destroy themselves first with their Fears before they actually fall into a Mischief that cannot be avoided and what man can pretend to such a state of ease and indolency When therefore the Son of God makes a Disciple he calls him to the practice of self-denyal to the contempt of the World and all its vanities to the mortifying of his Passions and the abjuration of Pleasures that is he bids him live no longer like a Beast but like a man and a Christian and in lieu of these impertinencies he promises him all that is great and good in a better life and this was the method he made use of when he comforted the first-born of his Family his Apostles upon his departure And what could be more eloquent rational or pâ—rswasive than such a discourse about patience from him who had his sufferings in inmediate prospect For the thoughts of such persons being fixt on Heaven they talk of the place as if they were there already their stile is more brisk and vigorous than ordinary and their words make a deeper impression such was our Saviours last Sermon and such the Epistles of the Apostles which they wrote in their bonds Jesus having discovered Judas forewarned Peter and bound the rest of his Disciples to mutual Love and Charity at length tells them that it was the greatest Argument of the heighth of passion and shortness of reasoning to be troubled at the adversities of this present life that he who is strong in Faith is above the assault of secular dangers and whoever is called to embrace the Gospel is out of the reach and beyond the Fears of temporal afflictions that when you imprison him you do not rob him of his Liberty and when you kill him you cannot hurt him for he that depends on the Crucified Jesus for Salvation is secure that if he suffer with his Master he shall reign with him Such a man is assured that there is so large a provision made for him in Heaven that it baffles all carnal objections and stifles the very sense or remembrance of pain for his Master is ascended to his Father's Right Hand not so much to glorifie his own Body as to intercede for us that we may be glorified there he is now our Advocate and from thence he shall come again at the last day to be our guide that where he is we may be forever with him nor can any thing hinder our Union with him to Eternity who have been united to him here in the Offices of Piety our natural corruptions cannot obstruct the Union our Saviour is the way nor can our ignorance do us injuries he is the Truth and the Attempts of death it self are vain and of no force he is the Life For as long as the Father and he are one and so they shall be to Eternity all the Power and Wisdom of the Godhead must dwell in him bodily and who can resist Omnipotence or outwit the only Wise God Especially when it is considered that his Goodness is commensurate to his Power and his Wisdom so that the meanest of his Servants when he strengthens them shall be able to do all things and the greatest of the Miracles that Christ himself did shall be less than what his Followers shall be able to do nor is it to be doubted how this can be Since the Prayers of a good man recommended in the Name and upon the account of the Merits of his Saviour answer all devout ends and purposes and for this end probably the afflictions of this life were made the Portion of Christianity that if our Duty did not our needs might bring us often on our Knees for God denies nothing where the love of the Supplicant is bright and ardent and makes it self illustrious in a life of Obedience for upon such a man the Holy Dove descends and becomes his Comforter his Companion and his Friend it instructs him when ignorant it relieves him if opprest it encourages and defends him when timerous it bestows all that is good and protects from all that is evil this Spirit is the Vicar unto the Bishop of Souls it was primarily designed to lead the Church into all Truth and to secure it from perishing under the persecutions of its Enemies and to supply the want of the bodily Presence of the Redeemer of Mankind this Spirit was to unriddle all the Mysteries of Religion and to reveal what was hid from the cognizance of Ages to make those on whom it should descend the darlings of God and to give them Heaven upon Earth in the Enjoyment of Holy Thoughts and a quiet Mind which none of the disturbances of this Life shall be able to ruffle or discompose When the Soul is fixt on this Foundation being put out of the Synagogue signifies nothing nor can Death drest in its most formidable shape create any terrors for our Master hath told us that as in the deepest of his sufferings the blest Angels ministred unto him so they shall to his obedient followers and that their resurrection shall succeed his for the greatest instances of mutual love are beneath the indearments that are berween Jesus and a good man the Branches are not so firmly joyned to the Vine as the devout Soul is to its Saviour it is a Member of his Body and as dear to him as his own Honour This Union neither distance of Place nor alteration of Circumstances can dissolve 't is a Union cemented by the Blood of God and is built on a Foundation that stands most sure it is built upon God's Knowledg who are his and upon his Servants departing from all iniquity but it is a Union that is better felt than described and no one knows the happiness of it but he who hath experimented it As long as this Friendship lasts the Christian is impowered to do every thing that may glorifie his Master and benefit himself and what himself cannot do by his own Abilities shall be supplied by the Interests of his Saviour and procured by his own intense Supplications but if any man wilfully dissolve this Concord like a Branch cut off from the stock he withers and dies and becomes fit for nothing but to be cast into Eternal Flames Now nothing can break this Union but Vice and Iniquity for that which makes the Holy Jesus the only Beloved of his Father is his Obedience to the Divine Laws and his Passionate love to the world that engaged him to dye for it and whoever loves God and his Neighbour shall be made Partaker of all his Favour and his Heart shall be filled with Joy and can there be a more cogent Argument than this to endear Religion to a well inclined mind To be made the Friends of God the Elect and Beloved of the Saviour of the World the Pupils of the Spirit of Truth and Peace to have one Comforter to redeem them and another to sanctifie them and to have the Honour of being God's Ambassadors and the Witnesses
much devotion and an audible voice he heartily says Amen as a testimony of his strongest desires that it may be so and of his firm belief that God will make it so The Advice in these words Take and eat or drink this in remembrance c. And this puts him in mind 〈◊〉 duty what faith and thankfulness he ought to exercise at the reception of this blessed Sacrament And therefore he says Lord thou hast said it behold the Son of thine handmaid let it be unto me according to thy word I desire to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified and to learn nothing but a conformity to his death and resurrection The word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory the glory as of the only begotten Son of God full of Grace and Truth § 17. Tho the devout Communicant brings with him unsatisfied ardors yet he takes care to receive decently and reverently not to snatch at the Bread nor to drink greedily for it is a Feast of temperance and therefore the Bread is given in a little piece and the Wine was anciently mixed with Water as for other reasons so for this that it might not offend the Head He therefore eats not as one whose antecedent fastings have made him hungry but as one who is little concern'd how his Body be provided for so the longings of his Soul be satisfied with spiritual food and he drinks not with the men of Corinth to be drunk at this Feast of Charity nor so much to allay his natural thirst as to satisfie the intense desires of his mind inflamed with love to his Saviour and the Holy Sacrament For at God's Table we are to eat and drink not to the satisfaction of our sensual appetites but to the sanctification of our Souls § 18. While the mysteries are distributeing to those who receive after him the good man examines his obligations to God's bounty in giving him one opportunity more of serving him in the beauties of holiness He remembers that Jesus being made a little lower than the Angels for the suffering of death was crowned with glory and honour and considers that now he is crucified with Christ that he might live to God and that the life that he now leads in the flesh he lives by the faith of the Son of God who loved him and gave himself for him He offers himself a sacrifice to God and for the future looks on himself as something consecrated and that can no longer without most prodigious Sacriledg be put to any profane use For how shall he dare to defile that which God hath sanctified For if Belshazzar were punish'd for quaffing in the Vessels of the Temple how much more shall that man be plagued that pollutes the residence of the Son of God And how shall that man presume to appear again before God that sins against him after the receipt of such blessings § 19. After this considering that this Sacrament is called the Cup of blessing and a holy Eucharist he expresses his gratitude in solemn Thanksgivings saying either * Constit Ap. l. 8. c. 13. Psal 34. which the Ancient Church used at this solemnity or Psal 111. rendring verse 6. thus He hath showed his people the power of his works and given us the bread of Angels Or this that follows Give thanks O my Soul unto God the Lord in the Congregation from the ground of the heart Say unto God how wonderful art thou in thy works How glorious are the things which thou in thy goodness hast prepared for the poor Thou hast prepared a Table for me my Cup did overflow and I have tasted and seen how good the Lord is I have eaten the Bread of God with joy and drunk his Wine with a merry heart for God hath accepted me My Soul is filled as it were with marrow and fatness and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips Blessed is he whom thou chusest and receivest unto thy self he shall dwell in thy Courts and shall be satisfied with the pleasures of thy House even of thy holy Temple As long as I live will I magnify thee in this manner and lift up my hands in thy name for thy loving kindness is better than life it self An offering of a free heart will I give thee and praise thy name because it is so comfortable I will love the Lord as do all his Saints I will bless him and magnify him for ever For this God is our God for ever and ever He shall be our guide unto death Glory be to the Father c. § 20. To this he subjoins an act of love and resignation I will love thee O Lord my God for the Lord is my defence and my refuge I will devote unto thee my body soul and spirit which are thine for thou hast redeemed them thou God of Truth Jesus hath loved me and laid down his life for me therefore will I adore him He is the Priest the Sacrifice and the Altar on him will I depend for salvation He hath given me the Sacrament as a confirmation of his former love and as a pledge of future favours therefore will I reverence and worship him world without end Lord I give my self to thee and I know whom I have believed and am perswaded that he is able to keep what I have committed to him against that day Write in my heart the laws of love and thankfulness that I may no longer dare to sin against thee For how shall I now escape if I neglect so great salvation § 21. To which may be added this prayer out of the Liturgy of St. Clemens GRant Blessed God that we and all thy Servants who have been admitted to communicate with Jesus by Faith and the participation of the Sacramental mysteries may obtain remission of our sins and be so confirm'd in the ways of godliness and rescued from the dominion and impositions of Satan that being filled with thy Holy Spirit we may here be made worthy Members of Christ's Body and at last become heirs of everlasting life through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Saviour Amen § 22. Just before his leaving the Church the good man thus prays Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy Salvation Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people To be a light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of thy people Israel After which he speaks courteously and friendly to all his fellow-communicants for they are his brethren and the Eucharist is the bond of that unity and this serves him instead of the Kiss of Charity which was anciently given at this Sacrament tho now the custom be antiquated And because the Love-feasts succeeded the Eucharist which are also now disused that he may do something that is equivalent thereunto he invites one or more of his poorer Neighbours for the rich are in no need
the Living God Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee in whose heart are thy ways Blessed are they who dwell in thy House they will alway be praising thee Glory be to the Father c. To which he subjoins this Act of Love to ' Jesus I love and admire thee my dearest Jesus I honour and adore thee above all things the most glorious and useful things in nature are contemptible in comparison of thee to know thee is beyond all notion and to love thee better than triumphs I am poor without thee comfortless and forlorn but Heaven it self didst not thou reside there would lose its amiableness Oh the dearest name of my adorable Saviour how sweet is it beyond the taste of delicacies to my pallat how pleasant beyond the Harmony of Angels to my ears how doth the sound of those syllables refresh and chear my drooping soul And when Satan urges to me the remembrance of my sins how do I affront and baffle all his attempts by the powerful Name of Jesus I can tender thee nothing O my most obliging and benign Saviour as a recompence of the infinite and miraculous testimonies of thy Compassion but a few impotent vows and verbal acknowledgments my whole stock of services were my powers as great and my life as long as that of Angels would never repay one half of the debt which I owe thee but if love and adoration will make thee satisfaction I will love and adore thee for ever I will religiously preserve thee in my memory where nothing shall efface the characters From this day I renounce all other loves and turn Apostate from the world to be a Convert to Jesus Oh that I had no necessities of nature to gratifie no distractions of the World to divert me that I might always celebrate and always love my Jesus How much time should I redeem from impertinencies and consecrate to Religion and the service of my Redeemer and what a Heaven upon Earth would this be I am content to be poor and a Pilgrim to be despised and persecuted so I may enjoy thee for where thou art there is Heaven and where thou art not there is Hell and Death and Destruction seize that man whom thou desertest Lord keep me firm to these resolutions that I may live with thee and love thee for ever Amen § 33. This Act of Love is also accompanied with the following Act of Resignation So amiable is the fairest of Ten Thousand and so beneficial are his injunctions that I should baffle my interests as well as my Reason and my Conscience should not I devote my self to his service from this day forward therefore I make Jesus my Master his Majesty will I reverence and his sanctions obey and into his hands do I resign my own will the faculty and powers the acts and exercise of it What my dearest Master loves shall be my delight and I will detest what his soul abhors and he alone shall be my guide who is my best friend my Redeemer came from Heaven to show mankind the way thither and thither after a short stay on earth he returned that he might open that Kingdom to all Believers I can never wander when he conducts me I can never hunger when I am treated with the Bread of Life nor thirst while the Fountain of Salvation is near me nor be naked while his Righteousness cloaths me how shall I doubt who am instructed by unerring Wisdom or fear who am protected by Omnipotency I will therefore live and dye in the service of Jesus that I may experiment the satisfactions and comfort of a good Conscience here and of a Crown of Glory in Heaven Amen The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the Communion of the Holy Ghost be with me and with all the Servants of God now and for evermore Amen Amen FINIS
