eares so that if Christ should tell us that it was his Bodie we may as reasonably denie that he doth say what in trueth he doth say For the Eye is a lesse fallible sense than the Ear as Philosophers agree And whereas it is said We cannot see substances themselves but onely Accidents it matters not whether that Opinion be true or false being we see as much of those bodies and their substances as of any substance in the world and no more is needfull 8. Seventhly The sacred Symboles are called the Bodie and Blood of Christ because we should understand the dignity and efficacie and strait conjunction between them and Christ and Christ and us who thereby receive him as our Food 9. Lastly The meanes whereby we so receive Christ in this Blessed Sacrament is Faith as is truely and generally said but not alltogether as some may understand and conceive For Faith as in our Sanctification so in our Justification doth work and no otherwise doth it make us worthie and happie Communicants For it layes the foundation of all our Religion and becoming lively by love and Charitie gives life to all our spirituall performances and consequently renders them effectuall to us So that we must believe first according to the true Catholique Faith in generall then specially the nature ends and uses of this Sacrament Lastly we must have a comfortable perswasion of the goodnesse of God in accepting us in the Sacrament and his dispensations towards us but there must allso be joyned herewith 1. Discerning the Lords Body and that not to be it properly which we see but that which is invisible and spiritually taken 2. That we judge our selves by examination and humiliation of our selves that by rashnesse of approach we be not condemned of the Lord. 3. Invocation of Gods mercie for past sins and of his assisting Grace for preventing the like future failings and falls as we have been formerly subject to 4. To have no malice nor notorious hatred in our hearts but Charitie to all men especially towards them with whome we communicate 5. That we be void of all purpose or designe of committing over again any of those sinnes which we finde in our selves upon due enquity and examination but rather have a sincere how weak soever it may be desire and purpose of living more agreeably to Gods holy Will in all things 6. That we have a good hope through Gods Grace which some miscall Faith that we shall live according to our Vow in Baptisme of old made and there renewed and ratified and that this hope begets a care and conscience of our wayes hereafter lest we by relapsing into former errours dissolve that happie Union and conjunction obtained in this Blessed Sacrament with the Father and the Son. SECT X. Of the Difficulties and dangers in receiving the Holie Communion which are here discussed 1. WE are told in the Office of our Church for the celebration of the Communion That as the benefits are great if with a true penitent heart and a lively Faith we receive that Holy Sacrament so is the danger great if we receive the same unworthily for then are we guiltie of the body and blood of our Saviour Christ we eat and drink our own damnation not considering the Lords Body we kindle Gods wrath against us we provoke him to plague us with divers Diseases and sundry kindes of Death All which seems to be drawn from the words of Saint Paul 1 Corin. 11. ver 27. Whosoever shall eat this Bread and drink this Cup unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. And ver 29. He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himselfe not discerning the Lords Bodie which Speeches it behoveth straitly to understand aright lest by violence used in wresting them to too favourable a sense we occasion the profanation of those Holy Mysteries by rudenesse and presumption of unbelieving and impenitent comers unto it or we so straiten the way to Gods holy Table that Believers and they none of the worst rank should be disheartened and discouraged from approaching to it The genuine sense therefore and importance of those Sayings are faithfully to be unfolded for the better informing of the Judgement and directing and satisfying the Conscience of the cordiall Christian and sincere For it is most certain upon too frequent experience that an horrible abuse is made of the opinion of the Holinesse of the Sacrament and Doctrine of Saint Paul and allso of the Church even now recited and that by worldly and loose men who believing in grosse the sacrednesse of the Communion alledge that for a sufficient cause to excuse themselves from receiving of it when God knowes they have little apprehension either of the Holinesse of that or their unholinesse or unfitnesse pretending more scrupulousnesse and warinesse than others and than the Word of God requires absolutely at their hands though it is granted that divers finde themselves so entangled between the consciousnesse of their own unworthinesse and perswasion of the worthinesse of that that they are unwillingly obstructed in drawing nigh thus unto Christ so mercifully offered to them For whose sake I have prepared these following instructions leaving others to be condemned for their falsenesse and hypocrisie in sacred things by their own consciences and that very judgement which is pretended to be feared in so abstaining 2. First then It is to be granted and supposed by all ingenuous as well as pious Christians that it is in it selfe incredible and a great injurie done to the wisdome