to give him all Sicily or the revenues of Egypt the beast would have lived and eaten But the promises of God give to many of us no security not so much as the promise of our rich friend who yet may be disabled or may break his word or die * But let us trie again * God hath promised that all things shall work together for good to them that fear him Do we believe that our present affliction will do so Will the loss of our goods the diminution of our revenue the amission of our honour the death of our eldest son the unkindness of a husband the frown of our Prince the defeating of our secular hopes the unprosperous event of our imployment Do we find that our faith is right enough really to be satisfied in these things so much as to be pleased with Gods order and method of doing good to us by these unpleasing instruments Can we rejoyce under the mercy by the joys of believing at the same time when we groan under the affliction by the passions of sense Do we observe the design of cure when we feel the pain and the smart Are we patient under the evil being supported by the expectation of the good which is promised to follow This is the proper work of faith and its best indication Plutarch tells that when the cowards of Lacedaemon depicted upon their shields the most terrible beasts they could imagine their design was to affright their enemies that they might not come to a close fight they would fain have made their enemies afraid because themselves were so Which when Lacon espied he painted upon a great shield nothing but a little fly for his device and to them who said he did it that he might not be noted in the battle he answered yea but I mean to come so neer the enemy that he shall see the little fly This is our case our afflictions seem to us like Gorgons heads Lions and Tigres things terrible in picture but intolerable in their fury but if we come neer and consider them in all the circumstances they are nothing but a fly upon a shield they cannot hurt us and they ought not to affright us if we remember that they are conducted by God that they are the effect of his care and the impresse of his love that they are the method and order of a blessing that they are sanctified and eased by a promise and that a present ease it may be would prove a future infelicity If our faith did rely upon the promise all this were nothing but our want of faith does cause all the excesse of trouble For the question is not whether or no we be afflicted whether we be sick or crossed in our designs or deprived of our children this we feel and mourn for but the question is whether all this may not or be not intended to bring good to us Not whether God smiles or no but to what purposes he smiles Not whether this be not evil but whether this evil will not bring good to us If we do believe why are we without comfort and without patience If we do not believe it where is our faith And why does any of us come to the holy Communion if we do not believe it will be for our good but if we do think it will why do we not think so of our crosse for the promise is that every thing shall Cannot the rod of God do good as well as the bread of God and is not he as good in his discipline as in his provision Is not he the same in his School as at his Table Is not his physick as wholesome as his food It is not reason but plainly our want of faith that makes us think otherwise Faith is the great magazine of all the graces and all the comforts of a Christian and therefore the Devil endeavours to corrupt the truth of it by intermingling errours the sincerity of it by hypocrisie the ingenuity of it by interest the comforts of it by doubting the confidences of it by objections and secular experiences and present considerations by adherence to humane confidences and little sanctuaries and the pleasures of the world and the fallibilities of men * When Xerxes had a great army to conduct and great successes to desire and various contingencies to expect he left off to sacrifice to his Country gods forsook Jupiter and the Sun and in Lydia espying a goodly Platan tree tall and strait and spread he encamped all his army in the fields about it hung up bracelets and coronets upon the branches and with costly offerings made his petitions to the beauteous tree and when he march'd away he left a guard upon his God lest any thing should do injury to the plant of which he begged to be defended from all injury By such follies as these does the Devil endeavour to deflour our holy faith and confidences in God we trust in man who cannot trust himself we relie upon riches that relie upon nothing for they have no stabiliment and they have no foundation but are like atoms in the air the things themâ—elves can bear no weight aâ—d the foundation cannot bear them In our afflictions we look for comfort from wine or company from a friend that talkes well or from any thing that brings us present ease but in the mean time we look not into the promises of God which are the store houses of comfort and like the dogs at Hippocrene we lick the water drops that fall upon the ground and take no notice of the fountain and the full vessels These things are so necessary to be considered in order to our preparation to the Communion as they are necessary to be reduced to practice in order to a Christian Conversation for the holy Communion is the summary and compendium of the Religion and duty of a whole life and as faith cannot be holy material and acceptable without it contain in it a real trust in the promises of God so neither can it be a sufficient disposition to the receiving the divine mysteries unlesse upon this ground it be holy acceptable and material 3. That faith which is a worthy preparatory to the holy Communion must be the actual principle and effective of a good life a faith in the threatnings and in the Commandments of God Who can pretend to be a Christian and yet not believe those words of St. Paul Follow after peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see God and yet if we do believe it what do we think will become of us who neither follow peace nor holiness but follow our anger and pursue our lust If we do believe this we had need look about us and live at another rate than men commonly do But we still remain peevish and angry malicious and unplacable apt to quarrel and hard to be reconciled lovers of money and lovers of pleasures but careless of holiness and
appellations before the internal and they that deny efficacy to the external work and wholly attribute the blessing and grace to the moral cooperation make too open a way for despisers to neglect the divine Institution and to lay aside or lightly esteem the Sacraments of the Church It is in the Sacraments as it is in the Word preached in which not the sound or the letters and syllables that is not the material part but the formal the sense and the signification prepare the mind of the hearer to receive the impresses of the holy spirit of God without which all preaching and all Sacraments are ineffectual so does the internal and formal part the signification and sense of the Sacrament dispose the spirit of the receiver the rather to admit and entertain the grace of the spirit of God there consigned and there exhibited and there collated but neither the outward nor the inward part does effect it neither the Sacrament nor the moral disposition only the spirit operates by the Sacrament and the Communicant receives it by his moral dispositions by the hand of faith And what have we to do to inquire into the philosophy of Sacraments these things do not work by the methods of nature But here the effect is imputed to this cause and yet can be produced without this cause because this cause is but a sâ—gn in the hand of God by which he tells the soul when he is willing to work Thus Baptism was the instrument and sign in the hands of God to confer the holy Spirit upon believers but the holy Ghost sometimes comes like lightning and will not stay the period of usual expectation for when Cornelius had heard St. Peter preach he received the holy Ghost and as sometimes the holy Ghost was given because they had been