Reward from my Father that seeth in secret And tho on every day I give my God my earliest attendance yet on the days of my solemn Vows I bind my self to prevent the morning that in the beginning of the watches I may pour out my heart like water before the Lord. Thus every day will be a day of business and traffick and every night I shall be some steps nearer to my Fathers Palace The Collect. GRant Lord that when I serve thee in secret I may do it with a true and upright heart and that all my publick performances may be encouragements to others to love and praise and adore thee that I may pray fervently and thank thee heartily and read carefully and meditate seriously and fast humbly and live conscientiously all the days of my life in hopes at my death to be admitted into thy presence through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen CHAP. I. Of the Obligations of Religion especially the Sacraments to Holiness WEre the Christian Religion to be judg'd of by the excellency of its Author and the purity of its Precepts by the wisdom of its contrivance and the usefulness of its designs it would need no other Credentials that it came down from Heaven and that its Original was from God But if we judg of it by the practices of its professors who under the mask of Piety allow themselves in all sorts of sensuality who scruple not to break all their Vows made to their Maker tho confirm'd and renew'd in the presence of Men and Angels and sealed by the most precious Body and Blood of the Son of God who call themselves Saints and yet live more irregularly than Brutes This very consideration is enough to encline a man to applaud the Morals of the Heathen World and to believe that either that body of holy Precepts is not the Gospel of the blessed Jesus or such men are not professors of it so strongly are the generality of Mankind in a loose and ungovernable Age bent towards Vice and Ruin Nor can it otherwise be expected when men put on the form of godliness in defiance to the power of it and think that the Redemption wrought out for them by Christ is only a deliverance to do all sort of abominations Nor can I give a better Reason why the Christian World are so degenerate from truth and holiness than that so few of us reflect on the Obligations of the Covenant that we have enter'd into with God tho so often and so solemnly acknowledged by us that we confidently lay claim to the Priviledges but never mind the Duties of Religion May our gracious God so mercifully forgive me and the rest of sinners our former neglect as we may resolve for the time to come to alter our course and put on more becoming Resolutions and faithfully make good what we have so solemnly promis'd our Redeemer For when I seriously and as becomes a Christian consider with my self the Relation which every baptized person hath to the Son of God and that that initiatory Sacrament was design'd as to free him from his share in Adam's sin so to engage to a life of Obedience to the Laws of our blessed Saviour and that therefore we are buried with him in baptism that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life reckoning our selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord I cannot but remember that among all those holy and beneficial Precepts which he hath blest the World with that is none of the least in advantage and usefulness that injoins me to do as he did in remembrance of his Passion the great cause of our redemption and happiness and encourages me to frequent communicating because as often as I do eat that bread and drink that cup so often do I show forth the Lords death till he come so often do I call to mind my old promises of obedience and conformity to the divine prescription and enter into new engagements to love and adore my Saviour How eagerly therefore ought my soul to pursue after and to embrace all Opportunities of coming to that holy Table where God exhibits himself Happy are those Servants of his who stand continually before him and keep themselves always in that frame of mind that fits and encourages them to communicate every day Happy are those men who only want Occasions but are never defective in intention or preparation who are never without the Wedding Garment nor without Oyl in their Lamps How did our dear Saviour long to institute the Sacrament * Luke 22.15 with desire did he desire to eat the passeover at the close of which the Eucharist was celebrated before he suffered And shouldst not thou my soul as earnestly long to receive it Were this Sacrament like that of Baptism not to be re-iterated or but once only in my life to be received and that just before my death with what ardors of mind should I wish to be dissolv'd that I might thus also be with my Saviour And must the Blessing because it is common be for that Reason cheap Is the bread of Heaven become contemptible because it may be my daily food But remember O my soul it is not enough to approach this Venerable Altar unless thy Repentance be sincere thy Sorrow hearty thy Resolutions unalterable thy Piety flaming and thine Alms generous My preparations should be the same with those of dying persons not of those who have lived loosly all their days in hopes to make their faint desires of Heaven when the pleasures of the Earth have deserted them to pass for true love to those joys but of those who all their lives long have been crucified to the world My care ought to be so to approach Gods Table on Earth as if I were the next moment to be carried by Angels to eat bread with him in his Kingdom It is true I am too sensible that this is more easily talkt of than done that when the good Man is acting the Priest and sacrificing himself to God then Satan is at his right hand perplexing him And I have sadly experimented how difficult it is to deny my self to put off the Old Man and to crucifie my transgressions But is it not O my soul much more sad and difficult more uneasie and distracting to be confin'd to utter darkness and to endure the tortures of Hell in a remediless Eternity To argue from a present state of ease is a shortness of discourse that is not to be allowed Were I never so passionately bent to gratifie an unreasonable Lust I doubt not but I should be afraid to proceed did any man but threaten me with immediate death if I should pursue my unlawful design And ought I not with greater Reason to forbear when that God who can neither lie nor deceive threatens me with everlasting damnation Am I afraid of the
the only Region of Rest For I may be secure in the love of the world but I can never be safe but in the love of Jesus This divine Vertue is always content when it is in trouble it is not distrest when under the greatest perplexities it is far from despair when it is persecuted it is never forsaken of its God or its hopes and when it is wounded it cannot be slain for it always carries about with it the marks of a dying Redeemer and desires to know nothing but Christ and him crucified that it may die to the world 3. According to what a man loves so is his denomination in this world and so shall his judgment be in another We call a man Covetous from his love of money and Voluptuous from his love of Pleasure and Envious from his love of Revenge and so also we call a man a Christian from his love to God and his Neighbour For on those two hang all the law and the prophets And in the proceedings of the last day a man shall be examined not what he hath known nor what he hath believed not what he hath hop'd nor what he hath talkt of but what he hath loved and accordingly the love of the World shall damn the sinner while the love of Heaven makes the Saint happy Now this love can never be compleat unless it reflect upon God my Neighbours and mine Enemies and be particularly conversant with the Offices of Religion The Collect. For the 14th Sund. after Trin. ALmighty and Everlasting God! give unto me and to all thy people the increase of Faith Hope and Charity and that we may obtain that which thou dost promise make us to love that which thou dost command through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen CHAP. X. Of the Love of God I Tremble when I read that sentence * 1 Cor. 16.22 If any man love not the Lord Jesus let him be Anathema Maranatha And yet it is but just that the Punishment should be proportion'd to the Offence and that that man should be hated by his Maker who hath no affection for his Saviour in whom there is nothing wanting that may endear him to our Respects and our Love 1. There is in him the greatest Perfection and the most admirable Excellencies Can I with patience behold the Miser condemn himself to the Mines for the sake of his Mammon and a bigotted Devoto use wonderful Abstinences and submit to great austerities only to serve his desires of Applause Can I every day see how the lovers of Pleasure and Revenge wilfully make themselves dismal spectacles of Ruin and Desolation and be all the while unconcern'd and take no delight to please my adorable Redeemer and save my own soul * Wis 13.3 c. If men being delighted with the beauties of the Heavenly Host took them to be Gods let them know how much better the Lord of them is For the first Author of Beauty hath created them and by the beauty and greatness of the Creatures proportionably is the Maker of them seen But it is too sadly found true that the love of the world grows to a prodigious stature of a sudden while the love of God and Holiness is pincht in its Infancy and starv'd in its Swath-bands It is a Plant which seldom meets with a fit Soil and when it grows up can never be brought to maturity without the constant beams of the Sun of Righteousness a plentiful portion of the dew of Heaven and a great care to preserve and cherish it 2. I ought to love my Saviour because I have the greatest Obligations to him For his love to me brought him from Heaven to Earth from a Throne to a Cross and thence into Hell for my Redemption Greater love than this hath no man shown than that he should lay down his life for his friend said the compassionate Jesus And is there no higher degree no nobler instance of love O my infallible Master Yes certainly thine was when thou wert content to die for thine Enemies Many waters could not quench it and it was stronger than death Now if the love of an undone world conquer'd God's Anger made him suspend his Justice and degrade his Son should not the love of God much rather engage me to conquer my Lusts Could I die O my best Friend a thousand times over for thee yet should I not love thee according to thy deservings But this is our great folly and the cause of all our miseries we are set on fire under the Pole and we freeze under the Aequinoctial the world makes us passionate Lovers while the Son of God cannot 3. To love God is the most natural and easie of all Recompences Shouldest thou Lord now require from me the burthensom Attendances and the expensive Sacrifices that were injoin'd under the Old Law I could have no Reason to complain but to love thee sincerely is the cheapest of Returns For when my bodily weakness or infirmities will not suffer me to fast or watch or wear sackcloath and my poverty hinders my giving Alms yet I am never so poor never so weak but I can love and tho perhaps I cannot hear every day nor pray every hour nor communicate every week yet nothing hinders but that I may love my God every moment and that will bring me to Eternity 4. The Love of God is the Fountain of acceptable Obedience and proportionable to my Love to God is my Zeal and my Devotion my Resolution and my Piety and when once these Ardors cool every thing that is good languishes and decays To be affrighted threatned and compell'd to serve my Master is a dishonour to my Christian performances and fullies all their Beauties but it is a Sacrifice that God is well-pleased with when the Offering is brought freely and offered chearfully and sent up in flames to Heaven being offered on the Altar of Love For Jesus is the Author of salvation to those only who so love him and the Grace of God is only with them who love his Son in sincerity 5. A due Reflection upon this Sacrament is a great encouragement to love him who instituted it for by it we are made one Body of which our blessed Saviour is the Head And therefore among other Rites that intimated this Union it was the ancient use nor is it yet prohibited in our Church but left to discretion to mingle Water with the Wine in the holy Chalice to testifie the Mystical Union that is betwixt Christ and his Church For as Water and Wine mix and incorporate so are the faithful Communicants made the same body with the Son of God For in the Opinion of * Cypr. Epist 63. Euseb Emis Hom. 5. de Pasch c. the Ancients the Wine is the Figure of our Redeemer's Blood and the Water of the many Nations purchas'd by it Besides all which it is further considerable that of worldly things a man may love what he shall never enjoy or
if he happen to enjoy it he may afterward lose it or the very fruition may cloy and nauseate which was expected to please and satisfie But no man ever yet fell in love with Jesus and lost his aim no man ever yet converst with him but he experimented the pleasure of such amiable society and could be content to dwell with him for ever And so shall the good man For what shall separate him from the love of Christ Tribulations Afflictions and Death it self cannot and what then can When therefore I say I love God I vow and endeavour to keep his Commandments Dare I call my self the Disciple of an humble Jesus and be a slave to my Pride the servant of a chast and temperate Saviour and wallow in the puddles of Lust and Luxury Dare I give the Reins to my Anger and profess my self a follower of the pattern of Meekness How can I call my self a Christian who deserve not the title of a Man that am as gluttonous as a Wolf as intemperate as a Swine and as lustful as a Goat The death of my Saviour was design'd to redeem me from the power and practice as well as from the punishments of Vice For the Son of God was manifested to destroy the works of the Devil And how can I say I love him if my heart be not with him The Collect. For the 6th Sund after Trin. O God who hast prepared for them that love thee such good things as pass man's understanding pour into my heart such love towards thee that I loving thee above all things may obtain thy promises which exceed all that I can desire through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen CHAP. XI Of the Remembrance of my Blessed Saviour NOW one solemn act of my love to God and one great duty of the Gospel is to remember my best friend my Saviour And it is a particular advantage of the Christian Religion that as all holy signs in general are given for the confirmation of the divine promises so the most sacred Offices of the Gospel are proper and genuine Representations of the Death and Resurrection of that Saviour who is the Author and Finisher of our Faith and Institutor of our Religion Thus in the Sacrament of Baptism the Ancients in those warm Countries dipt all who came to that Ordinance except those who were baptized on their death-beds * Rom. 6.4 burying the Proselyte with his Saviour in Baptism They used also to dip them three several times under water to exhibit a Memorial of our Saviour's being three days buried and the Mystery unless in case of Necessity was at first celebrated but once in the year the Catechumens being baptized * Tertul. de Bapt. cap. 19. at Easter only which was the day of our Saviour's Resurrection But more especially was the Eucharist designed evidently to set before our eyes Jesus Christ crucified among us by bringing to our remembrance the shame and sufferings of a dying Saviour our merciful God applying himself to the most ductile and easie of all our Faculties For our Understandings require much teaching and we must proceed from lower methods till we come to be capable of demonstration And what man is there among the wisest of Adam's sons that can expound the Riddles of Providence or the Mysteries of the written Law of God The Will follows the guidance of the Understanding and yet when it is so directed it is a blind bold and daring faculty and for the most part stubbornly neglects to do its duty But the Memory needs nothing but sensible Objects to inform it and is the strongest and most retentive of all our Faculties and such as few men want And in truth every act of Obedience is but a remembrance of my duty and every Transgression an act of forgetfulness For as often as I sin I cease to mind a dying Saviour * Psal 9.17 and the wicked who shall be turn'd into Hell are the same with the people that forget God The Sacrament therefore of the Eucharist is a Commemoration of Jesus and his Passion without which all his other performances could not save us For all the Rhetorick Eloquence and demonstration of his Sermons all his divine and beneficial Miracles together with the unblamable and unspotted Holiness of his Life and Conversation could never have been sufficient to have redeem'd us without his Crucifixion 'T was his death only that was the Original of our life and salvation What need then hath my dull and unaffected soul of such encouragements to give my Saviour a place in my thoughts The very performance of the duty is its own Recompence and properly agrees to those Notions of Vertue that all Mankind bring with them into the world it being natural to every one to be thankful and to remember his Benefactors * Athen. Deipnos l. 5. c. 1. The Heathens had their Annual Festivals to commemorate their wise men and Philosophers to call to mind their wise sayings and their prudent just and vertuous carriage The Jews also had their set-times wherein they honoured the Memories of their Prophets and good men as the Christian Church appointed Anniversaries which they called the Birth-days of their Martyrs it being a solemn act of Justice to have the Righteous in everlasting Remembrance And if the Church were so careful to commemorate the Atchievements of her Members is it credible that she should forget the miraculous performances of her Head In nothing was her care so conspicuous as in constituting a Memorial of the Prince of the Martyrs and giving the day of our Saviour's Passion a place in the Church-Kalendar in the times of the Apostles if we may believe Antiquity For the Remembrance of Jesus ought at all times to be sweet as honey in all mouths and as musick at a banquet of wine For what can be so rude and disingenuous as to slight so obliging a friend so great and so good a person especially when he hath left me such illustrious testimonies of his love which put me in mind of his humiliation for my sins For if the Picture or the Garment of an absent Friend puts me in mind of the person whose they were and inclines me to grateful Reflections on my Benefactor how much more should I be obliged when such lively Representations of a Saviour executed bleeding and dying for me are exhibited to me as the Sacrament affords me A Sermon may give me a passionate character of my crucified Redeemer but nothing can represent his Passion so to the life as the Holy Eucharist that is the most affecting preaching For in that ministration his sufferings are acted over again in the View of his Disciples Hence the Primitive Christians celebrated the Holy Communion at first every day and afterwards every Sunday and Holy day throughout the year adapting all their additional Circumstances and Ceremonies to this end and purpose that they might represent the Passion Hence was it that they built their
