devout person on such an occasion ' Lord how sad was I when I came last from thy Holy Temple And had I not great Reason to be so considering that I left thy service to be involv'd again in the world How tedious hath been the time since I last communicated with my Jesus And when shall I come again and appear before him that I may meet my Saviour in his Mysteries and converse with him with delight and true satisfactions * Psal 42.12 Like as the hart pants after the water-brooks so longs my soul for thee O God My soul is athirst for God yea even for the living God When shall I come and appear before the presence of God My Saviour when he first ordained this Sacrament exprest himself with Earnestness and Vehemence * Luke 22.15 With desire have I desired to eat this passeover that is according to the expressions of the Synagogue Greek I have heartily desired I have passionately longed to do it and yet he had no need of Sacraments to strengthen or confirm him And should there not be in me the same mind and the same measure of Love that was in my Redeemer Wise men tell us that three things incite the will and create love Excellency Difficulty and Absence and all these meet here 1. This is the most sublime Mystery of our Religion and the most excellent And therefore the Fathers give it the most Honourable Titles and call it the Mystery and the Sacrament of Sacraments c. Nor can any enjoyment make me more happy but being admitted to the Marriage-supper of the Lamb in Heaven For neither eye hath seen nor ear heard nor can the heart of man conceive the present Favors which God in this life bestows on them that love him 2. It is no easie slight thing to be a Worthy Communicant The deepest Sorrow the heartiest Resolutions the most unalterable Vows and the strictest Obedience are qualifications indispensibly necessary to worthy communicating The Table of God is not lightly to be talkt of much less presumptuously to be addrest to And therefore the Fathers when they mentioned the Holy Eucharist because their Congregation was mixt only hinted at things and subjoin'd * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys Passim Those who have been partakers of that Table know what we mean And others are not fit for such sublime Notions And for this Reason * Sec. 46. de Verb. Dom. St. Austin preaching on that Text My flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed purposely avoids a plain Explanation of the words And that he might tempt that part of his Auditory which had never received to a love to that Sacrament he uses this way of Reasoning ' If thou who art a Catechumen art willing to be instructed in this Mystery now is the Feast of Easter enter thy name among those who are to be baptized at the Festival and then thou shalt be inform'd If the time do not invite thee let curiosity incline thee And for this Reason the Table whereon the consecrated Mysteries were plac'd was concealed * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Curtains from the view of the people during the first Service and Sermon till the Communion-Office began 3. The day that I long for is to come and the substance represented under these symbols is in Hnaven For they shall contain the Son of Man till the time of the consummation of all things But till I see him in his Glory this is the most proper and most advantageous way of enjoying him I know not how long it shall be ere I die and go to the lover of my soul and therefore I will converse with him in his Ordinances nor know I but I may die to morrow and therefore I will if I can communicate to day For how can I live without him either in Person or Representation who is the light of my eyes the joy of my heart and should be dearer to me than my Life and Being It is a strange whimsey I acknowledg in * De Hierarchia p. 611. Ed. Rotomag Father Celot the Jesuite That the multitude of Masses bring so much glory to God and so much profit to souls that there could not be too many if not only according to Moses's wish all the Lord's people were Priests but also if all men and women if it were possible and all inanimate bodies and even brute beasts were turn'd Priests to celebrate the Mass And yet every Priest in the Romish Church is bound to say Mass every day Nevertheless I must say it were well to be wisht that both by Priest and People this Sacrament were addrest to with greater frequency and more Reverence and that all the parts of the Creation were imployed in praising their Creator For can I be happy too osten or too much I will therefore love every thing that bears the divine Image stampt upon it and nothing shall occasion my thinking the Table of the Lord contemptible The Collect. MY soul O Lord is delighted with thee and with whatscever hath a relation unto thee Thy Name is Holy and Reverend in my thoughts thy Word Powerful and sacred in my ears thy Body and Blood sweeter than Honey to my mouth and beyond all Delicacâ—es to my taste Give me therefore gracious Lord frequent occasions of calling upon thy Name of hearing thy Word and receiving thy Mysteries that my Saviour may dwell in my heart by Faith here and hereafter I may dwell with him in the Vision of his Glory to all eternity Amen CHAP. XVII Of Resignation and Self-denial NOR must this love which I prosess to my God and his Ordinances be faint and weak but it ought to be strong enough to conquer all that opposes it For can I say I love God if I deny him preference in my esteem to all things else For if I love Father or Mother or any other Relation or my own Ease or Life it self beyond my Saviour I am not worthy to be called his Disciple and am unfit for the Kingdom of Heaven 'T is a Maxim in the School of Jesus * Mat. 16.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theophil in loc If any man will come after him let him deny himself and that not by way of Ceremony or Complement with the Elder Brother in the Gospel who said I go sir but went not but with the greatest sincerity and the most intense zeal For to be a Christian is to be a Follower of the Son of God who paid so exact a deference to his Father that tho his own and his Father's will were the same yet he protests that he came into the world * John 6.38 not to do his own will but the will of him who sent him and that when nothing else could do it when Sacrifices and Burnt Offerings were insignificant then was it Recorded of him that he came to do the will of God And what greater Instance could be given of
the only Region of Rest For I may be secure in the love of the world but I can never be safe but in the love of Jesus This divine Vertue is always content when it is in trouble it is not distrest when under the greatest perplexities it is far from despair when it is persecuted it is never forsaken of its God or its hopes and when it is wounded it cannot be slain for it always carries about with it the marks of a dying Redeemer and desires to know nothing but Christ and him crucified that it may die to the world 3. According to what a man loves so is his denomination in this world and so shall his judgment be in another We call a man Covetous from his love of money and Voluptuous from his love of Pleasure and Envious from his love of Revenge and so also we call a man a Christian from his love to God and his Neighbour For on those two hang all the law and the prophets And in the proceedings of the last day a man shall be examined not what he hath known nor what he hath believed not what he hath hop'd nor what he hath talkt of but what he hath loved and accordingly the love of the World shall damn the sinner while the love of Heaven makes the Saint happy Now this love can never be compleat unless it reflect upon God my Neighbours and mine Enemies and be particularly conversant with the Offices of Religion The Collect. For the 14th Sund. after Trin. ALmighty and Everlasting God! give unto me and to all thy people the increase of Faith Hope and Charity and that we may obtain that which thou dost promise make us to love that which thou dost command through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen CHAP. X. Of the Love of God I Tremble when I read that sentence * 1 Cor. 16.22 If any man love not the Lord Jesus let him be Anathema Maranatha And yet it is but just that the Punishment should be proportion'd to the Offence and that that man should be hated by his Maker who hath no affection for his Saviour in whom there is nothing wanting that may endear him to our Respects and our Love 1. There is in him the greatest Perfection and the most admirable Excellencies Can I with patience behold the Miser condemn himself to the Mines for the sake of his Mammon and a bigotted Devoto use wonderful Abstinences and submit to great austerities only to serve his desires of Applause Can I every day see how the lovers of Pleasure and Revenge wilfully make themselves dismal spectacles of Ruin and Desolation and be all the while unconcern'd and take no delight to please my adorable Redeemer and save my own soul * Wis 13.3 c. If men being delighted with the beauties of the Heavenly Host took them to be Gods let them know how much better the Lord of them is For the first Author of Beauty hath created them and by the beauty and greatness of the Creatures proportionably is the Maker of them seen But it is too sadly found true that the love of the world grows to a prodigious stature of a sudden while the love of God and Holiness is pincht in its Infancy and starv'd in its Swath-bands It is a Plant which seldom meets with a fit Soil and when it grows up can never be brought to maturity without the constant beams of the Sun of Righteousness a plentiful portion of the dew of Heaven and a great care to preserve and cherish it 2. I ought to love my Saviour because I have the greatest Obligations to him For his love to me brought him from Heaven to Earth from a Throne to a Cross and thence into Hell for my Redemption Greater love than this hath no man shown than that he should lay down his life for his friend said the compassionate Jesus And is there no higher degree no nobler instance of love O my infallible Master Yes certainly thine was when thou wert content to die for thine Enemies Many waters could not quench it and it was stronger than death Now if the love of an undone world conquer'd God's Anger made him suspend his Justice and degrade his Son should not the love of God much rather engage me to conquer my Lusts Could I die O my best Friend a thousand times over for thee yet should I not love thee according to thy deservings But this is our great folly and the cause of all our miseries we are set on fire under the Pole and we freeze under the Aequinoctial the world makes us passionate Lovers while the Son of God cannot 3. To love God is the most natural and easie of all Recompences Shouldest thou Lord now require from me the burthensom Attendances and the expensive Sacrifices that were injoin'd under the Old Law I could have no Reason to complain but to love thee sincerely is the cheapest of Returns For when my bodily weakness or infirmities will not suffer me to fast or watch or wear sackcloath and my poverty hinders my giving Alms yet I am never so poor never so weak but I can love and tho perhaps I cannot hear every day nor pray every hour nor communicate every week yet nothing hinders but that I may love my God every moment and that will bring me to Eternity 4. The Love of God is the Fountain of acceptable Obedience and proportionable to my Love to God is my Zeal and my Devotion my Resolution and my Piety and when once these Ardors cool every thing that is good languishes and decays To be affrighted threatned and compell'd to serve my Master is a dishonour to my Christian performances and fullies all their Beauties but it is a Sacrifice that God is well-pleased with when the Offering is brought freely and offered chearfully and sent up in flames to Heaven being offered on the Altar of Love For Jesus is the Author of salvation to those only who so love him and the Grace of God is only with them who love his Son in sincerity 5. A due Reflection upon this Sacrament is a great encouragement to love him who instituted it for by it we are made one Body of which our blessed Saviour is the Head And therefore among other Rites that intimated this Union it was the ancient use nor is it yet prohibited in our Church but left to discretion to mingle Water with the Wine in the holy Chalice to testifie the Mystical Union that is betwixt Christ and his Church For as Water and Wine mix and incorporate so are the faithful Communicants made the same body with the Son of God For in the Opinion of * Cypr. Epist 63. Euseb Emis Hom. 5. de Pasch c. the Ancients the Wine is the Figure of our Redeemer's Blood and the Water of the many Nations purchas'd by it Besides all which it is further considerable that of worldly things a man may love what he shall never enjoy or