baptized now he and his company were to be baptized because they had received the holy Ghost and it is no good argument to say The graces of God are given to believers out of the Sacrament ergo not by or in the Sacrament but rather thus If Gods grace overflows sometimes and goes without his own instruments much more shall he give it in the use of them If God gives pardon without the Sacrament then rather also with the Sacrament For supposing the Sacraments in their design and institution to be nothing but signs and ceremonies yet they cannot hinder the work of God and therefore holinesse in the reception of them will do more than holinesse alone for God does nothing in vain the Sacraments do something in the hand of God at least they are Gods proper and accustomed times of grace they are his seasons and our opportunity when the Angel stirs the pool when the Spirit moves upon the waters then there is a ministry of healing For consider we the nature of a Sacrament in general then pass on to a particular enumeration of the blessings of this the most excellent When God appointed the bow in the clouds to be a Sacrament and the memorial of a promise he made it our comfort but his own sign I will remember my Covenant between me and the earth and the waters shall be no more a flood to dâ—stroy all flesh This is but a token of the Covenant and yet at the appearing of it God had thoughts of truth and mercy to mankind The bow shall be in the cloud and I will look upon it that I may remember the everlasting Covenant between me and every creature Thus when Elisha threw the wood into the waters of Jordan Sacramentum ligni the Sacrament of the wood Tertullian calls it that chip made the iron swim not by any natural or any infused power but that was the Sacrament or sign at which the Divine power then passed on to effect and emanation When Elisha talked with the King of Israel about the war with Syria he commanded him to smite upon the ground and he smote thrice and stayed This was Sacramentum victoriae the Sacrament of his future victory For the man of God was wroth with him and said Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times then thou hadst smitten Syria until thou hadst consumed it whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice In which it is remarkable that though it was not that smiting that beat the Syrians but the ground yet God would effect the beating of the Syrians by the proportion of that Sacramental smiting The Sacraments are Gods signs the opportunities of grace and actâ—on Be baptized and wash away thy sins said Ananias to Saul and therefore it is calâ—'d the laver of regeneration and of the renâ—wing of the holy Ghâ—st that is in that Sacrament and at that corporal ablution the work of the spirit is done for although it is not that washing of it self yet God does so do it at that ablution which is but the similitude of Christs death that is the Sacrament and symbolical representation of it that to that very similitude a very glorious effect is imputed for if we have been planted together in the LIKENESSE of his death we shall be also in the LIKENESS of his Resurrection For the mystery is this by immersion in Baptism and emersion we are configured to Christs Burial and to his Resurrection that 's the outward part to which if we add the inward which is there intended and is expressed by the Apostle in the following words knowing that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin that 's our spiritual death which answers to our configuration with the death of Christ in Baptism that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in nâ—wness of life there 's the correspondent of our configuration to the resurrection of Christ that is if we do that duty of Baptism we shall receive that grace God offers us the mercy at that time when we promise the duty and do our present portion This St. Peter calls the stipulation of a good conscience the postulate and bargain which man then makes with God who promises us pardon and immortality resurrection from the dead and life eternal if we repent toward God and have faith in the Lord Jesus and if we promise we have and will so abide The same is the case in the other most glorious Sacrament it is the same thing in neerer representation only what is begun in Baptism proceeds on to perfection in the holy Communion Baptism is the antitype of the passion of Christ and the Lords Supper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that also represents Christs passion Baptism is the union of the members of Christ and the admission of them under one head into one body as the Apostle affirms we are all baptized into one body and so it is in the Communion the bread which we break it is the communion
in their age their Parents and their Priests the laws of the Church and the Religion of the Country make up the demonstration but because their faith is no stronger than to be the daughter of such arguments we find they commonly live at such a rate as if they did neither believe nor care whether it were so or no. The confidence of the article makes them not to leave off violently to pursue the interests of this world and to love and labour for the other Before this faith can enable them to resist a temptation they must derive their assent from principles of another nature and therefore because few men can dispute it with arguments invincible and demonstrative and such as are naturally apt to produce the most perfect assent it is necessary that these men of all other should believe it because it is said to come from God and rely upon it because it brings to God trust it because it is good acknowledge it certain because it is excellent that there may be an act of the will in it as well as of the understanding and as much love in it as discourse For he that only consents to an article because it is evident is indeed convinced but hath no excellency in his faith but what is natural nothing that is gracious and moral true Christian faith must have in it something of obscurity something that must be made up by duty and by obedience but it is nothing but this we must trust the evidence of God in the obscurity of the thing Gods testimony must be clear to him and the thing in all other senses not clear and then to trust the article because God hath said it must have in it an excellency which God loves and that he will reward In order to this it is highly considerable that the greatest argument to prove our Religion is the goodness and the holiness of it it is that which makes peace and friendships content and comfort which unites all relations and endears the relatives it relieves the needy and defends the widdow it ends strife and makes love endless all other arguments can be opposed and tempted by wit and malice but against the goodness of the Religion no man can speak by which it appears that the greatest argument is that which moves love intending by love to convince the understanding But then for others who can enquire better their inquiries also must be modest and humble according to the nature of the things and to the designes of God they must not disbelieve an article in Christianity which is not proved like a conclusion in Geometry they must not be witty to object and curious to enquire beyond their limit for some are so ingeniously miserable that they will never believe a proposition in Divinity if any thing can be said against it they will be credulous enough in all the affairs of their life but impenetrable by a Sermon of the Gospel they will believe the word of a man and the promise of their neighbour but a promise of Scripture signifies nothing unless it can be proved like a proposition in the Metaphysicks If Sempronius tell them a story it is sufficient if he be a just man and the narrative be probable but though Religion be taught by many excellent men who gave their lives for a testimony this shall not passe for truth till there is no objection left to stand against it The reason of these things is plain they do not love the thing their interest is against it they have no joy in Religion they are not willing and desirous that