hast thou to do to declare my Statutes or that thou shouldst take my Covenant in thy mouth seeing thou hatest instruction and castest my words behind thee Thou sittest and speakest against thy Brother thou slanderest thine own mothers Son These things thou hast done and I kept silence but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes Now consider this ye that forget God lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver Deliver me from bloud-guiltiness O God thou God of my salvation and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness Blessed is he that considereth the poor the Lord will deliver him in the time of trouble The Lord will deliver him and keep him alive and he shall be blessed upon the earth and thou wilt not deliver him into the will of his enemies The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness But I said Lord be merciful to me heal my soul for I have sinned against thee Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness in the day time and in the night his song shall be with me and my prayer unto the God of my life O send out thy light and thy truth let them lead me let them bring me to thy holy Hill and to thy Tabernacles Then will I go unto the Altar of God my exceeding joy yea upon the harp will I praise thee O God my God The righteous shall be glad in the Lord and shall trust in him and all the upright in heart shall glory Do good O Lord to them that are true of heart and evermore mightily defend them Do good in thy good pleasure unto Sion build thou the walls of Jerusalem In God will I praise his word in the Lord will I praise his word Thy vows are upon me O God I will render praises unto thee For thou hast delivered our souls from death wilt not thou deliver our feet from falling that we may walk before God in the light of the living I will love thee O God and praise thee for ever because thou hast done it and I will wait on thy name for it is good before thy Saints Glory be to the Father c. A Prayer for the grace of Charity c. O Most gentle most merciful and gracious Saviour Jesu thou didst take upon thee our nature to redeem us from sin and misery thou wert for us led as a Lamb to the slaughter and as a Sheep before the shearer is dumb so thou openedst not thy mouth thou turnedst thy back to the smiters and thy cheeks to the nippers thou wert mock'd and whip'd crucified and torn but thou didst nothing but good to thy enemies and prayedst with loud cries for thy persecutors and didst heal the wound of one that come to lay violent hands upon thee O plant in my heart gentleness and patience a meek and a long suffering spirit that I may never be transported with violent angers never be disordered by peevishness never think thoughts of revenge but may with meekness receive all injuries that shall be done to me and patiently bear every cross accident and with charity may return blessing for cursing good for evil kind words for foul reproaches loving admonitions for scornful upbraidings gentle treatments for all derisions and affronts that living all my daies with meekness and charity keeping peace with all men and loving my neighbour as my self and thee more than my self and more than all the world I may at last come into the regions of peace and eternal charity where thou livest who lovest all men and wouldst have none to perish but all men to be saved through thee O most merciful Saviour and Redeemer Jesu Amen An act of Forgiveness to be said with all earnestness and sincerity before every Communion O God my God I have sinned grievously against thee I am thy debtor in a vast and an Eternal debt and if thou shouldest take the forfeiture I shall be for ever bound in eternal prisons even till I pay the utmost farthing But I hope in thy mercies that thou wilt forgive me my ten thousand Talents and I also do in thy presence forgive every one that hath offended me whoever hath taken my goods privately and injuriously or hurt my person or contrived any evil against me whether known or unknown who ever hath lessened my reputation detracted from my best endeavours or hath slandered me or reproached reviled or in any word or way done me injury I do from the bottom of my soul forgive him praying thee also that thou wilt never impute to him any word or thought or action done against me but forgive him as I desire thou wouldst also forgive me all that I have sinned against thee or any man in the world Give him thy grace and a holy repentance for whatever he hath done amiss grant he may do so no more keep me from the evil tongues and injurious actions of all men and keep all my enemies from all the expresses of thy wrath and let thy grace prevail finally upon thy servant that I may never remember any injury to the prejudice of any man buâ— that I may walk towards my enemies as Christ did who received much evil but went about seeking to do goâ—d to every man and if ever it shall be in my power and my opportunity to return evill O then grant that the spirit of love and forgiveness may triumph over all anger and malice and revenge that I may be the Son of God and maâ— love God and prove my love to thee by my love to my Brother and by obedience to all thy Laws through the Son of thy love by whom thou art reconciled to mankind our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Amen Vers. Remember not Lord our offences nor the offences of our forefathers neither take thou vengeance of our sins Resp. Spare us good Lord spare thy people whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood and be not angry with us for ever Amen CHAP. V. Of Repentance preparatory to the Blessed Sacrament SECT I. WHen Isaac and Abimelech had made a covenant of peace and mutual agreement they would not confirm it by a Sacramental Oath till the next morning that they might swear fasting for the reverence and religious regard of the solemn Oath saith Lyra. But Philo says they did it Symbolically to represent that purity and cleanness of soul which he that swears to God or comes to pay his vows ought to preserve with great Religion He that in a religious and solemn addresse comes to God ought to consider whether his body be free from uncleannesse and his soul from vile affections He that is righteous let him be righteous still and he that is justified let him be justified yet more saith the Spirit of God and then it follows He that thirsts let him come and drink of the living waters freely and without money meaning
made one with Christ then it shall be to us in our proportion as it was to him we shall rise again and we shall enter into glory But it is certain we are united to Christ by it we eat his body and drink his blood Sacramentally by our mouths and therefore really and spiritually by our spirits and by spiritual actions cooperating For what good will it do us to partake of his body if we do not also partake of his spirit but certain it is if we do one we do both cum naturalis per sacramentum proprietas perfectae sacramentum sit unitatis as St. Hilaries expression is the natural propriety viz the outward elements by the Sacrament that is by the institution and blessing of God become the Sacrament of a perfect unity which beside all the premisses is distinctly affirmed in the words of the Apostle we which are sanctified and he which sanctifies are all of one and again the bread which we break is it not the communication of the body of Christ and the cup which we drink is it not the communication of the blood of Christ plainly saying that by this holy ministery we are joyned and partake of Christs body and blood and then we become spiritually one body and therefore shall receive in our bodies all the effects of that spiritual union the chief of which in relation to our bodies is resurrection from the grave And this is expresly taught by the Ancient Church So St. Irenaeus teaches us As the bread which grows from the earth receiving the calling of God that is blessed by prayer and the word of God is not now common bread but the Eucharist consisting of two things an earthly and an heavenly so also our bodies receiving the Eucharist are not now corruptible but have the hope of resurrection And again when the mingled calice and the made bread receives the word of God viz. is consecrated and blessed it is made the Eucharist of the body and blood of Christ out of those things by which our body is nourished and our substance does consist and how shall any one deny that the flesh is capable of the gift of God which is eternal life which is nourished by the body and blood of Christ And St. Ignatius calls the blessed Eucharist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the medicine of immortallity for the drink is his blood who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 incorruptible love and eternal life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the Fathers of the Nicene Councel the symbols of our resurrection the meat nourishing to immortallity and eternal life so Cyril of Alexandria for this is to drink the blood of Jesus to be partakers of the Lords incorruptibility said St. Clement For bread is food and blood is life but we drink the blood of Christ himself commanding us that together with him we may by him be partakers of eternal life So St. Cyprian aut quicunque sit author Sermon de coenâ Domini 6. Because this is a ministry of grace by bodily ceremonies and conveys spiritual blessings by temporal ministrations there is something also of temporal regard directly provided for our bodies by the holy Sacrament It sometimes is a means in the hand of God for the restoring and preserving respectively of our bodily health and secular advantages I will not insist upon that of St. Gorgonia who being oppressed with a violent head-ach threw her self down before the holy Table where the Sacrament was placed and prayed with passion and pertinacy till she obtained relief and ease in that very place Nor that of St. Ambrose who having trod upon a Gentlemans foot afflicted with the gout in the time of ministration gave him the holy smbols and told him it was good for his sicknesse also and that he presently found his cure I my self knew a person of great sanctity who was afflicted to deaths door with a vomiting and preparing her self to death by her viaticum the holy Sacrament to which she always bore a great reverence she was infinitely desirous and yet equally fearful to receive it lest she should reject that by her infirmity which in her spirit she passionately longed for but her desire was the greater passion and prevailed she received it and swallowed it and after great and earnest reluctancy being forced to cast it up in zeal and with a new passion took it in again and then retained it and from that instant speedily recovered against the hope of her Physician and the expectation of all her friends God does miracles every day and he who with spittle and clay cured the blind mans eyes may well be supposed to glorifie himself by the extraordinary contingences and Sacramental contacts of his own body But that which is most famous and remarked is that the Austrian Family do attribute the rise of their House to the present Grandeur to Wâ—lliam Earl of Hasburgh and do acknowledg it to be a reward of his piety in the venerable treatment and usage of these Divine mysteries It were easier to heap together many rare contingences and miraculous effects of the holy Sacrament than to find faith to believe them now-adayes and therefore for this whole affair I relie upon the words of Saint Paul affirming that God sent sicknesses and sundry kinds of death to punish the Corinthian irreverent treatment of the Blessed Sacrament and therefore it is not to be deemed but that life and health will be the consequent of our holy usages of it for if by our fault it is a savour of death it is certain by the blessing and intention of God it is a favour of life But of these things in particular we have no promise and therefore such events as these cannot upon this account of faith and certain expectations be designed by us in our communions If God please to send any of them as sometimes he hath done it is to promote his own glory and our value of the Blessed Sacrament the great ministry of salvation 7. The sum of all I represent in these few words of St. Hilary These holy mysteries being taken cause that Christ shall be in us and we in Christ and if this be more than words we need no further inquiry into the particulars of blessing consequent to a worthy communion for if God hath given his Son unto us how shall not he with him give us all things else nay all things that we need are effected by this said St. Clement of Alexandria one of the most antient Fathers of the Church of Christ Eucharistia qui per fidem sunt participes sanctifiâ—antur corpore animâ They who by faith are partakers of the Eucharist are sanctified both in body and in soul. Fonte renascentes membris sanguine Christi Vescimur atque ideo templum Deitatis habemur Sedul How great therefore and how illustrious benefits it is the meditation of St. Eusebius Emissenus does the power of the Divine blessing
