Thoughts and resolving to shew Kindness both in Word and Deed to all about us nay to all Men as we have ability and opportunity but the Poor especially who ought not to be forgotten at such times which is the Great Thing required of us and becoming us in this part of the Service So that when we come to the Holy Communion where we are called to remember Christ particularly in his Death to seal the New Covenant with God and a League of Friendship with our Brethren we may do well to express our selves joyfully and affectionately thankful for all his Kindness especially that in Dying for us and resign up our selves both Souls and Bodies to his Service and repent of all our Sins making him faithful and unfeigned Promises of amending all our Faults particularly those wherein we are most liable to do amiss and shew our selves in Peace and perfect Charity with all Persons By these things we shall duly answer the Ends of this Feast and in them lies the great Worthiness of our Carriage at it And this our Church has sufficiently intimated to us in her Publick Catechism when in return to that Question What is required of them that come to the Lords Supper It gives this Answer To repent them truly of all their Sins stedfastly purposing to lead a new Life to have a lively Faith in Gods Mercy thro' Christ which as we have seen is thorowly exercised from the beginning to the end of this Holy Sacrament to have a thankful Remembrance of his Death and be in Charity with all Men. When we come therefore to the Holy Sacrament whilst the Minister himself is Communicating or whilst others are Receiving we may lay out our selves on these things and spend the time in the Exercise of these Duties acting them in Devout Prayers and Holy Meditations in our own Hearts Or if we are not able of our selves but need the Help of others to suggest Thoughts and to go along with us in this Service let us joyn heartily in the Churches Prayers which it has appointed for this purpose For in them we have an Exercise of all these Virtues and they have excellently provided for our Needs in this Case so that we may duly express these Tempers if we are careful to joyn fervently with the Minister in all the Parts of the Communion-Service And because it may be of use to some to see how all these Duties are exercised in it that so being aware of it they may particularly design them when they come to it I will shew it of them all particularly 1. It leads us on to an affectionate Thankfulness and joyful Praise the first great Qualification in a strain which truly to me is most transporting For thus it helps us to give Thanks before Receiving It is very meet right and our bounden Duty that we should at all Times and in all Places give Thanks unto thee O Lord Holy Father Almighty Everlasting God Therefore with Angels and Archangels and all the Company of Heaven we laud and magnifie thy Glorious Name evermore praising thee and saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts Heaven and Earth are full of thy Glory Glory be to thee O Lord most High And thus again after it Glory be to God on High and in Earth Peace and Good Will towards Men. We praise thee we bless thee we worship thee we glorifie thee we give Thanks to thee for thy great Glory O Lord God Heavenly King God the Father Almighty O Lord the onely Begotten Son Jesu Christ O Lord God Lamb of God Son of the Father that takest away the Sins of the World have Mercy upon us Thou that takest away the Sins of the World have mercy upon us Thou that takest away the Sins of the World receive our Prayers Thou that sittest at the Right Hand of God the Father have mercy upon us For thou only art Holy thou only art the Lord thou only O Christ with the Holy Ghost art most high in the Glory of God the Father All which are words expressing joyful Praise and affectionate Thankfullness so meltingly that better I think have not yet been thought of 2. It leads us also to resign up our selves both Souls and Bodies to his Service in the Prayer immediately after receiving in these words And here we offer and present unto thee O Lord our selves our Souls and Bodies to be a reasonable holy and lively Sacrifice unto thee humbly beseeching thee that all we who are partakers of this Holy Communion may be fullfill'd with thy Grace and Heavenly Benediction 3. It leads us in professing an humble and hearty Repentance of all our sins and making God our Faithful Promises of new Obedience in the invitation to Communicate and the Confession of Sin before receiving in these words Ye that do truly and earnestly Repent you of your Sins and intend to lead a new Life following the Commandments of God and walking from henceforth in his Holy Ways draw near with Faith and take this Holy Sacrament to your Comfort and make your humble Confession to Almighty God meekly kneeling upon your Knees Almighty God Father of our Lord Jesus Christ c. We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness which we from time to time most grievously have committed by Thought Word and Deed against thy Divine Majesty c. We do earnestly Repent and are heartily sorry for these our mis-doings c. And to prepare us for this profession of Repentance in this place of the Service I think it very adviseable to take what time there is whilst the Bread and Wine are in preparing before the beginning of the Office to recollect our particular Sins which we are most liable to incur and at every one of them to make God