destroy themselves first with their Fears before they actually fall into a Mischief that cannot be avoided and what man can pretend to such a state of ease and indolency When therefore the Son of God makes a Disciple he calls him to the practice of self-denyal to the contempt of the World and all its vanities to the mortifying of his Passions and the abjuration of Pleasures that is he bids him live no longer like a Beast but like a man and a Christian and in lieu of these impertinencies he promises him all that is great and good in a better life and this was the method he made use of when he comforted the first-born of his Family his Apostles upon his departure And what could be more eloquent rational or pâ—rswasive than such a discourse about patience from him who had his sufferings in inmediate prospect For the thoughts of such persons being fixt on Heaven they talk of the place as if they were there already their stile is more brisk and vigorous than ordinary and their words make a deeper impression such was our Saviours last Sermon and such the Epistles of the Apostles which they wrote in their bonds Jesus having discovered Judas forewarned Peter and bound the rest of his Disciples to mutual Love and Charity at length tells them that it was the greatest Argument of the heighth of passion and shortness of reasoning to be troubled at the adversities of this present life that he who is strong in Faith is above the assault of secular dangers and whoever is called to embrace the Gospel is out of the reach and beyond the Fears of temporal afflictions that when you imprison him you do not rob him of his Liberty and when you kill him you cannot hurt him for he that depends on the Crucified Jesus for Salvation is secure that if he suffer with his Master he shall reign with him Such a man is assured that there is so large a provision made for him in Heaven that it baffles all carnal objections and stifles the very sense or remembrance of pain for his Master is ascended to his Father's Right Hand not so much to glorifie his own Body as to intercede for us that we may be glorified there he is now our Advocate and from thence he shall come again at the last day to be our guide that where he is we may be forever with him nor can any thing hinder our Union with him to Eternity who have been united to him here in the Offices of Piety our natural corruptions cannot obstruct the Union our Saviour is the way nor can our ignorance do us injuries he is the Truth and the Attempts of death it self are vain and of no force he is the Life For as long as the Father and he are one and so they shall be to Eternity all the Power and Wisdom of the Godhead must dwell in him bodily and who can resist Omnipotence or outwit the only Wise God Especially when it is considered that his Goodness is commensurate to his Power and his Wisdom so that the meanest of his Servants when he strengthens them shall be able to do all things and the greatest of the Miracles that Christ himself did shall be less than what his Followers shall be able to do nor is it to be doubted how this can be Since the Prayers of a good man recommended in the Name and upon the account of the Merits of his Saviour answer all devout ends and purposes and for this end probably the afflictions of this life were made the Portion of Christianity that if our Duty did not our needs might bring us often on our Knees for God denies nothing where the love of the Supplicant is bright and ardent and makes it self illustrious in a life of Obedience for upon such a man the Holy Dove descends and becomes his Comforter his Companion and his Friend it instructs him when ignorant it relieves him if opprest it encourages and defends him when timerous it bestows all that is good and protects from all that is evil this Spirit is the Vicar unto the Bishop of Souls it was primarily designed to lead the Church into all Truth and to secure it from perishing under the persecutions of its Enemies and to supply the want of the bodily Presence of the Redeemer of Mankind this Spirit was to unriddle all the Mysteries of Religion and to reveal what was hid from the cognizance of Ages to make those on whom it should descend the darlings of God and to give them Heaven upon Earth in the Enjoyment of Holy Thoughts and a quiet Mind which none of the disturbances of this Life shall be able to ruffle or discompose When the Soul is fixt on this Foundation being put out of the Synagogue signifies nothing nor can Death drest in its most formidable shape create any terrors for our Master hath told us that as in the deepest of his sufferings the blest Angels ministred unto him so they shall to his obedient followers and that their resurrection shall succeed his for the greatest instances of mutual love are beneath the indearments that are berween Jesus and a good man the Branches are not so firmly joyned to the Vine as the devout Soul is to its Saviour it is a Member of his Body and as dear to him as his own Honour This Union neither distance of Place nor alteration of Circumstances can dissolve 't is a Union cemented by the Blood of God and is built on a Foundation that stands most sure it is built upon God's Knowledg who are his and upon his Servants departing from all iniquity but it is a Union that is better felt than described and no one knows the happiness of it but he who hath experimented it As long as this Friendship lasts the Christian is impowered to do every thing that may glorifie his Master and benefit himself and what himself cannot do by his own Abilities shall be supplied by the Interests of his Saviour and procured by his own intense Supplications but if any man wilfully dissolve this Concord like a Branch cut off from the stock he withers and dies and becomes fit for nothing but to be cast into Eternal Flames Now nothing can break this Union but Vice and Iniquity for that which makes the Holy Jesus the only Beloved of his Father is his Obedience to the Divine Laws and his Passionate love to the world that engaged him to dye for it and whoever loves God and his Neighbour shall be made Partaker of all his Favour and his Heart shall be filled with Joy and can there be a more cogent Argument than this to endear Religion to a well inclined mind To be made the Friends of God the Elect and Beloved of the Saviour of the World the Pupils of the Spirit of Truth and Peace to have one Comforter to redeem them and another to sanctifie them and to have the Honour of being God's Ambassadors and the Witnesses
agreed to abolish that Custom To conclude the famous Huniades is as great in Story for his Humility as for his Victories and as much celebrated that he would not tho on his Death-bed receive the blessed Sacrament but on his knees as for the many Overthrows that he gave the Mahometans Since therefore these and the like Excuses are but Engines to entrap and betray me And since the same Authority that forbids me to kill or to steal bids me do this in remembrance of my Saviour I do from henceforth resolve to communicate upon every Occasion as I love my life and my salvation The Collect. GRacious God the instructor of the ignorant and the guide of them who are out of the way convince me of my folly remove my prejudices and arm me with thy Grace against the assaults of Satan that I may not consult with Flesh and Blood but with thy lively Oracles that I may long for all occasions to communicate with thee and may stifle all Excuses that would hinder that holy Converse that above all things I may love thee here and live with thee for ever hereafter through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen CHAP. III. Of the danger of unworthy Receiving BUT do not thou imagine O my deceitful heart that there is nothing required of thee but only to approach this holy place and taste of the Dainties it affords They never relish well but to the Palat that is seasoned This Bread turns to a Stone and the Wine into Gall and Wormwood to the sinner whose soul is vitiated Our Saviour does not vouchsafe to eat this Christian Passeover but with his Disciples with the penitent and the devout He is the Carkass and here the Eagles are expected but Dogs are prohibited * Revel 22.15 without are dogs and all that work iniquity And whatever wretch should dare break through these Fences and commit a Rape on this blessed Sacrament he will be deceived of the benefit expected for this spiritual food to him hath no extraordinary relish nor does it differ from that which ministers to his Lust and his Wantonness and he runs the greatest hazard of eternal damnation He had better have swallowed the deadliest Poison I dare not therefore magnifie constant Communion so as to depretiate the Vertues that must qualifie the Communicant and make him worthy It is an insufferable affront to Religion and an intrusion not to be pardoned when the crafty Usurer shall come from his yesterdays grinding the face of the poor to eat to day the Body of his Saviour the Shop-keeper from his little arts and methods of fraud the Glutton from his cramm'd dishes the Intemperate from his last nights debauch and the lustful from the arms and embraces of his Mistrisses to force themselves a way to Gods House and Table that man unavoidably * 1 Cor. 11.27 29. eats and drinks damnation to himself and is guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. And tho perhaps the word in the Original which our Translators render Damnation be sometimes taken in a softer sense and only signifies Temporal Judgments And it be a Quaere whether he who thinks himself unworthy be for that Reason unfit because the most humble is the best prepared or whether every actual unworthiness makes a man liable to so severe a sentence Yet doubtless every prophane and impenitent Wretch is in the high-road to Ruin And hardly can salvation it self save such a man * Heb. 6.6 c. who after he hath been inlightned from above and tasted of the good gift of God falls away For he hath anew crucified to himself the Lord of life I therefore as a private person charge thee O my soul look to thy self and examine severely thy state Thy happiness and eternal welfare depend on thy due preparation And as God's servant in the Function of the Priesthood I charge the Drunkard and Adulterer and I do it in the Name of our adorable Saviour I charge the Covetous and the Extortioner the Proud and the Revengeful the Prophane Man and the Hypâ—crite the practical Infidel and Debauchee not to presume to tread this holy ground Fire will break from this Altar and consume them Here is an angry Cherub with his Flaming Sword turning every way to secure the Tree of Life that it may not be tasted of by the wicked and profligate but I also charge the same Atheistical and vicious liver to alter his evil habits to wash his soul