thy paths that my footsteps slip not As for God his way is perfect the word of the Lord is tryed he is a buckler to all those that trust in him For who is God save the Lord and who is our rock save our God Judge me O Lord for I have walked in mine integrity but I trust in the Lord therefore I shall not slide Examine me O Lord and prove me try my reins and my heart for thy loving-kindnesse is before mine eyâ—s and I will walk in thy truth I will not sit with vain persons neither will I go in with dissemblers I hate the Congregation of evil doers and will not sit with the wicked I will wash mine hands in innocency so will I compasse thine Altar O â—ord That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving and tell of all thy wondrous works But as for me I will walk in my integrity redeem me and be merciful unto me So shall my foot stand in an even place and in the congregations will I blesse the Lord. Glory be to the Father c. As it was in the beginning c. The Prayers O Eternal and most Glorious God who sittest in heaven ruling over all things from the beginning thou dwellest on high and yet humblest thy self to behold the things that are in heaven and earth thou hast searched me O Lord and known me thou understandest my thoughts afar off and art acquainted with all my ways for there is not a word in my tongue but thou O Lord knowest it altogether Be pleased to impart unto thy servant a ray of thy heavenly light a beam of the Sun of righteousnesse open mine eyes that I may see the wondrous things of thy Law that I may walk in them all my days Set all my sins before my face that I may speedily and earnestly and perfectly repent and forsake them all Give me a sight of my infirmities that I may watch against them discover to me all my evil and weak principles that I may reform them and whatsoever is wanting in me towards the understanding of any thing whereby I may please thee and perfect my duty I beg of thee to reveal that also unto me that my duty may not be undiscerned and my faith may not be reproved and my affections may not be perverse and hardned in their foolish pursuance and a secret sin may not lye undiscovered and corrupting my soul. II. GIve me an ingenuous and a severe spirit that whatever judgment of charity I make concerning others I may give a right judgment concerning my own state and actions condemning the criminal censuring the suspicious suspecting what seems allowable and watchful even over the best that I may in the spirit of repentance and mortification correct all my irregularities and reform my errours and improve the good things which thou hast given me that endeavouring to approve my actions to my conscience and my conscience to thy law I may not be a reprobate but approved by thee in the great day of examination of all the world and be reckoned amongst thy Elect thy secret ones through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen A short form of Humiliation after our Examination I. THY Judgments O Lord God are declared in thunder and with fear and dread thou shakest all my bones and my soul trembles when I consider that great day in which thou shalt judge all the world and that infinite justice which will not spare the mighty for his greatnesse nor the poor for his poverty and thy unlimited power which can mightily destroy all them that will not have thee to reign over them II. O most dreadful Judge I stand in amazement when I consider that the heavens are not pure in thine eyes and if thou foundest perversnesse in thy Angels and didst not spare them what shall become of me The stars fell from heaven and what can I presume who am but dust and ashes They whose life that seemed holy are fallen into an evil portion and after they have eaten the bread of Angels they have been delighted with Carobe-nuts with husks and draffe of Swine III. There is no holinesse O God if thou withdrawest thy hand no wisdom profits if thy government does cease No courage can abide no chastity can remain pure no watchfulnesse keep us safe unlesse thou doest continue to strengthen us to purifie us to make us stand When thou leavest us we drown and perish when thy grace and mercy visits us we are lifted up and stand upright We are unstable and unsecure unlesse we be confirmed by thee but we seek to thee for thy help and yet depart from the wayes of thy commandements IV. O how meanly and contemptibly do I deserve to be thought of how little and inconsiderable is the good which I do and how vast how innumerable how intolerable are the evils which I have done I submit O God I submit to the abysses of thy righteous and unsearchable judgements for I have been searching for a little some little good in me but I finde nothing Much indeed of good I have received but I have abused it thou hast given me thy grace but I have turned it into wantonnesse thou hast enabled me to serve thee but I have served my self but never but when I was thy enemy so that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing V. I am a deep abysse O God of folly and calamity I have been searching my heart and can find no good thing I have been searching and I cannot find out all the evil Thou didst create in me a hope of glory but I have lost my confidence and men have sometimes spoken good things of me but I know not where they are and who shall raise me up when I fall down before thy face in thy eternal judgment VI. I will no more desire I will no more suffer I will no more seek I will no more be moved by the praises of men for behold they speak but they know nothing Thou art silent but thou knowest all things and I increase the number of my sins What shall I do O thou preserver of men I will lay my face in the dust and confess my self to be nothing VII Pity my shame O God bind up my wounds lift me from the dust raise me up from this nothing and make me something what thou wilt what thou wilt delight in Take away the partition wall the hindrance the sin that so easily besets me and bring me unto Jesus to my sweetest Saviour Jesus unite me unto him and then although in my self I am nothing yet in him I shall be what I ought to be and what thou canst not chuse but love Amen Amen A Prayer for holy and fervent desires of Religion and particularly of the Blessed Sacrament O Most Blessed most glorious Lord and Saviour Jesus thou that waterest the furrows of the earth and refreshest her wearinesse and makest it very plenteous behold O God my desart
or prevails dangerously and because our returns to God and the mortifications of sin are divisible and done by parts and many steps of progression they that delay their Communion that they may be surer do very well provided that they do not stay too long thâ—t is that their fear do not tâ—rn to timorousness their religion do not change into superstition their distrust of themselves into a jealousie of God their apprehension of the greatness of their sin into a secret diffidence of the greatness of the Divine mercy And therefore in the first conversions of a sinner this reverence may be longer allowed to a good man than afterwards But it must be no longer allowed than till he hath once communicated For if he hath once been partaker of the Divine mysteries since his repentance he must no longer forbear for in this case it is true that he who is not fit to receive every day is fit to receive no day If he thinks that he ought wholly to abstain let him use his caution and his fear to the advantages of his repentance and the heightning of his longings but if he may safâ—ly come once he may piously come often He caâ—not long stand at this distance if he be the man he is supposed But for the time of his total abstention let him be conducted by a spiritual guide whom he may safely trust For if he cannot by the usual methods of repentance and the known Sermons of the Gospel be reduced to peace and a quiet conscience let him declare his estate to a spiritual Guide and if he thinks it fit to absolve him that is to declare him to be in the state of grace and pardon it is all the warrant which with the testimony of Gods Spirit bearing witness to our spirit we can expect in this world I remember what a religious person said to Petrus Celestinus who was a great Saint but of a timorous conscience in this particular Thou abstainest from the blessed Sacrament because it is a thing so sacred and formidable that thou canst not think thy self worthy of it Well suppose that But I pray who is worthy Is an Angel worthy enough No câ—râ—ainly if we consider the greatness of the mystery But consider the goodness of God and the usual measures of good men and the commands of Christ inviting us to come and commanding us and then Cum timore reverentiâ frequenter operare Receive it often with feare and reverence To which purpose these two things are fit to be considered 1. Supposing this fear and reverence to be good and commendable in his case who really is fit to communicate but does not think so yet if we compare it with that grace which prompts a good man to take it often we may quickly perceive which is best Certainly that act is in its own nature best which proceeds from the best and the most perfect grace but to abstain proceeds from fear and to come frequently being worthily disposed is certainly the product of love and holy hunger the effect of the good Spirit who by his holy fires makes us to thirst after the waters of salvation As much then as love is better than fear so much it is to be preferred that true penitents and well-grown Christians should frequently address themselves to these Sacramental Unions with their Lord. 2. The frequent use of this Divine Sacrament proceeds from more as well as from more noble vertues For here is obedience and zeal worship and love thanksgiving and oblation devotion and joy holy hunger and holy thirst an approach to God in the waies of God union and adherence confidence in the Divine goodness and not only hope of pardon but a going to receive it and the omission of all these excellencies cannot in the present case be recompenced by an act of religious fear For this can but by accident and upon supposition of something that is amiss be at all accounted good and therefore ought to give place to that which supposing all things to be as they ought is directly good and an obedience to a Divine Commandment For we may not deceive our selves the matter is not so indifferent as to be excused by every fair pretence It is unlawful for any man unprepared by repentance and its fruits to communicate but it is necessary that we should be prepared that we may come For plague and death threaten them that do not communicate in this mysterious banquet as certainly as danger is to them who come unduly and as it happens For the Sacrament of the Lords body is commanded to all men saith Tertullian and it is very remarkable what St. Austin said in this affair The force of the Sacraments is of an unspeakable value and therefore it is sacriledge to despise it For that is impiously despised without which we cannot come to the perfection of piety So that although it is not in all cases the meer not receiving that is to be blamed but the despising it yet when we consider that by this means we arrive at perfection all causless recusancy is next to contempt by interpretation One thing more I am to add whereas some persons abstain from a frequent Communion for fear lest by frequency of receiving they should less esteem the Divine mysteries and fall into lukewarmness and indevotion the consideration is good and such persons indeed may not receive it often but not for that reason but because they are not fit to receive it at all For whoever grows worse by the Sacrament as Judas after the Sop hath an evil spirit within him for this being by the design of God a savour of life it is the fault of the receiver if it passes into death and diminution of the spiritual life He therefore that grows less devout and less holy and less reverent must start back and take physick and throw out the evil spirit that is within him for there is a worm in the heart of the tree a peccant humour in the stomach it could not be else that this Divine nutriment should make him sick Question II. But is every man bound to communicate that is present or that comes into a Church where the Communion is prepared though but by accident and without design and may no man that is fit omit to communicate in every opportunity To this I answer That in the Primitive Church it was accounted scandalous and criminal to be present at the holy Offices and to go out at the celebration of the Mysteries What cause is there O Hearers that ye see the Table and come not to the Banquet said St. Austin If thou stand by and do not communicate thou art wicked thou art shameless thou art impudent So St. Chrysostome and to him that objects he is not worthy to communicate he answers that then neither is he fit to pray And the Council of Antioch and of Bracara commanded that those