to pray as heartily for my most malicious enemies as for my own salvation And I cannot but remark the folly of the Romanists who tho they say all the rest of their prayers on Good-Friday kneeling do alter that posture when they pray for the Jews as they also omit saying the Amen and that for these poor Reasons * Durand Ration lib. 6 cap. 77. 1. because the Jews mock'd our Saviour with bowing the Knee and saying Hail King 2. Pecause all their prayers cannot alter the Divine Decrees nor shorten the time their conversion not being to commence till the fulness of the Gentiles be brought in But the Arguments are vain and frivolous and the usage savours of a narrow and a contracted soul For to ingross salvation to my self or party is Christian Judaism it is impropriating the Messiah and depriving all others of the capacity of being happy So that if I consider my Relation to the rest of the world either as a Man or a Christian I cannot but account my Adversaries whether they be so to my person or principles in the number of my Friends and such as do me good For by envious exclaiming against my Irregularities they engage me to more circumspection and greater care in performing my duty to my God the world and my self And they give me occasion to manifest my Patience my Humility and Self-denial with many other Vertues And were the Malice of my Enemies never so causeless and inveterate and the Injuries done me never so great yet they have not crucified me But so did my Saviour's Enemies deal with him while he forgave them and interceded for them And hath not that my Saviour * Matth. 5.24 injoin'd me rather to leave his service undone than that my duty to my Neighbour rather to leave my Gift at the Altar unoffer'd than to make the Oblation without being in perfect charity for * Tert. de Orat. c. 10. Optat. lib. 6. Chrysost in loc c. the Fathers generally understand that passage of the Holy Sacrament ‖ Chrysost To. 6. p. 622. If I cannot forgive ten days fasting will not fit me for this Altar For where Envy and Malice dwell neither the Fast nor the Festival do any good Where Envy abides thence the Spirit of God is banisht And what hopes can that man have of salvation who is destitute of the Holy Ghost There is nothing therefore that can excuse me from the practice of this so amiable a Vertue which intitles me to a conquest of my Passions and makes me Master of my self Revenge is not my Province God will repay And tho it may make me for a while uneasie not to pursue it yet I am sure it is much more uneasie to be damn'd and to be confin'd to eternal torments The Collect. BLessed Jesu who when thy Sacred Body suffer'd its acutest pains and when thy Innocent Soul felt its most afflicting Agonies wert ready to implore thy Father's Forgiveness on thy most imbitter'd Adversaries be thou pleas'd to forgive my Enemies Persecutors and Slanderers and to turn their hearts and so enable me by thy Holy Spirit to walk in thy steps that I may bless them who curse me and do good to them who hate me and pray for them who despightfully use me whether they are my Enemies justly or without a cause willfully or unwillingly by what means or way soever they have done me Injury Father forgive them as I desire thou wouldest forgive me For no man can use me worse than I have deserved at thy hands and when they curse then do then bless And be thou pleas'd to remove from me and all Mankind all Bitterness Wrath Anger Clamor Evil speaking and Malice and whatever grieves thy Holy Spirit that we may be kind one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for thy sake hath forgiven us that the Spirit of Love may subdue all desires of Revenge that we may be Followers of those Rules which be first pure then peaceable and at last may be admitted into the Habitations of Eternal Concord and Unity through thy Merits and Mediation who art the great Reconciler the Angel of the Covenant Jesus Christ the Righteous Amen CHAP. XVI Of Love to the Holy Sacrament WHen I love any man sincerely every thing that hath a Relation to my Friend is dear to me and of a particular value I look upon a Ring given me by a living Friend as a Remembrancer of the Donor and his Affection but if it be given to me at his death and that death a Martyrdom and the Ring be dipt in the sacred blood * Act. Passion ss Perpet Faelic p. 34. which was sometimes practis'd by the Martyrs it upon that very account becomes venerable in my eyes and I reflect on it with a deep respect intermixt with love and such is the blessed Sacrament to me When Jesus was crucified his Passion for the time was very terrible the Earth shook the Rocks rent and the Sun was Eclips'd but such things easily die in our memories unless reqresented by something visible by some outward sign The sight of Calvary must needs engage a modern Traveller to remember a bleeding Saviour who died there sixteen hundred years agon And as the marks of our Redeemer's Foot steps when he ascended which made their impression in the ground and continued visible * Paulin. Ep 11. ad Severum till the Fifth Century could not but presently recall into the thoughts of but a transient considerer the History of the Triumphs of Jesus which were the Reward of his sufferings and such sights without doubt wrought wonderfully in the primitive Martyrs when the Blood of a dying Redeemer was yet warm and those Memorials not defac'd who lookt upon the places with Respect and there built Churches to perpetuate the Memory of the Mercy It is true afterwards those places administred to superstition and I am sorry to say so did the Sacrament too and to Idolatry also tho it owes its Original to divine Institution When therefore I contemplate these symbols I not only remember my Master as he hath obliged me till his second coming but I also put an Estimate on his Institution I account it an Honour to be admitted to his Table and I long for frequent opportunities of going thither and nothing can satisfie me but such an Entertainment For the highest degree of Holiness is most acceptable And I am no Christian if I love not my God with all my heart And nothing less than a vigorous passion and the desires of a necessitous person deserve to be called love to the Eucharist Nor dare I desire it to gratifie any by-end but to save my soul For if I long for it only out of wantonness the Bread may feed my body but it will never supply the wants of my soul the Wine may cheer my spirits but never refresh my mind Nothing less than transports can express the sense of the
to the Honour of God also inviting all occasional Comers to buy and offer liberal Sacrifices as an Exchange tempts Customers it also making provision for Proselites and strangers of such Money as was current at Jerusalem which only was to be offered to the Lord and for the poor that they might borrow tho not on Usury yet on Pawn so as they might not comeempty handed before the Lord the place of this Traffick being only the outer Court of the Temple into which were admitted even the Gentiles and Uncircumcised why was our Masters Zeal so Fervent With great Reason doubtless was this done for all that Jesus did was by the guidance of the Infallible Spirit nor was it without reason that this Action was called the greatest of our Saviour's Miracles and one of the most solemn Declarations that he was the Son of God VVas it not a great Affront to the Divine Majesty to make a Butchers stall or a Bankers shop of his House To alienate it from its right use and instead of a house of Prayer to make it a den of Thieves of Publicans and Extortioners and of the Practicers of the Arts of Fraud and the Methods of Cheating VVas it not Irreligious to serve the Ends of Covetousness more than the designs of Piety For these Markets were at first held only near the Temple but at last through the greediness of the Priests were brought into the first Court of it to their no little gain while they managed the Markets either by their own servants or by exacting a Tribute of all those who there erected stalls and perhaps selling one and the same sacrifice over and again to several Persons Now what could create in mens minds mean thoughts of Religion and depreciate the service of the Almighty if such Actions did not And how could men chuse but abhor the Offerings of the Lord This therefore incited the Zeal of our dearest Lord and it was a sad Omen that the Priests themselves should in a little time be banisht from the House of God and turn'd out of his service because they had corrupted and huxter'd the VVord of God and handled it deceitfully And now O my soul and my body are not you the Temple of God And ought not the same measure of Zeal to be in me that was in my Redeemer Ought I not to cleanse this Temple and to expel thence all brutish Affections all covetous thoughts all self love and love of the VVorld all pride and vain glory and to keep my self undefiled in the VVorld fit for the residence of God and the indwelling of his Holy Spirit for if a man defile the Temple of God shall not God destroy that sinner I will therefore devote my self intirely to my Maker what he loves shall be my delight and I will honour him here in his Person in his Will in his Ordinances in his Habitation in his Revenue and in every thing else that appertains to him that I may hereafter enjoy him and live with him for ever Amen The Collect. ALmighty and most Merciful Saviour who in the heighth of thy Glories wast mindful of thy Humiliation and thy sufferings as thou wert contented to be made the Son of man tho by an ineffable generation thou wert the Son of God so new make me thy most unworthy because thy most disobedient Servant create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me that my soul whom thou hast redeemed may always sing thy Praises and celebrate thy bounty that all my faculties and all my members being consecrated to thee and thy service my Zeal may be flaming and unquenchable my love to thee victorious over all self love or love of the world my love to my neighbours generous and disinterested and my constancy and resolutions to be thine unalterable that I may preserve thy living Temple free from all Pollation till I come to the New Jerusalem where the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it through the Merits und Mediation of thee my only Saviour and Redeemer Amen The Anthem for Palm-Sunday ETERNITY I. MY Eager Soul 's upon the wing To view th' Court of th' Heavenly King So passionate 't is those Joys to taste and know That it disdains all pleasures here below For what can this sad world impart To ease the longings of my Heart Which Heavenly Love hath wounded with its Dart II. The Palace Glorious was where God Made his perpetual abode E're his Omnipotent Word bad all Things be The Mighty Undivided Trinity Resided in Eternal Light Before the Sun appear'd in sight Or Time was impt to make his earliest flight III. With Joy the Father then look't on The Beauties of his only Son Miraculous Child whose great Sire cannot be Above his Son in Age or Dignity From both these did proceed the Dove Which gently up and down did move And fill'd the place with Harmony and Love IV. In this vast space the Equal THREE With mutual Sentiments did agree That God the Father should the World create The Son redeem the Spirit regenerate Transcendent Fountain whence did flow What infinite Pity could bestow To make men Gods and bring down Heav'n below V. No longer can my Soul forbear It Sighs and Wishes to be there That it may celebrate the Father's power Love Jesus and the Holy Spirit adore For tho my Saviour's Presence here My Soul to Scepters does prefer On Earth she dreads to lose him there 's no fear Monday before EASTER THE Monday before Easter was called the Holy and Great Monday or the second day of the Paschal-week and the whole week was called the Great week ‖ Chrys To. 5. p 541 c. not because the days were longer than ordinary but the blessings were greater because of the great and stupendious Blessings not to be comprehended or utter'd which God this Week conferred upon the World in the Death and Resurrection of our blessed Saviour and because it immediately preceded the great Festival as Easter is called Joh. 19.31 or * Bern. Ser. 3. in domin Palmar because of the four great Days in it viz. The Procession of Talm-Sunday the Institution of the blessed Sacrament on Maundy-Thursday the Passion on Good-Friday and the continuance in the Grave on Saturday which was the Eve to our blessed Masters Resurrection The Week also was stiled the Passion-week the Week of Fastings dry Diet and Penances in which the Devouter sort did eat nothing but Bread and Salt and drank nothing but Water from which strictness no day was exempt except the Lords Day on which it was a great Crime to Fast ‡ Constit App. l. 5. c. 17. alii Every day of this Week was a day of business the whole time from the days of the Apostles being spent in Prayers Watchings and Mortifications ⸫ Chrys ub Sup. p. 586. Tribunals and Courts of Justice were now shut up no Pleadings no Suits of Law no publick Business no
putting Words in a wrong Letter in making some unnecessary Repetitions and mis-accenting the Greek and other obvious Mistakes and to Correct the following ERRATA Part I. P. 9. l. 20. ad the Bible the Liturgy c. p. 16. l. 2. r. Prescriptions p. 21. l. 10. f. such r. many p. 30. l. 9. f. for r. because p. 47. l. 18. f. anger r. malice p. 80. l. 15. f. Rhetorick r. reason p. 82. l. 1. r who l. 23. r. celebrating l. 26. r. adapted p. 115. l. 4. del and. l. 23. r. say it p. 158. l. 19. r. brighter p. 196. l. 3. f. so r. to be p. 199. l. 6. r. Legate p. 75. del but left to discretion Part II. p. 2. l. 10. r. embleme p. 4. l. 11. del for ever p. 35. l. 18. r. but are p. 42. l. 8 r. cram p 69 l. 14. r. conquer hearts p. 103. l. 6. del only p. 107. l. 15. r. is in p. 136 l. 22. r. not my p. 179 l. 18. f. some r. also the. p. 193. del without all doubt p. 198. l. 3. r. the prayers were p. 242. Marg. Lib. 8. c. 14 15. PART I. Containing GENERAL RULES FOR THE Worthy Receiving OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT OF THE LORDS SUPPER 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 77. The more any man Loves God the more is he inwardly made partaker of the Divine Nature PART I. THE INTRODUCTION Of the Circumstances of Religious Worship in private IT is fit that every man who intends to live well should set himself Rules how to spend every portion of his time as usefully and as much to Gods and his own honour as he can And because the Reputation of Religion is secured and its Interests fenc'd by Ceremonies and Circumstances and holy Offices require a fit place and select opportunities wherein they may be performed it will be necessary first to speak of those Circumstantials which are so conducive to the advantageous discharge of this duty And First That it is requisite that the considerate Christian should have a place of Retirement is I suppose disputed by none but the rash the vicious and ungovernable If therefore a mans worldly concerns will afford it him the devoutly inclined should allow himself a Closet which Room tho not by a solemn consecration yet by designation and use should be deputed to the private discharge of the duties of Piety Now a Closet is an Oratory and therefore whensoever I go thither I ought to be free from worldly considerations and wholly intent upon the business of eternity for who ever turned a Chappel into a Counting-house or a Shop And this also brings a new advantage with it For whenever I go there again the view of the place brings to my mind the good thoughts devotions and resolves that when I was last there took up my time and consequently with ease puts me afresh upon the same performances And therefore whenever I go tho but occasionally into my Closet I am bound to say a short Collect before I leave it as he who by chance only goes through a Church looks on himself obliged to make an halt and to say his prayers For let the apartment seem what it will to others it is to me the house of God it is no place for sport or society for loose thoughts or vain words it is a place of retirement and not of company and therefore should be most remote from noise and the disturbances of the house and because it is the place I first go to after I am out of my bed and the last that I take my leave of before I go to sleep this course not only secures Gods blessing on my undertakings since I begin nothing without begging his help nor end any thing without giving him thanks but withal it makes me careful and devout since I must do nothing upon which I dare not desire Gods blessing The situation of the Closet should be properly if conveniently toward the East and that way the Window should look not only because it is the pleasantest situation and introduces the early light one of the best of Gods temporal Largesses but because in that part of Heaven probably my Mediator and Advocate sits at the Right Hand of his Father for in his Humane Nature he must be confin'd to some certain place and toward that part the ancient Christians and to them I must always pay a deep veneration used to direct their prayers This place should be furnisht either for Necessity or Ornament Some things are necessary for the discharge of the duties of reading praying and meditating which every good mans prudence will dictate to him And here for my self I profess That I think my self always bound to pray on my knees or in the more humble posture of prostration and to read standing if my health will give leave because then I hear the Commands of my dearest Master and Saviour but I would meditate sitting if walking be not more acceptable to me because the man who would meditate to advantage should be no way discomposed by any thing of uneasiness that may disturb the mind or body The ornamental furniture should be plain but so ordered that it may appear like an Oratory and be a representation in little of the house of God For that some Ornament is necessary I am convinc'd because our blessed Saviour in the time of his lowest humiliation would not celebrate the Passeover but * Mar. 14.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a room that was furnisht and adorn'd and fit for such a Sacred Office To the Window there should be fixt a little Table and that should be my Altar whereon I may offer my God a broken and a contrite heart pierc'd through with the Darts of Divine Love and the Ardors of Zeal for the honour of my Saviour A little remote from it should be a Desk whereon the Book of God should be always plac'd and always open which very sight is an intimation of my duty Nearer the door and that in the Church was the place of Penitents should be a space where I may prostrate my self in the time of my sorrow and my humiliations and there also should be a little Treasury like the Treasury of the Temple or the Poor Mans Box in our Churches where on every day in which I fast and on other occasions as God shall enable me especially when I have received some signal deliverance from danger or other testimony of Gods love and favour I may lay up something for the poor by which means I shall have a stock of Charity always by me whenever I see a fit Object for it And no necessity shall make me alienate what hath been so devoted for it is Corban consecrated to God and his service tho perhaps I meet not the same day with some indigent person to bestow it on For how poor and naked are my Humiliations or Thanksgivings without Alms On the days of my humiliation I would have no other
