There are some significations of repentance which charity never can refuse but must accept the offending person as a convert and a penitent 1. Such is open and plain confession of the fault with the circumstances of shame and dishonour for he that does so much rudeness to himself as to endure the shame of his sin rather than not to return to duty gives great testimony that he returns in earnest And this can no waies be abated unless he have done so before and that his confession is but formal and his shame is passed into shamelesness In this case we may expect some more real argument 2. Whatsoever are the great usual signs and expresses of repentance before God those also are to be accepted by us when they are done before men and though we may be deceived in these things and God cannot yet they are the best we can get and something we must rely upon And because like God we cannot discern the hearts of men yet we rightly follow his example when we do that which is the next best and expound the action to the best and most favourable sense of charity 3. An oath if it be not taken lightly is a great presumption of an innocent a sincere and a repenting soul. It is the sign of an ill mind not to trust him that swears seldom and alwaies solemnly and for ought we know justly said Amphides For a solemn sacred oath is a double hedge and it is guarded by a double fear lest I abuse my friend and lest I provoke my God and the blessed Apostle saith That an oath is the end of all strife meaning amongst persons who can cease to strive and can cease to be injurious It is so among them who have Religion and who can be fit for society For there is no man whose oath it can be fit to take but it is also fit that having sworn he should be trusted But it is seldom that our charity can be put to such extremities and in no conversation can it happen that a man shall do an injury and repent and do it again twenty times and a hundred times in the revolution of a few daies If such things could be those men are intolerable upon other accounts and though charity must refuse no man and forgiveness must alway stand at your door ready to let in all that knock yet the accidents of the world caution and prudence and innocent fears will dispose of our affairs in other channels of security and cut off the occasions of such disputes so certain is that observation of St. Heirom which I menâ—ioned before that we are tied to forgive oftner than our Brother can sin but then also so safe are we whose charity must be bigger than the greatest temptation and yet no temptation is like to happen but what is less than an ordinary charity Question V. Whether the injured person be bound to offer peace Or may he let it alone and worthily communicate if the offending party does not seek it To the Question whether of the parties must begin the peace I answer that both are bound For although he that did the injury is bound in conscience and justice to go to him whom he hath injured and he is not a true penitent if he does not and he must not for his part be accepted to the Communion of which I am to give account in the Chapter of repentance yet because we are now upon the title of Charity I am to add that if the Criminal does not come the offended person must offer peace he must go or send to him If others begin the quarrel do thou begin the peace said Seneca For sometimes the offender desires pardon but dares not ask it he begs it by interpretation and tacite desire consult therefore with his modesty his infirmity and his shame He is more bound to do it than thou art yet thou canst better do it than he can It is not alwaies safe for him it is never unsafe for thee It may be an extream shame to him it is ever honourable to thee it may be sometimes to his loss it is alwaies thy gain for this was the resolution of Hesiod's Riddle Half is more than the whole A dinner of herbs with peace is better than a stalled Oxe with contention and therefore upon all accounts it is for thy advantage to make the offer I add also it is thy duty I do not say that in justice thou art bound but in charity thou art and in obedience to thy Lord. If thy Brother offend thee go and tell him Go thou saies Christ. For by so doing we imitate God whom though we have so often so infinitely offended yet he thought thoughts of peace and sent to us Embassadors of peace and Ministers of reconciliation When Pompey and Marcus Crassus were to quit their Consulships Cueius Aurelius I know not upon what account ran into the Forum and cried out that Jupiter appearing to him in his dream commanded that they should be reconciled before they were discharged by the people which when the people also required Pompey stirred not but Crassus did he reached out his hand to his Collegue saying I do nothing unworthy of my self O Romans If I first offer peace to Pompâ—y whom you honoured with the title of Great before he was a Man and with a Triumph before he was a Senator We cannot want better arguments of peacefulness It is no shame to thee to offer peace to thy offending Brother when thy God did so to thee who was greatly provoked by thee and could as greatly have been revenged and it is no disparagement that thou shouldest desire the reconcilement with him for whom Christ became a Sacrifice and to whom he offers as he does to thee the Communion of his body and bloud * Thou art I say bound in charity to thy Brothers soul whose repentance thou canst easily invite by thy kind offer and thou makest his return easie thou takest away his objection and temptation thou securest thy own right better and art invested in the greatest glory of mankind thou doest the work of God and the work of thy own soul thou carriest pardon and ease and mercy with thee and who would not run and strive to be first in carrying a pardon and bringing messages of peace and joyfulness Consider therefore that death divides with you every minute you quarrel in the morning and it may be you shall dye at night run quickly and be reconciled for fear you anger last longer than your life It was a pretty victory which Euclid got of his angry Brother who being highly displeased cried out Let me perish if I be not revenged But he answered And let me perish if I do no not make you kind and quickly to forget your anger That gentle answer did it and they were friends presently and for ever after It is a shame if we be out done by
same Ministry of salvation and but one and the same Oeconomy of God Thus St. Peter affirms That by the precious blood of Christ we are redeemed from our vain conversation and it is every where affirmed that we are purified and cleansed by the blood of Christ and yet these are the express effects of his Spirit for by the spirit we mortifie the deeds of the body and we are justified and sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus by the spirit of our God By which expressions we are taught to distinguish the natural blood of Christ from the spiritual the blood that he gave for us from the blood which he gives to us that was indeed by the spirit but was not the same thing but this is the spirit of grace and the spirit of wisdom And therefore as our Fathers were made to drink into one spirit when they drank of the water of the rock so we also partake of the spirit when we drink of Christs blood which came from the spiritual rock when it was smitten for thus according to the Doctrine of St. John the water aâ—d the blood and the spirit are one and the same glorious purposes As it was with our Fathers in the beginning so it is now with us and so it ever shall be world without end for they fed upon Christ that is they believed in Christ they expected his day they lived upon his promises they lived by faith in him and the same meat and drink is set upon our Tables and more than all this as Christ is the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world so he shall be the food of souls in heaven where they who are accounted worthy shall sit down and be feasted in the eternal Supper of the Lamb concerning which blessedness our B. Saviour saith Blessed is he that eateth bread in the Kingdom of God for he hath appointed to his chosen ones to eat and drink at his table in his Kingdom plainly teaching us that by eating and drinking Christ is meant in this world to live the life of the spirit and in the other world it is to live the life of glory here we feed upon duty and there we feed upon reward our wine is here mingled with water and with myrrhe there it is mere and unmixt but still it is called meat and drink and still is meant grace and glory the fruits of the spirit and the joy of the spirit that is by Christ we here live a spiritual life and hereafter shall live a life eternal Thus are sensible things the Sacrament and representation of the spiritual and eternal and spiritual things are the fulfillings of the sensible But the consequent of these things is this that since Christ always was is and shall be the food of the faithful and is that bread which came down from heaven since we eat him here and shall eat him there our eating both here and there is spiritual only the word of teaching shall be changed into the word of glorification and our faith into Charity and all the way our souls live a new life by Christ of which eating and drinking is the Symbol and the Sacrament And this is not done to make this mystery obscure but intelligible and easie For so the pains of hell are expressed by fire which to our flesh is most painful and the joyes of God by that which brings us greatest pleasure by meat and drink and the growth in grace by the natural instruments of nutrition and the work of the Soul by the ministeries of the body and the graces of God by the blessings of nature for these we know and we know nothing else and but by phantasmes and ideas of what we see and feel we understand nothing at all Now this is so far from being a diminution of the glorious mystery of our Communion that the changing all into spirituality is the greatest increase of blessing in the world And when he gives us his body and his blood he does not fill our stomachs with good things for of whatsoever goes in thither it is affirmed by the Apostle that God will destroy both it and them but our hearts are to be replenished and by receiving his spirit we receive the best thing that God gives not his liveless body but his flesh with life in it that is his doctrine and his spirit to imprint it so to beget a living faith and a lively hope that we may live and live for ever 4. St. John having thus explicated this mystery in general