and goodnesse of Christ instituting this holy Sacrament to imagine that he should so mock the greatest number of true though weak Believers as to ordain such a Sacrament and to such great ends and propound so great benefits and leave so many gracious and kinde invitations and exhortations to come to him there present and in readinesse to satisfie the hungrie Soule with goodnesse and to feast him with the fat and sweet of his own Table and yet withall cloth that precious Ordinance with so many severe circumstances and clogge it with so many dangerous difficult and heavie Conditions as very few should dare to come at it or be the better for it 3. Secondly There is to be observed a very great difference between Worthy Communicating and due or Fit communicating and that both these are vulgarly and Fallaciously contained in that one word Worthie which hath a double sense For he properly is said to be worthy who is equall in qualifications of Vertue and Graces to the worth and merits of that holy Sacrament and in this acceptation no man may be said to be worthy no not the best prepared and holiest man. Another sense of Worthinesse is that we call'd Fitnesse whereby how unworthy soever a Soule may be of that Sacrament he may be reputed worthy and come acceptably and fruitfully and so that willfully in such cases to absent himselfe may turne to his own
and intemperance of speaking as Theophrastus calls Garulitie be accounted a flux of the Mouth and not eloquence folly and not prudence ignorance and not knowledge according to the acute replye of Demaratus in Plutarch Apotheg Lacon unto one demanding of him being silent when others talked Doe you say nothing out of doubting or ignorance This latter cannot be said he for a Fool cannot hold his Tongue Here therefore let us end this Discourse SECT IX Of outward Moderation to be used in Abstinences and Apparell 1. THAT the Perfection we are capable of here in this World consisteth principally in inward Mortifications and Selfe-denialls That God requireth the heart that God will be worshipped in Spirit and in trueth is most certain and excelleâ—t Doctrine which the crafty Sophister the Devill perceiving to be much applauded and himselfe not able openly to gainsay or destroy he with wonted subtilty betook himselfe to drive it on farther than God himselfe ever intended and to overthrow it by excessive celebration and praises given of it and by confining Religion to its Chamber at first at length to smother it in his Bed. For as the Spirits and naturall faculties of man are the cause of motion and actions so are they maintained and cherished by outward acts and exercises But if a man shall pretend as is before intimated that it suffices that a mans life is entire his Understanding sound and good his Will free and brisk his Affections vigorous and powerfull and these things standing so it is superfluous to take any pains about the outward parts it were to rob God of his due and in time himselfe of that presumed Perfection of his heart and minde For undoubtedly there is a naturall communication and correspondence held between the outward and inward man the Spirit and the Flesh the outward actions and inward affections and that they mutually assist or weaken one another is apparent to reason and experience A man therefore may possibly couzen himselfe with a perswasion of a good heart and pure minde and iâ—…ention spirituall while he takes all the liberty to himselfe which Lawes will allow him of indulging to himselfe in eating drinking clothing adorning his outward person sporting and pastime sleeping and slothfulnesse and argue strictly from the nature of the things or from St. Paul's words I know that there is nothing unclean of it selfe but to him that esteemeth a thing unclean to him it is unclean or from Christ's words Matth. 15. Not that which goeth into the man defileth the man but that which cometh out that defileth the man or from the nature of Cloathing Attires Gesture Postures that nothing is unlawfull of it selfe and therefore it is unlawfull to forbid it and perhaps looks on it by bleer or envious Eyes as a part of the libertie Christ hath purchased for us to doe what we please and to prove the same and to act contrary to the prescriptions of our lawfull Governours endeavouring and designing to regulate the outward man answerable to the habit which best becometh the inward in simplicity in abstinence in gravitie in humility and conformity to anholy profession and possession taken of the Soule by Religion 2. For it is undoubtedly a very false notion of common prudence or vertue and much more of Religion to imagine a man cannot offend both God and his Brother by the scandalousnesse of morose or affected singularity provided his heart be upright towards him which yet can scarce be supposed For unlesse some perverse opinion or disposition first seizes such Spirits it is hard to believe they should affect a disconformity to the Rules and Practice established and designed for the promoting of decencie and Pietye 3. But next to the detestable humour of opposing things because they are commanded is the unreasonable opposition they make to prescribed severities and testimonies of holding unity with the Churches of all Ages and places by undervaluing that little that remains amongst us of auncienter and stricter observations They for instance will tell you that Fasting is abstinence from all Meats and Drinks for the time designed and not to admitt of or tolerate a distinction of Meats and because some exceptions must according to the charity of the Church as well as wisdome and goodnesse of States be made from all Rules and prescriptions of men and sometimes the generall order given by God as appears by the argument of Christ taken from Davids practice Matth. 