take him for their Saviour whether he will or no Though he hath protested that he will say to those who would not do the Will of his Father which is in Heaven I know you not depart from me ye Workers of Iniquity yet these very Persons will lay hold on him and will be saved by him in despight of him and therefore do not only assemble with other Christians under the Cross at the holy Table and there pretend to take him to their Comfort as well as the best of them but on their Death-beds too after they have abused him by their carnal and sensual Lives lived like his Enemies lean upon him depend upon him lay hold on his Merits support themselves with his Sufferings and stay themselves on him as if they were resolved he should not shake them off This is a Rudeness that admits of no Excuse Not but that he is ready enough to refresh those that lay hold on him as they should do but where Men's Hearts remain unsanctified unholy unresolved to walk in the Light as he was in the Light unaffected with the Love of God untouch'd with a Sense of Sin there to hope and be confident they shall be saved by his Merits is to make Christ a Patron of their Sins and an Encourager of Hypocrisie and to charge him with a Lye as if contrary to what he hath so often affirmed asserted repeated and confirmed by Miracles too not those that have followed him in the Regeneration but those whose Hearts and Lives were never changed shall sit upon Thrones when the Son of Man shall sit upon the Throne of his Glory Mat. 19. 28. III. From hence it is evident that to take Christ for our highest and chiefest Good a Man must believe there is something to be got by him which the World cannot give and beyond all that the World can afford And this Belief must not be slight or superficial but a Belief that considers the Consequence and Importance of this Truth not a Belief of Speculation but a Belief that rouzes the Soul from her Slumber A Man that doth not heartily believe that the greatest the best the choicest Satisfaction flows from the Possession of this Treasure will never labour or toil or put himself to Trouble to get Possession of it So that if ever we take the Lord Jesus according to the Rules laid down in the preceding Discourse so as to accept of him upon his Terms to appropriate him to our selves and to hold him fast we must sit down and in cool Blood consider whether that Bliss and Happiness is to be found in him which the Scripture speaks of and to weigh that Happiness how far it transcends all other Felicities and Comforts of this World end not to rest till we are fully persuaded of the Truth and Reality of it And this Persuasion will in a manner force and compel us to take him so as with the Merchant in the Gospel to sell all we have for that inestimable Pearl The PRAYER O Jesu My All my Sun my Light and the Glory of my Soul Who hast taken upon thee the Form of a Servant that I might be taken into the Number of the Kings and Princes of the other World I have too long entertain'd my self with the Pleasures and Vanities of the World and the uncertain Shadows and Images of Carnal Satisfactions I see I see there is that in thee which counter-balances and out-weighs all that the World can call rich and excellent and beautiful They that enjoy thee walk in Light and the Darkness trouble them not O take my Soul and reform it Take my Will and rectifie it Take my Understanding and eradiate it with thy Beams Take my Affections and inflame them O let me not take Shadows any longer for Realities Take me into thy School and teach me Teach me how I may be thy Disciple Teach me how I may be satisfied with thee alone Teach me how I shall take thee for my Head my Governor and the Regent of my Soul Take care of this poor miserable Sinner Take thou the Government of my Heart It is thine thou hast bought thou hast redeemed it thou hast paid the Ransom Take me Captive by thy Love Free me from the Prison of my Corruptions that I may be fit to be taken into the Number of such as have washed their Robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb and stand for ever before the Throne of God and serve him Night and Day in his Temple Amen CHAP. XI Of these Words This is my Body whether they import a Transubstantion or Consubstantiation and how the Bread is Christ's Body and how Christ's Body may and is to be eaten The CONTENTS Transubstantiation a new and monstrous Doctrine The Fate that attended Berengarius for denying it The Impossibility of it shewn in several Particulars Consubstantiation an Opinion as groundless as the former The History of it The Arguments the Lutheran Churches make use of confuted The true Sense of these Words THIS IS MY BODY What it is to eat Christ's Body Many Rhetorical Expressions in the Fathers concerning this holy Sacrament which are not to be taken literally The same Expressions made use of still but to be understood according to the Analogy of Faith The same Way that Man was lost the same Way he must recover The crucified Body of Christ represented in this Sacrament a Motive to many excellent Duties The Prayer I. THIS IS MY BODY What Stirs and Differences these few Words have caused in the Christian World especially since the Eighth Century is unknown to none that is versed in Ecclesiastical History The Modern Church of Rome as they place Consecration in these Words so to establish Transubstantiation they take Sanctuary at this Expression Transubstantiation a Word not known till the Year of our Lord 1112 when Stephen Bishop of Autun first invented it and afterwards confirm'd by Pope Innocent III. in the Lateran Council in the Year 1215 is at this Day the Darling Doctrine of the Church of Rome A Word first brought in by Passion and Ignorance defended afterwards with blind Zeal and at last established and turned into an Article of Faith by the pack'd Council of Trent A Word which long ago would have been banish'd and rejected but that it happen'd to be owned by Men who will rather hazard all than acknowledge themselves in an Errour A Word which that corrupted Church at this Day fights for and anathematizes curses and damns to the Pit of Hell all that dissent from their Sense and Meaning in that barbarous Expression What they mean by Transubstantiation is sufficiently known viz. A Conversion or Change of the whole Substance of Bread in this Sacrament into the Substance of Christ's Natural Body immediately upon the Priest's speaking these Words This is my Body as soon as the last Syllable am in the Latin Words Hoc enim est Corpus meum is pronounced by the Priest If
then save them they are most ready to take and to embrace him But that is not the Acceptance I mean For such an Acceptance implies a Contradiction as being contrary to the whole Design of that Reconciliation For by his Death he was to destroy the Works of the Devil and therefore to accept of him and to cleave to those Works he came to destroy is to set Christ at variance with himself He that accepts of this Gift must express that Acceptance not only by his Hand but his Heart too and conform also to the Design of that Gift For Is Christ divided Shall I accept of a part and not of the whole Shall I receive him as a Saviour and not as a Guide and Ruler too Shall I stretch forth my Hand to put his Sceptre of Grace and Mercy to my Lips and break the Sceptre when I have done This is impious and unreasonable 2. We take the holy Bread with our Hâ—nds to testifie our Approbation of that Gift and that we take it to our own Use and Benefit as he that takes Food in his Hand doth it to feed his own Body and to strengthen himself And indeed Christ is willing that the Soul that comes to this holy Table should say Christ is mine for me he suffered for me he died for my sake he left Heaven and confin'd himself to a Cradle to a Stable to a Manger For me he was nailed to the Cross for me that precious Sacrifice was offered and I share in all the Benefits of his Death as well as my Brother my Sister my Friend and my Neighbour The Estate he purchased belongs to me I have a Right to it as well as St. Paul and St. Peter as well as Zachaeus and Mary Magdalene And there is no Dispute of it where the Communicant brings with him Mary Magdalene's Tears St. Peter's Repentance St. Paul's Admiration of God's Love and Zachaeus's Charity he may be as confident that Christ gives himself to him as if he heard Christ saying to him with an audible Voice in the Prophet's Language Fear not I have redeemed thee thou art mine He may justly believe he hears Christ saying to him Here Christian take that which is thine own even my self that Pardon that Salvation that Peace that Joy that Spirit that Comfort which my Death hath purchased and my Cross hath gained I am thy Portion and all that I have is thine I am thy Shield and thy exceeding great Reward Be not afraid to apply these mighty Blessings to my Soul for as great as wonderful as rich as magnificent as they are and as poor as mean as wretched and as naked as thou art take them and wear them tye them as a Crown about thy Head Look upon the bright the everlasting Mansions of Bliss and Happiness look upon all that Saints and Angels do enjoy and please thy self with the Thoughts of it for all is thine 3. We are commanded to take the holy Bread with our Hands to let us know that having accepted of this Gift and appropriated it to our selves we are to hold it fast and not to let it go again Then we let Christ go when we grow cold in our Love to him and to his distressed Members or to our Brethren in general Love stays that Bride-groom of our Souls Love preserves his gracious Presence Love chains him to our Hearts It was an excellent Resolution of the Spiritual Spouse and that Spouse are we Cant. 3. 3 4. The Watch-men that go â—â—ut the City found me to whom I said Saw ye him whom my Soul loves It was but a little that I passed from them but I found him whom my Soul loves I held him and would not let him go until I had brought him into my Mother's House and into the Chamber of her that conceived me This must be the Resolution of every Soul that is tender of spiritual Comfort The Way to hold him fast is to kiss him with our Thoughts to embrace him with our Minds to cleave to him with our Affections to cling to him with our Will and to caress him with our Obedience If he would go away from us these are the Charms that hold him And the Soul that with David hath Courage to say and sincerely intends what it says Psal. 18. 1. I will love thee O Lord my Strength my Rock my Fortress my Deliverer my Buckler and the Horn of my Salvation and my high Tower may expect as gracious an Answer The same we read of Psal. 91. 14 15 16. Because he hath set his Love upon me therefore I will deliver him I will set him on high because he hath known my Name He shall call upon me and I will answer him I will be with him in Trouble I will deliver him and honour him With long Life I satisfie him and shew him my Salvation The Preceding Considerations reduced to Practice I. HERE we may take a View of the immense Bounty of our Master to his Church and People Our Saviour pathetically describes it Mar. 12. 1. 7. For according to the different Conditions of his Church he sent various Servants to check them to admonish them to warn them to represent to them the Joys and Torments of another World and though not a few of these Servants were persecuted stoned killed abused and some met with cruel Mockings with Bonds and Imprisonments yet that did not discourage him and having therefore yet one Son his Well-beloved he sent him also last unto them saying They will reverence my Son And this Son he bids us take and with him all Things that can make us truly happy And though it is true the covetous and sensual Man would have taken it more kindly if God had bid him take Chests of Gold and Talents of Silver rich Houses and richer Lands yet had those Gifts been very mean and unworthy of his Wisdom and Holiness His Gift like himself must be spiritual and great and in bidding us take his Son with all the Benefits of his Death he bids us take the most inestimable Mercy and that which must make us rich and great and glorious to Eternal Ages If he had bid us take the World and the Fulness thereof there had been no great Self-denial in that Offer But to offer the Son of his Love and to bid us take him as our own whereby we enjoy all his Wealth and Treasures the Self-denial is so great that the Sacred Writers know not how to express it and therefore use such Words as may serve to feed our Admiration So God loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son And the Word so implies so vast an Ocean of Love that the Understandings both of Angels and Men may lose themselves in the Contemplation or Survey of it II. Here I cannot but reflect on the Rudeness of some that take him indeed but it is as the Soldiers at his Passion took him by Force and Violence There are Thousands that will
beautifie the Meek with Salvation Let the Saints be joyful in Glory let them sing aloud upon their Beds let them praise the Name of the Lord for his Name alone is excellent his Glory is above the Earth and Heaven III. See here how rich a Meal God the Father prepares for our Souls even the crucified Body of his Son Shall we look upon that Celestial Food with dull and careless Thoughts Can we behold this costly Bread and forbear crying out Lord for ever give us that Bread Christian if thou meanest to be saved by the crucified Body of thy Lord thou must needs eat of it Not only thy Mouth must eat the Sacramental Bread and chew it but thy Soul must ascend and employ her self in eating of the crucified Body represented by that Bread Thy Soul thy Mind thy Will thy Affections must have the greatest Share in eating at this Table Thy Body hath little to do here that is only the Chariot that brings thy Soul to this Banquet Thy Soul not being engaged and busie here in Thinking Admiration Resolution Love and Joy the Cringes and Bowings of thy Body will be insignificant The End of our common Eating is Assimilation and in our ordinary Meals we therefore eat Food agreeable to our Bodies that it may be united to our Substance mingle with our Blood and become one with our Bodies So here our Souls must feed on the crucified Body of the Lord Jesus that we may become one with him All Creatures may be said to be one with Christ as he is God as he is their Creator in which respect he fills Heaven and Earth with his Presence and is not far from every one of us and in him we live and breath and have our Being Nay in a more particular manner every Professor of Christianity may be said to be one with him as he professes the same Religion which Christ taught his Disciples But this is not the Union aimed at in this Sacrament nor can the Union which respects our Profession only give any great Comfort to a Christian. The Union designed by this Sacrament is effected by the Spirit of Christ Jesus and the Soul that unfeignedly see◠here on the crucified Body of her Master gets the same Spirit that dwelt in her crucified Lord which produces the same Graces in her that shined in that great Shepherd of Souls and the same Mind the same Temper the same Disposition in substance at least though not in the same Degree is effected and produced in her by this Spirit as we see Rem 8. 11. Phil. 2. 5. And this is that Union every true Communicant is to aim at and from hence flows a Communion with Christ in all his Privileges and Glories whereby the Soul is raised up together with Christ and made to sit together with him in Heavenly Places though not by way of actual Enjoyment as yet but by getting a Right and Title to those Privileges as the Apostle informs us Ephes. 2. 6. By feeding on this crucified Body the Soul is nourished and gathers Strength against her spiritual Enemies becomes bold in Temptations resolute in Dangers couragious in spiritual Enterprizes The Soul that comes to feed on this crucified Body and comes not with this Intent comes in vain comes only to stare upon the Cross but not to be refreshed by it The Soul that after the Sacrament yields wilfully to the same Temptations it did before is ensnared by the same sinful Pleasure that ruin'd it before is led Captive by the same Lusts that intangled her before certainly feeds not on the crucified Body of the Lord Jesus because the Contemplation of that Crucifixion works no suitable Effects which if it did the Soul would unfeignedly destroy the Body of Sin according to the Apostle's Rule Rom. 6. 6. and offer up her Body a living Sacrifice holy acceptable unto God as it is said Rom. 12. 1. Make the Body obedient to Reason and Sense to Faith and the Flesh to the Spirit and it would keep under the Body and bring it into Subjection as St. Paul did 1 Cor. 9. 27. i. e. it would deny the Body those Satisfactions which are manifest Hindrances to the Things of the Spirit it would force it to Temperance to Hardships to Industry and Laboriousness in God's Service it would strive and take care that the Body might become a Temple of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6. 19. 〈◊〉 what the Soul doth in this Ordinance would leave such a Sense upon us as would not only enable but constrain us to glorifie God both in Body and Soul as the Scripture requires 1 Cor. 6. 20. These are the blessed Effects of eating the crucified Body of the Lord Jesus And the Soul that feeds on that Body will find these happy Consequences it will not go away empty from this Meal and though for the present it doth not see all these Effects yet there is that Impression made on her by this Eating that these Effects will afterward discover themselves in her Life and Conversation The PRAYER O My God! What Care dost thou take of my immortal Soul that it may not starve Thou hast made large Provision for my Body in the Earth in the Air and in the Water The Earth brings forth Herbs and Roots and Cattel to feed it The Air affords Fowl and Feather'd Creatures to nourish it The Water provides Fish for it But none of all these can satisfie my Soul that must have a spiritual Diet and rather than it shall want thou hast given thine own Son to be her Food O mysterious Love Can I after tbis have low and mean Thoughts of thy Goodness O sweetest Jesu if my Soul feeds not on thee if must die and be separated from thy glorious Presence for ever If it feeds on thee it is made for ever Oh! be thou my most beloved and most delightful Food Thy crucified Body alone can keep my Soul from fainting Thy Death must yield me Life Thy Sufferings must give me Joy Thy Agonies must afford me Comfort Thy Torments must work mine Ease Thy Nails and Thorns must be my Bed of Roses Nothing else can give my Soul Rest. When the Snares of Death and Hell encompass me I will lay hold on these Horns of the Altar here I shall be safe safer than in the Arms of Angels Thou that diedst for me livest for ever to intercede for me and having such an Advocate I may come boldly to the Throne of Grace O let me not survey this glorious Provision made for my Soul with carnal Eyes O let me ponder seriously not with flying and transient but with steady and fixed Thoughts how thou hast favoured how thou hast loved how thou hast dignified this miserable Soul of mine that I may rejoyce in thee for ever and ever Amen CHAP. XII Of remembring Christ in this Sacrament or doing what we do here in remembrance of him The CONTENTS The Death of Christ Jesus the principal thing to be
Ordinance in thy Church and ordained it as a means whereby thy loving Members may come in the unity of the Faith unto a perfect Man It shall be established for ever as the Moon and as a faithful witness in Heaven Give me O give me perseverance in the use of it O Jesu Thou art the promised Seed the promised Messiah the promised desire of all Nations Thou art the fruitful Vine and by the precious Liquor that drops from thee innumerable Souls are cherished and refreshed Thy Sacred Name is as Ointment poured out I smell the rich composition My Soul doth gather strength and life from that perfume I am the wounded Man that 's fallen among Thieves O let thy Blood heal me of my Plagues Thou hast been lifted up to the Cross that the Enemy of Mankind might be troden down O let me participate of the Virtue of that exaltation that I may trample upon his Temptations Thou hast been lifted up to draw me after Thee and to withdraw my Heart from worldly Desires and Affections O lift me up from the Earth that I may relish the comfort of thy Exaltation Thou wast lifted up that thou mightest be beheld by all O let me look upon Thee whom I have pierced by my Sins that I may mourn for them bitterly Thy Holy Arms were stretched out that thou mightest embrace all that come unto Thee I come Lord Take me into thy Arms and love me O let thy Cross be my security against all my Enemies Let thy Wounds be my refuge in the hour of Temptation Let that innocent Blood that dropt from thy Hands and Feet and Side wash away the spots and stains of my abominable Actions Henceforward my Hands and my Heart shall be lifted up in Prayer and Praise and Love and Devotion O direct me and give me grace to obey thy Directions and leave me not till I am past all danger O see me safe through the wilderness of this World that I may for ever Admire and Adore Thee in thy Everlasting Kingdom Amen CHAP. XVII Of Eating and Drinking unworthyly in this Ordinance and the Guilt the unworthy Receiver incurs thereby The CONTENTS Both good and bad Men frighted witb the thoughts of Eating and Drinking unworthily but the good without just cause Wherein unworthy Eating and Drinking doth not consist shewn in Thirteen particulars with the reasons of the assertion and wherein it doth consist The danger of unworthy Eating and Drinking proved to lie in making our selves guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. How Men involve themselves in that guilt discovered A great difference betwixt Receiving unworthily and being not worthy to Receive The great imprudence and Weakness of those that are loath to depart with their Sins and therefore are unwilling to come for fear they should make themselves guilty of the Death of Christ and of Damnation The impudence and boldness of others who come to this Sacrament receive unworthily and are not concerned at their danger The Joys and Comforts which arise from Receiving worthyly The Prayer I. THough from the Premises the Reader may easily guess what is it to Eat and Drink unworthyly and though in Ch. 4. some general notions concerning it have been laid down yet since it is a point which frights not only bad Men but even some of those who are otherwise piously inclin'd from coming to the Lord's Table it will be necessary to give a distinct explication it that neither the bad may think they gain any thing by abstaining nor the good be discouraged from coming As bad Men have no sense of Spiritual things which makes them live merrily in neglect of commanded Duties so not a few of those whose hearts are tender are apt to discompose their minds with needless scruples whereby they too often deprive themselves of the comforts they might reap from God's Ordinances and besides expose themselves to strong Temptations of the Devil who takes pleasure to see good Men in confusion hoping that one time or other they may fall into his net and when they know not how to extricate themselves out of their Labyrinths will shake of the Yoak of all Religion and become his Votaries run into the the other extream and turn either careless or Prophane To prevent these and other dangers it will be convenient to discourse of this Eating and Drinking unworthily first Negatively what it is not and secondly what it is and wherein the sin consists And therefore II. To Eat and Drink unworthily is not 1. To Eat and Drink at this Table with a weak Faith By a weak Faith I mean such a belief of the truth and necessity of the things commanded in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ as makes the Soul ready and willing to do the things required of her but is attended with great fears and doubts with wavering and inconstancy and this weakness proceeds not so much from want of will to submit to Christ as from want of understanding either the extent of the Grace of God or the nature of the Gospel of peace or the design of God in his Providences or the Latitude of true Christian Liberty which defect must needs cause great mistrusts of our safety danger of being scandaliz'd with little things and unsteddiness in Holy Duties as we see Rom. 14. 1 2. c. yet this weakness of Faith doth not make a Man an unworthy receiver 1. Because Christ is willing to receive such into favour and he express'd this willingness in his kind behaviour to the Man we read of Mark 9. 22. Who believed indeed but waveringly and soon after cryed out and said with Tears in his Eyes Lord I believe help thou my unbelief The Disciples of our Lord upon their first adhering to him were at the best but weak in Faith and therefore Christ calls to them so often O ye of little Faith yet he doth not therefore reject them He cherishes the very Seeds of Faith and when it is no bigger than a grain of Muster-Seed he makes much of it Though the Branches of it be but tender yet he doth not Root up the Tree or Command the Husbandman to cut it down lest it should cumber the Ground or throw it into the Fire To which purpose there is an Excellent Character given of him Esa. 40. 11. He shall feed his Flock like a Shepherd and gather the Lambs with his Arms and carry them in his Bosom and shall gently lead those that are with young There are Lambs in his Flock as well as Sheep and as these two require various management so both may be confident of his tenderness All Stars do not shine alike yet even those that give not so great a brightness shall be preserved as well as the greater Luminaries Love is an acceptable present to him and though in some like fire under green Wood it burns but dimly yet he 'll quench it no more than he will the more blazing Flames But then when I say he will
the Lord Jesus will answer and though he may knock often yet at last the Gates will be opened to him The Everlasting Door the Gate of Grace and Mercy shall be unlocked to him and he shall get more Grace greater Strength larger Influences his Incomes shall be greater his Revenues more plentiful He will open the Windows of Heaven to him and refresh his Ground with kindly Showers They shall drop on the Pastures of the Wilderness and the little Hills shall rejoyce on every side Such a Receiver is like to abide in Christ and his Word like to abide in him He may be sure of his Love sure of his Friendship sure of his favourable Looks For him Christ laid down his Life indeed and he may be confident that he is one of his little Flock for he hears his Voice and is willing to be guided by him For him the Saviour of the World hath prepared a sure Refuge a Munition of Rocks where he shall dwell securely free from the stormy Wind and Tempest Such a Receiver believes in him and he shall not die Nay Though he were dead yet shall he live Because Christ lives he shall live too And though his Life be hid with Chrst in God yet when Christ who is his Life shall appear then shall he also appear with him in Glory His Faith shall at last be turned into Fruition his Hope into Vision his Expectations into Enjoyment He shall see Christ at last in his Majesty He shall see him in his Wedding-Robes He shall sit down with him at last at the Supper of the Lamb and lean on his Bosom and the Angels will say Behold the Disciple whom Jesus loved He shall walk with him in shining Garments and the King's Daughter which was all glorious within here shall be all glorious without too Her Glory shall be the Joy of Saints and the Envy of all wicked Men. Such a Person rejoyced in his ligâ—t here and he shall be decked with Eternal Light He that is the Light of both Worlds shall be his Everlasting Companion and Darkness shall not annoy him In a Word Christ will lift up the Light of his Countenance upon him and he shall be safe The PRAYER O Great and admirable Saviour who hast said I will give unto him that is a thirst the Fountain of the water of Life freely my Soul thirsteth for thee my Flesh longeth for thee in a a dry and thirsty Land where no water is to see thy Power and thy Glory I am unworthy to receive so Glorious a Guest into my Soul I am unworthy to wash the Feet of the Servants of my Lord Unworthy of the least Crum that falls from thy Table The Angels purer than the Sun think themselves unworthy to Praise and Glorifie thee How unworthy then must I think my self to receive thee the sweetest and the brightest Being into my House yet thou offerest to come and make thy abode with me What Bounty is this Whence is it that the Sovereign King of Heaven and Earth will come and dwell in me who am a sink of Misery a stye of uncleanness a den of filthiness How unworthy am I of this astonishing Saviour I freely confess that I have deserved to be plunged into the depth of Hell rather than to receive thee the Glory of Heaven and Earth into a Heart so defiled so polluted so corrupted with Sin and Misery Yet since thou dost freely offer me this unspeakable Mercy Come Lord and make thy Residence in my Soul I desire to receive thee with all Love and Purity and Devotion To this end destroy in me all that is contrary to thee and enrich my Soul with all suitable dispositions to receive thee I hate my Sins I renounce them I desire to think of them with horror because they were the cause of thy Torments and of that death thou sufferedst on the Cross I would hate them as the Angels and the Saints of Heaven do I am sensible thou art worthy of all Honour and Glory and from my Heart wish that I never had offended and dishonoured thee O that I had something of that Sorrow I see in thy Soul when thou madest thy Soul an offering for Sin Thy Soul was exceeding sorrowful even unto death It was my Sin that caused that Sorrow O let me participate of that Sorrow O Jesu my Light my Righteousness my Sanctification my Redemption Open mine Eyes that I may see the vast Mercy offered me in this Blessed Sacrament Give me that Repentance that Faith that Love which may make me a worthy Receiver of thy Benefits I humble my self before thee I throw my self down at thy feet I give my self to thee I dedicate my Thoughts my Words my Actions my Understanding my Will my Affections to thy Service Set up thy Kingdom in my Soul Destroy my inordinate Self-Love my Anger my Pride and all my disorderly Inclinations Let thy Humility thy Charity thy Patience and all thy Graces reign in me Where thou art there is Heaven If thou art in me I shall not fear what Man or Devils can do against me for thou wilt hide me in the secret of thy Presence from the Pride of Man thou wilt keep me secretly in a Pavilion from the strife of Tongues Blessed be the Lord who hath shewed us his marvellous Kindness I will sing of the Mercies of the Lord for ever with my Mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all Generations Amen Amen CHAP. XVIII Of the sad Effects and Consequences of Unworthy Eating and Drinking in this Holy Sacrament and First of Temporal Judgments The CONTENTS The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is rendred Damnation explained and its various significations discussed Of Temporal Judgments in general which are or may be procured by Eating and Drinking unworthily at the Lord's Table Several Instances of Persons who have felt signal Judgments for prophaning Holy Things This applied to the Holy Sacrament How Men Eat and Drink Temporal Judgment to themselves explained There being many unworthy Receivers at this day who meet with no Signal Judgment in this Life what we are to think of it and how we are to reconcile this Impunity to the Truth of the Apostle's threatning A Question resolved whether such Judgments if they befall an unworthy Receiver do expiate his Sins God proved to be a consuming fire and in what sense Though it be dangerous to Eat and Drink unworthily yet this ought to be no discouragement from coming to the Lord's Table The Prayer I. THE Apostle 1 Cor. 11. 29. in general tells us He that Eats and Drinks unworthily Eats and Drinks Damnation to himself A fearful word The Writer of the Life of Ida de Nivella tells us that whenever she pass'd by the Altar where the Eucharist used to be celebrated a trembling seiz'd upon all her Joynts a kind of Ague fit came upon her and a Sacred horror invaded her Soul imitating the Earth in that particular which trembled at