of our eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ added nothing in particular concerning any Sacraments these being in particular instances of the general mystery and communion with Christ. But what is the advantage we receive by the Sacraments besides that which we get by the other and distinct ministeries of faith I thus account in general The word and the spirit are the flesh and the blood of Christ that is the ground of all Now because there are two great Sermons of the Gospel which are the summe total and abbreviature of the whole word of God the great messages of the word incarnate Christ was pleased to invest these two words with two Sacraments and assist those two Sacraments as he did the whole word of God with the presence of his Spirit that in them we might do more signally and solemnly what was in the ordinary ministrations done plainly and without extraordinary regards Believe and repent is the word in Baptisme and and there solemnly consigned and here it is that by faith we feed on Christ for faith as it is opposed to works that is the new Covenant of faith as it is opposed to the old Covenant of works is the covenant of repentance repentance is expressly included in the new covenant but was not in the old but by faith in Christ we are admitted to pardon of our sins if we repent and forsake them utterly Now this is the word of faith and this is that which is called the flesh or body of Christ for this is that which the soul feeds on this is that by which the just do live and when by the operation of the holy spirit the waters are reformed to a Divine Nature or efficacy the baptized are made clean theâ— are sanctified and presented pure and spotless unto God This mystery St. Austin rightly understood when he affirmed that we are made partakers of the body and blood of Christ when we are in baptisme incorporated into his body we are baptized in the passion of our Lord so Tertullian to the same sense with that of St. Paul we are buried with him in baptisme into his death that is by baptisme are conveyed to us all the effects of Christ's death the flesh and blood of Christ crucified are in baptisme reached to us by the hand of God by his holy spirit and received by the hand of man the Ministery of
a holy faith So that it can without difficulty be understood that as in receiving the word and the spirit illuminating us in our first conversion we do truely feed on the flesh and drink the blood of Christ who is the bread that came down from heaven so we do it also and do it much more in baptisme because in this besides all that was before there was superadded a rite of Gods appointment The difference is only this That out of the Sacrament the spirit operates with the word in the ministery of man in Baptisme the spirit operates with the word in the ministery of God For here God is the preacher the Sacrament is Gods sign and by it he ministers life to us by the flesh and blood of his Son that is by the death of Christ into which we are baptized And in the same Divine method the word and the spirit are ministred to us in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper For as in Baptisme so here also there is a word proper to the ministery So often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye declare the Lords death till he come This indeed is a word of comfort Christ died for our sins that is our repentance which was consigned in baptisme shall be to purpose we shall be washed white and clean in the blood of the sacrificed Lamb. This is verbum visibile the same word read to the eye and to the ear Hear the word of God is made our food in a manner so near to our understanding that our tongues and palats feel the Metaphor and the Sacramental signification here faith is in triumph and exaltation but as in all the other ministeries Evangelical we eat Christ by faith here we have faith also by eating Christ Thus eating and drinking is faith it is faith in mystery and faith in ceremony it is faith in act and faith in habit it is exercised and it is advanced and therefore it is certain that here we eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ with much eminency and advantage The sum is this Christs body his flesh and his blood are therefore called our meat and our drink because by his incarnation and manifestation in the flesh he became life unto us So that it is mysterious indeed in the expression but very proper and intelligible in the event to say that we eat his flesh and drink his blood since by these it is that we have and preserve life But because what Christ begun in his incarnation he finished in his body on the crosse and all the whole progression of mysteries in his body was still an operatory of life and spiritual being to us the Sacrament of the Lords Supper being a commemoration and exhibition of this death which was the consummation of our redemption by his body and blood does contain in it a visible word the word in symbol and visibility and special manifestation Consonant to which Docrtine the Fathers by an elegant expression call the blessed Sacrament the extension of the Incarnation So that here are two things highly to be remarked 1. That by whatsoever way Christ is taken out of the Sacrament by the same he is taken in the Sacrament and by some wayes here more than there 2. That the eating and drinking the consecrated symbols is but the body and lesser part of the Sacrament the life and the spirit is believing greatly and doing all the actions of that believing direct and consequent So that there are in this two manducations and Sacramental and the Spiritual That does but declare and exercise this and of the sacramental manducation as it is alone as it is a ceremony as it does only consigne or expresse the internal it is true to affirm that it is only an act of obedience but all the blessings and conjugations of joy which come to a worthy Communicant proceed from that spiritual eating of Christ which as it is done out of the Sacrament very well so in it and with it much better For here being as in baptisme a double significatory of the spirit a word and a sign of his own appointment it is certain he will joyn in this Ministration Here we have bread and drink flesh and blood the word and the spirit Christ in all his effects and most gracious communications This is the general account of the nature and purpose of this great mystery Christians are spiritual men faith is their mouth and wisdom is their food and believing is manducation and Christ is their life and truth is the Air they breath and their bread is the word of God and Gods spirit is their drink and righteousness is their robe and Gods laws are their light and the Apostles are their salt and Christ is to them all in all for we must put on Christ and we must eat Christ and we must drink Christ we must have him within us and we must be in him he is our vine and we are his branches he is a door and by him we must enter he is our shepherd and we his sheep Deus meus omnia he is our God and he is all things to us that is plainly he is our Redeemer and he is our Lord He is our Saviour and our Teacher by his Word and by his Spirit he brings us to God and to felicities eternal and that is the sum of all For greater things than these we can neither receive nor expect But these things are not consequent to the reception of the natural body of Christ which is now in heaven but of his Word and of his Spirit which are therefore indeed his body and his blood because by these we feed on him to life eternal Now these are indeed conveyed to us by the several ministries of the Gospel but especially in the Sacraments where the Word is preached and consigned and the Spirit is the teacher and the feeder and makes the Table full and the Cup to overflow with blessing SECT III. That in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper there are represented and exhibited many great blessings upon the special account of that sacred ministery proved in General IN explicating the Nature of this Divine mystery in general as I have manifested the nature and operations and the whole ministery to be spiritual and that not the natural body and blood of Christ is received by the mouth but the word and the spirit of Christ by faith and a spiritual hand and upon this account have discovered their mistake who think the secret lies in the outside and suppose that we tear the natural flesh of Christ with our mouthes So I have by consequent explicated the secret which others indefinitely and by conjecture and zeal do speak of and know not what to say but resolve to speak things great enough it remains now that I consider for the satisfaction of those that speak things too contemptible of these holy mysteries who say it is nothing but a commemoration of
Christs death an act of obedience a ceremony of memorial but of no spiritual effect and of no proper advantage to the soul of the receiver Against this besides the preceding discourse convincing their fancy of weakness and derogation the consideration of the proper excellencies of this mystery in its own seperate nature will be very useful For now we are to consider how his natural body enters into his oeconomy and dispensation For the understanding of which are to consider that Christ besides his Spiritual body and blood did also give us his natural and we receive that by the means of this For this he gave us but once then when upon the Crosse he was broken for our sins this body could die but once and it could be but at one place at once and Heaven was the place appointed for it and at once all was sufficiently effected by it which was design'd in the Counsel of God â—or by the vertue of that death Christ is become the Author of life unto us and of salvation he is our Lord and our Lawgiver but it he received all power in heaven and earth and by it he reconciled his Father to the world and in vertue of that he intercedes for us in heaven and sends his spirit upon earth and feeds our souls by his word he instructs us to wisdom and admits us to repentance and gives us pardon and by means of his own appointment nourishes us up by holinesse to life eternal This body being carried from us into heaven cannot be touch'd or tasted by us on earth but yet Christ left to us symbols and Sacraments of this natural body not to be or to convey that natural body to us but to do more and better for us to convey all the blessings and graces procured for us by the breaking of that body and the effusion of the blood which blessings being spiritual are therefore called his body