the things shall appear true When love is the principle the thing is easie to the understanding the objections are nothing the arguments are good and the Preachers are in the right Faith assents to the revelations of the Gospel not only because they are well proved but because they are excellent things not only because my reason is convinced but my reason yields upon the fairer termes because my affections are gained For if faith were an assent to an article but just so far as it is demonstrated then faith were no vertue and infidelity were no sin because in this there is no choice and no refusal but where that which is probable is also naturally indemonstrable and yet the conclusion is that in which we must rejoyce and that for which we must earnestly contend and that in the belief of which we serve God and that for which we must be ready to die It is certain that the understanding observing the credibility and the will being pleased with the excellency they produce a zeal of belief because they together make up the demonstration For a reason can be opposed by a reason and an argument by an argument but if I love my Religion nothing can take me from it unless it can pretend to be more useful and more amiable more perfective and more excellent than heaven and immortality and a kingdom and a crown of peace and all the things and all glories of the Eternal God 2. That faith which disposes to the holy Communion must have in it a fulness of confidence and relying upon God a trusting in and a real expectation of the event of all the promises of the Gospel God hath promised sufficienâ— for the things of this life to them that serve him They who have great revenues and full bags can easily trust this promise but if thou hast neither mony nor friends if the labour of thy hands and the successe of thy labour fails thee how is it then Can you then relie upon the promise What means your melancholy and your fear your frequent sighs and the calling of your self miserable and undone Can God only help with means or cannot he also make the means or help without them or see them when you see them not or is it that you fear whether he will or no He that hath promised if he be just is alwayes willing whether he be able or no and therefore if you do not doubt of his power why should you at all doubt of his willingness For if he were not able he were not Almighty if he were not willing to perform his promise then he were not just and he that suspects that hath neither faith nor love for God of all things in the world faith never distrusts the good will of God in which he most glories to communicate him self to mankind If yet your fear objects and sayes that all is well on Gods part but you have provoked him by your sins and have lost all title to the promise I can say nothing against that but that you must speedily repent and amend your fault and then all will be quickly well on your part also and your faith will have no objection and your fears will have no excuse When the glutton Apicius had spent a vast revenue in his prodigious feastings he kill'd himself for fear of starving but if Caesar had promised
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
comfort us and he will judge us and he will save us and it can never be well with us till love that governs heaven it self be the Prince of all our actions and our passions By this we know we are translated from death to life by our love unto our brethren That 's the testimonial of our comfort I was hungry and ye fed me I was hungry and ye fed me not These are the Tables of our fiâ—al judgment If ye love me keep my Commandments That 's the measure of our obedience In that ye have done kindnesse to one of these little ones ye have done it unto me That is the installing of the Saints in their Thrones of Glory If thou bringest a gift to the altar leave it there go and be reconciled to thy brother That 's the great instrument of our being accepted No man can love God and hate his brother That 's the rule of our examination in this particular This is a new Commandment that ye love one another There 's thâ— great precept of the Gospel This is an old Commandment that ye love one another There is the very Law of Nature And to sum up all Love is the fulfilling of the Law that 's the excellency and perfection of a man and there is the expectation of all reward and the doing all our duâ—y and the sanctification of every action and the spirit of life It is the heart and the fire and the salt of every Sacrifice it is the crown of every Communion And all this mysterious excellency is perfectly represented by that divine exhortation made by Saint Paul Purge out therefore the old leaven that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened For even Christ our Passeover is sacrificed for us Therefore let us keep the feast not with old leaven neither with the leaven of MALICE and wickednesse but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth Now concerning this grace if we will inquire after it in order to a worthy receiving the holy Communion we must inquire after the effects and offices of Charity and by the good we do or are ready to do take an account of our selves in this particular The offices and general duties are three 1. Doing good 2. Speaking good and 3. â—orgiving evil SECT II. Of doing good to our Neighbours HE that loves me does me good for until love be beneficial it is not my good but his fancy and pleasure that delights in me I do not examine this duty by our alms alone for although they are an excellent instrument of life for alms deliver from death said the Angel to old Tobit yet there are some who are bountiful to the poor and yet not charitable to their neighbour You can best tell whether you have charity to your brother by your willingnesse to oblige him and do him real benefit and keeping him from all harm we can Do you do good to all you can Will you willingly give friendly counsel Do you readily excuse your neighbours faults Do you rejoyce when he is made glad Do you delight in his honour and prosperity Do you stop his entry into folly and shame Do not you laugh at his miscarriages Do you stand ready in mind to do all good offices to all you can converse with For nothing makes Societies so fair and lasting as the mutual endearment of each other by good offices and never any man did a good turn to his brother but one time or other himself did eat the fruit of it The good man in the Greek Epigram that found a dead mans scul unburied in kindnesse digging a grave for it opened the inclosures of a Treasure And we read in the Annals of France that when Goutran King of Burgundy was sleeping by the murmurs of a little brook his Servant espied a Lizard coming from his Masters head and essayed to passe the water but seeming troubled because it could not he laid his sword over the brook and made an iron bridge for the little beast who passing entred into the earth and speedily returned back to the King and disturb'd him as it is supposed into a dream in which he saw an iron bridge which landed him at the foot of the mountain where if he did dig he should find a great heap of gold The servant expounded his Masters dream and shewed him the iron bridge and they digged where the Lizard had entred where they found indeed a Treasure and that the Servants piety was rewarded upon his Lords head and procured wealth to one and honour to the other There is in humane nature a strange kind of noblenesse and love to return and exchange good offices but because there are some dogs who bite your hand when you reach them bread God by the ministery of his little creatures tells that if we will not yet he will certainly recompence every act of piety and charity we do one to another * This the â—gyptians did well signifie in one of the new names of their Constellations For when the wife of Ptolomaeus Euergetes had vowed her hair to the Temple upon condition her husband might return in safety and she did consecrate the beauty of her head to the ornaments of Religion Comonus the Astronomer told her that the Gods had pâ—aced her hair among the Stars and to this day they