another likeness by the offering up of our bodies to God which is a piece of this service Rom. 12.1 2. And so some observe that all other meat is received as it is in it self and no otherwise but this meat is divers as it is received Other meat affecteth and altereth the taste but here the taste altereth the meat For if it be worthily received it is the body and blood of Christ if unworthily it is but bare bread and wine But yet this must be cautiously understood when we thus speak for his presence is with the bread though not in it Though it be onely in us yet it comes with it unto us if we will receive him because else we shall not know how unworthy persons are said to be guilty of his body and blood 1 Cor. 11.27 if he be not present with his body and blood to work in mens souls This likewise is to be further observed for the better under standing of it that the Devil who loves to imitate God that he may the better cozen and cheat doth seldom manifest his power to any great purpose but when he is called by some of his own ceremonies and sacraments that he hath appointed This doth but tell us that Christ is then most powerfully present when we use his rites which he hath instituted and hallowed as special remembrances of his love and testimonies of our love unto him So that we may come hither and expect that we shall feel more at such a time and in the use of such means then at or in others because he hath made them his body and blood in such sort as I have declared Other union then this by Christs spirit I know no use of though we should believe that which we do not understand I can conceive great things concerning the power of Christs humane nature and it is not for us to tell how far it may extend its influences through the inhabitation of the Deity That it is brighter then the Sun Saint Paul saw when the Lord appeared to him Acts 26.13 And as the Sun we see communicates his beams a vast way and twists it self about us by silver threads of light though seated in the Heavens so may we conceive that the sacred humanity of Christ doth tie us to it self by cords of love and now embrace us in its outstretched armes after a more affectionate manner when we come to remember him But to what purposes this should serve I do not well understand and without the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us the flesh can profit nothing at all though never so glorious and therefore I lay aside such thoughts and content my self to know that they that are joyned or cleave to the Lord 1 Cor. 6.17 are one spirit 5. Now from this secret union that is here made between Christ and our persons it comes to pass that this Sacrament hath been accounted an earnest and pledg of the resurrection For nothing that is made one with Christ can die and be lost but he will raise it up again at the last day His spirit can find out all their dust after a thousand changes it can gather all their dispersons and renuite their scattered crums and knead them again into a goodly body And this it will do 1 Cor. 6.19 for their very bodies are the Temples of the holy Ghost therefore he will quicken their mortal bodies Rom. 8.11 by his Spirit that dwelleth in them Hence it was that Cyril so earnestly invited guests to this feast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Hom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saying Come eat the bread that renews your natures drink the wine that is the smile and cheer of immortality Eat the bread that purges away the ancient bitterness drink the wine that asswages the pain of our old sore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the very restorative of nature an healing plaister for the bitings of the Serpent a powerfull antidote 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ainst all his poyson he hath infused into us And so several of the elder times speak not without reason for seeing our Lord gives to these things the name of his body and blood we need not fear to attribute to them the vertues and efficacy of his death which we know was the restorer of life We should think therefore when we go to the Table of the Lord that we go to joyn our selves more closely to our head and to unite our hearts more firmly to the fountain of our life That we go to receive of his holy Spirit which like wine running through our veins should diffuse it self into all the vital powers of our souls and make us more able and strong active and quick ready and forward in the service of our Saviour We should think that hereby we may get greater victories over our enemies if we do not betray our succours that we may more compleat our conquests if we use the power that is sent unto us We should look upon this bread as the bread of life and conceive that we take the cup of immortality into our hands and that the next draught may be in the Kingdom of God when our bodies shall be raised to feast at the eternal supper of the Lamb. For this is but a just consequence of forgiveness of sins which the former Chapter treated of that our bodies should live again which became mortal through sin And therefore as Christ here seals unto us the one so he likewise wise assures us of the other and gives unto us the earnest of the Spirit What joy then must these thoughts needs create in our souls What better chear can we desire What greater dainties would we taste then this holy feast affords or what cause would we have of thanksgiving more then hath been named If we desire a consort in our thanksgivings and to have an harmony of souls while we sing his praises if we would hear some voice besides our own that might fill up our joys and lift them to a greater height That is not wanting neither as the next Chapter shall declare For here is an union of minds begot and a sweet consent of hearts is the result of this entertainment CHAP. VI. AS this Sacrament is a means of uniting us to our Lord by faith so likewise of uniting us to our brethren by love It knits us not onely to our head but all the members also thereby are more indeared unto each other We enter here into a strict league of friendship with them as well as into a Covenant with God For all true Christians are not onely of the Family of God but his children and nearest relations so that we cannot profess any love unto the father of them all but we must at the same time embrace his whole progeny as bearing his character and having in them those very things which we love in him When we take the bridegroom we
else we shall do nothing at the Lords Supper but what we might do at any other time as well If it be onely beleeving and meer spiritual eating that here is exercised then we may feed so without this food And when Christ commands so frequently Do this in remembrance of me it would be no more sence then if he had said Do this which yet you may do without doing this This eating and drinking therefore must be a profession of our faith a covenanting solemnly with God and a receiving and giving of those pledges of love which we cannot have any where else V. And indeed the old Christians did so sacredly bind themselves hereby to their Saviour that Heathens were ready to suspect them of dangerous combinations and such conspiracies as might prove mischievous to the Commonwealth From which imputation whilest Pliny doth acquit them L. 10. Epist. 97. he likewise instructs us for what end they met together at this feast They assemble themselves saith he in a Letter to Trajan the Emperor before day break and sing a Hymn to Christ as if he were God and then they do sacramento se obstringere bind themselves with a Sacrament or Oath not that they will do mischief to any but that they will not rob or steal nor commit adultery nor falsifie their words nor deny their trust c. And then after they have eat together they depart to their own homes Of more then this they protested to him he should never find them guilty and this was the crime of Christians in those first ages to engage themselves to commit no crime which they bound themselves unto by this Sacrament of Christs body and blood The Greek Christians at this day Christop Angelus rit Eccles Graec. when they take the bread or cup into their hands make this profession Lord I will not give thee a kiss like Judas but I do confess unto thee like the poor thief and beseech thee to remember me when thy Kingdom comes If we do touch the body of Christ with traitorous lips and embrace him with a false heart we stain our souls with the guilt of that blood which can onely wash them from all their other sins And therefore we must come unfeignedly to bewail our neglects and to settle our former resolutions of strict obedience It is grown even to a Proverb as Joseph Accosta relates among the poor Indians that have entertained the faith De procur Ind. Sal. L. 6. that Qui eucharistiam semel susceperit nullum amplius crimen debet committere He must never be guilty more of any crime who hath once received the Eucharist And if they chance to commit any they bewail it with such a sorrow and compunction that he saith he hath not found such faith no not in Israel But it would be very sad if we should be sent to school as far as India There are I make no doubt many pious souls among our selves that look upon it as a blessed opportunity to knit their hearts in greater love to God and that are more afflicted for an evil thought after such engagements then other are for a base and unworthy action Whensoever therefore we come to celebrate the memory of Christs death in this manner we must remember with our selves that we are assembled for to renew our baptismal vow and league and in the devoutest manner to addict our selves to a more constant love and service of the Lord Jesus We must look upon this feast to which we are admitted as a disclaiming of all enmity to him and a profession of our continuing a hearty friendship so as never to do any hostile act against him And thence indeed it is called a Sacrament according to Tertullian and others with him because we here take an Oath to continue Christs faithfull Souldiers and never to do any thing against his Crown and dignity as long as there remains any breath in our bodies We do repeat our Oath of Allegiance and swear fealty again to him or as we ordinarily speak we take the Sacrament upon it that we will be Christs faithfull servants and Souldiers against the Devil World and Flesh and never flie from his service Every act of sin then after such promises is not onely treason but perjury not onely the breaking of our faith but of our Oath yea not onely the violation of a simple Oath but of Oath upon Oath which we ought more to dread then we do to break our bones We esteem it an impiety of a high nature for a Minister to give a cup of poyson into a mans hand instead of the blood of Christ and we do deservedly abhorre that Priest that poysoned Pope Victor the 3d. Venenum sub specie sacramenti dedit vertens calicem vitae in calicem mortis with the Sacrament and him that poysoned Henry the 7th Emp. turning as Nauclerus his phrase is the cup of life into the cup of death But whilest our hearts swell in indignation at such a crime let us consider with our selves what a treasonable act it is to poyson our souls with our own hands and by a base treachery to God to swallow down curses and woes into our selves Better were it for us to be choaked with the bread of life or to feel the venome of Asps boiling in our veins after the holy cup then to take an Oath which we take small care to keep then to go on in a course of sin after such sacred professions of our duty and service unto Christ We are amazed to hear that men can touch the Gospels before a Magistrate and kiss the book or lift up their hand to Heaven and yet make good never a word that they swear We are apt to think that either these men have no souls or that they do not value them at the price of a rotten nut O let our very flesh then tremble to think that we should lay our hand upon the body of Christ and take it into our very mouths and solemnly swear unto him and yet not be faithfull in his Covenant nor heartily indeavour to perform our promises unto him For there is no forsworn person hath such a black soul as he whose soul is fouled even by the blood of Christ himself which washes the souls of others The world cannot but shrink at the thoughts of that fearful act of one of the Popes who making a League with Caesar and the French King divided the bread of the Sacrament into three parts with this saying scarce tollerable As the holy Trinity is but one God so let the union indure between us three confederates and yet he was the first that broke it and started from the agreement Far be it from us then after this action wherein we joyn our selves to God and unite our hearts to fear his Name and become as it were one with him to rescind our Covenants or stand again at tearms of defiance But let us have a care
and attend upon this which lays the foundation of them Yea by this faith and love our hearts are more inlarged the vessels of our souls are rendred more capable and the Temple of Christ is much more amplified to receive more of Gods presence And that is the next thing III. The holy Spirit is here conferred on us in larger measures which is the very bond and ligament that ties us to him For this union is not onely such a moral union as is between husband and wife which is made by love or between King and Subjects which is made by Laws but such a natural union as is between head and members the vine and branches which is made by one spirit or life dwelling in the whole For the understanding of this which I shall insist on longer then therest you must consider these things 1. That our union with Christ is set forth by many things in Scripture or in St. Chrysostom's phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He unites us to himself after many patterns I think there is not a better collection of them then we meet with in him He is the head faith he we are the body Hom. 8. in 1. ad Cor. He is the foundation we are the building He is the vine we are the branches He is the bridegroom we are the bride He is the sheepherd we are the sheep He is the way we are the travellers We are the Temple and he is the inhabitant He is the first-born we his brethren He is the Heir we the coheirs He is the life we are the living c. all these thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do shew an union and such an one that will not admit the least thing to come between them 2. Observe that the highest and closest union is that which is made by one spirit and life moving in the whole And therefore I take notice that the Scripture delights most frequently to use the two first examples of a body and a building and those that are nearest to these Now because a building hath no life but yet by its firmness and strength doth notably set forth the firmness of the union that is between Christ and his people therefore the Apostle puts both these together and calls Christ a living stone and those that come to him lively or living stones which are built up a spiritual house or temple where they offer spiritual sacrifices unto God 1 Pet. 2.4 5. That union therefore is most perfect which is made by life though others may be of great est strength and therefore the Apostle applies it even to things without life that he might the better shew that the union between Christ and his members by one life is in strength more like the solidness of a Temple then any other thing whose parts are so cemented as that they would last as long as the world 3. We must observe That things at the greatest distance may be united by one spirit of life actuating them both and so may Christ and we though we enjoy not his bodily presence It is truly noted by a most Rev. A. usher Person that the formal reason of the union that is made between the parts of our body consists not in their continuity and touching of each other but in the animation of them by one and the same spirit which ties them all together If the spirit withdraw it self from any part so that it be mortified it presently remains as if it were not of the body though its parts still touch the next member to it And so we see in trees if any branch be deprived of the vegetative spirit it drops from the tree as now no more belonging to it On the other side you see the toes have an union with the head though at a distance not onely by the intervening of many parts that reach from them unto it but by the soul that is present in the farthest member and gives the head as speedy notice of what is done in the remotest part as if it were the next door to the brain And this it doth without the assistance of the neighbouring parts that should whisper the grief of the toes from one to the other till the head hear but without the least trouble to any of them which do not feel their pain If you should suppose therefore our body to be as high as the Heavens and the head of it to touch the throne of God and the feet to stand upon his footstool the earth no sooner could the head think of moving a toe but presently it would stir and no sooner could any pain befall the most distant part then the head would be advised of it Which must be by vertue of that spirit which is conceived alike present to every part and therefore that must be taken likewise to be the reason of that union which is among them all Just so may you apprehend the union to be between Christ our head and us his members Although in regard of his corporal presence he be in the Heavens which must receive him untill the time of the restitution of all things Act. 3.21 yet he is here with us always even to the end of the world Mat. 28.20 in regard of his holy Spirit working in us By this he is sensible of all our needs and by the vital influences of it in every part he joyns the whole body fitly together so that he and it make one Christ according as the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 12.12 As the body is one and hath many members and all the members of tha◠one body being many are one body so also is Christ And that this union is wrought by the Spirit which every true Christian hath dwelling in him Cor. 6. 7. Rom. 8.9 the next verse ver 13. will tell you we are all baptized into one body by one spirit c. Which will lead me to the fourth thing for which all this was said 4. We receive of this Spirit when we worthily communicate at the Supper of the Lord according as the Apostle in that 13th verse is thought to say We have been all made to drink into one spirit i. e. we have all reason to agree well together for there is but one spirit that animates the whole body of us which we receive at the Table of the Lord when we drink the cup of blessing One Christian doth not drink out of the same cup a spirit of peace and another Christian a spirit of contention but as Chrysostome expounds it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We all come to be initiated in the same secrets we all enjoy the same Table and though he doth not say as it follows in him that we eat the same body and drink the same blood yet since he makes mention of the spirit he saith both For in both we are watered with one and the same spirit even as trees saith he are watered out of one and the same fountain V.