spiritually because procured by that body which died for us and are therefore called our food because by them we live a new life in the spirit and Christ is our bread and our life because by him after this manner we are nourished up to life eternal That is plainly thus Therefore we eat Christs spiritual body because he hath given us his natural body to be broken and his natural blood to be shed for the remission of our sins and for the obtaining the grace and acceptability of repentance For by this gift and by this death he hath obtained this favour from God that by faith in him and repentance from dead works by repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ we may be saved To this sense of the Mystery are those excellent words of the Apostle He bare our sins upon his own body on the Tree that he might deliver us from the present evil world and sanctifie and purge us from all pollution of flesh and spirit that he might destroy the works of the devil that he might redeem us from all iniquity that he might purchase to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works and that we being dead unto sin might live unto righteousnesse Totum Christiani nominis pondus fructus mors Christi All that we are or do or have is produced and effected by the death of Christ. Now because our life depends upon his death the ministry of this life must relate â—o the ministry of this death and we have nothing to glory in but the Crosse of Christ the Word preached is nothing but Jesus Christ crucified and the Sacraments are the most eminent way of declaring this word for by Baptism we are buried into his death and by the Lords Supper we are partakers of his death we communicate with the Lord Jesus as he is crucified but now since all belong to this that Word and that Mystery that is highest and neerest in this relation is the principal and chief of all the rest and that the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is so is evident beyond all necessity of inquiry it being instituted in the vespers of the Passion it being the Sacrament of the passion a sensible representation of the breaking Christs body of the effusion of Christs blood it being by Christ himself intituled to the passion and the symbols invested with the names of his broken body and his blood poured forth and the whole ministry being a great declaration of this death of Christ and commanded to be continued until his second coming Certainly by all these it appears that this Sacrament is the great ministry of life and salvation here is the publication of the great word of salvation here is set forth most illustriously the body and blood of Christ the food of our souls much more clearly than in Baptism much more effectually than in simple enunciation or preaching and declaration by words for this preaching is to strangers and infants in Christ to produce faith but this Sacramental enunciation is the declaration and confession of it by men in Christ a glorying in it giving praise for it a declaring it to be done and own'd and accepted and prevailing The consequent of these things is this That if any Mystery Rite or Sacrament be effective of any spiritual blessings then this is much more as having the prerogative and illustrious principality above every thing else in its own kind or of any other-kind in exteriour or interiour Religion I name them both because as in Baptism the water alone does nothing but the inward cooperation with the outward oblation does save us yet to Baptism the Scriptures attribute the effect so it is in this sacred solemnity the external act is indeed nothing but obedience and of it self only declares Christs death in rite and ceremony yet the worthy communicating of it does indeed make us feed upon Christ and unites him to the soul and makes us to become one spirit according to the words of S. Ambrose Ideo in similitudinem quidem accipis sacramentum sed verae naturae gratiam virtutemque consequeris thou recâ—ivâ—st the Sacrament as the similitude of Christs body but thou shalt receive the grace and the virtue of the true nature I shall not enter into so useless a discourse as to inquire whether the Sacraments confer grace by their own excellency and power with which they are endued from above because they who affirm they do require so much duty on our parts as they also do who attribute the effect to our moral disposition but neither one nor the other say true for neither the external act nor the internal grace and morality does effect our pardon and salvation but the spirit of God who blesses the symbols and assists the duty makes them holy and this acceptable Only they that attribute the efficacy to the Ministration of the Sacrament chose to magnifie the immediate work of man rather than the immediate work of God and prefer the external at least in glorious
particularly IN the reception of the blessed Sacrament there are many blessings which proceed from our own actions the conjugations of moral duties the offices of preparation and reception the reverence and the devotion of which I shall give account in the following Chapters here I am to enumerate those graces which are intended to descend upon us from the spirit of God in the use of the Sacrament it self precisely But first I consider that it must be infinitely certain that great spiritual blessings are consequent to the worthy receiving this Divine Sacrament because it is not at all received but by a spiritual hand for it is either to be understood in a carnal sense that Christs body is there eaten or in a spiritual sense If in a carnal it profits noâ—hing If in a spiritual he be eaten let the meaning of that be considered and it will convince us that innumerable blessings are in the very reception and Communion Now what the meaning of this spiritual eating is I have already declared in this chapter and shall yet more fully explicate in the sequel In the Sacrament we do not receive Christ carnally but we receive him spiritually and that of it self is a conjugation of blessings and spiritual graces The very understanding what we do tells us also what we receive But I descend to particulars 1. And first I reckon that the Sacrament is intended to increase our faith for although it is with us in this Holy Sacrament as it was with Abraham in the Sacrament of circumcision he had the grace of faith before he was circumcised and received the Sacrament after he had the purpose and the grace and we are to believe before we receive these symbols of Christ death yet as by loving we love more and by the acts of patience we increase in the spirit of mortification so by believing we believe more and by publication of our confession we are made confident and by seeing the signs of what we believe our very senses are incorporated into the article and he that hath shall have more and when we concorporate the sign with the signification we conjoyn the word and the spirit and faith passes on from believing to an imaginary seeing and from thence to a greater earnestness of believing and we shall believe more abundantly this increase of faith not being only a natural and proper production of the exercise of its own acts but a blessing and an effect of the grace of God in that Sacrament it being certain that since the Sacrament being of Divine institution it could not be to no purpose for in spiritualibus Sacramentis ubi praecipit virtus servit effectus where the commandment comes from him that hath all power the action cannot be destitute of an excellent event and therefore that the representing of the death of Christ being an act of faith and commanded by God must needs in the hands of God be more effectual than it is in its own nature that faith shall then increase not only by the way of nature but by Gods blessing his own instruments can never be denied but by them that neither have faith nor experience For this is the proper scene and the very exaltation of faith the Latine Church for a long time into the very words of consecration of the calice hath put words relating to this purpose For this is the cup of my blood of the New and Eternal Testament the mystery of faith which for you and for many shall be shed for the remission of sins And if by faith we eat the flesh of Christ as it is confessed by all the Schools of Christians then it is certain that when so manifestly and solemnly according to the divine appointment we publish this great confession of the death of Christ we do in all senses of spiritual blessing eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ and let that be expounded how we list we are not in this world capable and we do not need a greater blessing and God may sâ—y in the words of Isaac to his son Esau with corn and wine have I sustained thee and what is there left that I can do unto thee my son To eat the flesh and to drink the blood of Christ Sacramentally is an act of faith and every act of faith joyned with the Sacrament does grow by the nature of grace and the measures of a blessing and therefore is eating of Christ spiritually and this reflexion of acts like circles of a glorious and eternal fire passes on in the univocal production of its own parts till it passe from grace to glory 2. Of the same consideration it is that all the graces which we do exercise by the nature of the Sacrament requiring them or by the necessity of the commandment of preparation do here receive increase upon the account of the same reason but I instance only in that of Charity of which this is signally and by an especial remark the Sacrament and therefore these holy conventions are called by St. Jude feasts of charity which were Christian Festivals in which also they had the Sacrament adjoined but whether that do effect this persuasion or no yet the thing it self is dogmatically affirmed in St. Pauls explication of that mystery we are one body because we partake of one bread that is plainly Christ is our head and we the members of his body and are united in this mystical union by the holy Sacrament not only because it symbolically does teach our duty and promotes the grace of charity by a real signature and a sensible Sermon nor yet only because it calls upon Christians by the publick Sermons of the Gospel and the duties of preparation and the usual expectations of conscience and Religion but even by the blessing of God and the operation of the holy Spirit in the Sacrament which as appears plainly by the words of the Apostle is designed to this very end to be a reconciler and an atonement in the hand of God a band of charity and the instrument of Christian Communion that we may be one body because we partake of one bread that is we may be mystically united by the Sacramental participation and therefore it was not without mystery that the Congregation of all Christ servants his Church and this Sacramental bread are both in Scripture called by the same name This bread is the body of Christ and the Church is Christs body too for by the communion of this bread all faithful people are confederated into one body the body of our Lord. Now it is to be observed that although the expression is tropical and figurative that we are made one body because it is meant in a spiritual sense yet that spiritual sense means the most real event in the world we are really joyned to one common Divine principle Jesus Christ our Lord and from him we do communicate in all the blessings of his grace and