call one knot of Stars by the name of Berenices hair For every such worthinesse like this will have an immortal name in some Record and it shall be written above the Stars and set by the names of the Sons of God who by doing worthy things have endeared Communions and Societies of mankind In all the Sacrifices of the Ancients they were hugely kind to one another they invited their friends to partake the Sacrifice and called them to a portion of the pardon that they might eat of that mercy and that forgivenesse which they expected from their God Then they sent portions to the absent then they renewed Leagues and re-established Peace and made marriages and joined Families and united hearts and knitted Interests by a thred and chain of mutual acts of kindness and endearment And so should we when we come to this holy Sacrifice we must keep our hearts entire to God and divide them amongst our Brethren and heartily love all them who feed upon the same Christ who live by the same faith who are entertained by the same hope and are confederate by the laws and the events and the causes by the acts and emanation of the same Charity * But this thing is plain no discourse here is useful but an exhortation all that can be said is this that it is decent and it is useful and it is necessary that we be very kind and very charitable to all the members of Christ with whom we are joyned by the ligatures of the same body and supported by the strength of the same nourishment and blessed by influences from the same Divine head
because the union of Marriage being broken by the adultery that which only remains of obligation is the charities of a Christian to a Christian without the relation of Husband and Wife The first must be kept in the height of Christian dearnesse and communion but if the second can minister to the good of Souls it is an heroick charity to do it but in this there ought to be no snare for theâ—e is no commandment To the answers given to these Cases of Consâ—ience I am to add this caution That although these cases are only the inquiries and concerns of private persons and do not oblige Pâ—inces Parents Judges Lords of Servants in their publick câ—pacity and they may justly punish the offender though the injury be done against themselves yet in these cases the punishment must be no other than as the lancet or the cupping-glasse as fasting or ill-tasting drugs they are painful but are also wholly given as ministeries of health For so sometimes we put crooked sticks into the fire we bow and beat and twist them not to break but to make them strait and useful So we correct the evil inclinations of our children and the intolerable manners of our servants by afflictions of the body and griefs of the mind all is well so long as it is necessary and so long as it is charitable I remember that when Augustus was to give sentence upon a Son that would have killed his Father he did not according to the severity of the Laws command him to be tied in a Sack with a Cock a Serpent and an Ape and thrown into Tiber but only to be banish'd whither his Father pleas'd remembring that although the Son deserv'd the worst yet Fathers lov'd to inflict the least and although in Nature none ought to drink but the hungry and the thirsty yet in Judicatories none ought to punish but they that neither hunger nor thirst because they that do it against their wills exceed not the measures of charity and necessity But both Fathers and Princes Judges and Masters have their limits and measures before they smite and other measures to be observ'd when they do smite O Christian Judge do the office of a pious Father said St. Austin to Count Marcellinus A man should not use a man prodigally but be as sparing of another mans blood as of his own Punâ—sh the sinner pity the man But to conclude these inquiries fully It is very considerable that in many cases even when it is lawful to bring a Criminal to punishment or to go to Law and that it is just so to do yet this whole dispute being a question of charity we are to go by other measures than in the other and when in these cases we do nothing but what is just we must remember that we are Christians and must never expect to go to heaven unless we do also what is charitable Therefore inquire no more into how much is just and lawful in these cases but what is charitable and what is best and what is safest for then the cases of conscience are best determined when our reward also shall greatly be secured For it is in these inquiries of charity in order to the holy Communion as it is in the Communion it self Not every one shall perish that does not receive the holy Communion but yet to receive it is of great advantage to our souls in order to our obtaining the joyes of heaven so is every expression of charity that very action which in some cases may be safely omitted may in all cases where there is not a contradicting duty be done with great advantages For he that thinks to have the reward and the heaven of Christians by the actions of justice and the omissions of charity is like him who worships the Image of the Sun while at the same time he turns his back upon the Sun himself This is so essentially reasonable that even the Heathens knew it and urged it as a duty to be observed in all their sacrifices and solemnities When you pray to God said one of their own Prophets and offer a holy cloud of frankincense come not to the gentle Deity with ungentle hearts and hands for God is of the same cognation or kindred with a good man gentle as a man apt to pity apt to do good just as we ought to be but infinitely more than we are and therefore he is not good cannot partake with him who is essentially and unalterably so Peter Comestor tells of an old opinion and tradition of the Ancients that forty years before the day of Judgment the Bow which God placed in the clouds shall not be seen at all meaning that since the Rain-bow was placed there as a sign of mercy and reconcilement when the Sacrament of mercy and peace shall disappear then God will come to judge the world in fire and an intolerable tempest in which all the uncharitable unforgiving persons shall for ever be confounded Remember alwaies what the Holy Jesus hath done for thee I shall represent it in the words of St. Bernard O blessed Jesus we have heard strange things of thee All the world tells us such things of thee that must needs make us to run after thee They say that thou despisest not the poor nor refusest the returning sinner We are told that thou didst pardon the Thief when he confessed his sin and confessed thee and Mary Magdalen when she wept and didst accept the Syrophoenician when she prayed and wouldst not give sentence of condemnaâ—ion upon the woman taken in adultery even because she looked sadly and was truly ashamed thou didst not reject him that sate at the receipt of Custome nor the humble Publican nor the Disciple that denied thee nor them that persecuted thy Disciples no not them that crucified thee These are thy precious oyntments apt with their sweetness to allure all the world after thee and with their vertue to heal them After thee and thy sweet Odours O blessed Jesu we will run Happy is he that saies so and does so enkindling his charity in the bloud of Christ as St. Ignatius his expression is transcribing his example into our conversation for we can no way please him but by being like him and in the blessings of Christ and the Communion of his body and bloud the uncharitable and revenging man shall never have a portion SECT V. Devotions relative to this grace of Charity to be used by way of exercise and preparation to the Divine Mysteries in any time or part of our life but especially before and at the Communion The Hymn containing acts of love to God and to our Neighbour COme behold the works of the Lord what desolations he hath made in the earth He maketh Wars to cease unto the ends of the earth he breaketh the bow and cutteth the spear in sunder he burneth the chariot in the fire But unto the wicked said God what
