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
made one with Christ then it shall be to us in our proportion as it was to him we shall rise again and we shall enter into glory But it is certain we are united to Christ by it we eat his body and drink his blood Sacramentally by our mouths and therefore really and spiritually by our spirits and by spiritual actions cooperating For what good will it do us to partake of his body if we do not also partake of his spirit but certain it is if we do one we do both cum naturalis per sacramentum proprietas perfectae sacramentum sit unitatis as St. Hilaries expression is the natural propriety viz the outward elements by the Sacrament that is by the institution and blessing of God become the Sacrament of a perfect unity which beside all the premisses is distinctly affirmed in the words of the Apostle we which are sanctified and he which sanctifies are all of one and again the bread which we break is it not the communication of the body of Christ and the cup which we drink is it not the communication of the blood of Christ plainly saying that by this holy ministery we are joyned and partake of Christs body and blood and then we become spiritually one body and therefore shall receive in our bodies all the effects of that spiritual union the chief of which in relation to our bodies is resurrection from the grave And this is expresly taught by the Ancient Church So St. Irenaeus teaches us As the bread which grows from the earth receiving the calling of God that is blessed by prayer and the word of God is not now common bread but the Eucharist consisting of two things an earthly and an heavenly so also our bodies receiving the Eucharist are not now corruptible but have the hope of resurrection And again when the mingled calice and the made bread receives the word of God viz. is consecrated and blessed it is made the Eucharist of the body and blood of Christ out of those things by which our body is nourished and our substance does consist and how shall any one deny that the flesh is capable of the gift of God which is eternal life which is nourished by the body and blood of Christ And St. Ignatius calls the blessed Eucharist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the medicine of immortallity for the drink is his blood who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 incorruptible love and eternal life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the Fathers of the Nicene Councel the symbols of our resurrection the meat nourishing to immortallity and eternal life so Cyril of Alexandria for this is to drink the blood of Jesus to be partakers of the Lords incorruptibility said St. Clement For bread is food and blood is life but we drink the blood of Christ himself commanding us that together with him we may by him be partakers of eternal life So St. Cyprian aut quicunque sit author Sermon de coenâ Domini 6. Because this is a ministry of grace by bodily ceremonies and conveys spiritual blessings by temporal ministrations there is something also of temporal regard directly provided for our bodies by the holy Sacrament It sometimes is a means in the hand of God for the restoring and preserving respectively of our bodily health and secular advantages I will not insist upon that of St. Gorgonia who being oppressed with a violent head-ach threw her self down before the holy Table where the Sacrament was placed and prayed with passion and pertinacy till she obtained relief and ease in that very place Nor that of St. Ambrose who having trod upon a Gentlemans foot afflicted with the gout in the time of ministration gave him the holy smbols and told him it was good for his sicknesse also and that he presently found his cure I my self knew a person of great sanctity who was afflicted to deaths door with a vomiting and preparing her self to death by her viaticum the holy Sacrament to which she always bore a great reverence she was infinitely desirous and yet equally fearful to receive it lest she should reject that by her infirmity which in her spirit she passionately longed for but her desire was the greater passion and prevailed she received it and swallowed it and after great and earnest reluctancy being forced to cast it up in zeal and with a new passion took it in again and then retained it and from that instant speedily recovered against the hope of her Physician and the expectation of all her friends God does miracles every day and he who with spittle and clay cured the blind mans eyes may well be supposed to glorifie himself by the extraordinary contingences and Sacramental contacts of his own body But that which is most famous and remarked is that the Austrian Family do attribute the rise of their House to the present Grandeur to Wâ—lliam Earl of Hasburgh and do acknowledg it to be a reward of his piety in the venerable treatment and usage of these Divine mysteries It were easier to heap together many rare contingences and miraculous effects of the holy Sacrament than to find faith to believe them now-adayes and therefore for this whole affair I relie upon the words of Saint Paul affirming that God sent sicknesses and sundry kinds of death to punish the Corinthian irreverent treatment of the Blessed Sacrament and therefore it is not to be deemed but that life and health will be the consequent of our holy usages of it for if by our fault it is a savour of death it is certain by the blessing and intention of God it is a favour of life But of these things in particular we have no promise and therefore such events as these cannot upon this account of faith and certain expectations be designed by us in our communions If God please to send any of them as sometimes he hath done it is to promote his own glory and our value of the Blessed Sacrament the great ministry of salvation 7. The sum of all I represent in these few words of St. Hilary These holy mysteries being taken cause that Christ shall be in us and we in Christ and if this be more than words we need no further inquiry into the particulars of blessing consequent to a worthy communion for if God hath given his Son unto us how shall not he with him give us all things else nay all things that we need are effected by this said St. Clement of Alexandria one of the most antient Fathers of the Church of Christ Eucharistia qui per fidem sunt participes sanctifiâ—antur corpore animâ They who by faith are partakers of the Eucharist are sanctified both in body and in soul. Fonte renascentes membris sanguine Christi Vescimur atque ideo templum Deitatis habemur Sedul How great therefore and how illustrious benefits it is the meditation of St. Eusebius Emissenus does the power of the Divine blessing
a capacity of doing this action For it is not Lent nor the Epiphany which makes us worthy to approach to the Son of God But the sincerity and purity of the soul with this come at any time but without this never In fine it is the general doctrine of the holy Fathers and the publick practice of the Primitive Church that no impenitent person should come to these divine Mysteries and they that are truly penitent should practice deep humility and undergo many humiliatioÌ„ns and live in a state of repentance till by little and little they have recover'd the holinesse they had lost and must for a long time live upon the word of God before they approach to the holy Table to be nourished by his body For so should every prodigal child cry unto his Lord Drive me not O Lord out of thy doors lest the enemy espying a wanderer and a vagabond take me for a slave I do not yet desire to approach to thy holy Table thy mystical and terrible Table for I have not confidence with my impure eyes to behold the holy of holies Only suffer me to enter into thy Church amongst the Catechumens that by beholding what is there celebrated I may by little and little enter again into the participation of them to the end that the Divine Waters of thy Word running upon me may purifie my ears from the impressions which have been made upon them by ungodly songs and from the filthinesse they have left behind and seeing how the righteous people partake by a holy violence of thy precious jewels I may conceive a burning desire to have hands worthy to receive the same excellencies I end this collection of the ancient Doctrine of the Church with recitation of the words of Gennadius I perswade and exhort Christians to receive the Communion every Lords day but so that if their mind be free from all affection of sinning For he who still hath will or desires of sin he is burdened and not purified by receiving the Eucharist And therefore although he be bitten or griev'd with sin let him for the future renounce all will to sin and before he communicate let him satisfie with prayers and tears and being confident of the mercy of our Lord who uses to pardon sins upon a pious confession let him come to the Eucharist without doubting But this I say of him who is not pressed with capital and deadly sins for such a person if he will not receive the Eucharist to judgment and condemnation let him make amends by publick penance and being reconcil'd by the Bishop or Priest let him communicate I doubt not also but such grievous sins may be extinguish'd by private satisfactions but this must be done by changing the course of his life by a professed study of Religion by a daily and perpetual mourning or contrition that through the mercy of God he may do things contrary to these whereof he does repent and then humbly and suppliant let him every Lords day communicate to the end of his life This advice of Gennadius declares the sentiment of the Church that none must communicate till they have worthily repented and in the way of piety and contrition made amends for their faults as well as they may and have put themselves into a state of vertue contrary to their state of sin that is have made progression in the reformation of their lives that they are really changed and become new men not in purpose only but actually and in the commencement of holy habits And therefore it is remarkable that he advises that these persons who do not stand in the place of publick penitents should upon the commission of grievous faults enter into Religion he means into solitude and retirement and renunciation of the world that by attending wholy to the severities and purities of a religious life they may by such strictnesses and constant piety be fitted for the communion Now whatever ends besides this the Divine Providence might have yet it is not to be neglected that when the ancient discipline of the Church of penances and satisfactions was gone into desuetude the Spirit of Religion entred more fully into the world and many religious orders and houses were instituted that at least there the world might practise that severity in private which the change of affairs in the face of the Church had taken from the publick ministeries Penance went from the Churches into desarts and into Monasteries but when these were corrupted and the manners of men were worse corrupted it is hard to say whither it is gone now It may be yet done in private and under the hand of a spiritual guide or by the spirit of penance in the heart of a good man and by the conduct of a wise counsellor but besides that the manners of men are corrupted the doctrines also are made so easie and the Communion given to sects and opinions or indifferently to all that it is very rare to see them who have sinn'd grievously repent worthily who therefore can never be worthy communicants for no impenitents can partake of Christ who as S. Hierom cals him is the prince of penance and the head of them who by repentance come unto salvation But this was his advice to them that commit grievous sins such which lay the conscience wast and whose every single action destroyes our being in the state of grace But as for them whose sins are but those of dayly incursion and of infirmity or imperfection such which a great diligence and a perpetual watchfulness might have prevented but an ordinary care would not these must be protested against they must not joyn with our consent our will must be against them and they must be confess'd and deplor'd and prayed against before we may communicate This is the sense of the Church of God Having established this great general measure of preparation it will not be very difficult to answer that great question often disputed amongst spiritual persons viz. Question I. Whether is it better to communicate seldom or frequently To this I answer That it is without peradventure very much better to receive it every day than every week and better every week then every month Christiani omni die carnes agni comedunt said Origen Christians every day eat of the flesh of the sacrificed lamb And St. Basil expresly affirms that to communicate every day and to partake of the body and blood of Christ is excellent and very profitable Christ himself having manifâ—stly said it he that eats my flesh and drinks my blood hath life eternal For if the Sacrament does no benefit to souls and produces no blessings then a man can institute a Sacrament for he may appoint any thing that shall be good for nothing But if it be an instrument in the hand of God to procure blessings to us and spiritual emolument if it be a means of union with Christ who would not willingly
or to speak nothing but what is pertinent for a day or for a day not to be angry and then sometimes for two daies and so diet your weak soul with little portions of food till it be able to take in and digest a full meal Or 6. Meditate often every day of death or the day of judgment By these and the like instruments it will happen to the remains of sin as it did to the Aegyptians what is left by the Hail the Catterpiller will destroy and what the Catterpiller leaves the Locusts will eat These instruments will eat up the remains of sin as the poor gather up the gleanings after the Carts in harvest 9. But if at any Communion and in the use of these advices you do not perceive any sensible progression in the spirit of mortification or devotion then be sure to be ashamed and to be humbled for thy indisposition and slow progression in the discipline of Christ and if thou beest humbled truly for thy want of improvement it is certain thou hast improved And if you come with fear and trembling it is very probable you will come in the spirit of repentance and devotion These exercises and measures will not seem many long and tedious as the rules of art if we consider that all are not to be used at all times nor by every person but are instruments fitted to several necessities and useful when they can do good and to be used no longer â—or he that uses these or any the like advices by way of solemnity and in periodical returns will still think fit to use them at every Communion as long as he lives but he that uses them as he should that is to effect the work of reformation upon his soul may lay them all aside according to his work is done But if we would every day do something of this if we would every day prepare for the day of death or which is of a like consideration for the day of our Communion if we would every night examine our passed day and set our things in order if we would have a perpetual entercourse and conversation with God or which is better than all examinations in the world if we would actually attend to what we do and consider every action and speak so little that we might consider it we should find that upon the day of our Communion we should have nothing to do but the third particular that is the offices of Prayer and Eucharist and to renew our graces by prayer and exercises of devotion SECT IV. Devotions to be used upon the morning of the Communion 1. O Blessed Lord our gracious Saviour and Redeemer Jesus King of Kings and Lord of Lords thou art fairer than the children of men upon thee the Angels look and behold and wonder what am I O Lord that thou who fillest heaven and earth shouldst descend and desire to dwell with me who am nothing but folly and infirmity misery and sin shame and death 2. I confess O God that when I consider thy greatness and my nothing thy purity and my uncleanness thy glory and my shame I see it to be infinitely unreasonable and presumptuous that I should approach to thy sacred presence and desire to partake of thy Sacraments and to enter into thy grace and to hope for a part of thy glory But when I consider thy mercy and thy wisdome thy bounty and thy goodness thy readiness to forgive and thy desires to impart thy self unto thy servants then I am lifted up with hope then I come with boldness to the throne of grace Even so O Lord because thou hast commanded it and because thou lovest it should be so 3. It was never heard O Lord from the beginning of the world that thou didst ever despise him that called upon thee or â—orsake any man that abides in thy fear or that any person who trusted in the Lord was ever confounded But if I come to thee I bring an unworthy person to be united unto thee if I come not I shall remain unworthy for ever If I stay away I fear to lose thee If I come I fear to offend thee and that will lose thee more and my self too at last I know O God I know my sins have separated between me and my God but thy love and thy passion thy holiness and thy obedience hath reconciled us and though my sins deter me yet they make it necessary for me to come and though thy greatness amazes me yet it is so full of goodness that it invites me 4. O therefore blessed Saviour who didst for our sakes take upon thee our passions and sensibilities our weaknesses and our sufferings who wert hungry after the temptation of the Devil weary and thirsty in thy discourse with the woman of Samaria who didst weep over Lazarus wert afflicted in the garden whipt in the Consistory nail'd on the Cross pierc'd with a spear wrapp'd in liâ—nen laid in the grave and so art become a 〈◊〉 High Priest and pitiful to our infiâ—â—â—â—ieâ— be pleased to receive a weary sinner 〈◊〉 overburdâ—neâ—â—â—nscience an afflicted polluted soul iâ—to thy câ—re and conduct into thy custody and â—â—re I know that a thousand years of tears and sorrow the purity of Angels the love of Saints and the humiliation of the greatest penitent is not sufficient to make we worthy to dwell with thee to be united to thy infinity to be fed with thy body and refreshed with thy purest bloud to become bone of thy bone and flesh of thy flesh and spirit of thy spirit 5. But what I cannot be of my self let me be made by thee I come to thee wounded and bruised and bleeding for thou art my Physician arise then with healing in thy wings I am thirsty and faint as the Hart longeth after the water brooks so longeth my soul after thee O God thou art the eternal fountain from whence spring the waters of comfort and salvation I am hungry and empty and weak and I come running after thee because thou hast the words of eternal life O send me not away empty for I shall faint and die I cannot live without thee O let vertue go forth from thee and heal all my sickness do thou appear to my soul in these mysteries heal my sores purifie my stains enlighten my darkness turn me from all vain imaginations and illusions of the enemy all perverseness of will all violence and inordination of passions sensual desires and devillish angers lust and malice gluttony and pride the spirit of envy and the spirit of detraction let not sin reign in my members nor the Devil lead my will captive nor the world abuse my understanding and debauch my conversation 6. O Jesus be a Jesus unto me and let this Sacrament be a savour of life and thy holy body the bread of life and thy precious bloud the purifier of my sinful life Grant I may receive these Divine mysteries for the amendment of my
him till the time of restitution of all things and so long as we are present in the body we are absent from the Lord. In the mean time we can taste and see that the Lord is gracious that he is sweet but Christ is so to be tasted as he is to be seen and no otherwise but here we walk by faith and not by sight and here also we live by faith and not by meer or only bread but by that Word which proceedeth out from God that as meat is to the body so is Christ to the soul the food of the soul by which the souls of the just do live He is the bread which came down from heaven the bread which was born at Bethlâ—hem the house of bread was given to us to be the food of our souls for ever The meaning of which mysterious and Sacramental expressions when they are reduced to easie intelligible significations is plainly this By Christ we live and move and have our spiritual being in the life of grace and in the hopes of glory He took our life that we might partake of his he gave his life for us that he might give life to us He is the Author and finisher of our faith the beginning and perfection of our spiritual life Every good thought we think we have it from him every good word we speak we speak it by his spirit for no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost and all our prayers are by the aids and communications of the spirit of Christ who helpeth our infirmities and by unutterable groans and unexpressible representment of most passionate desires maketh intercession for us In fine all the principles and parts all the actions and progressions of our spiritual life are derivations from the Son of God by whom we are born and nourished up to life Eternal 2. Christ being the food of our souls he is pleased to signifie this food to us by such symbols and similitudes as his present state could furnish us withal He had nothing about him but flesh and blood which are like to meat and drink and therefore what he calls himself saying I am the bread of life he afterwards calls his flesh and his blood saying My flesh is meat indeed my blood is drink indeed that is that you may perceive me to be indeed the food of your souls see here is meat and drink for you my flesh and my blood so to represent himself in a way that was neerest to our capacity and in a more intelligible manner not further from a Mystery but neerer to our manner of understanding and yet so involved in figure that it is never to be drawn neerer than a Mystery till it comes to experience and spiritual relish and perception But because we are not in darknesse but within the fringes and circles of a bright cloud let us search as far into it as we are guided by the light of God and where we are forbidden by the thicker part of the cloud step back and worship 3. For we have yet one further degree of charity and manifestation of this Mystery The flesh of Christ is his word the blood of Christ is his spirit and by believing in his word and being assisted and conducted by his spirit we are nourished up to life and so Christ is our food so he becomes life unto our souls Thus St. Clemens of Alexandria and Tertullian affirm the Church in their days to have understood this Mystery saying The word of God is called flesh and blood For so the eternal wisdom of the Father calls to every simple soul that wanteth understanding come eat of the bread and drink of the wine which I have mingled and that we may know what is this bread and wine he adds forsake the foolish and live and go in the way of understanding Our life is wisdom our food is understanding The Rabbins have an observation that when ever mention is made in the Book of the Proverbs of eating and drinking there is meant nothing but wisdom and the Law and when the Doctors using the words of Scripture say Come and eat flesh in which there is much fatness they would be understood to say Come and hear wisdom and learn the fear of God in which there is great nourishment and advantage to your souls Thus Wisdom is called Water and Vnderstanding Bread by the son of Sirach with the bread of understanding shall she feed him and give him the water of wisdom to drink It is by the Prophet Isaiah called water and wine and the desires of righteousness are called hunger and thirst by our blessed Saviour in his Sermon on the Mount And in pursuance of this mysterious truth we find that God in his anger threatens a famine of hearing the words of the Lord when we want Gods word we die with hunger we want that bread on which our souls do feed It was an excellent Commentary which the Jewish Doctors make upon those words of the Prophet with joy shall ye draw waters from the wells of salvation that is from the choicest or wisest of the just men saith Rabbi Jonathan from the chief Ministers of Religion the Heads of the people and the Rulers of the Congregation because they preach the Word of God they open the wells of salvation from the fountains of our Saviour giving drink and refreshment to all the people Thus the Prophet Jeremy expresses his spiritual joy and the sense of this Mystery Thy words were found and I did eat them and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart for I am called by thy Name O Lord God of Hosts the same with that of our Blessed Saviour My words are spirit and they are life they give life and comfort they refresh our souls and feed them up to immortality As the body or flesh of Christ is his Word so the blood of Christ is his Spirit in real effect and signification For as the body without blood is a dead and liveless trunck so is the Word of God without the Spirit a dead and ineffective Letter and this Mystery we are taught in that incomparable Epistle to the Hebrews For by the blood of Christ we are sanctified and yet that which sanctifies us is the spirit of grace and both these are one For so saith the Apostle the blood of Christ was offered up for us for the purification of our consciences from dead works but this offering was made through the eternal spirit and therefore he is equally guilty and does the same impiety he who does dâ—spâ—te to the spirit of Grace and he who accounts the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing for by this spirit and by this blood we are sanctified by this spirit and by the blood of the everlasting Covâ—nant Jesus Christ does perfect us in every good work so that these are the