thy mysteries and communicate to me thy gifts and love me with that love thou bearest to the Sons of thy house Thou hast given me thy Son with him give me all things else which are needful to my body and soul in order to thy glory and my salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. III. An act of Love and Eucharist to be added if there be time and opportunity O Lord Jesu Christ Fountain of true and holy love nothing is greater than thy love nothing is sweeter nothing more holy Thy love troubles none but is entertained by all that feel it with joy and exultation and it is still more desired and is ever more desirable Thy love O dearest Jesu gives liberty drives away fear feels no labour but suffers all it eases the weary and strengthens the weak it comforts them that mourn and feeds the hungry Thou art the beginning and the end of thy own love that thou mayest take occasion to do us good and by the methods of grace to bring us to glory Thou givest occasion and createst good things and producest affections and stirrest up the appetite and dost satisfie all holy desires Thou hast made me and fed me and blessed me and preserved me and sanctified me that I might love thee and thou would'st have me to love thee that thou mayest love me for ever O give me a love to thee that I may love thee as well as ever any of thy servants loved thee according to that love which thou by the Sacrament of love workest in thy secret ones Abraham excelled in faith Job in patience Isaac in fidelity Jacob in simplicity Joseph in chastity David in religion Josiah in zeal and Manasses in repentance but as yet thou hadst not communicated the Sacrament of love that grace was reserved till thou thy self shouldst converse with man and teach him love Thou hast put upon our hearts the sweetest and easiest yoke of love to enable us to bear the burden of man and the burden of the Lord give unto thy servant such a love that whatsoever in thy service may happen contrary to flesh and bloud I may not feel it that when I labour I may not be weary when I am despised I may not regard it that adversity may be tolerable and humility be my sanctuary and mortification of my passions the exercise of my daies and the service of my God the joy of my soul that loss to me may be gain so I win Christ and death it self the entrance of an eternal life when I may live with the Beloved the joy of my soul the light of my eyes My God and all things the blessed Saviour of the world my sweetest Redeemer Jesus Amen An Eucharistical Hymn taken from the Prophecies of the Old Testament relating to the blessed Sacrament Praise ye the Lord I will praise the Lord with my whole heart in the Assembly of the upright and in the Congregation He hath made his wonderful works to be remembred the Lord is gracious and full of compassion He hath given meat unto them that fear him he will ever be mindful of his Covenant His bread shall be fat and he shall yield royal dainties Binding his Foal unto the vine and his Asses colt unto the choice vine he washed his garment in wine and his cloaths in the bloud of grapes In this mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things a feast of wine on the lees He will swallow up death in victory and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth for the Lord hath spoken it And the Lord their God shall save them as the flock of his people for how great is his goodness and how great is his beauty Corn shall make the young men chearful and new wine the virgins The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his Temple even the messenger of the Covenant whom ye delight in He shall purifie the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness O Israel return unto the Lord thy God for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity Take with you words and turn to the Lord saying Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously so will we render the calves of our lips for in thee the Fatherless findeth mercy The Lord hath said I will heal their backslidings I will love them freely for mine anger is turned away They that dwell under his shadow shall return they shall revive as the corn and blossom as the Vine the memorial thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon The poor shall eat and be satisfied they shall praise the Lord that seek him your heart shall live for ever for he hath placed peace in our borders and fed us with the flower of wheat For from the rising of the Sun even unto the going down of the same the Name of the Lord shall be great among the Gentiles and in every place Incense shall be offered unto his Name and a pure offering for his Name shall be great among all Nations Who so is wise he shall understand these thiâ—gs and the prudent shall know them for the waies of the Lord are right and the just shall walk in them but the transgressors shall fall therein Glory be to the Father c. A Prayer to be said after the Communion in behalf of our souls and all Christian people 1. O most merciful and gracious God Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of glory thou art the great lover of souls and thou hast given thy holy Son to die for our salvation to redeem us from sin to destroy the work of the Devil and to present a Church to thee pure and spotless and undefiled relying upon thy goodness trusting in thy promises and having received my dearest Lord into my soul I humbly represent to thy divine Majesty the glorious sacrifice which our dearest Jesus made of himself upon the Cross and by a never ceasing intercession now exhibites to thee in heaven in the office of an eternal Priesthood in behalf of all that have communicated this day in the Divine Mysteries in all the Congregations of the Christian world and in behalf of all them that desire to communicate and are hindred by sickness or necessity by fear or scruple by censures Ecclesiastical or the sentence of their own consciences 2. Give unto me O God and unto them a portion of all the good prayers which are made in heaven and earth the intercession of our Lord and the supplications of all thy servants and unite us in the bands of the common faith and a holy charity that no interests or partialities no sects or opinions may keep us any longer in darkness and division 3. Give thy blessing to all Christian Kings and Princes all Republicks and Christian Governments grant to them the
Spirit of mercy and justice prudence and diligence the favour of God and the love of their people and grace and blessing that they may live at peace with thee and with one another remembring the command of their Lord and King the serene and reconciling Jesus 4. Give an Apostolical Spirit to all Ecclesiastical Prelates and Priests grant to them zeal of souls wisdom to conduct their charges purity to become exemplar that their labours and their lives may greatly promote the honour of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus O grant unto thy flock to be fed with wise and holy shepherds men fearing God and hating covetousness free from envy and full of charity that being burning and shining lights men beholding â—heir light may rejoyce in that light and glorifie thee our Father which art in heaven 5. Have mercy upon all states of men and women in the Christian Church the Governors and the governed the rich and the poor high and low grant to every of them in their several station to live with so much purity and faith simplicity and charity justice and perfection that thy will may be done in Earth as it is in Heaven 6. Relieve all oppressed Princes defend and restore their rights and suppress all violent and warring spirits that unjustly disturb the peace of Christendom Relieve and comfort all Gentlemen that are fallen into poverty and sad misfortunes Comfort and support all that are sick and deliver them from all their sorrows and all the powers of the enemy and let the spirit of comfort and patience of holiness and resignation descend upon all Christian people whom thou hast in any instance visited with thy rod And be graciously pleas'd to pity poor mankind shorten the days of our trouble and put an end to the days of our sin and let the Kingdom of our dearest Lord be set up in every one of our hearts and prevail mightily and for ever 7. I humbly present to thy Divine Majesty this glorious Sacrifice which thy servants this day have represented upon earth in behalf of my dearest Relations Wife Children Husband Parents Friends c. Grant unto them whatsoever they want or wisely and holily desire keep them for ever in thy fear and favour grant that they may never sin against thee never fall into thy displeasure never be separated from thy love and from thy presence but let their portion be in the blessing and in the service in the love and in the Kingdom of God for ever and ever 8. Have mercy upon all strangers and aliens from the Kingdom of thy Son let the sweet sound of thy Gospel be heard in all the corners of the earth let not any soul the work of thy own hands the price of thy Sons blood be any longer reckon'd in the portions of thy Enemy but let them all become Christians and grant that all Christians may live according to the Laws of the holy Jesus without scandal and reproach full of faith and full of charity 9. Give thy grace speedily to all wicked persons that they may repent and live well and be saved To all good people give an increase of gifts and holiness and the grace of perseverance and Christian perfection To all Hereticks and Schismaticks grant the Spirit of humility and truth charity and obedience and suffer none upon whom the Name of Christ is called to throw themselves away and fall into the portion of the intolerable burning 10. For all mankind whom I have and whom I have not remembred I humbly represent the Sacrifice of thy eternal Son his merits and obedience his life and death his resurrection and ascension his charity and intercession praying to thee in vertue of our glorious Saviour to grant unto us all the graces of an excellent and perfect repentance an irreconcilable hatred of all sin a great love of God an exact imitation of the holiness of the ever blessed Jesus the spirit of devotion conformable will and religious affections an Angelical purity and a Seraphical love thankful hearts and joy in God and let all things happen to us all in that order and disposition as may promote thy greatest glory and our duty our likeness to Christ and the honour of his Kingdom Even so Father let it be because it is best and because thou lovest it should be so bring it to a real and unalterable event by the miracles of grace and mercy and by the blood of the everlasting Covenant poured forth in the day of the Lords love whom I adore and whom I love and desire that I may still more and more love and love for ever Amen Amen SECT III. An Advice concerning him who only Communicates Spiritually THere are many persons well disposed by the measures of a holy life to communicate frequently but it may happen that they are unavoidably hindred Some have a timerous conscience a fear a pious fear which is indeed sometimes more pitiable than commendable Others are advis'd by their spiritual Guides to abstain for a time that they may proceed in the vertue of repentance further yet before they partake of the Sacrament of love and yet if they should want the blessings and graces of the Communion their remedy which is intended them would be a real impediment Some are scandalized and offended at irremediable miscarriages in publick Doctrines or Government and cannot readily overcome their prejudice nor reconcile their consciences to a present actual Communion Some dare not receive it at the hands of a wicked Priest of notorious evil life Some can have it at no Priest at all but are in a long journey or under a Persecution or in a Country of a differing perswasion Some are sick and some cannot have it every day but every day desire it Such persons as these if they prepare themselves with all the essential and ornamental measures of address and eanestly desire that they could actually Communicate they may place themselves upon their knees and building an Altar in their heart celebrate the death of Christ and in holy desire joyn with all the Congregations of the Christian world who that day celebrate the holy Communion and may serve their devotion by the former Prayers and actions Eucharistical changing only such circumstantial words which relate to the actual participation And then they may remember and make use of the comfortable Doctrine of S. Austin It is one thing saith that learned Saint to be born of the Spirit and another thing to be fed of the Spirit As it is one thing to be born of the flesh which is when we are born of our mother and another thing to be fed of the flesh which is done when she suckles her Infant by that nourishment which is chang'd into food that he might eat and drink with pleasure by which he was born to life when this is done without the actual and Sacramental participation it is called spiritual Manducation Concerning which I only add the pious advice of