with so much charity to come and dwell in such a hole as our flesh and that he would love us better then his life and that he will not forget us now that he lives in Heaven Shew him what a pitiful poor creature thou art and crave him humble pardon that thou shouldest put him to much pains and trouble And intreat him now that he will not be offended at all the noisome smells and loathsome sights that are in a soul so sick and diseased as thine into which he is entring Declare to him freely all thy maladies and beseech him that he will not disdain thee but come and cure thee Profess to him sincerely all the love that ever thou canst and importune him of all loves that he would make thee love him more And then imagine with thy self that he is graciously come to such a nasty place as thy heart is and so begin to bless and praise his Name for so high a favour resolving likewise that thou wilt never cease to praise him as long as thou hast a day to live and that when thy tongue shall falter thou wilt think his praises These meditations and holy aspirations after him will be like to the sweet incense and odoriferous exhalations that perfume the house before the entrance of so worthy a guest Or rather they will be as the harbingers of the King of Glory that come to prepare the rooms and make them clean and sweet for his entertainment For as you see the Sun doth not onely illuminate the world when he is above the Horizon but a whole hour before his rising and as much after his setting affords his comfortable light unto us So the Son of Righteousness who is under these clouds of bread and wine doth not only irradiate our minds when we actually receive this Sacrament but doth appear before unto us if we will look toward him and makes it day in our souls by hopes and desires to receive him and again he leaves some sweet beams behind him afterward by a remembrance how kind he hath been unto us in satisfying our desires V. And then to speak more particularly every man should consider with himself how God hath prospered him in his estate and so lay aside such a portion for the poor as bears some proportion to the blessing God hath afforded upon his labours This was a great piece of this solemnity in ancient times as hath been already said from the Apostles mouth 1 Cor. 16.2 which place I heartily wish every man would more serionsly peruse This practise I know continues in the Christian Church though I fear it falls short both of the liberality and open-heartedness that was then in use as also of the gain and increase that God makes to our estates Let me therefore herein mind the pious Reader that every mite that is given to the poor is a grain of that incense that perfumes the house of God and therefore such charity is called an odour of a sweet smell a sacrifice acceptable well pleasing unto God Phil. 4.18 And so the Angel saith unto Cornelius that his prayers and alms were come up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a memorial before God Three remarkable forms of speech there are in those words to denote that they are a sacrifice or oblation which we make to the giver of all good especially when they are given in the hands of prayer as at the holy Eucharist they ought to be First They were for a memorial which is an expression we read in the Law of Moses Lev. 2.9 and many other places to denote that part of the meat offering that was burnt upon the Altar for a sweet savour unto the Lord. Secondly They are said to come up or ascend which was proper to the Sacrifices that were burnt on the Altar and went up to Heaven in pillars of smoak and vapour And thirdly They did come up before God which signified their acceptance and that they were a welcome sacrifice unto the Lord. From heace it was that the Ancients sometimes call the Lords Table by the name of an Altar because they laid upon it these Sacrifices or Offerings which at first were bread and wine c. and afterward changed into money part of which did furnish the Table and the rest relieve the poor and those that did minister unto the Lord. For then the custom was for Christians to make the Minister their Almoner or steward to distribute their Charity as his prudence thought most fit Now if we think it not convenient to intrust them yet we should judg it most necessary when we go to this holy feast to lay aside some considerable portion as a just expression of our great engagements unto God and the charity which he hath exercised towards us For since Almes are a sacrifice there must be some time to fit them and prepare them for the Altar and since they are so acceptable to him as to be accounted a memorial by him we should be the more liberal and consider upon some free-will offerings to be brought into his treasury And the truth is no man can be called liberal that is not so upon advice and deliberation These acts of Charity are to flow from counsel as well as any other And therefore beforehand we should determine what to give and not throw in a piece of money as it happens into the poor mans stock If we could but believe that this giving to God is a beneficial trade and that he who soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully 2 Cor. 9.6 and that the more we have in his bank the better we shall thrive then we should cast in our minds how to make an improvement this way and be desirous to have a stock going in his hands Then there would not need so much intreaty that men would cast up their accounts in some measure before they go to the Table of God and consider how God hath blessed them and encreased their estates and consult how they may further augment them in such an easie and sure way as this appears to be Sit down then I beseech you in a serious manner and look over your wealth and think with your self how much land or money you are intrusted withall Spread it before your thoughts and say All this hath God given me and long preserved it from thieves and fire and other violences he is daily adding unto this heap and giving more what therefore out of all this shall I return to him I assure you it is a piece of spiritual employment for a man to think on his baggs if it be in order to filling the poor mans box Say therefore thus to thy soul when thou art alone God hath blessed us as thou seest very fairly what canst thou find in thy heart to give to him what use shall we pay him for all that he hath lent unto us shall we not give one or two out of a hundred that he hath added to our Estate Shall men
of the soul grow too big for the mouth when it lifts up it self in speaking-thoughts and this is their language That they are not able to understand the Miracles of this Love it shall not be long before it perceive how much God is pleased with its saying nothing Let us therefore labour at the very entrance to put our selves into some degree of wonderment to think what manner of love this is wherewith he hath loved us Wonder that he should dye for thee when he was upon the earth and that he should nourish thee with himself now that he is in the Heavens Be astonished that Heaven should so condescend to Earth and Man should be so united unto God Lose thy thoughts in contemplation of the strangeness of this kindness that God should dwell in flesh and that this flesh should be our Food Let it amaze thee that Christ can never think that he hath given himself enough to thee but as the Apostle saith he gave himself to redeem us from our sinnes and now he gives himself to be the strength and health of our souls He gave himself when he was among men he gives himself now that he is with God and as Dionysius relates the story he told a pious man in a vision That if it were necessary he would come and die again for the sons of men This would be a rarely good beginning of this holy service and we should be fitter for all following actions if we could put our hearts into a kind of extasie or admiration at the stupendious greatness of this mystery If our thoughts were once got so high we should be out of the reach of other things that are apt to thrust themselves in and interrupt us If we had once climbed above our selves and were ascended into Heaven we should not be inticed while the Solemnity lasted to come down to the World again II. When we see the Bread broken and the Wine poured out it is a fit season to entertain our selves with these three Meditations which are big with a great number of other thoughts that they will bring forth 1. Remember the pains and dolours the shame and reproach which our Lord endured For which purpose imagine as if you were in Golgotha the place where he was crucified think that you behold him stretched forth upon a Cross that you see his precious Bloud trickling down his side and that you look into his gaping wounds think that you see the pits that they digged in his hands and his feet the furrows that they made in his back and how miserably the Thorns scratched and harrowed his holy head Think that you hear his dying groans that the mocks and flouts of the Jews sound in your ears Yea think that you hear the groans of the Earth under the weight of his Cross and that you see how the Sun shrunk in his head as ashamed to look on such a spectacle and affrighted with the horror of such a sight And when you have meditated a while upon these wonders it will be greater wonder if there be no passion made in your hearts Your own thoughts will teach you such resentments as befit so strange an object and you will begin to tremble and bleed and desire and rejoyce and be in such a mixture of passions as if you would imitate the confusion which was in the world at his Sufferings But when you have recovered your self a little think that it will be most agreeable in the second place 2. To remember with due affection the great love of our Lord in submitting himself to such pains and disgrace for our sakes Never did eyes behold such a strange thing that the only begotten of the Father should bleed like a Malefactor that the glorious King of Heaven should dye for his own Subjects Rebels I should rather call them and Traytors to their Soveraign Lord. Was there ever any kindness like to this Was there ever such a Furnace of Love burning in any heart Could he do more for us than dye for us Was there any likelihood that the remembrance of such a Love should dye That mens hearts should freeze over such a fire Lest such a thing should happen he hath left himself still among us in symboles and representations he sets before our eyes his bloody Death and Passion he makes himself present to our faith and as if he would do more than dye for us he desires to live for ever in us and be united to us How can we chuse then but fall into his arms Yea how can we withhold our selves from running into his heart Can any heart refrain it self from tears of sorrow to think of its unkindness and from tears of joy to think of his strange love how can we be but overwhelmed both with floods of grief and gladness Can we look upon him whom we have pierced and not mourn Can we see his bleeding wounds and not be troubled What heart can be so hard It cannot but pain us to think that we love him no more who put himself to such pains for us It cannot but trouble us to think that but hearts should be so cold when his was so hot with love as to send out its life bloud for our redemption And yet when we consider that in this stream of blood our souls are washed and that by his stripes we are healed who can chuse but rejoyce in his love and hope that he will accept of our poor acknowledgements And let us but look upon him again as I described him on the Cross and we shall find our love more large and vehement Think that you hear him saying to you as he hangs there Behold my friends how my flesh was torn and wounded for your sakes See how your sinnes have used me Look into my heart which was pierced first by love and then by a spear for you See how my hands and my feet were bored through look how my blood runs out to fetch you home to God Was there ever any sorrow like to my sorrow Hath any one loved you so as I have loved you Behold here I give my self unto you as once I gave my self for you By these tokens of Bread and Wine I conveigh unto you all that I have and make over to you all that Inheritance which I have purchased by my Blood My Self and all that I have I freely give unto you Need any one now that hath such Meditations be taught with what affections he should behave himself towards his Lord Needs there any piercing words of him that ministers to wound mens souls with sorrow and grief Is any artifice of speech required to wind and insinuate Christ into their hearts Is any perswasive Language necessary to make them accept of the greatest and richest Blessings that all Heaven can afford Me thinks I see the pricking and compunction that will be in a heart that thinks of these things Me thinks I see such a soul running forth to
under the load of sin when he beheld Christ groaning upon the Cross for it whose heart could remain unbroken when he saw his body broken for us who could withhold his eyes from tears when he saw the Wounds of Christ weeping blood for us Behold O Lord would such a mans soul answer unto him I am sorry that my sins have liv'd so long It was sore against my will that there should be any of them now to kill fain would I have had their lives but they are hitherto overstrong for me O do thou strike my soul through with a sense of thy sufferings and they will not be able to endure thy hand Do thou transfix me first with a sense of my baseness and then with a sense of thy love and sure they cannot but die when they feel thy pains I am resolved not to carry away one of them alive If they had a thousand lives they should lose them all that my soul may live to thee How it would delight our Lord to hear such language in mens hearts it is not for me to express nor can you imagine how you should please him better and draw him more powerfully into your armes then by such discourse within your selves Nor can you ever think to get the victory over your sins and bring them under your hatred and displeasure if such a sight as Christ crucified before your eyes be not able to effect it Never will they be killed if they can outlive the sight of a bleeding Saviour Never shall we get them under our power if they can escape with their lives when we remember so solemnly his accursed death III. When we see him that ministers come to give the bread unto us let us employ our selves in these three Acts of Devotion First It will well become a soul to sink into a very deep humility and to abase it self in the sense of its own unworthiness When thou seest that Christ is coming as it were towards thy house Run forth to meet him at the door before he come in and entertain him with an act of reverence worship and humble obeysance to him Say Lord I am not worthy that thou should'st come under my Roof I deserve not the crumbs that fall from thy Table Say as Ruth to Boaz Ruth 2.10 after she had bowed her self to the ground Why have I found grace in thine eyes that thou shouldst take knowledg of me seeing I am a stranger How comes it that my Lord should cast his eye upon me What am I that he should visit me and come to marry himself unto me And when thou hast depressed thy self a while at his feet Then Secondly Rise a little up again and mix some Acts of love with this humility Think of the infinite love of God that would give his own Son think of the infinite love of Christ that would so graciously come to save us and would leave us these remembrances and tokens of his love Wish that thou hadst a thousand hearts to correspond with so great a love Say within thy self Oh Lord What am I that thou shouldest command me for to love thee What compare between me and thee that thou shouldest so much desire to make me a visit and give to me an embracement Whence comes it that thou who art in Heaven among them who know so well how to love and serve thee wilt vouchsafe to descend to me who know little else but how to offend thee Is it possible O Lord that thou canst not content thy self to be without me Did thy meer love draw thee down from Heaven for my sake Dost thou still give thy self unto me as if thou couldst never be mine enough Who can abide the heat of this love Who can feel thy heart and not be burnt up There is none can dwell in such flames without being consumed No soul that can abide in the body if a great sense of this love do long abide We must therefore entreat our gracious Lord that he would stay for the full measure of our love till he hath made us able to do nothing else but love him And thirdly Let us turn our Love into desire Let us beseech him to fill us with his holy Spirit and to dwell in us by all his divine graces Say Lord since thou art pleased to come and offer thy self unto me My soul thirsteth for thee even as the thirsty Land I humbly stretch out my hands unto thee Psal 143.6 I open my mouth wide that thou mayest fill me O satisfie my soul with thy likeness O let me taste that the Lord is gracious And you may be assured that the Lord loves a soul that lies in such a posture ready to receive him that gasps and longs after him and saith in its heart Whom have I in Heaven but thee Psal 73.25 and there is none on earth besides thee Stir up thy appetite therefore and come to him as a chased Hart to the streams of water as an hungry man unto a Feast as a Bride unto her Wedding a thousand times desired Labour to feel something like to those longings that so thou mayst taste and savour his love the more and it may leave a sweeter gust and relish upon thy soul and thy mouth may praise him afterward with joyfull lips IV. When we take the Bread into our hands it is seasonable time to do that Act which I told you was one end of this Sacrament viz. Commemorate and shew forth or declare the Death of Christ unto God the Father Let us represent before him the sacrifice of atonement that Christ hath made let us commemorate the pains which he indured let us intreat him that we may enjoy all the purchase of his Blood that all people may reap the fruit of his Passion and that for the sake of his bloudy sacrifice he will turn away all his anger and displeasure and be reconciled unto us Themistocles they say not knowing how to mitigate and atone the wrath of King Admetus and avert his fury from him snatcht up the Kings Son and held him up in his armes between himself and death and so prevailed for a pardon and quenched the fire that was breaking out against him And this the Molossians of whom he was King held to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch in Themist the most effectual way of supplication and which of all others could not be resisted or denied Of far greater prevalency is this Act the holding up as it were the Son of God in our hands and representing to the Father the broken body and the Bloud of his onely begotten Let us set this between the heat of Gods anger and our souls let us desire he would have regard to his dearly beloved and the Lord cannot turn back our Prayers that press and importune him with such a mighty argument Say therefore to him Behold O Lord the sacrifice of the everlasting Covenant behold we lay before thee the Lamb
with power Rom. 15.13 Fill me with all joy and peace in believing Let me abound in hope Ephes 3 17. Let me be rooted and grounded in love If I have found favour in thine eyes let me be filled with the holy Ghost How sayst thou that thou lovest me if I have no more love unto thee no more life from thee and if I be so barren and unfruitfull in good Works O my Lord I take the boldness lovingly to complain to thee and expostulate with thee Why am I so dull and cold in thy service why am I so unwilling to execute thy commands why am I so weak and unable against the enemies assaults If thou be with me who can be against me Surely the Lord God is a Sun and a Shield the Lord will give grace and glory no good thing will he withold from them that walk uprightly Psal 84.11 Through thee I shall do valiantly thou shalt tread down all my enemies Psal 60.12 Psal 57.2 It is the Lord that performeth all things for me I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me Phil. 4.13 Psal 20.5 I will rejoice in thy salvation and in the Name of my God will I set up my Banners Lord I believe Mark 9.24 help thou my unbelief When we have done these things with the best devotion we can it will be a great refreshment to the soul if we turn it a little towards those who are the friends of your Lord. And therefore VI. Sixthly When we see him give the same Bread to others let us renew Acts of Love unto our Brethren Let us think that we being many are but one body and that we are made members one of another Let us ardently therefore embrace them in our armes let us clasp about them as our friends let us love one another with a pure heart fervently If we feel not the flame hot enough let us stir up in our minds again the remembrance of the dear love of our Lord and that will make us burn in affection to each other That will utterly put out all the sparks of envy anger or malice which are already buried that they may never any more revive to glow in our souls That will teach us a perfect remedy against all such distempered motions Let us but resolve that our thoughts shall dwell in the fide of Christ and Hell can never shoot any of its fires unto us If ever any of those black and dark passions begin to reek let us but presently enter into his wounds and they will all be extinguished When we feel but the loving warmth of his heart all our anger will turn into love and all our enemies will find us friends Let us resolve therefore now that we remember his love to enemies that we will never bear any hatred more Let us resolve now that we see how he distributes himself to us all that we will never contemn nor despise the meanest Brother that the eye shall not say to the foot I have no need of thee that one member shall not strike another that we will live in all peace and love bearing one anothers infirmities kindly accepting of reproofs doing all the good we can to soul and body that all men may know us to be Christs Disciples That we may do thus let every man think as seriously as he can within himself Did Christ dye only for me Was his body broken for my sake alone Are not other persons as dear unto him as my self Have we not all eaten of the same Loaf Are we not about to drink of the same Cup How shall I hate those whom my Beloved loves How shall I envy those to whom he is so liberal How shall I offend one of these for whom Christ dyed How shall I deny my self to him to whom my Lord hath given himself O my soul hast not thou espoused the same loves with thy blessed Lord Must not all his friends and relations be thy kindred Now he is not ashamed to call them brethren And therefore let them lye in my bosome let my soul cleave unto them let us keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace Such heavenly Aspirations and Affections as these would be as a sweet perfume in our souls that would make our Lord to like of his habitation the better they would be as the fragrant Oyntment poured on the head of Aaron Psal 133 2. that would invite him to more ardent embraces and give him the greater contentment in us For so you read him saying in the Cant. 4.10 How fair is thy Love my Sister my Spouse how much better is thy love than Wine and the smell of thy Oyntments than Spices She had said cap. 1.3 That his Name was an Oyntment poured forth the savour of which made all Virgin souls in love with him and now he saith the very same of her That he was much enamoured of her love yea even ravished as it is in the verse before and that nothing was so beautifull or sweet unto him as that love Now by the mention of the Oyntments to which the Psalmist compares the unity of Brethren it should seem the Bridegroom commends not only her love to him but to all his not only to the head but the whole body And therefore he compares her presently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Pamph. v. 12. to a Garden because as one of the Ancients speaks she did bring forth all the fruits of the spirit which are Love Joy Peace and the rest of their kindred And to a Garden enclosed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. because guarded against the enemy by the hedge and fence of the Commandments the summe of which is love to God and to one another VII Seventhly When we receive the Cup it is fit that we should again admire the wonderfull love of God that he would purchase us to himself by his own bloud And we should consider the great and inestimable value of this bloud Acts 20.28 that could make expiation and give God full satisfaction for such a world of offences The infinite virtue likewise as well as value of this sacrifice should be taken into our thoughts which lasts for ever and is now as fresh and full of efficacy as if the blood were newly shed upon the Cross Heb. 12.10 For so the Apostle saith This man after he had once offered for sinne for ever sate down on the right hand of God And that you may wonder more at the excellency of this Offering Consider how many sinnes you have committed and then guesse how many the sinnes are which have been committed by all men that have been are and shall be in the World and yet that this one Sacrifice is sufficient in Gods account to take away all being of an everlasting force and power And the better again to conceive of this admirable thing compare it with the sacrifices of old One sacrifice could