promises and six Resolutions of amending them in our own minds after which we may the better say in General we Repent of them and will no more Commit them and thereupon beg Pardon for them and receive Absolution as it is in this part of the Service 4. And lastly it leads us to act Peace and Charity to all men when in the Exhortation before receiving it tells us we must be in perfect Charity with all Men and in the invitation calls such as are in Love and Charity with all their Neighbours at which words our hearts may strike in with it and earnestly profess they at present are and are fully resolv'd at all times after so to be Thus doth the Church it self in our Publick Service go before us and lead us on in these great Duties of joyful Praise and Thankfulness of Resignation of our selves of Repentance and Faithful purposes and promises of Obedience and of Charity to all Persons which are to render us welcome Guests and worthy Communicants Nay it doth not only call us to and bear us Company in these chief Duties wherein above all consists a Receivers worthiness but also in most others mentioned above so that scarce any
then do not despise me for thine own Mercies and thy Sons sake in whose Holy Name and Words I further pray as he hath taught me Our Father which art in Heaven c. A Prayer and Thanksgiving After the SACRAMENT I Thank thee most intirely O! my God for calling me this day to thy own Table to shew me how thine only Son freely dyed in my stead and to assure me that now for his sake thou art fully Reconciled and wilt live in me by thy Grace now at present and raise me up to be Eternally happy with thy Self at last of all which thou hast given me the surest Pledges in his precious Body and Blood What can I render to thee Holy Father or to thee my dearest Saviour for so incomprehensible a Benefit I admire thy marvellous Love and magnify it above all things Thy Praise shall ever be in my Mouth and I will tell out thy wondrous works with Gladness And may all Hearts adore and every Tongue confess that thou Holy Jesus art the Saviour of the World and the Son of the Father whom Heaven and Earth must Honour and call Blessed for evermore Pardon O! Good God the unaffectedness of my dull Heart in the receipt of so inestimable a Treasure and fill me with Desires some way suitable to my needs and the richness of thy Mercies that whenever this Cup of Blessings shall again over-flow my Heart may run over with Joy and Thankfulness also Let me never forget the Love I have received and the Peace I have Seal'd and the Promises of New Life I have made this Day but as thy Grace has help'd me to them so keep me in a lively sense of them and inable me always to fulfill the same to my Lives end Now thou hast given me the Blood of Expiation to shew we are Friends O! never let me be guilty of any thing to break the Peace which is now so solemnly ratified betwixt us Now I have vow'd Obedience to thy Laws to be Humble Chast Temperate Just Charitable Patient Devout and entirely resign'd to thy Will and Pleasure O! let me not start back again from these Holy Promises for ever Now I have received my Blessed Lord never suffer me to do any thing unworthy of him now I am Partaker of his Body and Blood let his Holy Spirit go along with them and then I shall be what I ought when I am in his keeping My sins which I have renounced will return again except he chase them away and my false Heart which now seems fixt for God will revolt unless he establish it O! Sweetest Saviour let thy Body be my Food thy Strength my Guard thy Spirit my Life and the sense of thy Favour my greatest Joy and Comfort Go on Graciously to accomplish what thou hast now begun in me and let me ever be secure and happy in thy Custody Be it even so for thine own sake Blessed Jesu And then where there is time for it or afterwards where theâ—â— is not may they go on and say Give thy Grace O Holy Jesu to all the World and let all who were Redeemed by thy Blood acknowledge thee to be the Lord and become thy Worshippers and Faithful Servants Make all Christians Conscientious Practisers of that Holiness which they profess and above all inspire them with uniting Principles and charitable Hearts that by their loving one another as thou hast loved us all the World may know they are thy Disciples Let all Governours Rule with Wisdom and Justice and Subjects obey with Love and Chearfulness Let the Priests of the Lord be Exemplary in their Lives and Discreet and Diligent in their Labourâ— having a most compassionate Love for Souls and let the People be Humble and Towardly most desirous to hearken and fully bent to follow wise Instructions Be a help at hand to all that need and are afflicted Send supplies to all that are in want and assist them contentedly to depend upon thee Raise Friends to the Widow and Fatherless the Prisoners and Captives and all that groan under Oppressors who are thrown upon thy Mercy Give Repentance Patience and Resignation to all that are sick and Ease when thou seest it convenient for them Be a Comforter to all troubled Consciences helping them to an acceptable Holiness and enlightning their minds about all causeless Scruples that they may not fear where no Fear is Succour all that are tempted with such a measure of thy Grace as may inable them to stand in all their Tryals Think particularly on all my Friends who are especially indeared to me by their Kindnesses or Acquaintance on all my Relations in the Flesh on all