a holy faith So that it can without difficulty be understood that as in receiving the word and the spirit illuminating us in our first conversion we do truely feed on the flesh and drink the blood of Christ who is the bread that came down from heaven so we do it also and do it much more in baptisme because in this besides all that was before there was superadded a rite of Gods appointment The difference is only this That out of the Sacrament the spirit operates with the word in the ministery of man in Baptisme the spirit operates with the word in the ministery of God For here God is the preacher the Sacrament is Gods sign and by it he ministers life to us by the flesh and blood of his Son that is by the death of Christ into which we are baptized And in the same Divine method the word and the spirit are ministred to us in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper For as in Baptisme so here also there is a word proper to the ministery So often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye declare the Lords death till he come This indeed is a word of comfort Christ died for our sins that is our repentance which was consigned in baptisme shall be to purpose we shall be washed white and clean in the blood of the sacrificed Lamb. This is verbum visibile the same word read to the eye and to the ear Hear the word of God is made our food in a manner so near to our understanding that our tongues and palats feel the Metaphor and the Sacramental signification here faith is in triumph and exaltation but as in all the other ministeries Evangelical we eat Christ by faith here we have faith also by eating Christ Thus eating and drinking is faith it is faith in mystery and faith in ceremony it is faith in act and faith in habit it is exercised and it is advanced and therefore it is certain that here we eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ with much eminency and advantage The sum is this Christs body his flesh and his blood are therefore called our meat and our drink because by his incarnation and manifestation in the flesh he became life unto us So that it is mysterious indeed in the expression but very proper and intelligible in the event to say that we eat his flesh and drink his blood since by these it is that we have and preserve life But because what Christ begun in his incarnation he finished in his body on the crosse and all the whole progression of mysteries in his body was still an operatory of life and spiritual being to us the Sacrament of the Lords Supper being a commemoration and exhibition of this death which was the consummation of our redemption by his body and blood does contain in it a visible word the word in symbol and visibility and special manifestation Consonant to which Docrtine the Fathers by an elegant expression call the blessed Sacrament the extension of the Incarnation So that here are two things highly to be remarked 1. That by whatsoever way Christ is taken out of the Sacrament by the same he is taken in the Sacrament and by some wayes here more than there 2. That the eating and drinking the consecrated symbols is but the body and lesser part of the Sacrament the life and the spirit is believing greatly and doing all the actions of that believing direct and consequent So that there are in this two manducations and Sacramental and the Spiritual That does but declare and exercise this and of the sacramental manducation as it is alone as it is a ceremony as it does only consigne or expresse the internal it is true to affirm that it is only an act of obedience but all the blessings and conjugations of joy which come to a worthy Communicant proceed from that spiritual eating of Christ which as it is done out of the Sacrament very well so in it and with it much better For here being as in baptisme a double significatory of the spirit a word and a sign of his own appointment it is certain he will joyn in this Ministration Here we have bread and drink flesh and blood the word and the spirit Christ in all his effects and most gracious communications This is the general account of the nature and purpose of this great mystery Christians are spiritual men faith is their mouth and wisdom is their food and believing is manducation and Christ is their life and truth is the Air they breath and their bread is the word of God and Gods spirit is their drink and righteousness is their robe and Gods laws are their light and the Apostles are their salt and Christ is to them all in all for we must put on Christ and we must eat Christ and we must drink Christ we must have him within us and we must be in him he is our vine and we are his branches he is a door and by him we must enter he is our shepherd and we his sheep Deus meus omnia he is our God and he is all things to us that is plainly he is our Redeemer and he is our Lord He is our Saviour and our Teacher by his Word and by his Spirit he brings us to God and to felicities eternal and that is the sum of all For greater things than these we can neither receive nor expect But these things are not consequent to the reception of the natural body of Christ which is now in heaven but of his Word and of his Spirit which are therefore indeed his body and his blood because by these we feed on him to life eternal Now these are indeed conveyed to us by the several ministries of the Gospel but especially in the Sacraments where the Word is preached and consigned and the Spirit is the teacher and the feeder and makes the Table full and the Cup to overflow with blessing SECT III. That in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper there are represented and exhibited many great blessings upon the special account of that sacred ministery proved in General IN explicating the Nature of this Divine mystery in general as I have manifested the nature and operations and the whole ministery to be spiritual and that not the natural body and blood of Christ is received by the mouth but the word and the spirit of Christ by faith and a spiritual hand and upon this account have discovered their mistake who think the secret lies in the outside and suppose that we tear the natural flesh of Christ with our mouthes So I have by consequent explicated the secret which others indefinitely and by conjecture and zeal do speak of and know not what to say but resolve to speak things great enough it remains now that I consider for the satisfaction of those that speak things too contemptible of these holy mysteries who say it is nothing but a commemoration of
Christs death an act of obedience a ceremony of memorial but of no spiritual effect and of no proper advantage to the soul of the receiver Against this besides the preceding discourse convincing their fancy of weakness and derogation the consideration of the proper excellencies of this mystery in its own seperate nature will be very useful For now we are to consider how his natural body enters into his oeconomy and dispensation For the understanding of which are to consider that Christ besides his Spiritual body and blood did also give us his natural and we receive that by the means of this For this he gave us but once then when upon the Crosse he was broken for our sins this body could die but once and it could be but at one place at once and Heaven was the place appointed for it and at once all was sufficiently effected by it which was design'd in the Counsel of God â—or by the vertue of that death Christ is become the Author of life unto us and of salvation he is our Lord and our Lawgiver but it he received all power in heaven and earth and by it he reconciled his Father to the world and in vertue of that he intercedes for us in heaven and sends his spirit upon earth and feeds our souls by his word he instructs us to wisdom and admits us to repentance and gives us pardon and by means of his own appointment nourishes us up by holinesse to life eternal This body being carried from us into heaven cannot be touch'd or tasted by us on earth but yet Christ left to us symbols and Sacraments of this natural body not to be or to convey that natural body to us but to do more and better for us to convey all the blessings and graces procured for us by the breaking of that body and the effusion of the blood which blessings being spiritual are therefore called his body spiritually because procured by that body which died for us and are therefore called our food because by them we live a new life in the spirit and Christ is our bread and our life because by him after this manner we are nourished up to life eternal That is plainly thus Therefore we eat Christs spiritual body because he hath given us his natural body to be broken and his natural blood to be shed for the remission of our sins and for the obtaining the grace and acceptability of repentance For by this gift and by this death he hath obtained this favour from God that by faith in him and repentance from dead works by repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ we may be saved To this sense of the Mystery are those excellent words of the Apostle He bare our sins upon his own body on the Tree that he might deliver us from the present evil world and sanctifie and purge us from all pollution of flesh and spirit that he might destroy the works of the devil that he might redeem us from all iniquity that he might purchase to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works and that we being dead unto sin might live unto righteousnesse Totum Christiani nominis pondus fructus mors Christi All that we are or do or have is produced and effected by the death of Christ. Now because our life depends upon his death the ministry of this life must relate â—o the ministry of this death and we have nothing to glory in but the Crosse of Christ the Word preached is nothing but Jesus Christ crucified and the Sacraments are the most eminent way of declaring this word for by Baptism we are buried into his death and by the Lords Supper we are partakers of his death we communicate with the Lord Jesus as he is crucified but now since all belong to this that Word and that Mystery that is highest and neerest in this relation is the principal and chief of all the rest and that the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is so is evident beyond all necessity of inquiry it being instituted in the vespers of the Passion it being the Sacrament of the passion a sensible representation of the breaking Christs body of the effusion of Christs blood it being by Christ himself intituled to the passion and the symbols invested with the names of his broken body and his blood poured forth and the whole ministry being a great declaration of this death of Christ and commanded to be continued until his second coming Certainly by all these it appears that this Sacrament is the great ministry of life and salvation here is the publication of the great word of salvation here is set forth most illustriously the body and blood of Christ the food of our souls much more clearly than in Baptism much more effectually than in simple enunciation or preaching and declaration by words for this preaching is to strangers and infants in Christ to produce faith but this Sacramental enunciation is the declaration and confession of it by men in Christ a glorying in it giving praise for it a declaring it to be done and own'd and accepted and prevailing The consequent of these things is this That if any Mystery Rite or Sacrament be effective of any spiritual blessings then this is much more as having the prerogative and illustrious principality above every thing else in its own kind or of any other-kind in exteriour or interiour Religion I name them both because as in Baptism the water alone does nothing but the inward cooperation with the outward oblation does save us yet to Baptism the Scriptures attribute the effect so it is in this sacred solemnity the external act is indeed nothing but obedience and of it self only declares Christs death in rite and ceremony yet the worthy communicating of it does indeed make us feed upon Christ and unites him to the soul and makes us to become one spirit according to the words of S. Ambrose Ideo in similitudinem quidem accipis sacramentum sed verae naturae gratiam virtutemque consequeris thou recâ—ivâ—st the Sacrament as the similitude of Christs body but thou shalt receive the grace and the virtue of the true nature I shall not enter into so useless a discourse as to inquire whether the Sacraments confer grace by their own excellency and power with which they are endued from above because they who affirm they do require so much duty on our parts as they also do who attribute the effect to our moral disposition but neither one nor the other say true for neither the external act nor the internal grace and morality does effect our pardon and salvation but the spirit of God who blesses the symbols and assists the duty makes them holy and this acceptable Only they that attribute the efficacy to the Ministration of the Sacrament chose to magnifie the immediate work of man rather than the immediate work of God and prefer the external at least in glorious
of the body of Christ for we being many are one body and one bread in baptisme we partake of the death of Christ and in the Lords Supper we do the same in that as Babes in this as men in Christ so that what effects are affirmed of one the same are in greater measure true of the other they are but several rounds of Jacobs ladder reaching up to heaven upon which the Angels ascend and descend and the Lord sits upon the top And because the Sacraments Evangelical be of the like kind of mystery with the Sacraments of old from them we can understand that even signs of secret graces do exhibit as well as signifie for besides that there is a natural analogy between the ablution of the body and the purification of the soul between eating the holy bread and drinking the sacred calice and a participation of the body and blood of Christ it is also in the method of the divine oeconomy to dispense the grace which himself signifies in a ceremony of his own institution thus at the Unction of Kings Priests and of Prophets the sacred power was bestowed and as a Canon is invested in his dignity by the tradition of a book and an Abbat by his staffe a Bishop by a ring they are the words of St. Bernard so are divisions of graces imparted to the diverse Sacraments And therefore although it ought not to be denyed that when in Scripture and the writings of the holy Doctors of the Church the collation of grace is attributed to the sâ—gn it is by a metonymy and a Sacramental manner of speaking yet it is also a synecdoche of the part for the whole because both the Sacrament and the grace are joyned in the lawful and holy use of them by Sacramental union or rather by a confederation of the parts of the holy Covenant Our hearts are purified by faith and so our consciences are also made clean in the cestern of water By faith we are saved and yet he hath savâ—d us by the laver of regeneration and they are both joyned together by St. Paul Christ gave himself for his Church that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word that is plainly by the Sacrament according to the famous Commentary of St. Austin accedat verbum ad elementum tum fit sacramentum when the word and the element are joyned then it is a perfect Sacrament and then it does effect all its purposes and intentions Thus we find that the grace of God is given by the imposition of hands and yet as Austin rightly affirmes God alone can give his holy spirit and the Apostles did not give the holy Ghost to them upon whom they laid their hands but prayed that God would give it and he did so at the imposition of their hands Thus God sanctified Aaron and yet he said to Moses thou shalt sanctifie Aaron that is not that Moses did it instead of God but Moses did it by his ministery and by visible Sacraments and rites of Gods appointment and though we are born of an immortal seed by the word of the living God yet St. Paul said to the Corinthians I have begotten you through the Gosâ—el and thus it is in the greatest as well as in the least he that drinks Christ's blood and eats his body hath life abiding in him it is true of the â—acrament and true of the spiritual manducation and may be indifferently affirmed of either when the other is not excluded for as the Sacrament operates only by the vertue of the spirit of God so the spirit ordinarily works by the instrumentality of the Sacraments And we may as well say that faith is not by hearing as that grace is not by the Sacraments for as without the spirit the word is but a dead letter so with the spirit the Sacrament is the means of life and grace And the meditation of St. Chrysostom is very pious and reasonable If we were wholly incorporeal God would have given us graces unclothed with signs and Sacraments but because our spirits are in earthen vessels God conveyes his graces to us by sensible ministrations The word of God operates as secretly as the Sacraments and the Sacraments as powerfully as the word nay the word is alwayes joyned in the worthy administration of the Sacrament which therefore operates both as word and sign by the ear and by the eyes and by both in the hand of God and the conduct of the spirit effect all that God intends and that a faithful receiver can require and pray for For justification and sanctification are continued acts they are like the issues of a Fountain into its receptacles God is alwayes giving and we are alwayes receiving and the signal effects of Gods holy spirit sometimes give great indications but most commonly come without observation and therefore in these things we must not discourse as in the conduct of oâ—her causes and operations natural for although in natural effects we can argue from the cause to the event yet in spiritual things we are to reckon only from the sign to the event And the signs of grace we are to place in stead of natural causes because a Sacrament in the hand of God is a proclamation of his graces he then gives us notice that the springs of heaven are opened and then is the time to draw living waters from the fountains of salvation When Jonathan shot his arrows beyond the boy he then by a Sacrament sent salvation unto David he bad him be gone and flie from his Fathers wrath and although Jonathan did do his business for him by a continual care and observation yet that symbol brought it unto David for so are we conducted to the joyes of God by the methods and possibilities of men In conclusion the sum is this The Sacraments and symbols if they be considered in their own nature are just such as they seem water and bread and wine they retain the names proper to their own natures but because they are made to be signs of a secret mystery and water is the symbol of purification of the soul from sin and bread and wine of Christs body and blood therefore the symbols and Sacraments receive the names of what themselves do sign they are the body and they are the blood of Christ they are Metonymically such But because yet further they are instruments of grace in the hand of God and by these his holy spirit changes our hearts and translates us into a Divine nature therefore the whole work is attributed to them by a Synecdoche that is they do in their manner the work for which God ordained them and they are placed there for our sakes and speak Gods language in our accent and they appear in the outside we receive the benefit of their ministery and God receives the glory SECT IV. The blessings and Graces of the Holy Sacrament enumerated and proved
our General Preparation to the worthy Reception of the Blessed Sacrament and the participation of the Mysteries IN all the Scriptures of the New Testament there are no words of particular duty relating to the Blessed Sacrament and expressing the manner of our address to the Mysteries but those few words of St. Paul Let a man examine himself and so let him eat The Apostle expresses one duty and intimates another The duty of preparation is expressed but because this is a relative duty and is not for it self but for something beyond he implies the other to be the great duty to which this preparation does but minister 1. A man must examine himself 2. And a man must eat A man must not eat of these Mysteries till he be examined for that were dangerous and may prove fatal but when a man is examined he must eat for else that examinations were to no purpose SECT I. Of Examination of our selves in order to the Holy Communion THere is no duty in Christianity that is partly solemn and partly moral that hath in it more solemnity and more morality than this one duty and in the greatest declension of Religion still men have fear when they come to receive this holy Sacrament They that have no Religion will fear when they come to die and they who have but a little will fear when they come to communicate But although men who believe this to be the greatest secret and sacrednesse of our Religion do more in their addresses to this than to any thing else yet many of them that do come consider that they are only commanded to examine themselves and that according to the ordinary methods is easily done It is nothing but asking our selves a few questions Do I believe Do I repent and am I in charity To these the answers are ready enough I do believe that Christ gave his body and blood for me as for all mankind and that Christ is mystically present in the Sacrament I have been taught so all my life and I have no reason to doubt it 2. I do also repent according to the measures I am taught I am sorry I have sinned I wish I had not done it and I promise to do so no more and this I do constantly before every Communion and before the next comes I have reason enough to renew my vows I was never so good as my word yet but now I will 3. I am also in charity with all the World and against this good time I pray to God to forgive them for I do This is the usual examination of Consciences to which we add a fasting day and on that we may say more prayers than usual and read some good discourses of the Sacrament and then we are dressed like the friends of the Bridegroom and with confidence come to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. But this examination hath it self need to be examined Noah laboured a hundred years together in making the Ark that he and a few more might be saved and can we think in an hour to prepare our souls for the entertainment of him that made all the World This will very hardly be done For although our duty of preparation is contained in this one word of Try or Examine it being after the manner of mysteries mysteriously and secretly described yet there is great reason to believe that there is in it very much duty and therefore we search into the secret of the word and to what purposes it is used in the New-Testament 1. It signifies to try and search to enter into the depths and secrets the varieties and separations and divisibilities of things The word is taken from the tryers of Gold which is tryed by the touch-stone and in great cases is tryed by the fire And in this sense St. Paul might relate to the present condition of the Christians who were often under a fiery tâ—yal For the holy Communion being used by the Primitive Christians according to its intention was indeed a great consolation to the Martyrs and Confessors as appears often in St. Cyprian and this blessing and design was mystically represented to the Church in the circumstance of the institution in being done immediately before the passion they who were to pass through this fiery tryal ought to examine themselves against this solemnity in order to that last tryal and see whether or no they were vessels of sanctification and honour for none else were fit to communicate but they also that were fit to die Christ would give himself to none but to them who are ready to give themselves for him according to that saying of Christ If any man hear my voice and open the door I will come into him and sup with him and he with me To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me c. That is those who are tryed by the experiments of a great love and a great patience that out of love are willing to suffer and with patience do suffer unto the end these are the guests at my heavenly Table for labour and affrightment put a price upon the Martyrs Crown while his vertue grows in danger and like the water-plants ever grow higher than the Floods Now the use that we can make of this sense of the word is that we also are to examine what we are likely to be or what we have been in the day of persecution how we have passed through the fire Did we contract the smel of fire or the pollution of smoak or are we improved by the purification of the discerning flames Did we do our duties then and then learn to do them better or did we then only like glasse bend in all the flexures and mobilities of the flame and then mingle with the ashes incorporating with the interests and foulest pollutions of the world or were we like Gold patient of the hammer and approved by the stone of tryal like Gold in the fire did we untwist our selves from all complications and mixtures with impurer drosse certain it is that by persecution and by mony men are in all capacities and relations best examined how they are in their Religion and their Justice Sometimes God tries his friends as we try one another by the infelicities of our lives when we are unhappy in our affliction if we be not unhappy in our friend too he is a right good one and God will esteem of us so if we can say with David though thou hast smitten us into the place of Dragons yet have we not forgotten thee and my soul is alway in my hand that is I am alwayes in danger and trouble and I bear death about me yet do I not forsake thy Commandments This indeed is Gods way of Examination of us but that 's all one for we must examine our selves here in order to our duty and state of being as God will examine us hereafter in order to what we have been and
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
because the union of Marriage being broken by the adultery that which only remains of obligation is the charities of a Christian to a Christian without the relation of Husband and Wife The first must be kept in the height of Christian dearnesse and communion but if the second can minister to the good of Souls it is an heroick charity to do it but in this there ought to be no snare for theâ—e is no commandment To the answers given to these Cases of Consâ—ience I am to add this caution That although these cases are only the inquiries and concerns of private persons and do not oblige Pâ—inces Parents Judges Lords of Servants in their publick câ—pacity and they may justly punish the offender though the injury be done against themselves yet in these cases the punishment must be no other than as the lancet or the cupping-glasse as fasting or ill-tasting drugs they are painful but are also wholly given as ministeries of health For so sometimes we put crooked sticks into the fire we bow and beat and twist them not to break but to make them strait and useful So we correct the evil inclinations of our children and the intolerable manners of our servants by afflictions of the body and griefs of the mind all is well so long as it is necessary and so long as it is charitable I remember that when Augustus was to give sentence upon a Son that would have killed his Father he did not according to the severity of the Laws command him to be tied in a Sack with a Cock a Serpent and an Ape and thrown into Tiber but only to be banish'd whither his Father pleas'd remembring that although the Son deserv'd the worst yet Fathers lov'd to inflict the least and although in Nature none ought to drink but the hungry and the thirsty yet in Judicatories none ought to punish but they that neither hunger nor thirst because they that do it against their wills exceed not the measures of charity and necessity But both Fathers and Princes Judges and Masters have their limits and measures before they smite and other measures to be observ'd when they do smite O Christian Judge do the office of a pious Father said St. Austin to Count Marcellinus A man should not use a man prodigally but be as sparing of another mans blood as of his own Punâ—sh the sinner pity the man But to conclude these inquiries fully It is very considerable that in many cases even when it is lawful to bring a Criminal to punishment or to go to Law and that it is just so to do yet this whole dispute being a question of charity we are to go by other measures than in the other and when in these cases we do nothing but what is just we must remember that we are Christians and must never expect to go to heaven unless we do also what is charitable Therefore inquire no more into how much is just and lawful in these cases but what is charitable and what is best and what is safest for then the cases of conscience are best determined when our reward also shall greatly be secured For it is in these inquiries of charity in order to the holy Communion as it is in the Communion it self Not every one shall perish that does not receive the holy Communion but yet to receive it is of great advantage to our souls in order to our obtaining the joyes of heaven so is every expression of charity that very action which in some cases may be safely omitted may in all cases where there is not a contradicting duty be done with great advantages For he that thinks to have the reward and the heaven of Christians by the actions of justice and the omissions of charity is like him who worships the Image of the Sun while at the same time he turns his back upon the Sun himself This is so essentially reasonable that even the Heathens knew it and urged it as a duty to be observed in all their sacrifices and solemnities When you pray to God said one of their own Prophets and offer a holy cloud of frankincense come not to the gentle Deity with ungentle hearts and hands for God is of the same cognation or kindred with a good man gentle as a man apt to pity apt to do good just as we ought to be but infinitely more than we are and therefore he is not good cannot partake with him who is essentially and unalterably so Peter Comestor tells of an old opinion and tradition of the Ancients that forty years before the day of Judgment the Bow which God placed in the clouds shall not be seen at all meaning that since the Rain-bow was placed there as a sign of mercy and reconcilement when the Sacrament of mercy and peace shall disappear then God will come to judge the world in fire and an intolerable tempest in which all the uncharitable unforgiving persons shall for ever be confounded Remember alwaies what the Holy Jesus hath done for thee I shall represent it in the words of St. Bernard O blessed Jesus we have heard strange things of thee All the world tells us such things of thee that must needs make us to run after thee They say that thou despisest not the poor nor refusest the returning sinner We are told that thou didst pardon the Thief when he confessed his sin and confessed thee and Mary Magdalen when she wept and didst accept the Syrophoenician when she prayed and wouldst not give sentence of condemnaâ—ion upon the woman taken in adultery even because she looked sadly and was truly ashamed thou didst not reject him that sate at the receipt of Custome nor the humble Publican nor the Disciple that denied thee nor them that persecuted thy Disciples no not them that crucified thee These are thy precious oyntments apt with their sweetness to allure all the world after thee and with their vertue to heal them After thee and thy sweet Odours O blessed Jesu we will run Happy is he that saies so and does so enkindling his charity in the bloud of Christ as St. Ignatius his expression is transcribing his example into our conversation for we can no way please him but by being like him and in the blessings of Christ and the Communion of his body and bloud the uncharitable and revenging man shall never have a portion SECT V. Devotions relative to this grace of Charity to be used by way of exercise and preparation to the Divine Mysteries in any time or part of our life but especially before and at the Communion The Hymn containing acts of love to God and to our Neighbour COme behold the works of the Lord what desolations he hath made in the earth He maketh Wars to cease unto the ends of the earth he breaketh the bow and cutteth the spear in sunder he burneth the chariot in the fire But unto the wicked said God what
