as fearful of offending and as tender of my duty as the first day that I vowed or as I was when I last communicated Do I remember how dear my former Offences cost me and how dâ—fficult my Repentance was How many sighs how many disturbances of a distracted Conscience it gave occasion to And have I courage enough to resist a temptation for the future to put a knife to my throat when I am at a Feast and to wear Sackcloath in the Palace of Princes Can I be grave in light company and reserv'd among the vain and virtuous in a debauch'd Society and chaste among the effeminate Are these my Resolutions constant do they dwell in my mind Or am I holy only by occasion and outward accidents and extraordinary events Am I as humble and devout in my prosperity as in the day of affliction Do I pray as often on the days of my pleasure as on a fasting-day And am I as just as charitable and temperate when I follow my worldly business as when I communicate Have I remembred * 2 Cor. 13.5 the Apostle of the Gentiles to examine my self whether I am in the Faith or else I am a Reprobate Is my Faith such as works by Love and publickly declares it self by an intire Obedience to the Laws of Christ and is fit to give me a right to communicate For the Catechumens who were not baptized had Faith and so had those who were in a state of Penance and yet their Faith was not thought sufficient to intitle them to the Priviledges of God's Table For Faith is not so much an affiance in God as a giving credit to his Revealed Will as it is a body of Laws adapted to the promoting of God's Honour and our Salvation Therefore when I say I believe I mean I resolve to live according to those injunctions that I take Jesus for my Saviour and expect to share in the benefits of his Death and Resurrection no further than I obey his will I must also further examine Am I in perfect Charity Is my hope firm and my love to Jesus unalterable Do I as earnestly long for this spiritual food as I do for my daily sustenance And could I be content rather to want the Necessaries of life than to be deprived of the Bread of God And do I bear in mind the doom of those who slighted the divine Invitations and would not come and of him who intruded not having the Wedding-garment These and many other such Questions are necessary to make this duty of Self-examination advantageous For nothing less than the strictest scrutiny can make a worthy Communicant It was therefore an excellent Observation of the Ancients That the preparation for the Holy Eucharist should be as strict and compleat as our preparation for our dissolution and that I should no more dare to appear before God's Table with any known sin unmortified than I should dare to appear before his Tribunal with it For when I approach this tremendous place I am not concern'd about matters of curiosity and of light value but about the most momentous affairs of Religion about my Souls health and eternity I do not therefore puzzle my self with little questions nor do I dispute what are the exact dimensions of the Kingdom of darkness where it is and what different Climates are in it but the question is whether Heaven and Hell be real or imaginary places Whether the Judicature of Conscience signifie any thing in this world or the Tribunal of Christ in that which is to come Can I dwell with everlasting burnings and a consuming fire where the torments are infinite in their height and infinite in their duration Is not depending on a death-bed-Repentance a deceiving of our selves And if so what shall I do now that when I go hence I may die in God's favour What shall I do to be saved This is a terrible Interrogatory a question of weight and moment For as no man is fit to die but he who loves God above all things and is in perfect charity with all Mankind who is unconcerned with the affairs of the world and hath learnt and practised an intire Resignation of himself into the hands of his Creator whose accounts are adjusted whose life hath been one act of intercourse with Heaven and whose interests in eternity are secured so neither is any man fit to approach the holy Table without the like preparation The Collect. LET thy holy Spirit so assist me O most gracious Father that my preparation for the Sacrament may be as exact as if I were to fit my self to stand before the Throne of my eternal Judg that nothing may a lienate my affections from thee nor alter my Resolutions Heavenward but that I may so worthily eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of the Son of man that when I go hence I may be admitted to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen CHAP. VII Of the Examination of my Knowledg 'T IS not to be denied that some knowledg is requisite to fit me for this Heavenly Communion that I may be able * 1 Cor. 11.29 to discern the Lords Body But this knowledg rather consists in the understanding of the Offices of Holiness than in the comprehension