it self indeed shall have what reward God please to apportion to it as it is obedience yet of it self it hath no other worthiness it is not so much as an argument of persuasion for the pouring forth of wine can no more prove or make faith that Christs blood was poured forth for us than the drinking the wine can effect this persuasion in us that we naturally though under a vail drink the natural blood of Christ which the Angels gathered as it ran into golden phials and Christ multiplied to a miracle like the loaves and fishes in the Gospel But because nothing that naturally remains the same in all things as it was before can do any thing that it could not do before the Bread and wine which have no natural change can effect none and therefore we are not to look for an egge where there is nothing but order and a blessing where there is nothing but an action and a real effect where there is nothing but an analogy a Sacrament a mystical representment and something fit to signify and many things past but nothing that is to come This is the sense and discourse of some persons that call for an express word or a manifest reason to the contrary or else resolve that their belief shall be as unactive as the Scriptures are silent in the effects of this mystery Only these men will allow the Sacraments to be marks of Christianity symbols of mutual Charity testimonies of a thankful mind to God allegorical admonitions of Christian mortification and spiritual alimony symbols of grace conferred before the Sacrament and rites instituted to stir up faith by way of object and representation that is occasionally and morally but neither by any Divine or physical by natural or supernatural power by the work done or by the Divine institution This indeed is something but very much too little But others go as far on the other hand and affirm that in the Blessed Sacrament we receive the body and blood of Christ we chew his flesh we drink his blood for his flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed and this is the Manna which came down from heaven our bodies are nourished our souls united to Christ and the Sacrament is the infallible instrument of pardon to all persons that do not maliciously hinder it and it produces all its effects by vertue of the Sacrament it self so appointed and that the dispositions of the Communicants are only for removing obstacles and impediments but effect nothing the sumption of the Mysteries does all in a capable subject as in infants who do nothing in penitents who take away what can hinder for it is nothing but Christ himself the body that dyed upon the crosse is broken in the hand of him that ministers and by the teeth of him that communicates and when God gives us his Son in this Divine and glorious manner with heaps of miracles to verify heaps of blessings how shall not he with him give us all things else They who teach this doctrine call the holy Sacrament The host the unbloody sacrifice the flesh of God the body of Christ God himself the Mass the Sacrament of the Altar I cannot say that this is too much but that these things are not true and although all that is here said that is of any material benefit and reall blessing is true yet the blessing is not so conferred it is not so produced A third sort of Christians speak indefinitely and gloriously of this Divine mystery they speak enough but they cannot tell what they publish great and glorious effects but such which they gather by similitude and analogy such which they desire but cannot prove which indeed they feel but know not whence they do derive them they are blessings which come in company of the Sacraments but are not alwayes to be imputed to them they confound spiritual senses with mystical expressions and expound mysteries to natural significations that is they mean well but do not alwayes understand that part of Christian Philosophy which explicates the secret nature of this Divine Sacrament and the effect of it is this that they sometimes put too great confidence in the mystery and look for impresses which they find not and are sometimes troubled that their experience does not answer to their Sermons and meet with scruples instead of comforts and doubts instead of rest and anxiety of mind in the place of a serene and peaceful conscience But these men both in their right and in their wrong enumerate many glories of the holy Sacrament which they usually signifie in these excellent appellatives calling it the Supper of the Lord the bread of elect souls and the wine of Angels the Lords body the New Testament and the calice of benediction spiritual food the great Supper the Divinest and Archisymbolical feast the banquet of the Church the celestial dinner the spiritual the sacred the mystical the formidable the rational Table the supersubstantial bread the bread of God the bread of life the Lords mystery the great mystery of salvation the Lords Sacrament the Sacrament of piety the sign of unity the contesseration of the Christian communion the Divine grace the Divine making grace the holy thing the desirable the comunication of Good the perfâ—ction and consummation of a Christian the holy particles the gracious symbols the holy gifts the Sacrifice of commemoration the intellectual and mystical good the hereditary donative of the New Testament the Sacrament of the Lords body the Sacrament of the Calice the Paschal Oblation the Christian pasport the mystery of perfection the great Oblation the Worship of God the life of Souls the Sacrament of our price and our Redemption and some few others much to the same purposes all which are of great and useful signification and if the explications and consequent propositions were as justifiable as the titleâ— themselves are sober and useful they would be apt only for edification and to minister to the spirit of devotion That therefore is to be the design of the present Meditations to represent the true and proper and mysterious nature of this divine nutriment of our souls to account what are the blessings God reacheth forth to us in the Mysteries and what returns of duty he expects from all to whom he gives his most holy Son I shall only here add the names and appellatives which the Scripture gives to these Mysteries and place it as a part of the foundation of the following doctrines It is by the Spirit of God called The bread that is broken and the cup of blessing the breaking of bread the body and blood of the Lord the communication of his body and the communication of his blood the feast of charity or love the Lords Table and the Supper of the Lord. Whatsoever is consequent to these titles we can safely own and our faith may dwell securely and our devotion like a pure flame with these may feed as with
the things themselves too high for us but therefore we are taught three things 1. To walk humbly with our God that is in all entercourses with him to acknowledg the infinite distance between his immensitie and our nothing his wisdom and our ignorance his secrets and our apprehensions he does more for us than we can understand It was an excellent saying of Aristotle which Seneca reports of him Nunquam nos verecundiores esse debere quam cum de Diis agitur we ought never to be more bashful and recollect than when we are to speak any thing of God Timidè de potâ—state Deorum pauca dicenda sunt said Cicero we must speak of his power and glory timorously and sparingly with joyfulness and singleness or simplicity of heart so the first Christians eat their Bread their Eucharist so we understand the words of St. Luke 2. To walk charitably with our disagreeing brother that this may be indeed a Sacrament of charity and not to wonder if he be mistaken in his discourses of that which neither he nor you can understand 3. Though it be hard to be understood yet we must be careful that with simplicitie we admire the secret and accept the mystery but at no hand by pride or ignorance by interest or vanity to wrest this mysteâ—y to ignoble senses or to evil events or to dangerous propositions or to our own damnation 5. Whatever propositons any man shall entertain in his manner of discoursing of these mysteries let him be sure to take into his notice and memorie those great appellatives with which the purest ages of the Church the most ancient Liturgies and the most eminent Saints of God use to adorn and invest this great mysteriousness In the Greek Liturgie attributed to St. James the Sacramental Symbols are called sanctified honourable precious celestial unspeakable incorruptible glorious fearful formidable divine in the use of which Epithets as we have the warranty and consent of all the Greek Churches since they ever had a Liturgy so we are taught only to have reverend usages and religious apprehensions of the Divine mysteries but if by any appellative we can learn a duty it is one of the best waies of entring into the secret To which purpose the ages Primitive and Apostolical did use the word Eucharist the name and the use we learn from Origen the Bread which is called the Eucharist is the Symbol of our thanksgiving towards God But it is the great and most usual appellative for the holy Supper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we find in Ignatius St. Clemens Justin Martyr the Syrian Paraphrast Origen and ever after amongst the Greeks aâ—d afterwards amongst the Latins By him we understand that then we receive great blessings since â—he very mystery it self obliges us to great thankâ—ulness I have instanced in this as an example to the use of the other Epithets and appellatives which from Antiquity I have enumerated 6. He that desires to enter furthest into the secrets of this mystery and to understand more than others can better learn by love than by inquiry He that keepeth the law of the Lord getteth the understanding thereof saith the wise Bensirach if he will prepare himself diligently and carefully observe the dispensations of the Spirit and receive it humbly and treat it with great reverence and dwell in the communion of Saints and pass through the mystery with great devotion and purest simplicity and converse wiâ—h the purities of the Sacrament frequâ—ntly â—nd with holy intention this man shall undeâ—stand more by his experience than the greatest Cleâ—ks can by all their subtilties the commentaries of the Doctors and the glosses of inquisitive men Obey and ye shall understand said the Prophet and our blessed Saviour assur'd us that if we continue in his word then we shall know the truth and if any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or no. For we have not turned from our iniquities that we might understand the truth said Daniel for the love of the Lord saith the wise man passeth all things for illumination 7. Let no man advance the preaching of the word of God to the disparagement or to occasion the neglect of the Sacraments For though it be true that faith comes by hearing yet it is not intended that by hearing alone faith is ingendred for the faith of the Apostles came by seeing and St. Pauls faith did not come by hearing but by intuition and revelation and hearing in those words of St. Paul does not signifie the manner of ministration but the whole Oeconomie of the word of God the whole office of preaching which is done most usefully to babes and strangers by sermon and homily but more gloriously and illustriously to men by Sacraments But however be it so or otherwise yet one ordinance ought not to exclude the other much less to disparage the other and least of all to undervalue that which is the most eminent but rather let every Christian man and woman think that if the word ministred by the spirit is so mightie it must be more when the word and the spirit joyn with the Sacrament which is their proper significatorie He that is zealous for the word of God does well but let him remember that the word of God is a goodly ring and leads us into the circles of a blessed eternity but because the Sacrament is not without the word they are a jewel encha'sd in gold when they are together The Ministeries of the Gospel are all of a piece they though in several manners work the same salvation by the conduct of the sâ—me spirit 8. Let no man in the reception of the Sacrament and in his expectation of blessings and events from it limit his hopes and belief to any one particular for that will occasion a littleness of faith and may make it curious scrupulous and phantastical rather let us adore the secret of God and with simple expectations receive it disposing our selves to all the effects that may come rather with fear and indefinite apprehensions than with dogmatical and confident limitations for this may beget scruples and diminution of value but that hinders nothing but advances the reverential treatments and opinion 9. He that guesses at the excellency and power of the Sacrament by the events that himself feels must be sure to look for no other than what are eminently or virtually contained in it that is he must not expect that the Sacrament will make him rich or discover to him stoln goods or cure the Tooth-ach or Countercharm Witches or appease a Tempest if it be thrown into the Sea These are such events which God hath not made the effects of religion but are the hopes and expectations of vain and superstitious people and I remember that Pope Alexander the third in the Council of Lateran wrote to the Bishop of S.