the Doctrine of the Book of God obliging them to learn the Psalter and the Epistles of St. Paul without book while we think that study unworthy of our selves or our posterity We plead it 's true as St. Caesarius of Arles says the difficulty of learning the Rules of Faith and Holy Life without book especially if we cannot read But if the most ignorant and unlearned can find out a way to remember a prophane or lewd Song or Story will their ignorance excuse them if they have not learnt the Precepts of the Gospel Men have wit and memory enough to attain without reading to that which the Devil teaches them for their destruction But when they are to receive from the mouth of their blessed Saviour the Laws that will make them eternally happy then they plead ignorance But whatever others do or my self have heretofore practis'd I profess for the future that I will love thy Law And do thou think upon me O Lord according to thy word wherein thou hast caused me to put my trust Thou hast given me thy Holy Scriptures that through them I might have hope in all capacities and in all distresses of mind body or estate For tho I read there that Lucifer sinn'd himself beyond the hopes of Redemption and that there is a sin against the Holy Ghost that cannot be pardon'd and a sin unto death that is not to be pray'd for yet the state of sinful men is declared to be different from that of the fallen Angels And what these particular Transgressions are and wherein they consist is not plainly revealed in those Oracles that no man might despair of mercy but withal that every man might beware of the smallest sin as if it were of the greatest magnitude the deepest dye and most dismal consequences From this Book also I learn That at what time soever a sinner repents and doth that which is lawful and right he shall save his soul alive For who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect since it is God who justifies and who is he that condemns since Christ hath died and is risen again and sitteth at the right hand of God to make intercession for us Lord be merciful to my former sin for my neglect hath been great and keep me stedfast to my duty for the remainder of my life that tho I cannot see my God yet I may every day hear him and converse with him in his word and being inlightned thereby may learn to depart from evil The Collect. For the 2d Sunday in Advent BLessed Lord who hast caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning grant that I may in such wise hear them read mark learn and inwardly digest them that by patience and comfort of thy Holy Word I may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed Hope of Everlasting Life which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ Amen CHAP. IX Of Christian Love WHen I have thus adorn'd my soul with saving knowledg my next employment is strictly to examine my practise and what degrees of divine love I have attained to now I better feel what that love is in my heart than I can describe it with my tongue For when I am in the Palace of divine Love I am in St Paul's Third Heaven where tho the Apostle without doubt saw ravishing sights and such as were worth dying for and heard admirable discourses such as the King of Glory entertains his favorite Angels with yet he assures us he heard and saw * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 12.4 what could not be uttered or described But as it is said of Heaven tho it does not appear what we shall be yet we have a glorious character of that City given us in Holy Writ so it may be said of Christian Love Great things are spoken of it and such as render it venerable in the eyes of all wise and discerning persons For 1. It is a complication * Aug. de C. D. l. 15. c. 22. Nihil aliud virtus est quà m or do amoris Id. de C. D. l. 14. c. 7. Amor inhians habere quod amatur cupiditas est idem habens eóque fruens laetitia est c. of all Vertues When it longs for what it affects it is desire and when it enjoys it it is gladness when it flies what it abominates it is fear and when it falls into the hands of its enemies it is sadness says St. Austin and * 1 Cor. 13. a greater than St. Austin hath told me That Love is the most comprehensive Vertue For Charity suffers long and then it is meekness it is kind and then it is courtesie it envies not and so it is peaceableness it vaunteth not it self and so it is modesty it is not puft up and so it is humility it doth not behave it self unseemly and then it is called decency seeketh not her own and then it is publick-spiritedness is not easily provok'd and then it is patience thinketh no evil and so it is simplicity and innocence rejoiceth in the truth and so it is verity and spiritual gladness beareth all things and so it is Christian fortitude believeth all things and so it is faith hopeth all things and so it is assurance endureth all things and then it is magnanimity and it never fails and so it is perseverance it purifies more than the flames of Martyrdom and is a better Alms than the world dispos'd of to charitable uses it enlightens more than all reading and all contemplation and it makes a man a Christian while Knowledg and Miracles only make him a Prodigy In a word it is all Philosophy and all Religion and he alone truly knows how to live who knows how to love Nay it is Heaven upon Earth says the devout Poet For We know not what they do above But that they sing and that they love Nay it is God himself * 1 John 4.8 For he that loves not knows not God for God is Love ' Who is able to describe the beauties of Holy Love says St. Clement * Ep ad Corinth p. 63 64. The height to which it carries us is unsearchable it unites us to God and it covers a multitude of sins it is the bond of Union and the bane of Schism and Divisions and without it nothing can please God It was nothing but Love that brought down Jesus from Heaven to shed his Blood for us and nothing but Love that can carry us thither whence he came down on Earth 2. Love is the only Original of all our satisfactions in this Life it sweetens all sufferings and makes difficulties easie for it subdues whatever opposes it True Love is a flame enkindled in the mind by our holy Saviour which preys upon and destroys all secular and carnal affections its eye is fixt on Heaven and its wings spread toward that bright Palace and thither it endeavours with unwearied speed to fly because that is
in constant peace and godliness that all thy faithful people may do unto thee true and laudable service and through thy protection may be free from all adversities and devoutly given to serve thee in all good works that all who are baptized into the Death of thee O Holy Jesus may die unto sin and rise again unto newness of life Peace and Love hast thou made the sum of the Old Law and injoyned as a new Commandment in the Gospel Thy first Message to the World was peace on Earth and thy last Legacy was peace to thy Disciples Be thou pleas'd therefore to convince all Hereticks to reclaim all Schismaticks and to correct the prophane and irreligious cement our breaches allay our passions pacifie our minds grant that we may all speak the same things and that there be no Divisions among us convince us that tho different Modes of Worship shall not disinherit a man of thy favour yet disobedience to Government is a great sin Let the Holy Dove hover over those waters and allay the tempest and let it teach the world to follow after the things that make for peace that Jerusalem may be as a City at unity with her self and all her children may love and praise thee who with the Father and the Holy Ghost livest and reignest ever one God world without end Amen CHAP. XIV Of Alms. IT is also another end of this Sacrament to engage all who receive it to pity the poor the Alms of the Communicants being usually called * Vid. Hebr. 13.15 the Sacrifice because rendred by way of Oblation to God and given to the poor as his Bedesmen And canst thou O my soul imagine that thou dost duly observe the Lord's day and reverence his Sacrament when thou comest to Church without thy Oblation Nay such an honour was it in the Primitive Church to give Alms that all men were not thought worthy the honour of being admitted to the Offertory tho permitted to enjoy the other priviledges of Religion * Constit Apost l. 4. c. 5 c. For neither the unjust Publican nor the Usurer nor the Executioner nor any promoter of debauchery and looseness were allowed this liberty For they seriously discountenanced all Fraud and Vice and accounted that man a Reprobate who endowed a Church with the spoils of the poor They would not admit of that Shop-keeper to the Communion who put upon the ignorance of a Customer and made him pay more for what he bought than the thing was really worth nor would they allow that man to give his Estate to pious uses who had gotten it by Extortion and robbing the Fatherless And how should this present Age blush when we consider this especially when we remember that where no Law bound but that of Natural Conscience some Heathens were ashamed to commit such Iniquity Thus * Vit. Isidor apud Phot. cod 242. p. 555. Hermeas of Alexandria when an ignorant person offer'd to sell him a book for less than the value corrected the illiterate man's mistake told him the book was more worth and gave him the full price for it And thus * Knolles Turk Hist S. Selim. p. 561. the great Selim the first of that Name when in the Agonies of death his beloved Bassa Pyrrhus advised him to erect an Hospital with the money which had by his Order been unjustly taken from the Persian Merchants smartly replied ' Wouldest thou O my Pyrrhus that I should bestow the Goods of other men wrongfully taken from them upon works of Charity and Devotion for my own Praise and Vain-glory No see they be again restored to the right Owners and then I may die in peace Where are the Christians who think themselves thus obliged And how few are there of us who do not fall short of these Examples of Heathens and Mahometans And in truth Justice is a duty so sacred that my Alms are Robbery without it the best actions which are founded in injuries being such sacrifices as were offered in Tophet where Murther was the Oblation And to this day it is a * Bava Metz. 59.1 Maxim among the Jews tho the greatest Usurers in the world that when the Sanctuary was destroyed all the gates of prayer were shut up except the gate of fraudulent usages that is that tho God may be deaf to all other prayers yet his ears are always open to the cry of those who have been injured defrauded and rob'd My Alms therefore ought to be of Goods justly gotten and of them must I make my distribution with all chearfulness and as often as God gives me any opportunity Nay it is my duty to seek for occasions of beneficence and to * Rom. 12.13 be given to Hospitality that is to be earnest and unwearied in the pursuit of all opportunities of being charitable Which command was so intirely complied with in the Apostles time that * Acts 4.34 every believer sold his Estate and made one common stock for themselves and their poorer brethren the Apostles being the distributers of that stock to every man as he had need And tho some men affirm that this custom lasted but a little while because in St. Paul's time * 1 Cor. 16.2 the men of Corinth were obliged to lay aside every Lord's-day what they devoted to charitable uses yet this Argument does not prove what it is intended to demonstrate For probably they gave their praedial visible Estate to the Church and yet might reserve something out of what they got by their Trades their Profession or Labour to be given weekly to the indigent And when at last that method was antiquated * Tert. Apol. cap. 39. every Christian was obliged once a month or oftner as he was willing to give somewhat to the Church-Treasury And this money was imployed to feed the poor to bury the dead to maintain Orphans and to put them into a capacity to get their own living to make provision for the decrepit by Age or Sickness to cherish the Shipwrack'd and to relieve those who were condemn'd to the Mines or banish'd or cast into prison for the sake of God and Religion So universal was their Charity and so liberal their Inclinations in those good days How then can any man satisfie himself that he is prepared to come to this Sacrament who is negligent of this duty Do not the Mysteries exhibit to me the greatest Instances of my Saviour's Charity and Compassion And can I be his Disciple unless I imitate his Vertues St. Gregory the Great was so scrupulous that when News was brought him that a man was found dead within his Territory he suspecting that he died of want and that the not timely relieving every indigent person did cast an Aspersion on his Government he for that Reason abstained for some time from the Holy Communion And tho I am not willing to cherish such unnecessary scruples yet that man does very rashly thrust himself upon God who neglects
any opportunity of doing good when it is offered to him For who can expect that his Saviour should give him the dainties of his Table who denies his crumbs to his necessitous brother Nay the Ancients rather than suffer the poor to want thought it no Sacriledg to sell the Church plate for their Relief And St. Caesarius when he died made no other Will but this I bequeath all that I am worth to the use of the poor and St. Paulinus Bishop of Nola sold himself into captivity to redeem the son of a distrest Widow There is no way but this to make Freinds of the Mammon of Unrighteousness nor is there any likelier method to restore us to God's Love and Favour Mercy ard Truth are the Image of God And * Chrysost To. 4. Hom. 13. in 1 Tim. p. 302. tho the Heathens define a man to be a Rational Creature and capable of Knowledg the Scripture defines him otherwise when it tells us that the merciful person is only a man and that there is nothing so venerable in Nature as the Almoner The Collect. For Quinquages Sunday O Lord who hast taught us that all our doings without Charity are nothing worth pour into my heart that most excellent Gift of Charity the very Bond of Peace and of all Vertues without which whosoever lives is counted dead before thee Grant this for thine only Son Jesus Christ his sake Amen CHAP. XV. Of Love to my Enemies BUT it is not enough for me to love the brethren and to do good to the Houshold of Faith I must also love my Enemies and do good to them who intend my Ruin For if ye only love them who love you what reward have ye Matth. 5.44 c. do not even the Publicans the same And if you salute the brethren only what do you more than others do not even the Publicans so Be ye therefore perfect be ye merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful for be makes his Sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust Our blessed Saviour therefore says to me and to all his Disciples Love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you that you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven This is the perfection of Vertue this the glory of our Christian profession and herein do the Laws of our blessed Master out do all other Schemes of Morality * Vid. Tert. ad Scapul Athenag Legat. c. Nor could either Jew or Gentile approach to so sublime a degree of compassion which is truly Evangelical and a Lesson only learnt in the School of Christ And therefore the Confessor at Alexandria whom Cassianus mentions answered like himself when his Heathen Adversaries pursued him with all sort of Contumely and Reproaches and at last disdainfully ask'd him What Miracle did your Master Christ ever do When he made this Return It is no mean Miracle that he hath wrought in me that I can tamely hear your Reproaches and not be concern'd at the Injury that I can suffer you to revile me and can at the same time bless and speak well of you At this Sacrament I commemorate the Death of my Redeemer who died for his Enemies and offer'd his Merits to those who crucified him as well as to those who oblig'd him And this is that particular Accomplishment of the Divinity that is proposed to our imitation For whereas an attempt to be like God in Power and Majesty degraded Lucifer and his confederate Angels and Resolves to attain to the degree of wisdom which the Creator possesses banish'd Adam and undid his posterity the transcribing the copy of the divine goodness and compassion will re-instate the world into a better Paradise and give men the place which the Fallen Spirits deserted Nay many times an act of mercy proves successful beyond expectation and delivers an Adversary not only from temporal wants but from eternal horrors And I may make a Convert of that Enemy whom I pity and relieve And if to know the art of true Charity be a greater priviledg than to be crown'd with the Majesty of Kings then to convert a soul is a nobler Alms than to give a Million of money to the stock of the poor And it is very remarkable that our Saviour hath not only made this duty of forgiving Injuries * Mat. 6.12 14 15. a necessary and indispensible qualification to fit me for the receiving of God's pardon but seems to imply that upon one act of Obstinacy one Refusal to obey this Injunction my former sins that have already been forgiven me shall be brought again to remembrance and be the cause of my condemnation For when in the * Mat. 18.27 34. Parable ten thousand Talents were remitted to the disabled Servant by his Lord and the Obligation cancell'd yet when the same Servant dealt unmercifully with his Fellow servant his Lord delivered him to the Tormentors till he should pay all that was due to him And so shall our Heavenly Father do to us if we from our hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses And for this Reason I cannot but think it a commendable custom in the Greek Church in which during the celebration of this Office not only the Deacon who assists begs pardon of the consecrating Priest as St. Chrysostome's Liturgy injoins * Smyth 's Acc. of the Greek Church p. 143. but the Priest who consecrates takes care to reconcile himself before he approaches the Altar and the assisting Priests also bow toward the people as an instance of their begging forgiveness if they have offended any one there present After which every Lay Communicant immediately before he receives says aloud Christians forgive to which the Congregation answers God shall forgive you And in the Primitive Church the Deacon was bound to say aloud Let no man who is not in perfect Charity dare to approach this Table And the better to demonstrate the Churches Resolutions in this case as Easter was the most solemn time of giving the Eucharist so in the foregoing week on Maundy Thursday the Penitents were solemnly admitted to Communion For whereas on that day the blessed Sacrament was always administred because that was the day on which it was instituted * Innocent Ep. 1. ad Decent cap. 7. Ambr. li. 5. Ep. 33. so on that day also were the Church-censures remitted because on that day our Holy Saviour delivered himself into the hands of the Jews for our Redemption the * Conc. Carthag 4. Can. 80 82. Penitents being brought up to the Altar before which they kneeled and being reconciled by the Imposition of the Priests hands were afterward communicated All which were Instances of the Church's Charity and an excellent Rule how we ought also to demean our selves toward our Enemies I therefore think my self bound