of the depth of this and other sacred Mysteries I am very sure that at the first Institution the Apostles were very meanly furnisht with such Learning The very Foundation of the Sacrament the Death and Resurrection of our Saviour was a Riddle to them Nor did they then understand either the method of working out our Redemption or of the establishing of the Kingdom of the Messias in the world And yet because they were humble and devout sincere and obedient our great Master gave them admission to his Table And so was it also in the Primitive Church For the Bishops of old allowed every one as soon as he was baptized to come to the Holy Eucharist altho they carefully avoided any discourses about this Sacrament before those who had never been partakers of it And when their Subject led them that way they spoke in Figures and Metaphorical Expressions and appealed to the understanding of those who had communicated For they were well perswaded that it was a Mystery Now Mysteries are not to be pryed into but admired not to be commonly talkt of nor curiously disputed about but to be lookt on with Veneration and Respect to be studied and reverenc'd They knew it was no slight and perfunctory employment to communicate with the Holy Jesus but they withal knew that a little measure of Knowledg and a great degree of Humility Piety and Charity would intitle to the Priviledges of God's Altar Now all that they instructed the Candidates of these Mysteries in was only the duties of Morality Justice and Honesty Peaceableness and Compassion Chastity and Temperance together with an ardent love to God only now and then they could not forbear reprehending an Heretick
him drag'd from the Garden to the Palace of Amas thence to the House of Calaphas and thence to Pontius Pilate who sent him to Herod Herod used him with all sort of scorn clad him in Mock-purple and remanded him to the Roman Procurator where the Soldiers and common people spit on him blinded him smote him and ironically bid him prophecy who did it he was whipt like a slave while the multitude in their esteem prefer to him Barabbas a Traytor a Thief a Murtherer a Captain to those seditious persons with whom he made his insurrection one publickly and notoriously guilty of the crimes laid to his charge and look'd on as a pernicious wretch and one of the pests of the Kingdom And when he was thus cover'd with blood and sweat with stripes and the marks of cruelty with an uneasie Crown and ridiculous purple he was brought out and exposed to publick view he was crucified a death by which none but slaves and the vilest malefactors were punisht and that naked no regard being had to modesty or the rules of decency and in the midst of the Thieves as the worst of all the malefactors The High-priests mock'd him the common people shook their heads his fellow sufferers upbraided him and all that past by did shoot out their Arrows even bitter words which affronts were not the Ephemerous product of sudden fury but the continuation of former injuries for all his life long he was censured his poor parentage thrown in his Teeth is not this the Carpenter His Doctrine misrepresented as if he spoke against Moses and the Temple and introduc'd false Doctrine his Miracles belied as if he cast out Devils by compact with Satan his conversation mistook as if his innocent and necessary freedom were herding with the profligate and making friendship with publicans and sinners Nothing could be more temperate and yet he is impeached of being a Glutton and a Drunkard nothing more Chast and yet he is affronted with the title of a companion of Harlots no man more sedate and grave and yet his nearest Relations say he is besides himself nothing was more Loyal and yet he is accused as an enemy to Caesar nothing more Pious and yet he is condemn'd for Blasphemy If he be benign and free in his converse then he is popular and seditious if retired he hath a Devil and let him cry down hypocrisy never so zealously he is reputed an Impostor Thus they affronted him in all his capacities Was he designed our High-priest to redeem the world by the sacrifice of himself They mock him on the Cross with his Office If thou be the Son of God save thy self and us Was he sent to be the great Prophet to declare the Will of God to mankind They first blind then smite him and afterward bid him prophecy who struck him And had God design'd him to be a King They cloath him in Purple put on his Head a Crown of Thorns and a Reed in his right hand instead of a Scepter Such was the ill entertainment the holy Jesus found such the rudeness of men to their greatest benefactor that he that came into the World only to do good was above all others in it worst treated All which indignities could not but sit more uneasily upon an innocent person than they would have done on a hardy criminal who usually takes shelter in impudence And to make the shame exquisite remember O my