clean in the waters of true penitence and then let him visit the Temple It is equally damnable not to come at all and to come unprepared The Collect. In imitation of St. Chrysostome HOly Saviour who hast been in all places who didst not disdain to visit the Grave with thy Body and Hell with thy Soul while thy Divinity was with the penitent Thief in Paradise and with thy Father on his Throne Thou Spirit of Truth thou Heavenly King and Comforter who art present every where and fillest all things Thou Treasure of Goodness and Guide unto Eternal Life where wilt thou that I shall provide the Passeover O! come and pitch thy Tents in my Soul and purge me from all pollution cleath me with thy Righteousness give me Faith and Knowledg Love and Obedience that I may always be fit to enjoy thy company and to share in thy Merits Pardon my sins and save my soul O thou Author of all Goodness Amen CHAP. IV. Of Examination in general THere is an indispensible necessity of Examination preparative to worthy receiving For tho Charity inclines me to judg Favourably of others yet I dare not flatter my self And if severity be at any time lawful it is in the Offices of Repentance I ought to suspect my best actions and censure my very devotions I ought to fly the very appearances of evil as I dread the shadows of the Grave and to tremble at a temptation when first in View For nothing can be so terrible as the state of a * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reprobate For if the Sacrifice must be without blemish if it must not only not want any Essential or Integral part not an Ear or an Eye but also must not so much as have a Scab or an Ulcer the blood must not be tainted nor the Lungs scirrous how much more ought the Priest to be perfect throughly furnisht unto every good work It is the Apostle's advice 1 Cor. 11.28 Let every man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a word of a very large and comprehensive signification I ought to examine my self as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 h. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vid. S. Chrysost Hom. 20. in Ep. ad Rom. to 3. p. 174. the Ancient Priests did their Sacrifices For both the Jews and Gentiles when an Oblation was brought to the Temple did not only inspect its Out-side but cut it down by the back
as fearful of offending and as tender of my duty as the first day that I vowed or as I was when I last communicated Do I remember how dear my former Offences cost me and how dâ—fficult my Repentance was How many sighs how many disturbances of a distracted Conscience it gave occasion to And have I courage enough to resist a temptation for the future to put a knife to my throat when I am at a Feast and to wear Sackcloath in the Palace of Princes Can I be grave in light company and reserv'd among the vain and virtuous in a debauch'd Society and chaste among the effeminate Are these my Resolutions constant do they dwell in my mind Or am I holy only by occasion and outward accidents and extraordinary events Am I as humble and devout in my prosperity as in the day of affliction Do I pray as often on the days of my pleasure as on a fasting-day And am I as just as charitable and temperate when I follow my worldly business as when I communicate Have I remembred * 2 Cor. 13.5 the Apostle of the Gentiles to examine my self whether I am in the Faith or else I am a Reprobate Is my Faith such as works by Love and publickly declares it self by an intire Obedience to the Laws of Christ and is fit to give me a right to communicate For the Catechumens who were not baptized had Faith and so had those who were in a state of Penance and yet their Faith was not thought sufficient to intitle them to the Priviledges of God's Table For Faith is not so much an affiance in God as a giving credit to his Revealed Will as it is a body of Laws adapted to the promoting of God's Honour and our Salvation Therefore when I say I believe I mean I resolve to live according to those injunctions that I take Jesus for my Saviour and expect to share in the benefits of his Death and Resurrection no further than I obey his will I must also further examine Am I in perfect Charity Is my hope firm and my love to Jesus unalterable Do I as earnestly long for this spiritual food as I do for my daily sustenance And could I be content rather to want the Necessaries of life than to be deprived of the Bread of God And do I bear in mind the doom of those who slighted the divine Invitations and would not come and of him who intruded not having the Wedding-garment These and many other such Questions are necessary to make this duty of Self-examination advantageous For nothing less than the strictest scrutiny can make a worthy Communicant It was therefore an excellent Observation of the Ancients That the preparation for the Holy Eucharist should be as strict and compleat as our preparation for our dissolution and that I should no more dare to appear before God's Table with any known sin unmortified than I should dare to appear before his Tribunal with it For when I approach this tremendous place I am not concern'd about matters of curiosity and of light value but about the most momentous affairs of Religion about my Souls health and eternity I do not therefore puzzle my self with little questions nor do I dispute what are the exact dimensions of the Kingdom of darkness where it is and what different Climates are in it but the question is whether Heaven and Hell be real or imaginary places Whether the Judicature of Conscience signifie any thing in this world or the Tribunal of Christ in that which is to come Can I dwell with everlasting burnings and a consuming fire where the torments are infinite in their height and infinite in their duration Is not depending on a death-bed-Repentance a deceiving of our selves And if so what shall I do now that when I go hence I may die in God's favour What shall I do to be saved This is a terrible Interrogatory a question of weight and moment For as no man is fit to die but he who loves God above all things and is in perfect charity with all Mankind who is unconcerned with the affairs of the world and hath learnt and practised an intire Resignation of himself into the hands of his Creator whose accounts are adjusted whose life hath been one act of intercourse with Heaven and whose interests in eternity are secured so neither is any man fit to approach the holy Table without the like preparation The Collect. LET thy holy Spirit so assist me O most gracious Father that my preparation for the Sacrament may be as exact as if I were to fit my self to stand before the Throne of my eternal Judg that nothing may a lienate my affections from thee nor alter my Resolutions Heavenward but that I may so worthily eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of the Son of man that when I go hence I may be admitted to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen CHAP. VII Of the Examination of my Knowledg 'T IS not to be denied that some knowledg is requisite to fit me for this Heavenly Communion that I may be able * 1 Cor. 11.29 to discern the Lords Body But this knowledg rather consists in the understanding of the Offices of Holiness than in the comprehension of the depth of this and other sacred Mysteries I am very sure that at the first Institution the Apostles were very meanly furnisht with such Learning The very Foundation of the Sacrament the Death and Resurrection of our Saviour was a Riddle to them Nor did they then understand either the method of working out our Redemption or of the establishing of the Kingdom of the Messias in the world And yet because they were humble and devout sincere and obedient our great Master gave them admission to his Table And so was it also in the Primitive Church For the Bishops of old allowed every one as soon as he was baptized to come to the Holy Eucharist altho they carefully avoided any discourses about this Sacrament before those who had never been partakers of it And when their Subject led them that way they spoke in Figures and Metaphorical Expressions and appealed to the understanding of those who had communicated For they were well perswaded that it was a Mystery Now Mysteries are not to be pryed into but admired not to be commonly talkt of nor curiously disputed about but to be lookt on with Veneration and Respect to be studied and reverenc'd They knew it was no slight and perfunctory employment to communicate with the Holy Jesus but they withal knew that a little measure of Knowledg and a great degree of Humility Piety and Charity would intitle to the Priviledges of God's Altar Now all that they instructed the Candidates of these Mysteries in was only the duties of Morality Justice and Honesty Peaceableness and Compassion Chastity and Temperance together with an ardent love to God only now and then they could not forbear reprehending an Heretick
if he happen to enjoy it he may afterward lose it or the very fruition may cloy and nauseate which was expected to please and satisfie But no man ever yet fell in love with Jesus and lost his aim no man ever yet converst with him but he experimented the pleasure of such amiable society and could be content to dwell with him for ever And so shall the good man For what shall separate him from the love of Christ Tribulations Afflictions and Death it self cannot and what then can When therefore I say I love God I vow and endeavour to keep his Commandments Dare I call my self the Disciple of an humble Jesus and be a slave to my Pride the servant of a chast and temperate Saviour and wallow in the puddles of Lust and Luxury Dare I give the Reins to my Anger and profess my self a follower of the pattern of Meekness How can I call my self a Christian who deserve not the title of a Man that am as gluttonous as a Wolf as intemperate as a Swine and as lustful as a Goat The death of my Saviour was design'd to redeem me from the power and practice as well as from the punishments of Vice For the Son of God was manifested to destroy the works of the Devil And how can I say I love him if my heart be not with him The Collect. For the 6th Sund after Trin. O God who hast prepared for them that love thee such good things as pass man's understanding pour into my heart such love towards thee that I loving thee above all things may obtain thy promises which exceed all that I can desire through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen CHAP. XI Of the Remembrance of my Blessed Saviour NOW one solemn act of my love to God and one great duty of the Gospel is to remember my best friend my Saviour And it is a particular advantage of the Christian Religion that as all holy signs in general are given for the confirmation of the divine promises so the most sacred Offices of the Gospel are proper and genuine Representations of the Death and Resurrection of that Saviour who is the Author and Finisher of our Faith and Institutor of our Religion Thus in the Sacrament of Baptism the Ancients in those warm Countries dipt all who came to that Ordinance except those who were baptized on their death-beds * Rom. 6.4 burying the Proselyte with his Saviour in Baptism They used also to dip them three several times under water to exhibit a Memorial of our Saviour's being three days buried and the Mystery unless in case of Necessity was at first celebrated but once in the year the Catechumens being baptized * Tertul. de Bapt. cap. 19. at Easter only which was the day of our Saviour's Resurrection But more especially was the Eucharist designed evidently to set before our eyes Jesus Christ crucified among us by bringing to our remembrance the shame and sufferings of a dying Saviour our merciful God applying himself to the most ductile and easie of all our Faculties For our Understandings require much teaching and we must proceed