he goes on grows weary when he mingles with the world and by every conversation is polluted or allayed when by his very necessary affairs of life he is made secular and interested apt to tend his civil regards and to be remiss in the spiritual by often and long handling of money beginning too much to love it then we are interrupted in our declining piety we are called upon by Religion and by the sacrednesse of this holy duty are made to begin again not to go back but to be re-enkindled Every time we receive the holy Sacrament all our duties are summed up we make new vowes we chastise our negligence we mend our pace we actuate our holy purposes and make them stronger we enter upon Religion as if we had never done any thing before we bring again our first penitential heats and as when we pray and pray long our devotion slackens and our attention becomes trifling and by wandring thoughts we are gone very far from the observation of the offices the good man that ministers calls out to us Let us pray and then the wandring thoughts run home then we are troubled that we have lost so much of our â—rayers as we have not attended to then we begin agâ—in and pray the more passionately by how much we observe our selves to have been more negligent before If God did not particularly call upon us by these religious necessities and stop us by the solemn return of the Sacrament and stir up our fires and remind us of our duty and make actual seasons and opportunities for actual and great attendencies on religion if God did not make some daies and some necessities and some opportunities for heaven the soul and her interest would not be at all regarded For this life is the day for the body and our needs do indeed require so much attendance and imploy so much of our affections and spend so much of our time that it is necessary some abstractions and separations of time and offices be made Receiving the holy Sacrament is like a Lock upon the waters which makes them rise higher and begin a fuller stream as from a new principle of emanation So that the repentance which is the duty of our life and dispersed over all the parts and periods of it like the waters in the first Creation upon the face of the whole earth is gathered together against the day of the Lords Communion as into a bosome and congregation of penitential waters * Then you are to mourn for your sins and to resolve against them then you are to remember what vowes you have already made and broken how often you have prevaricated in your duty and by what temptations you are used to fall then you are to renew the strength of your purposes to fortifie your tenderest part and to cut off all advantages from the enemy then you must prune your Vine and make the branches bleed then the Bridegroom comes and you must trim your Lamp and adorn it with the culture of Religion that is against the day of Communion you must sum up all the parts of your repentance for the Sacrament is a summary of all the mysteries and all the duty of the whole religion of a Christian. But Baptism and the holy Eucharist do nothing for us unless we do good works and perfect them with a conjugation of holy duties bringing forth fruits meet for repentance But our iniquity must be yet a little more particular There are some actions of repentance which must be finished and made perfect before we receive the holy Communion and there are some which will be finishing all our life Concerning the first the question is which they are and what must be done concerning them Concerning the second we are to inquire how far we must have proceeded in them before we may communicate Those parts of repentance which must be finished before we approach the blessed Sacrament are these 1. We must have renounced perfectly renounced all affections to sin and firmly purpose to amend all to sin no more to lead a new life in all solid and material practises of vertue This we learn from Origen We eat the bread which is made a holy thing and which sanctifies and makes holy all them who use it with holy and salutary purposes and designs of living holily not by a solemn and pompous profession only but with a real and hearty resolution resolving not to say so and be a fool but to say so because indeed we mean so not to profess it because it is the custome of Christians and the expectation of the solemnity but because we intend really to be quit of the sin for ever Now concerning our purposes of amendment these things are to be taken careof 1. That they be made prudently attentively sincerely and with intuition upon a credible possible and designed effect For there are some that make vowes purposes I cannot call them which they believe impossible to keep and no man can wisely purpose such things of which he hath such belief but they believe themselves inevitably engaged to commit a sin and yet as inevitably engaged to say they will not The Greeks tell of a famous fool among them her name was Acco who when she saw her self in a glasse would discourse as wisely as she could to the other woman and supposed her own shadow to be one of her neighbours with whom sometimes she had great business but alwaies huge civilities only she could never agree which of them should go away first or take the upper hand Such wise resolvers are some persons they take the shadow of it for a substance and please themselves by the entertainment of the images of things and think that the outside and the words of a promise are the only thing that God requires they and their promises do not know which shall go away first the resolution quickly dies and the man presently after but the sin lives and abides there still and will do so for ever Cast about and see you have promised what you are likely to perform and do you intend it in good earnest never to consent to a sin in no circumstance and for no argument and by no temptation For he that resolves never to commit that which he knows he shall commit is like him who resolves he will never die his vain resolution sets not his death back one hour It is hypocrisie and lying to say it before God and it is folly and madness to pretend that we will do it to our selves but of this I hâ—ve already spoken 2. He that in his preparation to the holy Communion purposes to live a holy life must not judge of the goodnesse of his purposes by the present intendment but by the consequent performance He must not think it is well yet because many good purposes are broken by temptations disordered by supervening accidents frustrate by impotency and laid aside by the purposes
of thy Cross reconcile me to thy eternal Father and bring to me peace of Conscience let the victory of thy Cross mortifie all my evil and corrupt affections let the triumph of thy Cross lead me on to a state of holiness that I may sin no more but in all things please thee and in all things serve thee and in all things glorifie thee 7. Great and infinite are thy glories infinite and glorious are thy mercies who is like unto the Lord our God who dwelleth on high and yet humbleth himself to behold the things that are in Heaven and earth Heaven it self does wholly minister to our salvation God takes care of us God loves us first God will not suffer us to perish but imployes all his attributes for our good The Son of God dies for us the holy Spirit descends upon us and teaches us the Angels minister to us the Sacrament is our food Christ is married to our souls and heaven it self is offered to us for our portion 8. O God my God assist me now and ever graciously and greatly Grant that I may not receive bread alone for man cannot live by that but that I may eat Christ that I may not search into the secret of nature but inquire after the miracles of grace I do admire I worship and I love Thou hast overcome O Lord thou hast overcome Ride on triumphantly because of thy words of truth and peace load my soul in this triumph as thy own purchase thy love hath conquer'd and I am thy servant for ever 9. Thou wilt not dwell in a polluted house make my soul clean and do thou consecrate it into a Temple O thou great Bishop of our souls by the inhabitation of thy holy spirit of purity Let not these teeth that break the bread of Angels ever grind the face of the poor let not the hand of Judas be with thee in the dish let not the eyes which see the Lord any more behold vanity let not the members of Christ ever become the members of a harlot or the ministers of unrighteousness 10. I am nothing I have nothing I desire nothing but Jesus and to be in Jerusalem the holy City from above Make haste O Lord Behold my heart is ready my heart is ready Come Lord Jesus come quickly When the holy Man that Ministers reaches the consecrated Bread suppose thy Lord entring into his Courts and say Lord I am not worthy thou shouldest come under my roof but speak the word Lord and thy servant shall be whole After receiving of the Bread pray thus Blessed be the Name of our gracious God Hosannah to the Son of David Blessed is he that cometh in the name of our Lord. Hosannah in the highest Thou O blessed Saviour Jesus hast given me thy precious body to be the food of my soul and now O God I humbly present to thee my body and soul every member and every faculty every action and every passion Do thou make them fit for thy service Give me an understanding to know thee and wisdom like as thou didst to thy Apostles ingenuity and simplicity of heart like to that of Nathanael zeal and perfect repentance like the return of Zacheus Give me eyes to see thee as thy Martyr Stephen had an ear to hear thee as Mary a hand to touch thee as Thomas a mouth with Peter to confess thee an arm with Simeon to embrace thee feet to follow thee with thy Disciples an heart open like Lydia to entertain thee that as I have given my members to sin and to uncleanness so I may henceforth walk in righteousness and holiness before thee all the days of my life Amen Amen If there be any time more between the receiving the holy Body and the blessed Chalice then add O immense goodness unspeakable mercy delightful refection blessed peace-offering effectual medicine of our souls Holy Jesus the food of elect souls coelestial Manna the bread that came down from heaven sweetest Saviour grant that my soul may relish this divine Nutriment with spiritual ravishments and love great as the flames of Cherubims and grant that what thou hast given me for the remission of my sins may not â—y my fault become the increase of them Grant that in my heart I may so digest thee by a holy faith so convert thee into the unity of my spirit by a holy love that being conformed to the likeness of thy death and resurrection by the crucifying of the old man and the newness of a spiritual and a holy life I may be incorporated as a sound and living member into the body of thy holy Church a member of that body whereof thou art head that I mâ—y abide in thee and bring forth fruit in thee and in the resurrection of the Just my body of infirmity being reformed by thy power may be configured to the similitude of thy glorious body and my soul received into a participation of the eternal Supper of the Lamb that where thou art there I may be also beholding thy face in glory O blessed Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Amen When the holy Chalice is offered attend devoutly to the blessing and joyn in heart with the words of the Minister saying Amen I will receive the Cup of salvation and call upon the Name of our Lord. After receiving of the holy Cup pray thus It is finished Blessed be the name of our gracious God Blessing glory praise and honour love and obedience dominion and thanksgiving be to him that sitteth on the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever I bless and praise thy Name O eternal Father most merciful God that thou hast vouchsafed to admit me to a participation of these dreadful and desirable mysteries unworthy though I am yet thy love never fails and though I too often have repented of my repentances and fallen back into sin yet thou never repentest of thy loving kindness Be pleased therefore now in this day of mercy when thou openest the treasures of heaven and rainest Manna upon our souls to refresh them when they are weary of thy infinite goodness to grant that this holy Communion may not be to me unto judgment and condemnation but it may be sweetness to my soul health and safety in every temptation joy and peace in every trouble ligâ—t and strength in every word and work comfort and defence in the hour of my death against all the oppositions of the spirits of darkness and grant that no unclean thing may be in me who have received thee into my heart and soul. II. Thou dwellest in every sanctified soul she is the habitation of Sion and thou taâ—est it for thine own and thou hast consecrated it to thy self by the operation of glorious mysteries within her O be pleased to receive my soul presented to thee in this holy Communion for thy dwelling place make it a house of prayer and holy meditations the seat of thy Spirit the repository of graces reveal to me
it is a necessary disposition to the Sacrament p. 159 Sect. 5. Of the proper and specifick work of Faith in the reception of the holy Communion p. 172 Sect. 6. Meditations and devotions relative to this preparatory grace to be used in the daies of preparation or at any time of spiritual Communion p. 190 CHAP. IV. OF Charity preparatory to the blessed Sacrament p. 197 Sect. 1. Ibid. Sect. 2. Of doing good to our neighbours p. 201 Sect. 3. Of speaking good of our neighbours p. 204 Sect. 4. Forgiveness of injuries a necessary part of preparation to the holy Sacrament p. 208. Sect. 5. Devotions relative to this grace of charity to be used by way of exercise and preparation to the Divine Mysteries in any time or part of our life but especially before and at the Communion p. 252 CHAP. V. OF repentance preparatory to the blessed Sacrament p. 258 Sect. 1. Ibid. Sect. 2. The necessity of repentance in order to the holy Sacrament p. 261 Sect. 3. What actions of repentance are specially required in our preparations to the holy Sacrament p. 267 Sect. 4. How far we must have proceeded in our general repentance and emendation of our lives before we Communicate p 289 Sect. 5. What significations of repentance are to be accepted by the Church in admission of penitents to the Communion p. 329 Sect. 6. Whether may every Minister of the Church and Curate of Souls reject impenitent persons or any criminals from the holy Sacrament untill themselves be satisfied of their repentance and amends p. 334 Sect. 7. Penitential Soliloquies Ejaculations Exercises and preparatory Prayers to be used in all the dayes of preparation to the holy Sacrament p. 347 CHAP. VI. OF our actual and ornamental preparation to the reception of the blessed Sacrament p. 355 Sect. 1. Ibid. Sect. 2. Rules for examination of our Consciences against the day of our Communion p. 359 Sect. 3. Of an actual supply to be made of such actions and degrees of good as are wanting against a Communion-day p. 366 Sect. 4 Devotions to be used upon the morning of the Communion p. 373 CHAP. VII OF our comportment in and after our Receiving the blessed Sacrament p. 378 Sect. 1. Of the circumstances and manner of Reception of the Divine Mysteries Ibid. Sect. 2. Acts of vertues and graces relative to the mystery to be used before or at the celebration of the Divine Sacrament p. 381 Sect. 3. An advice concerning him who only Communicates spiritually p. 390 THE INTRODUCTION WHen St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin Mother had for a time lost their most holy Son they sought him in the villages and the high-ways in the retinues of their kindred and the Caravans of the Galilean Pilgrims but there they found him not At last almost despairing faint and sick with travel and fear with desires and tedious expectations they came into the Temple to pray to God for conduct and success knowing and believing assuredly that if they could find God they should not long miss to find the Holy Jesus and their faith deceived them not For they sought God and found him that was God and man in the midst and circle of the Doctors But being surprised with trouble and wonder they began a little to expostulate with the Divine Child why he would be absent so long and leave them as it must needs be when he is absent from us in sorrow and uncertain thoughts This question brought forth an answer which will be for ever useful to all that shall inquire after this Holy Child For as they complained of his absence so he reproved their ignorance How is it that you have so fondly looked for me as if I were used to wander in unknown paths without skill and without a guide why did ye inquire after me in high-ways and village-fields ye never knew me wander or lose my way or abide but where I ought why therefore did ye not come hither to look for me Did ye not know that I ought to be in my fathers house that is there where God is worshipped where he loves to dwell where he communicates his blessing and holy influences there and there only we are sure to meet our dearest Lord. For this reason the place of our address to God and holy conversation with him he is pleased to call his house that with confidence we may expect to meet him there when we go to worship and when the Solemnities of Religion were confined to the Tabernacle he therefore made it to be like a house of use and dwelling that in that figure he might tell us where his delight and his aboad would be and therefore God furnished the Tabernacle with the Utensils of a Prophets room at least a Table and a Candlestick and the Table must have dishes and spoons bowls and covers belonging to it the Candlesticks must have Lamps and the Lamps must be continually burning And besides this the house of God must have in it a continual fire the fire must not go out by night nor day and to this the Prophet alludes God hath his fire in Sion and his hearth or furnace in Jerusalem And after all there must be meat in his house too And as this was done by the Sacrifices of old so by the Lords Supper in the New Testament So that now it is easie to understand the place and the reason of Christs aboad even in his Fathers house there where his Father dwells and loves to meet his servants there we are sure to finde the Lord. For as God descended and came into the Tabernacle invested with a cloud so Christ comes to meet us clothed with a Mystery he hath a house below as well as above here is his dwelling and here are his Provisions here is his fire and here his meat hither God sends his Son and here his Son manifests himself the Church and the holy Table of the Lord the Assemblies of Saints and the Devotions of his people the Word and the Sacrament the Oblation of Bread and Wine and the offering of our selves the Consecration and the Communion are the things of God and of Jesus Christ and he that is imployed in these is there where God loves to be and where Christ is to be found in the Imployments in which God delights in the Ministries of his own choice in the work of the Gospel and the methods of Grace in the oeconomy of Heaven and the dispensations of eternal happiness And now that we may know where to find him we must be sure to look after him he hath told us where he would be behind what pillar and under what cloud and covered with what vail and conveyed by what ministry and present in what Sacrament and we must not look for him in the high-wayes of ambition and pride of wealth or sensual pleasures these things are not found in the house of his Father neither may they come neer his dwelling But if we
reason for what they pretend and yet the words of Scripture from whence they pretend are not so many as are the several pretensions My purpose is not to dispute but to persuade not to confute any one but to instruct those that need not to make a noise but to excite devotion not to enter into curious but material inquiries and to gather together into an union all those several portions of truth and differing apprehensions of mysteriousness and various methods and rules of preparation and seemingly opposed Doctrines by which even good men stand at distance and are afraid of each other For since all societies of Christians pretend to the greatest esteem of this above all the Rites or external parts and ministries of Religion it cannot be otherwise but that they will all speak honourable things of it and suppose holy things to be in it and great blessings one way or other to come by it and it is contemptible only among the prophane and the Atheistical all the innumerable differences which are in the discourses and consequent practices relating to it proceed from some common truths and universal notions and mysterious or inexplicable words and tend all to reverential thoughts and pious treatment of these Rites and holy Offices and therefore it will not be impossible to find honey or wholsome dews upon all this variety of plants and the differing opinions and several understandings of this mystery which it may be no humane understanding can comprehend will serve to excellent purposes of the Spirit if like men of differing interest they can be reconciled in one Communion at least the ends and designs of them all can be conjoyned in the design and ligatures of the same reverence and piety and devotion My purpose therefore is to discourse of the nature excellencies uses and intention of the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper the blessings and fruits of the Sacrament all the advantages of a worthy Communion the publick and the private the personal and the Ecclesiastical that we may understand what it is what we go about and how it is to be treated I shall account also concerning all the duties of preparation ordinary and extraordinary more and less solemn of the rules and manners of deportment in the receiving the gesture and the offering the measures and instances of our duty our comport and conversation in and after it together with the cases of conscience that shall occur under these titles respectively relating to the particular matters It matters not where we begin for if I describe the excellencies of this Sacrament I find it engages us upon matters of duty and inquiries practical If I describe our duty it plainly signifies the greatness and excellency of the Mystery the very notion is practical and the practice is information we cannot discourse of the secret but by describing our duty and we cannot draw all the lines of duty but so much duty must needs open a Cabinet of Mysteries If we understand what we are about we cannot chuse but be invested with fear and reverence and if we look in with fear and reverence it cannot be but we shall understand many secrets But because the natural order of Theology is by Faith to build up good life by a rectified Understanding to regulate the Will and the Affections I shall use no other method but first discourse of the excellent Mystery and then of the duty of the Communicant direct and collateral CHAP. I. Of the Nature Excellencies Vses and Intention of the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper SECT I. Of the several apprehensions of men concerning it WHen our Blessed Lord was to nail the hand writing of Ordinances to his Cross he was pleased to retain two Ceremonies Baptism and the Holy Supper that Christians may first wash add then eat first be made clean and then eat of the Supper of the Lamb and it cannot be imagined but that this so signal and peculiar retention of two Ceremonies is of great purpose and remarkable vertues The matter is evident in the instance of Baptism and as the Mystery is of the foundation of Religion so the vertue of it is inserted into our Creed and we all believe one Baptism for the remission of our sins and yet the action is external the very Mystery is by a Ceremony the allusion is bodily the Element is water the minister a sinful man and the effect is produced out of the Sacrament in many persons and in many instances as well as in it and yet that it is effected also by it and with it in the conjunction with due dispositions of him that is to be baptized we are plainly taught by Christs Apostles and the symbols of the Church But concerning the other Sacrament there are more divisions and thoughts of heart for it is never expressly joyned with a word of promise and where mention is made of it in the Gospels it is named only as a duty and a Commandment and not as a grace or treasure of holy blessings we are bidden to do it but promised nothing for a reward it is commanded to us but we are not invited to obedience by consideration of any consequent blessing and when we do it so many holy things are required of us which as they are fit to be done even when we do not receive the Blessed Sacrament so they effect salvation to us by vertue of their proper and proportioned promises in the vertue of Christs death however apprehended and understood Upon this account some say that we receive nothing in the B. Eucharist but we commemorate many blessed things which we have received that it is affirmed in no Scripture that in this mystery we are to call to minde the death of Christ but because we already have it in our minde we must also have it in our hearts and publish it in our confessions and Sacramental representment and therefore it is not the memory but the commemoration of Christs death that as the anniversary sacrifices in the law were a commemoration of sins every year not a calling them to minde but a confession of their guilt and of our deserved punishment so this Sacrament is a representation of Christs death by such symbolical actions as himself graciously hath appointed but then excepting that to do so is an act of obedience it exercises no other vertue it is an act of no other grace it is the instrument of no other good it is neither vertue nor gain grace nor profit And whereas it is said to confirm our faith this also is said to be unreasonable for this being our own work cannot be the means of a Divine grace not naturally because it is not of the same kind and faith is no more the natural effect of this obedience than chastity can be the product of Christian fortitude not by Divine appointment because we find no such order no promise no intimation of any such event and although the thing