22. 3. in eating the Shew-bread against the hypocriticall and precise Pharisees they inferre from such Dispensations the absurditie of the Rule with greater absurditie and scoffe and laugh as if they were mighty and much more perfect Chastisers of their Bodies or deniers of their Senses than the low rate prohibitions are set at by the Church The Church to be sure meanes and designes much greater things than it indispensably requires and that while relaxations are but too easily obtained And such glorious asserters of such great things should doe very well to exceed vulgar practices but while they speak contemptibly of the Day of small things themselves in the mean time sometimes alledging the grievousnesse and sometimes the lightnesse of the burden laid on them will doe just nothing in that kinde they and their laughter too become ridiculous 4. But what shall we say of such late Divine Disputants as the Christian world never heard of or if heard of lothed and disowned who stick not to make the uncircumscribed freedome of eating and drinking as Nature moves them a part of that Christian libertie which Christ purchased with his blood and whereby he made us free and in which we must stand fast as they mistake the Apostle As if Christ at the same time that he freed us from the Jewish restraints by Moses had also freed us from all Christian Lawes and proclaimed an everlasting yeer of Jubilee and liberty for the Naturall Law of mens Appetites to take place without distinction of times seasons or reasons left undoubtedly in the power of Superiours to moderate What is this but to make the Coming and Gospell of Christ to advance the brutish part of man to its perfection upon which must necessarily follow the great imperfection of the Spirituall What is this but to interpret the Oracles of God by the Oracles of the Belly suggesting such Scholies Doe I speak this that I can glorie in any gift in this kinde above others No surely but rather blush at my defects herein Only this I may say that I retain such a veneration for the use and ends of abstinences and the universall practice of the Catholick Church that I abhorre the petulancie of such and their presumption who teach otherwise not doubting but they fall under that menace of our Saviour Christ Matth. 5. 19. Whosoever shall break one of these least Commandments and shall teach men so to doe he shall be called the least in the Kingdome of heaven And surely denying our Senses was allwayes reputed a
superstitious admiration of some mens persons to the injurious usage of others God deliver them and this Church and from the effects of such distempers SECT IX Of the Vnion and Communion with God in the Holy Eucharist or Lords Supper to which certain Instructions are premised 1. IT is the opinion of Learned Doctours that all Orders and degrees Ecclesiasticall are given with designe to Consecrate the Eucharist of the Bodie and Blood of Christ which may well be call'd in question but that the Sacrament of the Eucharist is the summitie of the practicall Mysteries left us and ordained by Christ for our edification and straitest Union with him is not to be denied after such grounds given us thereof in Scripture and assurances thereof from the unisone consent of the Learned and holy Fathers of the Church in all Ages Our own Liturgie teaching us that if with a penitent heart and lively Faith we receive that holy Sacrament we spiritually eat the flesh of Christ and drink his Blood we dwell in Christ and Christ in us we are one with Christ and Christ with us And afterward that hereby we evermore dwell in him and he in us It must necessarily be therefore that an intimate Union is hereby wrought between Christ and the faithfull Soule highly to be valued earnestly to be sought after and diligently and zealously to be laboured for as that true Bread which came down from Heaven excelling infinitely the Mannah which came down from Heaven that Bread which perisheth not but lasteth and leadeth unto Eternall Life as Christ himselfe John 6. testifieth 2. But leaving to others the accurate explication of the Majestie of this Mysterie and not much employing our selves in the opening this Treasurie of Grace and Mercie we shall confine our selves to the more practicall consideration and that briefly of the right use of that which is so effectuall to the more strict full and perfect Union with God. And to this end we shall here first deliver certain fundamentall or at least very profitable Documents to be received and observed by fruitfull Communicants 2. First then it must be noted that the things themselves of which the Eucharist consisteth naturally tend no more to such sublime ends and effects than any other things howbeit severall Analogies are by the ingenious pietie of men alledged to declare the sutablenesse of the Elements to such ends not to be despised but this must in the mean time be acknowledged that it was both in the Liberty and Power of Christ to have chosen what other things he pleased to have annexed his Graces unto had it so pleased him 3. Secondly That the two Elements for so are they