from lower methods till we come to be capable of demonstration And what man is there among the wisest of Adam's sons that can expound the Riddles of Providence or the Mysteries of the written Law of God The Will follows the guidance of the Understanding and yet when it is so directed it is a blind bold and daring faculty and for the most part stubbornly neglects to do its duty But the Memory needs nothing but sensible Objects to inform it and is the strongest and most retentive of all our Faculties and such as few men want And in truth every act of Obedience is but a remembrance of my duty and every Transgression an act of forgetfulness For as often as I sin I cease to mind a dying Saviour * Psal 9.17 and the wicked who shall be turn'd into Hell are the same with the people that forget God The Sacrament therefore of the Eucharist is a Commemoration of Jesus and his Passion without which all his other performances could not save us For all the Rhetorick Eloquence and demonstration of his Sermons all his divine and beneficial Miracles together with the unblamable and unspotted Holiness of his Life and Conversation could never have been sufficient to have redeem'd us without his Crucifixion 'T was his death only that was the Original of our life and salvation What need then hath my dull and unaffected soul of such encouragements to give my Saviour a place in my thoughts The very performance of the duty is its own Recompence and properly agrees to those Notions of Vertue that all Mankind bring with them into the world it being natural to every one to be thankful and to remember his Benefactors * Athen. Deipnos l. 5. c. 1. The Heathens had their Annual Festivals to commemorate their wise men and Philosophers to call to mind their wise sayings and their prudent just and vertuous carriage The Jews also had their set-times wherein they honoured the Memories of their Prophets and good men as the Christian Church appointed Anniversaries which they called the Birth-days of their Martyrs it being a solemn act of Justice to have the Righteous in everlasting Remembrance And if the Church were so careful to commemorate the Atchievements of her Members is it credible that she should forget the miraculous performances of her Head In nothing was her care so conspicuous as in constituting a Memorial of the Prince of the Martyrs and giving the day of our Saviour's Passion a place in the Church-Kalendar in the times of the Apostles if we may believe Antiquity For the Remembrance of Jesus ought at all times to be sweet as honey in all mouths and as musick at a banquet of wine For what can be so rude and disingenuous as to slight so obliging a friend so great and so good a person especially when he hath left me such illustrious testimonies of his love which put me in mind of his humiliation for my sins For if the Picture or the Garment of an absent Friend puts me in mind of the person whose they were and inclines me to grateful Reflections on my Benefactor how much more should I be obliged when such lively Representations of a Saviour executed bleeding and dying for me are exhibited to me as the Sacrament affords me A Sermon may give me a passionate character of my crucified Redeemer but nothing can represent his Passion so to the life as the Holy Eucharist that is the most affecting preaching For in that ministration his sufferings are acted over again in the View of his Disciples Hence the Primitive Christians celebrated the Holy Communion at first every day and afterwards every Sunday and Holy day throughout the year adapting all their additional Circumstances and Ceremonies to this end and purpose that they might represent the Passion Hence was it that they built their
Churches commonly in the form of a Cross and for this cause they cover'd the * Bed in 16. S. Matth. Damas P. Epist Altar with a white linnen cloath not so much to denote the purity of the Mysteries or the innocence of the Communicants as our Saviour's being wrap'd in fine linnen at his Funeral On the * Chrys To. 6. p. 360. Altar also they plac'd the Cross and that without superstition that they might direct their eyes and minds toward Heaven where the crucified Jesus sits on his Father's Right Hand They enjoined their Communicants when they pray'd * Tertul. de Orat cap. 11. to stretch out their hands in the form of a Cross and when they received the consecrated Elements * Concil Trull Can. 101. they put themselves into the same posture The elevation of the Elements when taken into the hands of the Priest emblems the lifting up of Christ upon his Cross the breaking of the Bread implies not only that he died but that he was slain that he died a violent death and when the Wine is poured out nothing can more pertinently and plainly represent the shedding of his sacred Blood In the Liturgy of * p. 984 985. Edit Savil. St. Chrysostome which is now used in the Greek Church the Priest is expresly injoin'd to make upon the Bread which is to be consecrated the sign of the Cross with the Holy Launce for so they call the Knife which is then used alluding to the weapon with which our Saviour's side was pierc'd and to say three times In remembrance of our Lord our God and Saviour Jesus Christ after which he is to strike the Launce four times into the extremities of the Cross and to say when he strikes it into the right side He was led as a sheep to the slaughter when into the left side As a lamb without blemish is dumb before the shearer so he opened not his mouth Then he is to strike it into the top of the Cross saying In his humiliation his judgment was taken from him then into the bottom saying And who shall declare his Generation After which the Priest elevates the Bread saying For his life was taken away from the Earth now and for evermore Amen And then lays it in the Patin saying The lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world is sacrificed for the sins and salvation of the world During every one of which several actions the Deacon says We beseech thee to hear us O Lord. And when the Wine and Water is poured into the Chalice the Deacon says And one of the soldiers pienc'd his side with a launce and there issued out water and blood which mixture they always make the better to represent that part of the Passion And the whole Church hath thought fit to consecrate Red Wine that the colour might mind us of our Saviour's Blood as the Jews in the Passeover used the same coloured Wine in remembrance of the Blood of their predecessors which was spilt in Aegypt The Greeks consecrate no Bread but what is mark'd as above-said and stampt with these Letters IC XC NK i. e. Jesus Christ overcomes which was the Motto of the Cross shown to Constantine the Great And in the Gethick Church in Spain as the Mosarabick Missal mentions they divided the Holy Bread into Nine parts to which they affixt the Names of Incarnation Nativity Circumcision Transfiguration Passion Death Resurrection Glory and Kingdom under which Names they comprehended our Saviour's whole History intimating unto all who were spectators of their proceedings that the design and intention of the Sacrament was only to imprint on their minds the Memorial of our Saviour and his performances for our salvation Thus the whole Church thought themselves obliged to do in remembrance of their dearest Master and Patron who had he been corporeally present under the Accidents had had no need to have bidden us to remember him for we only remember things and persons that are absent And is there any Reason that I should be so often put in mind of that which alone can make me happy Thou hast bid me O my God that as often as this Sacrament is celebrated and what a Reproof is this of my seldom coming to that Ordinance that I should call to mind thy Death Lord how can I forget thee I should sooner forget to eat or to sleep How violent and acute were thy pains and yet how couragiously endured Did not my iniquities cause thy sufferings and are not all the benefits purchas'd thereby transferr'd and made over to me And can I forget such a Friend What therefore shall I do to fit my self to receive the advantages of thy Passion sealed and conveyed to me in this Sacrament I will deface all the Records of Vanity and Folly of sin and iniquity that have found a place in my memory and there will I treasure up the History of my dearest Jesus his Undertakings of his Sufferings and his Victories and thence will I transcribe the Copies of Obedience into my life and conversation till I am perfectly conform'd to his Image The Collect. GRant I beseech thee O my crucified Saviour that I may this day and every day remember thy shame and thy sufferings that I may magnifie thy goodness and imitate thy patience and be conform'd to the pattern of thy Vertues that I may love thy Laws and depend upon thy Merits that after frequent acts of remembring thee and communicating with thee I may be remembred by thee in the Agonies of death and after my death may have a place in my Master's Kingdom Amen CHAP. XII Of Love to my Neighbour NExt to my love to my Maker ought my love to my Neighbur to take place whose welfare is to be as dear to me as my own and to whom I must do good as much as lies in me as I hope to see the Face of God for I must love my Neighbour as my self and every one is my Neighbour who wants my assistance This love therefore engages me to submit to my superiors to walk in peace to prefer others before my self to instruct the ignorant to soften the passionate to reprehend the vicious to reclaim the profligate to counsel the unadvised to speak peace to distrest Consciences to visit the Prisons and to administer to them who are appointed to die to relieve the opprest to clothe the naked and to feed the hungry For these were the employments of our charitable Master who was our great Almoner and who hath commanded us if need be * 1 John 3.16 that we also should lay down our lives for the brethren And this Doctrine was so well understood by Johannes Elecmosynarius that when he met with a modest necessitous person to whom he had been formerly charitable but at last found him inclinable to refuse his Alms he plainly told him That he had not yet arrived to that height of Christian Love to which he was obliged