it self indeed shall have what reward God please to apportion to it as it is obedience yet of it self it hath no other worthiness it is not so much as an argument of persuasion for the pouring forth of wine can no more prove or make faith that Christs blood was poured forth for us than the drinking the wine can effect this persuasion in us that we naturally though under a vail drink the natural blood of Christ which the Angels gathered as it ran into golden phials and Christ multiplied to a miracle like the loaves and fishes in the Gospel But because nothing that naturally remains the same in all things as it was before can do any thing that it could not do before the Bread and wine which have no natural change can effect none and therefore we are not to look for an egge where there is nothing but order and a blessing where there is nothing but an action and a real effect where there is nothing but an analogy a Sacrament a mystical representment and something fit to signify and many things past but nothing that is to come This is the sense and discourse of some persons that call for an express word or a manifest reason to the contrary or else resolve that their belief shall be as unactive as the Scriptures are silent in the effects of this mystery Only these men will allow the Sacraments to be marks of Christianity symbols of mutual Charity testimonies of a thankful mind to God allegorical admonitions of Christian mortification and spiritual alimony symbols of grace conferred before the Sacrament and rites instituted to stir up faith by way of object and representation that is occasionally and morally but neither by any Divine or physical by natural or supernatural power by the work done or by the Divine institution This indeed is something but very much too little But others go as far on the other hand and affirm that in the Blessed Sacrament we receive the body and blood of Christ we chew his flesh we drink his blood for his flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed and this is the Manna which came down from heaven our bodies are nourished our souls united to Christ and the Sacrament is the infallible instrument of pardon to all persons that do not maliciously hinder it and it produces all its effects by vertue of the Sacrament it self so appointed and that the dispositions of the Communicants are only for removing obstacles and impediments but effect nothing the sumption of the Mysteries does all in a capable subject as in infants who do nothing in penitents who take away what can hinder for it is nothing but Christ himself the body that dyed upon the crosse is broken in the hand of him that ministers and by the teeth of him that communicates and when God gives us his Son in this Divine and glorious manner with heaps of miracles to verify heaps of blessings how shall not he with him give us all things else They who teach this doctrine call the holy Sacrament The host the unbloody sacrifice the flesh of God the body of Christ God himself the Mass the Sacrament of the Altar I cannot say that this is too much but that these things are not true and although all that is here said that is of any material benefit and reall blessing is true yet the blessing is not so conferred it is not so produced A third sort of Christians speak indefinitely and gloriously of this Divine mystery they speak enough but they cannot tell what they publish great and glorious effects but such which they gather by similitude and analogy such which they desire but cannot prove which indeed they feel but know not whence they do derive them they are blessings which come in company of the Sacraments but are not alwayes to be imputed to them they confound spiritual senses with mystical expressions and expound mysteries to natural significations that is they mean well but do not alwayes understand that part of Christian Philosophy which explicates the secret nature of this Divine Sacrament and the effect of it is this that they sometimes put too great confidence in the mystery and look for impresses which they find not and are sometimes troubled that their experience does not answer to their Sermons and meet with scruples instead of comforts and doubts instead of rest and anxiety of mind in the place of a serene and peaceful conscience But these men both in their right and in their wrong enumerate many glories of the holy Sacrament which they usually signifie in these excellent appellatives calling it the Supper of the Lord the bread of elect souls and the wine of Angels the Lords body the New Testament and the calice of benediction spiritual food the great Supper the Divinest and Archisymbolical feast the banquet of the Church the celestial dinner the spiritual the sacred the mystical the formidable the rational Table the supersubstantial bread the bread of God the bread of life the Lords mystery the great mystery of salvation the Lords Sacrament the Sacrament of piety the sign of unity the contesseration of the Christian communion the Divine grace the Divine making grace the holy thing the desirable the comunication of Good the perfâ—ction and consummation of a Christian the holy particles the gracious symbols the holy gifts the Sacrifice of commemoration the intellectual and mystical good the hereditary donative of the New Testament the Sacrament of the Lords body the Sacrament of the Calice the Paschal Oblation the Christian pasport the mystery of perfection the great Oblation the Worship of God the life of Souls the Sacrament of our price and our Redemption and some few others much to the same purposes all which are of great and useful signification and if the explications and consequent propositions were as justifiable as the titleâ— themselves are sober and useful they would be apt only for edification and to minister to the spirit of devotion That therefore is to be the design of the present Meditations to represent the true and proper and mysterious nature of this divine nutriment of our souls to account what are the blessings God reacheth forth to us in the Mysteries and what returns of duty he expects from all to whom he gives his most holy Son I shall only here add the names and appellatives which the Scripture gives to these Mysteries and place it as a part of the foundation of the following doctrines It is by the Spirit of God called The bread that is broken and the cup of blessing the breaking of bread the body and blood of the Lord the communication of his body and the communication of his blood the feast of charity or love the Lords Table and the Supper of the Lord. Whatsoever is consequent to these titles we can safely own and our faith may dwell securely and our devotion like a pure flame with these may feed as with
the fruits of his passion and we shall if we abide in this union be all one body of a spiritual Church in heaven there to reign with Christ for ever Now unless we think nothing Good but what goes in at our eyes or mouth if we think there is any thing good beyond what our senses perceive we must confess this to be a real and eminent benefit and yet whatever it be it is therefore effected upon us by this Sacrament because we eat of one bread The very repeating the words of St. Paul is a satisfaction in this inquiry they are plain and easie and whatever interpretation can be put upon them it can only vary the manner of effecting the blessing and the way of the Sacramental efficacy but it cannot evacuate the blessing or confute the thing Only it is to be observed in this as in all other instances of the like nature that the grace of God in the Sacrament usually is a blessing upon our endeavours for spiritual graces and the blessings of sanctification do not grow like grasse but like corn not whether we do any husbandry or no but if we cultivate the ground then by Gods blessing the fruits will spring and make the Farmer rich if we be disposed to receive the Sacrament worthily we shall receive this fruit also Which fruit is thus expressed saying this Sacrament is therefore given unto us that the body of the Church of Christ in the earth may be joyned or united with our head which is in the heavens 3. The blessed Sacrament is of great efficacy for the remission of sins not that it hath any formal efficacy or any inherent vertue to procure pardon but that it is the ministery of the death of Christ and the application of his blood which blood was shed for the remission of sins and is the great means of impetration and as the Schools use to speak is the meritorious cause of it For there are but two wayes of applying the death of Christ an internal grace and an external ministery Faith is the inward applicatory and if there be any outward at all it must be the Sacraments and both of them are of remarkable vertue in this particular for by baptisme we are baptized into the death of Christ and the Lords supper is an appointed enunciation and declaration of Christs death and it is a Sacramental participation of it Now to partake of it Sacramentally is by Sacrament to receive it that is so to apply it to us as that can be applyed it brings it to our spirit it propounds it to our faith it represents it as the matter of Eucharist it gives it as meat and drink to our souls and rejoyces in it in that very formality in which it does receive it viz as broken for as shed for the remission of our sins Now then what can any man suppose a Sacrament to be and what can be meant by sacramental participation for unless the Sacraments do communicate what they relate to they are no communion or communication at all for it is true that our mouth eats the material signs but at the same time faith eats too and therefore must eat that is must partake of the thing signified faith is not maintained by ceremonies the body receives the body of the mystery we eat and drink the symbols with our mouths but faith is not corporeal but feeds upon the mystery it self it entertains the grace and enters into that secret which the spirit of God conveyes under the signature Now since the mystery is perfectly and openly expressed to be the remission of sins if the soul does the work of the soul as the body the work of the body the soul receives remission of sins as the body does the symbols of it and the Sacrament But we must be infinitely careful to remember that even the death of Christ brings no pardon to the impenitent persevering sinner but to him that repents truely so does the Sacrament of Christs death this can do no more than that and therefore let no man come with his guilt about him and in the heat and in the affections of his sin and hope to find his pardon by this ministery He that thinks so will but deceive wil but ruine himself They are excellent but very severe words which God spake to the Jews and which are a prophetical reproof of all unworthy Communicants in these divine mysteries What hath my beloved to do in my house seeing she hath wrought lâ—wdness with many The holy flesh hath passed from thee when thou doest evil that is this holy sacrifice the flesh and blood of thy Lord shall slip from thee without doing thee any good if thou hast not ceased from doing evil But the vulgar Latin reads these words much more emphatically to our purpose Shall the holy flesh take from thee thy wickedness in which thou rejoycest Deceive not thy self thou hast no part nor portion in this matter For the holy Sacrament operates indeed and consigns our pardon but not alone but in conjunction with all that Christ requires as conditions of pardon but when the conditions are present the Sacrament ministers pardon as pardon is ministred in this world that is by parts and in order to several purposes and with power of revocation by suspending the Divine wrath by procuring more graces by obtaining time of repentance and powers and possibilities of working out our salvation and by setting forward the method and Oeconomy of our salvation For in the usual methods of God pardon of sins is proportionable to our repentance which because it is all that state of Piety we have in this whole life after our first sin pardon of sins is all that effect of grace which is consequent to that repentance and the worthy receiving of the holy Communion is but one conjugation of holy actions and parts of repentance but indeed it is the best and the noblest and such in which man does best cooperate towards pardon and the grace of God does the most illustriously consign it But of these particulars I shall give full account when I shall discourse of the preparations of repentance 4. It is the greatest solemnity of prayer the most powerful Liturgy and means of impetration in this world For when Christ was consecrated on the crosse and became our High Priest having reconciled us to God by the death of the crosse he became infinitely gracious in the eyes of God and was admitted to the celestial and eternal Priesthood in heaven where in the vertue of the crosse he intercedes for us and represents an eternal sacrifice in the heavens on our behalf That he is a Priest in heaven appears in the large discourses and direct affirmatives of St. Paul that there is no other sacrifice to be offered but that on the crosse it is evident because he hath but once appeared in the end of the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of
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
thy paths that my footsteps slip not As for God his way is perfect the word of the Lord is tryed he is a buckler to all those that trust in him For who is God save the Lord and who is our rock save our God Judge me O Lord for I have walked in mine integrity but I trust in the Lord therefore I shall not slide Examine me O Lord and prove me try my reins and my heart for thy loving-kindnesse is before mine eyâ—s and I will walk in thy truth I will not sit with vain persons neither will I go in with dissemblers I hate the Congregation of evil doers and will not sit with the wicked I will wash mine hands in innocency so will I compasse thine Altar O â—ord That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving and tell of all thy wondrous works But as for me I will walk in my integrity redeem me and be merciful unto me So shall my foot stand in an even place and in the congregations will I blesse the Lord. Glory be to the Father c. As it was in the beginning c. The Prayers O Eternal and most Glorious God who sittest in heaven ruling over all things from the beginning thou dwellest on high and yet humblest thy self to behold the things that are in heaven and earth thou hast searched me O Lord and known me thou understandest my thoughts afar off and art acquainted with all my ways for there is not a word in my tongue but thou O Lord knowest it altogether Be pleased to impart unto thy servant a ray of thy heavenly light a beam of the Sun of righteousnesse open mine eyes that I may see the wondrous things of thy Law that I may walk in them all my days Set all my sins before my face that I may speedily and earnestly and perfectly repent and forsake them all Give me a sight of my infirmities that I may watch against them discover to me all my evil and weak principles that I may reform them and whatsoever is wanting in me towards the understanding of any thing whereby I may please thee and perfect my duty I beg of thee to reveal that also unto me that my duty may not be undiscerned and my faith may not be reproved and my affections may not be perverse and hardned in their foolish pursuance and a secret sin may not lye undiscovered and corrupting my soul. II. GIve me an ingenuous and a severe spirit that whatever judgment of charity I make concerning others I may give a right judgment concerning my own state and actions condemning the criminal censuring the suspicious suspecting what seems allowable and watchful even over the best that I may in the spirit of repentance and mortification correct all my irregularities and reform my errours and improve the good things which thou hast given me that endeavouring to approve my actions to my conscience and my conscience to thy law I may not be a reprobate but approved by thee in the great day of examination of all the world and be reckoned amongst thy Elect thy secret ones through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen A short form of Humiliation after our Examination I. THY Judgments O Lord God are declared in thunder and with fear and dread thou shakest all my bones and my soul trembles when I consider that great day in which thou shalt judge all the world and that infinite justice which will not spare the mighty for his greatnesse nor the poor for his poverty and thy unlimited power which can mightily destroy all them that will not have thee to reign over them II. O most dreadful Judge I stand in amazement when I consider that the heavens are not pure in thine eyes and if thou foundest perversnesse in thy Angels and didst not spare them what shall become of me The stars fell from heaven and what can I presume who am but dust and ashes They whose life that seemed holy are fallen into an evil portion and after they have eaten the bread of Angels they have been delighted with Carobe-nuts with husks and draffe of Swine III. There is no holinesse O God if thou withdrawest thy hand no wisdom profits if thy government does cease No courage can abide no chastity can remain pure no watchfulnesse keep us safe unlesse thou doest continue to strengthen us to purifie us to make us stand When thou leavest us we drown and perish when thy grace and mercy visits us we are lifted up and stand upright We are unstable and unsecure unlesse we be confirmed by thee but we seek to thee for thy help and yet depart from the wayes of thy commandements IV. O how meanly and contemptibly do I deserve to be thought of how little and inconsiderable is the good which I do and how vast how innumerable how intolerable are the evils which I have done I submit O God I submit to the abysses of thy righteous and unsearchable judgements for I have been searching for a little some little good in me but I finde nothing Much indeed of good I have received but I have abused it thou hast given me thy grace but I have turned it into wantonnesse thou hast enabled me to serve thee but I have served my self but never but when I was thy enemy so that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing V. I am a deep abysse O God of folly and calamity I have been searching my heart and can find no good thing I have been searching and I cannot find out all the evil Thou didst create in me a hope of glory but I have lost my confidence and men have sometimes spoken good things of me but I know not where they are and who shall raise me up when I fall down before thy face in thy eternal judgment VI. I will no more desire I will no more suffer I will no more seek I will no more be moved by the praises of men for behold they speak but they know nothing Thou art silent but thou knowest all things and I increase the number of my sins What shall I do O thou preserver of men I will lay my face in the dust and confess my self to be nothing VII Pity my shame O God bind up my wounds lift me from the dust raise me up from this nothing and make me something what thou wilt what thou wilt delight in Take away the partition wall the hindrance the sin that so easily besets me and bring me unto Jesus to my sweetest Saviour Jesus unite me unto him and then although in my self I am nothing yet in him I shall be what I ought to be and what thou canst not chuse but love Amen Amen A Prayer for holy and fervent desires of Religion and particularly of the Blessed Sacrament O Most Blessed most glorious Lord and Saviour Jesus thou that waterest the furrows of the earth and refreshest her wearinesse and makest it very plenteous behold O God my desart
and unfruitful soul I have already a parched ground give me a land of Rivers of Waters my Soul is dry but not thirsty it hath no water nor it desires none I have been like a dead man to all the desires of heaven I am earnest and concerned in the things of the world but very indifferent or rather not well enduring the severities and excellencies of Religion I have not been greedy of thy Word or longed for thy Sacraments The worst of thy followers came runing after thee for loaves though they cared not for the miracle but thou offerest me loaves and miracles together and I have cared for neither Thou offerest me thy self and all thy infinite sweetnesses I have needed even the compulsion of laws to drive me to thee and then indeed I lost the sweetnesse of thy presence and reaped no fruit These things O God are not well they are infinitely amiss But thou that providest meat thou also givest appetite for the desire and the meat the necessity and the relief are all from thee II. Be pleased therefore O my dearest Lord to create in thy servant a great hunger and thirst after the things of thy kingdom and the righteousnesse of it all thy holy graces and all the holy ministeries of grace that I may long for the bread of heaven thirst after the fountains of salvation and as the Hart panteth after the brooks of water so my soul may desire thee O Lord. O kindle such a holy flame in my soul that it may consume all that is set before me that it may be meat and drink to me to do thy will III. Grant O blessed Jesus that I may omit no opportunity of serving thee of conversing with thee of receiving thee let me not rest in the least and lowest measures of necessity but passe on to the excellencies of love and the transportations of an excellent Religion that there may remain in me no appetite for any thing but what thou lovest that I may have no satisfaction but in a holy Conscience no pleasure but in Religion no joy but in God and with sincerity and zeal heartinesse and ingenuity I may follow after righteousnesse and the things that belong unto my peace until I shall arrive in the land of eternal peace and praises where thou livest and reignest for ever world without end Amen CHAP. III. Of Faith as it is a necessary disposition to the Blessed Sacrament EXamination of our selves is an inquiry whether we have those dispostions which are necessary to a worthy Communion Our next inquiry is after the dispositions themselves what they ought to be and what they ought to effect that we may really be that which we desire to be found when we are examined I have yet only described the ways of examining now I am to set down those things whereby we can approved and without which we can never approach to these divine Mysteries with worthinesse or depart with joy These are three 1. Faith 2. Charity 3. Repentance SECT I. Of Catechumens or unbaptised persons THE Blessed Sacrament before him that hath no faith is like messes of meat set upon the graves of the dead they smell not that nidour which quickens the hungry belly they feel not the warmth and taste not the juyce for these are provided for them that are alive and the dead have no portion in them This is the first great line of introduction and necessarily to be examined we have the rule from the Apostle Examine your selves whether ye be in the faith prove your own selves Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Châ—ist is in you except ye be reprobates As if he had said ye are reprobates and Jesus Christ shall never dwell in you except by faith without this you can never receive him and therefore examine strictly your selves concerning your faith But the necessity of this preparation by faith hath a double sense and a proportionable necessity 1. It means that no unbaptised person can come to the holy Communion 2. It means that those that are baptized have an actual and an operative faith properly relative to these divine Mysteries and really effective of all the works of faith Of this we have the most ancient and indubitable records of the Primitive Church For in the Apology which Justin Martyr made for the Christians he gives this account of the manner of dispensing the holy Eucharist It is lawful for none to participate of this Eucharistical bread and wine but to him who believes those things to be true which are taught by us and to him that is washed in the laver of regeneration which is to the remission of sins and who live as Christ hath commanded Shut the proâ—hane and the unhallowed people out of doors So. Orpheus sang None comes to this holy feast but they whose sins are cleansed in Baptism who are saâ—ctified in â—hose holy waters of regeneration who have obedient Souls eaâ—s attentive to the Sermons of the Gospel and hearts open to the words of Christ. These are they who see by a brighter light and walk in the warmâ—h of a more refreshing Sun they live in a better air and are irradiated with a purer beam the glories of the Sun of righteousnesse and they only are to eat the precious food of the sacrificed lamb For by Baptism we are admitted to the spiritual life and by the holy Communion we nourish and preserve it But although Baptism be always necessary yet alone it is not a sufficient qualification to the holy Communion but there must be an actual faith also in every Communicant Neither faith alone nor baptism alone can suffice but it must be the actual faith of baptized persons which disposes us to this sacred Feast For the Church gives the Communion neither to Catechumens nor to Infants nor to mad men nor to natural fools Catechumens not admitted to the holy Communion Of this besides the testimony of Justin Martyr St. Cyril of Alexandria gives this full acoount We refuse to give the Sacraments to Catechumens although they already know the truth and with a loud voice confesse the faith of Christ because they are not yet enriched with the holy Ghost who dwells in them who are consummated and perfected by Baptism But when they have been baptized because it is believed that the holy Ghost does dwell within them they are not prohibited from the contact and communion of the body of Christ. And therefore to them who come to the mystical benediction the Ministers of the Mystery cry with a loud voice Sancta sanctis Let holy things be given to sanctified persons signifying that the contact and sanctification of Christs body does agree with them only who in their spirits are sanctified by the holy Ghost And this was the certain and perpetual Doctrine and Custom of the Church insomuch that in the primitive Churches they would not suffer unbaptized persons so much as to see the