consider what is fit to be done for the keeping alive and feeding these flames of love when they are kindled in our souls And that shall be the business of the next Chapter CHAP. XVI FIrst I conceive it will be a fit expression of our love afterward to invite the poor the next meal unto our Table or to send some portion of our good things unto them When God hath feasted us at his House it is agreeable that we should feast others at ours or relieve them more plentifully than at other times The Jews used to send portions one to another and gifts to the poor upon a good day as they call it i. e. at a festival or time of rejoycing as you may see Esth 9.22 The Portions I suppose were part of the sacrifice of Peace-offerings which they had offered and which they sent unto friends that were absent and could not be with them and gifts to the poor likewise accompanied them that they might rejoyce in God also And so you read that the first Christians Act. 2.46 47. after they had broken bread did eat their meat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dr. Ham. in singleness i. e. liberality and openness of heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having favour c. i. e. doing acts of charity as an excellent Critick notes unto all the people It may be said that we make an offering at the Sacrament and so need not now renew our charity But those that think so forget that I am perswading to keep the heart from cooling by laying on new fewel And therefore as we praise God again in our private houses so it will well become us and will much assure our good disposition to us if we again express our bounty as we are able unto others For our charity is to be a running stream through our whole lives and therefore this advice is good to keep the passage open that it may not be suddenly stopped now that it hath newly found a vent for it self The Apostle bids the Christian Jews to offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name Heb. 13.15 whereby in all likelihood he understands their offering of Almes instead of the fruits of their herds and flocks joyned with praises and thanksgivings to God at the Eucharist Which offerings he calls the fruits of their lips because they were such as they had vowed and consecrated to God in token of their gratitude And this place of the Apostle seems exactly answerable to that of the Psalmist 50.14 Offer unto God Thanksgiving and pay thy vowes to the Most High But then after he had given them this exhortation to perform these two duties of Thanksgiving and Almes-doing at the Sacrament he adds v. 16. But to do good and communicate forget not for with such Sacrifices God is well pleased i. e. Do not think it sufficient to have payed your vowes at that solemn meeting of Christians but over and above that you must be carefull to exercise continuall Charity and not to omit any season or occasion of doing others good and this is a kind of daily sacrifice wherewith God is much delighted As the Jewes had their continuall Burnt-offerings beside those extraordinary Peace-offerings when they gave thanks for some great mercy so Christians besides these offerings at the Table of the Lord must be mindfull daily to be beneficiall unto others according as they have objects presented unto them And that they may not forget it will be wisdome to keep themselves in doing and presently after this Divine Food to think of feeding others that stand in need II. Secondly Let us not presently return to our worldly Employments if it be not upon the Lords day that we receive but let us spend the after-part of the day in entertaining our Lord with acts of Love and Delight with Thanks and Praise unto him for his favours Let us admire his Perfections and Graces let us talk with him about the Affairs of our Souls let us open to him every room in the House and lead him into the most private closet of our hearts shew him all our fecrets acquaint him with all our wants and weaknesses spread before him all our desires and earnestly entreat him to stay and dwell with us Let us tell him again That all we have is his let us tye a new knot upon the band of the Covenant that is between us let us be afraid lest by going presently into the world it should be loosed and dissolved It is not fit you know that a Bride on the day she is married should go from the company of the Bridegroom to follow Houshold-business or associate her self with other persons but she delights only in the presence of her new Love Even so unseemly it is to leave the company of our Lord as soon as we have let him into our hearts and to divert to other occasions when we have newly given him our Faith and taken him as the Bridegroom of our souls We should pass that day at least in heavenly discourses with him in expressions of our love and affection toward him in acts of desire after inseparable union with him and in promises and vows that we will alwayes be faithfull and loyal unto him that so the remaining part of the day may be as a Postcaenium an lafter-Supper and second Communion like the Feast of Charity which succeeded I told you in ancient time the holy Sacrament And indeed it is not only unbecoming us but likewise very dangerous and prejudicial to our health when we are thus warm to step instantly into the cold and chilling affairs of this world Motibus oppositis nihil permitiosius is a rule among Physicians there is nothing more hurtfull to us than motions quite opposite immediately succeeding each to other and therefore as it is pernicious after exercise to go and wash in cold water so it must needs be extreamly noxious to sink our selves into Earthly Employments just after our souls have been above in the exercise of love to God It argues likewise a soul but little affected that can presently relish Worldly things after it hath had any tasts of Gods sweetness It seems to me that such a man is like to Ganymede the Shepherds Boy in Lucian who though he was beloved of Jupiter and carried up to Heaven yet could not forget the things that he had left behind but asks What now will become of my Fathers Sheep Alas whither will they wander now that I am taken from them How will my business thrive if I spend so much time in Meditation and Prayer saith a silly soul How shall I be cast behind in my work while I am thus employed But as the Dialogist handsomely brings in Jupiter giving him a check so may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. dost thou yet think of thy sheep now that thou art made immortal Doth thy mind run upon thy shop now that thou
of the divine Commandments which was among the Primitive Saints their despising of all worldly things their great charity and love may be thought to have flowed in great part from this spring that they received so frequently the Body and Blood of our Lord. Hence we may derive their strength activeness and zeal because they were so often refreshed with this Wine This gave them boldness against their adversaries this made them run so forwardly into flames because they were constantly heated with divine fires From this Table they went away with the courage of Lions and were terrible even to that great roaring Lion which devours so many careless souls He could not make such an easie prey of them as he doth of us because they did daily renew their strength by this food and became as bold as a Lion after he hath eaten flesh and drunken blood And if we did more frequently Communicate it would be a means to bring us to a greater resemblance of our Lord which was the thing that I last pressed who you know overcame the evil one and trod him under his feet As the Leverets saith the forementioned Author in the Mountains of Helvetia become all white because they neither see nor eat any thing but driven Snow so by often adorning and eating beauty goodness and purity it self in this divine Sacrament we should become altogether vertuous pure and beautifull And I am of the mind of another excellent Writer Dr. J. Taylor who judges it very probable That the Warres of Kingdomes the contentions in Families the infinite multitude of Law suits the personal hatreds and the universal want of charity which hath made the world so miserable and wicked may in a great degree be attributed to the neglect of this great Symbole and instrument of charity And that is the last thing that I shall commend unto you VIII Eighthly Let us be sure to live in charity with our Brethren to which we are in a special manner engaged by this Sacrament and of which we make a most solemn profession Let us behave our selves as Servants in the same family as sons of the same father as those who have eaten of the same bread Let us be very carefull that we do not cover the coals of anger and contention under the ashes for a night and then blow them up again the next morning but let us quite extinguish them and utterly put them out Let not your jealousies your hard thoughts your uncharitable and rash censurings your differences and enmities ever return again but let that sentence run in your minds 1 John 4.11 Beloved if God so loved us we ought to love one another If he have given his Son if he still give him to us if we feed and live upon him then let us love as Brethren and not fall out in our way to Heaven And if we find our love to grow sick and weak and to be fallen to decay then let us come hither on purpose for to revive it and raise it up again If the Lamp begin to burn dim and to cast a very weak light let us pour in more Oyl that it may not go out If our love begin to be chill and cold let us put this fire the oftner under it that it may be kept in a flame For assure your selves that they who take up their differences and enmities again did never truly lay them aside they did but mock God when they came to this holy Communion with a pretence of Love and Charity their hearts not being throughly resolved to forget all in juries and offences Or if they did seriously labour to put to death all hatreds one great reason why they are not throughly mortified is because they use so rarely this powerfull means of suppressing them and keeping them in their graves Men do one with another Plutarch alij as the Thespienses with married persons who once in five years space kept a Feast called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Cupids honour for the reconciling of all differences that had happened between Man and Wife Such a small Festivity do men make of this Sacrament of the Lords Supper to which they come perhaps with an intention to bury all differences but then they give them a whole twelve moneths time if not more to revive and gather strength again Hence it is that the temper of the Christian World is as much different from the Spirit of the elder times as heat is from cold or life from death They held such frequent Communions that their love was so flagrant as to make them dye for one another and we hold them so seldome that the heat of our unmortified passions makes us wound and kill each other So that I make account there is but a little difference between doing this seldome and not doing it at all yea those enmities will be more fierce and untractable which even the Bloud of Jesus hath not quenched To put a conclusion then to this Discourse let me advise you when you come from the Table of the Lord thus to meditate within your selves I have received fresh Pledges of the love of my Lord and I have made new professions of my own What now doth the Lord require of me What have I that I can render back to him Alas I have nothing to give him but only my love nothing but my love did I say Oh how great a thing is love how much is inclosed in the bosome of love It is no such trifle as I imagine Love brought God down to us and love will carry us up to God Love made God like to man and love will make men like to God Love made him dye for us and love will make us lay down our lives for the Brethren O the power of Heavenly Love How shall I get thee planted in my heart Who can bring thee into my soul but only love Love begets love and the frequent Meditation of this love of God and of his Son will inflame thy heart in love to them Oh let a sense of this love lye perpetually in my breast that may change me into love Let me burn and languish in the Armes of Jesus Let me long for nothing but him let him be all my talk all my joy the Crown of my delight Let me never forget how gracious he is let the taste of his incomparable sweetness be never out of my mouth let me never rellish any thing but what hath some savour of him O my foul what should we wish for but to feast again with him What should we desire but to be satisfied with him Psal 27.4 This one thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the House of my Lord all the dayes of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple What friend is there to whom we have been endeared that we can forget Do we use to throw the
afford us a constant chearfulness They do not beget a pleasure that lyes only upon the pallate but they are the more pleasing when they are descended as far as the heart and there they lay the foundation of a lasting joy by turning the affections of the heart toward Christ The benefits of this food are not like a blaze of straw that warms a man for the present but soon leaves him cold nor like a flash of Lightning darting through the soul for a moment which returns presently into its darkness nor like the frisking of the spirits in our body after a draught of Wine which when the adventitious heat is over fall into sluggishness again But they are solid and substantial like to the warmths of the Sun-beams when there is no Clouds before his face nor no windes to sweep them away or rather like the pleasures of eating food which encreases our strength and fattens our bones and causes a durable chearfulness and vivacity of our spirits For Bread you know is called the staffe of Life and that which strengthens mans heart as Wine is that which glads his heart and cheareth God and Man By a right use of this holy Sacrament all the faculties and parts of the soul are nourished and augmented The understanding becomes more full and clear in its perceptions the will is made more free and chearfull in its choice of good the affections more Heavenly and Divine more forward and compliant with our wills the passions more regular and orderly under better government and command All which would admit of a large discourse but seeing I have drawn this tract already to over-great a length I will chuse to speak and that but briefly neither of what is most sensible to every good man viz. the encrease of these three great Graces Faith Hope and Charity First Faith is hereby made more solid and strong whether we consider it in its direct or reflex acts i. e. We do in this holy Feast look most seriously upon the proper object of our Faith Jesus Christ and all the truths of the Gospel We do profess with all our souls to embrace a crucified Saviour We do seal to this truth which he hath sealed by his Bloud We make a most solemn and publick confession of what we believe We do most sacredly protest that we firmly consent to live according to it and obey it And then if we would reflect and turn our eyes back into our own souls and believe something of our selves we may be able to make a better judgement concerning our selves and be more confirmed in the belief that we are real Christians seeing after serious examination and advice with our selves we find that we heartily love and obey Christs commands and seeing that in his most sacred Presence who is the searcher of the heart we dare confidently avow it that there is not any thing though never so difficult which we know to be his Will but we are resolved for to do it We are then in the right use of this Food more strengthned both in the premisses and also in the conclusion As if a man should make this Syllogism or reasoning He that heartily believes in Christ and obeys the Gospel-commands shall inherit the promises and be saved I do so heartily believe and obey Therefore I shall be saved All these three Propositions or Affirmations are by worthy receiving much strengthened in us We do heartily profess to believe the Gospel and we are more confirmed in our belief and in particular of this That he who doth believe in Christ and obey him shall be saved We see before our eyes such testimonies of Gods love that we cannot but be full of this belief which is a generall Faith and contained in the first of those now named Propositions We do likewise here renew our consent to believe and obey our Lord in every thing he hath said and this contains the second Proposition and is a particular special act of Faith Now what should hinder but that we may conclude most strongly that which is in the Third Therefore I shall be saved And then Faith is manifestly nourished in every sense that you can take it in We do directly put forth more lively acts of Faith as that implies assenting to the Gospel and consenting to obey it And why should not the consequent be That we may reflect more comfortably and solidly upon our selves that we are in a safe condition And that we may continue so there wants nothing but that we be diligent in the use of all means of which this is one To confirm and establish our faith more by often receiving the Sacred Body and Bloud of Christ 2. Our Hope is here also nourished and made more lively And indeed it must be strengthned in proportion to our Faith for hope arises out of it and hath its growth with it being but the expectation and waiting of Faith Because I believe those things that are promised in the Gospel therefore I wait for them the stronger therefore that my belief and obedience is the stronger will my hope be Now he that expresses his Faith in Christ at this Sacrament and believes also that Christ is really present there and likewise that he is united to Christ through a worthy use of it He doth thereby get a greater reason to hope and wait for the other appearance and presence of Christ more visibly and openly when he shall be divested of all signs and figures and shall reveal himself with open face When we shall not know him so much as that he dyed but as he that lives and reigns and triumphs 3. Our Love hereby is manifestly enlarged and nourished partly by fulfilling one of Christs commands He that loves me keeps my Commandments saith our Lord and this is one of them Do this in remembrance of me And partly by laying new fewel upon the fire which it may feed upon New considerations I mean and experiences new arguments and incentives to obedience And partly by knitting and uniting of us in a more cordial love and affection to all our Brethren which is an expression of love to him For he hath said 1 John 4.12 If we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us Now Faith Hope and Love what will not they do what cannot they overcome All the craft of the Devil is discovered all his power is broken all his temptations are bafled by this Heavenly Nourishment For if we consider the first piece of the Devils Policy which consists in magnifying and extolling the advantages of that thing to which he would tempt us it is defeated by the light of faith which this Sacrament doth make more clear and shining He uses all the Rhetorick and Sophistry that he hath to perswade us that it is a harmless or a pleasant or a profitable or a credible thing He paints sinne forth in the best colours and provides for it the most amorous dresses