any opportunity of doing good when it is offered to him For who can expect that his Saviour should give him the dainties of his Table who denies his crumbs to his necessitous brother Nay the Ancients rather than suffer the poor to want thought it no Sacriledg to sell the Church plate for their Relief And St. Caesarius when he died made no other Will but this I bequeath all that I am worth to the use of the poor and St. Paulinus Bishop of Nola sold himself into captivity to redeem the son of a distrest Widow There is no way but this to make Freinds of the Mammon of Unrighteousness nor is there any likelier method to restore us to God's Love and Favour Mercy ard Truth are the Image of God And * Chrysost To. 4. Hom. 13. in 1 Tim. p. 302. tho the Heathens define a man to be a Rational Creature and capable of Knowledg the Scripture defines him otherwise when it tells us that the merciful person is only a man and that there is nothing so venerable in Nature as the Almoner The Collect. For Quinquages Sunday O Lord who hast taught us that all our doings without Charity are nothing worth pour into my heart that most excellent Gift of Charity the very Bond of Peace and of all Vertues without which whosoever lives is counted dead before thee Grant this for thine only Son Jesus Christ his sake Amen CHAP. XV. Of Love to my Enemies BUT it is not enough for me to love the brethren and to do good to the Houshold of Faith I must also love my Enemies and do good to them who intend my Ruin For if ye only love them who love you what reward have ye Matth. 5.44 c. do not even the Publicans the same And if you salute the brethren only what do you more than others do not even the Publicans so Be ye therefore perfect be ye merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful for be makes his Sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust Our blessed Saviour therefore says to me and to all his Disciples Love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you that you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven This is the perfection of Vertue this the glory of our Christian profession and herein do the Laws of our blessed Master out do all other Schemes of Morality * Vid. Tert. ad Scapul Athenag Legat. c. Nor could either Jew or Gentile approach to so sublime a degree of compassion which is truly Evangelical and a Lesson only learnt in the School of Christ And therefore the Confessor at Alexandria whom Cassianus mentions answered like himself when his Heathen Adversaries pursued him with all sort of Contumely and Reproaches and at last disdainfully ask'd him What Miracle did your Master Christ ever do When he made this Return It is no mean Miracle that he hath wrought in me that I can tamely hear your Reproaches and not be concern'd at the Injury that I can suffer you to revile me and can at the same time bless and speak well of you At this Sacrament I commemorate the Death of my Redeemer who died for his Enemies and offer'd his Merits to those who crucified him as well as to those who oblig'd him And this is that particular Accomplishment of the Divinity that is proposed to our imitation For whereas an attempt to be like God in Power and Majesty degraded Lucifer and his confederate Angels and Resolves to attain to the degree of wisdom which the Creator possesses banish'd Adam and undid his posterity the transcribing the copy of the divine goodness and compassion will re-instate the world into a better Paradise and give men the place which the Fallen Spirits deserted Nay many times an act of mercy proves successful beyond expectation and delivers an Adversary not only from temporal wants but from eternal horrors And I may make a Convert of that Enemy whom I pity and relieve And if to know the art of true Charity be a greater priviledg than to be crown'd with the Majesty of Kings then to convert a soul is a nobler Alms than to give a Million of money to the stock of the poor And it is very remarkable that our Saviour hath not only made this duty of forgiving Injuries * Mat. 6.12 14 15. a necessary and indispensible qualification to fit me for the receiving of God's pardon but seems to imply that upon one act of Obstinacy one Refusal to obey this Injunction my former sins that have already been forgiven me shall be brought again to remembrance and be the cause of my condemnation For when in the * Mat. 18.27 34. Parable ten thousand Talents were remitted to the disabled Servant by his Lord and the Obligation cancell'd yet when the same Servant dealt unmercifully with his Fellow servant his Lord delivered him to the Tormentors till he should pay all that was due to him And so shall our Heavenly Father do to us if we from our hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses And for this Reason I cannot but think it a commendable custom in the Greek Church in which during the celebration of this Office not only the Deacon who assists begs pardon of the consecrating Priest as St. Chrysostome's Liturgy injoins * Smyth 's Acc. of the Greek Church p. 143. but the Priest who consecrates takes care to reconcile himself before he approaches the Altar and the assisting Priests also bow toward the people as an instance of their begging forgiveness if they have offended any one there present After which every Lay Communicant immediately before he receives says aloud Christians forgive to which the Congregation answers God shall forgive you And in the Primitive Church the Deacon was bound to say aloud Let no man who is not in perfect Charity dare to approach this Table And the better to demonstrate the Churches Resolutions in this case as Easter was the most solemn time of giving the Eucharist so in the foregoing week on Maundy Thursday the Penitents were solemnly admitted to Communion For whereas on that day the blessed Sacrament was always administred because that was the day on which it was instituted * Innocent Ep. 1. ad Decent cap. 7. Ambr. li. 5. Ep. 33. so on that day also were the Church-censures remitted because on that day our Holy Saviour delivered himself into the hands of the Jews for our Redemption the * Conc. Carthag 4. Can. 80 82. Penitents being brought up to the Altar before which they kneeled and being reconciled by the Imposition of the Priests hands were afterward communicated All which were Instances of the Church's Charity and an excellent Rule how we ought also to demean our selves toward our Enemies I therefore think my self bound
to pray as heartily for my most malicious enemies as for my own salvation And I cannot but remark the folly of the Romanists who tho they say all the rest of their prayers on Good-Friday kneeling do alter that posture when they pray for the Jews as they also omit saying the Amen and that for these poor Reasons * Durand Ration lib. 6 cap. 77. 1. because the Jews mock'd our Saviour with bowing the Knee and saying Hail King 2. Pecause all their prayers cannot alter the Divine Decrees nor shorten the time their conversion not being to commence till the fulness of the Gentiles be brought in But the Arguments are vain and frivolous and the usage savours of a narrow and a contracted soul For to ingross salvation to my self or party is Christian Judaism it is impropriating the Messiah and depriving all others of the capacity of being happy So that if I consider my Relation to the rest of the world either as a Man or a Christian I cannot but account my Adversaries whether they be so to my person or principles in the number of my Friends and such as do me good For by envious exclaiming against my Irregularities they engage me to more circumspection and greater care in performing my duty to my God the world and my self And they give me occasion to manifest my Patience my Humility and Self-denial with many other Vertues And were the Malice of my Enemies never so causeless and inveterate and the Injuries done me never so great yet they have not crucified me But so did my Saviour's Enemies deal with him while he forgave them and interceded for them And hath not that my Saviour * Matth. 5.24 injoin'd me rather to leave his service undone than that my duty to my Neighbour rather to leave my Gift at the Altar unoffer'd than to make the Oblation without being in perfect charity for * Tert. de Orat. c. 10. Optat. lib. 6. Chrysost in loc c. the Fathers generally understand that passage of the Holy Sacrament ‖ Chrysost To. 6. p. 622. If I cannot forgive ten days fasting will not fit me for this Altar For where Envy and Malice dwell neither the Fast nor the Festival do any good Where Envy abides thence the Spirit of God is banisht And what hopes can that man have of salvation who is destitute of the Holy Ghost There is nothing therefore that can excuse me from the practice of this so amiable a Vertue which intitles me to a conquest of my Passions and makes me Master of my self Revenge is not my Province God will repay And tho it may make me for a while uneasie not to pursue it yet I am sure it is much more uneasie to be damn'd and to be confin'd to eternal torments The Collect. BLessed Jesu who when thy Sacred Body suffer'd its acutest pains and when thy Innocent Soul felt its most afflicting Agonies wert ready to implore thy Father's Forgiveness on thy most imbitter'd Adversaries be thou pleas'd to forgive my Enemies Persecutors and Slanderers and to turn their hearts and so enable me by thy Holy Spirit to walk in thy steps that I may bless them who curse me and do good to them who hate me and pray for them who despightfully use me whether they are my Enemies justly or without a cause willfully or unwillingly by what means or way soever they have done me Injury Father forgive them as I desire thou wouldest forgive me For no man can use me worse than I have deserved at thy hands and when they curse then do then bless And be thou pleas'd to remove from me and all Mankind all Bitterness Wrath Anger Clamor Evil speaking and Malice and whatever grieves thy Holy Spirit that we may be kind one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for thy sake hath forgiven us that the Spirit of Love may subdue all desires of Revenge that we may be Followers of those Rules which be first pure then peaceable and at last may be admitted into the Habitations of Eternal Concord and Unity through thy Merits and Mediation who art the great Reconciler the Angel of the Covenant Jesus Christ the Righteous Amen CHAP. XVI Of Love to the Holy Sacrament WHen I love any man sincerely every thing that hath a Relation to my Friend is dear to me and of a particular value I look upon a Ring given me by a living Friend as a Remembrancer of the Donor and his Affection but if it be given to me at his death and that death a Martyrdom and the Ring be dipt in the sacred blood * Act. Passion ss Perpet Faelic p. 34. which was sometimes practis'd by the Martyrs it upon that very account becomes venerable in my eyes and I reflect on it with a deep respect intermixt with love and such is the blessed Sacrament to me When Jesus was crucified his Passion for the time was very terrible the Earth shook the Rocks rent and the Sun was Eclips'd but such things easily die in our memories unless reqresented by something visible by some outward sign The sight of Calvary must needs engage a modern Traveller to remember a bleeding Saviour who died there sixteen hundred years agon And as the marks of our Redeemer's Foot steps when he ascended which made their impression in the ground and continued visible * Paulin. Ep 11. ad Severum till the Fifth Century could not but presently recall into the thoughts of but a transient considerer the History of the Triumphs of Jesus which were the Reward of his sufferings and such sights without doubt wrought wonderfully in the primitive Martyrs when the Blood of a dying Redeemer was yet warm and those Memorials not defac'd who lookt upon the places with Respect and there built Churches to perpetuate the Memory of the Mercy It is true afterwards those places administred to superstition and I am sorry to say so did the Sacrament too and to Idolatry also tho it owes its Original to divine Institution When therefore I contemplate these symbols I not only remember my Master as he hath obliged me till his second coming but I also put an Estimate on his Institution I account it an Honour to be admitted to his Table and I long for frequent opportunities of going thither and nothing can satisfie me but such an Entertainment For the highest degree of Holiness is most acceptable And I am no Christian if I love not my God with all my heart And nothing less than a vigorous passion and the desires of a necessitous person deserve to be called love to the Eucharist Nor dare I desire it to gratifie any by-end but to save my soul For if I long for it only out of wantonness the Bread may feed my body but it will never supply the wants of my soul the Wine may cheer my spirits but never refresh my mind Nothing less than transports can express the sense of the
