Saint Mark, the Jews found fault with Christs Disciples, because they came with unclean or common hands: For so the word signifies, and is so used by the Apostles as equivalent thereunto. I have learned to call nothing common or unclean. Now when I come to meet the Lord in his Ordinances, I must put off my shooes from off my feet, for the place where I stand is holy. Wash your hands you sinners, and purifie your hearts you double minded. The purifying of the soul is that ⟨p. 450⟩