he goes on grows weary when he mingles with the world and by every conversation is polluted or allayed when by his very necessary affairs of life he is made secular and interested apt to tend his civil regards and to be remiss in the spiritual by often and long handling of money beginning too much to love it then we are interrupted in our declining piety we are called upon by Religion and by the sacrednesse of this holy duty are made to begin again not to go back but to be re-enkindled Every time we receive the holy Sacrament all our duties are summed up we make new vowes we chastise our negligence we mend our pace we actuate our holy purposes and make them stronger we enter upon Religion as if we had never done any thing before we bring again our first penitential heats and as when we pray and pray long our devotion slackens and our attention becomes trifling and by wandring thoughts we are gone very far from the observation of the offices the good man that ministers calls out to us Let us pray and then the wandring thoughts run home then we are troubled that we have lost so much of our â—rayers as we have not attended to then we begin agâ—in and pray the more passionately by how much we observe our selves to have been more negligent before If God did not particularly call upon us by these religious necessities and stop us by the solemn return of the Sacrament and stir up our fires and remind us of our duty and make actual seasons and opportunities for actual and great attendencies on religion if God did not make some daies and some necessities and some opportunities for heaven the soul and her interest would not be at all regarded For this life is the day for the body and our needs do indeed require so much attendance and imploy so much of our affections and spend so much of our time that it is necessary some abstractions and separations of time and offices be made Receiving the holy Sacrament is like a Lock upon the waters which makes them rise higher and begin a fuller stream as from a new principle of emanation So that the repentance which is the duty of our life and dispersed over all the parts and periods of it like the waters in the first Creation upon the face of the whole earth is gathered together against the day of the Lords Communion as into a bosome and congregation of penitential waters * Then you are to mourn for your sins and to resolve against them then you are to remember what vowes you have already made and broken how often you have prevaricated in your duty and by what temptations you are used to fall then you are to renew the strength of your purposes to fortifie your tenderest part and to cut off all advantages from the enemy then you must prune your Vine and make the branches bleed then the Bridegroom comes and you must trim your Lamp and adorn it with the culture of Religion that is against the day of Communion you must sum up all the parts of your repentance for the Sacrament is a summary of all the mysteries and all the duty of the whole religion of a Christian. But Baptism and the holy Eucharist do nothing for us unless we do good works and perfect them with a conjugation of holy duties bringing forth fruits meet for repentance But our iniquity must be yet a little more particular There are some actions of repentance which must be finished and made perfect before we receive the holy Communion and there are some which will be finishing all our life Concerning the first the question is which they are and what must be done concerning them Concerning the second we are to inquire how far we must have proceeded in them before we may communicate Those parts of repentance which must be finished before we approach the blessed Sacrament are these 1. We must have renounced perfectly renounced all affections to sin and firmly purpose to amend all to sin no more to lead a new life in all solid and material practises of vertue This we learn from Origen We eat the bread which is made a holy thing and which sanctifies and makes holy all them who use it with holy and salutary purposes and designs of living holily not by a solemn and pompous profession only but with a real and hearty resolution resolving not to say so and be a fool but to say so because indeed we mean so not to profess it because it is the custome of Christians and the expectation of the solemnity but because we intend really to be quit of the sin for ever Now concerning our purposes of amendment these things are to be taken careof 1. That they be made prudently attentively sincerely and with intuition upon a credible possible and designed effect For there are some that make vowes purposes I cannot call them which they believe impossible to keep and no man can wisely purpose such things of which he hath such belief but they believe themselves inevitably engaged to commit a sin and yet as inevitably engaged to say they will not The Greeks tell of a famous fool among them her name was Acco who when she saw her self in a glasse would discourse as wisely as she could to the other woman and supposed her own shadow to be one of her neighbours with whom sometimes she had great business but alwaies huge civilities only she could never agree which of them should go away first or take the upper hand Such wise resolvers are some persons they take the shadow of it for a substance and please themselves by the entertainment of the images of things and think that the outside and the words of a promise are the only thing that God requires they and their promises do not know which shall go away first the resolution quickly dies and the man presently after but the sin lives and abides there still and will do so for ever Cast about and see you have promised what you are likely to perform and do you intend it in good earnest never to consent to a sin in no circumstance and for no argument and by no temptation For he that resolves never to commit that which he knows he shall commit is like him who resolves he will never die his vain resolution sets not his death back one hour It is hypocrisie and lying to say it before God and it is folly and madness to pretend that we will do it to our selves but of this I hâ—ve already spoken 2. He that in his preparation to the holy Communion purposes to live a holy life must not judge of the goodnesse of his purposes by the present intendment but by the consequent performance He must not think it is well yet because many good purposes are broken by temptations disordered by supervening accidents frustrate by impotency and laid aside by the purposes
to the contrary such which Plutarch compares to windy eggs which though they look fairly yet produce no birds Now by this consideration it is not intended that a man must defer his Communion till he hath fully performed all his purposes of a holy life for then he should never Communicate till he dies but by this we are advised to make such inqâ—iry and to use such cautions and to require such indications of the reality of our purposes as becomes wise interested and considering persons who are undone if they be deceived and receive damage by the prophane and uâ—holy usages of the Divine Mysteries if they were cozen'd and abused themselves in the sinceriâ—y and â—fficacy of their preparatory purposes Plato tells that Alcâ—biades did sometimes wish Socratâ—s hâ—d been dead because he was ashamed to see him for that he had not kept the promises which he had so often made to him If we who often have communicated do find that the purposes of reformation which we have formerly made proved ineffective if we perceive that we have begged pardon for our lust and yet still remain under the power of the passion if we have deplored our pride and yet cannot endure to have others preferred before us if we have resolved against our hasty angers and yet after the Communion find our peevishness to return as often and to abide as long and still to forrage and to prevail we are like those foolish birds who having conceived by the wind lay their eggs in the sand and forget the place and the waters wash them away In such cases as these something more must be done besides making resolutions Let every man make some experiment of himself and give some instances of performance and get ground of