devout person on such an occasion ' Lord how sad was I when I came last from thy Holy Temple And had I not great Reason to be so considering that I left thy service to be involv'd again in the world How tedious hath been the time since I last communicated with my Jesus And when shall I come again and appear before him that I may meet my Saviour in his Mysteries and converse with him with delight and true satisfactions * Psal 42.12 Like as the hart pants after the water-brooks so longs my soul for thee O God My soul is athirst for God yea even for the living God When shall I come and appear before the presence of God My Saviour when he first ordained this Sacrament exprest himself with Earnestness and Vehemence * Luke 22.15 With desire have I desired to eat this passeover that is according to the expressions of the Synagogue Greek I have heartily desired I have passionately longed to do it and yet he had no need of Sacraments to strengthen or confirm him And should there not be in me the same mind and the same measure of Love that was in my Redeemer Wise men tell us that three things incite the will and create love Excellency Difficulty and Absence and all these meet here 1. This is the most sublime Mystery of our Religion and the most excellent And therefore the Fathers give it the most Honourable Titles and call it the Mystery and the Sacrament of Sacraments c. Nor can any enjoyment make me more happy but being admitted to the Marriage-supper of the Lamb in Heaven For neither eye hath seen nor ear heard nor can the heart of man conceive the present Favors which God in this life bestows on them that love him 2. It is no easie slight thing to be a Worthy Communicant The deepest Sorrow the heartiest Resolutions the most unalterable Vows and the strictest Obedience are qualifications indispensibly necessary to worthy communicating The Table of God is not lightly to be talkt of much less presumptuously to be addrest to And therefore the Fathers when they mentioned the Holy Eucharist because their Congregation was mixt only hinted at things and subjoin'd * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys Passim Those who have been partakers of that Table know what we mean And others are not fit for such sublime Notions And for this Reason * Sec. 46. de Verb. Dom. St. Austin preaching on that Text My flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed purposely avoids a plain Explanation of the words And that he might tempt that part of his Auditory which had never received to a love to that Sacrament he uses this way of Reasoning ' If thou who art a Catechumen art willing to be instructed in this Mystery now is the Feast of Easter enter thy name among those who are to be baptized at the Festival and then thou shalt be inform'd If the time do not invite thee let curiosity incline thee And for this Reason the Table whereon the consecrated Mysteries were plac'd was concealed * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Curtains from the view of the people during the first Service and Sermon till the Communion-Office began 3. The day that I long for is to come and the substance represented under these symbols is in Hnaven For they shall contain the Son of Man till the time of the consummation of all things But till I see him in his Glory this is the most proper and most advantageous way of enjoying him I know not how long it shall be ere I die and go to the lover of my soul and therefore I will converse with him in his Ordinances nor know I but I may die to morrow and therefore I will if I can communicate to day For how can I live without him either in Person or Representation who is the light of my eyes the joy of my heart and should be dearer to me than my Life and Being It is a strange whimsey I acknowledg in * De Hierarchia p. 611. Ed. Rotomag Father Celot the Jesuite That the multitude of Masses bring so much glory to God and so much profit to souls that there could not be too many if not only according to Moses's wish all the Lord's people were Priests but also if all men and women if it were possible and all inanimate bodies and even brute beasts were turn'd Priests to celebrate the Mass And yet every Priest in the Romish Church is bound to say Mass every day Nevertheless I must say it were well to be wisht that both by Priest and People this Sacrament were addrest to with greater frequency and more Reverence and that all the parts of the Creation were imployed in praising their Creator For can I be happy too osten or too much I will therefore love every thing that bears the divine Image stampt upon it and nothing shall occasion my thinking the Table of the Lord contemptible The Collect. MY soul O Lord is delighted with thee and with whatscever hath a relation unto thee Thy Name is Holy and Reverend in my thoughts thy Word Powerful and sacred in my ears thy Body and Blood sweeter than Honey to my mouth and beyond all Delicacâ—es to my taste Give me therefore gracious Lord frequent occasions of calling upon thy Name of hearing thy Word and receiving thy Mysteries that my Saviour may dwell in my heart by Faith here and hereafter I may dwell with him in the Vision of his Glory to all eternity Amen CHAP. XVII Of Resignation and Self-denial NOR must this love which I prosess to my God and his Ordinances be faint and weak but it ought to be strong enough to conquer all that opposes it For can I say I love God if I deny him preference in my esteem to all things else For if I love Father or Mother or any other Relation or my own Ease or Life it self beyond my Saviour I am not worthy to be called his Disciple and am unfit for the Kingdom of Heaven 'T is a Maxim in the School of Jesus * Mat. 16.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theophil in loc If any man will come after him let him deny himself and that not by way of Ceremony or Complement with the Elder Brother in the Gospel who said I go sir but went not but with the greatest sincerity and the most intense zeal For to be a Christian is to be a Follower of the Son of God who paid so exact a deference to his Father that tho his own and his Father's will were the same yet he protests that he came into the world * John 6.38 not to do his own will but the will of him who sent him and that when nothing else could do it when Sacrifices and Burnt Offerings were insignificant then was it Recorded of him that he came to do the will of God And what greater Instance could be given of
the men and the Deaconesses to that belonging to the Women and this they were advised to do with this sober caution * Const Ap. ub supr that no one should salute his brother deceitfully and treacherously as Judas kist our Lord when he betrayed him In the Liturgy of St. Basil the people are bid to salute one another that they might unitedly confess the Father Son and Holy Spirit the consubstantial and inseparable Trinity and then they repeated the Creed and in that of St. Mark there is a prayer to be said at the performance of this Ceremony wherein ' They desire God to look down on his Church and to bestow on them his Love and his Assistances and the Gifts of the Holy Ghost that with a pure Heart and a good Conscience they may salute one another with the Holy Kiss not in Hypocrisie but in purity and innocence in one Spirit in the bond of peace and of Love that they might become one Body and one Spirit in one Faith and one hope of their calling that at last they might all be partakers of the Divine and infinite Love o-Christ Jesus Then in ⸫ Cyril ub supr the Church of Jerusalem the Priest did bid the people lift up their hearts and they answered We lift them up unto the Lord the Priest rejoined Let us give thanks unto the Lord The people answered It is meet and right so to do after which the Church calling upon the whole Creation to praise God did sing the Angelical Hymn Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabbath Which Hymn was usher'd in with this Preface o Liturg. S. Jacobi ' Let all Flesh keep silence and stand with fear and trembling and put off all worldly and sensual Thoughts for the King of Kings the Lord of Lords Christ our God is coming forth to be slain and given for Meat to all his Faithful Servants the Quires of Angels go before him and with them Principalities and Powers the Cherubim with many Eyes and the Seraphim with six Wings shading their Faces and singing the Hymn Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Then followed the Prayer of Consecration and with that the Prayer for all states of Men and for the peace of the World together with the recital of the Diptychs which was always closed with the Lord's Prayer But in other Churches it was otherwise * Constit li. 2. c. 57. li. 8. c. 11 12. First the general Prayer for the whole state of mankind for Peace and Prosperity and all other Blessings was said at the end of which the Names of all the Eminent Persons who either had dyed in the Communion of the Church or yet lived in it were recited out of the Ecclesiastical Tables or Dyptichs and then the people were bid to lift up their hearts unto God c. Whereupon the Bishop making the sign of the Cross blest the People saying Preserve O Lord thy people and bless thine inheritance which thou hast purchas'd by the blood of thy Christ and hast called to be a royal priesthood and an holy nation And then the Bishop standing at the Altar proceeded to the Prayer of Consecration which was agreeable to our Saviour's Form at the Institution at * Dion areop ub supr Basil de spir S. cap. 27. which time the Elements which were before cover'd with a fine Linnen Cloath in Imitation of Christ's being so wrapt when he was lay'd in his Sepulchre were uncover'd that the people might see the Bread broken and the Wine poured out After the Prayer of Consecration the ⸪ Cyril ub supr Priest first heartily said Amen And after him ‡ Just in Apol. 2. Dion Alex. apud Euseb li. 7. c. 9. c. the people praying that so it might be and protesting that they believed that that Sacrament was the true Body and Blood of Christ but in the Liturgy of St. James when the Words of the Institution were recited the Deacon first said Amen and then acknowledged That they did believe and confess that as often as they did eat that flesh and drink that blood they did show forth the Lords Death To which the people answered We do show forth thy death O Lord and we do acknowledg thy Resurrection This being done the Deacon bid the people attend to the holy oblation in peace and quietness and to bow their heads to their Saviour Jesus in honour to his name and institution Then it was said Holy things to holy persons To which the people answered There is one holy one Lord one Jesus Christ blessed for ever in the glory of God the Father Then the people were exhorted to the reception of the holy Mysteries the Priest singing with heavenly Melody the words of the Psalmist ‡ Cyril ubi sup Psal 34.8 O taste and see that the Lord is gracious to which the Congregation in some ‡ Liturg. S. Jacobi Churches answered Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. When the Consecratlon was done which probably if there were many Bishops or Priests present they all joined in the person consecrating said ‖ Liturg. S. Marc. As the Hart desireth the water-brooks so longeth my soul after thee O God And then himself received in which Action it is observable by St. Chrysostome's Liturgy he was obliged to drink three times of the Chalice bowing all the while in honour of the Father Son and Holy Ghost and afterward he gave it to the Clergy if any were present the Bishop giving it to the Priests the Priests to the Deacons and the Deacons to the people after the ⸪ Const Apost ji 8. c. 13. Clergy the Monks received for they gave them the preference because they look't on them as a sort of Ecclesiastical persons not purely Laymen tho not in Orders and after the Monks the Deaconesses Virgins and Widows then the Children then the rest of the Laity in their several Orders that is as I conjecture first the Men afterward the Women * Conc. Tolet. 4. c. 17. the Priests and Deacons communicating at the Altar the Inferior Clergy in the Quire and the people at the Rails without tho I am well perswaded that in the first Ages the Laity also came up to the Altar to which they were invited to draw near in the Fear of God and with Faith and Charity and when they approacht they were commanded by the Deacon to stand decently and reverently in the fear of God and with contrition of heart and to receive modestly and piously behaving themselves as those who approacht the presence of a King And accordingly they received in a posture of deep Reverence and Adoration for no man durst to receive but he adored and while the Mysteries were distributing the Congregation * Const Apost ubi sup Liturg. S. Jacobi S. Chrysost c. sung the 33d Psalm or as we reckon it the 34th I will bless the Lord at all times his praise shall be continually
thought what they had seen Only had a Vision been Till the Seraphick Herald silence broke And in these taking words his message spoke IV. ' From you Palace am I sent ' Built beyond the Firmament ' Where th' Almighty keeps his Court ' And the indigent resort ' Thence the obliging Jesus full of Loves ' Full of Attractives down to th' dull Earth moves V. ' Cease your Tremblings and your Fears ' Ill news Gabriel never bears ' Haste to Bethlehem there behold ' Him the Prophets have foretold ' What greater Instance can than this be given ' How dear the ruin'd world hath been to Heaven VI. 'To the Sacred Stable go ' And before the Manger bow ' The Infant-God adore and praise ' Wrapt in Swath-bands there he lies ' These are the marks to know your Savionrby ' He came from Heav'n t' illustrate Poverty VII Lovely Gabriel scarce had done Charming their attention When the humble shepherds view'd The Seraphick multitude Who did themselves round the Arch-Angel post Th' Arch-Angel Captain of that Heav'nly Host VIII Eyes they had that shot loves Darts Meen and Garb to captive Hearts Faces smooth as infant Light Ere the blustring winds durst fight Or Clouds durst interpose their obscure Skreen To keep the useful Rays from being seen IX Their wings impt with Plumes so gay Gold such Lustre can't display Nothing could with them compare But the bright Curls of their Hair VVhich when the sportive blasts of Air did move Nothing could view but what must be in love X. In the Air they gently hung There they danc'd and there they sung ' Glory be to God on High ' Let Peace this sad Earth beautifie ' That men of the Divine Good Will may taste ' And relish here below Heavens Antepast XI Thus they danc'd and thus they sung And the Sky with th' Musick rung Till the Day-star did appear Till the morning beams drew near The watchful Cock preclaim'd the Prince of Light Then they soar'd upward and flew out of sight XII Happy Angels your employ Brings you Honour brings you joy While on Earth I sigh and grean Vastly distant from that Throne Grant Jesu tho my voice be not so sweet My Notes in consort mixt with theirs may meet Wednesday before EASTER THE Ancients called this day the holy and great Wednesday or the fourth day of the Passion Week and among our Forefathers it was called Tenable Wednesday on which Day the Consultation was held for our Blessed Saviour's Apprehension * Constit Ap. li. 5. c. 10. which being begun on Monday was continued on Tuesday but compleated on Wednesday when they agreed with Judas to betray him from which Treason of the Son of Perdition it hath its Name in the Latin Church feria quarta in proditione Judae Now because on this Day the Sanhedrim were consulting how to take the Messiah the Ancients on the same Day were more than ordinarily employed how to receive him the Jews how to treat him unworthily but the Church how to give him due Entertainment And for this cause by the order of the Apostles the †Clem. Alex. Strom. 7. Tertul. de jejun c. 2. Epiph compend c. 21. c. Catholick Bishops bound all Christians to a weekly observation of We dnesday Friday on the first of which days our Saviour was sold as he was on the last Grucified as Days of Fasting which they called their Station days because as a Centinel dares not leave his Post till he be relieved which is seldom done till after a Watch of Twelve or Twenty four Hours so the Primitive Christians would never at such times move from Church till all the Service were over which was not finish'd till about Three a Clock in the Afternoon which Service was compleated with the Reception of the Blessed Eucharist in all Churches except at ‡ Socrat. l. 5. c. 22. p. 287. Alexandria where they had Prayers and a Sermon but no Sacrament and probably in this Week of extraordinary Mortifications the Fast ended not till Night In the present Greek Church on this day as on all the other days of Lent except the Saturdays Sundays and the Feast of the Annunciation which are Festivals they do still receive the Sacrament about Three Afternoon but they receive it of those Elements that had been * V. Bals Zon. in Can. 52. Trullan consecrated before on the precedent Holy-day and which are reserv'd for that purpose they at the same time observing our Blessed Saviours Institution of imploring the Divine Blessing every day by the Oblation and Merit of this Christian Sacrifice and yet preserving the Severity and Solemnity of this Christian Fast The Epistle 2 Pet. 1.16 WE have not followed cunningly devised Fables when we made known unto you the Power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were eye-witnesses of his Majesty for he received from God the Father Honour and Glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent Glory This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased and this Voice which came from Heaven we heard when we were with him in the Holy Mount we have also a more sure Word of Prophecy whereunto ye do well that ye take heed The Gospel Luke 9.28 JESUS took Peter and James and John and went up into a Mountain to pray and as he prayed the fashion of his countenance was alter'd and his Rayment was white and glistering and behold there talked with him two men which were Moses and Elias who appear'd in Glory and spake of his Decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem and there came a voice out of a Cloud saying This is my Beloved Son hear him The MEDITATION IT was a lovely sight and to be long'd for with Transports to see the Blessed Jesus in his meanest and most contemptible dress for even then when he was covered with out sins and his own sorrows he was the fairest among men but how Glorious O my Soul was his Appearance when he was cloathed with the Robes of Immortality in the Holy Mount How transcendent were those lively Representations of the Joys of Heaven and that foretaste of the Pleasures of Eternity Tabor was of it self a delightful place on the Top of the Mountain there was a spacious plain whose fruits were breath'd upon and cherished by a most wholsome Air and moistned with a perpetual Dew the Vines and Olives and other Herbs and Trees cloathd it with a perpetual Verdure affording a Prospect that at once gratified both the sight and the smell and by them affected the mind but never was the Hill so fertile as when the Son of God watered it with his Tears and warmed it with his Rays To the Mountain our Blessed Master retired when he offered his Sacrifices of Suplications and Praise from a Mountain did he preach the glad Tidings of the Gospel and on a Mountain was he Transsigured there he prayed not that the highest Hill is nearer