Consecration of the holy Mysteries as is to be seen in many Ecclesiastical Records The reason of this is noâ—hing but the nature and analogy of the thing it self For we first come to Christ by faith and we first come to Christ by Baptism they are the two doors of the Tabernacle which our Lord hath piâ—ched and not man By faith we desire to go in and by baptism we are admitted Faith knocks at the door and baptism sets it open but until we are in the house we cannot be entertained at the Masters Table they that are in the high ways and hedges must be called in and come in at the doors and then they shall be feasted The one is the moral entrance and the other is the ritual Faith is the door of the soul and baptism is the door of the man Faith is the spiritual addresse to God and baptism is the Sacramental Baptism is like the pool of Siloam appointed for healing it is salutary and medicinal but the Spirit of God is that great Angel that descends thither and makes them virtual and faith is the hand that puts us in So that faith alone does not do it and therefore the unbaptized must not Communicaâ—e So neither will baptism alone admit us and therefore Infants and Innocents are yet uncapable But that 's the next inquiry SECT II. Of Communicating Infants Question Whether Infants are to be admitted to the Holy Communion WHether the holy Communion may be given to Infants hath been a great question in the Church of God which in this instance hath not been as in others divided by parties and single persons but by whole ages for from some of the earliest ages of the Church down to the time of Charles the Great that is for above six hundred years the Church of God did give the holy Communion to newly baptized Infants St. Cyprian recounts a miracle of an Infant into whose mouth when the parents had ignorantly and carelesly left the babe the Gentile Priests had forced some of their Idol Sacrifice But when the Minister of the Church came to pour into the mouth the Calice of our Lord it resisted and being over-powred grew sick and fell into convulsions By which narrative the practice of the Church of that age is sufficiently declared Of the matter of fact there is no question but they went further The Primitive Church did believe it necessary to the salvation of Infants St. Austin believed that this Doctrine and practice descended from the Apostles that without both the Sacraments no person could come to life or partake of the Kingdom of heaven which when he had endeavoured to prove largely he infers this conclusion It is in vain to promise salvation and life eternal to little children unlesse they be baptized and receive the body and blood of Christ since the necessity of them both is attested by so many so great and so divine Testimonies And that this practice continued to the time of Charlemaine appears by a Constitution in his Capitular saying That the Priest should always have the Eucharist ready that when any one is sick or when a child is weak he may presently give him the Communion lest he die without it And Alcuinus recites a Canon expresly charging that as soon as ever the Infants are baptized they should receive the holy Communion before they suck or receive any other nourishment The same also is used by the Greeks by the Aethiopians by the Bohemians and Moravians and it is confessed by Maldonate that the opinion of St. Austin and Innocentius that the Eucharist is necessary even to Infants prevailed in the Church for six hundred years together But since the time of Charles the Great that is for above eight hundred years this practice hath been omitted in the Western Churches generally and in the Council of Trent it was condemned as unfit and all men commanded to believe that though the ancient Churches did do it upon some probable reasons yet they did not believe it necessary Concerning which I shall not interrupt the usefulnesse which I intend in this discourse by confuting the Canon though it be intolerable to command men to believe in a matter of fact contrary to their evidence and to say that the Fathers did not believe it to be necessary when they say it is and used it accordingly yet because it relates to the use of this divine Sacrament I shall give this short account of it The Church of Rome and some few others are the only refusers and condemners of this ancient and Catholick practice But upon their grounds they cannot reasonably deny it 1. Because Infants are by them affirmed to be capable of the grace and benefits of the Eucharist for to them who put no bar as Infants put none the Sacraments by their inherent virtue confer grace and therefore particularly it is affirmed that if Infants did now receive the Eucharist they should also receive grace with it and therefore it is not unreasonable to give it to them who therefore are capable of it because it will do them benefit and it is consequently upon these grounds uncharitable to deny it For 2. They allow the ground upon the supposition of which the Fathers did most reasonably proceed and they only deny the conclusion For by the words of Christ it is absolutely necessary to eat his flesh and drink his blood and if those words be understood of Sacramental manducation in which interpretation both the ancients and the Church of Rome do consent then it is absolutely necessary to communicate For although there are other ways of eating his flesh and drinking of his blood besides the Sacramental manducation yet Christ in this place meant no other and if of this he spake when he said Without doing this we have no life in us then it will not be sufficient to baptize them though it baptism they should receive the same grace as in the Eucharist because abstracting from the benefit and grace of it it is made necessary by the Commandment and by the will of God it is become a means indispensibly necessary to salvation It is necessary by a necessity of the means and a necessity of precept True it is that in each of the Sacraments there is a proportion of the same effect as I have already discoursed yet this cannot lessen the necessity that is upon them both for so Pharaohs dream was doubled not to signifie divers events but a double certainty and therefore although children even in baptism are partakers of the death of Christ and are incorporated into and made partakers of his body yet because Christ hath made one as necessary as the other and both for several proportions of the same reason the Church of Rome must either quit the Principle or retain the consequent for they have digged a ditch on both sides and on either hand they are fallen into inconvenience But it will be
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
Religion as if they were things fit only to be talked on and to be the subject of Theological discourses but not the rule of our lives and the matter of our care It is expresly said by St. Paul He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself Now if we observe what crouds of people in great Cities come to the holy Communion good and bad penitent and impenitent the covetous and the proud the crafty Merchâ—nt from yesterdays fraud and the wanton fool from his last nights lust we may easily perceive that not many men believe these words He that sayes to me drink not this for it is poyson hath given me a law and an affrightment and I dare not disobey him if I believe him and if we did believe St. Paul I suppose we should as little dare to be damned as to be poyson'd Our Blessed Saviour told us that with what measure we mete to others it shall be measured to us again but who almost believes this and considers what it means Will you be content that God should despise you as you despise your brother that he should be as soon angry with you as you are with him that he should strike you as hastily and as seldom pardon you and never bare with your infirmities and as seldom interpret fairly what you say or do and be revenged as frequently as you would be And what think we of these sayings Into the heavenly Jerusalem there shall in no wise enter any thing that defileth or prophaneth neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie Do men believe God and yet doing these things hope to be saved for all these terrible sayings Now the works of the flesh are manifest adultery fornication uncleanness lasciviousness c. of which I tell you before that they which do such thâ—ngs shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Certainly if we did believe that these things are spoken in earnest we should not account fornication such a decent crime so fashionable and harmless or make such a maygame of the fearful lectures of damnation For if these words be true will men leave their sins or are they resolved to suffer damnation as being lesse troublesome than to quit their vain Mistresses surely that 's not it but they have some little subterfuges and illusions to trust to They say they will relie upon Gods mercy Well they may if in well doing they commit their souls to him as to a faithful Creator but will they make God their enemy and then trust in him while he remains so That will prove an intollerable experiment for so said God when he caused his name to be proclaimed to the host of Israel The Lord God merciful and gracious he caused to be added and that will by no means quit the guilty By no means No by no means let us believe that as well as the other For the passion of our Redeemer the intercession of our high Priest the Sacraments of the Church the body and blood of Christ the mercies of God the saying Lord Lord the priviledges of Christians and the absolution of the Priest none of all this and all this together shall do him no good that remains guilty that is who is impenitent and does not forsake his sin If we had faith we should believe this and should not dare to come to the holy Communion with an actual guiltiness of many crimes and in confidence of pardon against all the truth of Divine relations and therefore without faith But then here we may consider that no man in this case can hope to be excused from the necessities of a holy life upon pretence of being saved by his faith For if the case be thus these men have it not For he that believes in God believes his words and they are very terrible to all evil persons For in Christ Jesus nothing can avail but a new creature nothing but keeping the Commandments of God nothing but faith working by charity they are the words of God Wicked men therefore can never hope to be saved by their faith or by their faith to be worthy Communicants for they have it not Who then can He only by his faith is worthily disposed to the Communion and by his faith can be saved who by his faith lives a life of grace whose faith is to him a magazine of holy principles whose faith endears obedience and is the nurse of a holy hope and the mother of a never failing charity He shall be saved by his faith who by his faith is more than conquerour who resists the Devil and makes him flie and gives laws to his passions and makes them obedient who by his faith overcomes the world and removes mountains the mountains of pride and vanity ambition and secular designs and whose faith casteth out Devils the Devil of lust and the Devil of intempeâ—ance the spirit that appears like a goat and the spirit that comes in the shape of a swine he whose faith opens the blind mans eyes and makes him to see the things of God and cures the lame hypocrite and makes him to walk uprightly For these signs shall follow them that believe said our blessed Saviour and by these as by the wedding garment we are fitted to this heavenly Supper of the King In short for what ever end faith is designed whatever propositions it intends to perswade to what duties soever it does engage to what state of things soever it ought to efform us and whithersoever the nature and intention of the grace does drive us thither we must go that we must do all those things we must believe and to that end we must direct all our actions and designs For â—he nature of faith discovers it self in the affairs of our Religion as in all things if we believe any thing to be good we shall labour for it if we think so we shall do so and if we run after the vanities of the world and neglect our interest of heaven there is no other account to be given of it but because we do not believe the threatnings and the Laws of God or that heaven is not so considerable as those sottish pleasures and tâ—ifling regards for which all pains is too much though we think all labour and all passion is too little Plutarâ—h tells that when poverty desired to have a childe she lay with the God Porus their God of plenâ—y and she proved with childe and brought forth Love by which they intended to represent the nature of the Divine love it is born of a rich Father and a poor mother that is it proceeds from a contempt of the world and a value of God an emptiness of secular affections and a great estimate of wisdom and Religion But therefore it is that God and the fruits of his garden and the wealth of his treasure and the meat of his Table and the graces of his spirit are not gustful and
of our faith and acts of obedience and the confirmation of our hope and the increase of our charity So that although God be gracious in every dispensation yet he is bountiful in this although we serve God in every vertue yet in the worthy reception of this divine Sacrament there must be a conjugation of vertues and therefore we serve him more we drink deep of his loving kindnesse in every effusion of it but in this we are inebriated he always fills our cup but here it runs over The effects of these Considerations are these 1. That by Faith in our dispositions and preparations to the holy Communion is not understood only the act of faith but the body of faith not only believing the articles but the dedication of our persons not only a yielding up of our understanding but the engaging of our services not the hallowing of one faculty but the sanctification of the whole man That faith which is necessary to the worthy receiving this divine Sacrament is all that which is necessary to the susception of Baptism and all that which is produced by hearing the word of God and all that which is exercised in every single grace all that by which we live the life of grace and all that which works by charity and makes a new creature and justifies a sinner and is a keeping the Commandments of God 2. If the manducation of Christs flesh and drinking his blood be spiritual and done by faith and is effected by the spirit and that this faith signifies an intire dedition of our selves to Christ and sanctification of the whole man to the service of Christ then it follows that the wicked do not Communicate with Christ they eat not his flesh and they drink not his blood They eat and drink indeed but it is gravel in their teeth and death in their belly they eat and drink damnation to themselves For unlesse a man be a member of Christ unlesse Christ dwells in him by a living faith he does not eat the bread that came down from heaven They lick the rock saith St. Cyprian but drink not the waters of its emanation They receive the skin of the Sacrament and the bran of the flesh saith St. Bernard But it is in this divine nutriment as it is in some fruits the skin is bitterness and the inward juice is salutary and pleasant the outward Symbols never bring life but they can bring death and they of whom it can be said according to the expression of St. Austin they eat no spiritual meat but they eat the sign of Christ must also remember what old Simeon said in his prophecy of Christ He is a sign set for the fall of many but his flesh and blood spiritually eaten is resurrection from the dead SECT VI. Meditations and Devotions relative to this Preparatory Grace to be used in the days of Preparation or at any time of spiritual Communion St. Bernard's Meditation and Prayer THE Calice which thou O sweetest Saviour Jesus didst drink hath made thee infinitely amiable it was the work of my redemption Certainly nothing does more pleasingly invite or more profitably require or more vehemently affect me than this love for by how much lower thou didst for me descend in the declinations of humility by so much art thou dearer to me in the exaltations of thy charity and thy glory * Learn O my soul how thou oughtest to love Christ who hath given us his flesh for meat his blood for drink the water of his side for our lavatory and his own life for the price of our redemption He is stark and dead cold who is not set on fire by the burning and shining flames of such a charity I. Blessed Saviour Jesus the author and finisher of our faith the fountain of life and salvation by thee let us have accesse to thy Heavenly Father that by thee he may accept us who by thee is revealed to us Let thy innocence and purity procure pardon for our uncleannesse and disobedience let thy humility extinguish our pride and vanity thy meeknesse extinguish our anger and thy charity cover the multitude of our sins II. O blessed Advocate and Mediator intercede for us with thy Father and ours with thy God and ours and grant that by the grace which thou hast found by the prerogative which thou hast deserved by the mercy which thou hast purchased for us that as thou wert partaker of our sufferings and infirmities so we by thy death and resurrection and by thy infinite gracious intercession may be made partakers of thy holinesse and thy glory III. Let the brightnesse of the divine grace for ever shine upon thy servants that we being purified from all errour and infidelity from weak fancies and curious inquiries may perceive and adore the wisdom and the love of God in the truth and mysteriousnesse of this Divine Sacrament And be pleased to lighten in our spirits such a burning love and such a shining devotion that we may truly receive thee and be united unto thee that we may feed on thee the celestial Manna and may with an eye of faith see thee under the cloud and in the vail and at last may see thee in the brightest effusions of thy glory Amen A Confession of Faith in order to the Mysteries of the Holy Sacrament taken out of the Liturgy of St. Clement to be used in the days of Preparation or Communion HOly Holy Holy Lord God of Sabbaoth Heaven and Earth are full of thy glory Blessed art thou O God and blessed is thy Name for ever and ever Amen For thou art holy and in all things thou art sanctified and most exalted and sittest on high above all for ever and ever Holy is thy only begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ who in all things did minister to thee his God and Father both in the creation of the world and in the excellent providence and conservation of it He suffered not mankind to perish but gave to him the Law of nature and a Law written in Tables of stone and reproved them by his Prophets and sent his Angel to be their guards And when men had violated the natural Law and broken that which was written when they had forgotten the Divine Judgment manifested in the deluge upon the old world in fire from heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah in many plagues upon the Egyptians in the slaughters of the Philistins and when the wrath of God did hang over all the world for for their iniquity according to thy will he who made man resolved to become a man he who is the Law-giver would be subject to Laws he that is the High Priest would be made a Sacrifice and the great Shepherd of our souls would be a Lamb and be slain for us Thee his God and Father he appeased and reconciled unto the world and freed all men from the instant anger He was born of a Virgin born in flesh He is God and the Word
the beloved Son the first born of every creature according to the Prophecies which went before him of the seed of of Abraham and David and of the Tribe of Judah He who is the maker of all that are born was conceived in the womb of a Virgin and he that is void of all flesh was incarnate and made flesh He was born in time who was begotten from eternity He conversed piously with men and instructed them with his holy Laws and doctrine He cured every disease and every infirmity He did signs and wonders among the people He slept and eat and drank who feeds all the living with food and fills them with his blessing He declared thy Name to them who knew it not He enlightned our ignorances He enkindled Godliness and fulfilled thy will and finished all that which thou gavest him to do All this when he had done he was taken by the hands of wicked men by the treachery of false Priests and an ungodly people he suffered many things of them and by thy permission suffered all shame and reproach He was delivered to Pilate the President who judged him that is the Judge of the quick and dead and condemned him who is the Saviour of all others He who is impassible was crucified and He died who is of an immortal nature and they buried him by whom others are made alive that by his death and passion he might free them for whom he came and might dissolve the bands of the Devil and deliver men from all his crafty malices But then he rose again from the dead he conversed with his Disciples forty days together and then was received up into heaven and there sits at the right hand of God his Father We therefore being mindful of these things which he did and suffered for us give thanks to thee Almighty God not as much as we should but as much as we can and here fulfil his Ordinance and believe all that he said and know and confess that he hath given us his body to be the food and his blood to be the drink of our souls that in him we live and move and have our being that by him we are taught by his strength enabled by his graces prevented by his spirit conducted by his death pardoned by his resurrection justified and by his intercession defended from all our enemies and set forward in the way of holinesse and life eternal O grant that we and all thy servants who by faith and Sacramental participation communicate with the Lord Jesus may obtain remission of our sins and be confirmed in piety and may be delivered from the power and illusions of the Devil and being filled with thy Spirit may become worthy members of Christ and at last may inherit eternal Life through the same our Lord Jesus Christ Amen CHAP. IV. Of Charity preparatory to the Blessed Sacrament SECT I. THE second great Instrument of preparation to the blessed Sacrament is Charity for though this be involved in faith as in its cause and moral principle yet we are to consider it in the proper effects also of it in its exercise and operations relative to the Mysteries For they that speak distinctly and give proprieties of employment to the two Sacraments by that which is most signal and eminent in them both respectively call Baptism the Sacrament of Faith and the Eucharist the Sacrament of Charity that is Faith in Baptism enters upon the work of a good life and in the holy Eucharist it is actually productive of that Charity which at first was designed and undertaken For Charity is that fire from heaven which unlesse it does enkindle the Sacrifice God will never accept it for an atonement This God declared to us by his Laws given to the sons of Israel and Aaron The Sacrifice that was Gods portion was to be eaten and consumed by himself and therefore to be devoured by the holy fire that came down from heaven And this was imitated by the Persians who worshipped the fire and thought what the fire devoured their god had plainly eaten So Maximus Tyrius tells of them that bringing their Sacrifices they were wont to say O Fire our Lord eat this meat And Pindar in his Olympiaes tells of the Rhodians that when they brought a Sacrifice to Jupiter and had by chance forgotten to bring their fire he accepting of their good intentions and pitying their forgetfulnesse rained down upon them a golden shower from a yellow cloud that is a shower of fire came and consumed their sacrifice Now this is the great emblem of Charity the flame consumes the feasters Sacrifice and makes it a divine nutriment our Charity it purifies the Oblation and makes their Prayers accepted The Tables of the Lord like the Delian Altars must not be defiled with blood and death with anger and revenge with wrath and indignation and this is to be in all senses of duty and ministration an unbloody Sacrifiâ—e The blood of the Crosse was â—he last that was to have been shed The Laws can shed more but nothing else For by remembring and representing the effusion of blood not by shedding it our expiation is now perfected and compleat but nothing hinders it more than the spirit of war and death not only by the emissions of the hand or the apertures of a wound but by the murder of the tongue and the cruelties of the heart or by an unpeaceable disposition It was love that first made Societies and love that must continue our Communions and God who made all things by his power does preserve them by his love and by union and society of parts every creature is preserved When a little wâ—ter is spilt from a full Vessel and falls into its enemy dust it curles it self into a drop and so stands equally armed in every point of the circle dividing the Forces of the enemy that by that little union it may stand as long as it can but if it be dissolved into flatnesse it is changed into the nature and possession of the dust War is one of Gods greatest plagues and therefore when God in this holy Sacrament pours forth the greatest effusion of his love peace in all capacities and in all dimensions and to all purposes he will not endure that they should come to these love-feasts who are unkind to their brethren quarrelsom with their neighbours implacable to their enemies apt to contentions hard to be reconciled soon angry scarcely appeased These are dogs and must not come within the holy place where God who is the Congregating Father and Christ the great minister of peace and the holy spirit of love are present in mysterious Symbols and most gracious Communications For although it be true that God loves us first yet he will not continue to love us or proceed in the methods of his kindnesse unlesse we become like unto him and love For by our love and charity he will pardon us and he will
the Lord Jesus Christ. SECT III. Of speaking good of our neighbours IF it be not in our hands to do well it must be in our hearts and the contrary must never be upon our tongues we are sure we can speak well or we can abstain from speaking ill If it be otherwise with us we can not be welcome here we shall not worthily communicate God opens his mouth and his heart and his bowels his bosome and his treasures to us in this holy Sacrament and calls to us to draw water as from a river and can we come to drink of the pleasant streams that we may have only moisture enough to talk much and long against the honour of our brother or our sister Can it be imagined that Christ who never spake an ill word should take thee into his arms and feast thee at his table and dwell in thy heart and lodge thee in his bosome who makest thy self all one with the Devil whose office and work it is to be an accuser of the Brethren No Christ never will feast serpents at his Table * persons who have stings instead of tongues and venom in all the moisture of their mouth and reproach is their language We should easily consent that he â—hat kiâ—â—â—d a man yesterday and is likely to kill another to morrow were not this day worthy to Communicate now some persons had rather lose their lives than lose their honour what then think we of their preparation to the holy communion that make nothing of murdering their brothers or their sisters same that either invent evil stories falsely and maliciously or believing them easily report them quickly and aggravate them spitefully and scatter them diligently He that delights to report evil things of me that will not endure so much as to have me well spoken of hath certainly but little kindness to me he would very hardly die for me or lay out great sums of mony for me that will not afford me the cheapest charity of a good word The Jewes have a saying that it were better that a man were put into a flame of fire than he should publickly disgrace his Neighbour But in this there are two great considerations that declare the unworthiness of it 1. They who readily speak reproachfully of others destroy all the love and combinations of charity in the world they ruine the excellency and peculiar priviledge of mankind whose nature it is to delight in society and whose needs and nature make it necessary Now slander and reproach and speaking evil one of another poysons love and brings in hatred and corrupts friendship and tempts the biggest vertue by anger to passe unto revenge For an evil tongue is a perpetual storm it is a daily temptation and no vertue can without a miracle withstand its temptation If you strike a lamprey but once with a rod saith the Greek proverb you make him gentle but if often you provoke him A single injury is entertained by Christian patience like a stone into a pocket of wooll it rests soft in the embraces of a meek spirit which delights to see it self overcome a wrong by a worthy sufferance but he that loves to do injury by talk does it in all companies and takes all occasions and brings it in by violence and urges it rudely till patience being weary goes away and is waited upon by Charity which never forsakes or goes away from patience A wound with the tongue is like a bruise it cannot be cured in four and twenty hours 2. No man sins singly in such instances as these Some men commit one murder and never do another some men are surprized and fall into uncleanness or drunkenness but repent of it speedily and never again return to folly but an evil and an uncharitable tongue is an accursed principle it is in its very nature and original equal to an evil habit and it enters without temptation and dwells in every part of our conversation and injures every man and every woman and is like the evil spirit that was in love with Tobias his wife if you drive him from Nineve he will run to the utmost parts of Egypt there also unlesse an Angel binde him he will do all the mischief in the world for there is not in the world a worse Devil than a devilish tongue But I am not now to speak of it as it is injurious to our neighbour but as it is an hinderance to our worthy communicating The mouth that speaketh lies or stings his neighbour or boasteth proud things is not fit to drink the blood of the sacrificed Lamb. Christ enters not into those lips from whence slander and evil talkings do proceed and the tongue that loves to dispraise his brother can not worthily celebrate the praises and talk of the glorious things of God and let no man deceive himself an injurious talker is an habitual sinner and he that does not learn the discipline of the tongue can never have the charity of Christ or the blessings of the peaceful Sacrament Persons that slander or disgrace their brother are bound to make restitution It is as if they had stoln a jewel they must give it back again or not come hither But they that will neither do nor speakwell of others are very far from charity and they that are so ought to be as far from the Sacrament or they will not be very far from condemnation But a good man will be as careful of the reputation as of the life of his brother and to be apt to speak well of all men is a sign of a charitable and a good man and that goes a great way in our preparation to a worthy Communion SECT IV. Forgiveness of injuries a necessary part of preparation to the holy Sacrament THis duty is expressed not only as obligatory to us but as relative to the Holy Sacrament in the words of our blessed Saviour When thou bringest thy gift to the Altar and there remembrest that thy Brother hath ought against thee leave there thy gâ—ft and go be first reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer This Precept was indeed instanced in the Levitical Sacrifices and Jewish Altars but because as St. Irenaeus observes the Precepts of Christ however expressed relate to Moses Law but less principally and chiefly designe an Evangeli al duty therefore he referrs these words to the celebration of the Christian Eucharistical Sacrifice and Oblation concerning which he hath these excellent words From the beginning God respected Abels offering because he offered in righteousness and singleness of heart But God regarded not the Sacrifice of Cain because he had a heart divided from his Brother full of zeal and malice and therefore God who knoweth all secrets thus reproves him If thou doest rightly offer but not rightly divide be quiet God will not be appeased with thy sacrifice For if any one in outward appearance offers a clean