the men and the Deaconesses to that belonging to the Women and this they were advised to do with this sober caution * Const Ap. ub supr that no one should salute his brother deceitfully and treacherously as Judas kist our Lord when he betrayed him In the Liturgy of St. Basil the people are bid to salute one another that they might unitedly confess the Father Son and Holy Spirit the consubstantial and inseparable Trinity and then they repeated the Creed and in that of St. Mark there is a prayer to be said at the performance of this Ceremony wherein ' They desire God to look down on his Church and to bestow on them his Love and his Assistances and the Gifts of the Holy Ghost that with a pure Heart and a good Conscience they may salute one another with the Holy Kiss not in Hypocrisie but in purity and innocence in one Spirit in the bond of peace and of Love that they might become one Body and one Spirit in one Faith and one hope of their calling that at last they might all be partakers of the Divine and infinite Love o-Christ Jesus Then in ⸫ Cyril ub supr the Church of Jerusalem the Priest did bid the people lift up their hearts and they answered We lift them up unto the Lord the Priest rejoined Let us give thanks unto the Lord The people answered It is meet and right so to do after which the Church calling upon the whole Creation to praise God did sing the Angelical Hymn Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabbath Which Hymn was usher'd in with this Preface o Liturg. S. Jacobi ' Let all Flesh keep silence and stand with fear and trembling and put off all worldly and sensual Thoughts for the King of Kings the Lord of Lords Christ our God is coming forth to be slain and given for Meat to all his Faithful Servants the Quires of Angels go before him and with them Principalities and Powers the Cherubim with many Eyes and the Seraphim with six Wings shading their Faces and singing the Hymn Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Then followed the Prayer of Consecration and with that the Prayer for all states of Men and for the peace of the World together with the recital of the Diptychs which was always closed with the Lord's Prayer But in other Churches it was otherwise * Constit li. 2. c. 57. li. 8. c. 11 12. First the general Prayer for the whole state of mankind for Peace and Prosperity and all other Blessings was said at the end of which the Names of all the Eminent Persons who either had dyed in the Communion of the Church or yet lived in it were recited out of the Ecclesiastical Tables or Dyptichs and then the people were bid to lift up their hearts unto God c. Whereupon the Bishop making the sign of the Cross blest the People saying Preserve O Lord thy people and bless thine inheritance which thou hast purchas'd by the blood of thy Christ and hast called to be a royal priesthood and an holy nation And then the Bishop standing at the Altar proceeded to the Prayer of Consecration which was agreeable to our Saviour's Form at the Institution at * Dion areop ub supr Basil de spir S. cap. 27. which time the Elements which were before cover'd with a fine Linnen Cloath in Imitation of Christ's being so wrapt when he was lay'd in his Sepulchre were uncover'd that the people might see the Bread broken and the Wine poured out After the Prayer of Consecration the ⸪ Cyril ub supr Priest first heartily said Amen And after him ‡ Just in Apol. 2. Dion Alex. apud Euseb li. 7. c. 9. c. the people praying that so it might be and protesting that they believed that that Sacrament was the true Body and Blood of Christ but in the Liturgy of St. James when the Words of the Institution were recited the Deacon first said Amen and then acknowledged That they did believe and confess that as often as they did eat that flesh and drink that blood they did show forth the Lords Death To which the people answered We do show forth thy death O Lord and we do acknowledg thy Resurrection This being done the Deacon bid the people attend to the holy oblation in peace and quietness and to bow their heads to their Saviour Jesus in honour to his name and institution Then it was said Holy things to holy persons To which the people answered There is one holy one Lord one Jesus Christ blessed for ever in the glory of God the Father Then the people were exhorted to the reception of the holy Mysteries the Priest singing with heavenly Melody the words of the Psalmist ‡ Cyril ubi sup Psal 34.8 O taste and see that the Lord is gracious to which the Congregation in some ‡ Liturg. S. Jacobi Churches answered Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. When the Consecratlon was done which probably if there were many Bishops or Priests present they all joined in the person consecrating said ‖ Liturg. S. Marc. As the Hart desireth the water-brooks so longeth my soul after thee O God And then himself received in which Action it is observable by St. Chrysostome's Liturgy he was obliged to drink three times of the Chalice bowing all the while in honour of the Father Son and Holy Ghost and afterward he gave it to the Clergy if any were present the Bishop giving it to the Priests the Priests to the Deacons and the Deacons to the people after the ⸪ Const Apost ji 8. c. 13. Clergy the Monks received for they gave them the preference because they look't on them as a sort of Ecclesiastical persons not purely Laymen tho not in Orders and after the Monks the Deaconesses Virgins and Widows then the Children then the rest of the Laity in their several Orders that is as I conjecture first the Men afterward the Women * Conc. Tolet. 4. c. 17. the Priests and Deacons communicating at the Altar the Inferior Clergy in the Quire and the people at the Rails without tho I am well perswaded that in the first Ages the Laity also came up to the Altar to which they were invited to draw near in the Fear of God and with Faith and Charity and when they approacht they were commanded by the Deacon to stand decently and reverently in the fear of God and with contrition of heart and to receive modestly and piously behaving themselves as those who approacht the presence of a King And accordingly they received in a posture of deep Reverence and Adoration for no man durst to receive but he adored and while the Mysteries were distributing the Congregation * Const Apost ubi sup Liturg. S. Jacobi S. Chrysost c. sung the 33d Psalm or as we reckon it the 34th I will bless the Lord at all times his praise shall be continually
him drag'd from the Garden to the Palace of Amas thence to the House of Calaphas and thence to Pontius Pilate who sent him to Herod Herod used him with all sort of scorn clad him in Mock-purple and remanded him to the Roman Procurator where the Soldiers and common people spit on him blinded him smote him and ironically bid him prophecy who did it he was whipt like a slave while the multitude in their esteem prefer to him Barabbas a Traytor a Thief a Murtherer a Captain to those seditious persons with whom he made his insurrection one publickly and notoriously guilty of the crimes laid to his charge and look'd on as a pernicious wretch and one of the pests of the Kingdom And when he was thus cover'd with blood and sweat with stripes and the marks of cruelty with an uneasie Crown and ridiculous purple he was brought out and exposed to publick view he was crucified a death by which none but slaves and the vilest malefactors were punisht and that naked no regard being had to modesty or the rules of decency and in the midst of the Thieves as the worst of all the malefactors The High-priests mock'd him the common people shook their heads his fellow sufferers upbraided him and all that past by did shoot out their Arrows even bitter words which affronts were not the Ephemerous product of sudden fury but the continuation of former injuries for all his life long he was censured his poor parentage thrown in his Teeth is not this the Carpenter His Doctrine misrepresented as if he spoke against Moses and the Temple and introduc'd false Doctrine his Miracles belied as if he cast out Devils by compact with Satan his conversation mistook as if his innocent and necessary freedom were herding with the profligate and making friendship with publicans and sinners Nothing could be more temperate and yet he is impeached of being a Glutton and a Drunkard nothing more Chast and yet he is affronted with the title of a companion of Harlots no man more sedate and grave and yet his nearest Relations say he is besides himself nothing was more Loyal and yet he is accused as an enemy to Caesar nothing more Pious and yet he is condemn'd for Blasphemy If he be benign and free in his converse then he is popular and seditious if retired he hath a Devil and let him cry down hypocrisy never so zealously he is reputed an Impostor Thus they affronted him in all his capacities Was he designed our High-priest to redeem the world by the sacrifice of himself They mock him on the Cross with his Office If thou be the Son of God save thy self and us Was he sent to be the great Prophet to declare the Will of God to mankind They first blind then smite him and afterward bid him prophecy who struck him And had God design'd him to be a King They cloath him in Purple put on his Head a Crown of Thorns and a Reed in his right hand instead of a Scepter Such was the ill entertainment the holy Jesus found such the rudeness of men to their greatest benefactor that he that came into the World only to do good was above all others in it worst treated All which indignities could not but sit more uneasily upon an innocent person than they would have done on a hardy criminal who usually takes shelter in impudence And to make the shame exquisite remember O my Soul that this Son of Man was at the same time the Son of God When therefore I represent to my self my bleeding Saviour nailed to the accursed Tree and view the sadness of his countenance disfigured with his Sweat his Blood and his Tears when I look upon his wounded side his hands and feet pierc'd his head crown'd with Thorns Is not this sight enough to strike me dumb enough to strike me dead when I consider that my sins have wounded him and were more troublesom than his adversaries malice Shall the Jews be up at midnight to apprehend him and shall I not break my sleep to serve him shall the sinner take more pains to be damn'd than I to work out my salvation with fear and trembling What shall I first admire in thee O my dying Redeemer for thou art all wonderful I admire thy willingness to submit for no compulsion could force thee to bear the weight of thy Father's anger it is indisputably true that Jesus could fall by no hand but his own and that his Love had slain him before the Spear pierc'd his side and if we may believe the Vision in St. Dennis thou art ready yet to come down again and to dye anew were it any way conducive to the salvation of mankind I admire the miraculousness of the contrivance That he who grasps the World in his fist should be confined to a Cradle and he who sustains Angels should suck the Breasts of a Virgin that Vigour it self should languish Eternity become mortal that Life should give up the ghost and God be crucified and the same person at the same time in Hell and in Paradise I admire the intireness of his resignation who without any articles or capitulation gave himself up to the managery and conduct of his Father submitting the habit and the acts of his Will to God and resolving to obey in whatever manner he should require Nor can I forbear admiring and celebrating the earnestness of his Love who was in great distress till he had paid our ransom but I cannot avoid particular reflections on the advantages of his being crucified publickly that the matter of fact might be undeniable and that the Apostles might have no cause to be ashamed of their Doctrine or the World of their Faith nor both of their Saviour What a pattern of resignation and submission of meekness and patience of compassion and love to the worst of enemies had the Christian world been deprived of if our bessed Saviour had suffered in a Corner or been strangled in a Prison It was out of design to make his virtues as well as his sufferings illustrious that he chose to suffer at Jerusalem the Metropolis of the Country and at the Passover when all the Nation were come up to the holy City Let therefore the Cross of Christ be to the Jews an offence and scandal who expect to share with the Messia in the grandeur of a secular Kingdom and let it be to the Greeks foolishness who relish no notions but what comport with their ease and profit and think it madness to slight present miseries and stand in awe of future sufferings I will look upon it as the greatest instance of the Divine Wisdom and Goodness that God was pleased to teach his Son Obedience and to make the world happy by the things which he suffered And am I not indispensibly obliged to follow this pattern and to imitate this my best Friend Can I be ashamed of a naked crucified Saviour who when he was stript of his Garments
