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
the spices and gums upon the Altar of Incense SECT II. What it is which we receive in the holy SACRAMENT IT is strange that Christians should pertinaciously insist upon carnal significations and natural effects in Sacraments and Mysteries when our blessed Lord hath given us a sufficient light to conduct and secure us from such mis-apprehensions The flesh profiteth nothing the words which I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life that is the flesh is corruption and its senses are Ministers of death and this one word alone was perpetually sufficient for Christ's Disciples For when upon occasion of the grosse understanding of their Masters words by the men of Capernaum they had been once clearly taught that the meaning of all these words was wholly spiritual they rested there and inquired no further insomuch that when Christ at the institution of the Supper affirmed of the bread and wine that they were his body and his blood they were not at all offended as being sufficiently before instructed in the nature of that Mystery And besides this they saw enough to tell them that what they eat was not the natural body of their Lord This was the body which himself did or might eat with his body one body did eat and the other was eaten both of them were his body but after a diverse manner For the case is briefly this We have two lives a natural and a spiritual and both must have bread for their support and maintenance in proportion to their needs and to their capacities and as it would be an intollerable charity to give nothing but spiritual nutriment to a hungry body and pour diagrams and wise propositions into an empty stomach so it would be as useless and impertinent to feed the Soul with wheat or flesh unless that were the conveyance of a spiritual delicacy In the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist the body of Christ according to the proper signification of a humane body is not at all but in a sense differing from the proper and natural body that is in a sense more agreeing to Sacraments so St. Hierom expresly Of this sacrifice which is wonderfully done in the commemoration of Christ we may eat but of that sacrifice which Christ offered on the altar of the Crosse by it self or in its own nature no man may eat For it is his flesh which is under the form of bread and his blood which is in the form and tast of wine for the flesh is the Sacrament of flesh and blood is the Sacrament of blood for by flesh and blood that is invisible spiritual intelligible the visible and tangible body of our Lord Jesus Christ is consigned full of the grace of all vertues and of Divine Majesty So St Augustine For therefore ye are not to eat that body which ye see nor to drink that blood which my crucifiers shall pour out it is the same and not the same the same invisibly but not the same visibly For until the world be finished the Lord is above but the truth of the Lord is with us The body in which he rose again must be in one place but the truth of it is every where diffused For there is one truth of the body in the Mystery and another truth simply and without Mystery It is truly Christs body both in the Sacrament and out of it but in the Sacrament it is not the natural truth but the spiritual and the mystical And therefore it was that our Blessed Saviour to them who apprehended him to promise his natural body and blood for our meat and drink spake of his ascension into heaven that we might learn to look from heaven to receive the food of our souls heavenly and spiritual nourishment said St. Athanasius For this is the letter which in the New Testament kills him who understands not spiritually what is spoken to him under the signification of meat and flesh and blood and drink So Origen For this bread does not go into the body for to how many might his body suffice for meat but the bread of eternal life supports the substance of our spirit and therefore it is not touch'd by the body nor seen with the eyes but by faith it is seen and touched So St. Ambrose And all this whole mystery hath in it neither carnal sense nor carnal consequence saith St. Chrysostom But to believe in Christ is to eat the bread and therefore why do you prepare your teeth and stomach believe him and you have eaten him they are the words of S. Austin For faith is that intellectual mouth as S. Brasil calls it which is within the man by which he takes in nourishment But what need we to draw this water from the lesser cisterns we see this truth reflected from the spring it self the fountains of our blessed Saviour I am the bread of life he that cometh unto me shall not hunger and he that believeth on me shall not thirst and again He that eats my flesh hath life abiding in him and I will raise him up at the last day The plain consequent of which words is this that therefore this eating and drinking of Christs flesh and blood can only be done by the Ministeries of life and of the spirit which is opposed to nature and flesh and death And when we consider that he who is not a spiritual and a holy person does not feed upon Christ who brings life eternal to them that feed on him it is apparent that our manducation must be spiritual and therefore so must the food and consequently it cannot be natural flesh however altered in circumstance and visibilities and impossible or incredible changes For it is not in this spiritual food as it was in Manna of which our Fathers did eat and died but whosoever eats this divine nutriment shall never die The Sacraments indeed and symbols the exterior part and ministeries may be taken unto condemnation but the food it