measures lesse than their determination we cannot go and be innocent but if we will make judgement concerning our love and our desires we must frequent these holy mysteries by the measures and suggestion of something that is within if it be love it will have no measures but it self and nothing can give it limits but the circumstances of things themselves and the possibilities of our persons and affairs 2. Besides this coming upon necessity our desires are very much to be suspected if compliance and custom or reputation be the ingredients and prevail above any better motive that can be observed As force makes hypocrites so favour and secular advantages make flatterers in Religion and when a Prince or a Ruler a Master of a Family or any one that hath power to oblige is heartily religious Religion will quickly be in fashion Those persons which come upon such inducements are by our blessed Saviour signified by the parable of the corn that fell by the high way they presently receive it with joy and it springs quickly if the sun shines but when persecution comes they hang the head and slack their pace and appear seldome and shew that they had no depth of root These men serve God when Religion is rich and prosperous they come to Christ for the loaves but care but little for the mystery As long as the Religion stayes at this port it is good for nothing and the very entry it self is suspicious fear is better than this but if it passe on to create an effective and material love it will be well at last 3. They that are easily diverted from communicating and apt to be excused from the solemnity these men have just cause to suspect their desires to be too cold to kindle the fires upon this altar and to consume this sacrifice they have not love and come against their will some men are hindred by every thing if a stranger come to the house if they be indisposed with a littlehead ach if they have affairs of the world if a neighbour be angry with them if a merry meeting be appointed the day before this is a suspicious indifferency and lukewarmness They that are not desirous to use all opportunities and to take all advantages and long for all the benefits want very much of that hunger and thirst after the righteousness of God which is fulfilled in those mysteries and to which Christ hath promised such ample satisfaction I do not say that every man is bound to communicate every time that he can have it and that it is lukewarmness not to desire it so often as it is in our power but he that refuses it when it is in his opportunity when his circumstances are fitted when by the measures of piety and Religion it is decent and useful to him to do it of which I shall afterwards give account that man is guilty of a criminal indifference and when he does come may fear that he hath not spiritual hunger enough for so divine a banquet 4. They that in their preparation take the least measures that are practised or allowed and rest there and increase not have neither value for the Sacrament nor desires of the blessing nor expectations of any fruit and therefore cannot have this holy appetite in due proportion because they see no sufficient moving cause and they look for little and finde less and therefore can never be true desirers For he that thinks there is no great matter in it will have no great stomach for it and he that will do no great matter for it certainly expects no great excellency in it and such are all they that take the least measures of preparation who therefore shall find the least measures of blessing and in spiritual things that which is called positively the least is just none at all he that shall be called least in the kingdom shall be quite shut out This is an indifferency both in the cause and in the effect They feel no great blessings consequent to their reception and therefore their affâ—ctions are cold and because they are so they shall for ever be without the blessing 5. They only can be confident that their desires are right who feel sharpnesses and zeal in their acts of love For in spiritual things every abatement is by the mixture of the contrary and therefore when things are indâ—fferent we cannot tell which shall be accepted or accounted of and when there is as much evil as good the evil is only abated but the good is destroyed and is not accepted and therefore till the victory be clear and evident we cannot have much comfort but the strong desire is only certain and comfortable to the spirit Great desires are a great pain and the Spouse in the Canticles complains that she is sick of love and then calls upon Christ to comfort her with flaggons of wine Lesse desires than the greatest if they be real and effective of the work are fit for such persons as are not the greatest in Religion but in all spiritual progressions we are sure that our desires shall never cease growing till they be full of God and are swell'd up to immensity and till they come to some greatnesse that they are like hunger and thirst or like the breasts of a fruitful Nurse full and in pain till they be eased we cannot be so confident that things are well with us in this particular Are we in trouble till we converse with our Lord in all the ways of spiritual entercourse Do we rejoyce when a Communion day comes And is our joy fixed upon consideration of that holy necessity of doing good works at that time especially and receiving the aids of Grace and the helps of the Sacrament liberally When it is thus it is well thaâ— we can be sure of All measures of desire which are so little that we can compare them to no natural similitude of earnestnesse and appetite we can only say that they are yet very uncomfortable and if we come often and pray that we may have lively relish and appetite to the Mysteries it may be well in time but as yet we cannot be sure that it is so There is only in this case one help to our examination and our confidence He that comes because God commands him in a direct and certain obedience to the words of Christ or in a deep sorrow for his sins coming hither in hopes of remedy or in a great apprehension of his infirmity addressing himself hither for support and strength this man although he feels no sensual punctures and natural sharpnesses of desire yet he comes well and upon a right principle For St. Austin reckoning what predisposition is necessary by way of preparation to the holy Sacrament reckons hunger and the sense of our sins and our infirmities but if he wants the pleasure of these passionate indications he must be careful that he be sure in the intellectual and religious choice for that is the thing
in their age their Parents and their Priests the laws of the Church and the Religion of the Country make up the demonstration but because their faith is no stronger than to be the daughter of such arguments we find they commonly live at such a rate as if they did neither believe nor care whether it were so or no. The confidence of the article makes them not to leave off violently to pursue the interests of this world and to love and labour for the other Before this faith can enable them to resist a temptation they must derive their assent from principles of another nature and therefore because few men can dispute it with arguments invincible and demonstrative and such as are naturally apt to produce the most perfect assent it is necessary that these men of all other should believe it because it is said to come from God and rely upon it because it brings to God trust it because it is good acknowledge it certain because it is excellent that there may be an act of the will in it as well as of the understanding and as much love in it as discourse For he that only consents to an article because it is evident is indeed convinced but hath no excellency in his faith but what is natural nothing that is gracious and moral true Christian faith must have in it something of obscurity something that must be made up by duty and by obedience but it is nothing but this we must trust the evidence of God in the obscurity of the thing Gods testimony must be clear to him and the thing in all other senses not clear and then to trust the article because God hath said it must have in it an excellency which God loves and that he will reward In order to this it is highly considerable that the greatest argument to prove our Religion is the goodness and the holiness of it it is that which makes peace and friendships content and comfort which unites all relations and endears the relatives it relieves the needy and defends the widdow it ends strife and makes love endless all other arguments can be opposed and tempted by wit and malice but against the goodness of the Religion no man can speak by which it appears that the greatest argument is that which moves love intending by love to convince the understanding But then for others who can enquire better their inquiries also must be modest and humble according to the nature of the things and to the designes of God they must not disbelieve an article in Christianity which is not proved like a conclusion in Geometry they must not be witty to object and curious to enquire beyond their limit for some are so ingeniously miserable that they will never believe a proposition in Divinity if any thing can be said against it they will be credulous enough in all the affairs of their life but impenetrable by a Sermon of the Gospel they will believe the word of a man and the promise of their neighbour but a promise of Scripture signifies nothing unless it can be proved like a proposition in the Metaphysicks If Sempronius tell them a story it is sufficient if he be a just man and the narrative be probable but though Religion be taught by many excellent men who gave their lives for a testimony this shall not passe for truth till there is no objection left to stand against it The reason of these things is plain they do not love the thing their interest is against it they have no joy in Religion they are not willing and desirous that the things shall appear true When love is the principle the thing is easie to the understanding the objections are nothing the arguments are good and the Preachers are in the right Faith assents to the revelations of the Gospel not only because they are well proved but because they are excellent things not only because my reason is convinced but my reason yields upon the fairer termes because my affections are gained For if faith were an assent to an article but just so far as it is demonstrated then faith were no vertue and infidelity were no sin because in this there is no choice and no refusal but where that which is probable is also naturally indemonstrable and yet the conclusion is that in which we must rejoyce and that for which we must earnestly contend and that in the belief of which we serve God and that for which we must be ready to die It is certain that the understanding observing the credibility and the will being pleased with the excellency they produce a zeal of belief because they together make up the demonstration For a reason can be opposed by a reason and an argument by an argument but if I love my Religion nothing can take me from it unless it can pretend to be more useful and more amiable more perfective and more excellent than heaven and immortality and a kingdom and a crown of peace and all the things and all glories of the Eternal God 2. That faith which disposes to the holy Communion must have in it a fulness of confidence and relying upon God a trusting in and a real expectation of the event of all the promises of the Gospel God hath promised sufficienâ— for the things of this life to them that serve him They who have great revenues and full bags can easily trust this promise but if thou hast neither mony nor friends if the labour of thy hands and the successe of thy labour fails thee how is it then Can you then relie upon the promise What means your melancholy and your fear your frequent sighs and the calling of your self miserable and undone Can God only help with means or cannot he also make the means or help without them or see them when you see them not or is it that you fear whether he will or no He that hath promised if he be just is alwayes willing whether he be able or no and therefore if you do not doubt of his power why should you at all doubt of his willingness For if he were not able he were not Almighty if he were not willing to perform his promise then he were not just and he that suspects that hath neither faith nor love for God of all things in the world faith never distrusts the good will of God in which he most glories to communicate him self to mankind If yet your fear objects and sayes that all is well on Gods part but you have provoked him by your sins and have lost all title to the promise I can say nothing against that but that you must speedily repent and amend your fault and then all will be quickly well on your part also and your faith will have no objection and your fears will have no excuse When the glutton Apicius had spent a vast revenue in his prodigious feastings he kill'd himself for fear of starving but if Caesar had promised
because the union of Marriage being broken by the adultery that which only remains of obligation is the charities of a Christian to a Christian without the relation of Husband and Wife The first must be kept in the height of Christian dearnesse and communion but if the second can minister to the good of Souls it is an heroick charity to do it but in this there ought to be no snare for theâ—e is no commandment To the answers given to these Cases of Consâ—ience I am to add this caution That although these cases are only the inquiries and concerns of private persons and do not oblige Pâ—inces Parents Judges Lords of Servants in their publick câ—pacity and they may justly punish the offender though the injury be done against themselves yet in these cases the punishment must be no other than as the lancet or the cupping-glasse as fasting or ill-tasting drugs they are painful but are also wholly given as ministeries of health For so sometimes we put crooked sticks into the fire we bow and beat and twist them not to break but to make them strait and useful So we correct the evil inclinations of our children and the intolerable manners of our servants by afflictions of the body and griefs of the mind all is well so long as it is necessary and so long as it is charitable I remember that when Augustus was to give sentence upon a Son that would have killed his Father he did not according to the severity of the Laws command him to be tied in a Sack with a Cock a Serpent and an Ape and thrown into Tiber but only to be banish'd whither his Father pleas'd remembring that although the Son deserv'd the worst yet Fathers lov'd to inflict the least and although in Nature none ought to drink but the hungry and the thirsty yet in Judicatories none ought to punish but they that neither hunger nor thirst because they that do it against their wills exceed not the measures of charity and necessity But both Fathers and Princes Judges and Masters have their limits and measures before they smite and other measures to be observ'd when they do smite O Christian Judge do the office of a pious Father said St. Austin to Count Marcellinus A man should not use a man prodigally but be as sparing of another mans blood as of his own Punâ—sh the sinner pity the man But to conclude these inquiries fully It is very considerable that in many cases even when it is lawful to bring a Criminal to punishment or to go to Law and that it is just so to do yet this whole dispute being a question of charity we are to go by other measures than in the other and when in these cases we do nothing but what is just we must remember that we are Christians and must never expect to go to heaven unless we do also what is charitable Therefore inquire no more into how much is just and lawful in these cases but what is charitable and what is best and what is safest for then the cases of conscience are best determined when our reward also shall greatly be secured For it is in these inquiries of charity in order to the holy Communion as it is in the Communion it self Not every one shall perish that does not receive the holy Communion but yet to receive it is of great advantage to our souls in order to our obtaining the joyes of heaven so is every expression of charity that very action which in