Appetites to mortifie no Lusts to conquer no Doubts to be resolved his Understanding was clear and his Will regular and there was need of nothing but an external Law to guide him and the two Trees to be his instructors And when Paradise was lost Adam and his followers still retain'd their peculiar Ceremonies they had their set places and times of Divine Worship and the eldest of the Family was deputed to the Priesthood till the generality of Mankind corrupting themselves the Divine Vengeance swept them away drowning the Old World and sealing a Covenant of Mercy with the New ratified by the Sacramental Sign of the Rainbow that God would no more bring a Deluge on the Earth Out of this new Race of Men did God select the Jews among whom he was resolved more solemnly and in an extraordinary manner to fix his dwelling the Divine Majesty refiding over the Mercy-Seat This Seed of Jacob he singled out to be a Holy Nation and mark'd them as his own People by Circumcision which was a Character of Genealogical Sanctity and having united them into one numerous brotherhood instituted the Passover which was a publick Foederal Rite of their Union with their Maker And to this purpose he required them to furnish him continually with a Table whereon should be Bread and Salt and the Flesh of the Morning and Evening Sacrifices with the Drink-Offerings which they were obliged to tender him Not that God did either need or actually devour these Oblations or lived on the steam of the Blood or the souls of slain beasts as the Gentiles imagined nor that hereby a contrivance might be made for the easier maintenance of his Priests this was the custom of the Temple of Baal but because eating and drinking together was look'd on as a Confirmation of Friendship and one of the strongest engagements to love and kindness as to trespass the Laws of Hospitality to eat of a Man's bread and then to lift up his Heel against him was accounted the Character of a most profligate and vile person But this was only a temporary institution and to last no longer than till the true Passover came till the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the World should be offered on the Cross for the Sacraments of the Jews were only Emblems of the Christian Sacraments which were ancienter than that Polity for the Fathers speak a great truth when they assert that the Evangelical Sacraments began under Melchisedech who brought out Bread and Wine to Abraham the Father of the Faithful in whose Seed all the Nations of the Earth were to be blest to inform us that the Christian institutions as they were to last longer so they began sooner than those of the Jews And it is very observable that tho our great Master came into the world to institute a new Religion and in pursuance of that design to abolish all the typical ceremonies yet he was pleased to adopt almost all the other Rites of the Jews and to make them free of the Christian Church thus he chose to complete his most excellent prayer out of the usual forms of the Synagogue and as he establisht the government and jurisdiction which he left behind him according to the different Orders of the Priesthood So especially he ordain'd that as they Baptized their proselites so all that were admitted into the Society that he purchased with his Blood should be washed in the Laver of Regeneration and as after the Paschal Lamb was eaten the Master of the Family took Bread into his hands and lifting it up from the Table that all who were in the House might see it blessed it by calling upon the name of the Lord and when that was distributed took the Cup in like manner so did our blessed Saviour And whereas the Jewish Masters did not only allow the people when they did eat the Passover to mix and dilute their rich and generous Wines thereby to correct the strength and heat of them ‡ Misch Beracoth c. 7. but would not permit them to bless the Wine till they had put Water to it our Master probably did so in the Eucharist as all the Ancients believed and according to that example practised and when the Office was over he sang the great Thanksgiving as their Rubricks required condescending in all things to the Jewish customs that by these methods he might the more easily induce them to become Christians and to correct the scrupulous squeemishness of some of his followers who he knew would take unjust offence at the conforming the Ecclesiastical ceremonies to forreign observances This was the institution of this tremendous mystery nor was it only a temporary institution for our Saviour being willing that his Disciples should always carry about with them the marks of his love and always have in remembrance the benefits of his crucifixion not only gave this Sacrament to his Apostles but enjoyned them himself to take Bread to bless it break it and distribute it as their Master did to the worlds end and obliged also the Laity by the mouth of St. Paul to take eat and drink the Body and Blood of their Saviour until his second coming for as often as they did it the whole action was a remembrance of the dying Jesus a commemoration of his sufferings for an undone world and of his sacrificing himself to the Divine justice The first Sacrifice that our blessed Master made was the Eucharist but that was but a type of what was to be done the next day when himself was offered on the Cross on a new and unheard of Altar And there ought to have been an Altar erected such as the world never knew of because the Sacrifice was such as was never before heard of for himself was the Sacrifice and the Priest too He was not therefore to be offered at the Temple but without the Gates because to be number'd among the Transgressors and the Altar was erected on high that he might purge the Air and drive the Prince of it thence and that his Blood streaming from him to the Ground might wash and cleanse the Earth also polluted with the sins of its inhabitants Had this Sacrifice been offered at the Temple in Jerusalem the Jews might have pretended a sole claim to it but it was offered without the City that all the world might partake of its benefits This was the primary sacrifice to which we owe our Peace and our hopes of Salvation and this Sacrifice is again slain and offered when the Holy Man stands at the Lords Table for the Eucharist is not only an Emblem of spiritual refreshments how much the soul is nourish'd by Grace and good resolves nor is it only a representation of the joys of Heaven when we shall feast on the everlasting Supper of the Lamb but it is truly a Feast in which we make a Covenant with God by Sacrifice it is a Feast upon that Sacrifice and that a Sacrifice for sin a Sacrifice
for Confirmation or have I slighted the Prayers and Benediction of God's Priest Have I wholly forsaken Satan or rather am I not still under his power by being a slave to the habits of folly and disobedience Have I ever at any time used Charms or Amulets or consulted Witches or Conjurers Am I not yet in love with the pomps and vanities of the World a great frequenter of sports to the hindrance of Religious Duties and do I delight in profane and lascivious representations and are not my Lusts yet unmortified and have I not derogated from the honour of the Captain of our Salvation by cowardise and negligence Eucharist Have I not profan'd the holy Supper of the Lord by not acquainting my self with the nature of the Mystery and the necessity of preparation or by coming to it without Faith and Repentance without an universal charity and a thorow reconciliation to God and my enemies without examination without a due sorrow and amendment of Life Have I not often received that Sacrament without those ardors of devotion which I am obliged to or without that bodily reverence which the most Sacred and Heavenly Mysteries require Have I not made rash promises when I have received and never minded them afterwards Have I not suffered the House to lye idle when it hath been so swept and garnish'd to encourage Satan to take with him seven other Spirits worse than himself and to come and dwell in my Soul till its later estate be more deplorable than its first To which I subjoyn Lord be merciful to me a sinner and so strengthen me by thy Grace that I may perform my Vows and keep the robes of my Baptism unspotted and tho I have approach'd thy Table without the Wedding Garment yet cast me not into outer darkness whence there is no deliverance Now these and all other Transgressions are either heightned or lessened by their circumstances the Examinant therefore ought to consider 1. The Time when he offended Was it on the Lord's day Here additions and alterations may be made by the devout penitent according to his own state or any other publick Festival on a publick Fasting day or the days of my own private humiliation during the hours of Prayer either at the Temple or in my Closet either at or immediately before or after the receipt of the holy Sacrament and have I often committed one and the same sin for these circumstances argue a perverse frame of mind and that it is not infirmity but wilfulness that makes the offender 2. The place where the sin was committed Was it in the Church at the holy Table or in my Closet or in any publick place where the offence became scandalous incouraging the vicious and offending my weaker brethren 3. The state and condition of the Offender Am I not in Holy Orders one of God's Priests that Minister at his Altar have I not more knowledge and a better acquaintance with my duty hath not God afforded me more convictions greater light and frequenter opportunities of doing good was the sin committed when I was under some affliction of mind body or estate or after some sudden deliverance out of some severe judgement on me for my former failings hath not God by his holy Spirit laid many hinderances in my way to ruine and have I not overcome all difficulties and often been my own tempter have I not continued to be wicked after many checks of Conscience and many solemn Vows to the contrary after the experience of much mercy many deliverances and great tenderness compassion and long-suffering in my Saviour towards me 4. The persons injured Are not my sins committed against my God my Master my Saviour my best and only Friend have I rob'd the House of God of its ho nour or revenue have I ground the face of the Poor or rob'd the Fatherless and Widows have I given evil counsel to the ignorant or those that cannot discern the fallacy have I been unjust to my Children or Relatives who are nearest to me and as it were parts of my self Among all which sins I must particularly mourn over and detest those to which I have been most inclined by natural temper or custome and resolve to avoid all provocations and temptations and whatever hath or may promote such evil habits and to practice the contrary virtues To which I subjoyn Lord I have caused thy Name to be blasphemed among the enemies of Religion and Piety but be thou pleased to pity and pardon me the greatest of sinners and give me thy Grace that I may do so no more Besides all which I am bound to reflect on my many secret sins and forgotten offences and to subjoin Lord who can understand how oft he offendeth O cleanse thou me from my secret faults and keep back thy Servant from presumptuous sins lest they get the dominion over my Soul so shall I be innocent from the great offence The Collect. ALmighty Lord and everlasting God Grant I most humbly beseech thee to thy distressed Servant Pardon and Peace and vouchsafe to direct sanctify and govern both my heart and body in the ways of thy Laws and in the works of thy Commandments that through thy most mighty protection both here and ever I may be preserv'd in body and soul through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Amen To this I add the 38 Psalm or the 51. or some other penitential and after that the 22 Psalm Then follows the Litany much agreeable to the former method LORD let thy Ear be attentive to the Prayer of thy Servant who desires to fear thy name O God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and in him the Father of Mercies have mercy upon me the most miserable of sinners O God the Son the Redeemer of the World and the lover of Souls have mercy upon me the most miserable of sinners O God the Holy Spirit of Peace and Love the giver of every Grace and every good Gift have mercy upon me the most miserable of sinners O Holy Powerful and Compassionate Trinity three persons and one God have mercy upon me the most miserable of sinners O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world have mercy upon me O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world grant me thy Peace Lord hear Lord forgive hearken O Lord and do and defer not for thine own sake O Lord our God From polluting the robes of my Baptisme and making new leagues with Satan from a feigned sorrow and an outside repentance Good Lord deliver me From sin and shame from the paths of folly and destruction from great boasting and little performance and from a vain and empty frame of mind from stoath and idleness and the neglect of my best concerns Good Lord deliver me From self-Self-Love and love of the World from being busy about nothing and slighting the thoughts of Eternity from deferring my repentance and putting off my accounts to the day of
my death Good Lord deliver me From sins of Ignorance and sins of Malice from impatience under reproof and the eagerness of an angry Mind from sensual and polluted Fancies from the Spectres of the Night and unbecoming Dreams Good Lord deliver me From being ingaged in the pursuits of a proud and perverse Generation and from the World that lies in wickedness Good Lord deliver me From disbelief of the Mysteries of Religion and walking contrary to my Profession from calling God Father and yet cbeying the Devil and from praying to him with my Lips when my Heart is far from him Good Lord deliver me From a fondness for secular Wisdom and Learning and the neglect of the Word from hearkening to the Suggestions of Satan and slighting the Counsels of the blessed Spirit from vain and inconsiderate Talk and rash Resolutions Good Lord deliver me From Atheism and Impiety from worshipping any thing in my mind or practices in Opposition to my Maker and from all Hypocrisie and Superstition Good Lord deliver me From taking thy Name in Vain by Oaths or Blasphemy by idle and rash Talk and Curses and from slighting thy Temple and Service thy Day and Ordinances Good Lord deliver me From disobedience to my Superiors and neglect of my Parents from Envy Hatred and Malice from evil Speaking and Slandering Clamor and Reviling and from Blood and Murther and all Revenge Good Lord deliver me From unchast and wanton Thoughts from leud and intemperate Discourses from a lustful Eye and all sort of carnal Pollutions Good Lord deliver me From pride and vain Glory from lying and false Witness from Slandering and Perjury from Covetousness and Ambition and from being discontented at my present Condition from all evil Thoughts and a vain Conversation Good Lord deliver me From having my Portion in this Life and an uninterrupted Felicity from Anger and Provocations to Uncharitableness from nauseating the means of Salvation and from a hardned Heart Good Lord deliver me From a polluted mind and a love of Dissention from forsaking thy Interest to maintain my own and from following a multitude to do evil Good Lord deliver me From neglecting thy Holy Table and slighting the invitation of my Saviour from a want of due preparation and from eating and drinking damnation to my self Good Lord deliver me From the snare of a slanderous tongue and the lips that speak lies from the malice of hypocrites from the rage and fury of Zealots and from the cunning and power of Satan Good Lord deliver me From the follies of my youth and the sins of my riper years from the sins which I have committed my self and those which I have encouraged others to commit from the defilements of my Body and the pollutions of my Soul Good Lord deliver me From my secret and open sins from what I have done to please my self and what I have done to please others from the sins which I remember and those which I have forgotten Good Lord deliver me From those sins * Here the penitent may reckon the particular sins he hath committed to which temper and inclination use and custome and evil company have addicted me Good Lord deliver me From the evil both of vice and punishment from the lashes of Conscience and a distracted mind and from a sudden painful and unexpected death from a place on the left hand and a portion among the Goats from the chains of darkness and the bottomless pit Good Lord deliver me By thy unspeakable generation as God and thy wonderful birth as Man by thy circumcision and acceptance of the adorations of the wise men the first fruits of the Gentiles Good Lord deliver me By thy wisdom in baffling the Scribes and Pharisees by thy humility in stooping to a mean condition and by thy obedience to thy Parents Good Lord deliver me By thy Baptisme forty days Fast and victory over the Devil in the Wilderness by thy surprizing but useful Miracles by thy plain but convincing Discourses and by thy winning and exemplary Conversation Good Lord deliver me By the wonderful and mysterious representation of thy bloody passion in the blessed Eucharist and by thy unexpressible love to thy Church by thy bitter Agony thy wondrous Sweat and fervent Prayers in the Garden Good Lord deliver me By the variety of thy sufferings which are recorded and by thy unknown pangs and tortures which we cannot describe and by thy strong crying and tears when thou prayedst for thine enemies Good Lord deliver me By thy mercy to dye for us thy power to rise again and thy compassion to intercede for us and to be our Advocate and by whatever else is dear to thee and of use to the world Good Lord deliver me In the days of my prosperity and in the times of suffering in the troubles of my mind and the weakness of my body in the hour of my death and in the terrible day of thy coming to judgement Good Lord deliver me Jesu Master thou Son of David have mercy on me That it may please thee to illuminate thy Holy Church with the spirit of truth amity and concord that all that are called Christians may be united in one holy Faith and may retain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace and in righteousness of life I beseech thee to hear me good Lord. That it may please thee to bless and defend our gracious Soveraign from all his enemies separately and conjunctly that his days may be many his Reign prosperous and his end everlasting Life I beseech thee to hear me good Lord. That the Royal Family may be happy in thy service the Clergy honoured with thy protection the Nobility guided by thy Holy Spirit the Gentry Firm and Loyal and the Commons of the Realm humble and obedient I beseech thee c. That all men may be saved Hereticks made Converts to Truth Schismaticks to Peace Rebels to Loyalty and Jews Mahometans and Infidels become Disciples to the Son of God I beseech thee c. That Widows may be protected and Orphans provided for the sick healed the opprest defended the naked cloathed the hungry fed the ignorant instructed the refractory reclaimed and that all Prisoners and whoever is appointed to dye may taste of thy Fatherly pity I beseech thee c. That it may please thee to succour and ease all that labour under the weight of an evil and disturbed Conscience and to give the rewards of Martyrdome to those who suffer for a good one I beseech thee c. That it may please thee to pardon and amend all mine enemies and teach me not only to forgive but to forget injuries I beseech thee c. That it may please thee to give me and all thy Servants true quiet and liberty and protection from sin and wickedness all the days of our lives I beseech thee c. That an Angel of Peace a faithful guide may be the Guardian both of my Soul and Body I beseech thee c.