as dear to him as his life Now whose heart would not faint and swound to think of being guilty of his most sacred blood There is no such load to the Conscience as to shed innocent blood Who then can have a heart strong enough to bear him up of being guilty of the body and blood of the Son of God 4. And that is the fourth thing I would have such persons to consider that they eat and drink damnation to themselves in a more spiritual sense than the Corinthians did that is they make themselves liable not onely to the plagues of God in this life but to his everlasting anger in the world to come You have seen already that in this Sacrament we make a solemn profession of our selves to be Christs Disciples we vow our selves to his service what doth he then but call for all the curses of God upon his head who takes no care to keep those engagements We here profess to believe the Gospel and to submit our selves to it now the threatnings of Christ are a part of his Gospel which we chuse here to fall under if we do not obey his commands We here receive Christ who is represented to us by the signs of Bread and Wine He therefore who embraces him with a dead faith which works not by love what doth he else but damn himself He professes Christ as solemnly as any Creature can do but he lives not according to him His own faith then and belief will condemn him And let that man think that he departs from the Lords Table exposed to all the mischiefs in the world that can fall upon a man unprotected from above The shadow of the Lord is departed from his head and he lies open to all the Thunderbolts of Heaven And beside he consigns himself over to eternal death he binds himself to endure the torments of Hell fire When a man can think of Christ of his death of his love and yet love his sin and keep the traytor in his brest it will at last prove a traytor to him and hale him to the most fear-full execution The flames of Hell will be the hotter because the blood of Christ will not quench them The Anger of God will be more incensed because men blew it up by their sins notwithstanding the stream of Blood which flowed from the side of his Son to slake it And you will see that he is in greater danger of Hell fire then other men and that he drinks damnation if you consider that which follows 5. Such a prophane person doth by this act more harden his heart in his sin and makes it more obdurate against all the methods of God It may be in the heart of some to say that there is no such danger of damnation for a man may repent and though he do not now leave his sin yet hereafter he may be out of love with it But this imagination will soon fly away if you set but the light of this truth and those that follow against it That a mans heart becomes more obstinate and unmalleable who is not softned by Christs Bloud and goes on in sin though he then perhaps entertained some resolutions against it This Bread will turn into a stone in such a mans heart and it will become as hard as the nether Milstone He that can sin though he remember often such a love that is in Christ and so great evil as is in sin and though he come and make engagements and professions of love to him must needs be very stupid and senseless And God withdrawing his Grace Christ departing away from such an unhallowed and impudent Creature must needs make his heart more seared and his condition more dangerous When he approaches to a soul and finds it a nest of unclean Birds he will take the wings of a Dove and flie away to a cleaner and whiter habitation Or rather if we refuse to hear his Law and obey his Word which is preached to us he will not come to us when we are so bold as to take this Covenant into our mouths and yet hate to be reformed And if he will not come to us what can follow but coldness and hardness by reason of his absence 6. The Devil enters into that heart which Christ leaves If the Lord can find no room in us we become fit for seven more foul spirits than dwelt in us before God leaves men more to the power of Satan when they offer such contempt unto his Son The powers of darkness rush with greater fury and with a greater throng upon such a person that loves to be in darkness in the midst of such Heavenly light The Serpent may infuse his venome more into their spirits as well as sting their bodies and he gets a stronger title to them after they have offered such an affront and mockery to the Son of God 7. It must needs be hard for such a person to get a pardon because he sins even against that Bloud by which the pardon is to be obtained Upon what score can he sue for forgiveness who made so light of the Covenant of forgiveness What will he plead for himself who makes so little Conscience of keeping Christ commands that he breaks them all at once for he that doth not receive Christ when he is so tendered and submits not himself to him he refuses all the Gospel and rejects all that he says I tell you it will cost a man many a tear and a very sad repentance before he obtain the mercy to wipe off those stains which the Blood of Christ leaves upon the Soul He must be washed in that very blood which he uses so irreverently and which he can sin against so boldly and what a strong faith must he have that can think this so easily to be obtained Let no man then approach hither that is in love with any sin whose heart is not so broken for his Rebellions that he verily thinks in his Conscience he shall leave them Let him bring nothing into the presence of Christ which his Soul hates unless he intend to be worse then a Jew who did not own him to be the Christ And if any man do find upon good consideration that he and his sins are so saln out that they shall never agree again and therefore desires here to make an open defiance of them and joyn himself most solemnly in a friendship with Christ let him be infinitely careful afterward that he do not return with a Dog to his vomit after he hath eaten this sacred food But let me add this that I do not say all this of the danger that is in this thing that you may not come as St. Chrysostome speaks but that you may not meerly come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Hom. 24. in 1 ad Corinth For as to come on any fashion is very dangerous so not to come at all is certain famine and death As he may surfeit and kill
observed We must strive to be of the highest by keeping our affections alive that are begotten in us p. 330. CAP. XVI Eight directions for the maintaining in our hearts those resolutions that are wrought in them and keeping our hearts in a constant good temper p. 335. SECT IV. Of the Benefits of holy Communion CAP. XVII Holy men can best tell themselves how sweet this Feast is yet for the inviting of others to this chear a Discourse is begun of the pleasures of it p. 374. CAP. XVIII Three benefits we may receive by it 1. Great pleasure which is brought to us sundry wayes 2. Great nourishment and strength as is proved by the three graces of Faith Hope Charity 3. Great cures of our sicknesses and diseases p. 382. CAP. XIX The danger of coming hither with a love to our sins opened in several particulars Yet it is a great sin not to come out of love to Christ Mens excuses shown to be frivolus p. 410. CAP. XX. The great excuse of many unmasked which is that wicked men are permitted to come thither p. 431. Mensa Mystica THe Sacraments being not unfitly called by an ancient Writer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dionys cop 3. Eccles hierarch The Garments that are cast about our Saviour and it being the profession of Divines to labour to see the naked face of truth it is most worthy our pains to open and reveal those secrets that lie hid and vailed under symbols and sensible things And to say the truth these Vestments are so thin and transparent that the truth doth shine through them and shew it self to well-prepared minds They are but like to those thin clouds wherein the Sun is sometimes wrapped which render its body the more visible to our weak and trembling eyes I cannot pretend to have conversed much with barefac'd truth yet having been drawn to publish a few thoughts concerning Baptism I shall now further endeavour to unfold those mysteries that lie hid under the coverings of bread broken and wine poured out in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper that men may not Ixion-like embrace a meer cloud instead of God himself My sight is not so sharp as to discern the very flesh and blood of Christ in those forms and shapes of bread and wine no more could that Eagle-eyed Author I mentioned though he thought he could see as far as the coelestial Hierarchy which will appear to any one that shall be at the pains to read him Yet I am so far from thinking that they are meer signs of what Christ did for us or onely representations of the benefits we receive by him but am perswaded that they exhibit our Lord himself unto believing minds and put them into a surer possession of him The truth commonly lies between two extreams and being a peaceable thing cannot join it self with either of the directly opposite parties And therefore I shall seek for her in a middle path not bidding such a defiance to the corporeal presence as to deny the real nor so subverting the fancy of a miraculous changed into a coelestial substance as to level these things into meer shadows CHAP. I. FIrst then this holy rite of eating bread broken and drinking wine poured out is a solemn commemoration of Christ according as he himself saith to all his Apostles Luk. 22.19 and particularly to St. Paul who twice makes mention of this command 1 Cor. 11.24 25. Do this in remembrance or for a remembrance of me His meaning is not that we should hereby call him to mind for we are never to forget him but rather that we should keep him in mind and endeavour to perpetuate his Name in the world and propagate the memory of him and his benefits to the latest posterity Now this is done by making a solemn rehearsal of his famous Acts and declaring the inestimable mable greatness of his royal love For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not signifie barely recordatio recording or registring of his favours in our mind but commemoratio a solemn declaration that we do well bear them in our hearts and will continue the memory and spread the fame of him as far and as long as ever we are able I hope that none will conceive so little to be meant by this word remember or commemorate as a naked mention of his Name with our mouthes or a dead image of him in our minds For all these words to know believe meditate remember and the like are hearty words and full of life Though they seem to speak only actions of the mind yet in holy language they include in their comprehension the affections of the heart Cold pale thoughts which have no feeling of themselves nor leave any footsteps or memorials behind them are as good as none at all And therefore I understand hereby a very warm sence in the soul which begets and stirs up such motions in the heart as the conceived object is apt for to raise Suppose you have been in deep love with any person and have lost the half of your selves when you remember the death of that friend the image of him is ready to rob you of your lives and make all the blood retire to your heart as if death were about to surprize the main Fort of life But on the contrary if you think of that person as alive the remembrance of him makes your spirits for to dance and the blood to run into your cheeks and smiles to sit on your forehead and breeds a pleasance in your whole man Just so would our Saviour be remembred by you that the thoughts of him may even kill you with grief and transport you with love and captivate your wills and ingage all your affections that they may be at his command and issued forth at his pleasure As you think of a friend of a father of a wife or a husband or any one that hath got the possession of your heart so think of him By which examples you may see that I intend not a natural passion and a sensual commotion in the soul but a well-grounded affection When we read a true History or a Romance we are apt to side with some persons in the story and when we meet with a Duel we favour one of the Combatants and are sensible of his wounds and sorry for his fall as on the contrary we are glad he comes off a conquerour and wins the field So may a man when he thinks of Christ and his Tragedy conceive a natural hatred and indignation at the treachery of Judas and the vile malice of the Pharisees and be much moved to see him used in such an unworthy manner it may be fetch sighs from his heart and tears from his eyes and put him into such a huge passion as if he suffered with him But if all this have non effect in his life and produce no answerable fruits afterward it is no more than a natural motion and is void of the divine and
Conclusion would be as certain as either that therefore I am pardoned But seeing the first Proposition is grounded on a fallible judgment and it is possible I may deceive my self therefore I cannot make a conclusion of equal certainty with the second proposition but That I am pardoned will be no stronger then this That I beleeve Yet notwithstanding if a man find no cause to suspect his own reality he may have a belief of his pardon free from doubting and may rest well satisfied that he is in a good estate because nothing appears to the contrary but that he sincerely doth the Will of Christ Though he attains unto this perswasion not by a direct but a reflex act of faith i. e. not meerly by a belief of Gods Word which no where saith that I am pardoned but by a serious examination of himself according to the tenor of the Word yet seeing he discerns a conformity between himself and it he may have a very good and strong though not infallible assurance that his sinnes are blotted out and shall not be imputed to him Whensoever then we approach to the Lords Table we should come with a belief that God makes over unto us the greatest blessings if we receive them as he requires Now all that he requires is That we would love and obey him as we said in the former Chapter when we heartily engage to this we have hereby a conveyance made to us of all that Heaven contains which is included in this phrase forgiveness of sinne For you may observe that in Scripture-stile the taking away of Gods Wrath is the doing of some favour His kindnesses are not meer negatives or removals of evil but when he forgives sinne and inflicts not the punishment he conferres the contrary blessing and restores us to the inheritance CHAP. V. THE distance being taken away between God and us this Sacrament must be considered as a means of our nearer union with our Lord Christ He doth not onely embrace us when we come to his Table but he likewise knits and joins us to himself He not onely ties us with Cords of Love and binds us to his service by favours and blessings conferred on us but in some sort he makes us one with him and takes us into a nearer conjunction then before we enjoyed And who would not desire to be infolded in his arms Who would not repose himself in his bosome but who durst have presumed to entertain a thought of being married unto him and becoming one with him And yet who would refuse such a favour now that it is offered to us but they that neither know him nor themselves This Covenant into which we enter is a Marriage-Covenant and our Lord promises to be as a Husband to us and we chuse him as the best beloved of our souls It is none of the common friendships which we contract with him by eating and drinking at his Table but the rarest and highest that can be imagined and we are to look upon this as a Marriage-Feast What this union then with Christ is it need not be disputed we may be sure that it is such an one as is between a man and his wise the Vine and the Branches the Head and the Members the Building and the Foundation as hereafter will more fully appear yea far beyond all sorts of union whether moral natural or artificial which the world affords example of That which I am to shew is That by these Sacramental Pledges of his Love and this communion with Christ our Lord we are faster tied unto him and the Ligaments are made more strong and indissoluble between us This will be manifest upon these considerations I. Seeing we do after a sort eat Christs flesh and drink his Blood we must needs thereby be incorporated further with him I dispute not now in what sence we eat and drink his body and blood but so far as we grant that we do that so far the other is likewise done Our union is of the same kind and degree with our communion and participation And therefore when the Apostle speaks of a communion with them 1 Cor. 10.16 that adhaesion and cleaving to Christ signifies That in some sort we are made one with him So Chrysostome observes That the Apostle useth not the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is participation but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Communion because he would shew the near conjunction that is between us and that we are knit and united to him by this partaking of him So likewise Oecumenius upon the place observes That Christs blood uniteth us to him as our Head 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by our receiving of it And indeed as it is contrary to all analogy of speech to call the Bread and Wine by the Name of Christs Body and Blood if they be not at all so in like manner it is incongruous to use the phrase of eating and drinking if there be no union between us and that which we eat and drink II. Faith and Love bearing a great part in this holy action and Christ being by them embraced it must needs be a means of our nearer union For union you know begins in our consent unto him and therefore the stronger that grows and with the greater dearness of affection that is expressed the stronger and closer our union to him becomes Now Faith and Love which are our consent receive here a great encrease of strength by the most intense operation of them which is apt to perfect and compleat them No man comes aright hither that doth not from the bottom of his heart as you have seen put himself into the will of Christ to be moved and governed at his pleasure He must run into Christs heart to have no motion but according as that beats so that his whole life should be put to a pulse answering to the heart of Christ And so Cyril brings in Christ calling upon men and saying I am the bread of life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. in myst Caen. take me in as a leaven to diffuse it self through your whole mass Be you even leavened with me that every bit of you may taste of me This can be effected by nothing else but a hearty conjunction of our wills with Christs We must put our selves wholly out of our own power as the wife doth when she gives her self to her husband and the more we can get out of our selves so as to have no proper will of our own the more we become one with him When we feel not our selves to be any thing at all nor to have any interest different from that of his then we and he are made perfectly one or rather we are not but he is All. Now this abolition of propriety and self is much promoted by the remembrance of Christs death and his unvaluable love whereby we become dead and are even snatched and ravished from our selves Whatsoever other unions there may be they all wait
contract a kindred also with all the friends of the bridegroom And love indeed is of that nature that it is not onely diffusive of it self but it runs forth with a certain pleasure and tickles our heart as it passeth from us So that no man would be excused from loving of his brethren nor willingly want that part of this Christian feast We all grant that this food would not be so full of juice and sweetness but that it tastes of the Love of our Lord nor would this cup be so pleasant but that it is the cup of Charity Now when the heart is once filled with love it wants nothing but objects whereon to empty it self and it is like new wine that is ready to burst the vessel unless it find some vent And therefore one good man is glad at such a time to ease himself into the bosome of others and to express himself to them in such charitable actions as cannot be done to God who is all sufficient of himself This adds to the grace of this entertainment that there is nothing but love to be seen in it The food is love the Master of the Feast glories in no greater name then that he is Love all the guests are Brethren they are all in their Fathers house they all receive the tokens and pledges of the Love of their Elder Brother and his love is so great that he is content to share his inheritance among them It must be therefore against nature and the course of things not to love and to let our Brethren share in our affections who have a portion in the same Saviour But to make it plainly appear that one end of the institution of this Sacrament was to advance love and kindness in our hearts to each other let these things be considered I. As it is a common feast it carries in it the notion of love and good will that is between all the guests It is well known that eating and drinking together was anciently such a sign of unity conjunction of minds and friendly society that the word Companis and Companio in old Latine is the same with Socius Our English retains them all and expresseth a more then ordinarily familiarity between persons by the names of companions company and society which are first made and afterward maintained by a friendly converse at the same table and eating of the same Bread And hence it is that all our Companies and Fraternities in Cities have their Guild-halls where they meet and their feasts likewise at certain times for the maintaining of love and amicable correspondence From which kind of meeting it is that the holy Sacrament was called Synaxis a convention or coming together in one which the Apostle expresseth when he saith 1 Cor. 11.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. When you come together into one place It is a phrase for their assembling and convening at an appointed time to feast together and maintain mutual charity which Christ had commended so much unto them And this Aristotle in his Politicks makes the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. 1. Polit. the first of all communions which is between those that live under the same roof and eat and drink at the same table as Parents and Children Brethren and Sisters from whence all other societies and communions are derived Christians are called in Scripture by the name of those near relations and therefore their love is fitly expressed and upheld by this kind of intercourse and sweet converse And the frequenter it is the more would it approach to a likeness to the most ancient and prime communion in nature For this is a maxime in that great man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lb. An every day communion doth naturally make a house We are the house of God and the first converts to the faith do seem to have maintained such a daily communion that they better deserved that name then any people that ever were and testified that they looked upon one another as Children of the same parent and were spiritual brethren and sisters in the Lord. It is so natural to give tokens of friendship by this thing In Muscovy the Bridegroom presents a loaf of bread to the Priest and he to the friends who break it and eat of it in token of fidelity and love V. Hist of Russia by G. Fletcher cap. 24. that in some places people have made their sponsalia or contracts of marriage by each persons drinking of the same cup. And perhaps for the same reason it is that in many places of England they use after marriage to break a cake over the head of the bride as she enters into the doors either shewing that they must live together in the most intimate society or that they and all their friends eating of it may signifie the great love that is between them Now the more sacred our food is whereof we partake and the body of Christ being broken before our eyes and administred unto us the more strongly are we engaged to brotherly love and the rarer friendship do we contract beyond all that the word companion can express II. The Paschal supper among the Jews was a feast of love as well as of remembrance For it was not onely celebrated between the members of the same family but by the whole Nation who came together from all parts at the same time and in one place which did intimate to them that they were but one body For this cause it is likely God ordained that they should have one whole Lamb for every family Exod. 12.46 and not divide it into portions among several companies as also he forbids that a bone of it should be broken by them It did well represent the unity that was among them seeing they all did the same thing without any division and made not the least fraction in those parts that were most compacted The bread likewise without leaven might have some such signification in it that they should not swell by the fervency of any passion nor be sowred by any malice or ill-will to each other who eat of the same unleavened bread And so the Apostle bids us to keep the feast now that Christ our Passeover is sacrificed for us not with the leaven of malice and wickedness 1 Cor. 5.7 8. but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth And it may be observed that though the stranger that was uncircumcised might not by the Law eat of the Lamb Exod. 12.43 45. yet their Masters tell us that they permitted them to eat of the unleavened bread and bitter herbs c. which was a token of some love unto them though not of such a dear affection as they had for their own Nation III. But the Lords Supper is much more a feast of love because it is a remembrance of the greatest love that ever was which our Lord shewed in dying for us This love of his must in all reason be compensated with a great