the fruits of his passion and we shall if we abide in this union be all one body of a spiritual Church in heaven there to reign with Christ for ever Now unless we think nothing Good but what goes in at our eyes or mouth if we think there is any thing good beyond what our senses perceive we must confess this to be a real and eminent benefit and yet whatever it be it is therefore effected upon us by this Sacrament because we eat of one bread The very repeating the words of St. Paul is a satisfaction in this inquiry they are plain and easie and whatever interpretation can be put upon them it can only vary the manner of effecting the blessing and the way of the Sacramental efficacy but it cannot evacuate the blessing or confute the thing Only it is to be observed in this as in all other instances of the like nature that the grace of God in the Sacrament usually is a blessing upon our endeavours for spiritual graces and the blessings of sanctification do not grow like grasse but like corn not whether we do any husbandry or no but if we cultivate the ground then by Gods blessing the fruits will spring and make the Farmer rich if we be disposed to receive the Sacrament worthily we shall receive this fruit also Which fruit is thus expressed saying this Sacrament is therefore given unto us that the body of the Church of Christ in the earth may be joyned or united with our head which is in the heavens 3. The blessed Sacrament is of great efficacy for the remission of sins not that it hath any formal efficacy or any inherent vertue to procure pardon but that it is the ministery of the death of Christ and the application of his blood which blood was shed for the remission of sins and is the great means of impetration and as the Schools use to speak is the meritorious cause of it For there are but two wayes of applying the death of Christ an internal grace and an external ministery Faith is the inward applicatory and if there be any outward at all it must be the Sacraments and both of them are of remarkable vertue in this particular for by baptisme we are baptized into the death of Christ and the Lords supper is an appointed enunciation and declaration of Christs death and it is a Sacramental participation of it Now to partake of it Sacramentally is by Sacrament to receive it that is so to apply it to us as that can be applyed it brings it to our spirit it propounds it to our faith it represents it as the matter of Eucharist it gives it as meat and drink to our souls and rejoyces in it in that very formality in which it does receive it viz as broken for as shed for the remission of our sins Now then what can any man suppose a Sacrament to be and what can be meant by sacramental participation for unless the Sacraments do communicate what they relate to they are no communion or communication at all for it is true that our mouth eats the material signs but at the same time faith eats too and therefore must eat that is must partake of the thing signified faith is not maintained by ceremonies the body receives the body of the mystery we eat and drink the symbols with our mouths but faith is not corporeal but feeds upon the mystery it self it entertains the grace and enters into that secret which the spirit of God conveyes under the signature Now since the mystery is perfectly and openly expressed to be the remission of sins if the soul does the work of the soul as the body the work of the body the soul receives remission of sins as the body does the symbols of it and the Sacrament But we must be infinitely careful to remember that even the death of Christ brings no pardon to the impenitent persevering sinner but to him that repents truely so does the Sacrament of Christs death this can do no more than that and therefore let no man come with his guilt about him and in the heat and in the affections of his sin and hope to find his pardon by this ministery He that thinks so will but deceive wil but ruine himself They are excellent but very severe words which God spake to the Jews and which are a prophetical reproof of all unworthy Communicants in these divine mysteries What hath my beloved to do in my house seeing she hath wrought lâ—wdness with many The holy flesh hath passed from thee when thou doest evil that is this holy sacrifice the flesh and blood of thy Lord shall slip from thee without doing thee any good if thou hast not ceased from doing evil But the vulgar Latin reads these words much more emphatically to our purpose Shall the holy flesh take from thee thy wickedness in which thou rejoycest Deceive not thy self thou hast no part nor portion in this matter For the holy Sacrament operates indeed and consigns our pardon but not alone but in conjunction with all that Christ requires as conditions of pardon but when the conditions are present the Sacrament ministers pardon as pardon is ministred in this world that is by parts and in order to several purposes and with power of revocation by suspending the Divine wrath by procuring more graces by obtaining time of repentance and powers and possibilities of working out our salvation and by setting forward the method and Oeconomy of our salvation For in the usual methods of God pardon of sins is proportionable to our repentance which because it is all that state of Piety we have in this whole life after our first sin pardon of sins is all that effect of grace which is consequent to that repentance and the worthy receiving of the holy Communion is but one conjugation of holy actions and parts of repentance but indeed it is the best and the noblest and such in which man does best cooperate towards pardon and the grace of God does the most illustriously consign it But of these particulars I shall give full account when I shall discourse of the preparations of repentance 4. It is the greatest solemnity of prayer the most powerful Liturgy and means of impetration in this world For when Christ was consecrated on the crosse and became our High Priest having reconciled us to God by the death of the crosse he became infinitely gracious in the eyes of God and was admitted to the celestial and eternal Priesthood in heaven where in the vertue of the crosse he intercedes for us and represents an eternal sacrifice in the heavens on our behalf That he is a Priest in heaven appears in the large discourses and direct affirmatives of St. Paul that there is no other sacrifice to be offered but that on the crosse it is evident because he hath but once appeared in the end of the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself and therefore since it is necessaâ—y that he hath something to offer so long as he is a Priest and there is no other sacrifice but that of himself offered upon the crosse it follows that Christ in heaven perpetually offers and represents that sacrifice to his heavenly Father and in vertue of that obtains all good things for his Church Now what Christ does in heaven he hath commanded us to do on earth that is to represent his death to commemorate this sacrifice by humble prayer and thankful record and by faithful manifestation and joyful Eucharist to lay it before the eyes of our heavenly Father so ministring in his Priesthood and doing according to his commandment and his example the Church being the image of heaven the Priest the Minister of Christ the holy Table being a Copy of the celestial altar and the eternal sacrifice of the Lamb slain from the beginning of the World being alwayes the same it bleeds no more after the finishing of it on the Crosse but it is wonderfully represented in heaven and graciously represented here by Christs action there by his commandment here and the event of it is plainly this that as Christ in vertue of his sacrifice on the crosse intercedes for us with his Father so does the Minister of Christs Priest-hood here that the vertue of the eternal sacrifice may be salutary and effectual to all the needs of the Church both for things temporal and eternal and therefore it was not without great mystery and clear signification that our blessed Lord was pleased to command the representation of his death and sacrifice on the crosse should be made by breaking bread and effusion of wine to signifie to us the nature and sacredness of the Liturgy we are about and that we minister in the Priest-hood of Christ who is a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck that is we are Ministers in that unchangable Priest-hood imitating in the external Ministery the prototype Melchisedeck Of whom it is said he brought forth bread and wine and was the Priest of the most high God and in the internal imitating the antitype or the substance Christ himself who offered up his body and blood for atonement for us and by the Sacraments of bread and wine and the prayers of oblation and intercession commands us to officiate in his Priest-hood in the external ministring like Melchisedeck in the internal after the manner of Christ himself This is a great and a mysterious truth which as it is plainly manifested in the Epistle to the Hebrews so it is understood by the ancient and holy Doctors of the Church So St. Ambrose Now Christ is offered but he is offered as a man as if he received his passion but he offers himself as a Priest that he may pardon our sins here in image or representation there in truth as an Advocate interceding with his Father for us So St. Chrysostom In Christ once the Sacrifice was offered which is powerful to our eternal salvation but what then do we do not we offer every day what we daily offer is at the memorial of his death and the Sacrifice is one not many because Christ was once offered but this Sacrifice is the example or representation of that And another Christ is not impiously slain by us but piously sacrificed and by this means we declare the Lords death till he come for here through him we humbly do in earth which he as a son who is heard according to his reverence does powerfully for us in heaven where as an advocate he intercedes with his Father whose office or work it is for us to exhibit and interpose his flesh which he took of us and for us and as it were to presse it upon his Father To the same sense is the meditation of St. Austin By this he is the Priest and the Oblation the Sacrament of which he would have the daily Sacrifice of the Church to be which because it is the body of that head she learns from him to offer her self to God by him who offered himself to God for her And therefore this whole Office is called by St. Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the prayer of oblation the great Christian Sacrifice and Oblation in which we present our prayers and the needs of our selves and of our brethren unto God in virtue of the great Sacrifice Christ upon the Crosse whose memorial we then celebrate in a divine manner by divine appointment The effect of this I represent in the words of Lyra That which does purge and cleanse our sins must be celestial and spiritual and that which is such hath a perpetual efficacy and needs not to be done again but that which is daily offered in the Church is a daily commemoration of that one Sacrifice which was offered on the Crosse according to the command of Christ Do this in commemoration of me Now this holy Ministry and Sacrament of this death being according to Christs commandment and in our manner a representation of the eternal Sacrifice an imitation of Christs intercession in heaven in vertue of that Sacrifice must be after the pattern in the Mount it must be as that is pur â prece as Tertullians phrase is by pure prayer it is an intercession for the whole Church present and absent in the virtue of that Sacrifice I need add no more but leave it to the meditation to the joy and admiration of all Christian people to think and to enumerate the blessings of this Sacrament which is so excellent a representation of Christs death by Christs commandment and so glorious an imitation of that intercession which Christ makes in heaven for us all it is all but the representment of his death in the way of prayer and interpellation Christ as head and we as members he as High Priest and we servants as his Ministers and therefore I shall stop here and leave the rest for wonder and Eucharist we may pray here with all the solemnity and advantages imaginable we may with hope and comfort use the words of David I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord we are here very likely to prevail for all blessings for this is by way of eminency glory and singularity Calix benedictionis the cup of blessing which we bless and by which God will bless us and for which he is to be blessed for evermore 5. By the means of this Sacrament our bodies are made capable of the resurrection to life and eternal glory For when we are externally and symbolically in the Sacrament and by faith and the spirit of God internally united to Christ and made partakers of his body and his blood we are joyned and made one with him who did rise again and when the head is risen the members shall not see corruption for ever but rise again after the pattern of our Lord. If by the Sacrament we are really united and
Consecration of the holy Mysteries as is to be seen in many Ecclesiastical Records The reason of this is noâ—hing but the nature and analogy of the thing it self For we first come to Christ by faith and we first come to Christ by Baptism they are the two doors of the Tabernacle which our Lord hath piâ—ched and not man By faith we desire to go in and by baptism we are admitted Faith knocks at the door and baptism sets it open but until we are in the house we cannot be entertained at the Masters Table they that are in the high ways and hedges must be called in and come in at the doors and then they shall be feasted The one is the moral entrance and the other is the ritual Faith is the door of the soul and baptism is the door of the man Faith is the spiritual addresse to God and baptism is the Sacramental Baptism is like the pool of Siloam appointed for healing it is salutary and medicinal but the Spirit of God is that great Angel that descends thither and makes them virtual and faith is the hand that puts us in So that faith alone does not do it and therefore the unbaptized must not Communicaâ—e So neither will baptism alone admit us and therefore Infants and Innocents are yet uncapable But that 's the next inquiry SECT II. Of Communicating Infants Question Whether Infants are to be admitted to the Holy Communion WHether the holy Communion may be given to Infants hath been a great question in the Church of God which in this instance hath not been as in others divided by parties and single persons but by whole ages for from some of the earliest ages of the Church down to the time of Charles the Great that is for above six hundred years the Church of God did give the holy Communion to newly baptized Infants St. Cyprian recounts a miracle of an Infant into whose mouth when the parents had ignorantly and carelesly left the babe the Gentile Priests had forced some of their Idol Sacrifice But when the Minister of the Church came to pour into the mouth the Calice of our Lord it resisted and being over-powred grew sick and fell into convulsions By which narrative the practice of the Church of that age is sufficiently declared Of the matter of fact there is no question but they went further The Primitive Church did believe it necessary to the salvation of Infants St. Austin believed that this Doctrine and practice descended from the Apostles that without both the Sacraments no person could come to life or partake of the Kingdom of heaven which when he had endeavoured to prove largely he infers this conclusion It is in vain to promise salvation and life eternal to little children unlesse they be baptized and receive the body and blood of Christ since the necessity of them both is attested by so many so great and so divine Testimonies And that this practice continued to the time of Charlemaine appears by a Constitution in his Capitular saying That the Priest should always have the Eucharist ready that when any one is sick or when a child is weak he may presently give him the Communion lest he die without it And Alcuinus recites a Canon expresly charging that as soon as ever the Infants are baptized they should receive the holy Communion before they suck or receive any other nourishment The same also is used by the Greeks by the Aethiopians by the Bohemians and Moravians and it is confessed by Maldonate that the opinion of St. Austin and Innocentius that the Eucharist is necessary even to Infants prevailed in the Church for six hundred years together But since the time of Charles the Great that is for above eight hundred years this practice hath been omitted in the Western Churches generally and in the Council of Trent it was condemned as unfit and all men commanded to believe that though the ancient Churches did do it upon some probable reasons yet they did not believe it necessary Concerning which I shall not interrupt the usefulnesse which I intend in this discourse by confuting the Canon though it be intolerable to command men to believe in a matter of fact contrary to their evidence and to say that the Fathers did not believe it to be necessary when they say it is and used it accordingly yet because it relates to the use of this divine Sacrament I shall give this short account of it The Church of Rome and some few others are the only refusers and condemners of this ancient and Catholick practice But upon their grounds they cannot reasonably deny it 1. Because Infants are by them affirmed to be capable of the grace and benefits of the Eucharist for to them who put no bar as Infants put none the Sacraments by their inherent virtue confer grace and therefore particularly it is affirmed that if Infants did now receive the Eucharist they should also receive grace with it and therefore it is not unreasonable to give it to them who therefore are capable of it because it will do them benefit and it is consequently upon these grounds uncharitable to deny it For 2. They allow the ground upon the supposition of which the Fathers did most reasonably proceed and they only deny the conclusion For by the words of Christ it is absolutely necessary to eat his flesh and drink his blood and if those words be understood of Sacramental manducation in which interpretation both the ancients and the Church of Rome do consent then it is absolutely necessary to communicate For although there are other ways of eating his flesh and drinking of his blood besides the Sacramental manducation yet Christ in this place meant no other and if of this he spake when he said Without doing this we have no life in us then it will not be sufficient to baptize them though it baptism they should receive the same grace as in the Eucharist because abstracting from the benefit and grace of it it is made necessary by the Commandment and by the will of God it is become a means indispensibly necessary to salvation It is necessary by a necessity of the means and a necessity of precept True it is that in each of the Sacraments there is a proportion of the same effect as I have already discoursed yet this cannot lessen the necessity that is upon them both for so Pharaohs dream was doubled not to signifie divers events but a double certainty and therefore although children even in baptism are partakers of the death of Christ and are incorporated into and made partakers of his body yet because Christ hath made one as necessary as the other and both for several proportions of the same reason the Church of Rome must either quit the Principle or retain the consequent for they have digged a ditch on both sides and on either hand they are fallen into inconvenience But it will be