hast thou to do to declare my Statutes or that thou shouldst take my Covenant in thy mouth seeing thou hatest instruction and castest my words behind thee Thou sittest and speakest against thy Brother thou slanderest thine own mothers Son These things thou hast done and I kept silence but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes Now consider this ye that forget God lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver Deliver me from bloud-guiltiness O God thou God of my salvation and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness Blessed is he that considereth the poor the Lord will deliver him in the time of trouble The Lord will deliver him and keep him alive and he shall be blessed upon the earth and thou wilt not deliver him into the will of his enemies The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness But I said Lord be merciful to me heal my soul for I have sinned against thee Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness in the day time and in the night his song shall be with me and my prayer unto the God of my life O send out thy light and thy truth let them lead me let them bring me to thy holy Hill and to thy Tabernacles Then will I go unto the Altar of God my exceeding joy yea upon the harp will I praise thee O God my God The righteous shall be glad in the Lord and shall trust in him and all the upright in heart shall glory Do good O Lord to them that are true of heart and evermore mightily defend them Do good in thy good pleasure unto Sion build thou the walls of Jerusalem In God will I praise his word in the Lord will I praise his word Thy vows are upon me O God I will render praises unto thee For thou hast delivered our souls from death wilt not thou deliver our feet from falling that we may walk before God in the light of the living I will love thee O God and praise thee for ever because thou hast done it and I will wait on thy name for it is good before thy Saints Glory be to the Father c. A Prayer for the grace of Charity c. O Most gentle most merciful and gracious Saviour Jesu thou didst take upon thee our nature to redeem us from sin and misery thou wert for us led as a Lamb to the slaughter and as a Sheep before the shearer is dumb so thou openedst not thy mouth thou turnedst thy back to the smiters and thy cheeks to the nippers thou wert mock'd and whip'd crucified and torn but thou didst nothing but good to thy enemies and prayedst with loud cries for thy persecutors and didst heal the wound of one that come to lay violent hands upon thee O plant in my heart gentleness and patience a meek and a long suffering spirit that I may never be transported with violent angers never be disordered by peevishness never think thoughts of revenge but may with meekness receive all injuries that shall be done to me and patiently bear every cross accident and with charity may return blessing for cursing good for evil kind words for foul reproaches loving admonitions for scornful upbraidings gentle treatments for all derisions and affronts that living all my daies with meekness and charity keeping peace with all men and loving my neighbour as my self and thee more than my self and more than all the world I may at last come into the regions of peace and eternal charity where thou livest who lovest all men and wouldst have none to perish but all men to be saved through thee O most merciful Saviour and Redeemer Jesu Amen An act of Forgiveness to be said with all earnestness and sincerity before every Communion O God my God I have sinned grievously against thee I am thy debtor in a vast and an Eternal debt and if thou shouldest take the forfeiture I shall be for ever bound in eternal prisons even till I pay the utmost farthing But I hope in thy mercies that thou wilt forgive me my ten thousand Talents and I also do in thy presence forgive every one that hath offended me whoever hath taken my goods privately and injuriously or hurt my person or contrived any evil against me whether known or unknown who ever hath lessened my reputation detracted from my best endeavours or hath slandered me or reproached reviled or in any word or way done me injury I do from the bottom of my soul forgive him praying thee also that thou wilt never impute to him any word or thought or action done against me but forgive him as I desire thou wouldst also forgive me all that I have sinned against thee or any man in the world Give him thy grace and a holy repentance for whatever he hath done amiss grant he may do so no more keep me from the evil tongues and injurious actions of all men and keep all my enemies from all the expresses of thy wrath and let thy grace prevail finally upon thy servant that I may never remember any injury to the prejudice of any man buâ— that I may walk towards my enemies as Christ did who received much evil but went about seeking to do goâ—d to every man and if ever it shall be in my power and my opportunity to return evill O then grant that the spirit of love and forgiveness may triumph over all anger and malice and revenge that I may be the Son of God and maâ— love God and prove my love to thee by my love to my Brother and by obedience to all thy Laws through the Son of thy love by whom thou art reconciled to mankind our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Amen Vers. Remember not Lord our offences nor the offences of our forefathers neither take thou vengeance of our sins Resp. Spare us good Lord spare thy people whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood and be not angry with us for ever Amen CHAP. V. Of Repentance preparatory to the Blessed Sacrament SECT I. WHen Isaac and Abimelech had made a covenant of peace and mutual agreement they would not confirm it by a Sacramental Oath till the next morning that they might swear fasting for the reverence and religious regard of the solemn Oath saith Lyra. But Philo says they did it Symbolically to represent that purity and cleanness of soul which he that swears to God or comes to pay his vows ought to preserve with great Religion He that in a religious and solemn addresse comes to God ought to consider whether his body be free from uncleannesse and his soul from vile affections He that is righteous let him be righteous still and he that is justified let him be justified yet more saith the Spirit of God and then it follows He that thirsts let him come and drink of the living waters freely and without money meaning
that when our affections to sin are gone when our hearts are clean then we may freely partake of the feast of the supper of the Lamb. For as in natural forms the more noble they are the more noble dispositions are required to their production so it is in the spiritual for when Christ is to be efformed in us when we are to become the Sons of God flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone we must be washed in water and purified by faith and sanctified by the spirit and cleansed by an excellent repentance we must be confirmed by a holy hope and softned by charity So God hath ordered in the excellent fabrick of humane bodies First our meat is prepared by fire then macerated by the teeth then digested in the stomach where the first separation is made of the good from the bad the wholesom juyces from the more earthy parts these being sent down to earth the other are conveyed to the Liver where the matter is separated again and the good is turned into blood and the better into spirits and thence the body is supplied with blood and the spirits repair unto the heart and head that thence they may be sent on Embassies for the ministeries of the body and for the work of understanding So it is in the dispensation of the affairs of the soul The ear which is the mouth of the soul receives all meat and the senses entertain the fuel for all passions and all interests of vertue and vice But the understanding makes the first separation dividing the clean from the unclean But when the spirit of God comes and purifies even the separate matter making that which is morally good to be spiritual and holy first cleansing us from the sensualities of flesh and blood and then from spiritual iniquities that usually debauch the soul then the holy nourishment which we receive passes into diviâ—e excellencies But if sensuality be in the palate and intemperance in the stomach if lust be in the liver and anger in the heart it corrupts the holy food and makes that to be a savour of death which was intended for health and holy blessiâ—gs But therefore when we have lived in the corrupted air of evil company and have sucked in the vile juices of coloquintida and the deadly henbane when that is within the heart which defiles the man the soul must be purged by repentance it must be washed by tears and purified by penitential sorrow For he that comes to this holy Feast with an unrepenting heart is like the flies in the Temple upon the day of Sacrifice the little insect is very busie about the flesh of the slain beasts she flies to every corner of the Temple and she tastes the flesh before the portion is laid before the God but when the nidour and the delicacy hath called such an unwelcome guest she corrupts the Sacrifice and therefore dies at the Altar or is driven away by the officious Priest So is an unworthy Communicant he comes it may be with pâ—ssion and an earnest zeal he hopes to be fed and he hopes to be made immortal he thinks he does a holy action and shall receive a holy blessing but what is his portion It is a glorious thing to be feasted at the Table of God glorious to him that is invited and prepared but not to him that is unprepared hateful and impenitent But it is an easie thing to say that a man must repent before he communicates so he must before he prayes before he dies before he goes a journey the whole life of a man is to be a continual repentance but if so then what particular is that which is required before we receive the holy Communion For if it be an universal duty of infinit extent of unlimited comprehension then every Christian must alwayes be doing some of the offices of repentance but then which are the peculiar parts and offices of this grace which have any special and immediate relation to this solemnity for if there be none the Sermons of repentâ—nce are nothing but the general doctrine of good life but of no special efficacy in our preparation The answer to this will explicate the intricacy and establish the measures of our duty in this proper relation in order to this ministery SECT II. The necessity of repentance in order to the holy Sacrament 1. THe holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper does not produce it's intended effect upon an unprepared subject He that gives his body to that which is against the spirit his spirit to the affections of the body cannot receive the body of Christ in a spiritual maner He that receives Christ must in great truth be a servant of Christ. It is not lawful saith Justin Martyr for any one to receive the holy Eucharistical bread and to drink of the sacred Calice but to him that believes and to him that lives according to Christs Commandment For as St. Paul argues of the infinite undecency of fornication because it is a making the members of Christ to become the members of an harlot upon the same account it is infinitely impossible that any such polluted persons should become the members of Christ to the intents of blessing and the spirit How can Christs body be communicated to them who are one flesh with an harlot and so it is in all other sins we cannot partake of the Lords table and the table of Devils A wicked person and a Communicant are of contrary interests of differing relations designed to divers ends fitted with other dispositions they work not by the same principles are not weighed in the same ballance nor meted by like measures and therefore they that come must be innocent or return to innocence that is they must repent or be such persons as need no repentance and St. Ambrose gives this account of the practise of the Church in this affair This is the order of this mystery which is every where observed that first by the pardon of our sins our souls be healed and the wounds cured with the medicine of repentance and then that our souls be plentifully nourished by this holy Sacrament and to this purpose he expounds the parable of the prodigal son saying that no man ought to come to this Sacrament unless he have the wedding ring and the wedding garment unless he have receiv'd the seal of the spirit and is cloathed with white garments the righteousness and justification of the Saints And to the same purpose it is that St. Cyprian complains of some in his Church who not having repented not being put under discipline by the Bishop and the Clergy yet had the Sacrament ministred to them against whom he presses the severe words of St. Paul He that eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks damnation to himself that is he that repents not of his sins before he comes to the Holy Sacrament comes before he is prepared and therefore
before he should and St. Basil hath a whole chapter on purpose to prove that it is not safe for any man that is not purged from all pollution of flesh and spirit to eat the body of the Lord and that is the title of the chapter The wicked think to appease God with rivers of oyl and hecatombs of oxen and with flocks of sheep they think by the ceremony and the gift to make peace with God to get pardon for their sin and to make way for more but they lose their labour saies the comedy and throw away their cost because God accepts no breakers of their vowes he loves no mans sacrifice that does not truly love his service what if you empty all the Maevanian valleys and drive the fat lambs in flocks unto the Altars what if you sacrifice a herd of white buls from Clitumnus One sacrifice of a troubled spirit one offering of a broken heart is a better oblation then all the wealâ—h which the fields of the wicked can produce God by the forms and rites of sacrifice teaches us how to come to the Altars whether for Prayer or Eucharist we must be sure to bring no evil passion no spiritual disease along with us faith Philo. The sacrament of the Lords Supper is the Christian sacrifice and though the lamb of God is represented in a pure oblation yet we must bring something of our own our lusts must be crucified our passions brought in fetters bound in chains and laid down at the foot of the throne of God We must use our sins as the asses first colt was to be used among the Jewes there is no redeeming of it but only by the breaking of its neck and when a sinner comes to God groaning under his load carrying the dead body of his lusts and laying them before the Altar of God saying this is my pride that almost ruin'd me here is the corps of my lusts they are now dead and as carkasses are more heavy then living bodies so now my sin feels more ponderous because it is mortified I now feel the intollerable burden and I cannot bear it When a sinner makes this address to God coming with a penitential soul with a holy sorrow and with holy purposes then no oblation shall be more pleasing no guest more welcome no sacrifice more accepted The Sacrament is like the word of God if you receive it worthily it will do you good if unworthily it will be your death and your destruction Here the penitent can be cleansed and here the impenitent are consumed here they that are justified shall be justified still and they that are unholy become more unholy and accursed here they that have not shall have more abundantly and they that have not shall lose what they have already here the living are made strong and happy and the dead do die again He that giveth honour to a fool saith Solomon is like him that bindeth a stone in the sling so we read it but so it is not easie to tell the meaning The vulgar Latine reads it As he that throws a stone into the heap of Mercury so is he that giveth honour to a fool and so the Proverb is easie For the Gentiles did of old worship Mercury by throwing stones at him now giving honour to a fool is like throwing a stone at Mercury that is a strange and unreasonable act for as the throwing of stones is against all natural and reasonable way of Worship and Religion and is against the way of honour so is a fool as strange and unfit a person to receive it But when Rabbi Manasses threw stones at Mercury in contempt and defiance of the image and thâ— false god he was questioned for idolatry and paid his liberty in exchange for his outward worship of what he secretly hated but by his external act he was brought to judgment and condemned for his hypocrisie This is the case of every one that in a state of sins comes to the holy Sacrament he comes to receive the bread of God and throws a stone at him he pretends worship and secretly hates him and no man must come hither but all that is within him and all that is without must be symbolical to the nature and holiness of the mysteries to the designs and purposes of God In short The full sense of all this is expressed in the Canon-Law in a few words A Sacrament is not to be given but to him that repents for there must no sinful habit or impure affection remain in that tabernacle where God means to place his holy spirit It is like bringing of a swine into the Propitiatory such a presence cannot stand with the presence of the Lord. It is Dagon before the Ark the Chechinah the glory of the Lord wil depart from that unhallowed place But because the duty of Repentance as it is a particular grace is limited and affirmative and therefore is determinable by proper relations and accidents and there is a special necessity of repentance before the receiving of the Sacrament we must inquire more particularly 1. What actions or parts of repentance are necessary in our preparation to the receiving these Divine mysteries 2. How far a penitent must be advanced in a good life before he may come safely and how far before he mâ—y come with confidence 3. What significations of repentance are to be accepted by the Church 4. Whether in case the duty be not performed may every Minister of the Sacrament refuse to admit the wicked person or the imperfect penitent that offers himself and persists in the desire of it SECT III. What actions of repentance are specially required in our preparations to the Holy Sacrament THe particular actions of repentance which are to be performed in their proper seasons which cannot be alwaies actual because they have variety and cannot be attended to altogether all such particulars of repentance are then in their season they have this for their opportunity For it is an admirable wisdom of God so to dispose the times and advantages of Religion that by the solennities of duty our dispersions are gathered up our wandrings are united our indifferencies are kindled our weariness is recreated our spirits are made busie our attention is called upon our powers are made active our vertues fermented we are called upon and looked after and engaged For as it is in motion and as it is in lines a long and a straight progression diminishes the strength and makes languishing and infirmity but by doubling the point or making a new Centre the moving body gathers up its parts and powers into a narrower compass and by union as by a new beginning is rescued from weakness and diminution So it is in the life of a Christian when he first sets forth he is zealous and forward full of appetite and full of holy fires but when his little fuel is consumed and his flame abates when
yet still this is done by parts and methods of natural progression after the manner of nature though by the aids of God and therefore it is fit that we expect the changes and make our judgment by material events and discerned mutations before we communicate in these mysteries in which whoever unworthily does communicate enters into death 4. He that hath resolved against all sin and yet falls into it regulaâ—ly at the next temptation is yet in a state of evil and unworthiness to communicate because he is under the dominion of sin he obeys it though unwillingly that is he grumbles at his fetters but still he is in slavery and bondage But if having resolved against all sin he delights in none deliberately chooses none is not so often surprized grows stronger in grace and is mistaken but seldom and repents when he is and arms himself better and watches more carefully against all and increases still in knowledge whatever imperfection is still adherent to the man unwillingly does indeed allay his condition and is fit to humble and cast him down but it does not make him unworthy to communicate because he is in the state of grace he is in the Christian warfare and is on Gods side and the holy Sacrament if it have any effect at all is certainly an instrument or a sign in the hands of God to help his servants to inlarge his grace to give more strengths and to promote them to perfection 5. But the sum of all is this He that is not freed from the dominion of sin he that is not really a subject of the Kingdom of grace he in whose mortal body sin does reign and the Spirit of God does not reign must at no hand present himself before the holy Table of the Lord because whatever dispositions and alterations he may begin to have in order to pardon and holiness he as yet hath neither but is Gods enemy and therefore cannot receive his holy Son 6. But because the change is made by parts and effected by the measures of other intellectual and spiritual changes that is after the manner of men from imperfection to perfection by all the intermedial steps of moral degrees and good and evil in some periods have but a little distance though they should have a great deal and it is at first very hard to know whether it be life or death and after that it is still very difficult to know whether it be health or sickness and dead men cannot eat and sick men scarce can eat with benefit at least are to have the weakest and the lowest diet and after all this it is of a consequence infinitely evil if men eat this Supper indisposed and unfit It is all the reason of the world that returning sinners should be busie in their repentances and do their work in the field as it is in the parable of the Gospel and in their due time come home and gird themselves and wait upon their Lord and when they are bidden and warranted then to sit down in the Supper of their Lord. But in this case it is good to be as sure as we can as sure as the analogy of these divine Mysteries require and as our needs permit 7. He that hath committed a single act of sin a little before the Communion ought for the reverence of the holy Sacrament to abstain till he hath made proportionable amends and not only so but if the sin was inconsistent with the state of grace and destroyed or interrupted the divine favour as in cases of fornication murder perjury any malicious or deliberate known great crime he must comport himself as a person returning from a habit or state of sin and the reason is because he that hath lost the divine favour cannot tell how long he shall be before he recovers it and therefore would do well not to snatch at the portion and food of Sons whilest he hath reason to fear that he hath the state and calamity of Dogs who are caressed well if they feed on fragments and crums that are thrown away Now this Doctrine and these cautions besides that they are consonant to Scripture and the analogy of this divine Sacrament are nothing else but what was directly the sentiment of all the best most severe religious and devoutest ages of the Primitive Church For true it is the Apostles did indefinitely admit the faithful to the holy Communion but they were persons wholly enflamed with those holy fires which Jesus Christ sent from heaven to make them burning and shining lights such which our dearest Lord with his blood still warm and fresh filled with his holy love such whose spirits were so separate from the affections of the world that they laid their estates at the Apostles feet and took with joy the spoiling of their goods such who by improving the graces they had received did come to receive more abundantly and therefore these were fit to receive the bread of the strong But this is no invitation for them to come who feel such a lukewarmnesse and indifference of spirit and devotion that they have more reason to suspect it to be an effect of evil life rather than of infirmity for them who feel no heats of love but of themselves for them who are wholly immerg'd in secular affections and interests for them who are full of passions and void of grace these from the example of the others may derive caution but no confidence So long as they persever'd in the Doctrine of the Apostles so long they also did continue in the breaking of bread and solemn conventions for prayer for to persevere in the Doctrine of the Apostles signified a life most exactly Christian for that was the Doctrine Apostolical according to the words of our Lord teaching to observe all things which I have commanded you And by this method the Apostolical Churches and their descendants did administer these holy Mysteries a full and an excellent testimony whereof we have in that excellent Book of Ecclesiastical Hierarchy commonly attributed to St. Dionys. The Church drives from the Sacrifice of the Temple meaning the divine Sacrament such persons for whom it is too sublime and elevated First those who are not yet instructed and taught concerning the participation of the Mysteries Next those who are fallen from the holy and Christian state meaning Apostates and such as have renounced their Baptism or fallen from the grace of it by a state of deadly sin or foulest crimes Thirdly they who are possessed with evil spirits And lastly those who indeed have begun to retire from sin to a good life but they are not yet purified from the phantasms and images of their past inordinations by a divine habitude and love with purity and without mixture And to conclude they who are not yet perfectly united to God alone and to speak according to the style of Scripture they who are not intirely inculpable and without reproach And when St.