Soul that this Son of Man was at the same time the Son of God When therefore I represent to my self my bleeding Saviour nailed to the accursed Tree and view the sadness of his countenance disfigured with his Sweat his Blood and his Tears when I look upon his wounded side his hands and feet pierc'd his head crown'd with Thorns Is not this sight enough to strike me dumb enough to strike me dead when I consider that my sins have wounded him and were more troublesom than his adversaries malice Shall the Jews be up at midnight to apprehend him and shall I not break my sleep to serve him shall the sinner take more pains to be damn'd than I to work out my salvation with fear and trembling What shall I first admire in thee O my dying Redeemer for thou art all wonderful I admire thy willingness to submit for no compulsion could force thee to bear the weight of thy Father's anger it is indisputably true that Jesus could fall by no hand but his own and that his Love had slain him before the Spear pierc'd his side and if we may believe the Vision in St. Dennis thou art ready yet to come down again and to dye anew were it any way conducive to the salvation of mankind I admire the miraculousness of the contrivance That he who grasps the World in his fist should be confined to a Cradle and he who sustains Angels should suck the Breasts of a Virgin that Vigour it self should languish Eternity become mortal that Life should give up the ghost and God be crucified and the same person at the same time in Hell and in Paradise I admire the intireness of his resignation who without any articles or capitulation gave himself up to the managery and conduct of his Father submitting the habit and the acts of his Will to God and resolving to obey in whatever manner he should require Nor can I forbear admiring and celebrating the earnestness of his Love who was in great distress till he had paid our ransom but I cannot avoid particular reflections on the advantages of his being crucified publickly that the matter of fact might be undeniable and that the Apostles might have no cause to be ashamed of their Doctrine or the World of their Faith nor both of their Saviour What a pattern of resignation and submission of meekness and patience of compassion and love to the worst of enemies had the Christian world been deprived of if our bessed Saviour had suffered in a Corner or been strangled in a Prison It was out of design to make his virtues as well as his sufferings illustrious that he chose to suffer at Jerusalem the Metropolis of the Country and at the Passover when all the Nation were come up to the holy City Let therefore the Cross of Christ be to the Jews an offence and scandal who expect to share with the Messia in the grandeur of a secular Kingdom and let it be to the Greeks foolishness who relish no notions but what comport with their ease and profit and think it madness to slight present miseries and stand in awe of future sufferings I will look upon it as the greatest instance of the Divine Wisdom and Goodness that God was pleased to teach his Son Obedience and to make the world happy by the things which he suffered And am I not indispensibly obliged to follow this pattern and to imitate this my best Friend Can I be ashamed of a naked crucified Saviour who when he was stript of his Garments
destroy themselves first with their Fears before they actually fall into a Mischief that cannot be avoided and what man can pretend to such a state of ease and indolency When therefore the Son of God makes a Disciple he calls him to the practice of self-denyal to the contempt of the World and all its vanities to the mortifying of his Passions and the abjuration of Pleasures that is he bids him live no longer like a Beast but like a man and a Christian and in lieu of these impertinencies he promises him all that is great and good in a better life and this was the method he made use of when he comforted the first-born of his Family his Apostles upon his departure And what could be more eloquent rational or pâ—rswasive than such a discourse about patience from him who had his sufferings in inmediate prospect For the thoughts of such persons being fixt on Heaven they talk of the place as if they were there already their stile is more brisk and vigorous than ordinary and their words make a deeper impression such was our Saviours last Sermon and such the Epistles of the Apostles which they wrote in their bonds Jesus having discovered Judas forewarned Peter and bound the rest of his Disciples to mutual Love and Charity at length tells them that it was the greatest Argument of the heighth of passion and shortness of reasoning to be troubled at the adversities of this present life that he who is strong in Faith is above the assault of secular dangers and whoever is called to embrace the Gospel is out of the reach and beyond the Fears of temporal afflictions that when you imprison him