self never For an unworthy person cannot feed on this food because here to eat Christs flesh is to do our duty and to be established in our title to the possession of the eternal promises For so Christ disposed the way of salvation not by flesh but by the spirit saith Tertullian that is according to his own exposition Christ is to be desired for life and to be devoured by hearing to be chewed by the understanding and to be digested by faith and all this is the method and oeconomy of heaven which whosoever uses and abides in it hath life abiding in him He that in this world does any other way look for Christ shall never find him and therefore if men say Loe here is Christ or loe there he is in the desart or he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Cupboards or Pantries where bread or flesh is laid believe it not Christs body is in heaven and it is not upon earth the heavens must contain
is past that we are to look upon our selves but as new beginners that by apprehending the same necessity we may have the same passion the same fervour and holy fires But in the matter of examining we must consider how much hath been pardoned that we may examine how thankful we have been and what returns we have made we must observe all our usual failings that we may now set our guards accordingly we must remember in what weak part we were smitten that we may still pray against it and we must renew our sad remembrances that we may continue our sad repentances and we must look upon our whole life that we may be truely humbled He that only examines how it is with him since the last Communion will think too well of himself if he spies his bills of accusation to be small but every man will find cause enough to hide his face in the dust and to come with fear and trembling when he views the sum total of his life which certainly will appear to be full of shame and of dishonour 3. We are not to limit our examinations to the interval since the last Communion because much of our present duty is relative to the first parts of our life For all the former vows of obedience though we have broken them a thousand times yet have still an obliging power and there are many contingencies of our life which require peculiar usages and treatments of our selves and there are many follies which we leave by degrees and many obligations which are of continual duty and it may be that our passion did once carry us to so extream to intollerable a violence perhaps twenty years ago that we are still to keep our fears and tremblings about us lest the same principle produce the same evil event When Horatius Cocles had won that glorious victory over the three Sabine Brothers and entring gloriously into Rome espied his sister wetting his Laurel with her unseasonable tears for the death of one of them whom she love with the honour of a wife and the passion of a lover and being mad with rage and pride because her sorrow allayd his joyes and glory kill'd her with that sword by which her servant died Sometimes passion makes a prodigious excursion and passes on to the greatest violence and the most prodigious follies and though it be usually so restrained by reason and Religion that such transvolations are not frequent yet one such act is an eternal testimony how weak we are and how mischievous a passion can be It is a miracle of providence that in the midst of all the rudenesses and accidents of the world a man preserves his eyes which every thing can extinguish and put out and it is no lesse a miracle of grace that in the midst so many dishonourable loves there are no more horrid tragoedies and so many brutish angers do not produce more cruel sudden murders and that so much envy does not oftener break out into open hostilities it is indeed a mighty grace that pares the nails of these wild beasts and makes them more innocent in their effects than they are in their nature but still the principle remains there is in us the same evil nature and the same unruly passion and therefore as there ought to be continual guards upon them so there must be continual inquiries made concerning them and every thing is to be examined lest all be lost upon a sudden 4. We must not limit our examination to the interval of the last Communion because our first repentances must still proceed and must never be at an end For no man was so pardoned at the last Communion but that he is still obliged to beg pardon for those sins he then repented of He must always repent always pray and never be at peace with the first sins of his youth and the sorrows of the first day must be the duty of every day and that examination must come into this account and when we inquire after our own state we must not view the little finger but the whole man For in all the forrest the ape is the handsomest beast so long as he shewes nothing but his hand but when the inquiring and envious beasts looked round about him they quickly espied a foul deformity There are in the state of a mans soul some good proportions and some well dayes and some fortunate periods but he that is contented with beholding them alone cares more to please himself than to please God and thinks him to be happy whom man not whom God approves By this way twenty deceptions and impostures may abuse a man See therefore what you are from head to foot from the beginning to the end from the first entry to your last progression and although it be not necessary that we always actually consider all yet it will be necessary that we alwayes truly know it all that our relative duties and our imperfect actions and our collateral obligations and the direct measures of the increase of grace may be justly discerned