Soter exhorted all persons to receive upon the day of the Institution or the vespers of the Passion he excepted those who were forbidden because they had committed any grievous sin But what was the Doctrine and what were the usages of the Primitive Church in the ministery of the Blessed Sacrament appears plainly in the two Epistles of St. Basil to Amphilochius in the Canons of Ancyra those of Peter of Alexandria Gregory Thaumaturgus and Nyssâ—en which make up the Penitential of the Greek Church and are explicated by Balsamo in which we find sometimes the penance of two years imposed for a single theft four years and seven years for an act of uncleannesse eleven years for perjury fifteen years for adultery and incest that is such persons were for so many years sepâ—rate from the Communion and by a holy life and strict observances of penitential impositions were to give testimony of their contrition and amends The like to which are to be seen in the Penitentials of the Western Church that of Theodorus Archbishop of Canterbury that of venerable Bede the old Roman and that of Rabanus Maurus Archbishop of Mentz The reason of which severity we find thus accounted in St. Basil All this is done that they may try the fruits of their repentance For we do not judge of these things by the time but by the manner of their repentance For the Bishop had power to shorten the days of their separation and abstention and he that was an excellent penitent was much sooner admitted but by the injunction of so long a trial they declar'd that much purification was necessary for such an address And if after or in these penitential years of abstention they did not mend their lives though they did perform their penances they were not admitted These were but the Churches signs by other accidents and manifestations if it hapned that a great contrition was signified or a secret incorrigibility became publick the Church would admit the first sooner and the latter not at all For it was purity and holinesse that the Church required of all her Communicants and what measure of it she required we find thus testified The faithful which hath been regenerated by baptism ought to be nourished by the participation of the divine Mysteries and being cloathed with Jesus Christ and having the quality of a child of God he ought to receive the nutriment of life eternal which the Son of God himself hath given us and this nutriment is obedience to the word of God and execution of his will of which Jesus Christ hath said Man lives not by bread alone but my meat is to do my Fathers will and a little after he affirms that whereas St. Paul saith that Jesus Christ hath appointed us to eat his body in memory of his death the true remembrance which we ought to have of his death is to place before our eyes that which the Apostle saith that we were wholly dead and Jesus Christ died for us to the end that we should no more live unto our selves but to him alone and that so we should do him honour and give him thanks for his death by the purity of our life without which we engage our selves in a terrible damnation if we receive the Eucharist And again He that not having this charity which presses us and causes us to live for him who died for us dares approach to the Eucharist grieves the holy Spirit For it is necessary that he who comes to the memorial of Jesus Christ who died and rose again for us should not only be clean from all impurity of flesh and spirit but that he should demonstrate the death of him who died and rose for us by being dead unto sin to the world and to himself and that he lives no more but only to God through Jesus Christ. And therefore St. Cyprian complains as of a new and worse persecution that lapsed persons are admitted to the Communion before they have brought forth fruits of a worthy repentance and affirms that such an admission of sinners is to them as hail to the young fruits as a blasting wind to the trees as the murren to the cattel as a tempest to the ships The ships are overturned and broken the fruits fall the trees are blasted the cattel die and the poor sinner by being admitted too soon to the ministeries of eternal life falls into eternall death And if we put together some words of Sâ— Ambrose they clearly declare this Doctrine and are an excellent Sermon Thou comest to the Altar the Lord Jesus calls thee he sees thee to be clean from all sin because thy sins are wash'd away therefore he judges thee worthy of the câ—lestial Sacraments and therefore he invites thee to the heavenly banquet Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth But some desire to be admitted to penance that presently they may receive the Communion These men do not so much desire themselves to be absolved as that the Priest be bound for they do not put off their own evil conscience But I would that the guilty man should hope for pardon let him require it with tears seek it with sighs beg to obtain it by the weepings of all the people and if he be denied the Communion again and again let him consider that his prayer was not sufficiently earnest let him weep more and pray more To which I shall add some like words of St. Austin Therefore my dearest Brethren let every one consider his conscience and when he finds himself wounded with any crime first let him take care with prayers and fastings and alms to cleanse his conscience and so let him receive the Eucharist .... for he that knowing his guilt shall humbly remove himself from the Altar for the amendment of his life shall not fear to be wholly ex-communicate from that eternal and celestial banquet For this Divine Sacrament is not to be eaten with confidence and boldnesse but with fear and all manner of purity saith St. Chrysostome for impudence in these approaches will certainly slay the souls For thâ—s is the body whither none but Eagles are to gather because they ought to be sublime and elevated souls such which have nothing of earthliness in them that do not sit and prey upon the ground that are not immerg'd in the love of Creatures but such whose flight is towards heaven whose spirit does behold the Sun of Righteousnesse with a penetrating contemplation and piercing eyes for this is the Table of Eagles and not of Owls And therefore this Saint complains of some who did approach to the Eucharist as it were by chance or rather by custom and constraint of Laws rather than by argument and choice In whatsoever estate their souls are they will partake of these Mysteries because it is Lent or because it iâ— the feast of the Epiphany but certain it is that it is not the time which puts us into
or prevails dangerously and because our returns to God and the mortifications of sin are divisible and done by parts and many steps of progression they that delay their Communion that they may be surer do very well provided that they do not stay too long thâ—t is that their fear do not tâ—rn to timorousness their religion do not change into superstition their distrust of themselves into a jealousie of God their apprehension of the greatness of their sin into a secret diffidence of the greatness of the Divine mercy And therefore in the first conversions of a sinner this reverence may be longer allowed to a good man than afterwards But it must be no longer allowed than till he hath once communicated For if he hath once been partaker of the Divine mysteries since his repentance he must no longer forbear for in this case it is true that he who is not fit to receive every day is fit to receive no day If he thinks that he ought wholly to abstain let him use his caution and his fear to the advantages of his repentance and the heightning of his longings but if he may safâ—ly come once he may piously come often He caâ—not long stand at this distance if he be the man he is supposed But for the time of his total abstention let him be conducted by a spiritual guide whom he may safely trust For if he cannot by the usual methods of repentance and the known Sermons of the Gospel be reduced to peace and a quiet conscience let him declare his estate to a spiritual Guide and if he thinks it fit to absolve him that is to declare him to be in the state of grace and pardon it is all the warrant which with the testimony of Gods Spirit bearing witness to our spirit we can expect in this world I remember what a religious person said to Petrus Celestinus who was a great Saint but of a timorous conscience in this particular Thou abstainest from the blessed Sacrament because it is a thing so sacred and formidable that thou canst not think thy self worthy of it Well suppose that But I pray who is worthy Is an Angel worthy enough No câ—râ—ainly if we consider the greatness of the mystery But consider the goodness of God and the usual measures of good men and the commands of Christ inviting us to come and commanding us and then Cum timore reverentiâ frequenter operare Receive it often with feare and reverence To which purpose these two things are fit to be considered 1. Supposing this fear and reverence to be good and commendable in his case who really is fit to communicate but does not think so yet if we compare it with that grace which prompts a good man to take it often we may quickly perceive which is best Certainly that act is in its own nature best which proceeds from the best and the most perfect grace but to abstain proceeds from fear and to come frequently being worthily disposed is certainly the product of love and holy hunger the effect of the good Spirit who by his holy fires makes us to thirst after the waters of salvation As much then as love is better than fear so much it is to be preferred that true penitents and well-grown Christians should frequently address themselves to these Sacramental Unions with their Lord. 2. The frequent use of this Divine Sacrament proceeds from more as well as from more noble vertues For here is obedience and zeal worship and love thanksgiving and oblation devotion and joy holy hunger and holy thirst an approach to God in the waies of God union and adherence confidence in the Divine goodness and not only hope of pardon but a going to receive it and the omission of all these excellencies cannot in the present case be recompenced by an act of religious fear For this can but by accident and upon supposition of something that is amiss be at all accounted good and therefore ought to give place to that which supposing all things to be as they ought is directly good and an obedience to a Divine Commandment For we may not deceive our selves the matter is not so indifferent as to be excused by every fair pretence It is unlawful for any man unprepared by repentance and its fruits to communicate but it is necessary that we should be prepared that we may come For plague and death threaten them that do not communicate in this mysterious banquet as certainly as danger is to them who come unduly and as it happens For the Sacrament of the Lords body is commanded to all men saith Tertullian and it is very remarkable what St. Austin said in this affair The force of the Sacraments is of an unspeakable value and therefore it is sacriledge to despise it For that is impiously despised without which we cannot come to the perfection of piety So that although it is not in all cases the meer not receiving that is to be blamed but the despising it yet when we consider that by this means we arrive at perfection all causless recusancy is next to contempt by interpretation One thing more I am to add whereas some persons abstain from a frequent Communion for fear lest by frequency of receiving they should less esteem the Divine mysteries and fall into lukewarmness and indevotion the consideration is good and such persons indeed may not receive it often but not for that reason but because they are not fit to receive it at all For whoever grows worse by the Sacrament as Judas after the Sop hath an evil spirit within him for this being by the design of God a savour of life it is the fault of the receiver if it passes into death and diminution of the spiritual life He therefore that grows less devout and less holy and less reverent must start back and take physick and throw out the evil spirit that is within him for there is a worm in the heart of the tree a peccant humour in the stomach it could not be else that this Divine nutriment should make him sick Question II. But is every man bound to communicate that is present or that comes into a Church where the Communion is prepared though but by accident and without design and may no man that is fit omit to communicate in every opportunity To this I answer That in the Primitive Church it was accounted scandalous and criminal to be present at the holy Offices and to go out at the celebration of the Mysteries What cause is there O Hearers that ye see the Table and come not to the Banquet said St. Austin If thou stand by and do not communicate thou art wicked thou art shameless thou art impudent So St. Chrysostome and to him that objects he is not worthy to communicate he answers that then neither is he fit to pray And the Council of Antioch and of Bracara commanded that those
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
to a man had in reputation for wisdom is as a fly in a box of oyntment not only uselesse but mischievous And S. Bernard commends S. Malachie because he reprov'd a Deacon for attending at the Altar the day after he had suffered an illusion in the night It had been better he had abstain'd from the Altar one day and by that intermediate expiation and humility have the next day return'd to a more worthy ministery 4. One degree of curious caution I find beyond all this in an instance of St. Gregory the Great in whose life we find that he abstain'd some days from the holy Communion because there was found in a Village neer to Rome a poor man dead no man could tell how but because the good Bishop fear'd he might have been starv'd and that he died for want of provision he supposing it might reflect upon him as a defect in his Government or of his personal Charity thought it fit to deplore the accident and to abstain from the Communion till he might hope for pardon in case he had done amiss If these things proceed from the sincerity of a well disposed spirit that can suffer any trouble rather than that of sin the product is well enough and in all likelihood would always be well if the case were conducted by a prudent spiritual guide for then it would not change into scruples and superstition But these are but the fears and cautions and securities of a tender spirit but are not an answer to the Question Whether it be lawful for such persons to Communicate For certainly they may if all things else be right and they may be right in the midst of such little accidents But these belong to the questions of perfection and excellencies of grace these are the extraordinaries of them who never think they do well enough and therefore they extended no further than to a single abstention or some little proportionable retirement and may be useful when they are in the hands of prudent and excellent persons SECT V. What significations of Repentance are to be accepted by the Church in admission of Penitents to the Communion THis inquiry will quickly be answered when we consider that the end why the Church enjoyns publick or private amends respectively to any convict or confessed Criminal she only does it as a Mother and a Physician to souls and a Minister of the Divine Pardon and the Conductress of penitential Processes she does it that the man may be recovered from the snare of the enemy that she may destroy the work of the Devil that the sinner may become a good Christian and therefore the Church when she conducts any mans repentance is bound to enjoyn so many external Ministeries that if they be really joyned with the external contrition and reformation will do the work of reconcilement in the Court of heaven The Church can exact none but what she can see or some way take external notice of but by these externals intends to minister to the internal repentance which when it is sufficiently signified by any ways that she may prudently rely upon as testimonies and ministeries of a sufficient internal contrition and real amends she can require no more and she ought not to be content with lesse It is therefore infinitely unsafe and imprudent to receive the Confessions of Criminals and after the injunction of certain cursory penances to admit them to the Blessed Sacrament without any further emendation without any trial of the sincerity of their conversion before it is probable that God hath pardon'd them before their affections to sin are dead before the spirit of mortification is entred before any vice is exterminated or any vertue acquired Such a loosnesse of discipline is but the image of repentance whether we look upon it as it is described in Scripture or as it was practised by the Primitive Church which at least is a whole change of life a conversion of the whole man to God And it is as bad when a notorious criminal is put to shame one day for such a sin which could not have obtain'd the peace of the Church under the severity and strictness of fifteen years amongst the holy Primitives Such publick Ecclesiastical penances may suffice to remove the scandal from the Church when the Church will be content upon so easie terms for she only can tell what will please her self But then such discipline must not be esteem'd a sufficient ministery of repentance nor a just disposition to pardon For the Church ought not to give pardon or to promise the peace of God upon terms easier than God himself requires and therefore when repentance comes to be conducted by her she must require so much as will extinguish the sin and reform the man and make him and represent him good All the liberty that the Church hath in this is what is given her by the latitude of the judgment of charity and yet oftentimes a too easie judgment is the greatest uncharitableness in the world and makes men confident and careless and deceiv'd and therefore although gentle sentences are useful when there is danger of dispair or contumacy yet that is rather a palliation of a disease than a cure and therefore the method must be chang'd as soon as it can and the severe and true Sermons of the Gospel must be either proclaimed aloud or insinuated prudently and secretly and men be taught to rely upon them and their consequents and upon nothing else for they will not deceive us But the corrupt manners of men and the corrupt doctrines of some Schools have made it almost impossible to govern souls as they need to be governed The Church may indeed chuse whether she will impose on Criminals any exterior significations of repentance but accept them to the Communion upon their own accounts of a sincere conversion and inward contrition but then she ought to do this upon such accounts as are indeed real and sufficient and effective and allowed that is when she can understand that such an emendation is made and the man is really reformed she can pronounce him pardoned or which is all one she may communicate him And farther yet she can by Sermons declare all the necessary parts of repentance and the conditions of pardon and can pronounce limited and hypothetical or conditional pardons concerning which the penitent must take care that they do belong to him But if she does undertake to conduct any repentances exteriously it is to very little purpose to do it any way that is not commensurate to that true internal repentance which is effective of pardon Indeed every single act of penance does something towards it but why something should be enjoyned that is not sufficient and that falls infinitely short of the end of its designation though the Church may use her liberty yet it is not easie to understand the reason But I leave this to the consideration of those who are concerned
do thou relieve him and never communicate but be sure to give thy alms for one part of thy offering St. Cyprian does with some vehemency upbraid some wealthy persons in his time who came to the celebration of the Lords Supper and neglected the Corban or the ministring to the Saints Remember that by mercy to the poor the sentence of dooms-day shall be declared because what we do to them we do to Christ and who would not relieve Christ who hath made himself poor to make us rich And what time is so seasonable to feed the members of Christ as that when he gives his body to feed us and that when his members are met together to confess to celebrate to remember and to be joyned to their head and to one another In short The Church alwaies hath used at that time to be liberal to her poor and that being so seasonable and blessed an opportunity and of it self also a proper act of worship and sacrifice of religion and homage of thankfulness and charity it ought not to be omitted and it can have no measure but that of your love and of your power and the other accidents of your life and your religion 12. As soon as ever you have taken the holy Elements into your mouth and stomach remember that you have taken Christ into you after a manner indeed which you do not understand but to all purposes of blessing and holiness if you have taken him at all And now consider that he who hath given you his Son with him will give you all things else therefore represent to God through Jesus Christ all your needs and the needs of your relatives signifie to him the condition of your soul complain of your infirmities pray for help against your enemies tell him of your griefs represent your fears your hopes and your desires But it is also the great sacrifice of the world which you have then assisted in and represented and now you being joyned to Christ are admitted to intercede for others even for all mankind in all necessities and in all capacities pray therefore for all for whom Christ dâ—ed especially for all that communicate that day for all that desire it that their prayers and yours being united to the intercession of your Lord may be holy and prevail 13. After you have given thanks and finished your private and the publick devotions go home but do not presently forget the solemnity and sink from the sublimity of devotion and mystery into a secular conversation like a falling star from brightness into dirt The Ethiopians would not spit that day they had communicated thinking they might dâ—shonour the Sacrament if before the consumption of the Symbols they should spit but although they meant reverence yet they express'd it ill It was better which is reported of St. Margaret a daughter of the King of Hungary that the day before she was to communicate she fasted with bread and water and after the Communion she retired her self till the evening spending the day in meditations prayers and thanksgiving and at night she eat her meal Her imployment was very well sitted to the day but for her meal it is all one when she eat it so that by eating or abstaining she did advantage to her spiritual imployment But they that as soon as the office is finished part wiâ—h Christ and carry their mind away to other interests have a suspicious indifferency to the things of God They have brought their Lord into the house and themselves slip out at the back-door Otherwise does the Spouse entertain her beloved Lord I found him whom my soul loveth I held him and would not let him go He that considers the advantages of prayer which every faithful soul hath upon a Communion day will not easily let them slâ—p but tell all his said stories to his Lord and make all his wants known and as Jacob to the Aâ—gel will not let him go till he hath given a blessing Upon a Communion-day Christ who is the beloved of the soul is gone to rest and every secular imployment that is not necessary and part of duty and every earthly thought does waken our Beloved before he please let us take heed of that 14. But what we do by devotion and solemn religion that day we must do every day by the material practice of vertues we must verifie all our holy vows and promises we must keep our hearts curiously restrain our passions powerfully every day proceed in the mortification of our angers and desires in the love of God and of our neighâ—â—urs and in the patient toleration of all injuries which men offer and all the evil by which God will try us Let not drunkenness enter or evil words go forth of that mouth through which our Lord himself hath passed The Heathens used to be drunk at their Sacrifices but by this sacrifice Eucharistical it is intended we should be filled with the Spirit If we have communicated worthily we have given our selves to Christ we have given him all our liberty and our life our bodies and our souls our actions and our passions our affections and our faculties what we are and what we have and in exchange have received him and we may say with St. Paul I live but not I But Christ liveth in me So that we must live no more unto the world but unto God and having fed upon Manna let us not long to return to Aegypt to feed on Garlick For as when men have drank wine largely the mind is free and the heart at liberty from care so when we have drank â—he bloud of Christ the cup of our salvation the chains of the old man are untied and we must forget our secular conversation So St. Cyprian But the same precept is better given by Saint Paul But the love of Christ constraineth uâ— becuase we thus judge that he died for all that thâ—y which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things are past away bâ—hold all things are become new He that hath communicated and does not afterwards live by the measures of that daies duty hath but acted a scene of Religion but himself shall dearly pay the pâ—ice of the pompous and solemn hypocrisie Remember that he is sick who is not the better for the bread he eats and if thou dost not by the aids of Christ whom thou hast received subdue thy passion and thy sin thou hast eaten the bread of idleness for so saith St Hierom does every one who when he hath taken of the Sacrificâ— of the Lords body does not persevere in good works imitating that in deed which he hath celebrated in mystery Let us take heed for the Angels are present in these mysteries to wait upon their Lord and ours and it is a matter of great caution