none but general Gifts so even these upon his Abuse and misemploying of them are gradually removed as Men take meat and victuals away from insolent Beggars that throw their Gift upon a Dunghil and as a charitable Pension is withdrawn when we find that the Party which enjoy'd it spends it in Ale-houses and Taverns or in Play 2. By a gradual permitting the Devil to exercise his Power and Jurisdiction upon them God doth not very frequently suffer the Enemy to fly upon the Offender with all his force or to ruin him at once but he lengthens his Chain by degrees to see whether the Sinner will yet give himself leave to think and attempt to be freed from that intolerable Yoak and Slavery but that tenderness and patience of Almighty God becoming fruitless and ineffectual the Judge gives the Executioner greater liberty to darken his Mind to pervert his Will and to sear his Conscience Time was when but one Devil was permitted to Tyrannize over him but if instead of being angry and displeas'd at that single foe the unworthy Communicant embraces and makes him his friend then that Devil takes with him seven other Spirits more wicked than himself and they enter in and dwell there and the last state of that Man is worse than the first saith Christ Matth. 12. 45. Nor is there any thing of injustice in these proceedings of God For 1. It is nothing but Lex Talionis a just Retaliation a Rule whereby God ordinarily governs himself in the execution of his Judgements Hâ—s 6. 4. He tells Judah and Ephraim Your Goodness is as a Morning Cloud and as the early Dew it passes away The Judgment therefore is made proportionable Hos. 13. 3. Therefore they shall be as the Morning Cloud and as the early Dew that passes away so here the Sin is spiritual the Judgment is so too The unworthy Receiver wrongs his own Soul and in his Soul the marks of God's Wrath appear 2. God in this case doth no more than what we our selves do and think our selves very reasonable and just for doing so A Father reduces his spend-thrift Son to a smaller Allowance and the ground that will not bear any thing after a world of Toil we Dung and Dig and Manure no more In this manner and for Reasons â—ike these God withdraws his Holy Spirit from the unworthy Receiver 3. As the Devil is God's Minister of Justice his Jaylor and Hangman so he may justly make use of him to judge and lash the unworthy Receiver the rather because he wilfully hearkens to the base suggestions of his sworn Enemy and who finds fault with a Prince or Magistrate for sending an Executioner to behead or hang those that have committed Treason or conspired against their lawful Sovereign 4. That God doth gradually send this Spiritual Judgment upon unworthy Receivers this speaks his Goodness Compassion and Patience and shews how loth he is to give up Ephraim how loth he is to deliver up Israel to the rage of the Enemy how loth he is to make them as Admah and to set them as Zeboim so that there is Charity mingled with the Justice and in the midst of his Anger he remembers Mercy IV. And this will give us occasion to enquire which of these two Judgments is greater the Temporal or the Spiritual And here if we consider the mischief done by them we must conclude and assert that the Spiritual is greater For 1. Pain and sickness of Body may yet bring a Man or drive a Man to a true Repentance and a sight of the Errors of his ways as we proved in the foregoing Chapter but this Spiritual Weakness makes the way and passage to Repentance more difficult and the more any thing doth hinder a Man from Repentance the more dangerous it is Spiritual Weakness Sickness and Death supposes that the faculties which should be chiefly employed in the product of Repentance are out of order and violated such as the Understanding the Will and the Affections Bodily Sickness very often puts these into a new fermentation and a strong desire after Spiritual Things But when the very Tools whereby the Soul is to work are blunt and their edge rebated or are become rusty and useless the work is very likely to be left undone If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness saith our Saviour Matth. 5. 23. 2. The Spiritual Judgment is the more dangerous because it is less perceiv'd and taken notice of than Bodily sickness If a Man feel the smart and pain of his Wounds and Sores they oblige him to seek out for a Physician for Remedy for Counsel and Advice and so we find it is for the most part with all Diseases of the Body which cause anguish and grief and great inconvenience and disorder in the Body yet among these various distempers some there are where the poison creeps along in the secret parts and Men perceive it not till it seizes upon the Vitals invades the very Heart and tolls the Bell for Death and these we count the most dangerous Of this nature is Spiritual sickness and weakness It leaves the Body in the same temper it found it in causes no prickings in the Back no stitches in the side no disturbance in the Head It lets Men eat and drink and sleep and walk and do their business and as to the outward Man they feel no inconvenience which makes them think that they have nothing of a distemper about them that all is safe and they ail nothing For this Spiritual sickness cannot be perceiv'd without Thinking and Self-examination which being neglected Men feel it not whence it comes to pass that it spreads insensibly in the dark while Men are asleep and by degrees corrupts the Soul till all its goodness be consumed and consequently this Spiritual Judgment is greater than the Corporal 3. The Spiritual Judgment is a sign of God's greater anger too and though it will not enter into the thoughts of a sensual Man that it is so or that any thing can be a sign of God's Anger but what relates to losses and disappointments and crosses in the outward Man and in the World yet enlighten'd Souls have ever look'd upon Spiritual sickness and Death as a sign of God's heavier wrath and indignation because in this case God doth as it were let Men alone leaves them to themselves and his not punishing of them with Bodily troubles looks like an aversion from their Persons and so much we may guess from what we read Hos. 4. 14 17. The Preceding Considerations reduced into farther Practice I IF Christ and his Apostles press Eating and Drinking worthily at this Table it is because they would have our Souls be in perfect health and they are then in perfect health when they rejoyce in the Lord always Thomas Aquinas upon that saying Cant. 1. 13. A bundle of Myrrhe is my well-beloved unto me observes that as Myrrhe preserves Bodies from
quiet their unruly and tumultuous Consciences O my Soul Dread these things as Hell-fire and let not Sin reign in thy mortal Body lest thou be tempted to stand in it and to think well of it and defend it and by that means make thy Case desperate and thy Disease remediless and irrecoverable 36. And the Soldiers also mocked him coming to him and offering him Vinegar TO give a dying Man Vinegar is to increase his Torments and mocking of his Misery To add Affliction to Affliction hath been counted inhumane by most Nations How like Beasts and Brutes doth Want of Religion make Men Nothing makes them act more rationally than Religion Religion is the Image of God and he that practiseth it cannot but be like God O my Jesus Give me such a Sense of it that it may shine through my Actions and People may see whose Child I am Oh when shall my brutish my beastly Affections die When shall I imitate my Father which is in Heaven and act like a Person who hath a Soul infused from above the Gift of the Father of Lights with whom there is no Variableness nor Shadow of Turning 37. And saying If thou be the King of the Jews save thy self A Frothy Humour to what Inconveniences doth it lead Men It makes them speak ill of God before they are aware and while they give way to their Jests they very often affront Religion and Holiness that is its individual Companion O my Saviour Give me a serious Temper Gravity of Behaviour Sobriety of Speech Discretion in my Words and Considerateness in my Carriage Let me not dare to offend thee to please Men nor attempt to make the Company I am in merry with breaking Jests upon things at which the holy Angels tremble 38. And a Superscription also was written over him in Letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrew This is the King of the Jews HOW doth God concur with the Actions of sinful Men contrary to their Designs and Purposes Pilate when he writ this Title over the Cross in all these Languages perhaps did it only to gratifie his Humour but God so directed it that all Nations intimated by those Languages might read there that this Jesus was the Saviour of all the World and that no Nation was excluded from a Title to the Merits of his Cross and Passion O Jesu Thou art no Respecter of Persons But in every Nation whosoever serves thee and works Righteousness is accepted of thee As poor as mean as inconsiderable as I am yet if my Heart be upright toward thee thou wilt receive me and love me Oh give me such an Heart as thou delightest to dwell in And if thou art in me I shall possess a Treasure which the Moth cannot corrupt and Thieves cannot steal away 39. And one of the Malefactors which were hanged railed on him saying If thou be Christ save thy self WHat Rudeness was this Strange That his Misery should not make the Wretch more modest But his Concern was only for this present Life All that he desired was to be free from his present Pain that he might pursue his Sensual Inclinations as formerly How may a Man's Sensuality be known by his Talk O my Soul look well to thy Words and Discourses If thy Heart be touched with a Sense of a future glorious Life thy Tongue will delight to speak of it If thou have an Aversion from such Discourses all thy Professions of Eternal Life will be mere Wind and Air From the Abundance of the Heart the Mouth speaks If Heaven and a glorious Eternity hath possessed thy Heart thou wilt find Opportunities to utter thy inward Feelings of those things with thy Tongue 40. But the other answering rebuked him saying Dost not thou fear God seeing thou art in the same Condemnation FRiendly Reproof is a great Duty Yet O my Soul how loth hast thou been to give it and how loth hast thou been to take it when this precious Balm hath been poured out upon thy Head by a charitable Neighbour How hast thou looked upon it as Gall and Wormwood And what hard Thoughts hast thou entertained of the kind Monitor calling him either faucy or medling with things that did not concern him And how often hast thou let thy Neighbour sleep and rest in his Sin when thy Fraternal Correption might have rouzed him from his Slumber Oh be humbled for this great Omission And when a Malefactor on the Cross thinks himself obliged not to suffer Sin upon his Neighbour be not thou backward to save a Soul from Death 41. And we indeed justly for we receive the due Reward of our Deeds But this Man hath done nothing amiss AN humble Acknowledgment of our Sins and Demerits is the Way to God's Bosom This is the first Discovery of this poor Man's Repentance and he begins with the noblest Act of it which is seeking to draw others to a Sense of better things In this O my Soul thou hast been very remiss and neglectful even in propagating Religion and exhorting others to seek God's Face Henceforth be more diligent in gaining Proselytes to Christ Jesus And what if thy Admonition prevails not thou hast discharged a Duty and may'st rejoyce in having acted according to the Will of God 42. And he said unto Jesus Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom HEre is a Mind set upon Heaven and despising the World than which nothing is more acceptable to God He is content to endure Shame Pain Tortures Prickings Aches and all the Indignities that Man can offer to him so Christ will but remember him in his Kingdom O Jesu Son of God! give me such a Mind and Temper which may be content with any thing so I may but obtain a Share in the Pleasures at thy Right Hand Let even Sword and Famine and Hunger and Thirst and Nakedness seem nothing to me so I may but enjoy thy Embraces in the End Asure me and convince me that the Afflictions of this present Life though never so great never so painful never so lasting never so bitter or piercing are not worthy to be compared with the Glory which e'er long shall be revealed in me 43. And Jesus said unto him Verily I say unto thee To day thou shalt be with me in Paradise HOW ready is Christ to cherish the Penitent that abhors himself for his Deformity and sees greater Beauty and Excellency and Satisfaction in the Ways of Holiness and a Spiritual Life than in all the Comforts of this World Blessed Saviour How ready art thou to stretch forth thine Arms to such humble and contrite Spirits Thou art readier to grant than they to ask and even before they cry thou hearest them Oh let this be an Encouragement to me to deplore my Sins and to bewail mine Offences to detest what I have been doing against thee and to seek first thy Kingdom and its Righteousness that now that thou art in thy Kingdom thou may'st remember me and when I leave
afford matter of comfort to think at such times that the same Jesus who was crucified will ere long appear in Glory with all his mighty Angels to give those that have followed him in the Regeneration full possession of the purchas'd Glory However at the best the Celebration of this Feast at night was but a circumstantial thing and therefore the Church is not obliged to keep to it circumstantial things depending much upon conveniency or inconveniency which vary in several Ages and this was the reason that though standing at the eating of the Passover was a commanded circumstance Exod. 12. 11. yet the Jewish Church in after Ages varied from it even by Christs own Approbation and turned that posture into leaning as I shall have occasion to shew more largely in the Chapter about Kneeling at the Communion The Church therefore sins not in Celebrating this Feast at any other time especially in a circumstance barely related not commanded Yet as I said before because this Spiritual Feast kept up in all Churches is still in imitation of Christs Supper and that Supper is religiously remembred in it and the same essential things together with the scope drift and design of all are still preserved it is not unfitly called the Lords Supper still so that if any man seems to be contentious about the name We have no such Custom neither the Churches of God 1 Cor. 12. 16. IV. Yet this is no Argument but that it may also lawfully be called and expressed by other Names and this we find the Christian Churches have done from time to time Tertullian was the first that called it a Sacrament taking the Name from the Oaths the Roman Soldiers took that they would be true and faithful to their Emperor and the rather because we vow Allegiance and Fidelity in this Ordinance to the great Master that died for us Others have call'd it an Oblation because we offer up our humble Prayers and Supplications to the God and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ and our Souls and Bodies too when we remember this Beneficial Death Sometimes it hath been call'd a Sacrifice because it is not only a commemoration of the wonderful Sacrifice of Christs Death but we chearfully offer up the Sacrifice of our Praises for this inestimable Mercy The name of Communion occurs frequently in the Writings of the Ancients because all sincere Christians are hereby tyed in a bond of mutual Love participate of the same Bread are Fellow-members of the Mystical Body of Christ and have Communion with Christ their Head and enjoy all the same Benefits of his Death and sufferings The word Eucharist is used as often as any other because Thanksgiving and Magnifying the Goodness Mercy and Charity of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost are a great part of the Service here The name Mass which they of the Roman Persuasion and even the Lutheran Churches make use of as it was not known in the Church for the first Four hundred years after Christ so the Original of it was this When the Lords Supper was to be celebrated after Sermon the Deacon or some other Officer of the Church called to the People that did not or were not to receive in these words Ite missa est Depart the Congregation is dismissed In time that which was only a Preliminary circumstance of the Lords Supper was applied to the whole Office and the Service was called Missa or Mass a word which the Romanists make a great stir with and turn into a perfect Charm and a monstrous Sacrifice to the great disparagement of Christs Sufferings and the Benefits that accrue thereby to true Believers Some of their Writers make it a Hebrew word and fetch it from the Old Testament others derive it from the Greek others from the Northern Language and though it expresses less then any of those Names we mentioned before yet hath this swallowed up all the rest and the more superstitious in the Roman Church are almost afraid to call it by any other Name and the Mass is that which both young and Old both learned and unlearned among them have most frequently in their Mouths though few of the Vulgar know what it means I omit here many other Names appropriated by Writers to this Mystery such as Collect Oeconomy Liturgy Dominical Agenda Anaphora Synaxis c. partly because I intend no Critical History and partly because by the names I have already spoken of this Sacrament is usually known in the Western Churches That we do so often call it a Mystery is because the things discovered and imitated here do altogether depend upon Divine Revelation and are such as Flesh and Blood understand not and the Secrets of which none but a Person enlightned by the Spirit of God apprehends to any purpose and which transcend all the Arcana or hidden points of Heathen Divinity V. The name of the Lords Supper puts us in mind that this Holy Feast differs from Common Suppers 1. In that Common Suppers are for the support of Nature this for the support of Grace and Goodness in our Souls The former are intended for the strengthning of the Body this for the corroboration of our Faith and Hope and Love Our Common Supper represents to us the Ordinary Providence of God which opens its hand and fills the desire of every living thing This Gods extraordinary dispensation which shews at what cost and charges we are made the Children of God and fitted for everlasting habitations The former gives us an account of the Blessings of Gods Left this of the favours of his Right Hand The former bids us look into the nether this into the upper Springs of the Divine Clemency 2. In our Common Suppers our Spirits may unbend and our Minds and Tongues take liberty of thinking and speaking of things relating to our necessary Employments in the World in this our thoughts must rise mount up with Wings as Eagles pierce the Clouds and fix on the Riches of Divine Love retire from the World view God and his glorious Attributes and unite with that excellent object improve themselves into Contemplaâ—ion and adore the Mystery of Redemption In the former no other Preparation is required but what we are to bring with us to common affairs and businesses i. e. Gravity and Sobriety but in this the Heart must be prepared the Soul chafed the Affections warmed prayers offered Ejaculations press into Gods presence and Self-examination dispose the Soul for the visits of the Holy Ghost that it may be a worthy Guest at so great a Table and the rather because God is in a special manner present here for wherever Providence displays its brighter beams of Love there God is eminently present that makes Heaven what it is because there the Divine Goodness shines most gloriously In this Sacrament are set before us more then ordinary Characters of Gods Love the Angels of Heaven saith St. Chrysostom stand round about the Altar and while the Minister
Word As the Hart panteth after the Water-brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God Psal. 42 1. How amiable are thy Tabernacles O Lord of Hosts My Soul longeth yea even fainteth for the courts of the Lord Psal. 84. 1 2. My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy righteous judgments at all times And though I grant something of an Hyperbole in those Phrases yet still they import that his desires were strong hearty and vehement and such must be the desires of the Soul in eating the Lord's Supper to be conformable to her Lord and Master 3. It is to eat with unfeigned resolutions to resist all known temptations to those particular this we are most prone and inclined to this shews that we eat with an 〈◊〉 to grow strong and that this is a true Sacrament to us or a Vow whereby we tie our selves to be faithful to our General and to fight against his Enemies Many a man that comes to the Lord's Supper feels some faint resolutions against Sin in general but that works upon him no more than sparks of Fire serve to warm a frozen man and therefore it 's necessary that in eating a Christian should feel invincible resolutions to subdue those particular sins he is most apt to fall or rush into and to which his Calling Employment Converse and Figure in the World doth most solicite and tempt him else he beats the Air and fights with shadows and if he doth not single out those Enemies that are most apt to do him mischief resolution to fight against the powers of Darkness in general gives these unregarded sins that do him most hurt opportunity to live secure and to keep possession of what they have already got into their clutches The Preceeding Considerations reduced to Practice I. THE manner of any Religious performance makes it either pleasing or displeasing to God This turns the scales and two acts of Piety which seem to be the same many times are not because the manner of the performance makes a vast difference in the value The examples of the Publican and the Pharisee praying in the Temple and Abel's and Cain's offering Sacrifices are notorious instances of this truth David pays his Vows Psal. 66. 13. So doth the Harlot mention'd in Prov. 7. 14. The former is precious in the sight of God the later odious the reason is the former proceeded from a sense of gratitude and a relish of the Sweetness of God's Service the other from a base design to compensate God for the sins the strange Woman lived and delighted in It is so in eating the Lord's Supper and as St. Paul saith of the Jews They are not all Israel which are of Israel neither because they are the Seed of Abraham are they all children Rom. 9. 6 7. so all that seem to eat of the Lord's Supper do not therefore eat to the same purpose some eat as Enemies others as Children some as Strangers others as Domesticks some as Slaves others as Heirs of the Promise Look to the manner of thy Eating Christian. Eat like a person that is sensible he sits down at the Table of the greatest Prince the Prince himself being present Eat like a person sensible that the King in whose presence thou art is thy best and greatest Friend Eat like a person sensible that thou hast deserved to sup with Devils to feed on Flames and to drink the Dregs of the Cup of God's anger Eat like a person sensible that from the condition of a miserable Slave thou art advanced to the Dignity of a Child and Son of God Eat like a person sensible that no merit no desert of thine nothing but the incomprehensible Goodness of God hath brought thee to this Honour and Prerogative and it 's impossible thou canst eat amiss for this sense will oblige thee to eat with joy and trembling which is the most proper Devotion for a Creature to express in the presence of his Creator II. Conversation is a great means to do things as we ought He that converses with men of his own Trade will learn how to manage it to his advantage He that converses with great Persons learns how to please them He that converses with ingenious Workmen learns to do things to his and other's satisfaction The same Rule is to be observed in eating the Lord's Supper and he cannot but eat it to God's liking and his own comfort that before he eats converses with himself and while he is eating converses with God and after he hath eaten converses with the holy Angels 1. Conversing with our selves before we eat consists in asking our Hearts What have I done What sins are those that I am apt to lodge in my Bosom What evil desires am I ready to entertain What disorders what corruptions find countenance or approbation in my Soul Is it revenge Is it rendring railing for railing Is it frothy discourses Is it vain Romantick Imaginations Is it weariness of God's Service Is it backwardness to Holy Duties Is it unwillingness to to know the Will of God Is it discontent in the condition I am in Is it intemperance in Eating and Drinking Is it a desire of Vain-glory Is it sudden Anger Is it Impatience or Worldly sorrow Is it Grief and vexation that I cannot have my Will in such outward things as my Appetite desires Is it Lov◠and Affection to the Vanities of this World What dangerous Guests are those And shall I entertain them What are these but Enemies to the Cross And shall I make much of them or let them go out and in without controul Either these Corruptions must be gone or my Saviour will not stay with me Shall I with the Jews refuse my great Redeemers company and desire a Barabbas I am now going to the Cross of Christ and shall I approach with these Ensigns of Rebellion in my Soul Will Christ vouchsafe a favourable Look to me where he sees such Satyrs dance I am going to Mount Calvary and shall these menstruous rags be my Attendance No no I will not loose Heaven for this I will set my Face against these Foes I will let them see that there is something dearer to me than their Presence or Company even he who laid down his life for me These Bryers and Thorns shall not stop my way Away ye evil Spirits you have haunted me long enough I 'll be afraid of you no longer I 'll take courage and fight against you for God is on my side Why should I fear in the day of Trouble 2. Conversing with God when we Eat imports contemplating what God hath done for us in Christ Jesus how God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself not imputing their Trespasses unto them for in this Contemplation the Soul addresses her self to God O my God what cost and charges hast thou been at to redeem such a Wretch as I am How hast thou bow'd the Heavens Lord thou didst make thy self a Curse for me that