receive might consecrate if they thought good and use at the ministration of the Sacrament and thereby testifie their union with the rest of the body of Christ that were distant from them Aug. Epist 31. So Paulinus wrote to St. Aug. Panem unum quem unanimitatis indicio misimus charitati tuae rogamus ut accipiendo benedicas i. e. That loaf of bread which I sent to your kindness as a token of our unanimity I beseech you to receive and bless Such wayes did those holy men study and devise to engage themselves to each other and represent the brotherly kindness that was between them Beside all this the present Greek Church and I know not how ancient such a custom is do in express words when they are at the Communion profess charity to all men even to their enemies and make a solemn declaration of the love that is in their hearts before the whole Assembly of Gods people De rit Eccles Gr. cap. 24. For so Christoph Angelus relates That when they go up to the holy man for to receive they turn themselves first to the West and then to the South and next to the North and say to the brethren that stand on all sides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christians we pray you pardon us all our offences either in word or deed And they all answer again when they are thus spoken unto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Brother God grant thee his pardon This Petition they make unto the Company upon their knees and seldom were any so wicked as to dismiss them unpardon-d if they did then were they themselves excluded from communion We must think then when we approach to this heavenly banquet that we are about to remember the dearest love that ever was and to engage our selves in the greatest affection and strictest friendship that can be in any hearts unto each other VVe must think that we enter into a mutual covenant with our brethren by eating of the same bread and drinking of the same cup. And we must resolve never to fall out any more much less to hate malign or do despight and injuries to one another but to live more then ever in the peace of God by a brotherly unity and affection Let us think it as unnatural after such an union to fall out as for the hands to scratch the face or any one member to beat and tear the other inpieces And if there be any thing hitherto treated of in this discourse which men cannot or will not understand to be meant by this Sacrament yet let us all apprehend that it is a bond of charity and doth engage us not to quarrel about such things For it is a great policie of the Devil to make that a bone of contention which should be the Bread of Love and Peace It was intended to be a contesseration and union of Christian Societies to God and with one another but mens evil taking of it as One well saith divides us from God and the evil understanding of it divides us one from another Thus much notwithstanding the weakest mind may conceive that it is a feast of love and it is not weakness but wilfulness nor shortness of understanding but perversness of heart that makes men senseless in this particular And therefore let us use one another as friends and think our hands and tongues and our very hearts are bound with cords of Love which we cannot break without apparent violence to our selves Remember always that a Rupture in this Sacred Bond of Brotherly Love doth disunite us likewise from our Lord himself For there are not two cups whereof we drink at his Supper the one containing the Love of Christ the other the Love of our Brethren but we drink both at one draught and engage to both at one breath So that he who unties the one knot at the same time dissolves the other according as the beloved Disciple speaks He that loves not 1 John 4.8 knows not God for God is love Conclusion WHen I consider all these admirable uses of this holy food I do not wonder if some devout persons in the elder times out of an excess of love did by their daily bread which we petition for in the Lords Prayer understand this divine bread and so out of a spiritual hunger and a forwardness of affection did eat of it every day For you see that herein we commemorate both to God and man the death of Christ we publish it to the world and plead it with God in our own behalf and others Then this we have nothing more prevalent so that our hearts begin while we are commemorating of it to burn with heavenly fires and our tongues here tast such things that make them sing the praises of Angels We seal Indentures between God and us We give entertainment to our Lord Christ and let him into our hearts yea we profess to all the world that we are of his Religion and Communion We are confirmed likewise in his favour he opens unto us his very heart he lets us into his secrets and knits us unto himself with a more inseparable affection We likewise associate our selves with the Disciples of our Lord and make a firmer League of a holy friendship with them All which may well make us say with the Disciples Lord evermore give us this bread But though it be so desirable to feed alwayes on such sweetness yet you cannot but discern that this is a business that requires the greatest intention of our mind and the strongest affections of our heart and layes the most weighty engagements upon us for our eternal good and therefore must be well understood and solemnly performed in our approaches to it For which cause before I direct your Addresses to this Table which is the next thing to be done having opened to you the secrets of it I will observe to you these two things for a conclusion of this part of my discourse The one to quicken your appetite that you may feed heartily The other to guide your minds that you may not feed upon shadows 1. This must needs be the most nourishing and strengthning food of all others that a Christian hath because there are so many ends and purposes to which it serves It feeds all our Graces at once as you shall hereafter see and it sends a nourishment and that most plentifull and copious to every part It encreases our love to God and our love to man which is the sum of all our duty It engageth us in the most sacred bands by the dying of Christ by his dearest love by all the blessings which he hath bestowed to do that duty and faithfully perform it It is a little Epitome of the whole Gospel for it shews what God will do for us and what we most do for him and it affords strength unto us for to do it And therefore it is called the New-Testament or Covenant in his blood because here the whole New Covenant
is represented God giveing his Son and all Blessings unto us and we giving of our selves and our best service unto him as hath been already discoursed By this God sets to his Seal that all things contained in the Covenant shall be done for us and we do set to our seal and openly profess our selves to belong to the Covenant and that we esteem and highly value all those blessings and will do any thing for to obtain them Now who would not long for such a food that will satisfie our whole desire Who would refuse an invitation to that Table where all things are in one dish if I may so speak and God and Man meet together in one Bread and one Cup But I doubt I may add Who is there that would not have all these things so that this Bread and Wine without any labour will convey them unto him And therefore I must give you another short information which was the second thing that I promised and that is this 2. This copious Food doth not nourish us without some actions of our own even such as I have already mentioned in this Discourse It doth not feed us in a natural but in a moral and spiritual manner It reiresheth us by our consideration by our faith our love our prayers our covenanting and thanksgiving But all the cunning in the world will not draw a drop of blood out of it without these no it draws out the blood of our souls and wasts our strengths by a careless and prophane eating of it The Papists talk of great things that their Priests give in this Sacrament by their power and they would make the world believe that they communicate more then we can do But we must solemnly averr That our Ministry conveighs as great things as they speak of onely men must do something more of the work themselves We pretend not indeed to send wicked men to Heaven with a word but we can help the thoughts and affections of all pious souls as much as they with all their skill and power Nay if the people do nothing we give them more then they for they feed them with hungry accidents they give them a bit of quantity and a cup of colours yea the Laity have not so much as a sip of these figures whereas the worst man among us hath at least Bread and Wine so that the best among us enjoy as much in effect and vertue as they can pretend unto and the worst by their own confession enjoy much more But the truth of it is that men have heightned these things to such incomprehensible mysteries because they would do nothing and these should do all They have advanced these sacred Rites of Christs appoinment into a degree of vertue beyond all his other commands that so by these easie and facile rites of Baptism and the Lords Supper men might go to Heaven by a compendious manner of doing little or nothing towards their salvation And they have not left these Rites as naked as Christ brought them into the world but they have changed the manner of their observance and cloathed them in a great many strange dresses lest the genuine simplicity of them should reprove their false hopes which they conceive from them They could never put men so soon into Heaven nor get so much money as they do by the bargain if they did not make men believe greater things of this Sacrament then of all the eternal Laws of Christ and they could not make men believe so much more of it if they did not transform it from its native simplicity into an uncouth mystery These two things the love of mens lusts and the love of the world have made men stretch these things so far as to defie all reason to damn all those that will not speak non-sence and to send those to hell though of never so holy lives that will not discredit their eyes and ears What strange things will men believe and do so that they can but believe contrary to the Gospel They hope to go to Heaven they know not how by the Magick of words and by the secret efficacy of a Religion that they do not understand and this makes them willing to entertain such Doctrines And then others have a respect to their own interest and having little else to support their greatness would be reverenced and esteemed for their extraordinary power in making the body of Christ and that makes them willing to maintain them So the Author of the History of the Council of Trent saith very truly L. 6. When men began to place Heaven below Earth good institutions were said to be corruptions onely tollerated by Antiquity and abuses brought in afterward were canonized for perfect corrections But we willingly acknowledg that we have no power to save men without themselves We celebrate no such Mysteries that shall convey the wicked to Heaven We cannot deliver those that are dead from their pain and torment who whilst they lived made little reckoning either of this or any other Divine Command No we proclaim to All men that this food must nourish us by our own stomachs that it affords strength by the vital operations of our own souls And if we our selves will do what God requires of us then we shall find it as full of vertue as we can desire and it will be a means to put us in Heaven while we remain here upon the earth Sometimes they will needs blame us as doing too little and denying the use of good works but this is such a falsity that we call for more of mens labour then they seem to make necessary and profess that we hope not by any power of ours to do them good without the exercise of their own powers And therefore let us put forth a lively faith let us heartily covenant with our Lord let us make a sincere profession of our Religion and exercise such other acts as I have been treating of and so will this Feast be of great force and full of efficacy to our souls health And that you may feed with an appetite and hereby get an encrease in strength it is necessary that I next of all direct your Addresses to Gods Table and shew how you should prepare your selves to be his worthy Guests and that shall be the Subject of the following Discourse Mensa Mystica SECT II. Concerning Preparation to the Table of the Lord being a Discourse upon Psal 93.5 CHAP. VII IT is a known saying of the Psalmist Holiness becomes thy House O Lord for ever The corner-stone upon which that Affirmation is built is no other but this That God is essentially holy And that is a truth which hath such a foundation in our natural understanding a notion that springs so clearly from every mans mind that all the deductions and consequents that flow from it must needs be evident and find no resistance but onely from the wills and perverse affections of men If we consider
to be spent the better Meditation and retired thoughts fit us for prayer and prayer again nourisheth and feeds our meditations Both those fit us to receive holy exhortations and usefull instructions in Sermons and they again stir us up to more frequency and fervency in prayer and meditation And these together with all the former that I have mentioned prepare us for the Eucharist and the keeping the holy Feast of Christians in the Supper of the Lord. This again affords such nutriment that it makes us strong in the Grace of Christ and to perform all other duties with a greater gust and relish with more delight to God and unto our selves VII But it must also be acknowledged That there is some other preparations requisite to holy duties beside all this that I have mentioned For though fervency in any one duty of our Religion doth but fit us to be more fervent in all the rest and though the works of our employment conscientiously discharged do fit us for the duties of Religion yet to the doing of them fervently it is needfull that we lay out of our mind all other thoughts that concern not them Now the works of our ordinary employment being about a different matter from the works of devotion and the mind full of one thing not being able presently to be void for other company we must spend some time to discharge our thoughts of such objects as are alien to these holy duties we go about Constancy in our lawfull business doth hinder many indispositions and ill habits in our minds that else would grow up in us but yet they themselves may leave some little indispositions in us at least to such a fervency in devotion as we would arise unto They therefore must be turned out of doors and the thoughts of them must be laid aside that God may come in and possess himself of us The Altar of God Exod. 27.4 5. was made with a grate in the midst of it that let the ashes fall through so that the fire might burn hotter and more purely But yet for all this it is most likely that the sacrifice would need some stirring that so the ashes might be shaken off more perfectly and it more entirely consumed and therefore you read of flesh-hooks among the Utensils of the Altar wherewith the Priest ordered the flesh while it burn in the fire Just so it is with our hearts in which a continual fire ought to burn though they be like a grate or seive and let worldly thoughts pass through and run out of them which else like ashes would make the flame to be dimme and pale yet besides this care there will be need of some shaking and stirring up of our selves that we may more fully clear our hearts of all those earthly cloggs that will stick and cling unto us Now the higher that holy act of worship is which we are to perform and the seldomer it doth return to be performed and the more vehement that expression of love is which we would make in it the more solemn must be our preparation and the larger time there must be allowed for taking our minds from other things and bringing them to a serious intention upon this alone And therefore since our approaches to the Lords Table are of such moment and since they profit us not without the operation of our own mind and that benefit likewise so great when we come aright it cannot be thought but that we should use a great care and circumspection to fit our selves for such near converses especially since they are not so frequently performed as other duties And yet in this preparation there is also a latitude so that I cannot well determine how much is of absolute necessity to be done and if I should still we may go beyond those limits and perform more acceptable service unto God If you would know now after all that hath been said wherein preparation to his holy duty doth more particularly consist I may briefly resolve you about it thus We must deny to our selves lawfull things by sequestration of our selves from our ordinary business by abstinence from food and from the most chast embraces which the Apostle speaks of 1 Cor. 7.5 And this must be done for no other end but that we may more fully know the estate of our souls which I suppose we are already acquainted withall and be more deeply apprehensive of the evil of sin and more sorrowfully bewail it and more rationally resolve against it That we may pray with greater appetite and praise his Name with a more delicious relish when we distast all other things and in short that by disburdening of our bodies we may ascend up to Heaven with greater felicity in our thoughts and meditation And because preparation to the Sacrament of Christs body and blood is the prime end of this discourse I shall next descend to treat of that and in the following Chapter consider what greater degree of holiness may be conceived requisite to the right performance of that Christian duty CHAP. X. I. THat we are to lay aside some time before we come to the Lords Table all our worldly employments though never so innocent hath been already suggested We must so order our affairs that they may not hinder us in any of those acts which I am about to mention And if they prove to be of great weight then this thing must needs be premised For every act must have some time allowed wherein it is to be done and we cannot do two things at one time especially when they are of such a distant nature as spiritual an carnal things We find in our selves that when one faculty is in act we cannot intend the acts of another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Porphyr We cannot at the same time operate according to the brutal part and contemplate the things of a rational life Much less can one faculty mind two objects at once or can our mind be busied both about our earthly affairs and our spiritual concernments And besides this Seeing it is the design of a Christian in this duty to get as near to Heaven as he can it is the more necessary that he not only lay aside his business but his body too He is to endeavour to strip himself of his cloaths to put off his outward man that he may have a more naked and open sight of future glory and render his mind more sensible of God and fit to receive a deeper impression from his hand At this season we are to put forth the strongest acts of faith to excite the hottest flames of love to renew our resolutions to bind the obligations that are upon us faster about our souls which cannot be done but by a solemn heart So that this separation from our business before-hand seems to come within some degree of a necessary duty And give me leave to tell you that it would be a thing of singular advantage if those that have so