Spirit of mercy and justice prudence and diligence the favour of God and the love of their people and grace and blessing that they may live at peace with thee and with one another remembring the command of their Lord and King the serene and reconciling Jesus 4. Give an Apostolical Spirit to all Ecclesiastical Prelates and Priests grant to them zeal of souls wisdom to conduct their charges purity to become exemplar that their labours and their lives may greatly promote the honour of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus O grant unto thy flock to be fed with wise and holy shepherds men fearing God and hating covetousness free from envy and full of charity that being burning and shining lights men beholding â—heir light may rejoyce in that light and glorifie thee our Father which art in heaven 5. Have mercy upon all states of men and women in the Christian Church the Governors and the governed the rich and the poor high and low grant to every of them in their several station to live with so much purity and faith simplicity and charity justice and perfection that thy will may be done in Earth as it is in Heaven 6. Relieve all oppressed Princes defend and restore their rights and suppress all violent and warring spirits that unjustly disturb the peace of Christendom Relieve and comfort all Gentlemen that are fallen into poverty and sad misfortunes Comfort and support all that are sick and deliver them from all their sorrows and all the powers of the enemy and let the spirit of comfort and patience of holiness and resignation descend upon all Christian people whom thou hast in any instance visited with thy rod And be graciously pleas'd to pity poor mankind shorten the days of our trouble and put an end to the days of our sin and let the Kingdom of our dearest Lord be set up in every one of our hearts and prevail mightily and for ever 7. I humbly present to thy Divine Majesty this glorious Sacrifice which thy servants this day have represented upon earth in behalf of my dearest Relations Wife Children Husband Parents Friends c. Grant unto them whatsoever they want or wisely and holily desire keep them for ever in thy fear and favour grant that they may never sin against thee never fall into thy displeasure never be separated from thy love and from thy presence but let their portion be in the blessing and in the service in the love and in the Kingdom of God for ever and ever 8. Have mercy upon all strangers and aliens from the Kingdom of thy Son let the sweet sound of thy Gospel be heard in all the corners of the earth let not any soul the work of thy own hands the price of thy Sons blood be any longer reckon'd in the portions of thy Enemy but let them all become Christians and grant that all Christians may live according to the Laws of the holy Jesus without scandal and reproach full of faith and full of charity 9. Give thy grace speedily to all wicked persons that they may repent and live well and be saved To all good people give an increase of gifts and holiness and the grace of perseverance and Christian perfection To all Hereticks and Schismaticks grant the Spirit of humility and truth charity and obedience and suffer none upon whom the Name of Christ is called to throw themselves away and fall into the portion of the intolerable burning 10. For all mankind whom I have and whom I have not remembred I humbly represent the Sacrifice of thy eternal Son his merits and obedience his life and death his resurrection and ascension his charity and intercession praying to thee in vertue of our glorious Saviour to grant unto us all the graces of an excellent and perfect repentance an irreconcilable hatred of all sin a great love of God an exact imitation of the holiness of the ever blessed Jesus the spirit of devotion conformable will and religious affections an Angelical purity and a Seraphical love thankful hearts and joy in God and let all things happen to us all in that order and disposition as may promote thy greatest glory and our duty our likeness to Christ and the honour of his Kingdom Even so Father let it be because it is best and because thou lovest it should be so bring it to a real and unalterable event by the miracles of grace and mercy and by the blood of the everlasting Covenant poured forth in the day of the Lords love whom I adore and whom I love and desire that I may still more and more love and love for ever Amen Amen SECT III. An Advice concerning him who only Communicates Spiritually THere are many persons well disposed by the measures of a holy life to communicate frequently but it may happen that they are unavoidably hindred Some have a timerous conscience a fear a pious fear which is indeed sometimes more pitiable than commendable Others are advis'd by their spiritual Guides to abstain for a time that they may proceed in the vertue of repentance further yet before they partake of the Sacrament of love and yet if they should want the blessings and graces of the Communion their remedy which is intended them would be a real impediment Some are scandalized and offended at irremediable miscarriages in publick Doctrines or Government and cannot readily overcome their prejudice nor reconcile their consciences to a present actual Communion Some dare not receive it at the hands of a wicked Priest of notorious evil life Some can have it at no Priest at all but are in a long journey or under a Persecution or in a Country of a differing perswasion Some are sick and some cannot have it every day but every day desire it Such persons as these if they prepare themselves with all the essential and ornamental measures of address and eanestly desire that they could actually Communicate they may place themselves upon their knees and building an Altar in their heart celebrate the death of Christ and in holy desire joyn with all the Congregations of the Christian world who that day celebrate the holy Communion and may serve their devotion by the former Prayers and actions Eucharistical changing only such circumstantial words which relate to the actual participation And then they may remember and make use of the comfortable Doctrine of S. Austin It is one thing saith that learned Saint to be born of the Spirit and another thing to be fed of the Spirit As it is one thing to be born of the flesh which is when we are born of our mother and another thing to be fed of the flesh which is done when she suckles her Infant by that nourishment which is chang'd into food that he might eat and drink with pleasure by which he was born to life when this is done without the actual and Sacramental participation it is called spiritual Manducation Concerning which I only add the pious advice of
and ambitious desires were the thorns that pricked thy sacred head my vanity was the knee that mocked thee my lusts disrobed thee and made thee naked to shame and cruel scourgings my anger and malice my peevishness and revenge were the bitter gall which thou didâ—t taste my bitter words and cursed speaking were the vinegar which thou didst drink and my scarlet sins made for thee a purple robe of mockery and derision and where shall I vile wretch appear who have put my Lord to death and expos'd him to an open shame and crucified the Lord of Life 8. Where should I appear but before my Saviour who died for them that have murdered him who hath lov'd them that hated him who is the Saviour of his enemies and the life of the dead and the redemption of captives and the advocate for sinners and all that we do need and all that we can desire 9. Grant that in thy wounds I may finde my safety in thy stripes my cure in thy pain my peace in thy cross my victory in thy resurrection my triumph and a crown of righteousness in the glories of thy eternal Kingdom Amen Amen S. Austins penitential Prayer Before thy eyes O gracious Lord we bring our crimes before thee we expose the wounds of our bleeding souls That which we suffer is but little but that which we deserve is intolerable We fear the punishment of our sins but cease not pertinaciously to proceed in sinning Our weakness is sometimes smitten with thy rod but our iniquity is not changed our grieved mind is troubled but our stiff neck is not bended with the flexures of a holy obedience our life spends in vanity and trouble but amends it self in nothing When thou smitest us then we confess our sin but when thy visitation is past then we forget that we have wept When thou stretchest forth thy hand then we promise to do our duty but when thou takest off thy hand we perform no promises If thou strikest we cry to thee to spare us but when thou sparest we again provoke thee to strike us Thus O God the guilty confess before thee and unless thou givest us pardon it is but just that we perish But O Almighty God our Father grant to us what we ask even though we deserve it not for thou madest us out of nothing else we had not any power to ask Pardon us O gracious Father and take away all our sin and destroy the work of the Devil and let the enemy have no part nor portion in us but acknowledg the work of thy own hands the price of thy own blood the sheep of thy own fold the members of thy own body the purchase of thine own inheritance and make us to be what thou hast commanded give unto us what thou hast designed for us enable us for the work thou hast injoin'd us and bring us to the place which thou hast prepared for us by the blood of the everlasting Covenant and by the pains of the Cross and the glories of thy Resurrection O blessed and most glorious Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Amen CHAP. IV. Of our Actual and Ornamental Preparation to the Reception of the Blessed Sacrament SECT I. HE that is dressed by the former measures is always worthy to communicate but he that is always well vested will against a wedding day be more adorn'd and the five wise Virgins that stood ready for the coming of the Bridegroom with oyl in their lamps and fire on their oyl yet at the notice of his coming trimm'd their lamps and made them to burn brighter The receiving of the Blessed Sacrament is a receiving of Christ and here the soul is united to her Lord and this Feast is the Supper of the Lamb and the Lamb is the Bridegroom and every faithful soul is the Bride and all this is but the image of the state of blessednesse in heaven where we shall see him without a vail whom here we receive under the vail of Sacraments and there we shall live upon him without a figure to whom we are now brought by significations and representments corporal But then as we here receive the same thing as there though after a less perfect manner it is also very fit we should have here the same that is a heavenly conversation though after the manner of men living upon the earth It is true that the blessed souls receive Christ always and they live accordingly in perpetual uninterrupted glorifications of his name and conformities to his excellencies Here we receive him at certain times and at such times we should make our conversation coelestial and our holiness actual when our addresses are so so that in our actual addresses to the reception of these divine Mysteries there is nothing else to be done but that what in our whole life is done habiâ—ually at that time be done actually No man is fit to die but he who is safe if he dies suddenly and yet he that is so fitted if he hears the noise of the Bridegrooms coming will snuff his lamp and stir up the fire and apply the oyl and so must he that hath warning of his Communion He that communicates every day must live a life of a continual Religion and so must he who in any sense communicates frequently if he does it at all worthily but he that lives carelesly and dresses his soul with the beginnings of vertues against a Communion day is like him that repents not till the day of his death if it succeeds well it is happy for him but if it does not he may blame himself for being confident without a promise Every worthy Communicant must prepare himself by a holy life by mortification of all his sins by the acquisition of all Christian graces and this is not the work of a day or a week but by how much the more these things are done by so much the better we are prepar'd So that the actual addresse and proper preparation to the Blessed Sacrament is indeed an inquiry whether we are habitually prepar'd that is whether we be in the state of grace whether we belong to Christ whether we have faith and charity whether we have repented truly If we be to communicate next week or it may be to morrow these things cannot be gotten to day and therefore we must stay till we be ready And if by our want of preparation we be compelled for the sâ—ving of our souls and lest we die to abstain from this holy feast let us consider what our case would be if this should be the last coming of the Bridegâ—oom This is but the warning of that this is but his last coming a little antedated and God graciously calls us now to be prepared here that we may not be unprepared then but it is a formidable thing to be thrust out when we see others enter And therefore when the Masters of spiritual life call upon us to set apart a day or two or three
for preparation to this holy Feast they do not mean that any man who on the Thursday is unfit and unworthy should be fitted to communicate on Sunday but that he should on those days try whether he be or no and pass from one degree of perfection to a greater from the less perfect to the more for let us think of it as we please there is no other preparation and it might otherwise seem a wonder to us why St. Paul who particularly speaks of it and indeed the whole New Testament should say nothing of any particular preparation to this holy â—east but only gives us caution that we do not receive it unworthily but gives us no particular rule or precept but this one that a man should examine himself and so let him eat I say this might seem very strange but that we find there is and there can be no worthy preparation to it but a life of holiness and that every one who names the Lord Jesus should depart from iniquity and therefore that against the day of Communion there is nothing peculiarly and signally required but to examine our selves to see if all be right in the whole and what is wanting towards our proportion of perfection and ornament to supply it So that the immediate preparation to the holy Communion can have in it but three parts and conjugations of duty 1. An examination of our conscience 2. An actual supply of such actions as are wanting 3. Actual devotion and the exercise of special graces by way of prayer so to adorn our present state and dispositions SECT II. Rules for Examination of our Consciences against the day of our Communion HOw we are to examine our selves concerning such states of life and conjugations of duty as are properly relative to the great and essential preparation and worthiness to communicate I have already largely consider'd Now I shall add such practical advices which may with advantage minister to the actual reception such which concern the immediate preparatory and ornamental address that we may reduce the former Doctrine to action and exercise against that time and this will serve as an appendix and for the compleating the former measures 1. In the days of your address consider the greatness of the work you go about that it is the highest mystery of the whole Religion you handle that it is no less than Christ himself in Sacrament that you take that as sure as any Christian does ever receive the Spirit of God so sure every good man receives Christ in the Sacrament that to receive Christ in Sacrament is not a diminution or lessening of the blessing it is a real communion with him to all material events of blessing and holiness that now every Communicant does an act that will contribute very much to an happy or unhappy eternity that by this act and its appendages a man may live or die for ever that a man cannot at all be supposed in any state that this thing will be indifferent to him in that state but will set him forward to some very great event that this is the greatest thing that God gives us in the world and if we do it well it is the greatest thing we can do in the world and therefore when we have considered these things in general let us examine whether we be persons in any sense fitted to such glorious communications and prepar'd by such dispositions which the greatnesse of the Mystery may in its appearance seem to require Some may perceive their disproportion at the first sight and need to examine no farther It is as if a Jew in Rome with his basket and bottle of hay should be advised to stand Candidate for the Consulship you mock him if you speak of it and therefore if you find your case like this start back and come not neer It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there 's Divinity in it and to the wicked it brings brimstone and fire 2. Next to this general consideration examine your self concerning those things in which you are or may be offensive to others For although every man is to begin at home yet that which is first to be chang'd is that which is not only evil in it self but afflictive to others that which is sin and shame that which offends God and my neighbour too that is it is criminal and it is scandalous Examine therefore thy self about injuriousness robbery detraction obloquy scolding much prating peevish conversation ungentle nature apâ—ness to quarrel and the like For thus if like Zachary and Elizabeth we walk unblameably and unreprovable before all the world certain it is the Church will not reject us from the Communion and we have purchas'd a good degâ—ee in the faith and shall think our condition worth preserving and worth improving 3. Examine thy self concerning all entercourses in the matter of men whether any unhandsome contract was made any fraudulent bargain any surprise or out-witting of thy weaker thy confident or unwary Brother and whatever you do place that right For money is a snare and in contracts we are of all things soonest deceived and are very often wrong and yet never think so and we do every thing before we part with this But when every thing is set right here we may better hope of other things for either they are right or will with less difficulty be made so 4. Like to this for the matter of the inquiry is that we examine our selves in the matter of our debts whether we detain them otherwise than in justice we are oblig'd Here we must examine whether we be able to pay them If so whether presently or afterwards By what we are disabled Whether we can and ought to alter the state of our expences What probability we have to pay them at all How we can secure that they shall be paid and if they cannot how much can we do towards it And what amends can we make to our Creditors And how we mean to end that entercourse For this ought to be so far at least stated that we may be sure we do no injustice and do no injury that we can avoid This is a material consideration and of great effect unto the peace of conscience and a worthy dispoâ—ition to the holy Communion 5. Let us examine our selves how we spend our time Is it imployed in an honest calling in worthy studies in useful business in affairs of government in something that is charitable in any thing that is useful But if we throw away great portions of it of which we can give no sober account although the Laws chastise us not and appoint no guardians to conduct our estates as it does to fools and mad men yet we are like to fall into severer hands and God will be angry But they are very unfit to entertain Christ who when they have received his Sacrament resolve to dwell in idleness and foolish divertisements and have no business but recreation At the best
a religious person Let every faithful soul be ready and desirous often to receive the holy Eucharist to the glory of God But if he cannot so often Communicate Sacramentally as he desires let him not be afflicted but remain in perfect resignation to the will of God and dispose himself to a spiritual Communion For no man and no thing can hinder a well-disposed soul but that by holy desires she may if she please communicate every day To this nothing is necessary to be added but that this way is to be used never but upon just necessity and when it cannot be actual not upon peevishness and spiritual pride not in the spirit of schism and fond opinions not in despight of our Brother and contempt or condemnation of the holy Congregations of the Lord but with a living faith and an actual charity and great humility and with the Spirit of devotion and that so much the more intensly and fervently by how much he is really troubled for the want of actual participation in the Communion of Saints and then that is true which S. Austin said Crede manducasti Believe and thou hast eaten Adora Jesum FINIS A Catalogue of some Books to be sold by Tho. Basset at his shop under St. Dunstans Church in Fleetstreet SCintilla Altaris Primitive Devotion in the Feasts and Fasts of the Church of England By Edw. Sparke D. D. And also Devotions on the three grand Solemnities last added to the Liturgy of the Church of England viz. The Fifth of November viz. The Thirtieth of January viz. The Twenty ninth of May. By the same Author Officium Quotidianum or A Manual of Private Devotions By the Most Reverend Father in God Dr. William Laud late Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury The New Common-Prayer with choice Cuts in Copper newly engraven Suited to all the Feasts and Fasts of the Church of England throughout the year in all the Pocket-Volumes A Collection of all the Statutes in force from the year 1640. to this present time in a fair Character Printed by His Majesties Printers The Reader is also desired to take notice That there is another Counterfeit Impression in a small Character and very imperfect wanting ten Acts now in force said to be Printed by Ja. Flesher Hen. Twyford and J. Streater with Mr. Manbee 's Name of Lincolns-Inn in the Title * So the Syriac Interpreter renders the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the places of my Father In iis quae patris mei sunt So the Arabic Version In negotiis patris mei in my Fathers business So Castellio Piscator and our English Bibles But the second reddition is more agreeable with the words of the Greek and the first is more consonant to the use of that phrase in the N. T. So Joh. 19.27 St. John received the Mother of our Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 recepit eam in domum suam so Beza and our English Translation he took her to his own house And thus St. Chrysostom uses the same phrase Serm. 52. in Genes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whither do you drive the just man do you not know that where-ever he sets his foot he is within his fathers house or territory Isa. 31.9 O Tarpeie Pater qui Templa secundam Incolis à coelo sedem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 6.1.2 Act. 2.38 * Heb. 10.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Desiderata 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hâ—stia hostiarum mysterium mysteriorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dominicum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Pet. 2.13 1 Cor. 11.20.8.29 1 Cor. 10.16 Jude v. 12 Acts 16.2 Duplex vita duplicem poscit panem St Aug. oportuit autem non solum primitias nostrae naturae in participationem venire melioris sed omnes quotquot velint homines secundâ nativitate nasci nutriti cibo novo huic nativitati accommodato atque ita praevenire mensuram perfectionis Damasc. de fide orthod l. 4. c. 14. Et quoniam spiritualis est Adam oportuit nativitatem spiritualem esse similiter cibum Ib. ibid. in Levit habetur de consecrat dist 2. secundum se. habet de consecrat dist 2. Epist. ad Iren. Ibid. vide eund in Johaâ— tract 50. In tract verb. Quicunque dixerit verbum in filium hominis In Levit. c. 10. hom 7. * De Sacram l. 5. c. 4. in Luc. l. 6. c. 8. * In Johan 6. hom 47. Tract 26. in Johan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Basil in Ps. 33 Joh. 6.35 v. 54 56. Res ipsa cujus Sacramentum est omni homini ad vitam nulli ad exitium quicunque ejus particeps suerit S. Aug tract 16. in Joh. de resur car c. 37. Annon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hoc mysterium pronunciat Nestorius irreligiose fidelium mentes in sensus adulterinos detrudit ac humanis cogitationibus aggreditur quae solâ purâ inexquisitâ fide accipiuntur S. Cyril lib. ad Euophium anathem 11. Quod esca est carni hoc animâ—e fides S. Cypr. de coenâ— Dom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Arabas Hebraeos significat panem corpus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Chrysost Pedag. 1. lib. de resur car 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb. l. 3. Eccles. Theol. M. S Prov. 9.5 Moreh Nevouch l. 1. c. 30. Pedag. 1. lib. de resur car 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb. l. 3. Eccles. Theol. M. S Prov. 9.5 Moreh Nevouch l. 1. c. 30. Ecclus. 15.3 Isa. 55.1 2. Mat. 5.6 Amos. 8.11 Isa. 12.3 à selectis justorum à capitibus primariis coetus Jer. 15.16 Heb. 9.14 10.29 13.20 Luke 14.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sibyl Erithr Orac. Luk. 22.30 Eâ formâ quâ semper carnalia in figuram spiritualium antecedunt Tertul de baptis * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo. Allegor In ratione sacrorum par est animae corporis causa nam plerunque quae non possunt circa animam fieri fiunt circa corpus Servius in illud Virgil. vittasque resolvit lib. 4. In sacris quae exhiberi non poterunt simulabantur erant pro veris. Joh. Chap. 6. * Ad infantes apud Bedam * Tingimur in passione Domini Tertul. l. de bapt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Cyril vocatbaptismum Catech. 11 Rom. 5.10 Col. 1.20 21 22. Tit. 2.14 Heb. 2.9 14. Heb. 9.15 1 Pet. 1.18 1 Pet. 2.24 Tertul. l. 3. c. 8. contr Marcion Figura est ergo praecipiens passioni Domini esse communicandum suaviter atque utiliter recondendum in memoria quo pro nobis caro ejus crucifixa vulnerata sit S. August de doctr Christ. l. 3. Et tu qui accipis panem divinae ejus substantiae in illo participas alimento S. Ambros. lib. 66. de sacram Hic umbra hic imago illic veritas umbra in