the Honour of the true God which the Pagans did to their false and imaginary Deities Yet see the abuse of these Feasts of Charity 1 Cor. 11. 22. especially in the Church of Corinth in the days of the Apostles For St. Paul being busie abroad partly in Planting partly in Confirming Churches the richer sort of the Christians at Corinth began to think it below them to admit the poor to that Familiarity as to eat with them in these charitable Collations and therefore either prompted by their own Pride or encouraged by some false Teachers that had Mens Persons in admiration because of advantage would indeed send the Meat and Drink they had prepared to those Oratories or places of publick worship but when they came they superciliously separated themselves from the Poorer sort and ate and drank by themselves and so freely that many of them became drunk and in that condition had the hellish impudence afterward to come to the holy Sacrament If they left any thing at these Feasts the Poor might take it and make the best of it if not they were forced to go away hungry and too often discontented So early grew this abuse and though in Process of time these Feasts were used after the Eucharist and in many places in Church-yards at the celebration of the Memories of holy Martyrs at the Dedication of Churches and at the Funerals of holy Men and Women yet nothing could keep out Intemperance and Excess and Disorders for which reason the Church at last thought herself obliged to abolish and put them down which was done accordingly by the Council of Laodicea in the Year of our Lord 364. by the Council of Carthage in the Year 419. and by the Council of Constantinople in the Year 692. II. Whence Abuses of Holy things arise is no hard matter to guess for 1. We find them spring from an Itch of Novelty Men not contented with the plain and simple Truths God hath vouchsafed to Mankind are strangely tickled with new things which are often called Refinings or Improvements of old Truths under which plausible name they are easily swallowed down Hence rose the various Idolatries in the World that it became as modish to invent new Gods as it was to invent new Fashions in Cloaths and Habits Adam no doubt deliver'd the notion of one Eternal invisible God Creator of Heaven and earth and the decent worship of him to his posterity This notion being become common and stale the succeeding Ages thought themselves obliged to invent something new and counted it more gay and glorious to worship the Creator in the Creature and seeing the Sun and Moon and Stars that they were the brightest Monuments of God's Power they easily fell into the Worship of those Luminaries till the more brutish among the People adored them as Gods indeed and this novelty once broach'd one God brought in another and as Men were still fond of Novelties so they went on and fell a Worshipping deceased Hero's and Princes in whom the Image of the Supreme Deity resided and who had been famous for some notable exploits or benefits and from hence they still went on even to the Worshipping of Trees Herbs Plants Beasts Crocodils Fishes and creeping things one Age still thinking to out-do the other in new inventions of objects of Worship till it came to pass that those were counted most Religious that Worshipt the greatest number of Gods as the Athenians who had more Gods than any one City besides of which the Apostle takes notice Acts 17. 22 23. 2. Another cause of these abuses is an Opinion That God is pleased more with the Externals than the Internals of Religion an Opinion which Men are very apt to slide into because they find the Internal Devotion is troublesome and requires intention of the Mind and mortification of the Affections and the other is more easily performed To this Original the Corruptions that did over-spread the Jewish Church owe their rise who in despight of all the Warnings of the Prophets to the contrary laid the stress of their Piety on the strict observations of their Sabbaths new Moons Sacrifices Phylacteries and legal Purifications This gave Mahomet occasion to corrupt Religion for knowing what would please the sensual inclinations of Men he craftily drew People away from the Internal Worship and Consecration of the Souls and Affections to the Supreme Being and taught them to place all Devotion in these five external Acts of Worship Saying their Prayers five times a day keeping the Mouth Ramasan giving the hundredth part of their incomes to Pious uses Washing before Prayer and making a Pilgrimage if possible to Mecca And thus the Church of Rome at this day comes to deviate from the true Religion not only by adding new Articles of Faith to the antient Creeds but by turning the whole Worship of God in a manner into Ceremonies and external Services Saying so many Ave-Maries visiting such a Saint's Shrine Processions offering Wax-Candles to the Virgin Praying by Beads undergoing Penances c. 3. A Third cause of these abuses is a mistake of Fancy and Passion for true Religion and Revelation From hence have come all the barbarous attempts of Pretenders to the true Religien against Magistrates and a well setled Church and State From hence have risen all those Enthusiastical conceits both in this and former Ages whereby the Gospel it self hath been in danger of being overthrown From hence come those rude and undigested Notions of Hildegard Bridget Catharine of Siena Teresa St. Francis and others in Popery who by their Dreams and Visions have sought to establish the erroneous Doctrines of the Roman Church From hence it was that the Messaliani of Old pretended and made People believe that upon a Man's Regeneration or being purged from Sin the Devil and his Angels came out of his Mouth in the shape of Swine To say no more in Men and Women whose notions of Religion are crude and undigested and who are made up of a strong Fancy and stronger Passions Religion must needs run into Wild-fire and pervert the simplicity of the Gospel 4. A Fourth Cause is suiting Religion to our own Humours Lusts and Interest The Tartars therefore embraced the Mahometan Religion and rejected the Christian because the former gave greater liberty to the Flesh. This made the Heathens invent to themselves Deities that were favourers of their Vices And from hence it was that in the Primitive Church Basilides Carpocrates Valentinus the Nicolaitans and Archonticks denied the necessity of a Holy Life because they loved to wallow like Swine in the Mire and in all probability upon this ground it was that Hymeneus and Philetus as the Apostle informs us 2 Tim. 17 18. affirm'd and gave out that the Resurrection was already past because they were loath to be called to an account for their evil lives 5. False Teachers and turbulent Souls are another cause Discontented Men because they cannot be Great or Rich or have their Will
and Devils Nor need we wonder why God suffers these abuses for the permits them as he doth other sins to let Men see at last that their Condemnation is just Besides this makes those who use this Ordinance in pursuance of the right end of its Institution more glorious in God's Eyes for this hath still been the Privilege of the true Church of God to flourish like a Lilly among Thorns and what the Apostle saith of Heresie in general is most true of these Abuses There must be such things in the World that those which are approved may be made manifest 1 Cor. 11. 19. The Preceding Considerations reduced to Practice I. THE holier any thing is that is abused the greater is the Crime When Belshazar Dan. 5. 1. was resolved to be drunk had he made himself a Beast by drinking out of common Cups though the sin had been great and against Nature yet it might have passed unpunished here as other Villanies are but when nothing would serve his turn but to drink his Reason and his Wits away out of the Bowls of the Sanctuary and to add Profanation of the Vessels of the Lord's House to all his Crimes this allarmed the Divine Vengeance immediately and rather than not shew his Displeasure God thought himself obliged to be at the Charge of a Miracle which caused the fatal Hand upon the Wall and the King's Overthrow followed within a few hours after And if the Abuse of consecrated Vessels raised so great a Storm what must the abuse of consecrated Reason and Duties and Mercies do Sirs your Reason is a consecrated thing God hath set it apart for his use that you should consider and contrive how to get a share among the Blessed hereafter if you abuse it and will let it serve you for no other end but to teach you how you may grow rich and great and fill your Bellies with hid Treasures will not God visit for these things and will not his Soul be avenged on such Persons Your signal Mercies and Deliverances are consecrated things God hath set them apart to put you in mind of your Gratitude to teach you Submission to his Will and to walk humbly with your God if after these you are careless and live as regardless of your Duty as you did before will not God reckon with you one day for such abuses Should a poor Man take the Cordial you send him and fling it upon a Dunghil how would you resent it and can God like it do you think to see how like Mad-men you tear off the Cloaths he gives you to cover your Nakedness to see you live the reverse of his Designs to see you fight against him with his Mercies and as it was in the Case of the Daughter Jerusalem Ezech. 16-17 to see you take the fair Jewels of Gold and of Silver he hath given you and make to your selves Images of Men and commit fornication with them II. One great abuse of this Holy Sacrament is to fancy that like a spell it will charm sin out of your mortal Bodies so that you need be at no trouble to mortifie it The Sacrament indeed confers Grace but it is objectively as it contains very great Motives to a lively Faith and Hope and Charity and it confers Grace too as a cause without which Grace would not be convey'd because God hath promised in this Ordinance to be present and as the Dew of Hermon or as the Dew descends on the Mountains of Sion so here the Lord commands his Blessing even life for evermore But still it doth not confer Grace Physically as if the mere use of it would make you Favourites of Heaven and Children of his Love It 's Physick indeed which will work a Cure but then the Person that makes use of it must be qualified for it must be sensible that he is sick and willing to be cured of his Spiritual Diseases and then God will look upon him as a Father and manifest himself to him look upon him as a kind Physitian and make the Medicine effectual to him look upon him as a Friend and take him into his bosom and say to him as it is Es. 49. 8. In an acceptable time have I heard thee and in a day of Salvation have I helped thee and I will preserve thee and cause thee to inherit the desolate Heritages III. The abuses committed by some in this Sacrament must not tempt us to neglect the use of it If the abuse that others have been guilty of were a sufficient excuse to stay away we might as well argue that Meat and Drink and Cloaths and Books and Learning may not be used because ill Men have perverted the harmless design of them We should count that Man a fool that should resolve because a Man of such a Profession hath cheated him therefore he will never deal with a Man of that Profession again or because such a Person who pretended to strictness of Religion hath plaid the knave with him therefore he will never trust a Religious Man again The same absurdity would he commit that from the abuse that others have run into in the Holy Communion should resolve to abstain from it for this would be as much as to resolve to be mad because others are and have been so God hath furnish'd us with Faculties and Powers to discern the Dross from the Silver and the Tin from the purer Mettal and we have his Word to guide us in distinguishing the use from the abuse and as the temperate Man still drinks Wine though thousands in the World still pervert the use of that Creature so a good Christian can see no rational discouragement from coming to this Table though some have made it their bane and turned it into their own destruction The PRAYER O Most Gracious God who hast given us thine Ordinances for our Comfort and Edification and directed us how to use them to thy Glory Give me an Understanding Heart and a pure Mind that they may be a savour of Life unto Life to me Let me not touch these Holy things with unclean Hands but purifie my Soul and cleanse it from that filthiness which doth so easily beset it that I may be fit for thy Divine and Glorious Influences Lord without thee I can do nothing thou art the Vine and I the Branch convey thy Celestial Juice into this withered Branch that I may revive and bring forth much fruit and have my Fruit unto Holiness and the end everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen CHAP. VI. Of Receiving the Lord's Supper Fasting and how far it is Necessary The CONTENTS It is a thing not absolutely necessary to receive the Lord's Supper fasting Several Reasons to prove the Assertion Yet to receive it Fasting is a thing very conventent because it quickens Devotion and is an Act agreeable to the mortifying Prospect of Christ's Death and warranted by the Practice of the Universal Church Total Abstinence from Food that Morning
The Preceding Considerations reduced to Practice I. WE may take notice here of the strange decay of Christianity especially with respect to Fasting a piece of Devotion whereby the Primitive Believers effected very great things And it 's to be feared that the over-tenderness of Men to their Bodies in this Age and a fancy that every thing is necessary which their Appetite craves is no small hinderance to their eminency in Virtue and Goodness It 's granted that Men may be very vicious and yet great Fasters too as one John Scot in Scotland in the year 1539. a man of no Learning and no good Qualities neither who was able to abstain thirty or forty days together from all manner of Meat and Drink whereof the King willing to make tryal shut him up in a Room within the Castle of Edinburgh suffering no creature to come at him A little Bread and Water indeed was set before him at his first coming into the room but upon examination it was found that he had not so much as tasted of it in the space of 32 days And going afterwards to Rome the like proof of his fasting was given to Pope Clement VII and some time after preaching against King Henry the Eighth's Divorce at London he was shut up in Prison where he fasted 50 days yet continued still a dissolute man But it is not the bare abstinence that makes a Man a Christian but the spending a Fast religiously and to good ends works the Miracle of Holiness and such were the Fasts of the Primitive Believers who by such frequent Mortifications made their Graces tower and climb and culminate to the admiration of the unbelieving World when they would conquer any Corruption when they had a mind to arrive to any excellency in Vertue when they wanted a signal spiritual Blessing nay when their Friends and Relations or any eminent Servant of God lay sick they presently applied themselves to this piece of Mortification and found great success And it stands to reason that where the Soul gets thus above the Body slights the Pleasures of the flesh determines to converse with God and entertains herself with the thoughts of his Greatness and her own Vileness God who ever loves an humble Spirit will look down and satisfie the longing Soul and fill the thirsty Soul with Goodness Yet II. Let 's not think we have discharged our duty when we have received the Lord's Supper fasting that will signifie but little if after receiving we do not fast from sin This is the acceptable Lent and must be observed more religiously than the Mahometan doth his month Ramasan This is the Fast which the Lord hath chosen and except our Abstinence from Food be in order to this Fast God regards it no more than the lowing of Oxen or the bleating of Sheep To fast from sin is both a Preparative for the Lord's Supper and must be the consequence of it This Fast must be the very end of our coming to the holy Table and we eat and drink there that we may be out of love with this dangerous Meat Nor is this Fast from sin a thing impossible if by sin as we ought to do we understand wilful and habitual sin and the Motives to this perpetual Fast are very cogent He that believes that sin is the Food of Devils and the Meat of Hell and the Festival of Fallen Angels can have no great Stomach to it Nothing starves the Soul sooner than sin and as pleasant as it may be to the Palate the Soul suffers extreamly by it and falls into Palsies and Apoplexies It makes it not only lean but miserable too it shuts her out from the care and tenderness of a Gracious God and in its pernicious effects goes beyond the Apples of Sodom for whereas these upon touching of them fall and shatter only into Ashes that ends in eternal Fire The Ears must be stopt therefore against its Charms the Eyes shut against its alluring Dresses and thus we may wean our selves from any affection to this forbidden fruit The PRAYER O My God! Thou art the most Charming Object and though the sensual World will not be persuaded to believe it yet it is because their eyes are blinded The enlightned Soul discovers such Beauty in thee as transcends the fairest Pictures that mortal hands can make Thou who art the Creator of all Excellencies must needs be more excellent than all thy Creatures O how have I been mistaken in my choice How greedy have I been after the Meat which perisheth To fast and abstain from that I have thought death and misery while I could be content to live without thee and to be deprived of the Communications of thy Goodness hath not so much as caused the least solicitude in my Breast The want of thy favour hath troubled me no more than the want of things which are contrary to my Nature and Constitution I see now where my Happiness lies and to feed on thee I perceive is to feed on that which is incorruptible O kiss me with the kisses of thy Lips and my Soul shall leap for joy Make sin odious to me and make me as averse from it 〈◊〉 my nature is from Poison Let my desires be after thee alone and let me feel that when I enjoy thee I have the best Meat and Drink and that which will nourish me into everlasting Life Let nothing satisfie me but to live for ever Let that be my Ambition Let that be my Resolution Let that be my Endeavour My Soul hath been precious in thy sight thou hast not yet condemn'd me with the World Thy patience hath long waited for me while others have been sent into Darkness thou hast spared me and suffered me to enjoy the Light of the Living I will trespass upon thy Goodness no more I feel the workings of thy Spirit in my Soul I feel desires and propensities to Goodness I will cherish them O help thou me Let those drops of Goodness in me swell into Floods and the riâ—ulets of Grace that run through my Soul into larger streams Let thy voice be heard in my Soul thy convincing thy converting thy pardoning thy sanctifying voice At thy Word I will let down the Net O let me enclose a multitude of Virtues Goodness hath been meat I have had an aversion from now let it become my daily Bread Teach me the art of Abstinence perswade me to abstain from that which will certainly be my ruine Give me a Holy greediness after thy Word let mine ears delight to hear it and mine eyes delight to see it and my feet delight to walk in the way of it Lead me to the Rock that is stronger than I let me freely-Sacrifice unto thee Let my great endeavour be to please my Redeemer who hath saved my Life from the Nethermost Hell He bids me follow him O blessed Jesu I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest Only give me alitority and readiness to make haste after thee who
is for the healing of the Nations here fix though the Earth be moved here shelter thy self from the Wrath to come Christ the same Yesterday to Day and for ever will open Rivers in High Places and Fountains in the midst of Valleys When the Poor and Needy seek for Water and there is none He Prince of Peace wil hear them He the mighty God will will not forsake them He will plant in the Wilderness the Cedar the Myrtle and the Oyl-Tree He will set in the Desart the Fir-tree and the Pine and the Box-tree together that they may see and know and consider and understand together that the Hand of the Lord hath done this and the Holy One of Israel hath created it Ezek. 41. 16 17. The PRAYER O Blessed and Crucified Saviour How often have I broke with thee How often have I broke loose from thee How often have I broke the Silken Strings whereby thou hast sought to tie my Soul How justly mightest thou turn thy Face away from me How justly mightest thou look upon me as unworthy to be called any more to this Spiritual Feast But remember Lord Remember I am Dust remember my Frailty and do not shut up thy Tender Mercies in Displeasure O call after this Prodigal and bring him home again to his Father's House Make lively Impressions of thy Crucifixion upon my Mind Let the Torments of thy broken Body fright me from all known Sin Whenever I am tempted to any Thing that is evil cry in mine Ears or possess me with this Thought That that very Sin did help to break thee on the Cross A lively Apprehension of this will keep my Soul undefiled this will break and crush my former Delight in Vanity this will embitter my Sensual Pleasures this will make me weary of running after other Gods this will humble my Soul this will subdue the vain Imaginations whereby I have been wont to flatter my self into Misery O give me a View of the Riches that are to be found in thy broken Body that I may run no longer after broken Cisterns and may rely no longer on broken Reeds O let my Soul feed on thy broken Body by Contemplation Thou didst not count thy Life dear for my sake O let me be touch'd with these Thoughts that I may despise Death and Torments for thy sake and may with all Saints and Martyrs behold thy Face at last in Eternal Glory O Jesu Great Store-house of Delight Who hast the Keys of David Spread open thine Arms of Mercy and receive this poor miserable Creature Behold this straying Sheep beset with Multitudes of Wolves runs to the good Shepherd Protect me from the fiery Darts of the Enemy embrace me as a tender Mother doth her sickly Child with Bowels of Mercy Kill in me the base Desires of the Flesh and whatever evil Inclinations thou spiest in me root them up Extinguish in me the impure Flames of Lust. Give me an excellent Spirit a Spirit active in the Practice and Exercise of Vertue Raise the Powers of my Soul by thy Love that I may love thee with all my Heart that I may praise thee that I may honour thee and think nothing tedious or troublesome that may promote thy Glory Repair this shatter'd Tabernacle and vouchsafe to dwell in it I have wilfully ruin'd it by my Sins O make it whole again Remove the Poyson which hath infected all my Faculties Destroy the Serpent's Seed that lurks in the secret Corners of my Heart If Adam could not preserve his Integrity in the State of Innocence how shall I preserve mine in this State of Corruption without thy special Grace and Assistance Thy Grace is the Treasure I want thou hast promised it I beg it O let me not go without it O Jesu Thou didst love me when I was thine Enemy O hate me not now that I am made thy Friend When I was lost thou didst redeem me with thy Blood now that I am found O wash me with that Blood O let me not perish now when Heaven is bought and an endless Bliss is purchased for me Now that the Hand-writing against me is blotted out let me not run into new Dangers nor forfeit that Blessing which is so graciously tendred to me It is the real Desire of my Soul to serve thee and O that I might do it with Chearfulness with Alacrity with Fervency and with Constancy The Preparation of the Heart is of thee thou givest the Will O give me Strength to do what I desire What can I do of my self I am naturally defiled Original Sin sticks to me Proneness to Evil follows me thou must stop the Current nothing but thy self can dry up this Fountain of Corruption it is thy Work And whatever Good is in me from thee it comes from thy Grace it doth proceed Let the same Mercy uphold me that hath hitherto guided me and guide me so through the Briars and Thorns of Temptations that I may not only be more than a Conqueror through him that loved me but may at last receive the Crown and Recompence of such as overcome Amen Amen CHAP. X. Of Taking the Consecrated Bread with our Hands and the Mystery of it The CONTENTS In the Primitive Church the Eucharist was always taken with the Hand This Simplicity in progress of Time abandon'd and as the Veneration of External Symbols advanced the Bread received in certain Vessels and sometimes upon Linen Cloth The Superstition of the Church of Rome of putting the Bread into the Mouth of the Communicant laid open and the Vanity of it shewn The Mystery of Taking the Eucharist with our Hands set down in three Particulars viz. To put us in mind with what Alacrity we are to accept of the Mercy offered us to testifie our appropriating of that Mercy to our selves and to hold it fast when we have received it Of God's Liberality in bidding us take the best Gift he hath to bestow The Impiety of those that take Christ for their Redeemer and continue disobedient discovered The Prayer I. 'T IS certain that Christ said Take and eat which the Primitive Church understood of taking the consecrated Elements with the Hand And to this purpose saith Tertullian We receive the Eucharist from none but from the Hands of the President or Minister of the Ordinance It was for this Reason that in the ancient Liturgies the Deacons cried to the People or Communicants Extend your Hands And upon this Account it was that St. Ambrose expostulating with Theodosius about the barbarous Slaughter he had been guilty of tells him How can you stretch forth your Hands from which as yet innocent Blood drops down How can you with such Hands receive the Body of the Lord Nor do even the Papists themselves who will not suffer the Lay-Communicant to touch the Wafer with his Hand but put it into his Mouth deny it Whether every one in the Ancient Church did take the consecrated Elements with his own from the Priest's or
yet surely it will transform a Soul sick to death into a lively and healthful constitution though with the Woman in the Gospel she hath lain under her distemper a considerable time II. Among the Scythyans as Herodotus tells us there was a custom for the Princes of the Country to meet once a year at a certain Feast where a Cup was set upon the Table a Cup of Honour which none durst presume to drink of but such as had signaliz'd their Valour in Battel and kill'd more or less of their publick Enemies Though this Sacramental Cup is too High too Sacred and too Lofty a thing to be compared with Cups used at the Feast of Barbarians yet I may take occasion from hence to tell you that this Holy Cup is fit for none to drink of but such as have either shewn or are at least resolved to shew their Valour against their Spiritual Enemies Christian if thou hast fought with the Old Serpent encountred the Hellish Dragon wrestled with Powers and Principalities exprest thy Courage against Temptations defied Goliah the Lion and the Bear the World the Devil and the Flesh or art resolv'd to be a Champion for thy God and fight the Battels of the Lord Thou art that valiant Man that may drink of this Cup Thy God will give thee leave to drink of it with other Hero's with the greatest Worthies with Men of whom the World was not worthy with Men whose Faith hath advanced them above the Stars and who are to shine as the Sun in the Firmament in their Father's Kingdom Let no despairing Thoughts no suggestion of the Devil no slavish Fear no pretence of Unworthiness discourage thee from touching this Cup or drinking of it It 's mingled for thee for thee it is prepared The King expects thee at this Feast thou art called to this Banquet Thus shall it be done to the Man whom the King of Heaven intends to Honour What If thou hast not slain thy Thousands with Saul nor thy Ten thousands with David What if thou hast not brought thy Two hundred Foreskins of the Philistins to thy Lord and Master thou dost a greater act in conquering thy Thoughts thy Desires thy Passions thy Appetite thy vain Imaginations than if thou hadst laid Countries waste ruin'd Kingdoms or bound their Kings in Chains and their Nobles with Fetters of Iron Such Honour have all all his Saints III. Hear this thou fainting Soul that groanest under the burthen of thy Sins goest heavy laden with Sorrow and like Rachel wilt not be comforted Behold thy Lord and Master touched with the feeling of thy infirmities and afflicted in all thy afflictions who waits to be Gracious and loves to converse more with a weeping Publican than with a jovial Herod he reaches forth a Cup to thee a Cup of Joy a Cup of Gladness a Cup of Comfort It is this Sacramental Cup. Drink of it thou thirsty Soul Why shouldst thou fear This Cup is design'd for labouring Souls they that have born the heat and burthen of the day are to taste of it It is design'd to recreate design'd to refresh desing'd to revive design'd to support their Spirits Dost thou believe this Christian Dare to believe it Take thy Saviours word for it and triumph in the Promise The Mercy may be too big for thee to ask but not too big for him to grant Thou hast a Master to deal withal who gives like himself like a King like a Prince whose Stores are inexhaustible Let no Senacharib deceive thee regard not what such a Rabshakeh says Hearken not to the frightful Stories of thine enemies who rejoyce to see thee discourag'd are glad to see thee forbear drinking of this Cup and think it their interest to keep thee from that which may and will give thee everlasting health I have read of a precious Stone of considerable value that dropt no Man knew how into the Holy Cup while the Priest was administring the Sacrament There needs no precious Stone to drop into this Cup to make it of greater value That which is in it is of greater worth than Ten thousand Worlds It represents that which neither Pearls nor Rubies nor Diamonds can counter-balance The Papists boast much of the Gifts of their Popes how Sylvester gave three Golden Cups to be used in the celebration of the Eucharist How John the Second gave a Cup of Gold weighing Twenty pound How Gregory the Second and Leo the Third presented their respective Churches with Cups all beset with precious Stones What if thou canst bring no such Presents to God thou bringest a better when thou bringest a Spirit a Heart a Soul lamenting and mourning because thou hast departed from him contented thy self with a form of Godliness and under the profession of Religion hast denied him in thy actions A Heart toucht with the sense of the unreasonableness odiousness and loathsomness of all this and finding a relish in the things of God and of Salvation qualifies a Man more for comfortable drinking of this Cup than if with the Wise Man he had offer'd Gold and Myrrh and Frankincense to Christ Jesus Is not this the Cup whereby my Lord divineth saith Joseph's Steward Gen. 44. 5. Christian by drinking of this Sacramental Cup thou may'st divine thy future happiness guess at what will become of thee hereafter make conjectures of thy Glory and conclude that thou shalt feel the comfort of drinking the Cordials of a Blessed Eternity The PRAYER O Jesu Great Fountain of all Goodness who didst drink of the bitter Cup which my Sins had mingled I am sensible there was no sorrow like thy sorrow which was done unto thee and wherewith the Lord afflicted thee in the day of his fierce anger How was thy Spirit disturb'd How sore amaz'd was thy Soul How dismay'd thy Mind To such an exceeding heighth of Grief and Sorrow did the Sense of the incumbent load of my sins and the prospect of calamities hanging over my head together with the reflexion on my wretched condition skrew up thy Affections innumerable evils encompass'd thee thou sawest the wrath of God flaming out against my Sin and trembledst Thou stoodst before the mouth of Hell which I had deserv'd and wast astonish'd Thou with thine own Heart Blood didst quench the wrath of Heaven O how am I obliged to adore thy Love O everlasting Father What Charity was it not to spare thine own Son but to deliver him up for us all What pity and compassion was it O thou Eternal Son of God thus to pour forth thy Blood What Affection what tenderness to my Soul O thou Eternal Spirit hast thou express'd in inspiring my Blessed Redeemer with Charity more than Human and in supporting him to undergo all pressures with invincible patience If I forget thy Love sweet Jesu let my right hand forget her cunning What an encouragement is here to believe thy Word which I see so punctually accomplish'd The antient Prophets foretold that Christ should