some cases may be safely omitted may in all cases where there is not a contradicting duty be done with great advantages For he that thinks to have the reward and the heaven of Christians by the actions of justice and the omissions of charity is like him who worships the Image of the Sun while at the same time he turns his back upon the Sun himself This is so essentially reasonable that even the Heathens knew it and urged it as a duty to be observed in all their sacrifices and solemnities When you pray to God said one of their own Prophets and offer a holy cloud of frankincense come not to the gentle Deity with ungentle hearts and hands for God is of the same cognation or kindred with a good man gentle as a man apt to pity apt to do good just as we ought to be but infinitely more than we are and therefore he is not good cannot partake with him who is essentially and unalterably so Peter Comestor tells of an old opinion and tradition of the Ancients that forty years before the day of Judgment the Bow which God placed in the clouds shall not be seen at all meaning that since the Rain-bow was placed there as a sign of mercy and reconcilement when the Sacrament of mercy and peace shall disappear then God will come to judge the world in fire and an intolerable tempest in which all the uncharitable unforgiving persons shall for ever be confounded Remember alwaies what the Holy Jesus hath done for thee I shall represent it in the words of St. Bernard O blessed Jesus we have heard strange things of thee All the world tells us such things of thee that must needs make us to run after thee They say that thou despisest not the poor nor refusest the returning sinner We are told that thou didst pardon the Thief when he confessed his sin and confessed thee and Mary Magdalen when she wept and didst accept the Syrophoenician when she prayed and wouldst not give sentence of condemnaâ—ion upon the woman taken in adultery even because she looked sadly and was truly ashamed thou didst not reject him that sate at the receipt of Custome nor the humble Publican nor the Disciple that denied thee nor them that persecuted thy Disciples no not them that crucified thee These are thy precious oyntments apt with their sweetness to allure all the world after thee and with their vertue to heal them After thee and thy sweet Odours O blessed Jesu we will run Happy is he that saies so and does so enkindling his charity in the bloud of Christ as St. Ignatius his expression is transcribing his example into our conversation for we can no way please him but by being like him and in the blessings of Christ and the Communion of his body and bloud the uncharitable and revenging man shall never have a portion SECT V. Devotions relative to this grace of Charity to be used by way of exercise and preparation to the Divine Mysteries in any time or part of our life but especially before and at the Communion The Hymn containing acts of love to God and to our Neighbour COme behold the works of the Lord what desolations he hath made in the earth He maketh Wars to cease unto the ends of the earth he breaketh the bow and cutteth the spear in sunder he burneth the chariot in the fire But unto the wicked said God what
unreasonable fears and nothing but a single ray from heaven can give them any portions of comfort and these men never trust to any thing they do or to any thing that is done for them and fear by no other measures but by consideration of the intolerable misery which they should suffer if they did miscarry and because these men can speak nothing and think nothing comfortable of themselves in that agony or in that meditation therefore they can make use of this rule by the proportions of that judgment of charity which themselves make of others and in what cases and in what dispositions they conclude others to die in the Lord if they take those or the like measures for themselves and accordingly in those dispositions address themselves to the holy Sacrament they will make that use of this rule which is intended and which may do them benefit 5. As there are great varieties and degrees of fitness to death so also to the holy Sacrament he that hath lived best hath enough to deplore when he dies and causes enough to beg for pardon of what is past and for aids in the present need and when he does communicate he hath in some proportion the same too he hath causes enough to come humbly to come as did the Publican and to say as did the Centurion Lord I am not worthy but he that may die with most confidence because he is in the best dispositions he also may communicate with most comfort because he does it with most holiness 6. But the least measures of repentance less than which cannot dispose us to the worthy reception of the holy Mysteries are these 1. As soon as we are smitten with the terrors of an afflicted conscience and apprehend the evil of sin or fear the Divine Judgments and upon that account resolve to leave our sin we are not instantly worthy and fit to communicate Attrition is not a competent disposition to the blessed Sacrament because although it may be the gate and entrance of a spiritual life yet it can be no more unless there be love in it unless it be contrition it is not a state of favour and grace but a disposition to it He that does not yet love God cannot communicate with Christ and he that resolves against sin out of fear only or temporal regards hath given too great testimony that he loves the sin still and will return to it when that which hinders him shall be removed Faith working by charity is the wedding garment and he that comes hither not vested with this shall be cast into outer darkness But the words of St. Paul are express as to this particular In Christ Jesus nothing can avail but faith working by love and therefore without this the Sacrament it self will do no good and if it does no good it cannot be but it will do harm Our repentance disposing us to this Divine feast must at least be contrition or a sorrow for sins and purposes to leave them by reason of the love of God working in our hearts 2. But because no man can tell whether he hath the love of God in him but by the proper effects of love which is keeping the Commandments no man must approach to the holy Sacrament upon the account of his mere resolution to leave sin untill he hath broken the habit untill he hath cast away his fetters untill he be at liberty from sin and hath shaken off its laws and dominion so that he can see his love to God entring upon the ruines of sin and perceives that Gods Spirit hath advanced his Scepter by the declension of the sin that dwelt within till then he may do well to stand in the outward Courts lest by a too hasty entrance into the Sanctuary he carry along with him the abominable thing and bring away from thence the intolerable sentence of condemnation A man cannot rightly judge of his love to God by his acts and transports of fancy or the emanations of a warm passion but by real events and changes of the heart The reason is plain because every man hath first loved sin and obeyed it and untill that obedience be changed that first love remains and that is absolutely inconsistent with the love of God an act of love that is a loving ejaculation a short prayer affirming and professing love is a very unsure warrant for any man to conclude that his repentance is indeed contrition for wicked persons may in their good intervals have such sudden fires and all men that are taught to understand contrition to be a sorrow for sins proceeding from the love of God and that love of God to be sufficiently signified by single acts of loving prayer can easily by such forms and ready exercises fancy and conclude themselves in a very good condition at an easie rate But contrition is therefore necessary because attrition can be but the one half of repentance it can turn us away from sin but it cannot convert us unto God that must be done by love and that love especially in this case is manifestly nothing else but obedience and untill that obedience be evident and discernable we cannot pronounce any comfort concerning our state of love without which no man can see God and no man can taste him or feel him without it 3. A single act of obedience in the instance of any kind where the scene of repentance lies is not a sufficient preparation to the holy Sacrament nor demonstration of our contrition unless it be in the case of repentance only for single acts of sin In this case to oppose a good to an evil an act of proportionable abstinence to a single act of intemperance for which we are really sorrowful and as we suppose heartily troubled and confess it and pray for pardon may be admitted as a competent testimonial that this sorrow is real and this repentance is contrition because it does as much for vertue as in the instance it did for vice alwaies provided that whatsoever aggravations or accidental grandeurs were in the sin as scandal deliberation malice mischief hardness delight or obstinacy be also proportionably accounted for in the reckonings of the repentance But if the penitent return from a habit or state of sin he will find it a harder work to quit all his old affection to sin and to place it upon God intirely and therefore he must stay for more arguments than one or a few single acts of grace not only because a few may proceed from many causes accidentally and not from the love of God but also because his love and habitual desires of sin must be naturally extinguished by many contrary acts of virtue and till these do enter the old love does naturally abide It is true that sin is extinguished not only by the natural force of the contrary actions of vertue but by the Spirit of God by aids from heaven and powers supernatural and Gods love hastens ouâ— pardon and acceptation
yet still this is done by parts and methods of natural progression after the manner of nature though by the aids of God and therefore it is fit that we expect the changes and make our judgment by material events and discerned mutations before we communicate in these mysteries in which whoever unworthily does communicate enters into death 4. He that hath resolved against all sin and yet falls into it regulaâ—ly at the next temptation is yet in a state of evil and unworthiness to communicate because he is under the dominion of sin he obeys it though unwillingly that is he grumbles at his fetters but still he is in slavery and bondage But if having resolved against all sin he delights in none deliberately chooses none is not so often surprized grows stronger in grace and is mistaken but seldom and repents when he is and arms himself better and watches more carefully against all and increases still in knowledge whatever imperfection is still adherent to the man unwillingly does indeed allay his condition and is fit to humble and cast him down but it does not make him unworthy to communicate because he is in the state of grace he is in the Christian warfare and is on Gods side and the holy Sacrament if it have any effect at all is certainly an instrument or a sign in the hands of God to help his servants to inlarge his grace to give more strengths and to promote them to perfection 5. But the sum of all is this He that is not freed from the dominion of sin he that is not really a subject of the Kingdom of grace he in whose mortal body sin does reign and the Spirit of God does not reign must at no hand present himself before the holy Table of the Lord because whatever dispositions and alterations he may begin to have in order to pardon and holiness he as yet hath neither but is Gods enemy and therefore cannot receive his holy Son 6. But because the change is made by parts and effected by the measures of other intellectual and spiritual changes that is after the manner of men from imperfection to perfection by all the intermedial steps of moral degrees and good and evil in some periods have but a little distance though they should have a great deal and it is at first very hard to know whether it be life or death and after that it is still very difficult to know whether it be health or sickness and dead men cannot eat and sick men scarce can eat with benefit at least are to have the weakest and the lowest diet and after all this it is of a consequence infinitely evil if men eat this Supper indisposed and unfit It is all the reason of the world that returning sinners should be busie in their repentances and do their work in the field as it is in the parable of the Gospel and in their due time come home and gird themselves and wait upon their Lord and when they are bidden and warranted then to sit down in the Supper of their Lord. But in this case it is good to be as sure as we can as sure as the analogy of these divine Mysteries require and as our needs permit 7. He that hath committed a single act of sin a little before the Communion ought for the reverence of the holy Sacrament to abstain till he hath made proportionable amends and not only so but if the sin was inconsistent with the state of grace and destroyed or interrupted the divine favour as in cases of fornication murder perjury any malicious or deliberate known great crime he must comport himself as a person returning from a habit or state of sin and the reason is because he that hath lost the divine favour cannot tell how long he shall be before he recovers it and therefore would do well not to snatch at the portion and food of Sons whilest he hath reason to fear that he hath the state and calamity of Dogs who are caressed well if they feed on fragments and crums that are thrown away Now this Doctrine and these cautions besides that they are consonant to Scripture and the analogy of this divine Sacrament are nothing else but what was directly the sentiment of all the best most severe religious and devoutest ages of the Primitive Church For true it is the Apostles did indefinitely admit the faithful to the holy Communion but they were persons wholly enflamed with those holy fires which Jesus Christ sent from heaven to make them burning and shining lights such which our dearest Lord with his blood still warm and fresh filled with his holy love such whose spirits were so separate from the affections of the world that they laid their estates at the Apostles feet and took with joy the spoiling of their goods such who by improving the graces they had received did come to receive more abundantly and therefore these were fit to receive the bread of the strong But this is no invitation for them to come who feel such a lukewarmnesse and indifference of spirit and devotion that they have more reason to suspect it to be an effect of evil life rather than of infirmity for them who feel no heats of love but of themselves for them who are wholly immerg'd in secular affections and interests for them who are full of passions and void of grace these from the example of the others may derive caution but no confidence So long as they persever'd in the Doctrine of the Apostles so long they also did continue in the breaking of bread and solemn conventions for prayer for to persevere in the Doctrine of the Apostles signified a life most exactly Christian for that was the Doctrine Apostolical according to the words of our Lord teaching to observe all things which I have commanded you And by this method the Apostolical Churches and their descendants did administer these holy Mysteries a full and an excellent testimony whereof we have in that excellent Book of Ecclesiastical Hierarchy commonly attributed to St. Dionys. The Church drives from the Sacrifice of the Temple meaning the divine Sacrament such persons for whom it is too sublime and elevated First those who are not yet instructed and taught concerning the participation of the Mysteries Next those who are fallen from the holy and Christian state meaning Apostates and such as have renounced their Baptism or fallen from the grace of it by a state of deadly sin or foulest crimes Thirdly they who are possessed with evil spirits And lastly those who indeed have begun to retire from sin to a good life but they are not yet purified from the phantasms and images of their past inordinations by a divine habitude and love with purity and without mixture And to conclude they who are not yet perfectly united to God alone and to speak according to the style of Scripture they who are not intirely inculpable and without reproach And when St.