his passion and make no great haste to passe instantly to the holy Communion you may more safely stay one day longer than passe on one minute too soon but be sure of this the fierce saying of a few warm and holy words is not a sufficient preparation to these sacred Mysteries and they who upon such little confidencies as these have hastned hither have afterwards found causes enough to deplore their profane follies and presumptions for they see when they have eaten the Sop they go out to sin against the Lord as soon as the sacred Calice hath refreshed their lips they dishonour God with their mouths and retain their affections here below fastned to earth and earthly things This is it that makes our Communions have so little fruit Men resolve to be good and then Communicate they resolve they will hereafter but they are not yet and yet they will Communicate they resolve and think no more of it as if performance were no part of the duty and the obligation In such cases it is not good to be hasty for a little stay will do better than twenty arguments to inforce your purposes You must make new resolutions and re-enforce your old but if you have already tried and have sound your purposes to be easily untwisted and that like the Scenes at Masques they were only for that show to serve at that solemnity learn to be more wary and more afraid the next time The first folly was too bad but to do so often is intolerable But here are two Cases to be resolved Question I. But of what nature and extent must our preparatory resolution be Must we resolve against all sin or against some kinds only If only against some sorts then we are not clean all over If against all then we find it impossible for us to perform it And then either it is not necessary to resolve or not necessary to perform or not necessary to Communicate I answer It is one thing to say I shall never fall I shall never be mistaken I shall never be surpris'd or I shall never slacken my watchfulness and attention and another thing to resolve against the love and choice of every sin It is not always in our powers to avoid being surprised or being deceived or being dull and sleepy in our carefulnesse and watches Every good and well-meaning Christian cannot promise to himself security but he may be tempted or over-pressed with a sudden fear when he cannot consider and be put sometimes to act before he can take counsel and though there is no one sin we do but we do it voluntarily and might escape it if we would make use of the grace of God yet the inference cannot run forth to all we cannot therefore always escape all any one we can but not every one The reason is because concerning any one if we make a question then we can and do deliberate then we can attend and we can consider and summon up the arts and auxiliaries of Reason and Religion and we can hear both sides speak and therefore we can chuse for he that can deliberate can take either side for if he could not chuse when he hath considered which to chuse he were more a fool in considering than by any inconsideration in the world for he not only does unreasonably by sinning but he considers unreasonably and to no purpose since his consideration cannot alter the case Certain it is by him that can consider every sin can be avoided But then this is as certain that it is not possible always to consider but surprise and ignorance haste and dulness indifference and weariness are the entries at which some things that are not good will enter but these things are such which by how much they are the lesse voluntary by so much they are the less imputed Thus therefore he that means to Communicate worthily must resolve against every sin the greatest and the least that is 1. He must resolve never to commit any sin concerning which he can deliberate and 2. He must resolve so to stand upon his gâ—ard that he may not frequently be surprised he must use prayer against all and prudent caution in his whole conversation and all the instruments of grace for the destruction of the whole body of sin and though in this valley of tears there are but few so happy souls as to triumph over all infirmities we know of none and if God hath any such on earth they are peculiar jewels kept in undiscerned cabinets yet all that intend to serve God heartily must aim at a return to that state of innocence to the possibility of which Christ hath as certainly recovered us as we lost it by our own follies and the sin of Adam that is we must continually strive and every day get ground of our passions and grow in understanding and the fear of God that we be not so often deluded nor in so many things be ignorant nor be so easily surprised nor so much complain of our weakness nor the imperfection of our actions be in so many instances unavoidable But in the matters of choice in voluntary and deliberate actions we must resolve not to sin at all In
advice which will fit all sorts of persons that desire truely to serve God and to arrive at an excellent state of vertue Although they live in the world and are engaged by their duty and relations to many secular divertisements yet as they must do what they can to change these into Religion and into some good thing one way or other so by these difficulties and divertisements they will find it to be impossible that they should do any thing that is greatly good unlesse they cut off all superfluous company and visits and amusements That which is necessary is too much and if it were not necessary it would not be tolerable but that which is more than needs is a mil-stone about the neck of Religion and makes it impossible to be excellently virtuous Question II. But is he that intends to communicate bound to quit all those occasions of sin by which himself was tempted and did fall and die 1. I answer That it is impossible he should If you live in delights your chastity is tempted your humility is assaulted by receiving honour your Religion by much businesse your truth by much talk your charity by living in the world and yet we must not hasten out of it nor swear eternal silence nor lay aside all our business nor quit our preferment and honourable imployment nor refuse all secular comforts and live in pains that we may preserve these respective graces and yet something we must do some occasions must be quitted before we communicate To that therefore the answer is certain and indisputable that the occasion that is immediate to the sin must be quitted in that in which it does minister to sin A woman is not bound to spoil her face though by her beauty she hath fallen because her beauty was not the immediate cause it was her unguarded conversation and looser society the laying her treasure open or her wanton comportment For beauty will invite a noble flame as soon as kindle a smoaking brand and therefore the face may be preserved and the chastity too if that be removed which brings the danger and stands closer to the sin 2. When Dionsius of Sicily gave to Aristippus five Attick talents he and his servant dragged them home upon their backs but finding himself too glad of his mony he threw it into the sea as supposing the money to be the tempter and no safety to be had as long as it was above the water If he had thought right he had done right if he could not have cured his covetousness and kept the mony he had done well to part with it but it may be he might have been as safe and yet wiser too But the resolution is this In this question distinguish the next occasion from that which is farther off and we are bound to quit that not this because the vertue may be secured without it A man may very well live in the world and yet serve God and if he be hindred by the world it is not directly that but something else by which the cure must be effected but if nothing else will do it then there is no distinction no difference between the neerest occasion and that which is farther off for they must be all quitted the face must be disordered the beauty sullied the mony thrown away the world renounced rather than God be provoked to anger and thy soul ruined by thy inevitable sin 3. He that comes to the holy Sacrament must before his