Engagements and Promises to be true and faithful to that God who bought them at so dear a price as the Blood and Death of his own Son but in actual drinking of it profess and declare that in case they prove false and treacherous to their great Confederate break their promise wilfully and allow themselves in it that they deserve that everlasting Death and Damnation from which that Blood was intended to deliver them and besides it is a tacit imprecation too if they be not true to their Engagements that then those Agonies and Miseries and dreadful Death the Son of God endured shall fall to their share and portion which illustrates the Apostles saying 1 Cor. 11. 29. He that Eats and Drinks unworthily Eats and Drinks Damnation to himself But of this I shall have occasion to Treat professedly in the sequel III. There is frequent mention made in Scripture of the Old and New Covenant By the Old is meant the Covenant or Compact God by the Ministry of Moses made with the Israelites as they were a Common-wealth whereof God himself was pleas'd to be the King and President This Covenant was fitted to the slavish temper of the People God had to deal withal and as God promised them temporal Felicity eating the Good of the Land a plentiful Harvest increase of their Kine and Cattle full Barns and a rich Vintage multitude of Children and protection from their temporal Enemies so it requir'd in the Consederates or Jewish People an exact compliance of their outward Man with the Precepts Laws and Statutes God appointed and gave them The New Covenant is that Contract which God makes with Mankind in Christ Jesus wherein he promises to admit sincere Believers into his special Favour and for Christ's sake to bestow upon them the riches of Grace and Glory and on our side requires renouncing all Love to a sinful Life and resignation of our Souls Spirits and Bodies to his Will and Government It 's call'd New in opposition to the Civil or Political Covenant God made with the Jewish People as they were a Nation immediately under his Jurisdiction for both the Promises and Obedience under that Dispensation were different from the Promises and Obedience of the other one promising only Temporal Blessings and requiring External Obedience the other promising Spiritual and Eternal Blessings and requiring Internal and sincere Obedience and though the New Covenant which God makes with the People under the Gospel had its beginning already in Adam's time immediately after the Fall and was again publish'd in the days of Abraham Yet notwithstanding all this it may justly be call'd New because of the clear and fuller Revelation of it when Christ the foundation of it appear'd and by his Death confirm'd all the Predictions Prophecies Types and Prefigurations of it before and under the Law of Moses for then was made a new publication of it new Witnesses were made use of and new Motives and Encouragements were given and new Sacraments as Seals of that Covenant were added And this New Covenant the Blood or Wine the Embleme of it in the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper relates to and he that drinks of that Wine or Blood represented by it confirms that Covenant professes that he approves of it will stand to it and acknowledges the justness of his threatnings denounced against those who count this Blood of the Covenant an unholy thing Even the Civil and Political Covenant which God made with the People of the Jews was solemnized by Blood which is the reason of that passage Exod. 24. 7 8. And Moses took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the audience of the People and they said All that the Lord hath said will we do And Moses took the Blood and sprinkled it on the People and said Behold the Blood of the Covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words And as in their suffering themselves to be sprinkled with that Blood they declared their unfeigned assent and consent to the conditions of that Covenant and profess'd that it was just with God to inflict death and ruine upon them if they did not study to obey that Covenant so in the New Testament in this Holy Sacrament those that come to be Partakers of it are sprinkled as it were with the invaluable Blood of Christ and by that own their hearty consent to the Conditions of the New Covenant and ratifie their Obedience and God's Promises and Threatnings too which are the Sanctions of this Covenant IV. In this Covenant the Parties concern'd are God and Man yet from hence no Person is to conclude that God stood in need of this Alliance We indeed had need of it and it was our Interest that God should do so His vouchsafing to come to such a Contract speaks his Goodness and there is not a greater Argument of his Clemency and Compassion He could have been Great Glorious and Magnificent without us and what need had he of the Friendship of such miserable Creatures as we are that was All in All His Excellency and Beatitude receive no addition by this Covenant and what had it been to him if we had been left in the common mass of Corruption and Perdition What could he have lost by our Eternal Groans or what disparagement could it have been to him to let us sink into the Gulph when our Sins and Offences were the meritorious cause of it It shews his infinite Goodness and condescention that he will enter into promises and engagements with his Creatures and we are Brutes if the thoughts of his Mercy in this particular do not force our Tongues to break forth into admiration of it Our Misery and Wretchedness required such a favour and without it we must have been as great strangers to happiness as we were to power and ablility to help our selves Commisseration to our Poverty and undone Condition moved the Almighty to come to terms with us and this Covenant is our advantage and emolument God gets no profit by it and though it is a publication of his Goodness and proclaims the Wonders of his Loving-kindness yet God might have found out other ways to manifest that and it 's we that are the Gainers by this Contract V. In this Covenant God must not be considered only as an infinite most perfect and most excellent Being but more particularly under that threefold Relation of 〈◊〉 Son and Holy-Ghost Man also is not only to be looked upon as Gods Creature but as a Sinner fallen from God apostatiz'd from Righteousness and standing in need of Gods Help Assistance Grace and Reconciliation and as one who of a Child of Wrath is to be made a Child of God of an Enemy a Friend of an Heir of Hell an Heir of Heaven and Co-heir with Christ And accordingly this Sacramental Covenant is nothing else but a mutual Promise of an offended God and the offender whereby both Parties do unfeignedly and without guile or fraud
will upon that return let the still streams of his Promises flow in and Water his Soul again so that if this opportunity be neglected we know not the Treasures of Wrath we heap up against our selves for it looks like resolution to die and to be miserable VII That God consents to this Covenant unfeignedly we need not doubt and that what he promises he intends to fulfil we may be confident of since we have his Word for it and his Nature is such that he cannot lye The great danger lies on our side who are very mutable Creatures and apt either to equivocate in our consent or to consent only by halves or to forget the Terms we have consented to It 's fit therefore I should explain the Nature of that consent we give or are to give in this Covenant especially at the Table of our Lord where the Sacred Cup fill'd with the Blood of Christ at once represents Gods willingness to enter into a Covenant with us and invites us to accept of the Offer and our Drinking of it shews we actually consent to all the Terms of this Covenant Therefore to prevent Hypocrisie in this consent I must tell you that this consent must be 1. Deliberate and the effect of Consultation Sometimes a melancholy Humour seizes upon our Spirits and not knowing how to ease our selves we try whether Religion will not qualifie our trouble and then we are consenting to this Covenant though we cannot tell why or how whence it comes to pass that if Religion doth not presently cure our Melancholy we grow weary and throw it off again Most Men have sometimes a Religious Fit upon them and when either something hath cross'd their designs or a disaster hath put them into discontent they are during that Paroxysm resolv'd to consent But as it was a sudden Motion without a good Foundation so it soon withers and comes to nothing It's necessary therefore we should take pains to understand what this Covenant means what consent God requires how reasonable and just that consent is what a priviledge it is that God will admit us into such a Compact what the things are he requires on our part and how necessary it is he should require such at our Hands and after we have counted the cost and seen and thought and consulted what this unfeigned consent will stand us in and weigh'd both the Advantages and Inconveniencies then in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ freely and chearfully to agree to the Conditions requir'd in this Covenant this is a consent which in imitation of the great Planet of the Day is like to go on to a perfect Day 2. This consent must be hearty the intent strong and the desire vigorous to perform the Conditions of this Covenant such a consent as he gives that for a considerable Reward promises to do what we put him upon He fully designs it he knows nothing that should hinder him his Heart his Mind his Affections are bent upon the doing of it for the Reward presses upon his Understanding and the greatness of that gives force and resolution to his Will and Desire Here must be used no underhand dealings God is not to be put off with Complements The Young Man that said I go Sir but went not Math. 21. 28. stands branded for a Hypocrite A full purpose of Heart is requisite in this case as serious a purpose as Men have when under great hopes or fears which are most likely to make their purpose invincible To consent to walk as Sons of God to embrace the Lord Jesus as our King to prefer the Motions of Gods Spirit before the Suggestions of the Flesh I say to consent to all this and not to intend very seriously to act accordingly is to impose upon God at least to act as if we would do so and to slight his Omniscience or to carry our selves as if he did not know our down-sitting and our up-rising or did not understand our Thoughts afar off which is impious 3. This consent ought to be impartial and entire even to all the parts of the Conditions express'd or understood in this Covenant Here must be no accepting of Christ by halves but our Affections must embrace him both as a Ruler and a Friend To accept of the Sweets of his Sufferings and to refuse his Yoak to rejoyce in his Mercies and to reject his Law or to be willing to submit to some of his Laws and to take liberty as to others is to divide Christ and to part his Offices or to hold both with Christ and with the Devil A King had as good have no Subjects as disobedient Subjects and to what purpose had all that costly Method of the Son of God to purchase a People to himself been if the intent had not been to make them subject to his Will and Power That there might be no dispute about this point the Apostle hath left it upon record Heb. 5. 9. That he became the Author of Eternal Salvation to them that obey him And there needs no great Logick to infer from hence That no Man hath a Right or Title to Salvation till he actually and sincerely obeys him and obeys him in all that he requires For he that obeys partially doth not obey in a Scripture sense We our selves do not much affect Servants that are only for what they can get and care not how little Work they do and God to be sure hath no Reason to look upon those as true Confederates that consent only to be made happy by the Death of Christ but are loath to die to the Vanities of this World or to admit his Kingdom and Empire into their Souls So that he that truly consents to this Covenant must consent not only to enjoy the Comforts of a Saviour but that Christ shall be Master of his Will Desires and Affections that these shall be at his Beck move by his Order and be manag'd according to his Direction 4. This consent must not only respect our future Seriousness and Conscientiousness but express our present Designs and Inclinations As in Marriage so in this Covenant it must be a present consent that ratifies the Contract and as in the former I take thee for my Wedded Wife and I take thee for my Wedded Husband makes the Matrimonial Compact valid so in this present agreeing to the Terms propos'd and required makes a Man a welcome Confederate and unites and knits him to that God who enters into solemn Engagements in this Covenant to discharge the Offices of a kind Husband to us And O God the Father of Heaven I do here most humbly offer and tender unto thee my filial Affection O God the Son Redeemer of the World I am content to be thy Loyal Sabject and to be governed and ruled by thy Holy Laws O God the Holy Ghost preceeding from the Father and the Son I take thee for my Guide and my Counsellor by whose advice I mean to steer my course
Such present Declarations of our consent admit us to the Blessings of this Covenant so that he who enters into this Covenant and is not willing presently and without delay to discharge the Conditions of it uses Tergiversations and equivocates with God and though a Man may intend that some time hereafter when he is freer from Business more clear in the World hath fewer Divertisements and is more at leasure he will not fail to perform all that is required of his part yet that will not satisfie nor answer the design of this Agreement for who knows what he shall do hereafter The present time is only in our Power and he that is not presently resolv'd is not likely considering the Temptations he may meet withal to do any great matters for God or for his Soul hereafter 5. This content must be absolute or which is all one without Reserves Secret Conditions have no place here And that Man is not fit for the Kingdom of God that desires first to bury his Father or to take his leave of his Friends and Relations and then to follow Christ Luke 9. 59. To consent to this Covenant and to reserve any one darling Sin to consent to the performance of the Conditions with exception of a single Lust which our Place Calling or present Circumstances will not let us part withal is a sign the Heart is not upright with God and a Man that hath not that high esteem of God's Grace and Favour he ought to have The Soul must come naked to the Cross of Jesus Here must be no Bargainings with a Tremendous Majesty no Proviso's as Pharaoh made with the Children of Israel when he was to let them go He was content the elder People should march and sacrifice to their God but the little Ones he would have staid God must not be told in this Covenant Lord If thou wilt let me enjoy this piece of Pride or give me leave to vindicate my Honour by avenging my self If thou wilt let me comply with such a sinful Mans humour wilt let me flatter him or dissemble with him for my Profit and Interest or if I thrive and prosper in my Trade Profession aud Imployment if I may enjoy temporal Felicity and live as happily as my Neighbours I freely consent to all the rest that thy Power and greatness expects at my Hands For this is to contradict the design of this Covenant which is to make us entirely his And that no Man may stroak himself with a Fancy that he never made and never intends such formal exceptions in his consent I must add that where a person doth actually reserve such things whether he doth formally and expresly except them or no the case is the same and is as much as if such formal exceptions had been made in our entring into this Covenant whatever our lot or fortune may be in the World whatever inconveniencies may happen in the strict observance of this contract those must be overlook'd for the greater benefits offer'd us on God's part in this Covenant VIII But here a question will arise If this Covenant be broken after it is thus ratified or establish'd in the Lord's Supper whether and how it may be renew'd To give a satisfactory answer to this point I shall lay down what is fit to be said to it in these following particulars 1. By Breaking this Covenant I mean to make it null not only on our side but also on God's part so that we can have no assurance no hope no rational confidence that God loves us any longer as his Confederates as his Friends and Children or with a love of complacency or that he is our reconciled Father or that we are dear to him and Heirs of Heaven or that the Promises of the Gospel belong to us in a word so to make it void as to put our selves in the same condition we were in before ever we had any thoughts of giving our selves up to Almighty God in a formal Covenant so as to become objects of God's Wrath and Indignation to whom is reserv'd the blackness of darkness for ever This being premised 2. Every thing that clouds or darkens the comforts arising from a sense of our being in Covenant with God cannot must not presently be interpreted a total breach of it There are many sincere Christian Israelites indeed in whom there is no considerable guile who either through weakness of understanding or through some bodily distemper seizing on their nobler parts or for want of consulting with some conscientious Divine or through vehement assaults of the Devil may not feel the streams of consolation which formerly used to flow into their Souls from the chearful apprehensions they had of their being united to God by a solemn Covenant who yet still go on to fulfil the conditions of this Holy Contract and are exceeding cautious of offending or acting against the Laws of it and most certainly the Mists and Fogs which obscure and dull the brightness of their comforts are no arguments of their having made void this Covenant or that God's Paternal affection to their Souls is gone For though they may even complain with Zion that the Lord hath forsaken them and their God hath forgotten them yet still they are Children of Light in the midst of Darkness and were but the noise of temptation over or the distemper which discomposes them abated they would soon hear God speaking to them in the Language of a Father Can a Woman forget her sucking Child that she should not have Compassion on the Fruit of hâ—r Womb Yea they may forget yet will not I forget thee Behold I have engraven thee on the Palms of my Hands Es. 49. 15. 3. No unallowed of Miscarriages I mean Miscarriages against the settled bent and resolutions of our Souls can be said to null this Covenant For God promising in this Covenant to be a tender and gracious Father to us in Christ Jesus we must needs suppose that as a Father pities his own Children so the Lord takes pity on them that fear him as we read Ps. 103. 13. Therefore as a Father who hath an obedient Son if he hear him speak a rash word or see him do an imprudent act he was never guilty of before and perceives him blushing as soon as he hath done it which shews the Error was not in his Nature or the effect of an evil Habit but caused by some accident or before he was aware and consequently doth not thereupon presently cast him off or turn him out of Doors or withdraw the affections and inclinations of a Father from him so neither doth God from his dear Confederates if sometimes by surprize they are overtaken in a fault upon which their Hearts immediately smite them and they take shame to themselves for this shews that it was not temper but temptation that caused this fall and that it was against the bent and settled inclinations of their Souls 4. Neither do blasphemous Suggestions null
such Bonds and Obligations The God thou hast to deal withal is a jealous God and if these Engagements cannot oblige thy Soul to a serious Conversation they 'll be witnesses to promote and hasten thy Condemnation II. See here what a miserrble and doleful state it is not to be in Covenant with God He that is not hath no security from the wrath of God the Threatnings of the Gospel are in force against him and he knows not how soon the Thunderbolt will fall upon his Head Like a condemn'd Malefactor he is repriev'd for a while and can promise himself a share only of the common Blessings which the Great Creator bestows indifferently upon his Friends and Enemies Not to be in Covenant with him is to be dead to his Paternal Grace and Favour and to be depriv'd of those Influences which make the Saints joyful in Glory and cause them to sing aloud upon their Beds Till you are in Covenant with your God you can have no hopes of Pardon your Sins remain upon you and that load will crush you at last into despair O think of it you that never made such a Covenant with your God in good earnest Notbeing in Covenant with him Christ's Blood and Death and Wounds and Agonies do not profit you And for you O miserable Creatures Christ died in vain that Damnation Christ came to deliver the World from continues to be your Portion and should you die in that condition you are undone to all intents and purposes Till you are in Covenant with God you are under the power of Darkness and under the Government of the worst of Tyrants you are Slaves in the midst of all your jollities Bondmen in the midst of your Pleasures You laugh in Chains triumph in your Fetters and stand upon the brink of Destruction O do not make light of this unhappy state your making light of it speaks you desperate but being concern'd at your danger may yet be a means to free your selves from the Net you are at present intangl'd in Fear of being undone may yet keep you from it and sorrow that you have not seriously thought of it may yet turn the stream and convert the Heart of God to you into Mercy and Compassion therefore it is that we instruct you in meekness if God peradventure will give you Repentance to the acknowledging of the Truth and that you may recover your selves out of the Snare of the Devil who have been taken captive by him at his Will 2 Tim. 2. 26. III. From hence it appears how necessary it is for People when young to make or renew this Covenant with their God As no Man can close too early with the offers of Grace so if this Covenant were made by all young Men and Women seriously and with deliberation what a restraint would it be upon their juvenal Desires What a curb to their extravagant Fancies What an Armour against Sin and the ill examples of the World How would this considerate Engagement keep them in and fright them from consenting when sinners do entice them The reason why it hath not this effect upon them is because it is not made with suitable applications of the Mind to the importance of it or to the Greatness and Majesty of that God with whom it is made and to the danger and hazard they run in breaking of it for every trifle that comes in their way and when they have made it they do not keep their Hearts warm by ruminating upon what they have done nor do they renew it so often as they might and should do Were it preserv'd fresh and green and flourishing in their Minds it would harden them against impression of all those little allurements which now draw their Affections and their Souls another way Did they think when a sinful shew when vain company when a glozing pleasure when a base suggestion invites them to consent I have wash'd my Feet how shall I defile them again I have given my self up to the disposal of him to whom all Power in Heaven and Earth is given How can I be faithless and escape his Anger I have in this Sacrament made a resignation of my Heart to him that rescued me from the burning Lake how shall I break with him and escape his displeasure I have consecrated my self to a greater Master How shall I debase my self and serve such pitiful nothings I have but one Soul and have given that away to my Redeemer How shall I espouse this Vanity I have promis'd Obedience to him that washed me with his Blood How shall I obey his Enemy Such Thoughts as these repeated often would make the Heart inflexible to all the charming intreaties of the World or the Devil and Oh! that you would but make this Tryal you would find that we are not Mad but speak the words of Truth and Soberness as St. Paul told Festus in a case not much unlike this Acts 26. 25. IV. It 's no very difficult thing to come to a Holy certainty and assurance that we are in Covenant with God It must needs be difficult to the unwilling and to him that hopes God's Favour will fly into his Mouth without seeking it any thing seems hard and if it were difficult the difficulty is not insuperable especially if we look into the conditions of the Covenant There is no man that is in his Wits but may upon a diligent search find and know whether he heartily agrees to the conditions and whether he promises what is required on his part out of love to the ways of Religion and whether he makes conscience of performing his promises It 's true the Heart is deceitful but that it is so is our own fault we may remedy that deceitfulness if we will search it and by the Rules Christ hath prescribed in the Gospel bring it into order It is not to be imagin'd that God would leave us in uncertainties in so great a concern as this and he that bids us apply the Comforts of this Covenant must be supposed to have left us signs and characters whereby we may know that we are confederates with him and have a right to what he hath said he 'll do for us and there can be no greater character than the testimony of our Conscience that our engagements influence our Spirits keep us in awe prevail with us to be cautious and can do more with us than a base Lust or any sinful gain and pleasure If thou freely resignest thy self to the guidance and direction of thy Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier and the love of God manifested in this Covenant works upon thine Affections and thou art content to be ruled by ois Law art sensible of the equity and reasonableness of it consentest to his injunctions not only professest subjection but actually endeavourest to submit to what he commands and art willing without any reserves that not only thine Understanding Will and Desires but thine outward Man too thine Eyes and Ears
a Month is a just distance to take notice what progress we make in Goodness and what effects the last Communion hath upon our Spirits and though I can alledge no express Command for it out of the Word of God yet there is a Command which imports as much even this Obey them that have the Rule over you in the Lord and submit your selves for they watch for your Souls as they that must give an account that they do it with Joy and not with Grief Heb. 13. 17. But these Arguments are needless to a Soul that hath a lively Sense of the Love of God Love will run without a driver and there needs no pulling or haling him to the Communion who hath seen and tasted how sweet and how gracious the Lord is That inward Sense will make him come frequently whether his Superiours command him or no. He that doth nothing in Religion but what his Governoâ—s force him to doth not yet understand what that means The Love of God is shed abroad in our Hearts He that hath this Sense finds a Law within stronger than the Law of all Superiors and which hath greater power with him than all external motives He that loves Christ fervently will love to be with him frequently and since the Communion Table is the place where Christ hath promised to him he 'll be as often there as he can except Sickness or some such inevitable impediments hinder him the rather because here Men hear the joyful sound of Pardon and walk in the light of Godâ—s Countenance Psal. 89. 15. IV. But because I foresee it will be objected here That frequent Communicating will abate our esteem and veneration of this Sacrament as all things when grown common and familiar are apt to breed contempt and carelesness It 's fit I should answer and remove that pretended stumbling-block And therefore 1. It cannot be frequent Communicating consider'd in it self that abates our Zeal and Fervor to this Ordinance for let the Communion be never so frequent the Arguments and Motives are still the same their Grandeur Strength Force and Power is still the same still these are able to kindle holy Fire on the Altars of our Souls to raise admiration of God's Mercies aud to enliven our Spirits into Conscientiousness and severity of life and if this be the natural tendency of these Motivies at one time it is so to another and consequently the abatement of our esteem and veneration is not the necessary effect of frequent Communicating and in this the Primitive Believers are a signal instance who though they Communicated some every day some every Lord's day yet did not that frequency lessen their Veneration of these mysteries It rather increas'd and cherish'd it and we have reason to ascribe their contempt of Sublunary Contents their Courage in Adversity their Valour in Persecution their ardent desires after another Life their invincible Patience under reproaches their Constancy in the severest Tryals their wonderful Joy in Troubles and their prodigious Self-denials to this frequent Communicating This as it was a means to set their Master always before their Eyes so it left an aw upon their Spirits not to dishonour him by their lives This was a perpetual curb to their Lusts and having his Image constantly before them made them walk as Children of their Father which is in Heaven so that if frequent Communicating be not the necessary cause of an abatement in our veneration of this Sacrament it must be some other accidental thing which may be remedied that must occasion it And therefore 2. Some decay in the Receiver some indisposition in the inward Man must be charged with this dis-esteem of the ordinance and it is not the frequent Communicating that is the cause but want of care and watchfulneâ—s in the Communicant Indeed where People approach this Holy Table frequently and bring no Hearts with them no desires after a better Life do not think it worth while to spend serious thoughts on the Death they are going to remember come to it without any design of being like Christ premise only a few Prayers out of Custom touch the Ark with unwashen hands dive not into their hearts nor do prepare themselves for this Banquet thrust themselves in as the Guest in the Gospel without suitable Ornaments do not plow up the fallow Ground or do not make it soft and Mellow with Meditation and Praises and consider not what they come for or to what end and purpose they give their attendance at the Altar there we need not wonder if frequent Communicating abates their esteem and veneration of this Sacrament but this is their Sin and frequent Communion is not to be blamed it 's their love to the World that will not suffer them to bring that attention watchfulness and devotion with them as is requisite to the comfortable use of this Ordinance a Sin which must be deplored and like the cursed thing in the Camp of Israel removed before they come to see the goings of God in the Sanctuary The Covetous Man abates not in his esteem of his Wealth and Treasure though he look upon it every day and the reason is because his Affections are set upon it and were our Affections set upon him from whose fulness we all received Grace for Grace our frequent Communicating would be so far from lessening our esteem of this Sacrament that it would render it more lovely and more amiable to our Souls Two Men of the same Trade live together the one grows rich the other continues poor the one thrives the other decays because the one is industrious the other lazy one minds his business the other lies in Ale-houses and Taverns This is the Case here if some fall into a disesteem of the greatness of this Ordinance by frequent Communicating it is because they take no pains with their Souls before they Communicate whereas others who are laborious and careful though they recieve never so often they go on from strength to strength till every one of them appears before God in Sion V. But since frequent Communication requires frequent Preparation and frequent Preparation is a thing that Persons who have much business in the World cannot attend how can it be supposed necessary for such to Communicate frequently Though Preparation be a Subject that I intend to spend a distinct Chapter upon yet something may be said of it here by the by and by way of anticipation to shew the weakness of this excuse and the vanity of this exception And therefore 1. Business is either lawful or unlawful If it be unlawful no conscentious Man must either involve himself in it or continue to mind it for whoever applys his Thoughts Desires or Affections to any business of that nature puts himself in a state of Damnation and hangs over Hell fire by a very weak and feeble Thread even this Transitory Life which if it chance to break his Soul is lost in a word unlawful business makes a