who did not communicate should be driven from the Churches And Palladius tells that when St. Macarius had by his prayers cured a poor miserable woman that was bewitched and fancied her self to be a horse he advised her Never to depart from the Church of God or to abstain from the Communion of the Sacraments of Christ. For this misfortune hath prâ—vailed upon you because for these five weeks you have not communicated Now this was but a relative crime and because their custome was such which is alwaies to be understood according to their acknowledged measures viz. that only pious persons were to be meant and required in that expectation this will not conclude that of it self and abstracting from the scandal it was in all cases unlawful to recede from the mysteries at sometimes â—or sometimes a man may be called off by the necessities of his calling or the duties of charity or piety A General of an Army a Prince a Privy Counsellor a Judge a Merchant may be very fit to communicate even then when they cannot or it may be ought not to stay But if he can stay and be a good man and rightly disposed by the habits of a good life he ought to stay and communicate and so much the rather if it be in any degree scandalous to go away The reason is because if he be a good man he can no more be surprised by an unexpected Communion than by a sudden death which although it may find him in better circumstances yet can never find him Unprovided But in this case St. Austins moderate determination of the case is very useful Let every one do as he is perswaded in his mind for a man may with a laudable fear and reverence abstain if he shall be perswaded that he ought not to communicate unless besides his habitual grace he hath kindled the fires of an actual devotion and preparation special and so much the rather because he may communicate very frequently and to great purposes and degrees of a spiritual life though he omit that single opportunity in which he is surpris'd and though it be very useful for a good man to communicate often yet it is not necessary that he communicate alwaies only let every pious soul consider that it is argument of the Divine love to us that these fountains are alwaies open that the Angel frequently moves these waters and that Christ saies to every prepared heart as to the multitudes that followed him into the wilderness I will not send them away fasting lest they faint in the way And if â—hrist be ever ready offering his holy body and bloud it were very fit we should entertain him for he never comes but he brings a blessing Question III. But how often is it advisable that a good man should Communicate Once in a year or thrice or every month or every fortnigbt every sunday or every day This question hath troubled very many but to little purpose For it is all one as if it were asked How often should a healthful man eat or he that hath infirmities take Physick And if any man should say that a good man should do well to pray three times a day he said true and yet it were better to pray five times and better yet to pray seven times but if he does yet he must leave spaces for other duties But his best measures for publick and solemn prayer is the custom of the Church in which he lives and for private he can take no measures but his own needs and his own leisure and his own desires and the examples of the best and devoutest persons in the same circumstances And so it is in the frequenting the holy Communion The laws of the Church must be his least measure The custome of the Church may be his usual measure But if he be a devout person the spirit of devotion will be his certain measure and although that will consult with prudence and reasonable opportunities yet it consults with nothing else but communicates by its own heights and degrees of excellency St. Hierom advises Eustochium a noble Virgin and other religious persons to communicate twice every month some did every Sunday and this was so general a custome in the Ancient Church that the Sunday was called The day of bread as we find in St. Chrysostome and in consonancy to this the Church of England commands that the Priests resident in Collegiate or Cathedral Churches should do so and they whose work and daily imployment is to Minister to religion cannot in such circumstances pretend a reasonable excuse to the contrary But I desire these things may be observed 1. That when the Fathers make a question concerning a frequent Communion they do not dispute whether it be adviseable that good people should communicate every month or every fortnight or whether the more devout and less imploy'd may communicate every week for of this they make no question but whether every days Communion be fit to be advised that they question and I find that as they are not earnest in that so they indefinitely give answer that a frequent Communion is not to be neglected at any hand if persons be worthily prepared 2. The frequency of Communion is to be estimated by the measures of devout people in every Church respectively And although in the Apostolical Ages they who Communicated but once a fortnight were not esteemed to do it frequently yet now they who communicate every month and upon the great Festivals of the year besides and upon other solemn or contingent occasions and at marriages and at visitations of the sick may be said to communicate frequently in such Churches where the Laws enjoyn but three or four times every year as in the Church of England and the Lutheran Churches But this way of estimating the frequency of Communion is only when the causes of inquiry are for the avoiding of scandal or the preventing of scruples but else the inward hunger and thirst and the spirit of devotion married to opportunity can give the truest measures 3. They that communicate frequently if they do it worthily are charitable and spiritual persons and therefore cannot judge or undervalue others that do not For no man knows concerning others by what secret principles and imperfect propositions they are guided For although these measures we meet with in Antiquity are very reasonable yet few do know them and all of them do not rely upon them and their own customs or the private word of their own guides or their fears or the usages of the Church in which they live or some leading example or some secret impediment which ought not but is thought sufficient any of these or many other things may retard even good persons from such a frequency as may please others and that which one calls opportunity others do not but however no man ought to be prejudiced in the opinion of others For besides all this now reckoned The
they had zeal for the good of souls Let no man say I repent in private I repent before God in secret God who alone does pardon does know that I am contrite in heart For was it in vain was it said to no purpose whatsoever ye shall loose in earth shall be loosed in heaven we evacuate the Gospel of God we frustrate the words of Christ so S. Austin And therefore when a man hath spoken the sentence of the most severe medicine let him come to the Presidents of the Church who are to minister in the power of the Keyes to him and beginning now to be a good son keeping the order of his Mother let him receive the measure and manner of his repentances from the Presidents of the Sacraments Concerning this thing I shall never think it fit to dispute for there is nothing to inforce it but enough to perswade it but he that tries will find the benefit of it himself and will be best able to tell it to all the world SECT VII Penitential Soliloquies Ejaculations Exercises and preparatory Prayers to be us'd in all the days of preparation to the Holy Sacrament I. ALmighty and eternal God the fountain of all vertue the support of all holy hope the Author of pardon of life and of salvation thou art the comforter of all that call upon thee thou hast concluded all under sin that thou mightest have mercy upon all Look upon me O God and have pity on me lying in my blood and misery in my shame and in my sins in the fear and guilt of thy wrath in the shadow of death and in the gates of hell I confesse to thee O God what thou knowest already but I confesse it to manifest thy justice and to glorifie thy mercy who hast spared me so long â—hat I am guilty of the vilest and basest follies which usually dishonour the fools and the worst of the sons of men II. I have been proud and covetous envious and lustful angry and greedy indevout and irreligious restless in my passions sensual and secular but hating wise counsels and soon weary of the Offices of a holy Religion I cannot give an account of my time and I cannot reckon the sins of my tongue My crimes are intolerable and my imperfections shameful and my omissions innumerable and what shall I do O thou preserver of men I am so vile that I cannot express it so sinful that I am hateful to my self and much more abominable must I needs be in thy eyes I have sinn'd against thee without necessity sometimes without temptation only because I would sin and would not delight in the ways of peace I have been so ingrateful so foolish so unreasonable that I have put my own eyes out that I might with confidence and without fear sin against so good a God so gracious a Father so infinite a Power so glorious a Majesty so bountiful a Patron and so mighty a Redeemer that my sin is grown shameful and aggravated even to amazement I can say no more I am asham'd O God I am amaz'd I am confounded in thy presence III. But yet O God thou art the healer of our breaches and the lifter up of our head and I must not despair and I am sure thy goodness is infinite and thou dost not delight in the death of a sinner and my sins though very great are infinitely less than thy mercies which thou hast revealed to all penitent and returning sinners in Jesus Christ. I am not worthy to look up to heaven but be thou pleased to look down into the dust and lift up a sinner from the dunghil let me not perish in my folly or be consumed in thy heavy displeasure Give me time and space to repent and give me powers of Grace and aids of thy spirit that as by thy gift and mercy I intend to amend whatsoever is amiss so I may indeed have grace and power faithfully to fulfil the same Inspire me with the spirit of repentance and mortification that I may always fight against my sins till I be more than conquerour Support me with a holy hope confirm me with an excellent operative and unreprovable faith and enkindle a bright and a burning charity in my soul Give me patience in suffering severity in judging and condemning my sin and in punishing the sinner that judging my self I may not be condemned by thee that mourning for my sins may rejoyce in thy pardon that killing my sin I may live in righteousness that denying my own will I may always perform thine and by the methods of thy Spirit I may overcome all carnal and spiritual wickednesses and walk in thy light and delight in thy service and perfect my obedience and be wholly delivered from my sin and for ever preserved from thy wrath and at last passe on from a certain expectation to an actual fruition of the glories of thy Kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Amen Amen 1. I am in thy sight O Lord a polluted person sin like a crust of leprosie hath overspread me I am a scandal to others a shame to my self a reproach to my relations a burden to the earth a spot in the Church and deserve to be rejected and scorn'd by thee 2. But this O God I cannot bear It is just in thee to destroy me but thou delightest not in that I am guilty of death but thou lovest rather that I should live 3. O let the cry of thy Sons blood who offers an eternal Sacrifice to thee speak on my behalf and speak better things than the blood of Abel 4. My conscience does accuse me the Devils rejoyce in my fall and aggravate my crimes already too great and thy holy Spirit is grieved by me But my Saviour Jesus died for me and thou pittiest me and thy holy Spirit still calls upon me and I am willing to come but I cannot come unlesse thou drawest me with the cords of love 5. O draw me unto thee by the Arguments of charity by the endearments of thy mercies by the order of thy providence by the hope of thy promises by the sense of thy comforts by the conviction of my understanding by the zeal and passion of holy affections by an unreprovable faith and an humble hope by a religious fear and an increasing love by the obedience of precepts and efficacy of holy example by thy power and thy wisdom by the love of thy Son and the grace of thy Spirit Draw me O God and I will run after thee and the sweetnesses of thy precious ointments 6. I am not worthy O Lord I am not worthy to come into thy presence much less to eat the flesh of the Sacrificed Lamb For my sins O Blessed Saviour Jesus went along in confederation with the High Priests in treachery with Judas in injustice with Pilate in malice with the people 7. My sins and the Jews crucified thee my hypocrisie was the kiss that betrai'd thee my covetous