house will be foul again before I awake unless thou keep me Ah my dear God! seeing I have bestowed some small pains upon my heart and have conceived some little hopes suffer them not to be all dashed in pieces in a night Spread the wings of thy goodness over me and maintain that which not I but thou thy self hast wrought Lord let me find when I awake that my affections and desires are grown beyond the strength of man and that thy power rests up on me Oh let me find a greater fervour than ever in thy service let that spark which I feared would go out be grown to a flame that will never expire and so shalt thou draw mine eyes towards thy self alone who workest such wonders so shall my heart be filled with nothing but thy sweetness and my lips shall overflow with thy praises Lord if I may beg this grace of thee I am verily perswaded I shall languish after none but thee and seek for no other pleasures but to please thee Therefore my good Lord I leave my self in thy hands hoping that either I am or would be such as thou wouldst have me And if I be arrived but as far as a will and desire to be what thou wouldst have me that will is thine and therefore seeing that will is mine too and we both conspire together I take the boldness to say Lord let thy will be done Oh my sweet Saviour I was going to say that I am sick of love that I cannot live unless thou love me and make me better But I correct my self and it is enough if I be sick because I cannot love thee Do thou make me sick or rather make me well with love unto thee so shall I come to thy Table with joy and gladness hoping that thou wilt kiss me with the kisses of thy mouth for thy love is better than Wine Draw me and I will run after thee yea we will run after thee for I will proclaim to others the loving-kindness of the Lord. When one bad Socrates prepare himself for his trial he answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Do not I seem then to thee through all my life to be prepared for this thing It hath been my care neither before thee nor alone to do any evil Aâ—rian lib. 2. cap. 2. CHAP. XI WHat preparation there should be besides this I do not understand it being directly contrary to the first thing that I propounded for any to imagine that we ought just before the Sacrament to have a greater care of not sinning than at other times We are alwayes pilgrims and strangers and so ought to abstain from fleshly lusts that warre against the soul These lusts are alwayes poysonous and not onely when we are going to take the Cup of the Lord into our hand And therefore it is a grand deceit to think that we and our sins must be severed only then when we more nearly embrace our Lord for holiness is our profession afterward as much as before we communicate with his Holiness Or rather all the time after one Communion being before the next which doth succeed it is the time of Preparation for it We are to keep our selves in a constant purity and to labour to keep close to the Covenant of our God only when the time doth nearly approach that we may enjoy such another repast we should excite our appetite raise our thoughts and meditations imprint the ends of the institution more fairly in our memories voluntarily offer more of our time and our thoughts to religious exercises and do all that over again with a greater zeal which we have been doing every day since we were last in his Sacred Presence You may observe that as just before this solemnity our thoughts are more deep and serious and our hearts lifted up to a greater fervour and we have stronger longings after Christ and his Blessings which prepare us for the enjoyment so the enjoyment leaves us for some time afterward in a great degree of heat in more lively apprehensions and more vigorous affections But these through multitude of business and many occasions may languish by little and little and may abate of that degree and ardour wherein they were which I look upon as the weakness rather than the sin of a good heart and therefore our work is to recover our souls before the next Communion to the same or rather an higher degree of zeal And then though afterward there may be again some abatement and fall in our affections yet it will be less and more fervency and heat will remain than would have been if we had not got up our hearts by that Preparation and that Communion to an higher pitch of spiritual love The Primitive Christians who communicated every day as some passages in the Acts of the holy Apostles would make us think or at least every Lords Day had need of less of this Preparation that I have mentioned for as soon as ever the flame began to decay there was new fewel added and that degree of warmth to which they were raised was scarce gone from their hearts before a new fire was kindled But now the custome is so that this Feast returns more seldome and we cannot say with Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Epist 2. ad Caesarcam Patritiam In the beginning of which Epistle he commends an every-day Communion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as good and profitable We Communicate four times in a week besides all Festival dayes but it is very much if men be so devout as to Communicate once in four weeks and therefore because many things may be slipt out of our minds and former impressions may be grown weak we had need more solemnly to recollect what we have learnt to stir up our remembrance to renew a sense of the ends of its institution of our own wants of the wants of the poor and the rest of those things which I have in the former Chapter recommended to your thoughts If men understood these things they would neither wonder that the ancient Christians communicated so oft nor would they have any excuse left for their own neglect First I say they would not wonder that the fervour of those primitive souls was so great for they had a huge care to lead an holy life and that made them both fit and desirous to converse with God every day VVe judge of them perhaps by our selves and think that it was superstition rather than Religion that made them so forward to this Office and by casting a blot upon their Piety we hope in this frozen age to be accounted Pious If superstition can be believed to have grown up so early then we may be thought with less zeal to be more devout If they did only flatter Christ with such a busie devotion and frequent resort unto him we may hope to pass for better Friends that are not so forward but more discreetly reserved and sparing of
our company So handsomely do our deceitfull hearts teach us to cover our own nakedness by calling all that superstition which creates any trouble to us and crying out upon that as a spice of Will-Worship which doth not sort with our humour For it too plainly appears that if a Child of our own brain do please us well we are as fond of it as any of our Neighbours can be thought to be of their conceptions and would have the world embrace it as a divine Ordinance formed in Heaven The very truth is Men lend to God and their Devotion only such Offices as flatter their passions There is much of pleasure in having the ears tickled with a Sermon and it makes a great noise among our Neighbours to keep dayes of Fasting and Prayer and therefore these are accepted with a greater applause than the sad Meditations of Christs death and the frequent remembrance of the Wounds of a Crucified Saviour which prick too deep and make too wide gashes in our hearts Though this be more expresly commanded than many other things that men perform with a great noise and spend much zealous breath upon yet they cast but a cold and heavy aspect on it because it humours not their ease and speaks not kindly to their covetousness but makes too busie and narrow a search into their souls And really I doubt that mens endeavours to be removed as far as they can from Rome have done our Religion a great deal of harm They still retain the custome of celebrating every day but the Priest doth it alone and they make it a Sacrifice for the quick and dead Now some men so that this false notion was destroyed and private Masses abolished did not care though the frequent Communions were destroyed also together with them and it is our manner to pay this honour to Christ but twice or thrice in a year And so because they speak of Justification differently from us men are apt to live as though good works were a piece of Popery and as if Alms-deeds and Charity to the Poor were a scandalous thing in Religion Though men Communicate very seldome yet their Offerings are as sparing as if they Communicated every week and so their souls and the Poor are both defrauded and starved together Idleness and covetousness are mens darlings they are the brats of all new devices in Religion and these two are nursed up and dandled on the knees of this trifling conceit that zealous devout Christians do bear too great a reverence to this Sacrament and hope to go to Heaven by their charitable deeds Well! let sloth and avarice pride themselves a while it will not be long before God take down their Plumes and make it manifest that it was not superstition which prickt forward the first Christians to such frequent Communion nor vain-glory which made them so prodigal as the modern stile is in their liberality Methinks I see how the lazy and worldly Christians do thrust themselves into the Arms of Christ and do even melt and dissolve into his bosome in raptures of love their mouthes can relish nothing but Christ and his Name is so sweet that it is ingraven upon their lips they court him as if they would ravish his heart and they exceed the strains of all Romantick lovers If he will not bestow himself upon them they cannot imagine who should be taken into his heart They cannot believe but he will take it very ill if they will not trust him for their salvation without troubling themselves whom he is so tender of that he would have them void of all care and thoughtfulness It is a piece of self think such men to be so strict and curious Alas poor ignorant souls men would fain be doing something to procure salvation they would purchase Heaven and give something to attain it but we will give Christ the honour of doing all and only cast our selves upon him that he may save us You cannot imagine now how these mens hearts are tickled and ravished with these Liquorish thoughts and the pleasure of them doth but make them believe that they are in greater favour In this transport of fancy they do verily conceive that they have the testimony of the holy Ghost bearing witness to them that they are the Sons of God But how fearfully these persons will one day fall is a great deal further from all our conceits The Lord will shake off all these men with a great deal of disdain who offer but to touch the very skirts of his Garments O you vile and adulterous souls will he say who think that I am altogether such an one as your selves depart from me for I know you not ye workers of iniquity Down you arrogant spirits that thought to build your nests on high and by the wings of fancy to flie up unto Heaven I have no room in my heart for such flatterers nor can my foul love such Hypocrites and Unbelievers But come you blessed of my Father you who have loved me and kept my Commandments you that did what I bid you in remembrance of me and inherit the Kingdom prepared for you Then shall there be great wailing and men shall groan for anguish of spirit Then shall the worldlings say this is he whom we had sometimes in derision and a Proverb of reproach We fools accounted his life madness and his end without honour How is he numbred among the Children of God and his lot is among the Saints I wish all men would lay it to heart betimes and not think that it is preciseness to endeavour to observe all the commands of our blessed Lord. Which if we did then this command would not be so slighted of commemorating his death in the way he hath appointed nor should men be so unmeet for it as now they seem to be For Secondly What excuses can men find to palliate the neglect of this duty but what arise from an unholy or careless life Many pretences there are I know to keep me from waiting upon our Lord and accepting of his kindness but they all grow upon this bitter root of loving the world and the lusts of it We put him off with the excuse of too much boldness and rudeness that we should be guilty of if we should give him frequent visits Truly as the case stands most men would be too full of confidence if they should approach but the only reason is because they have a mind to live as strangers to him and not to be his houshold Servants and Domesticks for then they might alway come unto him Men plead their unworthiness but it were well if they were more sensible of it for then they would not remain so unworthy They think they must not come so oft because it costs them so much time to prepare themselves once but if they would spare so much time as to lead an holy life and be at so much trouble as to please God in other things they would not
find it so laborious to please him well in this If they did alwayes keep a fear of God in their souls then they would without much pain be fit to approach with fear and reverence into his presence One saith he is incumbred with business and hath not time to prepare himself another hath differences with his Neighbour and is not reconciled a third intends it very shortly but for some reasons must at present omit it None of these men fear to live in the known sins of worldliness enmity delayes and yet fear to do a known duty which our Lord a little before he died did command us If these persons would but fear to do that which God hath forbidden then they would not fear to do that which God hath commanded But while they refuse to obey him in one thing it is not to be expected that they should yield subjection in another Nay the world shall do more with them than God can do while they remain such strangers to him For if there were a reward of an hundred pounds annexed by some Benefactor to every Receiving this golden reason no man would be able to resist but all business would be thrown aside upon so rich an account So base and deceitfull are the hearts of men that they pretend fear of displeasing God when it is but a fear of being engaged too strictly for to please him They say this is the most excellent food but they are loath to taste it because they would not be at the pains to get themselves a stomack to it and digest it They keep it for a good bit at last till sickness make them hungry and will give them no leave to sin after it They look upon it as a strong Cordial that must be used only in desperate cases when soul and body are parting and taking their leave of each other But if it have such a power to make men happy then why could it not make them holy and why did they not use it all their life long to that purpose but because they had no love to holiness Therefore as Antisthenes said to the Priest of Orpheus his mysteries who perswaded him to be initiated in his Religion because all such should receive eternal felicities Why then dost thou not dye man if thou believest so why lovest thou this life so well thy self So say I to these men if there be such vertue in the Sacrament to carry you to Heaven so that you would receive it when you die Why do you not use it that it may carry you thither while you live why would you not be in Heaven now if you think it such a desirable thing and why do not you value that which you account a means to bring you thither And as for godly people who are afraid to come because they find not themselves so prepared as they would be they had best take heed lest they turn truly superstitious by fearing more than needs Do you make it the business of your lives to please God do you daily live upon the Lord Jesus and feed on him in your hearts by a lively faith is he before your eyes as the director and example of all your actions Why should you think then that he will not be pleased with your company at his Table Would you have a thought as strong as an Angel would you be able to flie as swiftly as a Cherubim and love with such a flame as a Seraphim And will you stay till you be as richly adorned as a glorified Saint before you think it be fit to attend on him Methinks it should be some comfort to a good heart that it hath such enlarged and noble desires But if it may not feast with God till it have what it would why do not men tremble to pray without such perfections why do they not dread to hear and read the Word of God and turn away their faces when they look up to Heaven in any Meditations Are these such trifling duties or do not these constitute the prime and vital parts of this which they so dread Doth not the soul feed it self at the Sacrament by holy Prayers affectionate thoughts devout thanksgivings and a hearty oblation of it self to God I doubt while we cry out justly against the superstition of Rome many of us have that too near our very hearts which is the very root and life of all superstition For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or superstition is a causeless trembling arising out of our own mind when there is nothing in the object on which we look to breed such an affrightment If we make this Sacrament such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 terrible mystery that we dare not do the duty which Christ hath commanded us then it is plain our minds are filled with Heathenish terrors and we affright our souls with our own childish imaginations Take heed therefore of whatsoever it be that would make you run away from your duty and do not breed up your souls in such a dread of your Father that you should turn reverence into horror fear into affrightment and the cup of gladness into the Wine of astonishment Why should you turn your backs when God invites you to him why should you feed on scruples when you may feed on the bread of life why should you go and weep alone when God would have you to rejoyce with your Brethren I can imagine no reason of it but this that some have little care to live godlily and those that have understand not well the terms of the Gospel and one reason why many understand them no better is because this duty is performed so seldome wherein they should renew their Covenant with God Men have but little acquaintance with this thing and that makes them to be afraid of it and they seldome come to God in this manner and that makes them more fearfull when they have a mind to come If this Feast should be kept every day it might be apt to grow into contempt but now being rarely observed it breeds in our ignorant and weak natures a strange and panick fear And therefore the best advice that I know of to be given to all good people is this 1. That they throughly understand what the ends are for which this remembrance of Christ is appointed And 2. That they believe the chiefest preparation to it is a holy life CHAP. XII BUt some perhaps will say that I have only directed those that are already in a state of grace and it may be asked whether there be not another sort of preparation for those that are not yet entred upon Religion and what qualifications will dispose men for their first Communion with the People of God I answer That supposing they are Baptized and have been Catechized and instructed in the Christian Faith the duty of such Persons is First To own and profess their Baptismal Covenant now that they are attained to years of discretion and understanding Let
of a thousand Masters which will teach us all decent carriage and beseeming expressions to the person whom we love You need not tell one that is in Love what he shall say or how he shall make his Addresses c. but Love it self is his Tutor which is full of wit and invention which forms it self into apt expressions and puts on becomeing gestures and turns it self into all arts of insinuation I have read in an Anonymous Author That he knew some Religious persons who all the while they were at this feast did nothing else but only cry with heart and tongue I love thee O my Jesus truly I love thee O my Jesus reiterating this above an hundred times and professing that they found a singular comfort and consolation in these throbs and beatings of love in their heart unto him It seems their love taught them that their Lord would be best pleased if they threw themselves into his arms as it were and told him that they were so full of love that they could not hold and yet were so inebriated that they could not tell what to say but only that they loved him But he saith he knew others that would say nothing but endeavoured to keep their soul from all thoughts whatsoever that they might hear the voice of Christ within them when all their affections were husht and still It should seem that their Love taught them that it would be best to be so modest as to let their Lord speak first or rather speak all and they sit and hearken to his sweet voice within them alluring them to himself Thus Love guides every man according to the temper and complexion of his soul to make his Addresses in that manner which will be most pleasing to his Saviour and breed most contentment to himself But this very love that is thus quick and sharp and knows how to tell its mind and obtain its end is of that nature that it will enquire of others if they can afford it any assistance that may polish and refine it to a higher degree of purity And as you have seen in the former discourse That holiness consists of several actions of our life very different and various so it is here to be considered that love delights to break forth in several acts and the soul finds vent for it self in divers manners according as the objects presented do open a passage and make their way into our heart Now it will be but fit that when we come to remember the great love of our Lord we should let the expressions of our love be as various as we can and suffer our souls to burst out as many wayes as there are occasions offered When there is an holy fervour inkindled in them let them exhale in sundry thoughts and divers breathings of a devout affection that they may send up a perfume of many spices unto Heaven Only if we feel our hearts exhale and evaporate in one thought or desire more than another with such a freedome and pleasure as though they had a mind to spend themselves in that alone let us not stop the passage of those sweet odours nor quench that ardency of our spirits by turning them to any other thing But rather let us help it forward till we find it grow weak and languishing and then it will be most profitable and pleasant also to open some other port at which the soul may sally forth upon a new object and be encountred with fresh delights And truly considering that I have already led you by the hand as far as the Table of the Lord methinks I might leave you there to your own Meditations upon that matter which I have prepared to your thoughts Those minds that are impregnated with good motions should be all ready methinks to teem forth themselves into most proper Meditations at the sight of their dearest Lord without any further directions But yet I consider again that the strongest Army for want of Order and good Discipline may do but little service and that a throng of thoughts if they be not well ranged and disposed may thrust themselves forward to the disturbance and hindrance of each other And therefore I shall endeavour to set those thoughts which I conceive will be in all good minds in their right place that they may issue forth and second each other to our greatest advantage and the doing of us most acceptable service CHAP. XIV IT will be well becoming Christian Piety to welcome the day that brings our Saviour so near unto us with acts of joy and thanksgiving for the approach of so great a blessing And since one night may breed too great a damp and chilness upon our spirits it will be very wholesome to renew those thoughts and affections that we left there when we went to bed and so go to the House of God in a sense of our unworthiness to entertain so glorious a Person and in a sense of sinne which is the cause of that unworthiness together with a joy in our souls and praises upon our tongues that he will forgive them humbly desiring of the Lord that he will accept of us for his habitation and that he will come and enlarge our souls by a holy love to him and longing after him that there may be room for his Sacred Majesty and a place clean and dressed for to receive him And then when the time comes that this holy service begins we must put on such affections as are most agreeable to the several parts of the action As first We must solemnly and devoutly joyn with the Minister in those Confessions Prayers and Thanksgivings which he thinks fit to use And Secondly When he invites us in Christs Name to come and receive him let us adore the goodness of God that will call us to his own Table and let us compose our selves to a thankfull reverence that we may receive this Heavenly Food And Thirdly We ought diligently to attend unto those Exhortations and Perswasions which he shall use and to endeavour that our hearts may be affected with them But these are such things as you can easily instruct your selves about and therefore I will apply my Discourse to more particular considerations I. When you see the Minister stand at the Table of the Lord to consecrate the Bread and Wine by Prayer and the words of Christs Institution then send up an act of wonder and admiration that the Son of God should become the food of souls by dying for us Then these words so anciently used Sursam Corda Lift up your hearts should sound in all our ears and our souls should spread their wings that by the divine inspirations they may be mounted unto Heaven in adoring thoughts Nothing more becomes this Sacred Mystery than such a dumb admiration and the love of our Lord is not better praised by any thing than loquacissimo illo silentio as Erasmus his phrase is by that most talkative silence When the apprehensions