Open still new Springs of Love when I come to this Sacrament of thy Everlasting Love that the New Springs may still give new life to my Soul new courage to do thy Will new Power to tread on Serpents new resolutions to conquer all that stops my way And thus my dearest Lord transform me by the renewing of my Mind that I may prove what is the Holy acceptable and perfect Wall of God Amen Amen CHAP. XVI Of the Perpetuity of this Ordinance and the Necessity of its Continuance to the World's End The CONTENTS St. Pauls Command to the Corinthians of shewing forth the Lord's Death till he come not to be understood of Christ's coming to them in the Spirit but coming to Judgment This proved largely by many arguments The reasons laid down why this Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is to last to the end of the World Christ's coming to Judgment proved to be a very proper object of our Contemplation in the Recieving of the Holy Eucharist and a help to Patience and Faith and confidence in the Goodness of God God's Marvellous care of our everlasting welfare shewn in tying us up in Bonds of Obedience in this Ordinance Men who look for Grace and Salvation as they are bound to make use of the means of Grace so they are obliged to make use of this The wretched state of those who neglect to shew forth the Lord's Death in this Sacrament The same temper required in Recieving the Eucharist that we desire to be in when we shall be summoned to Judgment The Prayer I. THat this Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is a standing Ordinance and to last to the end of the World St. Paul expresly tells us 1 Cor. 11. 26. For as often as you Eat this Bread and Drink this Cup ye do shew or do ye shew the Lord's death till he come Whereby is plainly meant Christ's coming to judge the World and this hath been the unanimous belief of the universal Church since the Apostles time unto this day which makes us justly wonder at the boldness and ignorance of Quakers and other Enthusiasts who have presumed to abolish this Ordinance in their Conventicles pretending that this Sacrament was fitted only for the Infancy of the Christian Church but intended it should cease when Christ should come to them in the Spirit and having already received Christ as they fancy in their first Conversion and Regeneration they foolishly and ridiculously imagine that they have no need of receiving him again in the use of the outward Symbols tendered to Christians in this Sacrament Puffed up with this airy conceit they run into this Sinister and Childish Interpretation of the Apostle's words contrary to the sense of all Christian Churches as if Till he come were as much as Till he come to you in the Spirit to which impertinent Exposition nothing could possibly lead these silly Men but the Spirit of error and contempt of all human Learning and undervaluing the common dictates of Reason and a monstrous Spiritual Pride which not only swells them with an opinion that they are wiser than all the Christians in the World besides but tempts them to other insolencies and Prophanations of the Written Oracles of the Holy Ghost and therfore lest weak Capacities should be ensnared by such specious pretences it will be necessary to shew the unreasonableness of this interpetation 1. There is not the least Syllable not the least hint given us in all the New Testamenâ— that this Sacrament after it was once instituted was ever to be abolished which made not only the Apostles introduce it into the Christian Congregations while they lived but all the Churches planted and founded by them retained and continued it knowing nothing to the contrary but that this Ordinance was to be perpetual and Eternal and therefore as they had recieved the necessary use of it from those who laid the foundation of their Religion so they propagated the same to their posterity Nay among the Hereticks that left and separated from the Church there were very few but what preserved the use of this Sacrament in their Congregations and though they had the insolence of Blaspheming other Mysteries of Christianity yet this Ordinance they were afraid to abolish being sensible that it was one of the Corner stones of Christianity And who could imagine otherwise that considered how this Sacrament succeeded in the room of the Passover which was Item enough that it was to last for ever for as the Passover after its first Institution was to last to the end of the Jewish Oeconomy that expiring with Christ's Death so this succeeding was an argument that it was to continue while the dispensation of Christianity should last and that is to the end of the World 2. No Man will deny but that those three thousand Souls converted by St. Peter's Sermon did receive the Holy Ghost for St. Peter expresly promises them Acts 2. 38. Repent and be Baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the Remissions of Sins and ye shall receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost and this was very common in those days for true Penitents to receive the Holy Ghost immediately upon their Baptism and sometimes before their Baptism as Cornelius and his Company Act. 20. 44. 48. And though by the Holy Chost in those places are meant the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost speaking with Tongues healing diseases c. Yet it must be granted that in their conversion they had the Sanctifying Spirit of God sent upon them yet these very Persons that â—nd so received the Spirit continued in breaking of Bread and in Prayer as we are told Act. 2. 42. And that by breaking of Bread there is not meant sitting down to their private and ordinary meals is evident from hence because it is mentioned as a part of their Devotion and publick Worship to which their ordinary Diet cannot be referred and therefore it must be the Encharist or this Sacrament of the Lord's Supper that 's meant by it for by that Term it was usually expressed in the Primitive Church as we see 1 Cor. 10. 16. 3. Those very Corinthians to whom the Apostle writes in the place aforementioned and gives a Command to shew forth the Lord's death in this Sacrament till he came had already received the Spirit of God as we read 1 Cor. 2. 12. Now we have received not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given us of God and to this purpose he adds 1 Cor. 6. 11. Such were some of you but ye are Washed but ye are Sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God These Men then had received the Spirit of God and therefore when the Apostle writing to them chap. 11. Saith that they should shew forth the Lords death till he come most certainly he cannot mean till he came
and Lye and Cheat no more and yet forgets the Oath of God that is upon his Soul and dares fall to his old Sins again that Man's last Estate is worse than the first and he slights him by whom he must be saved despises him who alone can make him happy refuses that Blood which alone can cleanse him undervalues the only Champion that can secure him against the Rage of the roaring Lion loses and rejects the Prop which alone can support him against the wrath of an offended God and affronts that Friend which alone can help and comfort him in the day of Vengeance II. This Sacrament being a standing Ordinance and a notable means of Grace as much as Prayer and hearing the Word of God it must necessarily follow that Men who look for Grace and Salvation must make as great Conscience of this as of any other and if they account it a Sin to neglect Prayer and hearing the Word they must look upon it as sinful too to neglect this Ordinance If this be a means of Salvation as well as the rest he that hopes to be saved must seriously make use of this means else he can have but little hopes of arriving to the end without the means Surely this Sacrament is a means whereby you and I must come to love the Lord Jesus Christ a Duty of that consequence that he that love him not in sincerity lies under a severe threatning and is liable to a dreadful Curse 1 Cor. 16. 22. But how shall we ever love him to any purpose except we use the means whereby that Love must be raised and kindled in our Breast Doth any Man hope to thrive in the World that will not bestir himself become active in his profession and apply himself to Labour Does any Man hope ot arrive to Learning and Scholarship without Books or Reading Does any Person hope to keep himself warm in Winter that puts on no Cloaths Or was ever any so foolish as to hope to come to his Journies end if he sits still in a Tavern or Alehouse by the way If this Sacrament be a means of obtaining Happiness will that Happiness fall to our share without using the proper means If thou refusest to come to this Ordinance how can God be kind to thee how can he visit thee with the Favour he bears to his own People How can he wash thee with the Blood of the Lamb How can he make thee Blessed and a companion of Seraphim and give thee a right to the Treasury of Christ's merits when thou neglectest the means whereby these Mercies must be consigned and applied to thy Soul And therefore III. How wretched how sad must be the case of that Soul which neglects to shew forth the Lord's Death in this Ordinance when the Lord shall come to Judgment When the Son of God shall appear in all his Glory and the Sinner who neglected this Holy Sacrament shall be brought before him it will not be an ordinary fright the wretch will be in especially when the King of Glory shall accost and ask him How canst thou hope to share in my Glory that didst not think my Death worth remembring in the Congregation of my Saints How canst thou hope to participate of my Happiness that wouldst not weep at my bitter Passion How canst thou hope to be advanced to my Throne who wast ashamed to look upon me hanging on the Cross How canst thou hope to enter into thy Master's Joy that would'st not by lively representations of my suffering in the Sacrament I ordained be melted in Tears How canst thou hope for a seat in the Eternal Mansions where no defiled thing must enter that wouldst not cleanse thy self from filthiness Or how couldst thou hope to be cleansed that wouldst not make use of my Blood to wash thy self Here none can be happy that were not Holy upon Earth and how couldst thou expect to be Holy that didst neglect the means which was intended to enrich thy Soul with Holiness Such an Address of such a Majestick Person and to an offender too that knows and cannot but know that all this is true must necessarily strike the Malefactor dumb fill him with horror and make him cry out though too late O that my Head were Water c. Expostulations of displeased Princes with their Servants that have acted contrary to their Will in things of far less moment have cast them into Grief and Swoons and fatal diseases and we must needs conclude that in the case we speak of as the Person offended is greater than the most puissant Prince in the World and the neglect greater than if a Man had neglected to provide for the security of a Temporal Kingdom so the Expostulations will be more terrible and the Sinner's Heart to whom they shall be spoken in far greater consternation IV. This shews with what temper and disposition we ought to come to this Holy Table even with the same temper we would or desire to be in if within a few hours we were sure to be summoned to Judgment Were any of you to appear to Morrow Morning before the Bar of God and had you all imaginable assurance of it that by such a time you must certainly attend there would you lie or swear or dissemble or break out into a passion or pray carelesly or be backward to do good or be averse from Holy thoughts and discourses c. I trow not and as you would not appear before the Judge with an unmortified temper of Mind so neither can it be adviseable to appear before him at this Table with such a disposition As the appearing before his Judgment Seat would make you call your most serious Thoughts together and make you loath the charms the inticements and the alluring temptations and suggestions of the Flesh and of the World so your appearing at this Table requires the same inclinations for as in the day of Judgment the King will come forth and behold the persons cited into that Court to see whether they are qualified for Heaven and Happiness so in this Feast he comes to look upon the Guests and to see who comes with a worldly and carnal disposition and takes as much notice of the frame and temper of your Hearts as he will do in the last day Here thy great Master comes and takes a view of thy Thoughts Words Desires Affections and Actions whether they proceed from a principle of Love and Submission Happy the Soul that sits down at this Table with a sense of her duty and the greatness and goodness of the Master of the Feast for such a Soul anticipates her future bliss and feels in some measure the sweetness and comfort of the joyful Absolution which shall be pronounced upon her with greater solemnity in the last day even this Come ye blessed of my Father receive the Kingdom c. The PRAYER O Thou Eternal Wisdom who alone knowest what is best for me who hast established this
know to be against the common Principles riveted in our Souls he that feels them hath reason to believe that he consents not to them though for the present they stun him However when he recovers out of his present Fright and Consternation if deliberately he rejects them 't is enough And though they should follow him Twenty Years together yet if he resist and detest them Twenty Years together they cannot make him an unworthy Communicant 4. Impossibility of forgetting an Injury doth not make a Man an unworthy Receiver By not being able to forget an Injury I mean not being able so to put the Matter of Fact out of our Minds that we shall never think of it or remember that such an Injury was done unto us 'T is true the uncharitable Man as he is a Stranger to Christ's Religion so it cannot be supposed that he will meet with any kind Entertainment at the Lord's Table And whoever would not go away empty from this Ordinance must from his Heart forgive the Offender who hath either wronged or disparaged him or wounded his good Name Nay so far he must forget the Injury too as not to exercise Revenge when it lies in his power nor must he remember it with Wrath and Passion or ill Language or with an Intent or Resolution to withdraw from him the charitable Offices of Humanity or with renewing his Grudge and Hatred to him or with making the Remembrance an Argument and Motive to desist from the Good he intended him for he must not forget to do good to Enemies and such as have despitefully used him And though no Person is by the Law of the Gospel obliged to make a Person who hath been notoriously â—alse and treacherous to him his Bosom-friend and Familiar or to trust him again without Fear or Suspicion except he sees and is sensible of the Offender's sincere Repentance yet still the Injury must be so far forgotten as not to deny or refuse to help the Offender in things we can conveniently and easily serve him in But to think sometimes of the Injury done to us with Pity and Compassion to the Offender or not to be able so to extinguish the Thoughts of it that it shall not so much as beat upon our Minds again This I say doth not make a Person an unworthy Receiver 1. Because God doth not intend the Destruction of our Faculties whereof Memory is one Never to remember an Injury or not to be able so much as barely to think of it supposes Destruction of our Memory All that God intends in our Reformation is the Destruction of our evil Qualities and the Irregularities of our Faculties His Design is not to annihilate our Minds but the evil Thoughts that are apt to take up their Lodging there not to abolish our Wills but the Perverseness and Stubbornness that cleaves to them and consequently not to destroy our Memories but the Revenge and Hatred and Malice and secret Grudges which are apt to harbour there Even then when God presses upon us the Destruction of the Body of Sin it is not that we are to kill our Natural Bodies but the Mass of Corruption that lies in them And though Christ bids us cut off our Right Hand yet he means no more than that the Sins should be resected which cleave to it And that is the the meaning too of pulling out the Eye i. e. the evil Looks and unchaste Desires and foolish Concupiscences which are apt to incorporate with that Organ So that he who can so far rase an Injury out of his Memory as to destroy his own ill-Will his ill Designs his evil Inclinations to the Offender which are written there his not being able totally to obliterate that such a thing was ever done to him need not make him afraid that he shall be an unworthy Receiver in this Ordinance 2. This Sacrament will help us totally to forget the Injury or if not totally to forget it yet totally to forget requiting the Offender according to his Demerits and so to forget it that the Remembrance shall cause no Commotion no Disorder no Tumults no Risings in our Minds For here we are told and here we are made to see how God that hath far greater reason to stand upon Points of Honour than any Mortal Man freely and graciously forgives and forgets our Sins and Offences against him in the Blood of his Son blots them out like a thick Cloud and notwithstanding all the Wrong we have offer'd to him is willing to pass by the foulest Trespasses willing to open his Gates to us though we have lock'd our selves out willing to vouchsafe us his Smiles again though we have forfeited the Light of his Favour and willing to adopt us for his Children though we have lived like Prodigals which must needs be a great help to make us forget the Wrongs we have suffer'd from unreasonable Men And therefore he that is not able totally to forget ought to come that by this great Example of God's forgetting his Offences he may be persuaded totally to forget his Neighbour's Trespasses 5. Worldly Business either a Day or Week before a Man receives doth not make him as unworthy Receiver By Worldly Business I mean lawful Business not Playing or Drinking or going to Stage Plays or mis-spending our Time c. but such Business as appertains to an honest and lawful Calling or Business considered abstractedly from the evil Concomitants of it For lawful Business is one thing and the way of managing of it is another A Man may manage even his lawful Business sinfully and run himself into Danger but following it without Sin as it may happen that the Day or Week before he may have greater Occasions than ordinary to look after it as this need not hinder him from an holy Life so neither can it be a just Impediment to his Receiving worthily 1. Because it is our Duty to mind it on such Days of the Week as God hath permitted us to work in which makes the Apostle enjoyn us to do our own Business and work with our Hands without making any distinction in Days 1 Thes. 4. 11. 'T is true where publick Authority either Civil or Ecclesiastical appoints a Day in the Week to be kept holy or a Festival or a Fast or where a Person by a Vow hath consecrated a certain Day in the Week to spend it entirely in religious Duties there Working ought to be forborn for Magistrates ought to be obeyed and a Vow doth bind the Soul But set aside these Cases the Command to work extends to all Days except the Lord's Day and therefore he that is to receive the holy Sacrament on the Lord's Day is not necessarily obliged to abstain from minding his lawful Business the Day before 2. Lawful Business doth not need not hinder a Man from preserving holy Thoughts holy Desires and holy Affections if his Soul were acquainted with any before A good Man in the midst of his lawful Business
Receiver for this Sacrament as hath been often hinted in the Premises is to increase our Practice to augment our Love to Holiness to strengthen our Resolutions to follow Christ to cleanse us from that filthines which naturally besets us and to enlarge our Graces and since that Knowledge I have mentioned is a sufficient Preparative for all this it must be a sufficient Preparative for the Holy Sacrament 2. Much Knowledge very often hinders Men from the Practical part of Religion It need not do it and it ought not to do it but we see it frequently doth for Men are apt to be taken with fine Notions and while their Delight runs all that way they forget too often to delight greatly in God's Commandments This is too evident in many Men who are great Scholars who satisfie themselves with this that they know more than the Vulgar and neglect those severer Parts of Practical Religion which many of the Vulgar do conscientiously observe and many an ordinay Man that knows little more than his Creed but makes that Creed an inforcive to Obedience is in a happier condition than the greater Literati who trouble their Heads so much about Controversies and Criticisms that they bestow little time upon Mortification In the Primitive Ages when Men knew not much they practis'd more as since Knowledge hath increas'd Men's practices have much degenerated from the simplicity of the Gospel Not that I commend Ignorance in the Laity as they do in the Church of Rome but I think a little knowledge improv'd into great severity of Life is safer and more beneficial than great skill in Divinity without suitable Fruits of Righteousness So that upon a review of the whole I may safely conclude that want of great Knowledge doth not make a Man an unworthy Receiver III. From what we have said it will be easie to guess in the next place what it is to Eat and Drink unworthily For from Negatives Affirmatives may be inferred without any great difficulty and tho' after this Discourse I might spare my pains in setting down the particulars yet to assist the Weak and to conform my self to the meanest capacity I shall explain the Nature of this unworthy Eating and Drinking in the following Observations 1. To Eat and Drink unworthily is to Eat and Drink by force By Eating and Drinking by force I mean coming to this Sacrament either because the Law of the Land Commands it or because our Superiors under whose Command we are or from whom we expect some Gain and Benefit or in case of neglect of their Orders apprehend some danger or injury to our Temporal Concerns will not be satisfied without it Not but that a Servant or whoever is under a Command of others ought to give heed to the Pious Counsel and Advice of those that are above him take it into consideration and make advantage of that opportunity to apply himself to the serious practice of it and thereupon consuâ—t with Divines and with his own Conscience how to make his Calling and Election sure but where a Person is altogether passive in the thing regards more what his Superiors say than what his Conscience feels and comes more to please those which are above him than to discharge his Duty where his chief motive is to give content to those whose Favour he is loth to lose where he would certainly neglect coming were it not for the danger of prejudicing what is very dear to him in the World there I say he Eats and Drinks unworthily For 1. Such a Person stands more in awe of Man than of God God's Command cannot make him do that which Human Injunctions can Dust and Ashes prevail more with him than the Holy One of Israel Man's Anger and Displeasure moves and affects him more than the Indignation of a jealous God and with what Eyes can the Almighty look upon that Wretch whom he sees more concern'd to please a poor Grashopper so Man is call'd Es. 4. 22. than him that sits upon the Circles of the Earth How can he but set his Face against that Communicant whose slavish temper he spies at his Table whose Heart sticks close to the Earth and makes no great account of him who daily courts him by his Favours How can he but frown upon that Creature whom no Charms of an Almighty Love can melt and the threatning of Man can affright into any thing Who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a Man that shall dye and of the Son of Man that shall be made as Grass And forgettest the Lord thy Maker that hath stretched forth the Heavens and laid the foundations of the Earth saith God Isa. 51. 12 13. 2. Such a Person his outward Man only receives the Holy Sacrament His Soul for which this Feast is chiefly prepared receives nothing The Brute only appears at the Table the Angel stays away God expects the Master at this Banquet not the Slave The Body is not capable of this Sacred Food the Soul is the proper Guest This is it that can expect refreshment at this Board and he that comes to feed his Body only knows not yet what this Ordinance was intended for where a Man brings nothing but his Body to this Love-Feast leaving his Soul enslaved to the Profits of the World or to the Will of Mortal Men he must needs receive unworthily for God's enemy which is the World engrosses that part which should appear before God and behold and be ravish'd with his excellent Greatness and Goodness and with the admirable designs in spreading the Royal Table for him To what purpose is the Carkase while that which should animate it is engaged another way Can the Shell please God who hath so often declared that he will be satisfied with nothing but the Kernel And in vain doth he require the Heart if the outward frame were Sacrifice sufficient So that what Christ saith Joh. 6. 63. may justly be applied here tho' with some variation of the Sense It 's the Spirit that quickneth the Flesh profits nothing 2. To Eat and Drink unworthily is to make this receiving a matter of custom only Where Men approach because it 's fashionable to observe the decorum of their being Members of a Church more than to grow in a Spiritual Life and know no other enforcive or can give no account of any other but this Because it is usual for Men who are Baptized and profess themselves Christians and go to the Publick to do so there they must needs Eat and Drink 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 undecently or unworthily And this is the case of many ignorant People both in City and Country who come for company-sake and because their Neighbors use to do so who think it not a Province belonging to them to know or dive into the mysteries of Salvation but trust to it that God is merciful and will save them though they know not why or how whose Affections are bound up with the Earth and will be
assert God's just Anger against Sin and keep off the fatal blow from Man at once defend God'ds Right and establish Man's Felicity and thereby put the poor miserable Worm in a capacity of becoming Heir to the Riches of God who was an Heir of the Treasures of Wrath and a companion of Blessed Spirits who had deserv'd to howl with Apostate Spirits a Child of Light who was a Son of Darkness and a Servant of Righteousness who was a Slave of Sin I say the Holy Ghost supposes that he that seriously believes all this will think nothing too good for God will not stand out against so great a Mercy will fight no more against so great and so good a Master but will submit to him be ready to run at his Commands give himself up to the Will of so great a Benefactor and will be hearty and sincere in serving him Now the unworthy Receiver being so far from doing this so far from turning to God with all his heart and with all his mind that he refuses the Dominion of God will be a Slave to his Sin still and had rather obey the Devil than this most bountiful Master who hath done so much for him by doing so denies that Christ's Body and Blood was sacrific'd for him for if he believ'd it he could not do as he doth and tho' he may protest by all that 's Good and Sacred that he believes it yet Words and Compliments will not absolve him and if talking were believing no Man that professes Christianity would ever be damn'd What doth a Malefactor's pleading at the Bar that he is not guilty signifie when the Evidences are strong and the Matter of Fact is prov'd against him Belief that doth not touch the Heart or renew the Mind or spiritualize the Affections is mere Infidelity and where this Belief is not to be found the Sinner is accused of denying the Mercy he pretends to believe And to this purpose saith the Apostle They profess that they know God but in their works they deny him Tit. 1. 16. So that the unworthy Receiver i. e. He that receives and yet will not reform whatever his Profession may be in his Actions he denies that Christ was Sacrific'd for him and therefore makes himself guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. 2. He Eats and Drinks unworthily makes himself guilty of jesting with the Body and Blood of Christ As the Fathers of the Council of Eliberis speak He plays with the most tremendous things for in coming he seems to confess that by the Death of the Son of God his miserable Soul was redeem'd and a Pardon purchas'd for him and the Heavens made to bow to him and the good Will of God procur'd to save him for ever and yet he doth not think all this worth forsaking a sinful Lust or shaking a pleasing Dalilah from his Bosom and what is this but playing with the Body and Blood of Christ Should a Man make a very curious Harangue in commendation of his Neighbour compare him with Salomon for Wisdom with David for Sincerity with Jonathan for Faithfulness with Josiah for Piety for Generosity with Moses for Chastity with Joseph for Patience with Job with St. Paul for Courage with St. Peter for Zeal with Absolom for Beauty with Zacheus for Charity with Abraham for Hospitality nay with Angels for clearness of Understanding and for Purity of Life with Seraphim And when he hath done abuse and reproach him or do that which he cannot but know must be offensive and irksome or prejudicial to him gives the Spectator just occasion to think that all that flanting Panegyric was only a jocular thing design'd rather as an essay of Wit than as any real affection to the Virtues of the commended Party The unworthy Receiver doth in effect the same for his coming to this Sament is a tacit Commendation of Christ's Crucified Body and Blood whereby he seems to applaud the wonderful Works that Christ hath done for him and to proclaim to all the standers by what an Obligation that Death is to mortifie the body of Sin and to be true and faithful to him that did not count his Life dear to do him good and yet having no real purpose within whatever external Declaration he may make to become a new Man but after he hath been at this Table when temptations assault him temptations to his former sins yields to them as easily as ever plainly declares he was in jest when he seem'd to magnifie this Munificence of his Saviour and from hence it must follow that he is guilty of playing with the Body and Blood of Christ. 3 He that Eats and Drinks unworthily seems to wish that Christ may dye again and upon that account is guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord for in that Christ's Death is not efficacious to pull down the strong holds of Sin in him or rather in that he will not let that death prevail with him to the mortifying of his sinful Lusts he seems to wish for an iteration of that Death which may be more powerful and have a greater influence upon the destruction of his Sin It is a Declaration as it were that the Death of Christ as the case stands doth no good upon him and therefore since the Death of the Son of God must be the means to break the power of Sin in him he stands in need of another death of that Saviour which may do greater miracles upon his Soul or sinful Temper Christ's Death indeed must break the reigning power of Sin but then a Person in whom this effect is to be wrought must apply that Death think upon it warm his Heart with the Consideration of it ruminate upon the Motives of it and upon the greatness of his own Sin that occasioned it and upon the vast Advantages that flow from that Death and be restless with God to make it effectual to his Soul For to think that this Death will do the work without our Labour or Industry or pondering the weight and moment of it is to imagine that God will deal with us as with Brutes that have no understanding As Christ died once in the end of the World so his Death spreads his Virtue to all Penitents from the beginning to the end of the World But wherever it works a serious Reformation it must be improv'd by Faith and Thoughts and Prayer and Contemplation and should Christ dye a thousand times if these means be neglected his dying so often would signifie little to the inconsiderate Spectator This is the monstrous Fancy of some Men that they hope the Mysteries of Religion will or must change their Hearts without any trouble of their own which Conceit must needs make them contemptible in the sight of an All-wise God who sees them neglect the Powers and Faculties he hath given them The unworthy Receiver therefore finding no good by this Death of the Lord Jesus for it makes no alteration in his