and understood 4. He that examines himself and would make right judgement of his state and of his duty must not do it by single actions but by states of life and habits of Religion If we can say truly that neither prosperity nor adversity neither crosse nor crown imployment nor retirement publick offices nor houshold-cares do disorder us in our duty to God and our relations that is if we safely and wisely passed through or converse in any one of these states of life it is very likely that things are well with us But the consideration of single actions will do but little Some acts of charity and many prayers and the doing one noble action or being once or twice very bountiful or the strugling with one danger and the speaking for God in one contestation these are excellent things and good significations of life but not alwayes of health and strength not of a state of grace Now because in the holy Communion we are growing up to the measures of the fulness of Christ we can no otherwise be fitted to it but by the progressions and increase of a man that is by habits of grace and states and permanencies of Religion and therefore our examinations must be accordingly SECT VI. Devotions to be used upon the days of our Examination relative to that duty The Hymne THe Lord is in his holy temple the Lords throne is in heaven his eyes behold his eye lids try the children of men The Lord tryeth the righteous but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth For the righteous Lord loveth righteousnesse his countenance doth behold the upright The words of the Lord are pure words as silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times Thou hast proved mine heart thou hast visited me in the night thou hast tried me and shalt find nothing I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress Hold up my goings in
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
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
receiving of the holy Sacrament is of that nature of good things which can be supplied by internal actions alone or sometimes by other external actions in conjunction and it hath a suppletory of its own viz. Spiritual Communion of which I am to give account in its proper place And when we consider that some men are of strict consciences and some Churches are of strict Communions and will not admit Communicants but upon such terms which some men cannot admit it will follow that as S. Austins expression is Men should live in the peace of Christ and do according to their Faith but in these things no man should judge his Brother In this no man can directly be said to do amiss but he that loathes Manna and despises the food of Angels or neglects the Supper of the Lamb or will not quit his sin or contend towards perfection or hath not the spirit of devotion or does any way by implication say That the Table of the Lord is contemptible 4. These rules and measures now given are such as relate to those who by themselves or others are discernably in or discernably out of the state of grace But there are some which are in the confines of both states and neither themselves nor their guides can tell to what dominion they do belong Concerning such they are by all means to be thrust or invited forward and told of the danger of a real or seeming neutrality in the service of God of the hatefulnesse of tepidity of the uncomfortablenesse of such an indifference and for the Communions of any such person I can give no other advice but that he take his measures of frequency by the Laws of his Church and add what he please to his numbers by the advice of a spiritual guide who may consider whether his Penitent by his conjugation of preparatory actions and heaps of holy duties at that time usually conjoyn'd do or is likely to receive any spiritual progresse For this will be his best indication of life and declare his uncertain state if he thrive upon his spiritual nourishment If it prove otherwise all that can be said of such persons is that they are members of the visible Church they are in that net where there are fishes good and bad they stand amongst the wheat and the tares they are part of the lump but whether leavened or unleavened God only knows and therefore they are such to whom the Church denies not the bread of Children but whether it does them good or hurt the day only will declare for to such persons as these the Church hath made Laws for the set time of their Communion Christmas Easter and Whitsontide were appointed for all Christians that were not scandalous and openly criminal by P. Fabianus and this Constitution is imitated by the best constituted Church in the world our dear Moâ—her the Church of England and they who do not at these times or so frequently communicate are censured by the Council of Agathon as unfit to be reckoned among Christians or Members of the Catholick Church Now by these Laws of the Church it is intended indeed that all men should be called upon to discusse and shake off the yoke of their sins and enter into the salutary state of repentance and next to the perpetual Sermons of the Church she had no better means to ingage them into returns of piety hoping that by the grace of God and the blessings of the Sacrament the repentance which at these times solemnly begins may at one time or other fix and abide these little institutions and disciplines being like the sudden heats in the body which sometimes fix into a burning though most commonly they go away without any further change But the Church in this case does the best she can but does not presume that things are well and indeed as yet they are not and therefore such persons must passe further