dastardly and low-spirited were even the very Apostles tho they lived and dayly conversed with him their courages were impaired by their sears they betrayed deserted and denied him but his Resurrection did beget in the mind of the Christian World a true generosity and fortitude able to subdue and trample on all dangers in as much as men of no breeding no natural valour of no interests or friends durst prefer the confession of their Saviour and his Gospel to their Countrey and Relations to their quiet and security and to life it self and passionately to chuse scourges and prisons and the various methods of death before all sorts of voluptuous enjoyments But what is more and more acceptable than all knowledg and all power the Resurrection of Christ gave the Holy-Ghost to the World for the blessed Spirit could not be given till Christ was risen Thus this one act of the Almighty Redeemer of mankind baffled all the fears of his servants compleated the satisfaction for their sins secured unto them the company of the Spirit of Truth Peace here till they should be carried into his Kingdom on the wings of Angels And what greater blessings canst thou wish than these O my soul Give the riches and the honours of this life O my dearest Saviour to others I will never envy their fruitions so thou give me thy Self let me partake of the benefits of thy Resurrection in the pardon of my sins in the indwelling of the Comforter in my mind and in the first fruits of obedience in frequent approaches to thy Table and other acts of devout converse with thee and leaving the manner of my death to thy disposal for on these terms in what sort or at what time soever it shall be I shall not be disturbed I shall be happy in the remembrance that when my Master comes and finds me so doing he will give me a share in his joys The Collect. ALmighty God who through thine only begotten Son Jesus Christ hast overcome Death and apened unto us the gate of everlasting Life we humbly beseech thee that as by thy special grace preventing us thou dost put into our minds good desires so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect through Jesus Christ our Lord who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy-Ghost ever one God world without end Amen The Anthem The Resurrection and Aseension I. COme holy Spirit from above Come warm me with Seraphick love That I may the triumphant Jesus sing Whose resurrection heaven to earth did bring And put thee long'd-for peaceful Dove upon the wing II. Jesus is risen mount my mind And leave this sordid earth behind God made thy body dust but Sin a grave Let thy Soul too its Resurrection have No longer be thy Lusts the Worlds or Satan's slave III. Attend the Conqueror to his Throne Who from the lower world is flown Make tho the meanest one in that parade The bleeding Jesus did my heart in vade And none can heal the wound but he whose hand it made IV. View yonder Arch inscrib'd above Sacred to Coelestial Love There the incomparable Jesus dwells Iesus who charms thee by the strengest spells Love him with transports O my passions and none else V. See the bright Angels how they glide Up and down by 's Chariot's side See where ten thousand hover and attend To guard the Conqueror to his journies end Whose Chariot does directly to God's right hand bend VI. There Jesus fixes and from thence Sheds his benignest influence And like triumphant Victors does bestow His donatives on us who dwell below That we in time our Triumphs may accomplish too VII You Angels you who dwell above Spend all your time in songs and love While I who sadly want your light and fire Detain'd in sensual fetters would mount higher And wish to do what I can only now admire VIII You Guardians are by Heaven design'd To awe and to protect Mankind When Jesus rose you did the news relate When he ascended you did on him wait That I might triumph so give me my Saviours Fate Rules of Conduct for Easter-Day and the Sacrament § 1. It is taken for granted that the devout Person hath humbled himself in the sight of God for his sins the Week aforegoing more particularly on Good-Friday and the Holy Saturday and it is requisite he should watch a great part of if not all the Saturday night which time should be spent in more intense Supplications and more ardent Meditations the Vigils of the Ancient Church were an excellent Institution and Watching and Prayer are joined by our Saviour and we are bid to be sober and to watch unto Prayer by the Apostles that is to fast to watch and to pray it is true the Vigils at last gave offence and were for that reason almost all prohibited because such promiscuous meetings of men and women under the covert of the night did administer to many Exorbitances But the Vigils of Easter and the greater Festivals were always kept up and are so still in the Churches of the East and tho our Church doth not expresly injoin the observation yet it mentions them in her Rubricks and leaves every man to his own liberty to watch in his Closet where there can be no such temptation as gave occasion to the disuse of that practice And whenever the Christian Penitent goes to bed it is requisite to rise very early on Easter day because our Blessed Master rose ‖ Joh. 20.1 while it was yet dark § 2. After the private devotions are performed and the necessary duties of the Family if any considered and attended the good man goes to Church nor will he choose to receive any other where but at his own Parish Church if there be a Sacrament there which on this Festival is expresly enjoined to be celebrated over all Christendom * Can. 6. The Council of Gangra denounc'd a solemn Anathema against the Erecters of private Conventicles that those who dislik'd the publick Assemblies might communicate at home in private And by the old †Ludov. 1. tit 101. Lothar l. 1. tit 357 c. Capitulars every Priest was ordered to be degraded every Layman to be excommunicate who lest his own Parish to receive the Blessed Eucharist in another unless extraordinary business or a Journey called them that way or they had a dispensation so to do from their Superiours § 3. But if the devout Person be hindred by sickness or some other inevitable obstruction he bears the loss with Patience but looks on it as a great affliction and longs to go up to the House of the Lord and to communicate with his Saints and that he may not lose all the benefit of the solemnity his thoughts are present and go along with the Service and he begs God earnestly to accept of his willing mind and to send him his Blessing and his Holy Spirit as much as if he actually communicated Thus the
much devotion and an audible voice he heartily says Amen as a testimony of his strongest desires that it may be so and of his firm belief that God will make it so The Advice in these words Take and eat or drink this in remembrance c. And this puts him in mind 〈◊〉 duty what faith and thankfulness he ought to exercise at the reception of this blessed Sacrament And therefore he says Lord thou hast said it behold the Son of thine handmaid let it be unto me according to thy word I desire to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified and to learn nothing but a conformity to his death and resurrection The word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory the glory as of the only begotten Son of God full of Grace and Truth § 17. Tho the devout Communicant brings with him unsatisfied ardors yet he takes care to receive decently and reverently not to snatch at the Bread nor to drink greedily for it is a Feast of temperance and therefore the Bread is given in a little piece and the Wine was anciently mixed with Water as for other reasons so for this that it might not offend the Head He therefore eats not as one whose antecedent fastings have made him hungry but as one who is little concern'd how his Body be provided for so the longings of his Soul be satisfied with spiritual food and he drinks not with the men of Corinth to be drunk at this Feast of Charity nor so much to allay his natural thirst as to satisfie the intense desires of his mind inflamed with love to his Saviour and the Holy Sacrament For at God's Table we are to eat and drink not to the satisfaction of our sensual appetites but to the sanctification of our Souls § 18. While the mysteries are distributeing to those who receive after him the good man examines his obligations to God's bounty in giving him one opportunity more of serving him in the beauties of holiness He remembers that Jesus being made a little lower than the Angels for the suffering of death was crowned with glory and honour and considers that now he is crucified with Christ that he might live to God and that the life that he now leads in the flesh he lives by the faith of the Son of God who loved him and gave himself for him He offers himself a sacrifice to God and for the future looks on himself as something consecrated and that can no longer without most prodigious Sacriledg be put to any profane use For how shall he dare to defile that which God hath sanctified For if Belshazzar were punish'd for quaffing in the Vessels of the Temple how much more shall that man be plagued that pollutes the residence of the Son of God And how shall that man presume to appear again before God that sins against him after the receipt of such blessings § 19. After this considering that this Sacrament is called the Cup of blessing and a holy Eucharist he expresses his gratitude in solemn Thanksgivings saying either * Constit Ap. l. 8. c. 13. Psal 34. which the Ancient Church used at this solemnity or Psal 111. rendring verse 6. thus He hath showed his people the power of his works and given us the bread of Angels Or this that follows Give thanks O my Soul unto God the Lord in the Congregation from the ground of the heart Say unto God how wonderful art thou in thy works How glorious are the things which thou in thy goodness hast prepared for the poor Thou hast prepared a Table for me my Cup did overflow and I have tasted and seen how good the Lord is I have eaten the Bread of God with joy and drunk his Wine with a merry heart for God hath accepted me My Soul is filled as it were with marrow and fatness and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips Blessed is he whom thou chusest and receivest unto thy self he shall dwell in thy Courts and shall be satisfied with the pleasures of thy House even of thy holy Temple As long as I live will I magnify thee in this manner and lift up my hands in thy name for thy loving kindness is better than life it self An offering of a free heart will I give thee and praise thy name because it is so comfortable I will love the Lord as do all his Saints I will bless him and magnify him for ever For this God is our God for ever and ever He shall be our guide unto death Glory be to the Father c. § 20. To this he subjoins an act of love and resignation I will love thee O Lord my God for the Lord is my defence and my refuge I will devote unto thee my body soul and spirit which are thine for thou hast redeemed them thou God of Truth Jesus hath loved me and laid down his life for me