they help to prepare thy Soul for the Possession of that Inheritance which shall last for ever III. Worthy Receiving of the Lord's Supper is the best Preparative for Death No Man can die uncomfortably that makes it his Business as often as he comes to this Table to receive worthily Death cannot hurt him let it be natural or violent untimely or orderly for by this worthy Receiving he hath laid up a good Foundation against the Time to come Death may destroy his Body but cannot kill the Soul Death may fright him but it cannot undo him It may dis-lodge his Spirit but it drives it to a nobler Habitation It may expel the Guest but it gives him a Title to a better Building His worthy Receiving gives him an Interest in Christ's Death and because Christ lives he shall live also Death may come blustering and make a Noise but in that Whirlwind his Soul rides to Heaven Let his Death come by Sword or Famine or Torment or Fire or Water it makes no Alteration in his Happiness To him to live is Christ and die Gain And he knows who hath said I am the Resurrection and the Life The worthy Receiver never dies for he lives in Christ who abides for ever Christ will not suffer that Soul to perish in which he hath been pleased to make his Habitation He is concern'd to secure her Happiness and his Eyes are open upon her to do her good Her worthy Receiving arms her against the Fears of Death and scatters the Mists which Death doth cast before her Eyes Receiving worthily makes the Soul a sit Habitation for the Spirit of God and If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you Rom. 8. 11. IV. As the unworthy Receiver when Sickness or some other heavy Judgment lights upon him hath reason to believe that it is for his unworthy Receiving so he that wilfully neglects coming to this holy Sacrament may very justly conclude that all the Troubles and Miseries that befall him do in a great measure befall him for that Neglect 'T is hard to determine which is the greater Sin whether Receiving unworthily or not Receiving at all both will admit of great Aggravations And as these Sins are in a manner equal so it is not irrational to conclude that the Judgments threatned to the one may be inflicted for the other too As the Jews say of the Golden Calf that an Ounce of that Sin is an Ingredient into all the Calamities that came upon them so there is not a Cross that the wilful Neglecter of this Sacrament feels or endures but he hath reason to think that this Neglect contributes towards it and all his Miseries call to him though he will not hear the Voice not to neglect so great Salvation and if all these Calls cannot awaken him into a Sense of his Duty how must his Reckoning swell and how inexcusable must he be whom neither the still Voice of Prosperity nor the shriller Sound of Adversity can convince Take eat this is my Body and Drink ye all of this is a Duty as much as doing by others the same that we would have others to do us It will appear and be made out one Day that this was not an Evangelical Counsel only which the more Religious Sort that are ambitious of the highest Place in Heaven need only mind if they please It was said to all the Disciples that represented the Church-Militant And if thou professest thy self a Member of that Church thou art no more excused from the Performance of it than thou art from coming to Church and attending the other Ordinances of God But if these Motives cannot prevail God hath Enforcives which shall but from these Good Lord deliver us The PRAYER O God! When thou with Rebukes dost chasten Man for Iniquity thou makest his Beauty to consume away like a Moth Hear my Prayer O Lord and give ear unto my Cry hold not thy Peace at my Tears Oh let the Afflictions which have befallen me and which thou shalt hereafter think fit to send upon me help towards the strengthening of my Faith in Christ Jesus Thou hast sometimes laid thy Hand upon me thy Afflicting Hand and I have taken no notice of it Thou hast smitten me and I have not looked up to Heaven from whence the Stroak did come Thou hast corrected me and I have not been the better for it I have been like a Beast before thee so foolish was I and ignorant Oh teach thou me Let me read my Duty in my Crosses And whatever Trouble comes upon me let that Trouble direct me to the Cross of my dear Master the Lord Jesus Enlarge my Contemplations of the Cross of Christ by the Crosses that knock at my Door Let these make me more zealous to participate of the Benefits of the Cross of Christ. In these Crosses and Troubles let me find Motives to come with greater Seriousness to the Table of my crucified Redeemer Let these prompt me to run to the Tree which yields the Fruit of Righteousness Let not these discourage me from loving thee but rather inflame my Affections to make thee my Hope and Fortress my Light and my Salvation Let me look upon the Joy that all my Troubles will at last end in and take Comfort in all my Tribulations Imprint this Belief upon my Soul that thou knowest better what is good for me than my Carnal Heart I am apt to hanker after the Flesh-pots of Egypt but let me see the richer Table in thy Kingdom I am apt to be fond of these outward Comforts Oh quench my Thrist after them Let me see clearly that to feed on thy Love is better Diet than this Earth affords Give me thy Peace not as the World gives but as thou usest to give thine own People Oh! give me what I want Thou knowest my Necessities better than I. Give me better things than my Flesh desires even those which may preâ—erve me by thy Power through Faith unto Salvation through Jesus Cheist our Lord. Amen CHAP. XX. Of Spiritual Weakness Sickness and Death the Second Temporal Judgment inflicted sometime on the Unworthy Receivers of this holy Sacrament The CONTENTS The Eucharist a Cure for all Diseases yet many continue weak and sick after it The Cause shewn to be in themselves The Signs of Spiritual Weakness Sickness and Death God inflicts these Spiritual Judgments upon Unworthy Receivers by degrees The Justice of it vindicated in four Particulars Spiritual Weakness and Sickness proved to be a greater Judgment than the Corporal Of the End of our Eating and Drinking worthily at this Table which is Spiritual Health and wherein that consists Spiritual Judgments more common than Men think or suspect Our Souls are capable of Diseases as well as our Bodies Several Instances and Proofs given of it The Cure of Spiritual Weakness
upon them that they make some attempts and use some trifling endeavours to resist but as this resistance is not an effect of an active Faith but only of slavish fear so it doth not preserve them untainted and undaunted in the hour of Temptation which is an Argument both of Spiritual Weakness and God's Judgment because they did not like to retain God in their knowledge as St. Paul speaks Rom. 28. 2. Spiritual Sickness the signs of which are as follows 1. Want of relishing the Things of God and the Mysteries of Religion By this we conclude that a Man is sick in his Body if the Bread or Wine or Apples or Meat he swallows seem to him Food or Drink different from what they appear to sound and healthy and by the same Argument we may infer that a Man's Soul is very sick when the Promises Precepts Commands Mercies Privileges and Immunities of the Gospel are insipid and unsavoury to him and his Soul finds no sweetness no agreeableness no juice no life no pleasantness no delight no pungency in them If these appear to her as common things and affect her no more than what the Great Mogol doth in the Indies or what Men talk on the Coast of Guinea If they raise no wonder no admiration no affection no appetite no strong desire in her if she can hear them read of them survey them think of them without being touch'd with the consequence and importance of them the Soul is infallibly under some great distemper and the whole Head is sick the whole Heart is sick grievously sick and the wound is dangerous and that this Spiritual sickness discovers it self too often in unworthy Receivers we need no other proof but what their known aversion gives us I mean their aversion from good Thoughts and Discourfes after they have been at the Table of the Lord. Reading the Word digesting it and endeavouring to see wondrous things in that Law and meditating of some part of it day and night is irksome to them tedious and when something savouring of Heaven and Eternity is propos'd to them they stand upon Thorns all the while nor can the goodness of God prevail with them to deny themselves in any thing they have a mind or strong inclination to a certain sign of their being sick and of God's Judgment upon their Souls 2. Another symptom of this Spiritual sickness is When a known Sin becomes habitual and the few single Acts pass into temper and come to be incorporated with nature and turn into constitution and complexion In this case the Soul may be judged very sick as sick as the Body that is troubled with the Stone or Gout and where the distemper or Morbific Matter is so dispers'd through the Mass of Blood and Joynts that tho' it admits of respite and lucid intervals sometimes yet as the Humours that feed it gather strength again so the Distemper returns And this sickness doth evidently discover it self in unworthy Receivers who were formerly but Punies and Novices in certain sins but after their unworthy Receiving harden themselves in the practice of them commence Graduates and drink them in as the Ox doth the Water and they become their Darlings their Benjamins as dear to them as their Right Eye as dear as their Foot or Hand than which there cannot be a surer sign of their being spiritually sick and lying under the weight of a spiritual Judgment 3. Spiritual Death And this also is to be known by symptoms which are these 1. When the Conscience smites no more When it gives over striving with the Sinner he is dead as that Body in which the Pulse hath left off beating So it was with the Prodigal of whom Christ expresly saith Though his natural life was sound and whole that he was dead No remorse no regret appear'd in his Soul All was still as in a Charnel-House no noise within to fright him All was turn'd into the silence of the Grave He delighted in his nastiness in his Mud and Dung and Filth and Swinish Desires nothing prick'd him nothing stung his Heart And that this Death is to be found in some unworthy Receivers is manifest from their Actions for they become stupid in their Errors and having bafâ—led their Conscience laid that inward witness to sleep and hush'd it into a fatal slumber It stirs not it moves not and they know not when they sin and when they do not To that insensibleness they bring themselves that when God calls they cannot see with their Eyes nor hear with their Ears nor understand with their Hearts 2. Another Symptom of this Spiritual Death is When the Sinner begins to look upon Religion either as a trick of Divines or Politicians or a needless thing This excludes all sense of another world the only thing whereby the Soul lives and therefore that being gone the Soul is dead and that he who hath the power of Death even the Devil hath killed and mortified all the good Seed that lay scattered in his Breast Indeed this is such a degree of Death which unworthy Receivers do not very ordinarily arrive to yet sometimes they fall even into this Gulph for what should hinder them from tumbling down so low that have lost their hold in a Crucified Saviour from whose Arms they have broke loose unwilling that he should have any thing to do with them but just to save them if he pleases The Bands of Love and Obedience are the only things that preserve the Soul from Death and the unworthy Communicant having made a shift to throw those Cords from him being loth to be tied and held by them he sinks into contempt of these things and from thence into scorning of Religion it self In all which the Judgment of God is clearly to be seen for though God doth not call by an audible Voice from Heaven that it is so nor set a mark upon the unworthy Receiver as he did on Cain whereby spectators may know that this is a sign of the Divine Judgment upon him yet it 's enough that we are told in the Word of God Woe to them when I depart from them Hos. 9. 11. III. And from hence it 's easie to guess how God inflicts this spiritual Judgment upon unworthy Receivers 1. By a gradual withdrawing his Holy Spirit from them This Spirit is called Oyl Heb. 1. 9. and Unction or Anointing 1 Joh. 2. 27. Whatever the quantity of that Oil was that was put in their Lamps as that abates so the strength of their Soul abates and from hence comes Spiritual Weakness Sickness and Death The Spirit of God is the Pillar that supports the House if this Prop be removed the Inference is easie that the House will not be of any long standing There are general Gifts of the Spirit of God common to good and bad Men under the Gospel and there are some that are peculiar to those that walk after the Spirit and as in an unworthy Receiver we can suppose
Offence the Interest of the Subject is to keep the Law not to quarrel with the Sanction At this rate a Man might plead What great matter is there in opening a Window at Night to get into an House to steal some small inconsiderable thing in the House And shall this be made Felony without Benefit of the Clergy All wise Law-givers have their Reason why they inflict severe Penalties upon Offenders and 't is fit that an Infinite Majesty should both threaten and appoint Punishments suitable to his Grandeur Where the Law and the Sanction of it is sufficiently known Men do not accuse the Law-giver of of Cruelty if the Offender runs himself into Danger but rather blame the senseless and foolish Man who knowing the Severity of the Sanction might have easily denied himself in his sinful Purchase and secured his Life and Welfare And the less the Fault is for which a severe Punishment is appointed the more easily might it have been avoided and not to avoid it when the Forbearance was so easie is an Argument of strange Presumption so that the Contempt and Presumption are so severely punished and not the Fault it self Let us apply this to the Case in hand The Supreme Law-giver thinks fit to inflict Damnation on the unworthy Receiver Either this unworthy Receiving is a very littâ—e Sin or a very great one If a great one the Punishment cannot be thought too great for it is proportion'd to the Greatness of the Authority which is despised and to the infinite and incomprehensible Mercy which is slighted not to mention that unworthy Receiving is a Complication of many Sins and more than one go into the Composition If it be little it is more easily shunned and then the Presumption comes to be very great and that Presumption is justly punished with great Severity Besides Who can judge so well of the Contempt and the heinousness of it as he that knows all things and can best judge how great the Indignity is which is offered to God in the Sin Nay the Greatness of the Penalty discovers the Greatness of the Impiety the Foulness of the Crime the deep Dye of the Transgression and the dangerous Tendency of the Offence A Christian from the Greatness of the Penalty is to conclude there must be more in the Sin than appears to his Eyes and to infer that if the Offence were not greater than ordinary so severe a Penalty would not have been laid upon it So that at the same time the Greatness of the Punishment serves to fright the Sinner from continuing in his Sin against he comes next to the Table of the Lord and is a strong Engagement to him to take nobler Resolutions to come with greater Reverence and with better Purposes that he may escape Damnation 2. That which makes the Penalty just is the Reason the Apostle gives 1 Cor. 11. 29. Because he discerns not the Lord's Body And what is it not to discern the Lord's Body 1. The unworthy Receiver discerns not that the Bread and Wine in this Ordinance set apart for an holy Use and consecrated by the Words of Institution represents the Body and Blood of the Son of God Which Consideration should over-awe him into the greatest Reverence and Devotion He considers not that by laying his Hands upon the Body of the Son of God he vows Faith and Allegiance to him and therefore refusing that Faith and Allegiance in his Actions is supposed to look upon that Bread as common which God hath made representative of the greatest Mystery He considers not that by eating of this Bread his Soul at the same time pretends to feed on the Body of Jesus Christ and to apply the Mercies and Benefits of his Death whereby he brings himself under an Obligation to live as a Member of Christ's Mystical Body not according to the Lusts of the Flesh but according to the Will of him that bought him at so great a Price And being at the same time unresolved to do so he mocks the Lord Jesus Christ and plays with Vows made in a place where Angels give their Attendance 2. He discerns not he considers not what it is for God to take a Body upon him for a poor Sinner's sake to redeem him from Damnation For God to take a Body upon him is a thing so astonishing so miraculous that if the greatest Prince of the World should voluntarily make himself a Beggar and wallow in Dirt and Slime to deliver a Slave out of Prison in a Foreign Country it is not so much nor a thing of that great Consequence For God to take a Body upon him that he might die for the Sinner and make him capable of inheriting Everlasting Bliss is a Mercy which runs so high that Reason is at a loss and it is enough to make the Mind grow giddy at the Consideration and consequently it is so great an Engagement to devote our selves to the Service of that God who hath done this that no Obligation can be thought greater or more likely to prevail with Men of Common Sense and Ingenuity And therefore for the unworthy Receiver not to discern or consider this must be a Contempt that is without a Parallel 3. He considers not that it is the Body of his Lord and Master that is present in the Figure in this Ordinance even the Body of that Lord whose Servant he is and owns himself to be He discerns not that in eating of the holy Bread he acknowledges Christ Jesus to be his Lord and Master at whose Beck he means to run by whose Command he intends to act and by whose Will he designs to be ruled So that the unworthy Receiver runs himself into strange Contradictions He acknowledges at the Receiving of the Eucharist that Christ is his Lord and Master and yet is not willing to be govern'd by his Laws his Lust and sinful Desires still continue his Masters the Devil is still his Master the World is still his Master and Sin still reigns in his Mortal Body Christ is only his Master in shew these in good earnest he in Complement these in sober Sadness And when this Contempt hath all these Aggravations in it who can complain that God is unjust in inflicting Damnation on the unworthy Receiver if he turns not IV. But still they were only the prophane Corinthinians against whom this Judgment is denounced Men who came drunk to this holy Sacrament And since no Body in this Age can be presumed or supposed to come in such a Posture to this Sacrament why should the Penalty mentioned by St. Paul be enforced upon Men now living who are not guilty of the same Sin and in no possibility almost of committing it i. e. of coming drunk and disguised to the Lord's Table To which I answer 1. Not to mention that Whatever things are written afore-time are written for our Learning 't is a great Mistake that the Apostle restrains the Penalty to being drunk with Wine or any other
extraordinary Esteem of the Mercy that God will set light by it because we do Oh! Let us entertain it with the profoundest Respect and the deepest Veneration and think our selves the happiest Creatures living that we have this Act of Divine Bounty and Charity revealed to us But then it is impossible we should think our selves so except we walk worthy of the glorious News and transcribe on our Lives the glorious Zeal and Fervour and Sincerity of the Apostles and Primitive Believers III. As this severe Threatning denounced against unworthy Receivers is the strongest Dissuasive possible from Eating and Drinking unworthily so it is no just Discouragement to Receive with sincere Desires and Resolutions to become conformable to Christ's Holiness God frights from sinning not from doing well from wronging our own Souls not from Endeavours to save them from Impenitence not from true Repentance All that is to be done Christian in this Sacrament in order to Receiving worthily is to lay and prostrate thy self at the Feet of Jesus and to cry Lord What wilt thou have me to do Speak Lord for thy Servant hears Such humble Souls escape the Danger and may be confident of a gracious Look from the King of Saints But then if we fall down before the Throne and the Lamb and make this Profession let it come from the Heart and let our Tongues speak what our Minds think and our Wills mean to stand to and let our Desires to be one with him be such as Simplicity dictates lest our Hearts and Tongues not going together we may be found Lyars and fall into Condemnation And Oh that every unworthy Receiver would consider what Damnation means Consider it thou dull and careless Man and then tell me whether Christ requires any thing unreasonable of thee to prevent it Thou that runnest from an House on fire and from a Land-flood or Deluge that threatens to overwhelm thee wilt not thou do all thou canst to escape Damnation that Deluge of God's Wrath and that Fire of his Anger which no Man can quench Should this Damnation be thy Portion at last we may easily imagine what thy Wishes will be the same that all inconsiderate Souls are very full of when they have ruin'd and undone themselves Oh that I had been wise before the Fact and come to the Lord's Table with a better Frame put on the Lord Jesus and made his Vertues and Graces my Study my Delight and my Pattern But these are the Wishes of Fools And I did not think it would come to this pass is a Saying which we look upon as a Character of a weak and a Childish Understanding Both he that receives unworthily and he that never received yet both have yet Opportunity to turn from their evil Ways Therefore Seek ye the Lord while be mâ—y be found Call ye upon him while he is near Let the Wicked forsake his Way and the unrighteous Man his Thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have Mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Isa. 55. 6 7. The PRAYER O Lord Great and Incomprehensible Slow to Anger and great in Power and who wilt not at all acquit the Wicked Thy Way is in the Whirl-wind and in the Storm and the Clouds are the Dust of thy Feet Thou rebukest the Sea and makest it dry and driest up mighty Rivers The Mountains quake at thy Word and the Hills melt and the Earth is burnt at thy Presence yea the World and all they that dwell therein Who can stand thine Indignation And who can abide the Fierceness of thine Anger where thy Fury is poured out like Fire and the Rocks are thrown down by thine Arm Who would not fear thee O thou great Preserver of Men Yet thou Lord art good and a Strong Hold in the Day of Trouble and thou knowest them that trust in thee In my Approaches to thy holy Table let me so reflect upon thy Mercy as not to forget thy Justice Let me so look upon thy Friendship as to cast an Eye withal upon thy Severity to thine Enemies Thou offerest me thy Friendship in this Ordinance How great is thy Goodness Oh let me entertain the Offer with Admiration God will dwell with simple Man and therefore requires a Temple a Temple not made with hew'n Stones not of polish'd Marble not of painted Walls but of living and shining Gems and of such Golden Ornaments as Rust cannot touch and Dust cannot blacken a Temple purified with the Fire of Love trimmed with an holy Conversation and decked with variety of Vertues Make my Soul I beseech thee such a Temple and come and fix thy Tents here for ever Thou art the Judge to whom I am accountable for my Receiving Let me remember that as that didst rain down Manna from Heaven upon thy People so thou didst rain down Fire and Brimstone too upon Sodom and Gomorrah Let me so rejoyce in the Mercies thou rainest down upon me in this Sacrament as to fear thy Judgments in case I abuse those Mercies If of every idle Word Men shall give an Account in the Great Day what Account will they have to give of prophaning this sublime and mysterious Ordinance If the Dust of thy Apostles Feet shall bear witness in that Day against the Obstinate and Impenitent what a Witness will the Body of the Son of God be against those who would not be warm'd with the Sight and Contemplation of it into Vertue Let these things sink deep into my inward Parts and teach me so to triumph in thy Praise as to tremble at thy Presence Yet Oh let not my Goodness be the Effect of a slavish Fear of Damnation so much as of Love and Delight in thy holy Ways Let Kindness do more with me than Terrour and let my Heart melt more with the Sight of thy Condescension than with the Sight of thy Flaming Sword Teach me to serve thee with Pleasure and Affection and let the Glory of thy Name be the End of all my holy Exercises Let thy Love be ever fixed in my Heart and be thou my Rest my Tranquility my Peace my Meat my Drink my Food my Treasure my Possession and my Portion for ever through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen CHAP. XXII Of Preparation And First of Meditation of Christ's Passion The CONTENTS Preparation for this Holy Sacrament reduced to Five Heads Meditation of Christ's Passion with reflexions on our Selves Self-Examination â—udging our Selves Self-Resignation and Devotions suitable to the Occasion Christ himself meditated of his own Passion before he administred this Sacrament to his Disciples Meditation of Christ's Passion useful to bring things to our Minds we did not think of before to enflame the Soul with the Love of Jesus and to make us remember his Death with a quicker Sense A Paraphrase upon the XXII and XXIII Chapters of St. Luke's Gospel What God said to the Jews may be the more justly said to us Christians What could have been