or else their hopes may become illusions and make the men asham'd 5. I find that amongst the holy Primitives they who contended for the best things and lov'd God greatly were curious even of little things and if they were surpriz'd with any sudden undecency or a storm of passion they did not dare that day to communicate When I am angry or when I think any evil thought or am abus'd with any illusion or foul phansie of the night intrare non audeo I dare not enter said St. Jerome I am so full of horrour and dread both in my body and my mind This was also the case of St. Chrysostom who when Eusebius had unreasonably troubled him with an unseasonable demand of justice against Antonine just as he was going to consecrate the blessed Sacrament departed out of the Church and desired one of the Bishops who by chance was present to do the office for him for he would not offer the Sacrifice at that time having some trouble in his Spirit 2. To this are to be reduc'd all such great actions which in their whole constitution are great and lawful but because so many things are involved in their transaction whereof some unavoidably will be amiss or may reasonably be suppos'd so may have something in the whole and at the last to be deplor'd In such cases as these some great examples have been of advices to abstain from the Communion till by a general but a profound repentance for what hath been amiss God is deprecated and the causes of Christian hope and confidence do return In the Ecclesiastical History we read that when Theodosius had fought prosperously against Eugâ—nius the Usurper of the Empire when his cause was just and approved by God not only giving testimony by the prediction and warranty of a religious Hermit but also by prodigious events by winds and tempests fighting for him and by which he restored peace to the Church and tranquility to the Empire yet he by the advice of S. Ambrose abstain'd a while from the holy Sacrament and would not carry blood upon his hands though justly shed unto the Altar not only following the president of David who because he was a man of blood might not build a Temple but for fear lest some unfit appendage should stick to the management of a just imployment 3. Of the same consideration it is if a person whose life should be very exemplar is guilty of such a single folly which it may be would not dishonour a meaner man but is a great vanity and reproach to him a little abstention and a penitential separation when it is quit from scandal was sometimes practis'd in the Ancient Church and is adviseable also now in fitting circumstances Thus when Gerontius the Deacon had vainly talked that the Devil appear'd to him one night and that he had bound him with a chain St. Ambrose commanded him to abide in his house and not to come to the Church till by penances and sorrow he had expiated such an indiscretion which
in Governments publick or in the private conduct of souls to whom I earnestly and humbly recommend it and I add this only that when the Ancient Churches did absolve and communicate dying penitents though but newly return'd from sin they did it de benè esse or with a hope it might do some good and because they thought it a case of necessity and because there was no time left to do better but when they did as well as they could they could not tell what God would do and though the Church did well it may be it was very ill with the souls departed But because that is left to God it is certain some things were done upon pious confidence and venture for which there was no promise in the Gospel That which the Church is to take care of is that all her children be sufficiently taught what are the just measures of preparation and worthy disposition to these Divine mysteries and that she admits none of whom she can tell that they are not worthy such as are notorious adulterers homicides incestuous perjurers habitually peevish to evil effects and permanently angry for this I find reckoned amongst the Primitive Catalogues of persons to be excluded from the Communion rapines theft sacriledge false witness pride covetousness and envy It would be hard to reduce this rule to practice in all these instances unless it be by consent and voluntary submission of penitent persons But that which I remark is this that Proud persons and the Covetous the Envious and the Angry were esteemed fit to be excommunicate that is infinitely unfit to be admitted to the blessed Sacrament and that by the rules of their discipline they were to do many actions of publick and severe penance and mortifications before they would admit them Now then the case is this They did esteem more things to be requir'd to the integrity of repentance and God not to be so soon reconcil'd and the Devil not soon dispossess'd and mens resolutions not so fit to be trusted and more to be required to pardon than confession and the pronouncing absolution all this otherwise than we do and therefore so long as they did conduct repentances they requir'd it as it should be being sure that no repentance that was joyned with hope and charity could be too much but it might quickly be too little and therefore although the Church may take as little as she please for a testimonial of repentance and suppose the rest is right though it be not signified yet when she either in publick or in private is to manage repentances she must use no measure but that which will procure pardon and extinguish both the guilt and dominion of sin The first may be of some use in government but of little avail to souls and to their eternal interest therefore in the first she may use her liberty and give her self measures in the latter she hath no