that Pray particularly for me or desire my Prayers Teach us all to desire what thou approvest and then grant us whatsoever as desired Prevent us in all our Actions and Guard us against all Dangers and Relieve us in all Straights and grant that we may always make thee our Stay and Confidence and take all things well which thou orderest for us Shorten all our Sorrows and prevent all our Sins and fit us all for that Eternal Kingdom which thou hast prepared for us for Jesus's sake in whose Holy Name and Words I further pray unto thee Our Father c. Being sensible how plain minds who are ready to do it so far as they are inabled are oft-times at a Loss for their Daily Devotions and not knowing but this Treatise may fall into some such Hands I have added two Prayers which such Persons may say Morning and Evening in their Families A Morning Prayer FOR A FAMILY O God who art the Giver of all good Gifts and the Father of Mercies We thine unworthy Servants intirely desire to praise thy Name for all the Expressions of thy Bounty towards us Blessed be thy Love that gave thy Son to die for our Sins to put us in a way of being happy if we would obey thee and after all our wilful Refusals of thy Grace still hast patience with us and hast added this one Day more to all we have mis-spent already to see if we will finish the Work thou hast set us to do and fit our selves for Eternal Glory Pardon Good Lord all our former Sins and all our Abuses of thy Forbearance for which now we are sorry at our Hearts and give us Grace to lead more holy Lives and be more careful in improving all future Opportunities Make thy self present to our Minds and let thy Love and Fear rule in our Souls in all those Places and Companies where our Occasions shall lead us this Day Keep us Chaste in all our Thoughts Temperate in all our Enjoyments Humble in all our Opinions of our selves Charitable in all our Speeches of others Meek and Peaceable under all Provocations Sincere and Faithful in all our Professions and so Just and Vpright in all our Dealings that no Necessity may force nor Opportunity in any kind allure us to defraud or go beyond our Neighbours
doing Services and most prodigiousâ—y free in Bounty and Kindness giving his own Hearts Blood to purchase Heaven and Eternal Life for us for all which Height of Excellencies and Plenitude of Power and Depth of Love he is most profoundly Reverenced and dearly Prized and highly Exalted by Glorified Saints and the pure and immortal Angels All these adorable Excellencies are in their utmost Perfection in our Lord and Master Christ Jesus and their Merit calls for all the Honour and Reverence which he can possibly receive from us And this accordingly God has expresly required of us He hath committed all Judgment to the Son that all should honour the Son even as they honour the Father Joh. 5.22 23 and highly exalting him hath given him a Name above every Name that at the Name of Jesus every Knee should bow of things in Heaven and of things in Earth Phil. 2.9 10. He incomparably deserves our utmost Worship and Reverence and has a most absolute Claim to them so that we must needs treat him with the most submissive and respectful Carriage and should deal most unworthily by him and do what utterly misbecomes us if we should do otherwise Thus must we Remember our Lord and Master Jesus Christ with Honour and Veneration if we would do it in such sort as is worthy of him Nay we must not onely Honour and Reverence him our selves but if we would deal worthily by him seek to make him Honourable and promote his Honour among others We must be ready always to plead his Cause and to vindicate his Precepts and to side with his Servants and express a just Distaste against those who transgress his Commands themselves and much more against those who set up for the Party of Disobedience and seek to draw in others who prophane his Ordinances or lightly and irreverently use his Name or any ways vilifie any Person or Thing which he ought to be Glorified and Honoured in And this we shall be sure to do if we have any high Esteem and Zeal of Love and affectionate Concern for him For when these are strong in them every Servant will perform this Office to his Master and every Man to his Friend they will not sit still and tamely hear his Name abused or see his Commands sleighted his Interest opposed his Children or Dependents injured his Appointments disparaged or his Person any way traduced or disgraced without expressing a Discreet and well-tempered Zeal in his Cause and concerning themselves in a sober and just Vindication This I say they ordinarily will do as I am sure they always ought to do when they have an high Esteem for any Man And if thro' lowness of Spirit or Cowardise of Temper they draw back from the Trouble or Hazard they are like to run in his Vindication they are very much wanting to their Friend or Lord and deal unworthily by him So that if we would deal worthily by our Friend and Master Jesus Christ we must neither dishonour him our selves nor if we can help it at least not without expressing our dislike of it suffer it to be done by others And therefore to make this Sacramental Remembrance worthy of him it must not onely be in shewing Honour and Reverence to him our selves but in a readiness to maintain his Honour and promote his Interest among others also 2 ly We must Remember Christ our Lord and Master with mindfulness of his Commands and Resolutions of Obedience This is