called not according to strict signification whereby there are said to be four Elements in Nature but onely as they concurre to make the Sacramentall Bodie as they doe constitute the naturall bodies are the Bread and Wine which were in most common use in the Country where Christ did celebrate his last Supper without any speciall and precise Obligation of Christians to the very same matter in all points and circumstances for we know not infallibly whether the Bread was purely of one kinde of Grain and that of Wheat or whether there were as there possibly might be some mixture in that bodie as it is held there was in the other the Wine For questionlesse Christ was not anxious himselfe about that Point neither ought we but onely to follow and imitate him as neer as we can by honest and ordinarie endeavours 4. Thirdly It is to be considered that whatever Treasure of Grace and Mercie is said and believed to be contained in the Eucharist by Gods dignifying and speciall replenishing of them with them are not said so necessarily to flow from thence that every one should partake of them who are partakers of the outward Formes Neither are they as Pipes or Conduits which run alike to all men that come to them and catch what they lett fall but as by Gods extraordinarie Power and Goodnesse they have this store of benefits given unto them and not of themselves so by the same Providence and Wisdome of God are they there dispensed as it seems good unto him And it seems good to him to proportion the benefits of them agreeable to the capacitie of the receiver I say Capacitie and not Merits which should demand in justice what is there contained but the Condition is there as the Psalmist hath Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it desire earnestly and prepare thy selfe dulie and plentie of Blessings will by vertue of Gods Promise redound to thee which Benefits we shall hereafter touch 5. Fourthly The manner of receiving Christ with the Blessings he necessarily brings with him in this Sacrament is somewhat differing in outward forme from that we receive him in by his Holy Word made known to us and by Baptisme wherein we are regenerate and incorporate into the Body of Christ and that by Faith too as in the Eucharist but agrees in the Inward For the visible Instruments of receiving Christ are much different the Bread and Wine representing Christ to the Eye as the Word of God to the Ear And the Word of God taught and believed initiates us by Illumination and Revelation of the Minde and Will of God not attainable in a saving manner but by that The Sacrament of Baptisme carries us on from thence to Purgation For hereby are we cleansed from all our sins The Sacrament of the Eucharist perfects and crowns all these For as much as all other gifts and graces upon which we are built and in which we stand before God are by this one revived quickened encreased and strengthened But we doe not receive a new doctrine of Faith nor another kinde of Grace of Faith nor another Spirit nor another Christ nor another spirituall life in Christ but the same in substance all with new advantages 6. Fifthly The outward Symboles or Elements of Bread and Wine called the Body and Blood of Christ because they both represent and exhibite them to the duly disposed Soule are not after Consecration Christ himselfe any more than they were before For it is one thing to say what those sensible Objects are which we call the Sacrament though the Sacrament properly so taken consisteth equally of the word Sanctifying and the Elements sanctified by it and another to say what we receive in the Sacrament which is really Christ And therefore they are idle words and calumnies which men give out that we receive not really Christ or that we believe not that Christ is in the Sacrament because we believe not that he is the very Sacrament it selfe or that Bread and Wine are not present in the Sacrament 7. Sixthly Whatever is visible tractable tasteable in the Eucharist is not Christ And if we must not believe our eyes and the eyes of all men assuring us that to be Bread and Wine which we behold to be so then may we not believe our
in the Spirit so are we to walk in the Spirit according to St. Paul Galat. 5. 25. For by Baptisme saith the same Apostle Eph. 2. 10. we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good workes which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them and especially calling all good Souldiers of Christ Jesus as Joshuah did the chief of the Children of Israel to set their feet on the necks of the Canaanitish Princes to trample upon those seven Capitall Sins which not only fight against our Soules themselves but are leaders on of others to assault and spoil us And from hence have we led the Soule to the top of Pisgah by the Unitive Way of Contemplation and Love and Acquiescence in God to have a certain foretaste of the fruit of that Land of Promise we long after and expect by the conjunction the Soule hath with God which we finde not so extravagant a Notion straining the simpler Doctrine of Faith and Christ to a sense offensive to Eares not throughly opened to the Mysteries of Religion but a smattering thereof was had by Auncient Philosophers as appears by the disquisitions between Porphyrie and Jamblichus of the Egyptian Mysteries where great things are spoken of the Anagogicall way of conversing with the gods by elevation of the understanding through true knowledge of God and that Theurgicall Vnion i. e. as I understand his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that divinely operative conjunction whereby a man hath Communion with God but all this he swelleth with being blinded and carried away with Egyptian darknesse indeed leading to horrible superstitions to attain such Perfections whereas the light of the Gospell and Doctrine of Christ with infinite lesse superstition and more perspicuitie puritie and simplicitie conducteth to that Ascent of the Soule and resting in God which makes us like unto him and Perfect as our Father which is in heaven is perfect Matth. 