other but what are given her by the nature of repentance and its efficacy and order to pardon and the designs of God for the reformation of our souls and the extermination of sin SECT VI. Whether may every Minister of the Church and Curate of Souls reject impenitent persons or any criminals from the holy Sacrament until themselves be satisfied of their repentance and amends SEparation of sinners from the Blessed Sacrament was either done upon confession and voluntary submission of the penitent or by publick conviction and notoreity Every Minister of religion can do the first for he that submits to my judgment does choose my sentence and if he makes me Judge he is become my subject in a voluntary Government and therefore I am to judge for him when it is fit that he should communicate only if when he hath made me Judge he refuses to obey my counsel he hath dissolved my Government and therefore will receive no further benefit by me * But concerning the latter of these a separation upon publick conviction or notoreity that requires an authority that is not precarious and changeable Now this is done two waies either by authority forbidding or by authority restraining and compelling that is by the word of our proper ministry disswading him that is unworthy from coming and threatning him with Divine judgments if he does come or else rejecting of him in case that he fears not those threatnings but persists in his desires of having it Now of the first of these every Minister of the Word and Sacraments is a competent Minister for all that minister to souls are to tell them of their dangers and by all the effects of their office to present them pure and spotless unto God the Seers must take care that the people may see lest by their blindness they fall into the bottomless pit And when the Curates of souls have declared the will of God in this instance and denounced his judgments to unworthy Communicants and told to all that present themselves who are worthy and who are not they have delivered their own souls all that remains is that every person take care concerning his own affairs For the second viz denying to minister to Criminals though demanding it with importunity that is an act of prudence and caution in some cases and of authority in others When it is matter of caution it is not a punishment but a medicine according to those excellent words of S. Cyprian To be cast out viz. for a time from the Communion is a remedy and a degree towards the recovery of our spiritual health and because it is no more it cannot be pretended to be any mans right to do it but it may be in his duty when he can but therefore this must depend upon the consent of the penitent For a Physician must not in despite of a man cut off his leg to save his life the sick man may choose whether he shall or no. But sometimes it is an act of authority as when the people have consented to such a discipline or when the secular arm by assisting the Ecclesiastical hath given to it a power of mixt jurisdiction that is when the spiritual power of paternal regiment which Christ hath given to his Ministers the supreme Curates is made operative upon the persons and external societies of men Now of this power the Bishops are the prime and immediate subjects partly under Christ and partly under Kings and of this power inferiour Ministers are capable by delegation but no otherwise they being but Deputies and Vicars in the cure of souls under their superiours from whom they have received their order and their charge And thus I suppose we are to understand the Rubrick before our Communion office which warrants â—he Curate not to suffer open and notorious evil livers by whom the Congregation is offended and those between whom he perceiveth malice and hatred to reign to be partakers of the Lords Table In the first the case is of notorious Criminals and is to be
uâ—certain evils none at all or very excusable And â—herefore it was to very great purpose that thâ— Apostâ—e gave command that eveâ—y man should examine himsâ—lf and so let him eaâ— that is let it be done as it may be done thorowly lâ—t him do it whose case it is and who is most concerned that it be done well let it be done so that it may not be allayed and lessened by the judgment of charity and therefore let a man do it himself For when the Curate comes to do it he cannot do it well unless he do it with mercy for he must make abatements which the sinners case does not often need in order to his reconciliation and returns to God where severity is much better than gentle sentences But the Minister of Religion must receive in some cases such persons who ought not to come and who should abstain when themselves give righteous judgment upon themselves For if it be lawful for Christian people to communicate with evil persons it is lawful for Christian Priests to minister it it being commanded to the people in some cases to withdraw themselves from a Brother that walks inordinately but no where commanded that a Minister of Religion shall refuse to give it to him that requires it and is within the Communion of the Church and is not yet as an heathen and a publican and it is evident that in the Churches of Corinth the Communion was given to persons who for unworthiness fell under the divine anger and yet no man was reprov'd but the unworthy Communicants and themselves only commanded to take care of it For he that says the people may not communicate with wicked persons falls into the errour of the Donatists which St. Austin and others have infinitely confuted but he that says the people may ought not to deny but that the Priest may and if he may communicate with him it cannot be denied