and so requiring us to understand 4. And now to this spiritual food must be sitted a spiritual manner of reception and this is the work of faith that spiritual blessings may invest the spirit and be conveyed by proportioned instruments lest the Sacrament be like a treasure in a dead hand or musick in the grave But this I chuse rather to represent in the words of the Fathers of the Church than mine own We see saith St. Epiphanius what our Saviour took into his hands as the Gospel says he arose at supper and took this anâ— when he had given thanks he said This is my body and we see it is not equal nor like to it neither to the invisible Deity nor to the flesh for this is of a round form without sense but by grace he would say This is mine and every one hath faith in this saying For he that doth not believe this to be true as he hath said he is fallen from grace and salvation But that which we have heard that we believe that it is his And again The bread indeed is our food but the virtue which is in it is that which gives us life by faith and efficacy by hope and the perfection of the Mysteries and by the title of sanctification it should be made to us the perfection of salvation For these words are spirit and life and the flesh pierces not into the understanding of this depth unlesse faith come But then The bread is food the blood is life the flesh is substance the body is the Church For the body is indeed shewn it is slain and given for the nourishment of the world that it may be spiritually distributed to every one and be made to every one the conservatory of them to the resurrection of eternal life saith St. Athanasius Therefore because Christ said This is my body let us not at all doubt but believe and receive it with the eye of the soul for nothing sensible is delivered us but by sensible things he gives us insensible or spiritual so St. Chrysostom For Christ would not that they who partake of the divine Mysteries should attend to the nature of the things which are seen but let them by faith believe the change that is made by grace For according to the substance of the creatures it remains after consecration the same it did before But it is changed inwardly by the powerful vertue of the holy Spirit and faith sees it it feeds the soul and ministers the substance of eternal life for now faith sees it all whatsoever it is From these excellent words we are confirmed in these two things 1. That the divine Mysteries are of very great efficacy and benefit to our souls 2. That Faith is the great instrument in conveying these blessings to us For as St. Cyprian affirms the Sacraments of themselves cannot be without their own vertue and the divine Majesty does at no hand absent it self from the Mysteries But then unless by faith we believe all this that Christ said there is nothing remaining but the outward Symbols and the sense of flesh and blood which profits nothing But to believe in Christ is to eat the flesh of Christ. I am the bread of life he that cometh to me shall not hunger that is he shall be filled with Christ and he that believeth in me shall not thirst coming to Christ and believing in him is the same thing that is he that believes Christs Words and obeys his Commandments he that owns Christ for his Law-giver and his Master for his Lord and his Redeemer he who lays down his sins in the grave of Jesus and lays down himself at the foot of the Crosse and his cares at the door of the Temple and his sorrows at the Throne of Grace he who comes to Christ to be instructed to be commanded to be relieved and to be comforted to this person Christ gives his body and blood that is food from heaven And then the bread of life and the body of Christ and eating his flesh and drinking his blood are nothing else but mysterious and Sacramental expressions of this great excellency that whoever does this shall partake of all the benefits of the Crosse of Christ where his body was broken and his blood was poured forth for the remission of our sins and the salvation of the world But still that I may use the expression of St. Ambrose Christ is handled by faith he is seen by faith he is not touched by the body he is not comprehended by the eyes 5. But all the inquiry is not yet past For thus we rightly understand the mysterious Propositions but thus we do not fully understand the mysterious Sacrament For since coming to Christ in all the addresses of Christian Religion that is in all the ministeries of faith is eating of the body and drinking the blood of Christ what does faith in the reception of the blessed Sacrament that it does not do without it Of this I have already given an account But here I am to add That in the holy Communion all the graces of a Christian all the mysteries of the Religion are summ'd up as in a divine compendium and whatsoever moral or mysterious is done without is by a worthy Communicant done more excellently in this divine Sacrament for here we continue the confession of our faith which we made in Baptism here we perform in our own persons what then was undertaken for us by another here that is made explicit which was but implicit before what then was in the root is now come to a full year what was at first done in mystery alone is now done in mystery and moral actions and vertuous excellencies together here we do not only here the words of Christ but we obey them we believe with the heart and here we confesse with the mouth and we act with the hand and incline the head and bow the knee and give our heart in sacrifice here we come to Christ and Christ comes to us here we represent the death of Christ as he would have us represent it and remember him as he commanded us to remember him here we give him thanks and here we give him our selves here we defie all the works of darknesse and hither we come to be invested with a robe of light by being joined to the Son of Righteousnesse to live in his eyes and to walk by his brightnesse and to be refreshed with his warmth and directed by his spirit and united to his glories So that if we can receive Christs body and drink his blood out of the Sacrament much more can we do it in the Sacrament For this is the chief of all the Christian Mysteries and the union of all Christian Blessings and the investiture of all Christian Rights and the exhibition of the Charter of all Christian Promises and the exercise of all Christian Duties Here is the exercise
a right and a pure sacrifice but in his soul does not truly apportion his communion to his neighbour he hath sin within and by his external sacrifice does not bring God unto him neither will the oblation profit him at all unless the malice that he hath conceived within does cease but that sin will make him every day more and more a murderer In pursuance of this St. Cyril tells that the Ancient Christians were wont before the Communion to kiss each other as a Symbol of reconciled minds and forgotten injuries and in confirmation of this practice brings the preceptive words of our Lord now cited And our blessed Saviour himself adds a parallel to the first precept which gives light and explication to it When you stand praying if you have any thing against any man forgive him that your Father which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses and so Christ taught us to pray Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us Let us consider what we do and consider what we say Do we desire to be forgiven no otherwise Do not we exact every little ignorance and grow warm at every mistake And are not we angry at an unavoidable chance Would we have God do so to us and forgive us in no other manner than as we do that is turn his anger into every shape and smite us in every part Or would we have God pardon us only for little things for a rash word or an idle hour spent less severely If we do so to our Brother it is a great matter but if he reviles us to our head if he blasphemes and dishonours us if he rob us if he smite us on the face what then We rob God of his honour his Priests of their reverence his houses of their beauty his Churches of their maintenance we talk vile things of his holy Name we despise Religion we oppose his Honour and care not for his Service It is certain we do not usually forgive things of this nature to our brother what then will become of our prayer And what will be the effect of our Communion And yet it is certain there is nothing in the world easier than to forgive an injury It costs us nothing after it is once suffered and if our passions and foolish principles would give us leave to understand it the precise duty of forgiveness is a perfect negative it is a letting things alone as they are and making no more evils in the world in which already there was one too many even that which thou didst suffer And indeed that forgiveness is the best which is the most perfect negative that is in malice be children whose pretty quarrells though they be fierce as a sudden spark yet they are as innocent as the softest part of their own flesh and as soon out as that sudden spark and forgotten perfectly as their first dream and that 's true forgiveness and without this we can never pray with just and perfect confidence and expectations St. Peter gives this precept in a considerable instance Give honour unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel that your prayers be not hindred that is consider that they are weak and tender easily moved and soon disordered their understanding is less and their passions more and if it happens to be so bear their burdens comply with their innocent passions pity their infirmities supply the breaches made by their indiscretions take no notice of little inconveniences Counsel sweetly reprove tenderly strike no fires and enkindle no flames that is do all that you can for peace without peevish quarrels and little commencements of a Domestick War for if you give way to any thing of this nature it will hinder your prayers for how shall the husband and the wife pray together if they be angry at each other For without love and without peace it is to no purpose to pray The devotion of a man that is not in actual peace and kindness with his wife is like a hot dead coal it will burn his fingers that touches it but it is wholly useless but he that lives in peace with her in love and prudent conduct his devotion is a flaming fire it kindles all that is round about it it warms and shines it is beauteous in it self and it is useful to others it is fit for the house and fit for the Altar it will set the Incense on smoaking and put the sacrifice on fire And so it is in every instance of society and conversation but I instanced in this the rather because charity at home and a peaceable society in a Family is the first of all publick unions When Philip of Macedon perswaded the Greek Embassadors that they should invite their Cities to peace and concord Demaratus of Corinth began to laugh at him for his counsel and thought it a thing ridiculous for him to speak of peace among the Greek Republicks who was alwaies wrangling at home with his wise Olympias But as to the present matter The fourth