done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it A vast difference betwixt reading of Christ's Passion and meditating of it Some Rules and Cautions about this exercise of Meditation The Prayer I HAving in the foregoing Chapters explained the Doctrine Nature Use End and Design of this 〈…〉 It will be necessary to direct the 〈…〉 Preparations for this Blessed Ordinance 〈…〉 may be said to comprehend 1. Meditation of Christ's Passion with Reflections 〈◊〉 â—n our Selves 2. Self-Examination 3. Judging our Selves 4. Self-Resignation 5. Devotion suitable to the occasion I begin with Meditation of Christ's Passion call'd by Damian The Believer's Refuge in the hour of Temptation his Shade in the heat and sweat of Afflictions the everlasting Fewel of Divine Love and the best Sauce or Remedy in all Troubles and Vexatiâ—ns And Christ himself seems to have shewn us an example of seasoning our Hearts with this previous Meditation for before he instituted this Sacrament before he distributed the Bread and Wine to the Disciples in the Eucharist he contemplates his own Sufferings in the Paschal Lamb he ate of He saw on the Table a Lamb dead flead and roasted at the Fire This suggested to him how himself was in a few hours after to be kill'd and scourg'd and feel the heat and fire of mighty Torments He saw his Friends eat the Paschal Lamb in haste and he could not but reflect what haste his Enemies would make to apprehend him In the unleaven'd Bread and the bitter Herbs that were set before him he saw the Gall and Vinegar he was to taste and if the Disciples at that time did eat the Passover with staves in their hands that could not but put him in mind of the Cross to which he was to be nailed II. What it is that makes Meditation of Christ's Passion necessary as an act of Preparation for this Holy Sacrament we shall easily know if we consider 1. Meditation brings things to our Minds we did not think of before Though we know before that Christ was unjustly accused by the Jews beaten buffeted crown'd with Thorns inhumanly murther'd yet Meditation discovers things to us we took no great notice of before it helps us to enlarge upon the passages of his Passion and these cannot but be very instructive to our Minds This puts us in mind of the dignity of the Person that suffer'd all this how it was not a mere Man not a mortal King not an Angel not one of the Higher Orders of Ministring Spirits but the Son of God that laid down his Life a Life more precious than the Lives of all created Beings put together This puts us in mind of the indignity of the Persons for whom he suffer'd what vile Creatures they were Creatures of whom he could expect no advantage and fear no danger and such as were his Enemies This puts us in mind of the vast multitude of his troubles and miseries how his Body did not only suffer but his Soul too how he suffer'd in his Habit and Dress by having it pull'd off from him and divided among the ruder Soldiers how he suffer'd in his Honour and Reputation by being call'd a Glutton a Wine-bibber a Blasphemer Stirâ—ing up of the People and possess'd with a Devil how he suffer'd in his Wisdom by being call'd Impostor and treated like a Fool and Madman how he suffer'd in his Power by being accus'd as a Magician as one that dealt with a Familiar and was in league with the Prince of Devils how all sorts of Persons did contribute to his Suffering a Disciple whom he had nourish'd and brought up in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord Kings and Governors Judges Harlots Soldiers High Priests Scribes Pharisees Ecclesiasticks Seculars Jews and Gentiles Men and Women This puts us in mind how every Member of his Body was put to grievous pain how his Head was crown'd with Thorns his Hair pluck'd off by the rude usage he endur'd his Cheeks beaten his Face sullied his Back crush'd his Neck and Arms tied with Cords his Shoulders bruis'd by the Cross his Hands and Feet pierc'd with Nails his Side open'd with a Lance and his whole Body made black and blue with stripes How all Senses suffer'd his Eyes seeing the Mockeries of the multitude his Ears hearing the Blasphemies of his Enemies his Smell forced to endure the stench of dead Bodies on Mount Calvary his Taste tormented with Thirst and what is worse with Gall and his feeling with variety of blows This puts us in mind how his Soul endurd more far more yet than his Senses the Sins of Mankind lying like an heavy load upon her This represents how that was afflicted with a Sense of God's Anger against sin and with the Damnation of thousands that would not prevent their ruine and how as the sins of Mankind were without number so his Grief and Sorrow was without measure This puts us in mind how his Pain and Torments became more pungent and afflictive by reason of the delicacy of his Complexion how his imagination being most lively had therefore a quicker sense of Misery how his Torments were without any alloy differing in this case from the Torments of the Martyrs of old who had great comfort administred to them in their Sufferings Comforts so powerful that they walk'd on glowing Coals as on a Bed of Roses and in the midst of Flames had a cooling Dew sprinkled upon them This suggests how he drunk the bitter Cup without mixture without a drop of Honey to sweeten it and how this makes him the Martyr of all Martyrs and the King of all afflicted Saints and upon that account may be said to have endured more than all Men put together ever suffer'd in this World This puts us in mind with what affection he suffer'd how he chose to suffer for the Joy and Comfort he should thereby procure to all sincere Believers how Love to Mens Souls engaged him to these Sufferings and whereas a few drops of his Blood might have serv'd turn to redeem Mankind he would notwithstanding all this to testifie his infinite Love shed every drop of Blood in his Body for their sakes This puts us in mind with what fervency and earnestness he went to meet his Cross and in order thereunto bid the Traitor make haste and do quickly what he design'd to do and with what alacrity he embrac'd his Torments and therefore sung a Hymn with his Disciples before he was apprehended by the Murtherers to shew the joy he took in laying down his Life for his Sheep Meditation doth the Painters work which embellishes the courser Draught gives it Features Lineaments curious Strokes and all its proper Dresses whereby the Mind is signally edified and affected with the Picture 2. Meditation of Christ's Passion enflames the Soul with the Love of Jesus At Patras a City of Achaia there lived a Heathen Priest Coresus by name who intending to Marry set his Affections upon one Callirrhoe a
Virgin of that Town whom he courted and loved entirely but the more he courted her the more refractory she was till she even abus'd him and reproach'd him and shut the door against him The Priest seeing no way to compass his designs consults his Oracle and Idol but receives no answer In the mean while a killing sickness seiz'd the Town a Distemper which made People mad and dye raving The evil being become universal and spreading daily more and more some of the chief Men of the Town resolve to send an Embassie to one of the Heathen Gods in another City which gives them this Answer That this Plague should not cease till one Callirrboe a Virgin in that Town were offer'd in Sacrifice or some Person for her The news of the Oracle being noised about the Town Callirrboe goes to all her Friends to see whether any would suffer for her but finding none so fond she prepares for deâ—th and coming forth at the day appointed dress'd in her Funeral Robes Coresus that was to be the Executioâ—er appears with his Sword to cut off her Head for it was his Office upon such dreadful Solemnities but as he is preparing to give the fatal blow his Bowels began to yearn and to destroy a Person whom he had loved with most cordial affection was so severe a tryal to him that rather than be guilty of so barbarous a Fact in the presence of the whole Assembly he runs the drawn Sword into his own Bowels and as the Blood was now issuing in Rivers from his Body professes to the Damfel that he dyed for her so sincere so strong so fervent was his Love Callirrhoe astonish'd at the sight and confounded with the enterprize her stubborn Heart melts and now would have saved his Life with her own but it was too late yet to make him amends her Love to him on a sudden grows so violent that she resolv'd not to out-live him and at the same instant made her Life a Sacrifice to bear him company Meditation of Christ's Passion produces in a manner the same effect for as it represents Christ's dying for the stubborn sinner and â—ying for love of him it raises reciprocal flames in the considerate Soul It puts the case Suppose there should be a King most Wise most Rich most Potent most Beautiful most Gracious in the very flower of his age who being about to Marry should cast his Eyes and Love upon a poor Country Maid his Subject and withal very much deformed homely ignorant despised and disregarded by the meanest Men adorned with no good Quality that should cause attraction and solemnly Marry her What an obligation would that be to that poor infirm Creature advanced to a Throne from nothing from worse than nothing to entertain that Royal Husband with marvellous respect and to behave her self in his Presence with all possible Reverence and Love and Modesty considering what she hath been and what she is come to by his means What an obligation to Treat him with all Respect Honour and Humility What an obligation to love him with a most ardent most tender and most affectionate Love and to be most true and faithful to him loving none like him who has deservâ—d so much at her hands What an obligation to commend and praise him and to express her Sense of his unspeakable Favour to her What an obligation when he is sick to tend him to be about his Bed to declare her Sorrow and Grief and Compassion by her Tears especially since he hath humbled himself beyond example to espouse her What an obligation when he is absent to speak of him to long for him and to be impatient for his return What an obligation to sing his Virtues his Condescension his Mercy and his Charity and to magnifie his Wisdom his Goodness his Beauty and his Love to her What an obligation to give him content in all things and to deport her self every where so as to please him What an obligation if she have committed the least offence to think of it with great regret and remorse to beg his Pardon and to implore his Mercy What an obligation to endure any thing any trouble any cross any inconvenience for his sake and to think her self happy that she is in a capacity to suffer any thing for his Name What an obligation to be entirely subject to him and to yield to all things he desires of her Finally What an obligation to think her self most happy in his love and to rejoyce in being thus advanced by him to a state she could never have wish'd or hoped for Meditation having put this case applies it to the present occasion and saith Thou O my Soul thou art that poor despicable contemptible Maid that the Monarch of the Universe the Wisest the most Potent the greatest Prince in the World did fall in love with There was no Beauty no Wisdom no good Qualities no Perfection no Amiableness in Thee for which he should think of thee for his Spouse and that which surpasses all admiration this Sovereign Prince this Prince of Princes could not gain this wretched Maiden but by enduring a Thousand Torments by spilling of his Blood and hazarding his Life and he freely and cheerfully Sacrificed himself to obtain thy Love He required no Dowry of thee for he was infinitely Rich and thou miserably Poor He loved thee not in a foolish Passion for he is infinitely Wise He chose thee not for his Pleasure for thou wert defiled to a Prodigy and himself is happy and was happy in himself from all Eternity nor did he Marry thee by force for he is Omnipotent but it was mere Love mere Charity mere Compassion that he set his Affections upon thee and by his Marrying thee he hath ennobled thee aggrandiz'd thy Fortune made thee Wise and Rich and Great and Beautiful and hast not thou reason to love him with all thy heart and with all thy strength And by such Meditations of Christ's Passion the Soul is enflamed with the Love of the Lord Jesus Add to all this 3. What can be a more proper preparative for this Sacrament wherein the Passion and sufferings of our Lord are most solemnly remembred than a previous Meditation of his Sufferings For hereby the Soul will be more expedite in that remembrance and remember that Death not only with greater facility but with greater Sense and greater Affections too It is so with Men that are to speak in Publick they premeditate what they are to say and think much of the thing they are to be upon when they come before the Assembly and I see no reason but this may be a good preparative for acting in publick too Certainly he that actuates his Faculties thus in private will be better able to exercise them in publick for hereby the Heart is season'd and when it appears before God in this Ordinance the sense which the private Meditation hath lest upon it fits it the better for participation of
sometimes hast thou been from this exercise O my Soul when thou hast gone into dangerous company how loth hast thou been to arm thy self with Prayer When thou hast been in trouble how little hast thou thought of this Sovereign Remedy or if thou hast made use of it how cold how faint how superficial have been thy Supplications How often hast thou had greater confidence in the arm of Flesh than in the strength of God! Prayer hath chased away Armies turned to flight the Host of Aliens stopt the mouth of Lions quenched the flames of Fire made the Sun stand still and the shadow go back ten Degrees hath shut and opened Heaven and yet how slender how weak how indifferent hath thy Love been to this Spiritual Engine which hath conquered the Fort above and even forced the Almighty into Pity and Compassion 41. And he was withdrawn from them about a Stones-cast and kneeled down and prayed OUR Saviour when he means to pray most earnestly retires from all company yet how irksome hath retirement been to thee O my Soul What a burden hath it seemed and how glad hast thou been when company or Business have call'd thee away from that Penance and given thee a diversion How much more pleasing have crouds and mulitudes of business and people been to thee than privacy In serious retirements thou mightest have seen the brighter goings of God and had larger experience of his Power and Goodness but thou hast been afraid of meeting thy God in private and by that means deprived thy self of the gracious influences which he imparts to them that love his company Behold thy Redeemer bows his knees and kneels on the cold ground to offer up his Supplications to his Father How strangely hast thou consulted thine ease in Prayer How afraid hast thou been to kneel if thou hast had no Cushion How loth to put thy flesh to any trouble in God's Service Did the Son of God prostrate himself upon the Grass or Earth he stood upon and art thou afraid of hurting thy self in Prayer if thou hast not the accommodations of Softness and Luxury 42. Saying Father if thou be willing remove this Cup from me nevertheless not my Will but thine be done AN excellent Example and with the Example a Command to resign our Will to God's Will even in the greatest Troubles and Calamities And dost thou observe this O my Soul Art thou content with the Will and Pleasure of God when he lays affliction upon thy Loins Dost thou say freely and without murmuring It is the Lord let him do what seems good to him O how hast thou repin'd sometimes How impatient hast thou been under thy chain How unwilling to submit to the hand of God! How forced hath been thy Humiliation Where hath been thy belief of God's Wisdom and Goodness If thou believest God to be infinitely Wise and consequently that what he sends on thee is most wisely order'd why dost thou murmur If thou believest him to be infinitely good and therefore intending all that happens to thee for thy good why dost thou think the ways of the Lord are not equal 43. And there appeared to him an Angel from Heaven strongth'ning him IF this Blessed Minister of Heaven did comfort him with Words we must suppose he humbly besought him to look upon the Glory set before him and reflect on the vast good that would arrive to all Mankind by his Passion and that he encouraged him to go on with the great work of Redemption O my Soul And hath not thy God sent an Angel to thee a Minister of his Word in thy Afflictions and encouraged thee by the hopes of Eternal Glory to bear up and to be undaunted under all the Waves and Billows that went over thee Nay hath not thy God himself suggested to thy mind what benefit thy Affliction would yield what peaceable fruits of Righteousness what hatred of Sin what love to Holiness and what Humility it would produce And yet none of these have been able to keep thee from sinking How sensual is thy Mind How earthy are thy Affections What Polishing what Refining do they want yet And yet if Affliction which is the Furnace that must purifie the Gold will not do it what can be supposed to do it 44. And being in an Agony he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as it were great drops of Blood falling down to the ground SEE O my Soul how thy Sin presses the Son of God! see how great the horror of it is that it forced him into Agonies and these Agonies vent themselves in a Bloody Sweat He saw the Wrath of God that flaming Sword which hung over thee the revenging Arm that God shook against thee He saw the Hell thou hadst deserved the Torments thou hast merited the Agonies thou hadst involv'd thy self in He saw thy Sins in their full latitude and extent what encroachments they had made on the Divine Nature what affronts they had offer'd to the great Majesty of Heaven being very sensible of the infinite purity of God he saw the dreadfulness the monstrousness of thy Transgressions which had made War with that Divine Purity He saw the Fire and Brimstone the everlasting Furnace the burning Lake that was design'd to be thy Recompence He saw it and trembled He saw it and stagger'd He felt it being infinitely compassionate and feeling it laboured to shake it off and to get from under it and as he struggles with the Load his Sacred Body breaks forth in a strange kind of Sweat Didst thou ever consider O my Soul what thy Sins did cost Hadst thou considered it how couldst thou have been so merry so blithe so jocular in the Commission 45. And when he rose up from Prayer and was come to his Disciples he found them sleeping for Sorrow STrange Sleep should oppress People when they have Death before them Yet why wonderest thou O my Soul when thou hast slept securely at the very Gates of Hell in the Suburbs of Destruction How hast thou even shorted in Sin when the Messengers of God have cried out Fire Everlasting Fire over thy Head How quiet hast thou been how secure how jolly when the Fiends have been about thee as the Philistines about Sampson How hast thou played and laughed and smiled when the Eternal Wrath of God hath been ready to seize on thee How was it that thou wert not afraid How was it that thou didst not give a Start in the midst of thy Slumber What if thou hadst awaked in Hell 46. And said unto them Why sleep ye Rise and pray that ye enter not into Temptation INdeed Sleepiness and Idleness is the Devil's Opportunity to persuade us into Sin Had the Disciples prayed instead of sleeping 't is possible they would not have fled when they saw Danger nigh And hath not the Devil prevailed with thee by Idleness O my Soul When thou hast with David taken thy Rest and Ease hath not Satan brought a
Bathsheba to thee and thrown some ill Thought into thy Mind When thou hast not known how to spend thy Time hath not the Enemy made thee swallow the dangerous Bait When thou hast stretched thy self upon thy Couch and indulged thy self hast not thou selt then thy Love to God decay and thy Affections to the World to increase and thy Faculties to dissolve into Vanity and Voluptuousness and Contempt of better things 47. And while he yet spake behold a Multitude and he that was called Judas one of the Twelve went before them and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him WHat a Change is here From Christ's Purse-bearer to a Leader or Captain of Thieves and Murtherers And O my Soul what a mighty Change hath there been sometimes in thy spiritual Condition From a zealous Saint how often hast thou deflected into Formality and Hypocrisie From holy Heats thou art fallen into Lukewarmness How vigorous wast thou once in prosecuting thy Eternal Happiness And how hast thou fainted afterward Once thou didst lay Force upon the Kingdom of Heaven Of late thou hast laid Force upon the Kingdom of Darkness storm'd Hell and invaded Damnation Once thou wast a strict Observer of Religious Severities How loosely hast thou lived of late Once God seem'd to have thy Heart But did not Sin and the World possess it afterwards Dull blockish Soul Was God beautiful and delightful heretofore and hath he ceased to be so now 48. But Jesus said unto him Judas betrayest thou the Son of Man with a Kiss AND hast not thou thus betrayed him O my Soul even with a false and counterfeit Devotion Hast not thou too often pretended God's Glory when thou hast sought thine own And seemed to be zealous for Religion when it was only thine own private Interest thou didst aim at Hast not thou professed Love to the holy Jesus when at the same time thou hast most basely affronted him Hast not thou drawn nigh unto him with thy Lips when in thy Conversation thou hast denied him Hast not thou told him sometimes that thou repentest when thou hast been loth to part with thy darling Bosom-Sin Hast not thou kneeled under his Cross sometimes to express thy Veneration of him when in good truth thou hast conspired against him with his Enemies Hast not thou maintain'd thy League with Sin while thou hast pretended by thy bowing to the Son of God that that League was broken and dissolved What Perfidiousness what Treachery what Dissimulation hast thou been guilty of Canst thou think of it and not be concern'd 49. When they which were about him saw what would follow they said unto him Lord shall we smite with the Sword WHat preposterous Means and Ways do Men make use of to effect their Deliverance These poor Men hope to do Wonders by smiting with the Sword A Way neither warranted by any Command of God nor profitable So the Jews in Jeremy's time thought there was no way for them to escape but by fleeing into the Land of Egypt And O my Soul hast thou not very often out of Mistrust of God's Providence made use of wrong Means to compass thy Safety How hast thou thought to be rid of thy Calamity by telling a Lye or by acting against thy Conscience How hast thou thought sometimes to redeem thy Credit with vain People by complying with their Sins And when thou hast been under some Distress how hast thou endeavoured to get out of it by abusing thy Neighbour or by reviling those that reviled thee When thou hast been groaning under Poverty how hath the Devil suggested to thee to mend thy Condition by Cheating and thou hast obey'd the Motion What Comfort canst thou take in a Deliverance compassed by Sin Or what Satisfaction in a Rescue effected by the Devil's Means at least by doing things acceptable to him 50. And one of them smote the Servant of the High Priest and cut off his Right Ear. WHen we do things of our own Heads without any Command from God what Inconveniencies do we run into These unwary Men smite never staying for Christ's Answer O my Soul Thus thou hast rushed into dangerous Actions and Enterprizes without consulting the Oracles of God and hast taken it for granted that they were lawful because thou didst apprehend them to make for thy Interest Thus hast thou ventur'd upon some Recreations which upon pondering the Rules of the Gospel would have been found contrary to the Law of God and hast run into Play-houses without consulting with any serious Men whether it be agreeable to the Will of Christ and hast made nothing of thy vain and fantastick Dresses and all because thou wouldst not examine the Particulars which the Lord thy God requires of thee What a Decay hast thou thereby brought upon thy Vertues And how hath thy Sense of God abated upon this imprudent Behaviour 51. And Jesus answered and said Suffer ye thus far And he touched his Ear and healed him HEre we have an excellent Pattern of doing good for evil O my Soul how backward hast thou been to this great Duty How hast thou studied Revenge upon the least Affront or Injury whether real or imaginary How hast thou fretted and fumed when Men have crossed thy Humour Will or Inclination and contrived immediately which way thou mightest be even with the Offender Oh what a Stranger hast thou been to loving thy Enemies and doing good to them that have hated thee When a Neighbour hath displeased thee presently thy Kindness hath ceased and the Stream of thy Bounty hath stopp'd as if thy Saviour had neither shewn thee an Example nor given any Precept to the contrary And yet thou hast pretended to be a Christian. But wherein hast thou done more than others Wherein hast thou exceeded the Righteousness of Scribes and Pharisees nay the Righteousness of Pagans If thou dost good to them that do good to thee what Thanks hast thou For Sinners also do even the same 52. Then Jesus said unto the Chief Priest and Captains of the Temple and the Elders which were come to him Be ye come out as against a Thief with Swords and Staves SEE how these Wretches arm themselves against Omnipotence as if Christ if he would could not with a Breath have broke their Swords and snapped their Staves in sunder How secure hast thou thought thy self O my Soul against the Vengeance of Heaven when Riches have flown in upon thee and thy Friends have been multiplied How little hast thou regarded Men's Threatnings and what is more God's Anger while thy Years have been crowned with Wealth and Waters of a full Cup have been wrung out unto thee This hath tempted thee to sin with a Lawless Freedom and made thee think God was afraid to sink thy Vessel because its Sails were of Silk Alas how easily could God have made thee know the Vanity of these Cobwebs and with the least Blast blown thee up and sent thee with thy Riches to the Vault of Outer
that Kingdom that the Kingdoms and Glories of this World may not beguile or tempt me to love the World If I love the World the Love of the Father cannot be in me Represent the Beauty of thy future Kingdom to my Mind in lively Characters that my Admiration of this present World may decay and I may be content to sell all for the Pearl of Price that is before me 52. This Man went unto Pilate and begged the Body of Jesus IT is base to forsake a Friend when he is under a Cloud Then to shew our Respect to him when he lies unjustly under Contempt and Disgrace is true Affection It was bold and great and like a Friend to beg the Body of Jesus when it was counted a Disgrace to be any way concern'd for him How hast thou deviated from this admirable Example O my Soul when a Person whom thou hast courted and admired in the Day of his Prosperity hath through the Venom of malicious Tongues and more malicious Practices fallen from his Glory and Respect How hast thou withdrawn thy self from him been afraid to speak the Truth of him and to give him that good Character which thou knewest he deserved As thou dealest with Man so it is to be feared thou wilt deal with thy God and Religion when it becomes dangerous to own them Up and be earnest with thy God to give thee invincible Integrity which may mock all Storms and be the same to God and to thy Neighbour in all Conditions Stick close to God and to thy Friend and rejoyce in a good Conscience for that will bring thee Peace at last 53. And he took it down and wrapped it in Linen and laid it in a Sepulchre that was hewn in Stone wherein never Man before was laid REligion is an insignificant thing if it cost us nothing Good Men love to be at Charges for their God and the Good of their own Souls O my Soul How loth hast thou been to let those Persons reap thy Carnal Things which have sown unto thee Spiritual Things When thou hast thought nothing too much for thy Luxury and Pride and Ease how hath it gone against the Grain to be expensive for Religion Thou hast loved to serve thy God cheaply How loth hast thou been to express thy Gratitude to God by being liberal to his distressed Members and thy Spiritual Guids Oh learn by this Example to prize thy Spiritual Good more and let thy bountiful Actions shew that thou hast the highest Value for the Concerns of Eternity 54. And that Day was the Preparation and the Sabbath drew on O My Soul How little Preparation hast thou made for the Everlasting Sabbath and thine Eternal Rest Dost thou hope to rest for ever among the Flowers of Paradise and is it not high time to prepare for it Dost thou think to rest at last under the Wings of thy Everlasting Father and is it not time to rise and work as it were for thy Life that thou may'st find Repose in the Everlasting Tabernacles Was ever any admitted there that would not sweat and labour here Oh labour against thy Corruptions wrestle with Temptations fight with thy Spiritual Enemies live in Contemplation of the highest Good embrace thy Saviour with the warmest Love strive to do much Good in thy Generation and thy Rest will be sweet 55. And the Women also which came with him from Galilee followed after and beheld the Sepulchre and how his Body was laid TRue Goodness is never weary of following Christ It follows him to the very Grave It may meet with Stops and Rubs in its Way but it gets up again and is not tired with Running the Race which is set before it O Blessed Jesu Thou hast not been weary of working and suffering for me Let me never be weary of loving thee When my Flesh would make me give over running after thee assist me with new Strength and Courage that I may hold out to the End And since none shall sit at thy Table in thy Kingdom but those that have continued with thee in thy Temptations Oh let my Soul feel the Power of thy Spirit which may lift me up that I may mount up with Wings as Eagles may run and not be weary walk and not faint till I am within the Gates of Heaven 56. And they returned and prepared Spices and Ointments and rested the Sabbath-day according to the Commandment MY dearest Lord though I have no opportunity to prepare Spices and Ointments for thy Burial yet thou hast shewn me how I may offer an Odor of a sweet Smell a Sacrifice acceptable and well-pleasing to God This is a life fruitful in good Works No Incense smells sweeter in thy Nostrils No Persume casts a nobler scent in Heaven than this Enrich the ground of my Heart fatten it with thy Blood water the Furrows thereof with thy Heavenly Dew and shine upon it with thy Gracious Beams and bid the Tree of my Life advance and Bud and Blossom and bear fruit even the Fruit of Charity of Meekness of Humility of Patience of Goodness of Faith of Love of Temperance of Sobriety of Watchfulness and of contempt of the World that I may have my Fruit unto Holiness and the end everlasting Life The Preceding Considerations reduced to Practice I. HOw justly after this prospect may God say What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it St. Bernard hath an Elegant Discourse upon this Subject to shew what force the serious consideration of Christ's Incarnation and of what he hath done for us and particularly of his Sufferings and Death hath to kindle the Fire of reciprocal Love in our Hearts God being desirous saith he to restore Man who had lost himself and to rescue him from the clutches of the Devil said within himself If I should force this wretched Creature against his Will and Choice to the Duties he is to discharge and perform I should make a Beast or an Ass of him instead of a rational Man nor would he come to me voluntarily of his own accord and with a good Will nor would he be able to say I will freely sacrifice unto thee Therefore to make his coming to me a matter of choice and rational freedom I will terrifie and fright him to see whether that will drive him to Repentance and accordingly he threatened him with misery which no Mortal is able to express with everlasting Darkness and a never dying Worm and unquenchable Fire But stubborn Man nothing terrified with all these Thunders God was resolv'd to try what Promises would do and since naturally he is desirous of Riches and Honour and Pleasures and long Life God accordingly promis'd him infinite Treasures of Glory unexpressible Dignities in Heaven and such Pleasures as the Heart of Man is not able to conceive they are so big and large and overflowing and a life free not only from all evil but from any end or period and abounding