other Divine Men to such extraordinary undertakings was nothing but the remembrance of the Great Captain of our Salvation who led the Van of the Noble Army of Martyrs together with the powers of that Grace which he endowed them with and the Crown that he held out to them from Heaven What could discourage or affright those who saw the Son of God engaged by no necessity but acted only by his disinterested love so freely to undertake submit to and glory in the Cross and the Purple-robe in the Gall and the Vinegar in the Scoffs and Crown of Thorns and at last make a triumphant Stage of his Cross Who can forbear dying for such a Saviour who so freely lay'd down his life for us The distant prospect of a Messias to come inflamed the Patriarchs gave them life and inspired them with vigour to subdue Kingdoms to work Righteousness to stop the mouths of Lyons to quench the violence of the Fire to escape the edge of the Sword when tortured not to accept of deliverance to be content to be Stoned to be Sawn asunder to be slain with the Sword to wander about in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins being destitute afflicted tormented that they might obtain a better resurrection in him who is the first fruits from the dead And so did their Successors demean themselves who saw Christ and acknowledg'd him come in the flesh they willingly chose to hunger and thirst to be naked and buffeted and to have no certain dwelling place to be persecuted defamed and accounted the off-scowring of the World in fine to be made like their Master a Spectacle to the World to Angels and to Men. Blessed Jesu these are patterns of courage and love to God that I am amazed at and am afraid I want courage to imitate but Lord by the help of thy Grace I will endeavour to make my zeal as ardent and as acceptable as theirs and whereas thou hast hitherto given me my lot in thy Church at such a time when Peace is an attendant on Religion and may God of his Mercy long continue it I will be a Martyr in that way which thou art better pleased with because I may give my body to be burnt and not be a Martyr I will make an oblation to thee of my self I will sacrifice my passions and mortify my members that are on the earth and will lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset me that I may run with patience the race that is set before me For when I crucify the old Man and abandon the paths of disobedience then only am I truly to be said to follow Jesus And if providence think fit so to order it and my blessed Saviour enable me I will dye for his interests and seal my vows with my blood for what should hinder but that I should exert the same resolution that was the glory of the Primitive Ages Do not I look for the same reward am I not a member of the same Church and a Disciple to the same Saviour Their zeal and patience their chearfulness and contempt of the World their fortitude and constancy made it appear that they put an estimate on nothing but the Service of God and the concerns of Eternity and why should not I as they did look stedfastly upon Jesus for he is the author and finisher of our Faith the sole institutor of our Religion who for the joy that should accrue to him in the redemption of a ruined World from Sin and Death and Hell in the glorification of his Body and the establishment of his Empire over all the Sons of Men was content to be made vile and of no reputation to endure the Cross and to despise the shame and to submit to all the sufferings and indignities that either his Father's anger or Satan's malice or the witty and inventive cruelty of sinful men could inflict upon him for what could be greater than the Cross and the shame but the courage that underwent them and the Love of Jesus which was stronger than death Luke 12.20 I have a Baptism says Jesus to be baptized with and I am streightned and in pain till it be accomplish'd I am under great struglings death looks formidable to the eyes of nature and that makes me wish the Cup may pass from me but my love makes me resolve to drink it and to wish it were accomplish'd There is a warm conflict between my resolutions to redeem the World and my humane infirmities between my love to men and my natural desires of self-prefervation And why if a poor despicable sinner may expostulate with his Maker why these struglings a few days before thy apprehension Was not thy whole Life one continued act of Martyrdom Was not the Tragedy begun at Bethlehem tho the last scene was acted on Mount Calvary Was not this bloody Baptism administred to thee in thy Infancy and did not thy Crucifixion begin in thy Cradle was not thy Circumcision the morning-sacrifice and was not the completory oblation made in that dismal evening in which thou wert Crucified for tho thou wentest not into thy Grave till about the Thirty fourth year of thy Age yet thou didst dye dayly and thine agonies were commensurate to thy Life they begun the first hour thou sawest the light in the Stable and they lasted to the moment in which thou gavest up the ghost at Golgotha every day was a Good-Friday a day of sorrow and sufferings Only herein lies the difference under all his antecedent sufferings the Life of the Son of God was still preserved but at his apprehension that also was to be sacrificed and he who was only sprinkled with blood at his Circumcision was now to be truly baptized and drench'd in it on his Cross but this Cross he endured and the appendent shame he despised under which terms are included all his sufferings the torment and the ignominy of his exinanition If the torment that he endured be considered his pains were acute and to any but Jesus insufferable the uneasiness of his poor estate the trouble of having no house or shelter and the many attempts upon his Life were but the prologue to the fatal scenes which begun in the Garden every circumstance of that Agony is productive of wonder 'T was in a cold night when the High-priest's Servants could not be without a fire within doors while he was abroad in the cold Air and lay prostrate on the cold Earth where being alone no violence but what proceeded from his love could be offered him and yet there he Sweat till that Sweat was Blood and that not a faint Sweat of a few thin drops rarified and spirituous but great drops congealed lumps and gobbets of blood and those in so great a quantity that they went through cloaths and all and ran in a great stream to the ground till the Garden was the fittest place about Jerusalem to be called the Field of Blood Immediately after this he was
dragg'd by the rude and incensed multitude into the City and there hurried up and down to all the Judicatories in it he was buffeted and scourg'd the Plowers plowed long furrows on his back he was Crown'd with Thorns and loaden with his Cross having been condemned by clamour and importunity by restless and unsatisfied malice when Pilate his proper Judge had confest him Innocent To his Cross both his hands and feet which by reason of their being full of Nerves are the most sensible parts of the Body were fastened being pierc'd through with sharp Nails the whole weight of his Body stretch'd out as on a Rack resting on his expanded Hands there he languished under an insufferable thirst occasioned by his being so violently transported from place to place by his cruel Agony in the Garden by his loss of so much Blood in that Sweat in his scourging in his being Crown'd with Thorns and nailed to his Cross to which both his hands and feet were fastened that he could no way relieve himself he was exposed to the Sun and the Wind which search'd his wounds and made his pains more grievous his Mother and his beloved Disciple were standing by his Cross in the posture of persons distracted by their sorrows and this increased his torment not only as they were his near Relations but as they represented his Widowed and disconsolate Church And when it might have been expected that his Soul should have received comfort while his body was on this rack this was so far from being the portion of Jesus that his Soul felt more fearful convulsions than his tortured Body when all his bones were out of joint all the anger of God was upon him at once now was the Curtain drawn between the rational faculties of his Soul and God whereas before there was only a skreen between his sensitive faculties and his Father now was the beatifical Union suspended and his God had forsaken him when he stood in most need and when he cryed aloud to his Father for help the rude Soldiers study to encrease his sorrows they give him Vinegar to drink which was proper to stop his bleeding and to lengthen his life and torments and that Vinegar mingled with the bitter juice of Hyssop to make the draught more irksome and unpalatable unless we may believe a modern ‖ Heins Arist in Jo. 19 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Critick That they gave him the Vinegar on a Spunge of the coarsest Wooll to do him the greater dishonour Almost a whole day and night was he under continued tortures from his entry into the Garden to his yielding up the ghost whereof six whole hours he was hanging on the Cross and then he died while his Spirit was whole within him and while being in the vigour of his youth his heart within him was like melting wax for in the heighth of all his acute pains he cried with a loud voice and yielded up the ghost his Body being more sensible of pain than usually malefactors are for he had a beautiful shape and was of a fine and pure make and of a delicate constitution born of a Virgin not subject to and so never harrast with diseases and the pains of his Soul bore proportion to his bodily sufferings for he well knew how grievous and insupportable the anger of God is which we are insensible of he dreaded the burthen of those sins which we delight in and the severity of those punishments which we deride his notions of things were clear his apprehension quick and the bent of his mind most strongly inclinable to pity and compassion Thus were his sorrows augmented and his sufferings made intollerable while the rigour of his enemies left no sound part in him for he suffered in his Soul in his bitter Agony in his whole Body in his Sweat his Head was crowned with Thorns his Eyes were a fountain of tears his Ears inured to mockings his Palate disgusted vvith the Vinegar and the Wine mixt vvith Myrrh his Face spit upon his Neck and Shoulders loaden vvith the burthen of a heavy Cross his Back and Sides scourged his Heart pierc'd vvith the Spear his Hands and Feet nailed to the accursed Tree his Flesh torn and his Blood spilt that he might most justly exclaim I am the man that hath seen affliction by the Rod of God's Wrath Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by Behold and see was there ever sorrow like my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger Nor were these all his sufferings for the consideration and foresight that all these mercies should be bestowed on an ingrateful and rebellious World the greatest part of which would be hypocrites and unbelievers would trample on his Blood as an unholy and profane thing and would frustrate the end of his death and the designs of his mercy this doubtless made his sorrows exquisite and so transcendent as nothing could parallel but his Love and his Patience Here the devout Christian may put a stop to his Meditations for a while and subjoin this COLLECT O Lord who wert pleased in the fulness of time to send thine only begotten Son into the World made of a Woman made under the Law that he might become a curse for us and reconcile the World unto thee our Father by his bitter Agony and cruel Death and who hast assured us that thou scourgest every son whom thou receivest grant that I may be conformable to the image of thy beloved Son and our dearest Saviour that his sufferings may be the propitiation for my sins his Blood may cleanse my Soul and I may have life through him and grant that as Jesus offered up himself to thy justice so I may offer my self and all my enjoyments a Sacrifice of praise for the Mercies of God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost now and for evermore Amen After which the devout Christian at what time his strength and occasions will best permit may continue his Meditation Proportionate to the torments which Jesus endured was his shame and ignominy than which nothing is more insufferable to an ingenuous nature His birth was mean his Mother a poor Virgin he was born in a Stable and Cradled in a Manger he was brought up at the mean and laborious Trade of his reputed Father Joseph his many Journies were performed on foot he had no setled habitation and very few Friends and those poor ignorant and contemptible Galilean Fishermen whose very Country was ominous and at his last essay was he not apprehended as a vile malefactor and that not by a party of men of Honour not by the Guards of the Captain of the Temple or the Roman Governor but by the Rabble the meanest of the people tumultuously gathered together arm'd with Clubs and Swords the hasty weapons their fury could lay hold on He was treated as a publick Nusance tho as free from sin as truth and innocence could make
him drag'd from the Garden to the Palace of Amas thence to the House of Calaphas and thence to Pontius Pilate who sent him to Herod Herod used him with all sort of scorn clad him in Mock-purple and remanded him to the Roman Procurator where the Soldiers and common people spit on him blinded him smote him and ironically bid him prophecy who did it he was whipt like a slave while the multitude in their esteem prefer to him Barabbas a Traytor a Thief a Murtherer a Captain to those seditious persons with whom he made his insurrection one publickly and notoriously guilty of the crimes laid to his charge and look'd on as a pernicious wretch and one of the pests of the Kingdom And when he was thus cover'd with blood and sweat with stripes and the marks of cruelty with an uneasie Crown and ridiculous purple he was brought out and exposed to publick view he was crucified a death by which none but slaves and the vilest malefactors were punisht and that naked no regard being had to modesty or the rules of decency and in the midst of the Thieves as the worst of all the malefactors The High-priests mock'd him the common people shook their heads his fellow sufferers upbraided him and all that past by did shoot out their Arrows even bitter words which affronts were not the Ephemerous product of sudden fury but the continuation of former injuries for all his life long he was censured his poor parentage thrown in his Teeth is not this the Carpenter His Doctrine misrepresented as if he spoke against Moses and the Temple and introduc'd false Doctrine his Miracles belied as if he cast out Devils by compact with Satan his conversation mistook as if his innocent and necessary freedom were herding with the profligate and making friendship with publicans and sinners Nothing could be more temperate and yet he is impeached of being a Glutton and a Drunkard nothing more Chast and yet he is affronted with the title of a companion of Harlots no man more sedate and grave and yet his nearest Relations say he is besides himself nothing was more Loyal and yet he is accused as an enemy to Caesar nothing more Pious and yet he is condemn'd for Blasphemy If he be benign and free in his converse then he is popular and seditious if retired he hath a Devil and let him cry down hypocrisy never so zealously he is reputed an Impostor Thus they affronted him in all his capacities Was he designed our High-priest to redeem the world by the sacrifice of himself They mock him on the Cross with his Office If thou be the Son of God save thy self and us Was he sent to be the great Prophet to declare the Will of God to mankind They first blind then smite him and afterward bid him prophecy who struck him And had God design'd him to be a King They cloath him in Purple put on his Head a Crown of Thorns and a Reed in his right hand instead of a Scepter Such was the ill entertainment the holy Jesus found such the rudeness of men to their greatest benefactor that he that came into the World only to do good was above all others in it worst treated All which indignities could not but sit more uneasily upon an innocent person than they would have done on a hardy criminal who usually takes shelter in impudence And to make the shame exquisite remember O my Soul that this Son of Man was at the same time the Son of God When therefore I represent to my self my bleeding Saviour nailed to the accursed Tree and view the sadness of his countenance disfigured with his Sweat his Blood and his Tears when I look upon his wounded side his hands and feet pierc'd his head crown'd with Thorns Is not this sight enough to strike me dumb enough to strike me dead when I consider that my sins have wounded him and were more troublesom than his adversaries malice Shall the Jews be up at midnight to apprehend him and shall I not break my sleep to serve him shall the sinner take more pains to be damn'd than I to work out my salvation with fear and trembling What shall I first admire in thee O my dying Redeemer for thou art all wonderful I admire thy willingness to submit for no compulsion could force thee to bear the weight of thy Father's anger it is indisputably true that Jesus could fall by no hand but his own and that his Love had slain him before the Spear pierc'd his side and if we may believe the Vision in St. Dennis thou art ready yet to come down again and to dye anew were it any way conducive to the salvation of mankind I admire the miraculousness of the contrivance That he who grasps the World in his fist should be confined to a Cradle and he who sustains Angels should suck the Breasts of a Virgin that Vigour it self should languish Eternity become mortal that Life should give up the ghost and God be crucified and the same person at the same time in Hell and in Paradise I admire the intireness of his resignation who without any articles or capitulation gave himself up to the managery and conduct of his Father submitting the habit and the acts of his Will to God and resolving to obey in whatever manner he should require Nor can I forbear admiring and celebrating the earnestness of his Love who was in great distress till he had paid our ransom but I cannot avoid particular reflections on the advantages of his being crucified publickly that the matter of fact might be undeniable and that the Apostles might have no cause to be ashamed of their Doctrine or the World of their Faith nor both of their Saviour What a pattern of resignation and submission of meekness and patience of compassion and love to the worst of enemies had the Christian world been deprived of if our bessed Saviour had suffered in a Corner or been strangled in a Prison It was out of design to make his virtues as well as his sufferings illustrious that he chose to suffer at Jerusalem the Metropolis of the Country and at the Passover when all the Nation were come up to the holy City Let therefore the Cross of Christ be to the Jews an offence and scandal who expect to share with the Messia in the grandeur of a secular Kingdom and let it be to the Greeks foolishness who relish no notions but what comport with their ease and profit and think it madness to slight present miseries and stand in awe of future sufferings I will look upon it as the greatest instance of the Divine Wisdom and Goodness that God was pleased to teach his Son Obedience and to make the world happy by the things which he suffered And am I not indispensibly obliged to follow this pattern and to imitate this my best Friend Can I be ashamed of a naked crucified Saviour who when he was stript of his Garments