Council of Carthage refused to accept the oblations of quarrelling and angry persons it is like that of the High Priests in the case of Judas his restitution of the money they would not put it into the Treasury because it was the price of blood Now because our blessed Master in his Law hath handled all great angers and uncharitableness under the title of murder The Church thought it reasonable not to receive the offerings that is to reject from the Communion all those persons that were in mutual feuds enmities and fierce angers I wonder saith St. Cyprian what peace they can look for that are at war with their brethren These men may be compelled by the injunction of sâ—vere fastings to be reconciled said Fabianus the Martyr And in the decree of P. Victor it was expressely commanded that they should be driven from the communion of all faithful people who are not in peace and have no charity to all their Brethren This decree was renewed and earnestly pressed in the Council of Agatho They that will not by the grace of God working within them lay aside the hatâ—ed and long suits and dissentions first let them be reproved by the Priests of the City But if they will not at their reproof lay aside their enmities let them by a most just excommumunication be driven from the Congregations of the Church Which Decree the Church of England hath inserted into the second Rubrick before her office of Communion of which I shall afterwards give account But for the present we may consider that it is infinitely reasonable that he that needs and comes for a great pardon should not stick at the giving of a little and he that desires to be like God and comes to be united to him should do like him that is rejoyce in remitting offences rather than in punishing them In this as in all other things we
they had zeal for the good of souls Let no man say I repent in private I repent before God in secret God who alone does pardon does know that I am contrite in heart For was it in vain was it said to no purpose whatsoever ye shall loose in earth shall be loosed in heaven we evacuate the Gospel of God we frustrate the words of Christ so S. Austin And therefore when a man hath spoken the sentence of the most severe medicine let him come to the Presidents of the Church who are to minister in the power of the Keyes to him and beginning now to be a good son keeping the order of his Mother let him receive the measure and manner of his repentances from the Presidents of the Sacraments Concerning this thing I shall never think it fit to dispute for there is nothing to inforce it but enough to perswade it but he that tries will find the benefit of it himself and will be best able to tell it to all the world SECT VII Penitential Soliloquies Ejaculations Exercises and preparatory Prayers to be us'd in all the days of preparation to the Holy Sacrament I. ALmighty and eternal God the fountain of all vertue the support of all holy hope the Author of pardon of life and of salvation thou art the comforter of all that call upon thee thou hast concluded all under sin that thou mightest have mercy upon all Look upon me O God and have pity on me lying in my blood and misery in my shame and in my sins in the fear and guilt of thy wrath in the shadow of death and in the gates of hell I confesse to thee O God what thou knowest already but I confesse it to manifest thy justice and to glorifie thy mercy who hast spared me so long â—hat I am guilty of the vilest and basest follies which usually dishonour the fools and the worst of the sons of men II. I have been proud and covetous envious and lustful angry and greedy indevout and irreligious restless in my passions sensual and secular but hating wise counsels and soon weary of the Offices of a holy Religion I cannot give an account of my time and I cannot reckon the sins of my tongue My crimes are intolerable and my imperfections shameful and my omissions innumerable and what shall I do O thou preserver of men I am so vile that I cannot express it so sinful that I am hateful to my self and much more abominable must I needs be in thy eyes I have sinn'd against thee without necessity sometimes without temptation only because I would sin and would not delight in the ways of peace I have been so ingrateful so foolish so unreasonable that I have put my own eyes out that I might with confidence and without fear sin against so good a God so gracious a Father so infinite a Power so glorious a Majesty so bountiful a Patron and so mighty a Redeemer that my sin is grown shameful and aggravated even to amazement I can say no more I am asham'd O God I am amaz'd I am confounded in thy presence III. But yet O God thou art the healer of our breaches and the lifter up of our head and I must not despair and I am sure thy goodness is infinite and thou dost not delight in the death of a sinner and my sins though very great are infinitely less than thy mercies which thou hast revealed to all penitent and returning sinners in Jesus Christ. I am not worthy to look up to heaven but be thou pleased to look down into the dust and lift up a sinner from the dunghil let me not perish in my folly or be consumed in thy heavy displeasure Give me time and space to repent and give me powers of Grace and aids of thy spirit that as by thy gift and mercy I intend to amend whatsoever is amiss so I may indeed have grace and power faithfully to fulfil the same Inspire me with the spirit of repentance and mortification that I may always fight against my sins till I be more than conquerour Support me with a holy hope confirm me with an excellent operative and unreprovable faith and enkindle a bright and a burning charity in my soul Give me patience in suffering severity in judging and condemning my sin and in punishing the sinner that judging my self I may not be condemned by thee that mourning for my sins may rejoyce in thy pardon that killing my sin I may live in righteousness that denying my own will I may always perform thine and by the methods of thy Spirit I may overcome all carnal and spiritual wickednesses and walk in thy light and delight in thy service and perfect my obedience and be wholly delivered from my sin and for ever preserved from thy wrath and at last passe on from a certain expectation to an actual fruition of the glories of thy Kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Amen Amen 1. I am in thy sight O Lord a polluted person sin like a crust of leprosie hath overspread me I am a scandal to others a shame to my self a reproach to my relations a burden to the earth a spot in the Church and deserve to be rejected and scorn'd by thee 2. But this O God I cannot bear It is just in thee to destroy me but thou delightest not in that I am guilty of death but thou lovest rather that I should live 3. O let the cry of thy Sons blood who offers an eternal Sacrifice to thee speak on my behalf and speak better things than the blood of Abel 4. My conscience does accuse me the Devils rejoyce in my fall and aggravate my crimes already too great and thy holy Spirit is grieved by me But my Saviour Jesus died for me and thou pittiest me and thy holy Spirit still calls upon me and I am willing to come but I cannot come unlesse thou drawest me with the cords of love 5. O draw me unto thee by the Arguments of charity by the endearments of thy mercies by the order of thy providence by the hope of thy promises by the sense of thy comforts by the conviction of my understanding by the zeal and passion of holy affections by an unreprovable faith and an humble hope by a religious fear and an increasing love by the obedience of precepts and efficacy of holy example by thy power and thy wisdom by the love of thy Son and the grace of thy Spirit Draw me O God and I will run after thee and the sweetnesses of thy precious ointments 6. I am not worthy O Lord I am not worthy to come into thy presence much less to eat the flesh of the Sacrificed Lamb For my sins O Blessed Saviour Jesus went along in confederation with the High Priests in treachery with Judas in injustice with Pilate in malice with the people 7. My sins and the Jews crucified thee my hypocrisie was the kiss that betrai'd thee my covetous
what excellencies he preach'd what wisdom he taught what life he liv'd what death he died what Mysteries he hath appointed by what ministeries he conveys himself to thee what rare arts he uses to save thee and after all that he intercedes for thee perpetually in heaven presenting to his heavenly Father that great Sacrifice of himself which he finished on the Cross and commands thee to imitate in this Divine and Mysterious Sacrament and in the midst of these thoughts and proportionable exercises and devotions address thy self to the solemnities and blessings of the day 5. Throw away with great diligence and severity all unholy and all earthly thoughts and think the thoughts of heaven for when Christ descends he comes attended with innumerable companies of Angels who all behold and wonder who love and worship Jesus and in this glorious imployment and society let thy thoughts be pure and thy mind celestial and thy work Angelical and thy spirit full of love and thy heart of wonder thy mouth all praises investing and incircling thy prayers as a bright cloud is adorned with fringes and margents of light 6. When thou seest the holy man minister dispute no more inquire no more doubt no more be divided no more but believe and behold with the eyes of faith and of the spirit that thou seest Christs body broken upon the Cross that thou seest him bleeding for thy sins that thou feedest upon the food of elect souls that thou puttest thy mouth to the hole of the rock that was smitten to the wound of the side of thy Lord which being pierced streamed forth Sacraments and life and holiness and pardon and purity and immortality upon thee 7. When the words of Institution are pronounced all the Christians us'd to say Amen giving their consent confesâ—ing that faith believing that word rejoicing in that Mystery which is told us when the Minister of the Sacrament in the person of Christ says This is my body This is my blood This body was broken for you and this blood was poured forth for you and all this for the remission of your sins And remember that the guilt of eternal damnation which we have all incurr'd was a great and an intolerable evil and unavoidable if such miracles of mercy had not been wrought to take it quite away and that it was a very great love which would work such glorious mercy rather than leave us in so intolerable a condition A greater love than