Oblation of thy dear Son and blot out all my Transgressions Accept of that incomparable Sacrifice and forget the Injuries I have offered thee I should be afraid of being sent away empty from thy Throne my Sins are so many and so great but that I know thy Sons Merits are greater than my Sins If my Sins and his Goodness my Transgressions and the Merits of his bitter Passion were laid in a Ballance together these would weigh for heavier than mine Offences What Crime so great that such a Sorrow such Affliction such Obedience such Humility such invincible Patience and what is more than all this such infinite Love cannot expiate What Iniquity can there be in the World above which the Death of Christ doth not preponderate O Heavenly Father I have nothing of mine own to offer thee But I offer thee my Saviour my Redeemer thine only Son with all possible Devotion and Gratitude Accept of his unspeakable Grief and Anguish known only to him and to thy self for my Sins and that Grief I should have and do not feel Accept of his bloody Sweat and Tears for want of my Tears Accept of his most fervent Prayers for my dulness and deadness in Prayer Accept of all that ever he did and suffer'd for my great and multiplied Transgressions I accuse my self for my Carnality I condemn my self for my backwardness to serve thee I am willing to inflict Judgments upon my self for my innumerable Follies yet even these Services will look dull and weak and imperfect except thou art pleased to look upon them through the Merits of thy dear Son O blessed Jesu who can comprehend thy Charity O pour into my Heart true Contrition soften my harden'd Heart into true Compunction give to mine Eyes abundance of Tears that I may bewail the many Indignities I have offered to thee Deal not with me after my Sins Let thy bitter Passion step in betwixt thy Father's Anger and my miserable Soul And whatever mine Iniquities have deserv'd let thy Death atone for them and let thy Blood wash them away O thou who hast overcome the World and the Prince thereof overcome all my rebellious and inordinate Affections Let nothing separate betwixt thy Love and me Remove and conquer that Disagreebleness that is betwixt my Nature and thy Holiness and as thou wast obedient to thy Father even to the Death of the Cross so make my Soul obedient to thee in all thing O let me see and feel that there is nothing so vile so abject so unworthy as I am and in this sense let me admire thy Love that it may appear great and wonderful to me and dash all those Excuses and Delays I have pretended too long to cloak my unwillingness to please thee What can melt my heart if thy Love cannot melt it O melt it by that Fire and purge away all my Dross and all my Tin that being purified by thee I may enjoy the Comforts of that Purity for ever Amen Amen CHAP. XXV Of Self-Resignation the Fourth Preparatory Duty in order to a Worthy Receiving of this Holy Sacrament The CONTENTS What Self-Resignation is and wherein it consists What makes it necessary Upon what Account it comes to be a Duty preparatory for the Holy Sacrament God likens himself to a Potter and why Our Perfection proved to consist in this Self-Resignation 1. WHat this Self-Resignation is and wherein it consists is no hard matter to guess 'T is in short to resign our Will to God's Will not only in being ready to do what God will have us do but in being contented to suffer whatever he shall think fit to lay upon us 'T is St. Anselm's Observation That God alone who is the Creator of all things can will and do what he pleases having no Will superior to his own to which he ought to submit But when Man will do his own Will he robs Almighty God in some measure of his Crown for as the Crown is only the Privilege and Prerogative of a King so to do what he pleases is God's only Property And as a Subject that should fly at the Crown of his Prince and take it off his Head would commit Treason and do his Sovereign the greatest Injury so a Man that will have his own Will attributes that to himself which is a Privilege appertaining only to Divinity it self And indeed this Self-Resignation is nothing but an Effect of sincere and cordial Love Love being the Bond that ties and unites the Person loving to him that is loved as Hatred dissolves and unties that Bond. This Love consists chiefly in the Will and if it be right it must necessarily oblige him that loves God to will what he wills and take his Pleasure and Will for his Rule whereby he governs his own Desires and Affections II. That which makes this Self-Resignation to the Will of God very necessary are these important Points 1. Hereby the Glory of God is signally advanced It is the most excellent Sacrifice we can offer to Almighty God The Glory of God consists in having his Will fulfilled And since we are both created and redeemed to advance God's Glory we commit a very great Errour in having a different Will from God's Will for we deprive him of the Honour due to him and which we are obliged to advance not only by our Obedience but by our Troubles and Dangers too And if it be such an Advancement of God's Glory to do what he will have us do and to follow him where he leads it can be no less Glory to our selves to have the Honour to fulfil his Will in all things That God who is far above us so infinitely exalted above our frail Natures should make use of such poor miserable Creatures to glorifie him and employ in the compassing of his admirable Designs such vile Worms when he might make use of far better is no small Dignity and Advancement If a King were to give Battel to a fierce and numerous Enemy and should quit or lay by a bright and Two-edged Sword and take a rusty Dagger with no Point or Edge to fight the opposite Army as it would be a Mark of his greater Courage so the Victory he gains by that means would be more renowned and glorious We are in the Hand of God no otherwise than obtuse and blunt Daggers are and that by such contemptible means he will compass his Glory is not only the Way to promote his own Honour but ours too When the Disciples of Socrates had all made their Masters very noble Presents Aeschines who was very poor came to him and told him Sir I have nothing to give you that is worthy of you and therefore take the only thing I have to give that is my self Socrates was extreamly pleased with this Offer And Seneca adds that by this Present Aeschines exceeded all the rich Gifts not only of Alcibiades whose Gifts were equal to his generous Mind but all the Presents of the rest A Man can
said she was voluntarily poor and we love Gold and Silver he was humble and lowly but we affect Dominion and Greatness he was always in Affliction we hunt for Carnal Pleasures The wisest Person living could not have spoken greater sense and if Christ's Actions were intended for Patterns it will naturally follow that as he entirely resign'd himself to his Father's Will before he went to dye so it 's very fit that his Disciples when they come to remember his Death in a most solemn manner in the Sacrament should follow him in that Self-resignation the rather because like him we resolve in this Sacrament and promise for the Glory set before us to run with patience the Race which is set before us for which this Self-resignation is absolutely necessary as will appear more fully from the following Paragraph 2. Without this Sel-resignation one great End for which we pretend to come to this Sacrament is not to be obtain'd which is to learn to imitate Christ Jesus in his Patience under all sorts of Sufferings which can never be done without a holy Self-resignation He that doth not resign his Will to God's Will in all things must necessarily fall into discontents when any trouble doth surprize him especially if it be of the greater sort for he will either look altogether upon the second Causes whereby his misery comes which will make him quarrel with the Dog at the Stone thrown at him or he will imagine that he might have prevented it and that it was nothing but his own carelesness and imprudence that caused it and that will make him fret and fume or he will fancy that he hath not deserved such an Affliction and that will make him repine or he will compare his present afflicted State with the more happy condition of his Neighbors and that will occasion great murmurings and complaints or he will do little but pore upon his wretchedness and that will fill him with melancholic Thoughts or he will measure his Felicity by Worldly Prosperity and that will unavoidably bring the Sorrow of the World upon him but a Person that hath resign'd his Will to the Will of God can think nothing strange This one thing that his Affliction is the Will of God will hush and quiet all compose his Thoughts lenifie the bitterness and grievousness of his wounds lessen his grief cause chearfulness in his Soul fortifie his Mind and make him say with David I was dumb I open'd not my mouth because thou didst it Psal. 39. 9. not to mention the Sweetness our Souls would taste and be sensible of in this Holy Sacrament if they came with this Self-resignation to the Will of God for this would be a preparative for greater Gifts for larger Effusions of the Holy Ghost and richer Communications of inward Comforts The Preceding Considerations reduced to Practice I. GOD Jer. 18. 2. doth very fitly compare himself to a Potter who by the motion of his Wheel and the activity of his Hand gives the Clay what form and shape he pleases and the reason why he makes use of that similitude is because himself formed Man of the Clay of the Earth and from hence it 's very easie to infer that if we suffered our selves to be managed by his powerful hand as easily as the Clay doth by the Potters we might become most beautiful Vessels Nothing in Nature resists the Will of God The Heavens readily conform to his pleasure and all the Stars move and shine by his Order and Appointment the whole Creation doth exactly and punctually submit to his Law and Night and Day do not make a false step in obeying the Constitutions of the great Architect if they should what confusion would the whole Universe fall into So our Will if it suffer it self to be entirely Govern'd by the Divine every Member and every part in this little World Man wou'd move in excellent harmony their motions wou'd be circular and orderly for nothing causes greater confusion in the Frame than when we are loth to leave our selves to his Conduct This is the way to arm our selves against all danger This abates their force and enfeebles their violence when they come This checks our needless Curiosity and while we enquire for what reasons God sends such things upon us this one answers all Objections It is the Will of God II. We see here by what standard we are to measure Christian perfection even by this Self-resignation of our Wills to God's Will The more we advance in this the more perfect we are and though an absolute perfection is not to be obtained in this life yet to come as near that absolute Conformity and Self-resignation which shall be in Heaven as we can is counted Christian Perfection even on this side Heaven It was therefore wisely said by Alphonso King of Arragon when one of his Familiars ask'd him Who it was that he counted the happiest Man His Answer was Him who receives all things whether sad or pleasant as coming from a kind and wise Father's hand with an even mind And we are told of a Man that had the Power of Miracles conferr'd upon him and being ask'd of his Friend How he came by that Power He Said He knew not except God should like one thing in him which was that he was never lifted up by Prosperity nor cast down by Adversity and whatever happen'd to him still he look'd higher to the Origin and Spring from whence it came and that ever day he made it his business to desire nothing but what God desires and all his Prayers tended that way that God's Will might be entirely fulfilled and accomplished in him Even the Heathen Philosophers placed Perfection in following God i. e. in a chearful submission to every thing that God would have done and therefore we have a notable address of the Heathen Epictetus to his great Creator an address fit to be imitated by every Christian. Great God saith he use me henceforward according to thy pleasure I am altogether of thy mind It is indifferent to me how thou dealest with me I refuse nothing if thou seest it good for me Lead me where thou thinkest it convenient Cloath me in what Garment thou pleasest whether it be whole or torn either shall be welcome Whether thou wilt have me bear the Office of a Magistrate or lead a private Life whether thou wilt have me stay in mine own Country or let me be driven into exile whether thou wilt have me rich or poor In all this by my equanimity I will justifie thee before Men. This Prayer from the mouth of an Heathen is astonishing and the rather because we see few Christians arrive to this Self-resignation that have far greater helps and had we no express Command for this Self-resignation in the Bible yet that general Precept of considering and doing whatever things are true and just and honest and lovely and of a good report would oblige us to imitate the very Heathen
Philosophers in so lovely and reasonable a Duty But we need not have recourse to this general hint the express Precepts and Examples that tend to the inforcement of this admirable qualification are so many that there is no room left for Excuses and Evasions Whether the story of the Lady of Soncino be true I know not but the Moral intended by it is agreeable enough to the word of God The Story saith That being in a Vision carried up to view the various Mansions of Glory She saw some Holy Soul mingled with the Quire of Seraphims and the highest Order of Angels and demanding who they were Answer was made her That they were persons who here on Earth did entirely resign their Wills to the Will of God A thing so rational that in omitting it we condemn our selves for the sick Man leaves himself entirely to the Conduct of his Physitian an oppressed Person to the wisdom and discretion of his Advocate and the Blind to the guidance of his Dog and therefore it must be strange obstinacy not to resign our selves to the Conduct of a most wise God who orders our Affairs far better and with far greater advantage to us than we do or can do our selves The more tractable any instrument is the more perfect it is If a Painter were to draw the Picture of an Emperor and the Pencil in his Hand should resist the motions of his Fingers make no stroaks and be dull to any impressions form no line and cast no colour or should warp and flinch to the left hand when he would direct it to the right it would be worth nothing for its greatest perfection lies in yielding to the hand that manages it and in expressing all the strokes the Workman doth intend to make We are instruments in the hand of God which he hath made on purpose to serve him in the promoting of his Glory and therefore are obliged to suffer our selves to be handled by him and to leave our selves entirely to his power to turn and wind us and to imploy us in such things as he thinks convenient without any resistance The natural desire of Mankind is to arrive to Peace and Rest but the generality take very preposterous ways to obtain it when they involve themselves in a thousand anxious Cares and Troubles which instead of conducting them to that end drive them farther and farther off whence it comes to pass that though they desire it yet their desires are never accomplish'd But this Self-resignation to the Will of God is the proper means and he that lets his own Will dye and makes God's Will to live in him comes safely to the City of Peace and Rest. All our Inquietude rises from our resisting the Will of God from hence flow all the tempests that molests us and while we are loth to do what God would have us do and unwilling to suffer what he will have us suffer it cannot be otherwise but that Peace must be a stranger to our Breasts Whatever happens in the World is nothing but the accomplishment of God's Designs and the Soul that would always have that done what God will have done can wonder at nothing that happens to her for it is her Will as well as God's Will However if we are loth to resign our selves to his Will we have reason to fear his Anger and if we resist his Will or are unwilling to submit to it he will do his Will upon us whether we will or no. If we chearfully submit he will treat us as his Children if not he will use us as his Slaves And therefore the advice of Eliphaz Job 22. 21 22. is the safest Rule we can follow Acquaint now thy self with him and be at peace thereby good shall come unto thee Receive I pray thee the Law from his Mouth and lay up his Words in thy Heart If thou return to the Almighty thou shalt be built up thou shalt put Iniquity far from thy Tabernacle yea the Almighty shall be thy defence and thou shalt have plenty of Silver i. e. as much content as if thou hadst plenty of Silver for then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty and shalt lift up thy Face to God Thou shalt make thy Prayer unto him and he shall hear thee and thou shalt pay thy Vows thou shalt also decree a thing and it shall be established unto thee and the light shall shine upon thy ways The PRAYER O My God my Lord my Saviour God of infinite Power who dost not only govern thy Creatures by thy greatness but by thy goodness who canst do no wrong and hast used me in particular with that respect and tenderness even in the midst of all the afflictions that have come upon me that thou hast been more a Father to me than a Judge and hast rather embraced me than corrected me Behold I am going to remember what my dearst Lord hath done for my miserable Soul on the Cross and as I am going to remember the unspeakable Blessings he hath purchased for me so I desire to remember my Duty of imitating him in his Self-resignation to thy Divine and incomprehensible Will And here Lord I humbly consecrate my Will to thine I prescribe thee no Rules no Methods how to govern me but leave my self entirely to be disposed of according to thy Will which way soever thou shalt think fit to lead me to Heaven and Eternal Happiness whether by Hunger or Thirst or Poverty or Infamy or the rage and envy of Men or by other miseries whether by sickness or by health whether by losses or unkindness of friends whether it be through good report or evil report whether thou wilt have me live or dye whether thou wilt have me dye this Year or the next or ten Years hence whether my Death shall be sudden or slow whether natural or violent whether honourable or dishonourable whether upon my Bed or in a Wood whether in Fire or Water I am resign'd and content to go where thou biddest me and to endure what in thy Wisdom thou shalt think fit for me Thy Commands are reasonable In Wisdom hast thou made them all I take exception at none I embrace them all They are the Light of mine Eyes and while they be my Guides I cannot go astray Thy Providences also are the effect of Eternal Wisdom Nothing happens by chance Thou rulest all Events Thou governest all the World whatever befals me is either decreed or permitted by thee and when thou dost permit things thou permittest them for weighty and pregnant Reasons Give me an Heart devoted to thy fear Let me neither murmur at thy Laws nor repine at thy Dispensations Let every thing be welcome and pleasing to me which thou knowest to be for my good Let me not judge of things by outward appearances but by thy Will and unsearchable Wisdom Give me Wisdom out of thine own Store Wisdom which may resemble thine and agree with thine And then I shall be
rejoyce in nothing so much as in this that I love thee XX. O my bountiful Saviour O my loving Redeemer When when shall it be that I shall love thee perfectly Here on Earth I must not hope for this Happiness but in Heaven I shall O Heaven Heaven How desirable art thou Where the Love of Jesus shall eternally reign in my Soul Where my Love shall be perfectly pure perfectly Seraphick perfectly Extatical and Eternal Ages shall not alter it At present I am in Prison encompassed with a Mortal Body and must sojourn in a wicked World Oh when will that Day that Hour that Minute that happy Time come that I shall be delivered from this Dungeon and translated to that place where Love is all in all where Love knows no End no Decay no Period where it is pure without Mixture invariable without Changes eternal without ceasing Come Lord Jesu Come quickly Particular Acts of Devotion at the Acts of Consecration and Receiving of the Consecrated Bread and Wine At the Minister's pouring out the holy Wine into the Cup. O Jesu Who can think of the flowing of thy Blood without being desirous to be washed with it Or I fancy I do at this present stand under thy Cross and see thee bleeding for my Sins Or Oh. Let thy Blood flow upon my wounded Soul that I may become a sound Member of thy Mystical Body At the Minister's laying his Hand upon the Bread O Blessed Saviour Lay thy Hand upon my Soul that all my Distempers may depart from me Or Oh lay hold on my Soul as the Angel did on Lot Save me from the Flames and let me escape into the Mount of God that I perish not At the Minister's Breaking the Bread Lord Jesu In suffering thy Body to be broken for my Sins I see the Vehemence the Strength and Fervour of thy Love Oh make me all Love all Fervour all Charity Or Oh break the united Forces of my Sins scatter them by thy mighty Arm. Gather the broken Planks of Vertue in my Soul unite them make them whole and strong and secure against the Fury of Winds and Tempests At the Minister's pronouncing the Words This is my Body Lord Let me look off from these material Things and shew me Things invisible and Heavenly Or O Lord The Benefits of thy wounded Body my Soul longs for Oh say They shall be thy Portion At the Minister's touching the Cup. Lord Touch my Soul that it may feel the Power of thy Super-abundant Charity Or Oh! Touch me as thou didst the Blind of old that I may see the Bowels of thy Compassion and rejoyce in the glorious Sight At the Minister's pronouncing the Words This is my Blood Lord My Soul wants Wine of another nature than is in this Cup Oh wash it and cleanse it and purifie it in thy Blood Or Lord Speak thou to my Soul and say I will be thou clean At the Receiving of the Bread Lord Let thy Death be my Life And the Bread represented by this Bread feed me into Everlasting Life Or Lord As thou hast provided Food for my Soul so give me a Taste and Relish also of this Food and a Tongue to praise thy Name for ever Or Lord As thou hast given thy Body for me so I freely offer my Soul and Body as Living Sacrifices to thy Majesty At the Receiving of the Cup. Lord Nothing is more precious than thy Blood Oh! Let it warm my Heart that it may comply with thy Will wlthout wavering Or Lord Bid me look upon thy Blood and in thy Blood upon the Reconciliation wrought by it to the Comfort and Edification of my Soul Or O Lord I am heavy laden and my Pollutions are great And as thy Blood alone can remove that Burthen so free me from those Spots and Wrinkles which make me look deformed in thy Sight CHAP. XXVIII Of the proper Acts of Devotion after we have Received The CONTENTS The Time that is left after our Personal Receiving before all have Communicated not to be spent in Gazing or Looking about Acts of Devotion to be used after Receiving and relating to the Wisdom Mercy Liberality Love Goodness Greatness and Majesty of God to our own Vileness and Unworthiness c. IT falls out so often that when we have Communicated and our Souls have been fed at this Table a considerable Space of Time remains before the united Praises and Thanksgivings of the Congregation begin again This Time be it more or less must not be spent in looking about or in sitting still or in thinking of what Objects our Fancy is pleased to offer and present to us but in holy Aspirations And that the Communicant may know how to employ himself in that Interval it may not be amiss to set down some pious and proper Ejaculations whereby he may exercise his Mind according as Time will permit I. O God! Thy Love in Christ Jesus deserves to be praised admired and magnified There is all that in it which can engage a Soul to break forth into Praises and Hallelujahs There is Beauty Wisdom Condescention Mercy Liberality Sweetness Power Greatness Majesty in it and all these in the highest Degree which would force even a dumb Man to speak of thy Glory II. I adore thee O Holy Blessed and Glorious Trinity for that infinite Care of my immortal Soul which I see in all thy Proceedings and Transactions and particularly in the Cross of my dearest Redeemer Here thou seemest to empty all thy Stores and pourest out thy Grace abundantly upon the Heads and Hearts of thy Servants Behold Bless ye the Lord all ye Servants of the Lord which by Night stand in the House of the Lord Lift up your Hands in the Sanctuary and bless the Lord. The Lord that made Heaven and Earth hath blessed us out of Zion III. O Charming Son of God! I alone am not able sufficiently to praise thee and therefore I wish that every Drop of the Ocean every Grain of Sand every Leaf of the Trees of the Field and every Sprig of Herbs and all the Creatures that ever were or are or shall be might be turn'd into Seraphick Tongues to praise thee IV. O Jefu When I behold thy wonderful Love how it hath bowed how it hath stooped to so mean a Creature as I am the Thoughts of it force my Soul into the humblest and deepest Prostrations Thou art Beauty I am Deformity Thou art Wisdom I am Ignorance Thou art Light I am Darkness Thou art Omnipotence I am feeble Thou art Purity I am Filth and Dung Thou art rich I am Poverty it self Thou art happy I am Misery it self Thou art Perfection I am Weakness Thou art All in All I am nothing V. O Blessed Saviour When I see how Men fall in love with a mortal and fading Beauty which to Day shines bright as the Sun to Morrow by Sickness or Death is all tarnish'd and decay'd how do I blame my self that I do not love thee better whose
this more than Man to Reign over you There can no just Reason be given for your not coming frequently to this Holy Table but that you are loath to agree to the Terms of sincere Repentance and Obedience he requires at your hands and are you loath to be saved Do you take pleasure in being Reprobates Is it such Comfortable thing to be excluded from God's favour While you wilfully absent your selves do not you refuse to be healed Here the kind Physician comes and declares his Willingness to cure you by the Balsom of his Wounds and had you rather be sick than of a healthful Complexion Here is a Medicine tendered unto you a Medicine for your sin-sick Souls and had you rather perish than rise and awake that Christ may give you life Hath the Son of God endured so much gone through such a Discipline of Torments through Fire and Water that your Souls might live and do you despise his Love Do not you Despise it when you come so seldom to apply it Would not one think that you have a mind to be miserable when you are so backward to come to him that would deliver you from your misery Ah! did you believe the astonishing misery of God's Love how would you breath how would you pant how would you hunger and thirst for this Fountain open'd for the House of Judah and Jerusalem It 's a sign your Appetite is dull your desires feeble your Affections cold your Inclinations frozen were all things right within the Fire would burn and at last you would speak with your tongue I come Lord I come I delight to do thy Will It is the Will the Order the Command of that God in whom you believe to come often and shall any thing hinder you from obeying his Command Shall not his Orders prevail with you Can you prefer your little business before his Will Do you believe that he must be your Judge and will you allow always your selves in Rebellion and Contumacy under his Injunctions If any man serve me let him follow me and where I am there shall also my Servant be saith Christ Joh. 12. 26. Ah! Shall so sweet a voice be lost upon you Shall not this Invitation of the bleeding Jesus melt you He was just going to his Cross when he said so He was just going to institute this Sacrament of the Cross when he call'd so Ah! How sweet are these words How full of Kindness How fragrant is this Breath What can work more upon harden'd hearts break break thou stubborn heart The Rocks sympathize with him and cleave asunder and cannot this voice this voice of Mercy make an Alteration in thy breast O take heed lest this Lamb which came to take away the Sins of the World put on another shape ere-long even that of a Lion and roar upon you as it is Luc. 14. 24. I say unto you that none of those Men that were bidden shall taste of my Supper I know there are some honest Souls who out of a Sense of their own unworthyness dare not come and dread frequent approaching to this Table but such I would not fright but win to this frequent Communion and all I shall say to them at this time is this Are you willing Christ should set up his Throne in your Souls Are you willing he should tread down his Enemies in you Enemies which have usurp'd his power Are you content he should be formed in you and fill all your Faculties Are you content all should stoop to him and all that is within you should bow to his Scepter If so fear not you cannot come too often your frequent running to his Altar will be Incense to him Incense which he 'll smell as he did Noah's Sacrifice and secure you against future Destruction II. The frequent Communicant ought to receive some Comfort from these Instructions But then by the frequent Communicant I do not mean one that doth indeed come often to this Table but knows not what it is to be heated by the fire of Divine Love whose Sins are strong and his holy desires weak and whose frequent coming hath made him as careless as the vast number of Sermons he hath heard For such a frequent Communicant God hath given us no comfoâ—ts to such a one we have no message no Embassy of Peace but the frequent Receiver whose choice of the better part is both confirmed and encreased by frequent Receiving this is the Man to whom we are bound to carry Balm and Spices for a Present To you it is that this word of Consolation comes Your frequent attending at this Table is living under the precious drops of the dew of Heaven How goodly are thy Tents O Jacob How justly may you say that God loves you when you love to be often with him whom your Souls do love Surely your Souls will grow fat and flourishing that are so often nourished at this Table It 's a sign you long for the Courts of the Lord and you shall certainly appear in a Nobler Court one day a Court where nothing is mean nothing trivial nothing savouring of Terrestrial delights but a Court where all the Servants are Kings and all enjoy more than the Greatest Monarchs of this World do Blessed are your Eyes for they see and your Ears for they hear The oftner you see the precious Sacrifice on this Table the more endearing it will become to you the oftner you hear him call here come to me all that are weary the more desireable will he grow in your Eyes the oftner you meet here the greater will be the friendship betwixt him and you till this friend comes at last and recieves you to himself so that you shall be for ever with the Lord. The PRAYER O Dearest Saviour dearer to me than Father and Mother My Friend in all dangers my Benefactor in all wants my Fortress in all troubles I cannot but confess that thou hast frequently called to me frequently entreated me frequently expostulated with me and frequently asked me why I would die And I have as frequently stopt my Ears against thy call and been deaf to thy voice and my follies have kept pace with thy favours I see my mistakes I see my errors and my Sins I desire may be ever before me I know thy voice It is the good Shepherd's voice that calls me to this Table and thy Sheep hear thy voice I earnestly desire to be one of that number O feed me with thy pleasures O open mine Eyes that I may see the rich pastures that are to be found in thy Grave To this Sepulchre let me repair often O persuade me to look often into it that I may with the Holy Woman see the Angels sitting there To increase my willingness to come frequently visit me frequently with thy Salvation Let not my familiarity of that sight lessen my esteem of the Sacred Mystery The oftner I participate of it the greater let my Love my Affections and my Admiration be