another Temper which Lordship and Authority over us callâ— for For the most proper Duty of Subjects towards their Sovereigns and of Servants towards their Masters is Obedience or a Carefulness to perform whatsoever they injoyn and require of them Put them in mind says the Apostle to be subject to Principalities and Powers and to obey Magistrates Tit. 3.1 And Servants obey your Masters in all things not with eye-service but in singleness of heart fearing God Col. 3.22 And Why call ye me Lord Lord says our Saviour and do not the things which I say Luc. 6.46 Thus is Obedience the great Duty which we owe to all Masters and Governours that have Authority over us We must neither forget the Commands they have left with us nor knowingly transgress them but carefully call them into our Minds and conscientiously practise them when we do And this we are then especially bound to if they are not onely our Masters but our Dearest Friends and Noblest Benefactors also For these are Names that add new Bonds and higher Obligations which will have a great force so long as there is any thing of Ingenuity left in us And therefore since our Blessed Master Jesus is not onely our Rightful Lord and Governour but withal our most surpassing kind Friend and Benefactor we ought in all Duty and Gratitude to be mindful of what he desires and to do any thing that he would have us and we deal most undutifully and unworthily by him if we do otherwise So that this also is another Instance of the Worthiness of this Remembrance to be mindful of the Laws which he has given us and to think of them with a Readiness and firm Resolution to obey These are the things then which must render our Remembrance worthy of him under this Relation When we Eat and Drink in Commemoration of Christ our Lord and King we must Honour and Reverence him our selves and be concerned to maintain his Honour and promote his Interests among others and be mindful of the Commands he has left with us and ready and resolved to obey them 2 ly In Eating Bread and Drinking Wine at the Lords Supper we are to remember Christ as our most kind Friend and Benefactor and to do this worthily we must remember him with Love of him and Delight in him and grateful Resentments and hearty Thanks for all the Kindnesses which we have received from him 1 st We must remember him our most kind Friend and Benefactor with Love and an hearty Affection for him This is due to him as he is our Gracious Lord and indeed in every Relation that he stands in since in all he is most wonderfully winning and obliging For even there he seeks our own Good in every thing he commands us and treats us with much gentleness and encourages every thing that is well in us and pities our unavoidable Infirmities and bears our many and high Provocations with invincible Patience and sends Messengers of Peace to entreat and sue for a Reconciliation with us upon any Difference tho 't is not his Interest but ours and tho' not he but we are the Offenders and when he is forced to punish doth it always with the greatest reluctance but when he can take an occasion to reward doth that with the greatest Joy and Chearfulness all which are strangely ingaging and must needs constrain all ingenuous Tempers to be heartily in Love with him But our Love is due to him more especially as he is our most kind Friend
Eating and Drinking not being to satisfie Hunger but for Sacred Ends 't is fit we come to it with a suitable and a Sacred Carriage and in that consists the Worthiness of the Usage Were it onely a Feast on Common Food we should behave our selves worthily at it by thanking God for it and being Temperate But being a Feast wherein Religion is concerned and whereat we are to remember the Death of our Lord and to Seal the New Covenant with God and a League of Love with all the Christian World to the doing this worthily and as 't is fit we should there is more required For we deal very unworthily in remembring the Death of our Lord if we are not thankful for it and in ratifying the New Covenant with God if we are not sincere in it and in promising Love to all the Christian World if we are in enmity and hatred These Religious Ends must be answered with a Religious Temper and a Devout Carriage and then they are treated as they ought and as their Worth requires This is signified by several Copies which in 1 Cor. 11.27 read not barely Whosoever shall eat this Bread and drink this Cup OF THE LORD VNWORTHILY but whosoever shall eat this Bread and drink this Cup of the Lord VNWORTHILY OF THE LORD i. e. in a way unworthy of him which clearly shews the Unworthiness to consist in the want of those Tempers wherewith 't is sit our Blessed Lord who is commemorated in it should be treated And this the Apostle plainly intimates when he places the unworthiness of Eating in not Discerning or rather Discriminating the Lords Body and putting a difference between it and Common Food by a different Carriage and Behaviour at it He that eats and drinks unworthily says he eats and drinks Damnation to himself for such unworthy usage which lies in his not discerning or rather not discriminating the Lords Body 1 Cor. 11.29 Thus doth a worthy Eating of the Sacrament consist in answering its Sacred Ends with Sacred and suitable Carriage and Dispositions And therefore that we may see what Behaviour is worthy of it 't is fit we run over those several Ends and inquire what Tempers every one of them requires of us Those Ends are