this could not be and a less love than this could not have rescued us 8. When the holy Man reaches forth his hands upon the Symbols and prays over them and intercedes for the sins of the people and breaks the holy bread and pours forth the sacred calice place thy self by faith and meditation in heaven and see Christ doing in his glorious manner this very thing which thou seest ministred and imitated upon the Table of the Lord and then remember that it is impossible thou shouldest miss of eternal blessings which are so powerfully procur'd for thee by the Lord himself unless thou wilt despise all this and neglect so great salvation and chusest to eat with swine the dirty pleasures of the earth rather than thus to feast with Saints and Angels and to eat the body of thy Lord with a clean heart and humble affections 9. When the consecrating and ministring hand reaches forth to thee the holy Symbols say within thy heart as did the Centurion Lord I am not worthy but entertain thy Lord as the women did the news of the resurrection with fear and great joy or as the Apostles with rejoycing and singleness of heart that is clear certain and plain believing and with exultation and delight in the loving kindness of the Lord. 10. But place thy self upon thy knees in the humblest and devoutest posture of worshippers and think not much in the lowest manner to worship the King of Men and Angels the Lord of heaven and earth the great lover of souls and the Saviour of the body him whom all the Angels of God worship him whom thou confessest worthy of all and whom all the world shall adore and before whom they shall tremble at the day of judgment For if Christ be not there after a peculiar manner whom or whose body do we receive But if he be present to us not in mystery only but in blessing also why do we not worship But all the Christians always did so from time immemorial No man eats this flesh unless he first adores said S. Austin For the wise men and the Barbarians did worship this body in the manger with very much fear and reverence let us therefore who are Citizens of heaven at least not fall short of the Barbarians But thou seest him not in the Manger but on the Altar and thou beholdest him not in the Virgins arms but represented by the Priest and brought to thee in Sacrifice by the holy Spirit of God So. St. Chrysostome argues and accordingly this reverence is practised by the Churches of the East and West and South by the Christians of India by all the Greeks as appears in their answer to the Cardinal of Guise by all the Lutheran Churches by all the world saâ—es Erasmus only now of late some have excepted themselves But the Church of England chooses to follow the reason and the piety of the thing it self the example of the Primitive Church and the consenting voice of Christendome And if it be irreverent to sit in the sight and before the face of him whom you ought to revere how much more in the presence of the living God where the Angel the president of prayer does stand must it needs be a most irreligious thing to sit unless we shall upbraid to God that our prayers to him have wearied us It is the argument of Tertullian To which many of the Fathers add many other fair inducements but I think they cannot be necessary to be produced here because all Christians generally kneel when they say their prayers and when they bless God anâ— I suppose no man communicates but he does both and therefore needs no oâ—her inducement to perswade him to kneel especially since Christ himself and St. Stephen and â—he Apostle St. Paul used that posture in their devotions that or lower for St. Paul kneeled upon the shore and our Lord himself fell prostrate on the earth But to them that refuse I shall only use the words of Scripture which the Fathers of the Council of Turon applied to this particular Why art thou proud O dust and ashes And when Christ opens his heart and gives us all that we need or can desire it looks like an ill return if we shall dispute with him concerning the humility of a gesture and a circumstance 11. When thou dost receive thy Lord do thou also receive thy Brother into thy heart and into thy bowels Thy Lord relieves thee
thy mysteries and communicate to me thy gifts and love me with that love thou bearest to the Sons of thy house Thou hast given me thy Son with him give me all things else which are needful to my body and soul in order to thy glory and my salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. III. An act of Love and Eucharist to be added if there be time and opportunity O Lord Jesu Christ Fountain of true and holy love nothing is greater than thy love nothing is sweeter nothing more holy Thy love troubles none but is entertained by all that feel it with joy and exultation and it is still more desired and is ever more desirable Thy love O dearest Jesu gives liberty drives away fear feels no labour but suffers all it eases the weary and strengthens the weak it comforts them that mourn and feeds the hungry Thou art the beginning and the end of thy own love that thou mayest take occasion to do us good and by the methods of grace to bring us to glory Thou givest occasion and createst good things and producest affections and stirrest up the appetite and dost satisfie all holy desires Thou hast made me and fed me and blessed me and preserved me and sanctified me that I might love thee and thou would'st have me to love thee that thou mayest love me for ever O give me a love to thee that I may love thee as well as ever any of thy servants loved thee according to that love which thou by the Sacrament of love workest in thy secret ones Abraham excelled in faith Job in patience Isaac in fidelity Jacob in simplicity Joseph in chastity David in religion Josiah in zeal and Manasses in repentance but as yet thou hadst not communicated the Sacrament of love that grace was reserved till thou thy self shouldst converse with man and teach him love Thou hast put upon our hearts the sweetest and easiest yoke of love to enable us to bear the burden of man and the burden of the Lord give unto thy servant such a love that whatsoever in thy service may happen contrary to flesh and bloud I may not feel it that when I labour I may not be weary when I am despised I may not regard it that adversity may be tolerable and humility be my sanctuary and mortification of my passions the exercise of my daies and the service of my God the joy of my soul that loss to me may be gain so I win Christ and death it self the entrance of an eternal life when I may live with the Beloved the joy of my soul the light of my eyes My God and all things the blessed Saviour of the world my sweetest Redeemer Jesus Amen An Eucharistical Hymn taken from the Prophecies of the Old Testament relating to the blessed Sacrament Praise ye the Lord I will praise the Lord with my whole heart in the Assembly of the upright and in the Congregation He hath made his wonderful works to be remembred the Lord is gracious and full of compassion He hath given meat unto them that fear him he will ever be mindful of his Covenant His bread shall be fat and he shall yield royal dainties Binding his Foal unto the vine and his Asses colt unto the choice vine he washed his garment in wine and his cloaths in the bloud of grapes In this mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things a feast of wine on the lees He will swallow up death in victory and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth for the Lord hath spoken it And the Lord their God shall save them as the flock of his people for how great is his goodness and how great is his beauty Corn shall make the young men chearful and new wine the virgins The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his Temple even the messenger of the Covenant whom ye delight in He shall purifie the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness O Israel return unto the Lord thy God for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity Take with you words and turn to the Lord saying Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously so will we render the calves of our lips for in thee the Fatherless findeth mercy The Lord hath said I will heal their backslidings I will love them freely for mine anger is turned away They that dwell under his shadow shall return they shall revive as the corn and blossom as the Vine the memorial thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon The poor shall eat and be satisfied they shall praise the Lord that seek him your heart shall live for ever for he hath placed peace in our borders and fed us with the flower of wheat For from the rising of the Sun even unto the going down of the same the Name of the Lord shall be great among the Gentiles and in every place Incense shall be offered unto his Name and a pure offering for his Name shall be great among all Nations Who so is wise he shall understand these thiâ—gs and the prudent shall know them for the waies of the Lord are right and the just shall walk in them but the transgressors shall fall therein Glory be to the Father c. A Prayer to be said after the Communion in behalf of our souls and all Christian people 1. O most merciful and gracious God Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of glory thou art the great lover of souls and thou hast given thy holy Son to die for our salvation to redeem us from sin to destroy the work of the Devil and to present a Church to thee pure and spotless and undefiled relying upon thy goodness trusting in thy promises and having received my dearest Lord into my soul I humbly represent to thy divine Majesty the glorious sacrifice which our dearest Jesus made of himself upon the Cross and by a never ceasing intercession now exhibites to thee in heaven in the office of an eternal Priesthood in behalf of all that have communicated this day in the Divine Mysteries in all the Congregations of the Christian world and in behalf of all them that desire to communicate and are hindred by sickness or necessity by fear or scruple by censures Ecclesiastical or the sentence of their own consciences 2. Give unto me O God and unto them a portion of all the good prayers which are made in heaven and earth the intercession of our Lord and the supplications of all thy servants and unite us in the bands of the common faith and a holy charity that no interests or partialities no sects or opinions may keep us any longer in darkness and division 3. Give thy blessing to all Christian Kings and Princes all Republicks and Christian Governments grant to them the