was covered with a robe of honour purpled in his own blood And should it not be my greatest honour to be conform'd to the Image of his sufferings Hath Jesus carried with him not only our humane nature but the marks of his wounds that were given him on Earth into that Heaven which he opened unto all believers and do I not long to go to that my greatest benefactor into that Heaven which his wounds have purchas'd And am I not redeemed from my former vain conversation by the Blood of God And shall I continue in sin because Grace hath abounded or dare to damn that Soul for which Christ died No I will endure the contradiction of sinners and I will resist if God see fit unto blood Jesus shall be my darling and I will love him as I love my life and Heaven The Collect. BLessed Saviour who for our sakes wert cloathed with ignominy and dishonour and didst patiently digest all the injuries and affronts which thy malicious enemies could put upon thee enable me also to endure the Cross and to despise the shame and to rejoice when thou shalt count me worthy to suffer for thy name Let my sins no longer dishonour thy Religion and bring discredit to my dear Master but enable me to live to thy glory O my crucified Redeemer that when I come to dye I may share in thy triumphs world without end Amen The Anthem An ALTAR GReat and good Saviour could my frozen heart Melt into tears equal to thy desert Nature and all its mournful sons I 'd call T' attend and grieve at th'wondrous funeral So when dear Jesu thou didst dye The Earth groan'd sadly Heav'n did cry The Sun retir'd as one agast To see th' Almighty breathe his last And the fam'd Temple's basis shook When God who dwelt there it forsook While men more hardned and more rude Than those Pillars sensless stood As they unconcern'd had been At the cruel frightful scene Astonish'd at their scorn I raise This Altar to my Saviour's praise Cever'd with wounded Loves and bleeding Hearts For who can live i' th' World when God departs Accept the Votary and th' Inscription hallow And teach the Priest the great Exemplar still to follow EASTER-EVE AS the solemn Festival of Easter drew nearer the Antients bound themselves to stricter observances enlarging their Fasts encreasing their Devotions and doubling their preparations for the approaching Christian Passover because nothing but perseverance gives a title to a Crown of Glory and the end of all labour and industry Prayers and Fastings Alms and Discipline is only to enable the devout Christian to bring a pure Conscience and void of offence to the participation of the benefits of the Lord's-Table and for this reason Easter-eve even in those Churches where the Saturday was admitted to an equal honour with the Lord's-day always celebrated as a Festival was made a day of the strictest abstinence and mortification It is called the Great Saturday in the account of * P. 19. V Const App. l. 8. c. 33. S. Pelycarp's Martyrdom and it could not but be a great encouragement to that good Bishop to dye cheerfully at the same time when his Master did that he might from the place of Execution go to Heaven to keep the Feast of Easter for ever it is also called the holy Saturday the Paschal Vigil the Holy Night whose obscurity is illuminated with a glorious light the devout people watching and praying all night and singing Hymns unto God nay those who seldom else came to Church * Eus devit Const l. 4. c. 22. p. 536. Chrys to 5. p. 541. to 7. p. 156. Gr. Naz. Orat. 42 p. 676. now were compelled by shame and interest to Fast and Pray the House of God being filled with Torches and lights and sometimes the Streets of the City so adorn'd in expectation of the joyful morning of Christ's Resurrection it was also stiled the ‡ Pallad vit Chrys p. 85. Angelical night in which the Evil Angels tremble their kingdom being destroyed and the Good Angels rejoice that the World is redeemed for now were the holy Quire busy to attend the Sepulchre and to give the Disciples the blessed news of their Saviour's Resurrection This day some Fathers assure us Christ went down into Hell dismantled its fortifications and by his presence made that miserable dungeon Heaven for whereever Jesus is there is Heaven All the day was a strict Fast and all the night a Vigil at least till midnight †Hier. in Matt. c. 25. the Congregation not being dismist till then it being the Tradition of the Church That our Saviour rose a little after midnight but in the East till the * Const App. l. 5. c. 14 17 18. Dionys Alex. Ep. Basil Cock-crowing the time being spent say the Apostolical Constitutions in watching prayers and supplications in reading the Law and the Prophets in expounding the Holy Scriptures and in Baptizing the Catechumens and therefore it ‡ Euseb Hist l. 2. c. 17. l. 6. c. 9. is called the All-night Vigil of the great Feast and the great watching before the Christian Passover In the Latin Church ‖ Rupert de divin offic c. 35. alii on this day the Water for the Font is blest and reserved for the use of the persons to be Baptized the year following which Custom is a shadow of the Ancient usage for on Easter-Eve were the Catechumens Baptized ⸫ Chrys to 5. p. 585. by the Bishop himself if present and able to do the Office for no Presbyter or Deacon without his leave durst do it for the Church had select times for the Baptizing of adult Converts Children being baptized at all times of which Easter was the chiefest for which reason the number of the Candidates for that initiatory Sacrament in the greater Churches was very large * Pallad vit Chrys p. 86 Three Thousand being made Christians at Constantinople on this day * Ambros de Sacramen li 3. cap. 1. the Bishop in some Churches of the West at Millian I conjecture for at Rome the practise was otherwise immediately after his conferring the Sacrament of Baptism using to wash the feet of those whom he had newly made Christians * Smith of the Gr. Ch. p. 124 125. In the Greek Church through the Sundays of Lent they use the Liturgy of St Basil and on Thursday and Saturday in the Holy Week which being longer than St Chrysostom's is esteemed fitter for the times of Fasting but on the other days of Lent ‡ Conc. Trul. can 52. except Saturdays and the Feast of the Annunciation they use the Liturgy of the Presanctificata So mindful are they to suit all their Offices to the designs of Religion and the promoting of Mortification and true Contrition The Epistle Eccles 7.3 SOrrow is better than laughter for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better the heart of the wise is in the
before Christ's Passion is by his Resurrection put into a state of favour and a capacity to return and to be reconciled to his maker And God grant that his whole Church may be reconciled to their Saviour and to each other that they may duly keep the Feast and live in love and unity here till they all triumph together in Heaven Amen The Epistle Philip. 3.8 YEA doubtless and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by Faith that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead The Gospel Luke 24.13 BEhold two of them went the same day to a Village called Emmaus and while they communed together Jesus drew near and went with them but their eyes were holden that they should not know him and he said unto them What manner of communications are these which ye have one to another as ye walk and are sad They said unto him concerning Jesus of Nazareth whom the chief Priests and our Rulers have delivered to be condemned to death and have crucified Then said Jesus unto them Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory And beginning at Moses and at the Prophets he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself And he was known to them in breaking of bread The MEDITATION AMong all our Blessed Saviour's unhappinesses the incapacities of his Disciples understandings was not the least by reason of which tho their Master was the Wisdom of the Father and endowed with the Holy-Ghost without measure which enabled him to speak not only vvith the greatest authority but vvith the greatest veracity and plainness yet they vvere alvvays unvvilling to give entire credit to his sayings Some of them they could not understand and others they vvould not believe So vvhen he discoursed of the great mystery of the Sacrament and averred that no Man could have life in him except he did eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood many of his follovvers apprehended that he vvould oblige them to turn Canibals and so vvent back and vvalked no more vvith him Among vvhom St. Mark himself say the Ancients vvas disgusted and left that holy Society and had not St. Peter opportunely reclaimed him the Church had lost that Evangelist Nor was St. Peter himself free from this crime for vvhen our blessed Saviour gave the Twelve an account of his sufferings and that the redemption of the World was to be accomplish'd by his Crucifixion he whose mind was possest with other notions of the Kingdom of the Messiah was scandalized at the declaration and rebuked his Lord not knovving that our Saviour's Cross vvas to be his Throne and by his Agonies only he was to merit Crovvns and earn Triumphs Nor could all that their infallible Guide could say to inform them better drive out this notion out of the heads of the rest of the Apostles no not vvhen they savv him crucified dead and buried and could not but remember that he promised to rise again the Third day The Women more officious than vvise had brought Spices to embalm him as if the Lamb of God had fallen like a common Sacrifice as if the Lord of Hosts had been captivated by the Grave his Povvers baffled and his Promises cancel'd And tho the empty Sepulchre the sight of the Grave-cloaths orderly laid up and the testimony of the Angel vvere undeniable proofs that Jesus was not there but was risen yet their admiration was stronger than their Faith and the Disciples of both sexes were surprised they hardly believed their eyes for as yet they knew not the Scriptures that he must rise from the dead and wondred at all that was come to pass In the head of those devout female proselites was Mary Magdalene who tho once an Angel of darkness had now the purity and zeal of one of the Seraphim she was all ardor and resolution she was the first who went to the Sepulchre on the day of the Resurrection she was earlier up than the beloved Disciple who lay in his Master's bosome and for that reason should have afforded his Master a place in his own heart in his memory and in his love and she had more courage than Peter tho a man of extraordinary fervor she dreaded not the guards nor the shadows of the night that had not yet given place to day but hastens her steps to the venerable Tomb and when she beheld the empty Sepulchre how deep is her concern at the loss of her Saviour She wept bitterly as if she would have softned the Rock and made the most insensible and obdurate parts of the Creation mourn with her the death of her best Friend And tho these were sad disappointments and the sight had affrighted all that followed her yet there she still continues she was the last who return'd from that awful Garden nor did she at length miss of her expectations for they who sow in tears shall reap in joy The Angels first confirm her hopes and immediately after the Lord of the Angels gave her a view of his sacred Person Remember O my Soul the first appearance of our Saviour after his Resurrection was to the most sinful Magdalene nor do thou despair but that thou maist also be admitted to a share in his favour but remember also that this honour was vouchsafed to the penitent Magdalene to Magdalene transported with the ardors of Divine Love that had destroyed all the heats of Lust If thou longest therefore to be blest with such priviledges rise early and begin betime to serve thy Maker weep over thy follies that have deprived thee of the company of thy Saviour and these methods will recall thy departed Redeemer and thy sins which are many shall be forgiven because thou hast loved much To Mary Magdalene among the softer Sex was the first appearance vouchsafed and among the men the next was to St. Peter the first a Woman of the loosest manners and most profligate conversation the second a Man of strong boastings and a weak faith who when he promised to dye with his Master denied him thus the worst of sinners had the preference in this discovery and why should I doubt but that there is mercy also for me and my Saviour hath the same compassion for my Soul as he had for Mary Magdalen's or St. Peter's Magdalene was our Saviour's first Apostle after his Resurrection she had a commission to instruct St. Peter himself and the beloved Virgin too and to tell them their
dastardly and low-spirited were even the very Apostles tho they lived and dayly conversed with him their courages were impaired by their sears they betrayed deserted and denied him but his Resurrection did beget in the mind of the Christian World a true generosity and fortitude able to subdue and trample on all dangers in as much as men of no breeding no natural valour of no interests or friends durst prefer the confession of their Saviour and his Gospel to their Countrey and Relations to their quiet and security and to life it self and passionately to chuse scourges and prisons and the various methods of death before all sorts of voluptuous enjoyments But what is more and more acceptable than all knowledg and all power the Resurrection of Christ gave the Holy-Ghost to the World for the blessed Spirit could not be given till Christ was risen Thus this one act of the Almighty Redeemer of mankind baffled all the fears of his servants compleated the satisfaction for their sins secured unto them the company of the Spirit of Truth Peace here till they should be carried into his Kingdom on the wings of Angels And what greater blessings canst thou wish than these O my soul Give the riches and the honours of this life O my dearest Saviour to others I will never envy their fruitions so thou give me thy Self let me partake of the benefits of thy Resurrection in the pardon of my sins in the indwelling of the Comforter in my mind and in the first fruits of obedience in frequent approaches to thy Table and other acts of devout converse with thee and leaving the manner of my death to thy disposal for on these terms in what sort or at what time soever it shall be I shall not be disturbed I shall be happy in the remembrance that when my Master comes and finds me so doing he will give me a share in his joys The Collect. ALmighty God who through thine only begotten Son Jesus Christ hast overcome Death and apened unto us the gate of everlasting Life we humbly beseech thee that as by thy special grace preventing us thou dost put into our minds good desires so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect through Jesus Christ our Lord who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy-Ghost ever one God world without end Amen The Anthem The Resurrection and Aseension I. COme holy Spirit from above Come warm me with Seraphick love That I may the triumphant Jesus sing Whose resurrection heaven to earth did bring And put thee long'd-for peaceful Dove upon the wing II. Jesus is risen mount my mind And leave this sordid earth behind God made thy body dust but Sin a grave Let thy Soul too its Resurrection have No longer be thy Lusts the Worlds or Satan's slave III. Attend the Conqueror to his Throne Who from the lower world is flown Make tho the meanest one in that parade The bleeding Jesus did my heart in vade And none can heal the wound but he whose hand it made IV. View yonder Arch inscrib'd above Sacred to Coelestial Love There the incomparable Jesus dwells Iesus who charms thee by the strengest spells Love him with transports O my passions and none else V. See the bright Angels how they glide Up and down by 's Chariot's side See where ten thousand hover and attend To guard the Conqueror to his journies end Whose Chariot does directly to God's right hand bend VI. There Jesus fixes and from thence Sheds his benignest influence And like triumphant Victors does bestow His donatives on us who dwell below That we in time our Triumphs may accomplish too VII You Angels you who dwell above Spend all your time in songs and love While I who sadly want your light and fire Detain'd in sensual fetters would mount higher And wish to do what I can only now admire VIII You Guardians are by Heaven design'd To awe and to protect Mankind When Jesus rose you did the news relate When he ascended you did on him wait That I might triumph so give me my Saviours Fate Rules of Conduct for Easter-Day and the Sacrament § 1. It is taken for granted that the devout Person hath humbled himself in the sight of God for his sins the Week aforegoing more particularly on Good-Friday and the Holy Saturday and it is requisite he should watch a great part of if not all the Saturday night which time should be spent in more intense Supplications and more ardent Meditations the Vigils of the Ancient Church were an excellent Institution and Watching and Prayer are joined by our Saviour and we are bid to be sober and to watch unto Prayer by the Apostles that is to fast to watch and to pray it is true the Vigils at last gave offence and were for that reason almost all prohibited because such promiscuous meetings of men and women under the covert of the night did administer to many Exorbitances But the Vigils of Easter and the greater Festivals were always kept up and are so still in the Churches of the East and tho our Church doth not expresly injoin the observation yet it mentions them in her Rubricks and leaves every man to his own liberty to watch in his Closet where there can be no such temptation as gave occasion to the disuse of that practice And whenever the Christian Penitent goes to bed it is requisite to rise very early on Easter day because our Blessed Master rose ‖ Joh. 20.1 while it was yet dark § 2. After the private devotions are performed and the necessary duties of the Family if any considered and attended the good man goes to Church nor will he choose to receive any other where but at his own Parish Church if there be a Sacrament there which on this Festival is expresly enjoined to be celebrated over all Christendom * Can. 6. The Council of Gangra denounc'd a solemn Anathema against the Erecters of private Conventicles that those who dislik'd the publick Assemblies might communicate at home in private And by the old †Ludov. 1. tit 101. Lothar l. 1. tit 357 c. Capitulars every Priest was ordered to be degraded every Layman to be excommunicate who lest his own Parish to receive the Blessed Eucharist in another unless extraordinary business or a Journey called them that way or they had a dispensation so to do from their Superiours § 3. But if the devout Person be hindred by sickness or some other inevitable obstruction he bears the loss with Patience but looks on it as a great affliction and longs to go up to the House of the Lord and to communicate with his Saints and that he may not lose all the benefit of the solemnity his thoughts are present and go along with the Service and he begs God earnestly to accept of his willing mind and to send him his Blessing and his Holy Spirit as much as if he actually communicated Thus the
* Buxtorf Synag Jud. c. 13. Jew who could not possibly go up to Jerusalem at the Passover had the allowance to kill a Lamb at Home and to call upon the Name of the Lord praising him for the deliverance out of Egypt § 4. But if by any means he can go to Church he chuses to be there some time before the Holy Offices begin that he may the better compose himself recollect his Thoughts and review his Vows for he who wilfully slips the opportunity of being at the beginning of the Prayers is in the way to lose all the advantages of his coming thither for he who does not confess heartily cannot communicate worthily Early therefore the good man goes to Church and he takes care to come fasting that nothing may enter into his mouth before the Body of God for for this cause the Ancients transferr'd their Love-feasts from being eaten before the Sacrament to be eaten after it not only to prevent excess but to do Honour to this Heavenly Food by preserring it to all our temporal necessaries And yet the good man is not so scrupulous to believe that if while he washes his mouth a drop of water casually trickle down his Throat that that breaks his Fast and disables him to communicate that day § 5. The spare time before the service begins is spent in holy reflections and renewed vows of obedience such as these In the name of Jesus who loved me and was crucified for me I renounce my self and all my own desires that I may love my Saviour and do him service May his Cross and Passiion save me may his Grace keep and direct me in the paths of Peace world without end Be glad and rejoice O my soul and give Honour to the Lord God Omnipotent for the Marriage of the Lamb is come Blessed are all they who are called to the Marriage-Supper of the Lamb These are the true sayings of God Nothing in this world can be comparable to it nothing but the vision of God above it To which is subjoined this Meditation § 6 I am come into the Temple of God to receive his Injunctions and to partake of his Blessings I entertain the tidings with Joy and the Exultations of a glad heart this is the day which the Lord hath made I will tejoice and be glad in it this is the Lords day and this his Habitation where it pleaseth him to dwell O how amiable are thy dwellings O thou Lord of Hosts Here the Angels wait and worship and if they veil their faces being ravished at the Transporting and Majestick Sight how cold and negligent am I in my preparations to entertain the lover of Souls my comforter in this world and my bliss in that which is to come the guide of those vvho travel to Zion and the revvard of vvhoever attains to the Heavenly country Had I the Meekness of Moses and the Patience of Job the Zeal of Elijah and the Purities of the Man after Gods ovvn heart yet vvere I not meet to approach Gods Holy Table Could the Seraphim transfer to me their ardours or the bright Angels cloath me with their innocency yet it would be infinite Condescention in my God to admit me Lord What then shall I do If I come I am afraid of presumption but if I refuse to come I slight thy invitation I contemn thy Ordinances and affront thy Goodness I break thy Commandments and throw off my subjection I will therefore come tho I bring not with me the intire preparation which the Sanctuary requires for he who despiseth thy Table is as guilty in thy sight as he who eats and drinks unworthily Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof and yet thon biddest thy self to be my Guest and intreatest to be admitted into my Bosom the greatest Prince condescends to visit his meanest subject and the Holiest God to dwell with the most sinful Wretch Lord I have sinned and done exceeding wickedly And can my God look savourably on such an abominable Transgressor as I am Can thy Mercy incline thee to take the Childrens Bread and to give it to such a Dog I acknowledg I am an Intruder but Mary Magdalene whom thou lovedst and to whom thon forgavest much when she made her first Addresses to thee O Blessed Jesu came unbidden to the house of a supercilious Pharisee when the Meat was on the Table and without taking notice of any body else laid hold of thee whom she earnestly sought at thy feet she throws her self and washes them with her penitential Tears she was ashamed of her sins but not of her approaches to her Saviour and so am I Oh! how am I grieved that I am yet so far from the power of Godliness so intangled with the love of vanity so fond of the world and so negligent of Heaven so prodigal of my time and such a niggard of my Charity so vain in my imagination so inconsiderate in my discourses so indevotional in the most solemn acts of Religion but so intent to things of no moment so concern'd about my daily Bread but so careless of getting the Bread of Angels so inclinable to be angry with others while I want that indignation that becomes me against my own transgressions May the good Lord be merciful to me and to every one who prepareth his heart to seek the Lord God the God of our Fathers altho he be not cleansed according to the Purification of the Sanctuary § 7. After this it is taken for granted that the good Man who is Gods Minister and the Peoples Priest is come to Church and hath begun the Divine Service at which the devout Christian earnestly attends praying with all fervency o Receiving the Absolution with all Contrition and Humility praising God with all heartiness repeating the Creed with his utmost vigour because it is a confirmation of the truth of his profession and tho he takes all occasions when there is any pause as frequently there is in the Celebration of the Eucharist to put up his own private Prayers to God yet he never dares suffer them to interfere with the publick worship for ¶ 1 Cor. 14.26 when the Apostle reproves the men of Corinth that at their solemn Meetings every man had his Psalm and every one his Doctrine i.e. one was preaching while another was praying and a third singing and tells them that this could not edifie he looks upon that reproof as a lesson of advice and duty to the whole Church and a general Rule of demeanour in the House of God § 8. When the devout Christian observes the Holy Man of God for such is every Priest or such he ought to be standing at the Altar he looks on him with Reverence because he ministers in Holy Things and represents Jesus consecrating at the first Institution And for him thus he prays Lord let thy Priests be cloath'd with righteousness and let thy Saints sing with joyfulness Hosannah