coming so repent of his injury of his rapine of his slander or what ever the instance be that before he communicates he make actual restitution perfect amends intire satisfactâ—on and be really reconciled to his offended brother This is to be understood in these cases 1. If the injury be remaining and incumbent on thy brother for it is not fit for thee to receive benefit by Christs death so long as by thee thy Brother feels an injury Thou art unjust so long as thou continuest the wrong and if the evil goes on the repentance cannot No man that repents does injure any man and this Eucharistical sacrifice will never sanctifie any man unlesse he have the holy spirit of God neither will the Lord bring advantages or give him blessing consequent to these solemn prayers if he hath already injured the Lord or proceeds to do injury to his brother There is no repentance unlesse the penitent as much as he can make that to be undone which is done amisse and therefore because the action can never be undone at least undo the mischief unty the bands of thy neighbours arms do justice and judgement that 's repentance restore the pledges give again that you had robbed ask pardon for thy injury return to peace put thy neighbour if thou canst into the same state of good from whence by thy sin he was removed That a good repentance that bears fruit and not that which produces leaves only When the heathens gods were to choose what trees they would have sacred to them and used in their festivals Jupiter chose the Oake Venus the Myrtle Apollo loved the Laurel but wise Minerva took the Olive The other trees gave no fruit an uselesse apple from the Oak or little berries from the Laurel and the Myrtle but besides the show they were good but for very little but the Olive gives an excellent fruit fit for food and Physick which when Jupiter observed he kissed his daughter and called her wise for all pompousness is vain and the solemn Religion stands for nothing unlesse that which we do be profitable and good for material uses Cui bono To what purpose is our repentance Why do we say we are sorrowful What 's that Nollem factum I wish I had never done it for I did amiss If you say as you think make that it shall be no more do no new injury and cut off the old Restore him to his fame to his money to his liberty and to his lost advantages 2. But this must suppose that it is in thy power to do it If it be in thy power to do it and thou doest it not thou canst not reasonably pretend that thou art so much as sorrowful For what repentance is it which enjoyes the pleasure and the profit of the sin that reaps the pleasant fruits of it that eats the revenues that gathers the grapes from our neighbours vine that dwells in the fields of the Fatherlesse and kneads his bread with the infusion of the widdows tears The snake in the Apologue crept into the holy Phial of sacred oyle and lickt it up till she swell'd so big that she could not get forth from the narrow entrance but she was forced to refund it every drop or she had there remained a prisoner for ever And therefore tell me no more thou art sorry for what thou hast done if thou retainest the purchase of thy sin thou lovest the fruit of it and therefore canst
not curse the tree Thou didst never love the sin for it self without the profit and therefore if thou still dost love that thou lovest the sin as much as ever neither more nor less but thou art still the same man Question III. But can it in no case be lawful to put off our restitution or reconciliation with our brother Is it not sufficient to resolve to do it afterward and in the mean time to receive the Sacrament For if the heart be peaceful and the mind be just the outward work may follow in its due time and all be well enough I answer That a man is not tied in that Mathematical instant in which he remembers his injustice to go and make restitution He is not tied to go out of the Church or to rise at midnight or to leave his meat as Tobit did to go and bury the dead unless there â—e danger that if he do not do it then it shall never be done at all For in this case he must do it whether it be convenient or inconvenient whether it be seasonable or not But every man is bound to do it as soon as he morally can and he must go about it as he does about other actions in which he is mightily concerned If a man dâ—d diligently examine himself and yet thought not of the obligation though that can hardly be supposed yet if it be so and he did not think of it till he were kneeling before the holy Table then it were sufficient to resolve to do it speedily after because he cannot without scandal remove and go forth but without prejudice to his brother he can stay till next day If he inquired diligently and had a mind ready to do every thing which he could learn to be his duty there was no unworthiness in him to hinder him from coming and this cannot be prejudiced by a new and sudden discovery if it be entertained with the same justice and readiness of mind But else what you can learn in these cases ought to be done at all must be done before the Communion if we can that is there must be no let in the will no imperfect resolution no indifference of affections to it If it can be done before it must For so said our blessed Saviour If at the Altar thou remembrest go and be reconciled That is if thou art not reconciled if thou art not in charity or if thou beest in thy heart still injurious and hast not a just and a righteous soul go even from before the Altar but if thou hast a real charity and hast done the duties of these graces by a moral diligence you may come and a sudden remembrance of an undiscovered obligation need not to expose thee to the reproach of a sudden departure provided I say alwaies that thou wert indeed truly reconciled and truly charitable For by our Lords express command you must at no hand offer till thou beest in charity till thou hast forgiven or till thou doest cease to hate till thou beest reconciled that 's our Saviours word for it is the inward grace which thou art tied to in all circumstances and therefore in that but to the outward something else may be necessary and fit to be considered Nothing can hinder thee from charity in any circumstances whatsoever from present or actual restitution many things may and yet thou be innocent But if thou beest an angry person or an unjust or malice be upon thy heart or injustice upon thy hand let not thy hand be upon the Altar nor thy heart upon the Sacrament If thy Brother hath ought against thee I know not why thou shouldest make hast to receive the Sacrament make hast to be reconciled There is haste of this there is no such haste of the other but that thou mayest stay till thou hast done thy duty Only remember this Every deferring of it is some degree of unwillingness to do it and therefore it is not good to trust thy own word till thou hast served thy own end After thou hast received thou wilt think that there is less need than before and therefore thou wilt make less haste For what a religious man said in the case of a dying person is also in proportion true of him who is to Communicate He that will not restore presently if he can is not to be absolved is not to be communicated although he promise restitution Because it cannot be likely that he intends it heartily that puts it off longer than the day of its extreme or the day of its positive necessity Let us not deceive our selves of all the things in the world the holy Sacrament was never intended to give countenance to sinners or palliation to a sin warranty or colour excuse or perpetuity * There is a hard expression in the Prophet They have filled the Land with violence and have returned to provoke me to anger and lo they put the branch to their nose and behold they are as mockers So the LXX read it but make no mention of puting the branch to their nose Theodotion puts them both together they hold out the branch like mockers and to this Symmachus gives yet a little more light They lifted up the branch making a noise like them that mock with their noses But this interpretation is something hard there is yet an easier and