do thou relieve him and never communicate but be sure to give thy alms for one part of thy offering St. Cyprian does with some vehemency upbraid some wealthy persons in his time who came to the celebration of the Lords Supper and neglected the Corban or the ministring to the Saints Remember that by mercy to the poor the sentence of dooms-day shall be declared because what we do to them we do to Christ and who would not relieve Christ who hath made himself poor to make us rich And what time is so seasonable to feed the members of Christ as that when he gives his body to feed us and that when his members are met together to confess to celebrate to remember and to be joyned to their head and to one another In short The Church alwaies hath used at that time to be liberal to her poor and that being so seasonable and blessed an opportunity and of it self also a proper act of worship and sacrifice of religion and homage of thankfulness and charity it ought not to be omitted and it can have no measure but that of your love and of your power and the other accidents of your life and your religion 12. As soon as ever you have taken the holy Elements into your mouth and stomach remember that you have taken Christ into you after a manner indeed which you do not understand but to all purposes of blessing and holiness if you have taken him at all And now consider that he who hath given you his Son with him will give you all things else therefore represent to God through Jesus Christ all your needs and the needs of your relatives signifie to him the condition of your soul complain of your infirmities pray for help against your enemies tell him of your griefs represent your fears your hopes and your desires But it is also the great sacrifice of the world which you have then assisted in and represented and now you being joyned to Christ are admitted to intercede for others even for all mankind in all necessities and in all capacities pray therefore for all for whom Christ dâ—ed especially for all that communicate that day for all that desire it that their prayers and yours being united to the intercession of your Lord may be holy and prevail 13. After you have given thanks and finished your private and the publick devotions go home but do not presently forget the solemnity and sink from the sublimity of devotion and mystery into a secular conversation like a falling star from brightness into dirt The Ethiopians would not spit that day they had communicated thinking they might dâ—shonour the Sacrament if before the consumption of the Symbols they should spit but although they meant reverence yet they express'd it ill It was better which is reported of St. Margaret a daughter of the King of Hungary that the day before she was to communicate she fasted with bread and water and after the Communion she retired her self till the evening spending the day in meditations prayers and thanksgiving and at night she eat her meal Her imployment was very well sitted to the day but for her meal it is all one when she eat it so that by eating or abstaining she did advantage to her spiritual imployment But they that as soon as the office is finished part wiâ—h Christ and carry their mind away to other interests have a suspicious indifferency to the things of God They have brought their Lord into the house and themselves slip out at the back-door Otherwise does the Spouse entertain her beloved Lord I found him whom my soul loveth I held him and would not let him go He that considers the advantages of prayer which every faithful soul hath upon a Communion day will not easily let them slâ—p but tell all his said stories to his Lord and make all his wants known and as Jacob to the Aâ—gel will not let him go till he hath given a blessing Upon a Communion-day Christ who is the beloved of the soul is gone to rest and every secular imployment that is not necessary and part of duty and every earthly thought does waken our Beloved before he please let us take heed of that 14. But what we do by devotion and solemn religion that day we must do every day by the material practice of vertues we must verifie all our holy vows and promises we must keep our hearts curiously restrain our passions powerfully every day proceed in the mortification of our angers and desires in the love of God and of our neighâ—â—urs and in the patient toleration of all injuries which men offer and all the evil by which God will try us Let not drunkenness enter or evil words go forth of that mouth through which our Lord himself hath passed The Heathens used to be drunk at their Sacrifices but by this sacrifice Eucharistical it is intended we should be filled with the Spirit If we have communicated worthily we have given our selves to Christ we have given him all our liberty and our life our bodies and our souls our actions and our passions our affections and our faculties what we are and what we have and in exchange have received him and we may say with St. Paul I live but not I But Christ liveth in me So that we must live no more unto the world but unto God and having fed upon Manna let us not long to return to Aegypt to feed on Garlick For as when men have drank wine largely the mind is free and the heart at liberty from care so when we have drank â—he bloud of Christ the cup of our salvation the chains of the old man are untied and we must forget our secular conversation So St. Cyprian But the same precept is better given by Saint Paul But the love of Christ constraineth uâ— becuase we thus judge that he died for all that thâ—y which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things are past away bâ—hold all things are become new He that hath communicated and does not afterwards live by the measures of that daies duty hath but acted a scene of Religion but himself shall dearly pay the pâ—ice of the pompous and solemn hypocrisie Remember that he is sick who is not the better for the bread he eats and if thou dost not by the aids of Christ whom thou hast received subdue thy passion and thy sin thou hast eaten the bread of idleness for so saith St Hierom does every one who when he hath taken of the Sacrificâ— of the Lords body does not persevere in good works imitating that in deed which he hath celebrated in mystery Let us take heed for the Angels are present in these mysteries to wait upon their Lord and ours and it is a matter of great caution
which was said by Vincentius Ferrerius The Angels that assist at this Sacrament would kill every unworthy Communicant unless the Divine mercy and long sufferance did cause them to forbear a speedy execution that the blessed Sacrament might acquire its intention and become a favour of life unto us SECT II. Acts of Vertues and Graces relative to the Mystery to be us'd before or at the Celebration of the Divine Sacrament I. The Address IT is well O sweetest Saviour Jesus it is very well that thou art pleas'd to be a daily Sacrifice for us and to become our daily supersubstantial bread to feed our souls Certain it is that we by our daily failings and the remaining pollution of our sins frequently sink down to the bottom of thy displeasure But do thou grant that being refreshed by the Sacrament and recreated by thy grace strengthened by thy spirit and comforted with thy miraculous sweetness my heart and my affections may be lifted up on high II. O grant that by thee my soul may be lifted up to thee and from her self may pass into thee with a pure mind with an unfeigned Religion with an unblameable faith and burning devotion with filial piety and a profound reverence For thou art the true God the word of life the bright Image and splendour of thy Fathers Glory the reward of the Saints and the Lord of Angels the brightness of eternal light the unspotted mirrour of eternal purity An Act of Love Thee alone O Lord my soul desires thou art eternal sweetness in my soul. If the perfume of thy oyntment be sufficient to all the the world what is the refection of thy Table If we live by every word proceeding out of thy mouth what felicity and joy is it to live upon thee the eternal Word chewing thee by faith and digesting thee by love and entertaining thee in our hearts for ever How shall not my bowels melt into thee the Sun of righteousness How is it that I do not forget all deliciousness besides thee A single pleasure poor and empty wearying and unsatisfying hath often made me to forget thee Now that thou art truly and effectively present with me how can any other pleasure in the world seem pleasant to me any more I will forget all the world I will quit all the world to live on thee if thou pleasest O dearest Saviour but do thou open thy ark and repositories of sweetness and fill my soul and all my desires that there may be no room for any thing else Thou hast called unto me to open my hand and thou wouldst fill it But I would not open it I held the world fast and kept my hand shut and would not let it go But do thou open it for me not my hand only but my mouth not my mouth but my heart also An Act of Desire after Jesus O blessed Jesus that hast said it is thy delight to be with the sons of men Thou hast made thy self the companion of our journeys the light of our ignorance the remedy of our infirmity Dwell with me sweetest Saviour and delight in me It is no small thing I ask O my God can it ever be that my God should delight in me That 's too much O God Grant that I may delight in thee and do thou delight to pardon me to sanctifie and to save me Grant that I may never offend thee that I may never grieve thy Holy Spirit that I may not provoke the Angel of the everlasting Covenant to anger But thou delightest in the works of thy hand in the graces of the Spirit in thy own excellencies and glories Endue me with thy graces fill me with thy excellencies let me communicate of thy spirit and then enjoy these thy delights with thy servant for thou canst not else delight in me Thou art thy own essential joy and everlasting blessedness and inseparable felicity But this thou hast said that thou delightest to be with the Sons of men because thou truly lovest us Blessed be thy Name for ever and ever An Act of Thanksgiving O Blessed Saviour Jesus I adore the secrets of thy eternal wisdom I admire the mysteriousness of our salvation and I love and praise and give all possible thanks to thee the Author of our spiritual life the Deliverer that came out of Sion the Redeemer of thy people the spoiler of all spiritual wickedness in heavenly places the conqueror over sin and death the triumpher over Devils thou hast taken from our strongest enemies all their armour and divided the spoil Grant that I may know nothing but thee account all things loss in comparison of thee and endeavour to be made conformable to thee in the imitation of thy actions and obedience of thy Laws in the fellowship of thy sufferings in the communion of thy graces and participation of thy glories that beginning here to praise thy Name according as I can I may hereafter for ever rehearse and adore thy excellencies according to the measures of glory for ever and ever Amen Ejaculations and Meditations to be us'd at any time but particularly after the Consecration of the Symbols when the holy Man that ministers is bringing the Sacrament 1. O holy Jesu I behold thee stretch'd upon the Cross with thy arms spread ready to embrace and receive all mankind into thy bosome 2. I come Lord Jesus I come O take me to thee in the comprehensions of an unalterable of an everlasting love for thou hast opened thy heart as well as thine arms and hast prepar'd a lodging place for me in the seat of love 3. I see the Symbols the holy bread and the blessed cup but I also contemplate thy authority establishing these rites I adore thy wisdom who hast made these Mysteries like thy own infancy I see thy self wrapt up in swadling clouts and cover'd with a vail I hear thy voice blessing these Symbols thy mercy reaching out my pardon thy holy Spirit sanctifying my spirit thy blessed self making intercession for me at the eternal Altar in the heavens 4. Thy infinite arm of mercy is reached unto us and our arm of faith reaches unto thee Blessed be Jesus who will be joyned unto his servants 5. This is thy body O blessed Saviour Jesus and this is thy blood but these are not thy wounds My Lord had the smart but we the ease his were the sufferings but ours the mercy he felt the load of stripes but from thence a holy balm did flow upon us He felt the thorns but we shall have the Crown and after he had paid the price we got the purchase Holy Jesus Blessed be God 6. I adore thy unspeakable goodness I delight in thy unmeasurable mercy I rejoyce in thy cross I desire to know nothing but the Lord Jesus and him crucified O let the power of thy Cross prevail against all the powers of darkness let the wisdom of thy Cross make me wise unto salvation let the peace