therefore will I adore him He is the Priest the Sacrifice and the Altar on him will I depend for salvation He hath given me the Sacrament as a confirmation of his former love and as a pledge of future favours therefore will I reverence and worship him world without end Lord I give my self to thee and I know whom I have believed and am perswaded that he is able to keep what I have committed to him against that day Write in my heart the laws of love and thankfulness that I may no longer dare to sin against thee For how shall I now escape if I neglect so great salvation § 21. To which may be added this prayer out of the Liturgy of St. Clemens GRant Blessed God that we and all thy Servants who have been admitted to communicate with Jesus by Faith and the participation of the Sacramental mysteries may obtain remission of our sins and be so confirm'd in the ways of godliness and rescued from the dominion and impositions of Satan that being filled with thy Holy Spirit we may here be made worthy Members of Christ's Body and at last become heirs of everlasting life through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Saviour Amen § 22. Just before his leaving the Church the good man thus prays Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy Salvation Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people To be a light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of thy people Israel After which he speaks courteously and friendly to all his fellow-communicants for they are his brethren and the Eucharist is the bond of that unity and this serves him instead of the Kiss of Charity which was anciently given at this Sacrament tho now the custom be antiquated And because the Love-feasts succeeded the Eucharist which are also now disused that he may do something that is equivalent thereunto he invites one or more of his poorer Neighbours for the rich are in no need
of it to dine with him treating them with all affability and humble carriage relieving their bodily wants and instructing their minds and by this means earning their Prayers And this he does over and above what he hath given at the Offertory where he hath liberally according to his ability offered unto God and the Poor remembring that a thinking Heathen never came in sight of an Altar tho but occasionally but he tendred something thereon if it were but a little Salt or a handful of Flower and thought himself also obliged to provide for the indigent as for his brethren § 23. At his return he does not think fit to go immediately to his own dinner but retires to his Closet * Scalig. de Emendat temp l. 6. the Jews were obliged that night on which they did eat the Passover to taste nothing after it for the whole night that the relish of the Paschal Lamb might continue in their mouths a long time and the reason holds good in the Christian Church for our Blessed Saviour after he had eaten of this Supper resolved never to eat more till he had accomplish'd our redemption for says he I will drink no more of the fruit of the Vine till I drink it new in my Father's kingdom In the Closet the good man recollects the proceedings of the day and in his thoughts acts over again the solemnities of that glorious triumph for he dares not spend any part of this day but in holy Offices in Meditations and Prayers in acts of Faith and Love of Piety and Charity in Reading and Conference and in all other exercises that may serve to increase his virtues both in number and degree especially in holy praises and solemn thansgivings to God for all his benefits § 24. And after this manner he expresses himself I am thine and nothing shall separate thee from my love on the Cross every member of thy body every faculty of thy soul had its sufferings and its agonies for my sins and should I reserve any thing from thee No my most obliging Saviour I make an intire oblation of my self to thee a whole burnt-offering sacrificed in the flames of holy love and this I do with all my might and power nothing could atone for my sins but thy sufferings nor can any thing testify my gratitude but the devoting of my self to thy service Thou hast redeemed me thou God of Truth and I will be thy servant for ever My soul doth magnify the Lord and my spirit rejoiceth in God my Saviour For I have found him whom my soul loveth Jesus the Messiah of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits I will receive the Cup of Salvation and will praise the name of the Lord. I will go into thy House with my offerings and will pay my Vows which I promis'd with my lips when I was in trouble § 25. To which he subjoins Lord my single praises make but an insignificant and low sound they are the poorest of recompences and the most disproportioned to thy Majesty and thy Merits I therefore call in the assistances of Angels and of the whole host of Heaven of Sun Moon and Stars of the Earth and Sea and all that is therein to joyn with me in the magnifying of my Redeemer Let all the World worship thee sing of thee and bless thy name let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord for great is the Glory of the Lord and let all the Earth be filled with the knowledg of his Glory for his Name alone is excellent and his Glory above Heaven and Earth Amen Amen Glory be to the Father c. Then follows the Trisagios Holy God Holy and Powerful Holy and Immortal have mercy upon us § 26. After which he thus expresses himself How unwillingly have I left the place where my blest Saviour dwells and how well pleased should I be could I live and communicate with him always How amiable is that Palace where my dear Friend fixes his residence And how do I long to be treated continually at the Supper of the Lamb Oh that I could dye this very moment if it were but pleasing in the sight of my Heavenly Father and pass immediately from this antepast of joys to the intire entertainment of that Glorious Feast And would my Redeemer affist me how readily would I be this moment his Martyr How acceptable would a Prison or the Rack the Flames or a Sword be to me so I could by any means embrace an opportunity to let my beloved Jesus know how dear he is to me how much I value him and how ready I am to offer him my Blood who hath shed his own Blood for me upon the Cross and sed me with it at his Table And if that be an Honour that I am not worthy of and perhaps not capable of yet O Lord let me always be thy Martyr in resolution and since there is so much happiness in communicating with thee let me never leave the World so suddenly but that I may have the assistance of a good Priest to give me in thy name Absolution and to strengthen me in the agonies of death with the blessed Sacrament § 27. After which Meditation the worthy Communicant uses this Prayer taken out of the * Ps 8. c. 14.15 Constitutions commonly called the Apostles How ready and willing is my soul which hath been cherish'd and fed with the most Precious Body and Blood of my Saviour to offer him the thanks which I can pay tho neither what he deserves nor what I ought since he hath vouchsaf'd me the honour to partake of his holy Mysteries Grant holy Jesu that it may be for my Health not for my Ruin for my Happiness not for my Condemnation for the Security of my Soul and Body for the increase of Piety for the remission of Sins and for the introducing me into thy Palace for thy Name is called upon me and into thy Family I am adopted among thy faithful Servants Strengthen me and them by thy Holy Spirit inlighten our ignorance and supply all our defects and confirm us in the resolutions of a holy Life rescue and defend us from Satan and all our enemies ghostly and bodily sanctifie and protect help and keep us in our going out and in our coming in and at last assemble us in thy Kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be all Glory Honour and Worship now and for ever Amen To which he adds this other Collect. ALmighty God who hast united the Christian World in one common Brotherhood by the Holy Sacrament that we being many might be one body because we are all partakers of that one Bread let me be partaker this day of the Prayers of all that this day have communicated whereover thy Church be dispers'd over the face of the whole earth and let my Petitions be available in
the Living God Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee in whose heart are thy ways Blessed are they who dwell in thy House they will alway be praising thee Glory be to the Father c. To which he subjoins this Act of Love to ' Jesus I love and admire thee my dearest Jesus I honour and adore thee above all things the most glorious and useful things in nature are contemptible in comparison of thee to know thee is beyond all notion and to love thee better than triumphs I am poor without thee comfortless and forlorn but Heaven it self didst not thou reside there would lose its amiableness Oh the dearest name of my adorable Saviour how sweet is it beyond the taste of delicacies to my pallat how pleasant beyond the Harmony of Angels to my ears how doth the sound of those syllables refresh and chear my drooping soul And when Satan urges to me the remembrance of my sins how do I affront and baffle all his attempts by the powerful Name of Jesus I can tender thee nothing O my most obliging and benign Saviour as a recompence of the infinite and miraculous testimonies of thy Compassion but a few impotent vows and verbal acknowledgments my whole stock of services were my powers as great and my life as long as that of Angels would never repay one half of the debt which I owe thee but if love and adoration will make thee satisfaction I will love and adore thee for ever I will religiously preserve thee in my memory where nothing shall efface the characters From this day I renounce all other loves and turn Apostate from the world to be a Convert to Jesus Oh that I had no necessities of nature to gratifie no distractions of the World to divert me that I might always celebrate and always love my Jesus How much time should I redeem from impertinencies and consecrate to Religion and the service of my Redeemer and what a Heaven upon Earth would this be I am content to be poor and a Pilgrim to be despised and persecuted so I may enjoy thee for where thou art there is Heaven and where thou art not there is Hell and Death and Destruction seize that man whom thou desertest Lord keep me firm to these resolutions that I may live with thee and love thee for ever Amen § 33. This Act of Love is also accompanied with the following Act of Resignation So amiable is the fairest of Ten Thousand and so beneficial are his injunctions that I should baffle my interests as well as my Reason and my Conscience should not I devote my self to his service from this day forward therefore I make Jesus my Master his Majesty will I reverence and his sanctions obey and into his hands do I resign my own will the faculty and powers the acts and exercise of it What my dearest Master loves shall be my delight and I will detest what his soul abhors and he alone shall be my guide who is my best friend my Redeemer came from Heaven to show mankind the way thither and thither after a short stay on earth he returned that he might open that Kingdom to all Believers I can never wander when he conducts me I can never hunger when I am treated with the Bread of Life nor thirst while the Fountain of Salvation is near me nor be naked while his Righteousness cloaths me how shall I doubt who am instructed by unerring Wisdom or fear who am protected by Omnipotency I will therefore live and dye in the service of Jesus that I may experiment the satisfactions and comfort of a good Conscience here and of a Crown of Glory in Heaven Amen The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the Communion of the Holy Ghost be with me and with all the Servants of God now and for evermore Amen Amen FINIS