you do not rob him of his Liberty and when you kill him you cannot hurt him for he that depends on the Crucified Jesus for Salvation is secure that if he suffer with his Master he shall reign with him Such a man is assured that there is so large a provision made for him in Heaven that it baffles all carnal objections and stifles the very sense or remembrance of pain for his Master is ascended to his Father's Right Hand not so much to glorifie his own Body as to intercede for us that we may be glorified there he is now our Advocate and from thence he shall come again at the last day to be our guide that where he is we may be forever with him nor can any thing hinder our Union with him to Eternity who have been united to him here in the Offices of Piety our natural corruptions cannot obstruct the Union our Saviour is the way nor can our ignorance do us injuries he is the Truth and the Attempts of death it self are vain and of no force he is the Life For as long as the Father and he are one and so they shall be to Eternity all the Power and Wisdom of the Godhead must dwell in him bodily and who can resist Omnipotence or outwit the only Wise God Especially when it is considered that his Goodness is commensurate to his Power and his Wisdom so that the meanest of his Servants when he strengthens them shall be able to do all things and the greatest of the Miracles that Christ himself did shall be less than what his Followers shall be able to do nor is it to be doubted how this can be Since the Prayers of a good man recommended in the Name and upon the account of the Merits of his Saviour answer all devout ends and purposes and for this end probably the afflictions of this life were made the Portion of Christianity that if our Duty did not our needs might bring us often on our Knees for God denies nothing where the love of the Supplicant is bright and ardent and makes it self illustrious in a life of Obedience for upon such a man the Holy Dove descends and becomes his Comforter his Companion and his Friend it instructs him when ignorant it relieves him if opprest it encourages and defends him when timerous it bestows all that is good and protects from all that is evil this Spirit is the Vicar unto the Bishop of Souls it was primarily designed to lead the Church into all Truth and to secure it from perishing under the persecutions of its Enemies and to supply the want of the bodily Presence of the Redeemer of Mankind this Spirit was to unriddle all the Mysteries of Religion and to reveal what was hid from the cognizance of Ages to make those on whom it should descend the darlings of God and to give them Heaven upon Earth in the Enjoyment of Holy Thoughts and a quiet Mind which none of the disturbances of this Life shall be able to ruffle or discompose When the Soul is fixt on this Foundation being put out of the Synagogue signifies nothing nor can Death drest in its most formidable shape create any terrors for our Master hath told us that as in the deepest of his sufferings the blest Angels ministred unto him so they shall to his obedient followers and that their resurrection shall succeed his for the greatest instances of mutual love are beneath the indearments that are berween Jesus and a good man the Branches are not so firmly joyned to the Vine as the devout Soul is to its Saviour it is a Member of his Body and as dear to him as his own Honour This Union neither distance of Place nor alteration of Circumstances can dissolve 't is a Union cemented by the Blood of God and is built on a Foundation that stands most sure it is built upon God's Knowledg who are his and upon his Servants departing from all iniquity but it is a Union that is better felt than described and no one knows the happiness of it but he who hath experimented it As long as this Friendship lasts the Christian is impowered to do every thing that may glorifie his Master and benefit himself and what himself cannot do by his own Abilities shall be supplied by the Interests of his Saviour and procured by his own intense Supplications but if any man wilfully dissolve this Concord like a Branch cut off from the stock he withers and dies and becomes fit for nothing but to be cast into Eternal Flames Now nothing can break this Union but Vice and Iniquity for that which makes the Holy Jesus the only Beloved of his Father is his Obedience to the Divine Laws and his Passionate love to the world that engaged him to dye for it and whoever loves God and his Neighbour shall be made Partaker of all his Favour and his Heart shall be filled with Joy and can there be a more cogent Argument than this to endear Religion to a well inclined mind To be made the Friends of God the Elect and Beloved of the Saviour of the World the Pupils of the Spirit of Truth and Peace to have one Comforter to redeem them and another to sanctifie them and to have the Honour of being God's Ambassadors and the Witnesses