a stone and grinde them to powder seeing they would not love him as the Bread of Life bruised for them Matt. 22.44 This sad Meditation may not be unseasonable at a Feast of joy no more than a little vinegar in a mixture of many sweets And as dreadfull as it is it may bring us the more abundant comfort afterward by making us firm to God and establishing us in Faith and Obedience But whether the Reader will think fit to meditate of this matter at that time or no yet let me stay his thoughts a while now and entreat him seriously to think what the doom of all those will be who rebel against him to whom they have so often sworn subjection The love of God cannot make them love him the Bloud of Christ cannot make them bleed notwithstanding the Death of Christ they will dye and all the bands that he can lay upon them will not hold them fast O what chains of Darkness are they reserved for who break so many cords of love asunder What a sacrifice must they be to the vengeance of God whom the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross could not deliver The wrath of God will utterly consume and burn them up They shall be a whole burnt-offering to his fiery indignation they themselves shall satisfie for their fins and then he can never be satisfied These men take all the guilt of their sinnes upon their own souls and fearlesly go to Hell as though they could bear his indignation or fave themselves from the fury of his anger O let sinners consider what they do when they neglect so great salvation So farre shall they be from being Christs and Saviours to themselves that they shall be their own Devils and Tormentors Their spirits shall turn into fiends and they shall miserably rage and fame against their own selves and eternally crucifie their own hearts in vexing and racking-thoughts Their anger and displeasure shall burn against their own souls for their contempt of the Covenant of Grace the bloud of Christ will call for their bloud the pardon that was offered will plead for no pardon and all the Expence which God hath been at will be charged upon them What then will they do when they shall be rendred guilty of the bloud of the Lord when the Love of God it self will be their accuser when they shall be oppressed and cast under an infinite debt which they can never pay They must groan and sigh and cry under the burden to all eternity and the Name of Christ which is so sweet to converted sinners will be a name of death and horror unto them and the bloud of Christ which is the life of all the holy Ones of God will be like red and bloudy colours to some creatures which will make them raging mad If I could exaggerate this as it deserves methinks I could affright a soul that is in the profoundest sleep in the Devils Arms. And yet why should I think such a thought if the bloud of Christ cannot do it but men will dye in secure-sinning why should we think to prevail O think of the bloud of Christ therefore and let it not be shed in vain Think how angry he will be that his dearest heart bloud should be spilt on the ground like water to no purpose at all as to thy soul Think how it grieves him to see his love so undervalued how it pierces him to see his bloud trodden under feet into what anger his love will at last turn and this will move thee more than all that I can say If a man could speak nothing but fire and smoak and bloud if flames should come out of his mouth instead of words if he had a voice like thunder and an eye like lightning he could not represent unto you the misery of those that make no reckoning of the bloud of the Sonne of God The very Sun shall be turned into darkness saith the Apostle out of Joel Acts 2.20 and the Moon into blood before the great and notable day of the Lord viz. the day when he shall come to destroy the Enemies of his Cross And yet he seems there to speak but of one particular day of Judgement upon the Jewish Nation who crucified the Lord of Life and that was but a type and figure of the last day and came far short of the blackness and darkness of that time when the Lord will come to take vengeance on all them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of the Lord Jesus How terrible would it be to see the Heavens all covered with clouds of blood to feel drops of blood come raining down upon our heads and next showres of fire from the melting Sun come trickling upon our eyes and then sheets of flames wrapping about our bodies to hear the earth groan and the pillars of the world crack as if the whole frame of Nature were a dying and the world were tumbling into its Grave All this would be but a petty image of that dreadfull Day when the Son of righteousness shall be cloathed with clouds of wrath when his countenance shall be as flames of fire when he shall cloath himself with vengeance as a Garment when the Lamb of God himself shall roar like a Lyon and the meek and compassionate Jesus shall rend in pieces and devour There can be nothing more strange than for a Lamb to be angry for a sheep to tear and destroy If he once gird his sword upon his thigh and resolve to dip his feet in the blood of the wicked it will be a dismall a bloudy day indeed and woe be to all those on whom that dreadfull storm shall fall when the God of Heaven himself shall come in flaming fire to destroy his Adversaries For ever shall they lye wallowing in their own bloud and all their bloud shall be turned into fire and they shall bathe themselves in streams of Brimstone and roll themselves in beds of flames and their torment shall never cease Much rather would I have a Lyon satisfie his bloudy Jawes with my flesh or a cruell Tyrant rake in my bowels with the teeth of burning Irons or be prickt to death with Needles or endure all the miseries that any ingenuous witty Devil can invent than fall into the angry hands of a loving Saviour Much rather would I see the Sun scowle and all the clouds of Heaven come ratling down in a Tempest upon my head than behold the least frown in the brow of the blessed Jesus What anger must that be which shall lye in the bosome of Love What fire burns like to Jealousie Who so enraged as those whose love is abused and grosly contemned All that the Apostle can tell us in Answer to this Question is that our God is a consuming fire Heb. 12.29 Our God even the God of Christians the God of St. Paul the God and Father of our Lord Jesus the God of Love and Goodness is a burning consuming Fire
art with thy Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instead of thy Cheese thou mayest feed on Ambrosia and instead of Milk thou mayest drink Nectar with the gods Who would long for the World any more that knows what it is to be in Heaven Who would not be unwilling to go his Earthly Affairs any more who hath once conversed with the soveraign good Instead of riches he is getting an eternal Inheritance instead of friends he is injoying God And therefore if it be not fit nor safe to return presently to our Secular business much less can it be tollerable to go to any merry Entertainments or Compotations though never so moderate and innocent We should not so soon forget these heavenly pleasures as to relish these that are earthly We must not be like the Heathen who used after their sacrifices to make merry all day and drink even to Excess Whence some long agone have thought that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be drunk took its Name from this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because the Ancients used to drink liberally after their sacrifices But we have not so learned Christ we must make the savour of Heavenly things sit longer upon our pallates than an hour and not wash them off with any long sensual delights We should cry out again and again Cant. 1.2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth for thy Love is better than wine We should long as the Spouse doth to have such tasts of his love that we may rest assured of his good affection to us and may like better of it than of any thing that comes within our lips 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Aâ—bil Tatius l. 2. Kisses saith a great Master of his Art who may fitly be heard in this case are the seals of Love and there the Church teacheth us to long to feel such sensible impressions of his love upon us that we may know he loves us And this saith she is better than Wine for kisses are the food of Lovers seeing they are the seales of Love and as he saith of his Leucippe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lb. so may I say of the Spouse she feeds upon the mouth of her Beloved and eats his kisses i. e. desires his love so ardently that it makes her forget all other food So incomparable should the love of our Lord seem to us that we should desire if it were possible to live upon nothing else and that our very bodies could be nourished and fed with his dear love III. Thirdly If we communicate upon the Lords day yet let us not take our thoughts off from this Action but spend as much as we can of the remaining day in such exercises as I have now named Let us entertain with the best chear we are able to make our new and beloved Guest Let us commend his beauty and praise him for his kindness and extoll his Riches and protest unto him how much we love him and crave him pardon for our follies and desire him not to be offended at the dark and nasty hole into which we have brought him and entreat him of all loves that he will not take exception at his poor entertainment and labour to charm him as it were to stay with us by all the songs of praise and thanksgiving that we can devise For to say the truth there is no exercise more meet upon the Lords Day than that of giving thanks and singing Psalms of Praise to God for all his goodness to us as we are his Creatures and as we are Christians The day it self is a type of Heaven and the Eternal Rest and therefore our work in it should better accord with what is done in Heaven where they at every thought indite a Psalm and at every breath they chant it forth and never cease day nor night from blessing God And so Justin Martyr tells Trypho the Jew That they used to thank God on their holy times for having made the world and all things in it for the use of man c. And in his second Apology he justifies the Christians against the Heathen from this thing that they consumed not Gods Creatures with fire in sacrifice but received them with Prayer and Thanksgiving for being boin for all means of health all kinds of qualities and changes of seasons and such like mercies which we should imitate not only at the Eucharist but afterward when we may more largely think how much we are beholden to him for his goodness Let us say O my Lord I have been praising of thee but alas I have not praised thee enough and therefore I cannot cease to praise thee The birds that chirp in the Air would shame me if I should not still praise thee For how long do they sing for a sip or two of Water or for a Dinner upon half a Worm and for a little house within a bush Shall not I then persist in blessing of thee for the viands of Heaven for a Feast on the Body and Bloud of thy Sonne for the joys of thine own house for a long health for a pleasant dwelling for a plentifull Table for a world of Creatures that minister every day unto me Better were it that I should be turned into one of those little chearfull Creatures and that I should take my dwelling in an hedge than that I should not have a heart to bless thee as long as I live and sing praise to thee as long as I have my being Awake awake O my sleepy soul and let this day be more than a shadow of Heaven Yea one day is too short let every day have something of this in it and be a good day unto thee And then shall Eternity be joyfull and the everlasting day shall give thee light long enough to perfect his praises IV. Fourthly As we should spend a great deal of the after-part of the day in such acts of praise so let some of it be spent in an after-examination Let us make some solemn reflections upon our behaviour when we were before the Lord and if we find our minds not to have been so seriously intended and our hearts not so deeply affected as we did desire We may cast down our selves humbly at the feet of our Lord and beg a pardon of our sweet and loving Saviour and earnestly importune him that he would help us now by an after-act that we may be able to do that which we should have done before Or else we may be excited to rejoyce the more in his goodness and to bless him for the refreshments he hath afforded us and to render him more hearty thanks that he hath satisfied us so abundantly with the fatness of his house and made us to drink of the Rivers of his pleasure But this examination of our selves being a thing that we should exercise every day and was practised even by Heathens before they went to bed I shall spare all further discourse about it V. Fifthly Let us
tokens of love whereby he would be remembred into a forsaken hole where they shall never be seen But how strangely are we affected to the Reliques that a dying friend commends unto us And how much more should we be moved if a friend should dye for us and should leave us a remembrance that he saved us from death Could we ever let him go out of our minds Should we not be in danger to think upon him over-much Could we endure that the remembrance he left us should be long out of our eye O my soul let us not deal then more unkindly with our blessed Saviour who humbled himself to the death even the death of the Cross that we might not eternally dye Who was made sinne for us that we might be made the righteousness of God through him Sure he never thought when he went to Heaven that we would remember his love so seldome and so coldly Did he think that those whom he loves so much would need so much entreaty to have Communion with him Is it not a grief unto him now if he be capable of any to see that he hath so few Lovers Doth it not trouble him that they who profess love to him testifie it so poorly and rarely Nay rather O my soul he is troubled that we love our selves no better and therefore both for the love of him and the love of our selves let us carefully observe his commands of which this is one Do this in remembrance of me For this is the love of God that we keep his Commandements And this Commandement we have from him that he who loveth God love his Brother also Mensa Mystica SECT IV. The Benefits of Holy Communion CHAP. XVII SUch is the nature of all bodies that the nearer they approach to their proper place and Center the more they accelerate their motion and with the greater speed they run as if they desired to be at their beloved rest from whence they are loath to be removed And such is the temper of all holy hearts when they run towards God the most natural place of their rest the very Center of their quiet and peace the nearer they come to him the faster they move they rather flye than run and use their Wings rather than their feet out of a vehement longing to be embraced by him We cannot but think then that they who draw nigh to God in this near way of Communion and are entertained by him at his own Table do flye up even unto Heaven and get into his very bosome as those that suffer more strong and powerful attractions from his mighty Goodness And there my Discourse may well leave them reposing themselves in his Arms and taking their rest in his love from whence they will not easily endure a divulsion by the force of any other thing But as a stone is unwilling to stir from the rest that it enjoyes in the bosome of the earth so hard will it be to draw such souls by the love of other things from their own Center where they feel so much quiet and tranquillity Such persons I might well leave to tell themselves and others if they can what joy they find in God what sweetness grows on this Tree of Life and what pleasures he hath welcomed them withall at this holy Feast Have you seen the Sun and the Moon in their full stand one against the other Have you beheld a River running with a mighty stream into the Ocean Or can you think that you see the fire falling from Heaven as it did in Elias his time to consume a sacrifice These are but little resemblances of that light wherewith their souls are filled when they look upon him of that fulness of joy wherein they are absorpt when their affections run to him of the testimonies that he gives of his acceptance when they offer themselves to his service And they themselves as I said can best tell into what a Paradise of pleasure he leads them when he comes into his Garden and beholds there all pleasant fruits But yet for the sake of those who are strangers to the Divine Life and are loath to leave their sinnes though it be to have Communion with God I shall labour briefly to declare the benefits of this holy Sacrament that so I may invite them for to lay aside their sinnes and exchange them for better pleasures And I hope I may provoke some to hunger after the House of God and especially after his Table where he seeds the hungry with rare delights where he cures the wounded comforts the weak enlightens the blind revives the dead pardons the sinner and strengthens him against his sinne Where he dignifies our souls and deifies as it were all our faculties where he unites us to himself and joyns us in friendship with our Brethren where he sprinkles our hearts with his Bloud replenisheth them with his Grace refresheth them with his Love encourageth them in his wayes inebriates them with his sweetness and gives them to drink of the Wine of the Kingdome and sowes in them the seed of immortality One would think there should not be a man of ordinary discretion that would refuse to be amended and so much bettered in his condition by conversing with God For you see men tip up the bowels of the earth and torment her to make her confess her Treasures they digg even into the heart of craggy Rocks and take incredible pains for Silver and Gold they will break their sweetest sleep to accomplish an ambitious desire they will spend their Patrimony their Credit their Bodies and their very Souls for a drop of drunken pleasure or carnal delight What is the matter then that men cannot be content to spend a few earnest thoughts to use a little serious diligence for the purchase of the riches of Heaven and Earth for the promises of this life and that which is to come for the glory of God for a Dignity not inferior to Angels for a Sea of delights and pleasures that ravish the heart of God Poor souls they are ignorant sure of the happiness that our Lord calls them unto they imagine there is nothing better than to eat and drink and satiate the body with that which tickleth its senses they are sunk into a sad puddle of filthy imaginations let us see if we can lift up their heads let us try to open their eyes let us endeavour to perswade that there are diviner delights that there is a bread infinitely more delicious and a Cup flowing with far more sweetness than that which the World bewitches and inchants her followers withall Psal 34.8 O come taste and see that the Lord is good as the Psalmist speaks Blessed is the man whom he chuseth Psal 65.4 and causeth to approach unto him that he may dwell in his Courts He shall be satisfied with the goodness of his House even of his holy Temple Many rare things there are which the Gospel presents us withall