Three 1 st To Remember Christ our Blessed Lord and Saviour and particularly his Dying for us which call for Love Joy Gratitude Obedient Resolutions and such like Tempers 2 ly To Confirm the New Covenant with Almighty God which is not worthily done by us unless we come to it in Sincerity and Faithfulness and with full Purpose and Performance of that Repentance and Obedience which we profess and promise 3 ly To Confirm a League of Love and Friendship with all our Brethren and Fellow-Christians which requires that we lay aside all Envy Hatred and Malicious Thoughts and come to it in Peace and Forgiveness of all that have any ways offended us If we Believe all these things which Christ our Great Prophet has revealed to us and our Faith shews it self in these Tempers and carries us on to these Performances we are Worthy Communicants and have that Faith which will render us welcom Guests at the Lords Table and acceptable to him at all other times 1 st One End of our Eating Bread and Drinking Wine at the Lords Supper is to remember Christ not onely as our Prophet and Teacher which I do not make a Distinct Head now because the Belief required to that is exercised thro' the whole Action and falls in at all the other but as our Blessed Lord Saviour and Benefactor and above all his Benefits particularly to remember his Dying for us and this to do it worthily calls for Love Joy Gratitude Resolutions of Obedience and other such like Tempers The Remembrance of any thing absent and long since past brings it back into our Minds and gives a sort of Presence to it And therefore when things are brought to our Remembrance they should work upon us and affect us as if they were before us When we remember our Saviour Christ then we must bear the same Mind towards him as we should if we saw him and were conversing with him and that will consist in these Things that follow We must Honour him and resolve to Obey him as he is our Lord and Master and Love him and Delight in him and give Thanks to him as he is our Friend and Benefactor and be humbled under the sense of our own Vnworthiness and abhor our own Sins as they brought him to bleed and die for us and resign up our selves both Souls and Bodies to his Vse as we are bought with his Blood and are thereby become his own Purchase 1 st In Eating and Drinking in the Lords Supper we are to remember Christ as our Lord and Master and to do that worthily we must remember him with Honour and Reverence and with mindfulness of his Commands and Resolutions of Obedience which are Duties we owe and should pay to him were he present with us 1 st We ought to remember him our Lord and Master with Honour and Reverence These Tempers Lordship and Authority always call for whensoever they are lodged in any Persons A Son honoureth his Father saith God and a Servant his Master if then I be a Father where is mine Honour and if I be a Master where is my Fear Mal. 1.6 Honour the King says St. Peter and Servants be subject to your Masters with all fear 1 Pet. 2.17 18. And Render to all their Dues says St. Paul as Fear or Reverence to whom Fear Honour to whom Honour is due Rom. 13.7 But when this Authority is in the most absolute and full Degrees and is joyned with the highest Excellencies and tempered with the most Endearments and guided by the most surpassing Goodness as it is in Christ Jesus it calls for them most especially For he is every way wonderfully accomplished and has all those Endowments in their greatest Perfection which of right can challenge or are fit to excite them For he is boundless in knowledge he understands all things and infinitely wise in Counsel able to suit Means to every End and bring about every Purpose and surpassing in Might so that he may do what he pleases and holy in all his ways and faithful in all his Promises and just and equitable in all his Dealings and Glorious in his Divine Essence being the very Brightness of his Fathers Glory and the express Image of his Person and Supereminent in Power having all Authority in Heaven Earth put into his hands and yet in the midst of all these Excellencies and the height of all this Greatness which are apt to puff us up with Pride and Contempt of others he is unspeakable in Love and wonderful in Condescensions vouchsafing to leave Heaven where he was Equal to God and be made in fashion of a mean Man for our sakes and unwearied in
their too awful Sense and Veneration of it and placing it at too great a distance from other parts of Worship They think no Virtues are worthy of it but what are expressed in Ecstasie and Transport and that when it requires the same Duties with other parts of Gods Service it requires them in much greater Perfection and far higher Measures So that they imagine they may be worthy to Pray and Praise God though they are unworthy to Communicate and therefore they joyn in them ordinarily as there is occasion for them when through the excess of Reverence they scarce ever joyn in this at all But this is a great Mistake which though it be well meant has a very ill effect and affrights good Souls from Performing this Duty and Service and paying this Honour to their Saviour when they have no cause to be afraid of it For although it be commendable and desirable when it can be had yet is it not absolutely necessary that so it should be It is very Commendable I say and much to be Desired that we should exercise these Tempers in a higher Degree in this Holy Sacrament than in other Parts