that which makes these words pertinent to our present duty and a severe reproof to them who come to this holy service of God not with the love of sons and duty of servants but with the disaffectâ—on of enemies The carrying of branches in the superstition of the Gentiles and the custome of the Jews was a sign of honour Thus they carried the Pine-tree before the shepherds God they gave the Cypress to Sylvanus and the Abricot-tree to Isis and thâ— branches of Palmes the Jews did carry before our blessed Saviour and this is it that God complains of They carried branches as if they did him honour but they held them to their noses like mockers that is they mocked him secretly when they worshipped him publickly they came with fair pretences and foul hearts their ceremony was religious all over but their lives were not answerable The difficulty came from the homonymy of the Hebrew word which signified a Branâ—h and a noise and it will be as difficult to distinguish an hypocrite from a Communicant unless we really purpose to live better and do so unless we leave the next occasions to sin and do justice and judgment and cease to do evil and cause that my brother shall no longer feel the evils of my injustice and of my foolish crimes SECT IV. How far we must have proceeded in our General repentance and emendation of our lives before we Communicate TO this I answer that No man is fit to Communicate but he that is fit to die that is he must be in the state of grace and he must have trimmed his
who did not communicate should be driven from the Churches And Palladius tells that when St. Macarius had by his prayers cured a poor miserable woman that was bewitched and fancied her self to be a horse he advised her Never to depart from the Church of God or to abstain from the Communion of the Sacraments of Christ. For this misfortune hath prâ—vailed upon you because for these five weeks you have not communicated Now this was but a relative crime and because their custome was such which is alwaies to be understood according to their acknowledged measures viz. that only pious persons were to be meant and required in that expectation this will not conclude that of it self and abstracting from the scandal it was in all cases unlawful to recede from the mysteries at sometimes â—or sometimes a man may be called off by the necessities of his calling or the duties of charity or piety A General of an Army a Prince a Privy Counsellor a Judge a Merchant may be very fit to communicate even then when they cannot or it may be ought not to stay But if he can stay and be a good man and rightly disposed by the habits of a good life he ought to stay and communicate and so much the rather if it be in any degree scandalous to go away The reason is because if he be a good man he can no more be surprised by an unexpected Communion than by a sudden death which although it may find him in better circumstances yet can never find him Unprovided But in this case St. Austins moderate determination of the case is very useful Let every one do as he is perswaded in his mind for a man may with a laudable fear and reverence abstain if he shall be perswaded that he ought not to communicate unless besides his habitual grace he hath kindled the fires of an actual devotion and preparation special and so much the rather because he may communicate very frequently and to great purposes and degrees of a spiritual life though he omit that single opportunity in which he is surpris'd and though it be very useful for a good man to communicate often yet it is not necessary that he communicate alwaies only let every pious soul consider that it is argument of the Divine love to us that these fountains are alwaies open that the Angel frequently moves these waters and that Christ saies to every prepared heart as to the multitudes that followed him into the wilderness I will not send them away fasting lest they faint in the way And if â—hrist be ever ready offering his holy body and bloud it were very fit we should entertain him for he never comes but he brings a blessing Question III. But how often is it advisable that a good man should Communicate Once in a year or thrice or every month or every fortnigbt every sunday or every day This question hath troubled very many but to little purpose For it is all one as if it were asked How often should a healthful man eat or he that hath infirmities take Physick And if any man should say that a good man should do well to pray three times a day he said true and yet it were better to pray five times and better yet to pray seven times but if he does yet he must leave spaces for other duties But his best measures for publick and solemn prayer is the custom of the Church in which he lives and for private he can take no measures but his own needs and his own leisure and his own desires and the examples of the best and devoutest persons in the same circumstances And so it is in the frequenting the holy Communion The laws of the Church must be his least measure The custome of the Church may be his usual measure But if he be a devout person the spirit of devotion will be his certain measure and although that will consult with prudence and reasonable opportunities yet it consults with nothing else but communicates by its own heights and degrees of excellency St. Hierom advises Eustochium a noble Virgin and other religious persons to communicate twice every month some did every Sunday and this was so general a custome in the Ancient Church that the Sunday was called The day of bread as we find in St. Chrysostome and in consonancy to this the Church of England commands that the Priests resident in Collegiate or Cathedral Churches should do so and they whose work and daily imployment is to Minister to religion cannot in such circumstances pretend a reasonable excuse to the contrary But I desire these things may be observed 1. That when the Fathers make a question concerning a frequent Communion they do not dispute whether it be adviseable that good people should communicate every month or every fortnight or whether the more devout and less imploy'd may communicate every week for of this they make no question but whether every days Communion be fit to be advised that they question and I find that as they are not earnest in that so they indefinitely give answer that a frequent Communion is not to be neglected at any hand if persons be worthily prepared 2. The frequency of Communion is to be estimated by the measures of devout people in every Church respectively And although in the Apostolical Ages they who Communicated but once a fortnight were not esteemed to do it frequently yet now they who communicate every month and upon the great Festivals of the year besides and upon other solemn or contingent occasions and at marriages and at visitations of the sick may be said to communicate frequently in such Churches where the Laws enjoyn but three or four times every year as in the Church of England and the Lutheran Churches But this way of estimating the frequency of Communion is only when the causes of inquiry are for the avoiding of scandal or the preventing of scruples but else the inward hunger and thirst and the spirit of devotion married to opportunity can give the truest measures 3. They that communicate frequently if they do it worthily are charitable and spiritual persons and therefore cannot judge or undervalue others that do not For no man knows concerning others by what secret principles and imperfect propositions they are guided For although these measures we meet with in Antiquity are very reasonable yet few do know them and all of them do not rely upon them and their own customs or the private word of their own guides or their fears or the usages of the Church in which they live or some leading example or some secret impediment which ought not but is thought sufficient any of these or many other things may retard even good persons from such a frequency as may please others and that which one calls opportunity others do not but however no man ought to be prejudiced in the opinion of others For besides all this now reckoned The