but he may minister to him But this was the case of the Sons of Israel who did eat Manna and drank of the rock and yet that rock was Christ and that Manna was also his Sacrament and yet with many of these God was angry and they fell in the wildernesse And if Baptism was given as soon as ever men were converted in the very day of their change and that by the Apostles themselves and yet the same Christ is there consigned and exhibited we may remember that in Scripture we find no difference in the two Sacraments as to this particular But in this there needs not much to be said they that think things can be otherwise and have tried have declar'd to all the world by the event of things that although the guides of souls may by wise and seasonable discourses persuade and prevail with some few persons yet no man can reform the world and if all were rejected whose life does not please the Curate some will not care and will let it quite alone and others that do care will never the more be mended but turn hypocrites and they are the worst of men but most readily communicated Some other evils do also follow and when we have reckoned schisms partialities reproaches animosities and immortal hatreds between Priest and People we have not reckon'd the one half 6. When to separate Criminals can be prudent and useful and is orderly limited and legal it ought not to be omitted upon any consideration because it is the sinews and whole strength of Ecclesiastical discipline and is a most charitable ministery to souls and brings great regard to the holy Sacrament and produces reverence in the Communicants and is a deletery to sin and was the perpetual practice of the best Ages of the Church and was blest with an excellent corresponding piety in their Congregations upon which account and of other consideraons S. Cyprian S. Basil S. Chrysostom and divers others call upon Prelates and people to exercise and undergo respectively this Ecclesiastical discipline But this hath in it some variety 1. For if the person be a notorious a great and incorrigible Criminal refusing to hear the Church proceeding against him upon complaint confession or notoreity and consequently to be esteem'd as a Heathen and a Publican then comes in the Apostolical rules with such a one not to eat and withdraw from such a one for there is no accord between Christ and Belial between a Christian and a Heathen or an Unbeliever that is one who is thrust into the place and condition of an Infidel and give nâ—t thâ—t which is holy unto Dogs 2. But if he be within the Communion of the Church and yet a Criminal not delated not convict not legally condemned and yet privately known to be such or publickly suspected and scandalous the Minister of Religion must separate him by the word of his ministry and tell him his danger and use all the means he can to bring him to repentance and amends before he admits him if the Minister of Religion omits this duty he fals undâ—r the curse threatned by God in the Prophet If he does not warn him if he does not speak to the wicked to give him warning to save his life his blood shall be upon him 3. If there be a regular jurisdiction established and this spiritual authority be backed with the secular it must be used according to the measures of its establishment and for the good of the Church in general and of the sinner in particular that is although the person be not as a heathen and excommunicate by the Churches sentence yet he must be rejected for a time and thrust into repentance and measures of satisfaction and as he must not refuse so must not the Minister of the Sacrament otherwise admit him and in this sense it was that S. Chrysostom said he would rather lose his life than admit unworthy men to the Lords Table 7. But because piety hath suffer'd shipwrack and all discipline hâ—th been lost in tâ—e storm and good manneâ—s have been thrown over board the best remedy in the world that yet remains and is in use amongst the most pâ—ous sons and daughters of the Church is that they would conduct their repentance by the continual advices and ministery of a spiritual guide for by this alone or principally was the primitive piety aâ—d repentances advanced to the excellency which we often admire but seldom imitate and the event will be that besides we shall be guided in the wayes of holiness in general we shall be at peace as to the times and manner of receiving the holy Sacrament our penitential abstentions and seasonâ—ble returns and we shâ—ll not so frequently feel the effects of the Divine anger upon our persons as a reproach of our folly aâ—d the punishment of our unworthy receiving the Divine mysteries And this was earnestly advised and pressed upon their people by the holy Fathers who had as great experience in their conduct as
3. And that we pray for particular strength against our failings 3. He that would communicate with fruit must so have ordered his examinations that he must not alwaies be in the same method He must not alwaies be walking with a candle in his hands and prying into corners but they must be swept and garnished and be kept clean and adorned His examinations must be made full and throughly and be productive of inferiour resolutions and must pass on to rules and exercises of caution That is 1. We must consider where we fail oftenest 2. From what principle this default comes 3. What are the best remedies 4. We must pass on to the real and vigorous use of them and when the case is thus stated and drawn into rules and resolutions of acting them we are only to take care we do so and every day examine whether we have or no. But we must not at all dwell in this relative and preparatory