but nothing methinks is more tempting and inviting than this heavenly Feast where pleasure is mixed with profit and physick with our food Where at once we may be both enriched and delighted both healed and nourished This Table if I may use the language of an holy Man is the very sinewes of our Soul S. Chrysost Hom. 24. in 1 Corinth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the ligament of our mindes the foundation of our confidence our hope our salvation our light our life This mystery makes the earth to be an Heaven and therefore if thou wilt come hither thou mayest open the Gate of Heaven and look down into it or rather not into Heaven but into the Heaven of Heavens For that which is the most precious of all things above I will shew thee lying upon the earth For as in Kings Palaces the chiefest and most precious things are not the fair Walls the gilded Roofs the costly Hangings but the body of the King that sits upon the Throne even so in the Heavens the most glorious thing is the Body of Christ the King of Heaven Now behold and thou shalt see it here upon the earth For I do not shew thee the Angels or the Archangels or the Heavens or the Heaven of Heavens but him that is the Lord and Master of them all and therefore must thou not needs say that thou seest that upon the Earth that is more excellent than them all yea thou not only seest but thou touchest and not only touchest but eatest also yea and carriest him home with thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. O then wipe thy soul very clean prepare thy mind to the receiving these Divine Mysteries Who would not be Religious that he may be thus happy who would not forsake all things for such a sight for such an embracement If thou mightest but have the priviledge to take up the Son of a King with his Purple and Diadem and other Ornaments into thy Arms wouldst thou not cast all other things to the ground to be so employed Tell me then why wilt thou not prepare thy self and reverently take the only begotten Son of God into thy hands Wilt thou not throw away the love of all earthly things for him Wilt thou not think thy self brave enough in the enjoying of him Dost thou still look to the earth and lovest money and admirest heaps of Gold Then what pity canst thou deserve What pardon canst thou hope for Or what excuse canst thou think of to make for thy self Thus he Homil. 27. in 1. ad Corinth When a man hath heard the sacred Hymns as he saith in another place and hath seen the spirituall Marriage and been feasted at the Royall Table and filled with the holy Ghost and hath been taken into the Quire of Seraphims and made partaker with the Heavenly Powers Who would throw away so great a Grace Who would spend so rich a Treasure Who would bring in drunkenness or the like Guest instead of such Divine Chear Drunkenness I say which is the Mother of Heaviness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the joy of none but the Devil and is big with a thousand evils What madness possesses a man that he should not rather chuse to feast with God than with the Devil If thou sayest that thou art merry and rejoycest and wonderfully pleased I answer And so I would have thee to be only let not thy laughter be like the crackling of Thornes under a Pot but a solid joy that will make thy heart to smile for ever God doth not envy to the Sonnes of men any happiness but he would have them to be sure they are happy and not please themselves in a phantasticall shadow of Happiness CHAP. XVIII BUT that I may proceed more distinctly and assault your souls with the stronger Reasons to deliver themselves up to a religious life one single piece of which hath such blessings in it I shall present you with the profit of worthy receiving in these three generall Heads which I shall borrow from a Devout Author We have most Princely Dishes saith St. Bernard served up to us in the Supper of the Lord prepared with the most curious and exquisite Art and they are Deliciosa multum ad saporem Serm. 2 de Caena Dom. very delicious and sweet to the taste solida ad nutrimentum strong and solid for our nourishment efficacia ad medicinam powerfull and working for the curing of our diseases Seeing this Sacrament is a Feast and is called the Table and the Supper of the Lord under these three heads I shall comprehend these benefits that may excite every man to the examination of himself and invite us all to this Heavenly Chear The things that are here set before us are 1. Most sweet pleasant and refreshing 2. They are solid strengthning and nourishing and 3. They are Medicinal and Healing I. First Deliciosa ad saporem To a well-prepared pallate they afford a most sweet and delightsome relish This holy Sacrament breeds a Divine pleasure an Heavenly Joy in a right tempered soul and overflowes it with sweetness more than the body is satisfied with marrow and fatness now this refreshment arises 1. From a great sense which is here given us of the love of Christ which as the song of songs saith is better than Wine Cant. 1.2 It is more chearing and exhilerating more cordial and reviveing to think of his dear love in shedding his Bloud for us than to drink the bloud of the richest Grape and therefore the Church saith ver 4. We will be glad and rejoyce in thee we will remember thy love more than Wine It is beyond a ravishment to remember that men are so beloved by the King of Heaven so embraced by the Lord of all the world and still it is the more transporting for to consider that they feed upon this Lord of Love and that he gives his very self unto them and by such secret and wonderfull wayes unites himself unto their souls And it is most of all affecting and but a little below Heaven to think that this is our Jesus and our Lord to say as the Spouse in the same Book My Beloved is mine and I am his Cant. 2.16 When God thus lifts up the light of his countenance upon a soul he puts gladness in its heart more than the joy of Harvest This is a Marriage-Feast and therefore full of pleasure Here the soul embraceth him and he folds it in his arms here they plight their truth mutually each to other here they engage themselves in unseparable unions to hold perpetuall entercourse and live eternally together in the greatest affection As the Bridegroom rejoyceth over his Bride so the Lord rejoyceth over it and he speaks not to it meerly by his servants but he kisses it with the kisses of his own mouth So one of the Greek Commentators prettily glosses upon those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let me not
only be espoused to him saith the Church by his Prophets and Embassadors but let him come himself and converse with me Rebeccah went along with Eliezer before she knew Isaac and was resolved to be his Wife before he spake with her himself but at last she beheld him to whom she travelled and came into his Arms whose love she sought and then was her joy compleated Even so the Messengers of God become Suitors to us in the Name of Christ and wooe our affections to be espoused to him giving us many tokens of his love And when we consent and resolve to be his then by their Ministry we are conducted into his arms and at this Marriage Feast we receive the fullest joyes that flow from his heart unto us 2. It flowes from a sense of the pleasures that are in the exercise of true Religion That is the greatest delight which arises from the fouls own proper acts and which it feels not only within but from it self And the more noble any of its acts are the more satisfying the objects are on which they are placed the higher will the contentment be which they afford As much therefore as acts of piety do surpass all other so much will the delight which accompanies them go beyond all other delights And as these acts of Devotion which are performed by the worthy Receiver at this holy Communion are transcendent to all other Religious Acts so will the feeling of them be transported beyond all other pleasurable motions in the soul It is a rare delight to put forth Acts of Faith and Love Thanksgiving and Rejoycing and here all these Acts are in their top and height and the soul exerts its greatest force and strains it self to do its best Yea here must needs be the greatest sweetness and delight because part of our duty is joy and gladness and we do very ill if then we do not rejoyce And there is none knows but he that feels it how pleasant it is likewise to mourn for sinne and to be wounded with a sense of our ingratitude as well as of his love There is sweetness in those tears which drop from a heart full of love that sorrow is delightfull which springs from the sense of a kindness Here holy souls begin to feel the truth of what our Saviour hath said Matth 5.3 Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted It is part of their comfort that they can mourn and shed a tear over a sick soul and a bleeding Saviour What comfort then is there think you in the sense of a pardon if there be such comfort in mourning for the offence If tears be such pleasant food then what are songs and praises 3. From the hope of Heaven and the expectation of the eternal Supper to which this is but a preparatory Entertainment This is some fore-tast to stay our longings and yet to excite our desires after the Heavenly Feast above Here we break our fast as I may say but are made thereby very hungry till that great Supper come Here we have but a praelibation a little short antepast of some rare things to come yet seeing it is an earnest of those things it creates in a holy soul a wonderfull contentment both from its own sweetness and the hopes wherewith it feeds us It nourishes I say in us most delicious longings it makes the soul even swell with comfortable expectations and we receive it not only as a remembrance of what was done but as a pledge of what shall be We taste not only what he is to our souls at present but what he will be for ever And indeed it is a great part of the pleasure of this food that it hath so many tasts and affords us such various relishes In it we taste his love in dying his love now that he is in the Heavens and his love when he shall appear in his glory We taste of the fruit of his death and of the fruit of his Resurrection also yea and of his coming again to raise us from the dead too We feel what he did upon the Cross and that which was bitter to him is sweet to us We feel what he doth for us now in the holy Sacrament and his Spirit makes us taste the pleasures of Devotion in our hearts And we begin likewise to feel what he will do for us when he shall come to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe And how pleasant must it be to a soul to have all this Cheer how delightfull to think that Christ dwells in us and we in him John 6.65 How sweet to read that we shall have eternal life by union with him v. 55. And how joyfull must they be who carry about with them continually this hope of Heaven 4. From a sense how well pleased our Saviour is with the love of holy souls He not only communicates himself to us in this Sacrament but hath also a kind of Communion with us He delights to behold our gratefull and gladsome remembrance of him to behold our love to him and our love to each other It pleases him to see his people flock together with a greediness to receive him and forwardness to tye themselves more dearly to him And therefore he is pleased to use such words to his Spouse as she doth to him She had said Cant. 1.2 Thy love is better than Wine And he saith the same only with a greater extasie of Affection cap. 4.10 How much better is thy love than Wine And this Book holy men the Fathers of the Church have interpreted of the spiritual Marriage between Christ and his Church which is in this Sacrament both represented and confirmed Now what pleasure hence arises to the soul when it thinks that its Beloved is pleased and that it rejoyces the heart of Christ every one may know that can love another It is the contentment of their love that it is accepted and a great recompense that it is kindly entertained Here is enough though briefly said to invite any Voluptuary to become a spirituall man He must have a great deal of the Swine in him that cannot be tempted by the delights of this Heavenly Food which offers it self to his taste Here a man shall be satisfied with the love of Christ with the pleasures of all Religious acts with the hope of Heaven which is the Celestiall Manna with a sense of the joy in Heaven on our behalf He hath forgotten sure the pleasures of a man whose soul is not greedy to be filled with these things It is part of the punishment of wickedness to lose the rarest delights here as well as to suffer eternal pains hereafter II. Secondly Sâ—lida ad nutrimentum But that you may not imagine there is nothing to be had here but what doth delight for the present instant of receiving you must consider likewise that these holy Mysteries yeild a solid nourishment and thereby
more heartily and so come with hopes through the Grace of God thou mayest get further ground of them and give them at least a deeper wound though they may not presently be trodden under thy feet But if still thou findest no encrease of strength nor their prevalency abate I dare not advise thee that thou shouldst stay away but search thy heart more narrowly if thou wast not too sleight in thy former resolution and bearest not some secret favour to thy sinne and hast not some latent unwillingness that they should be slain And be assured that if thou constantly use the means that God hath appointed of Prayer and Watchfulness calling him in daily to thy assistance thou shalt at last get the better For nothing can mortifie us if the death of Christ cannot and never is the power of his death more felt than when we thus solemnly remember it Therefore do not imagine that thou must wait till by some other means thou canst effect that thing which is to be done chiefly by those means which thou art afraid of To conclude then this Discourse Let me entreat all serious Christians that they would more attentively heed their own encrease in Grace by this food that so they may encourage the weaker sort to make use of it when by their own experience they can tell them what Life and Spirit it doth communicate And what the heed and care is which you should take I have already told you The summe of which is this Excite your hunger quicken your thirst and sharpen your appetite after righteousness and all the benefits that are to be enjoyed by Christ Labour to remove all obstructions and stoppings that may hinder the free distribution of the nourishment into all the parts Sound men may sometimes be so clog'd with colds and distempers which they have caught that their meat may do them little good but only engender more rhumes and oppilations and make them more indisposed And therefore some Physick will do well to prepare and cleanse the wayes for their food that it may freely pass and disperse it self through the body Even so may good man happen to be so loaded with some Worldly Business and his thoughts may be so mixed with some Affairs that a damp may be cast upon his affections and his spirits may move but sluggishly and at that time be may perceive but little relish in any Heavenly Food And therefore he must take some time to remove these impediments and cast off these weights He must blot these worldly Images as much as he can out of his fancy and discharge himself of his earthly thoughts and cares And then having emptied himself of those ill humours that he had insensibly contracted he may with the greater clearness of soul and more profit to himself partake of this spiritual nutriment We may compare the best of men to a Clock which though it commonly go true and be constantly wound up and lookt after yet must sometimes be more exactly cleansed and new oyled or else it will begin to move more slowly and not to keep time so evenly and moist seasons you know and bad weather are apt to foul it and to clog the wheels in their motion There will be dust falling upon our heart which we must often be brushing off rust will be growing while we are exposed to such variety of seasons and occasions in the world and examination with an application of severe truths to our hearts will be as a file to brighten them and furbish them again without which they will be unfit for the use and service of our Master and unprepared for any duty that we are to go about But to keep more close to the Metaphor of Eating and Drinking you know that the strongest and most healthy person that is had need sometimes to have the natural heat excited the vital spirits rouzed and awakened by exercise and stirring else he loseth his appetite and his meat makes him but more sluggish by oppressing those spirits more heavily which before were too much burdened Even so before we come to this Table of the Lord though we be sound in his wayes and upright before him yet we must by the exercises of examination meditation and prayer by the discussion of our Consciences and by the stirring up the Graces of God that are in us put our selves into a meet temper for to eat and by quickening of our hunger receive the more nourishment and get the greater strength by this food of our souls For this you must remember that as this food nourished the soul only by its own actions and as it nourisheth only the new man which can put forth proper actions so it is not likely to yeild any considerable strength to that without some fore-going motion and good exercises Mensa Mystica SECT III. Concerning the Deportment of a Soul at the holy Table and afterward when the Solemnity is past CHAP. XIII A Devout person being once demanded What was the most forcible means that by long Experience he had proved to help a man to pray well and fervently He answered An holy life And to their Enquiry What he found available next to that He still returned the same Answer An holy life which is both second third and all means else of praying devoutly The like I have said concerning Preparation to the Supper of the Lord By a constant exercise of piety we shall be more fit without other labour to attend upon our Lord than he that is at the pains of a Muscovite Christian if he do not live holily It is reported of them That eight dayes before the receiving of the Sacrament they drink nothing but water and eat nothing but bread as dry as a bone But if any of us could find in our hearts in this delicate Age to use our selves with the like rigour such abstinence would not make us so hungry and vehemently desirous of this Heavenly Food as a daily abstinence from all forbidden things and a care to perform such holy duties as will maintain a lively sense of God in our souls Our aptness to heavenly converses confists not in some austerities and sowre devotions before we come to receive this sweet food but in a daily mortification and severity towards our selves and in a strict watch over our own hearts Such persons hearts are like to dry wood and they can soon stir up the Grace of God that lodges there and with one blast as it were kindle the flame of Love Whereas the hearts of other men having been soaking in the World are like green sticks that with all their puffing blowing and prayers will scarce catch any fire If any now should make a demand of the nature with that I mentioned and enquire concerning the next thing that is to be treated of How a good man should order his behaviour and deportment at Gods Table I might answer in one word Love Do but love and that affection is instead
that takes away the sins of the World Is not thy soul in him well pleased Is not his Body as really in the Heavens as the signs of it are here in our hands Hear good Lord the cry of his Wounds Let us prevail with thee through the virtue of his sacrifice Let us feel yea let all the World feel the power of his intercession Deny us not O Lord seeing we bring thy Son with us Hear thy Son O Lord though thou wilt not hear us and let us let all others know that he lives and was dead and that he is alive for evermore Amen And secondly It is a seasonable time to profess our selves Christians and that we will take up our Cross and follow after him This taking of the bread we should look upon as a receiving the yoke of Christ upon our neck and laying his Cross upon our shoulder if he think fit We embrace a crucified Jesus and we are not to expect to live in pleasures unless they be spiritual nor to rejoice with the world but to endure affliction and account it all joy when we fall into manifold temptations Protest therefore unto him that thou lovest him as thou seest him stript and naked bruised and wounded slain and dead and that thou art contented to take joyfully the spoiling of thy goods to be pleased with pains and to count death the way to life V. When we eat it is a fit season to put forth these two acts of faith 1. Let us express our hearty consent that Christ shall dwell within us that we will be ruled by his Laws and governed by his Spirit that he shall be the alone King of our souls and the Lord of all our faculties and that we will have no other Master but onely him to give commands within us Eating I told you is a foederal rite and therefore when we have swallowed this bread we should think that we have surrendred all up into his hands and put him into full power over our souls And we should think also that we have given him the possession of our souls for ever and engaged never to change our Master For eating is more receiving then taking a thing with our hands It is as it were the incorporating of the thing with the substance of our bodies and making it a part of our selves that it may last as long as we So should we meditate that we receive the Lord Jesus never to be separated from his service for ever to adhere unto him as our Prince and Captain as our Head and Husband wheresoever his Commands will lead us And as we open our hearts thus to receive him so let us now fold him in our arms and embrace him with a most cordial affection Let the fire burn now and make us boyl up yea even run over with love to him Now is the time not onely to give our selves to him but to make a sacrifice of our selves as a whole burnt-offering unto God Now should we lay our selves on the Altar of the Lord to be offered up intirely to him who made his soul an offering for sin That there may not only be a representative but a real sacrifice at this Feast unto Heaven i.e. that we may not only shew forth the sacrifice of Christ and represent it before God but we our selves may offer up our souls and bodies unto him and send them up in flames of love as so many Holocausts to be consumed and spent in the service of our God Then let us wish for the flames of a Seraphim in the love of God for the cheerfulness and speed of a Cherubim in the service of God and for the voice of an Angel that we may sing the praises of God Let us like our choice so well and think that we are so beholden to him that we may give our selves to him as to begin to leap for joy that we have parted with our selves and are become his And as a token that we give our selves and all we have to God we should now think upon those offerings we intend to make for the poor members of Jesus Christ and desire the Lord to accept of our gifts which we present him withall as earnests of our selves which we have consecrated unto him And perhaps now our hearts may be stirred with so great compassion and our bowels may be so feelingly moved that our Charity may overflow the banks that we had set it and the fire that is within us may require a fatter and larger offering then we designed But howsoever we cannot but deal our bread to the hungry with a more cheerfull hand and give our Almes with a freer heart when we have received the Bread of Life into our hands and hearts and felt what the huge Charity of our Lord was toward us most miserable and wretched Creatures 2. A second Act of faith which we should now exercise is this Let us really believe that all the blessings of the New Covenant are made over to us by this giving and receiving of his sacred body Let thy soul say My beloved is mine as I am his Be confident and well assured that if thou wast hearty in the former act of saith thou shalt as certainly receive pardon and grace and strength and salvation as thy mouth thou art sure eateth the holy Bread The former Act was a receiving him as our Lord and this as our Saviour Think therefore that now Christ dwelleth in thee and thou in him that as he must be Master of the house so thou shalt partake of all his riches of all his honour and pleasure And so begin to ransack his treasures desire him to spread before thee his inestimable riches pray him to shew thee if it be but a little glimpse of the glory of the inheritance of the Saints And what joy will this create in thy soul when thou thinkest that thou and Christ are one that thou art united to his most precious Body and shall certainly receive all the benefits of his Death and Passion O what ravishment should it be unto us to believe that sin shall not have dominion over us that the Blood of Jesus cleanseth us from all unrighteousness that the flames of Hell shall never touch us that death is swallowed up in victory that the grave is buried in the Wounds of our Saviour that we are sealed with the mark of God and consigned to a blessed immortality and shall inherit the joys of our Lord With what boldness now may we renew our requests to him and importunately plead with him for a supply of all our wants We may put up stronger cries now that we conceive he is in us and intreat him since it is his pleasure to be so familiar with us that we may be filled with all the fulness of God O my Lord may a soul say if thou lovest me so much fulfill in me all the good pleasure of thy goodness 2 Thes 1.11 and the work of faith