of Worship It will be very well if our Prayers are more fervent and our Praises more affectionate and all the Virtues we have place to exercise more full and flagrant then than at other times For there we have Christs Death represented with the hainousness of our sins which câ—used it and the inâ—stimable Benefits that come by it and we meâ—t on purpose to fâ—x our Thoughts and Contemplations on it And that is the Consideration which gives greatest Force and adds most Strength to all our Duties so that when we have most of it as we must have when we come for that very intent it very well becomes us for the Honour of it to excell in them And upon this account it will be very Commendable and much to be Desired that we should be more vigorous in all our Virtues at this than at any other Ordinance But although this be Commendable and much to be Desired in us yet is it not necessary or indispensably required of us but that we may Communicate worthily when 't is otherwise For if we have these Tempers in such a Degree as is necessary to our Eternal Happiness we have so much of them as will render us worthy and welcome Guests at this as well as at every other Ordinance And this is plain from hence because when we have them in a saving Degree which would procure our acceptance in other parts of Gods Service they sit us for the Communion of Christ and Glorified Saints in Heaven and so cannot leave us unworthy to Communicate with him and them here on Earth If we savingly repent us of all our Sins and are savingly thankful for all Christs Mercies and are savingly in Charity with all our Neighbours and have a saving Faith in Christs Promises whether these Vertues be the pitch of the Strong or only of the Weak in Faith we are accepted with him since he accepts both And when once he accepts us we may approach to him in any Place when he allows of the measure of our Graces we may be welcome to shew them forth and offer a Sacrifice of a sweet smell when we send them up to him in any or in all the Parts of his Worship and Service Let a man come then to the Communion though it be without any thing of extraordinary and unwonted Transports and only in that ordinary exercise of these Virtues which gains him acceptance in Prayer or Praise or other Religious Actions and then let him not doubt but that although more were better yet is this good and will render him a worthy Partaker of the Lords Supper And this we have great cause to believe the Ancient Christians thought because they made it not an extraordinary and separate thing as we do now but an ordinary and constant part of the Christian Worship It went usually along with the other Parts of the Service and they that came to Prayers came also to the Sacrament the same Preparation and the same Persons being admitted to it Thus in the Apostles times they met to Communicate as they met to pray every Day and breaking Bread was no less constant a part than Prayer and Praise of their Communion and Fellowship All the Disciples at Jerusalem says St. Luke continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of Bread and in Prayers Act. 2.42 And again They continuing dayly with one accord in the Temple and breaking Bread from house to house did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of Heart praising God v. 46 47. And afterwards when their Members increased and Stated Days were appointed for the publick Service of God on the first day of the Week when they met for other Worship the Communion always went along with it Thus 't is plain it was in the Apostles Days for then the Sunday Worship was expressed by breaking Bread which shews it was an ordinary and constant part of it On the first day of the Week says St. Luke when the Disciples came together to break Bread Act. 20.7 And thus also it continued for a good while afterwards as is evident from the Ninth of the Apostolical Canons And to shew how fit they esteem'd all the Faithful whether Weak or Strong in Faith who were worthy to joyn in other parts of Worship to joyn also in this that Apostolical Canon requires all the Faithful who come to the other Service to stay the Communion and joyn in that also All the Faithful that come to Church and hear the Scriptures but stay not to joyn in the Holy Communion and the Prayers for that Service ought to be separated and shut out from the Lords Table as they that bring Confusion into the Church And the like is also injoin'd in the Council of Antioch All that come to Church say they hear the Scriptures but do not Communicate in the Peoples Prayers but turn away disorderly from the Eucharist shall be Excommunicated and expell'd the Church and not received again till they confess their Fault and shew Repentance for it And thus we see however Commendable it may be that People come to this Holy Sacrament with more Intense Acts and higher Preparation than would serve to any other parts of Worship yet is it not necessary they should do it They may be welcome and worthy Partakers in this Ordinance who are worthy to partake in others so that they are fit for it who are fit for any other Religious Service The same Virtues and the same Degrees suffice to it For they fit them to Communicate with Christ and Glorified Saints in Heaven and so must needs fit them to Communicate with him and them here on Earth They fitted Christians for it in the Apostles times when the Eucharist was no extraordinary and separate but an ordinary constant part of the