and ministring duty But if we find that we have reason to do so let us be sure that something is amiss we have played the hypocrites and done the work of the Lord negligently or falsly 4. If any passion be the daily exercise or tempâ—ation of our life let us be careful to put the greatest distress upon that and therefore against a Communion-day do something in defiance and diminution of that chastise it if it hath prevailed reenforce thy resolutions against it examine all thy aids see what hath been prosperous and pursue that point and if thou hast not at all prevailed then know all is not well for he communicates without fruit who makes no progressions in his mortifications and conquest over his passions It may be we shall be long exercised with the remains of the Canaanites for it is in the matter of Passions as Seneca said of Vices We fight against them not to conquer them intirely but that they may not â—onquer us not to kill them but to bring them under command and unless we do that we cannot be sure that we are in the state of grace and therefore cannot tell if we do or do not worthily communicate For by all the exteriour actions of our life we cannot so well tell how it is with us as by the observation of our affections and passions our wills and our desires For I can command my foot and it must obey and my hand and it cannot resist but when I bid my appetite obey or my anger be still or my will not to desire I find it very often to rebell against my word and against Gods word Therefore let us be sure to take some effective course with the appetite and place our guards upon the inward man and upon our preparation daies do some violence to our lusts and secret desires by holy resolutions and severe purposes and rules of caution and by designing a course of spiritual arts and exercises for the reducing them to reason and obedience something that may be remembred and something that will be done * But to this let this caution be added that of all things in the world we be careful of relapses into our old follies or infirmities for if things do not succeed well afterwards they were not well ordered at first 5. Upon our communion daies and daies of prepâ—ration let us endeavour to stir up every grace which we are to exercise in our conversation and thrust our selves forward in zeal of those graces that we begin to amend our lukewarmness and repair our sins of omission For this is a day of sacrifice and every sacrifice must be consumed by fire and therefore now is the day of improvement and the proper season for the zeal of duty and if upon the solemn day of the soul we do not take care of omissions and repair the great and little forgetfulnesses and omissions of duty and pass from the infirmities of a man to the affections of a Saint we may all our life time abide in a state of lukewarmness disimprovement and indifference To this purpose 6 Compare day with day week with week Communion with Communion time with time duty with duty and see if you can observe any advantage any ground gotten of a passion any further degree of the spirit of mortificaton any new permanent fires of devotion for by volatile sudden and transient flames we can never guess steadily But be sure never to think you are at all improved unless you observe your defects to be 1. fewer 2. or lighter or 3. at least not to be the same but of another kind and insâ—ance against which you had not made particular provisions formerly but now upon this new observation and experience you must 7. Upon or against a Communion day endeavour to put your soul into that order and state of good things as if that day you were to die and consider that unless you dare die upon that day if God should call you there is but little reason you should dare to receive the Sacrament of life or the ministry of death He that communicates worthily is justified from sins and to him death can have no sting to whom the Sacrament brings life and health and therefore let every one that is to communicate place himself by meditation in the gates of death and suppose himself seated before the Tribunal of Gods Judgment and see whether he can reasonably hope that his sins are pardoned and cured and extinguished And then if you judge righteous judgement you will soon find what pinches most what makes you most afraid what was most criminal or what is least mortified and so you will learn to make provisions accordingly 8. If you find any thing yet amiss or too suspicious or remaining to evill purposes the reliques of the scattered enemy after a war resolve to use some general instrument of piety or repentance that may by being useful in all the parts of your life and conversation meet with every stragling irregularity and by perpetuity and an assiduous force clear the coast 1. Resolve to have the presence of God frequently in your thought 2. Or endeavour and resolve to bring it to pass to have so great a dread and reverence of God that you may be more ashamed and really troubled and confounded to sin in the presence of God than in the sight and observation of the best and severest man 3. Or else resolve to punish thy self with some proportionable affliction of the body or spirit for every irregularity or return of undecency in that instance in which thou sets thy self to mortifie any one special passion or temptation Or 4. Firmly to purpose in every thing which is not well not to stay a minute but to repent instantly of it severely to condemn it and to do something at the first opportunity for amends Or 5. To resolve against an instance of infirmity for some short sure and conquerable periods of time as if you be given to prating resolve to be silent