5. with allowances for the infirmities of Flesh and blood and mutablenesse we are subject unto being as St. Peter saith partakers of the Divine Nature 2. For though the words of Saint Paul 2 Corinth 2. 14. Now thanks be to God which allwayes causeth us to triumph in Christ have their true sense yet that I suppose is of the state of a Christian which is firme and sure resting upon this Foundation The Lord knoweth who are his and he will never leave his chosen ones untill they totally forsake him if that may be said But as to the actuall and continuall possession by satisfaction in him and spirituall sensations the Christian is mutable here and that which not without great difficulty and industry is for some time attained unto is in a short time and suddenly interrupted and hid from the eyes to the great dismaying of the devout Soule so that great care is to be taken as well to hold that comfortable communion with God as to acquire it and to recover it intermitted as once to have attained it For as the Sheet let down from Heaven by the four Corners to Saint Peter Acts 12. wherein he saw in a Vision all manner of Fare his Appetite could long for was as suddenly again taken up into Heaven so is it with the delectations which the Spirit feeleth let down from Heaven to its wonderfull content they are suddenly taken away up into Heaven again And when we imagine our selves in the third Heaven with Saint Paul we unexpectedly feel a Thorne in the flesh to humble us lest we should be exalted above measure For Paradise here would be the greatest temptation to fall again into sin So that as we read of Abraham the Elect of God and taken by his Providence out of his own Countrie and Kindred signifying the state of Nature to us was led into the Land of Promise and shown it but had no Inheritance in it for the present no not so much as to set his foot Acts 7. So hath the religious Soule no footing firme here though by Faith and Affection it hath before its eyes the promised Possession 3. It is therefore one principall Rule of rightly using what we have at any time attained to in Consolations the fruit of Union with God but not incessant or inseparable from it to understand so much lest finding our selves frustrated of our expectations we call in question the state it selfe we are in and bring unprofitable confusions upon our selves For as the Apostle saith Coloss 3. 3. We are dead and our life is hid with Christ When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we allso appear with him in glory The time will come but is not yet come that we should see what is better now hid and kept with Christ till such time as the second fullnesse of time shall come and Christ too when our life will be manifested It may be that a loving Father towards an obsequious and dutifull Child may sometimes shew him the Grand Deed whereby he hath settled a great Estate upon him yea may carrie him out and shew him the Lands Houses Mines and Timber on them which he purposes to give him but none of these are at all necessarie to the main end it selfe but onely to his encouragement to persevere in his dutie No more is necessarie to a certainty of Salvation an assurance of Salvation or such extraordinary arguments thereof as being denied us we should fall into despondencie and sluggishnesse of Spirit or be weak-handed in Gods service 4. For secondly God may hereby have a gracious and wise designe to wean the fond minde from sensible Delectations whereby it should take up short of the ultimate end of all God himselfe seeking its will and content rather than Gods to which the more truely spirituall a man is so much more he is intent above all things and lesse mindes intermediate consolations which the lesse they are contended for the oftener they happen 5. Thirdly The Patience and constancie of the faithfull Servant of God by submission to his fatherly wisdome and pleasure in such Dispensation is exercised and manifested And that he doth not serve God nor follow Christ meerly for the Loaves which he miraculously feeds some with but for his own sake We all know the beginning middle and Conclusion of holy Job's life how religious and prosperous he was at the same time before God and how miserable he was by the same Providence remaining all that while invincible in his resolutions of adhering to God and perserving in his wonted righteousnesse whereby he declared that his Pietie was not built upon the fluid Elements of this World nor the sensible comforts pertaining to the service of God but the intrinsick excellencie of Religion it selfe carrying its Reward with it And so as Saint James speakes we know the end of him and such his patience and faith For so it pleaseth God himselfe to give an account of the hardship brought upon his own People travailing fourtie yeares in the desolate Wildernesse viz.