love thee feel XI O Saviour Gentle as the Spirit that in the shape of a Dove lighted on thy Sacred Head Teach me that Meekness which look'd so amiable in thy Life Expel the evil Spirits of Wrath Anger and Pride and Envy out of my Soul Speak the word and these Winds and Waves will obey thee Let thy gentleness make me great When I shall have overcome my wrathful and proud Inclinations and O! let the Sacrament I am going to help me in the Conquest then shall I be great and glorious in thy sight XII Great Shepherd of my Soul whose Wounds are full of Sweetness full of Mercy full of Charity Let thy Wounds prove the most powerful Remedies to rid me of my Corruptions When any impure Thoughts rise in me let thinking of thy Wounds crush them when sluggishness in Religion assaults me let thy Wounds and the remembrance of them make me vigilant in thy service and when in the Holy Sacrament I think of thy Wounds let all my vain imaginations expire XIII Great Friend of my immortal Soul Such a friend is not to be found in all the World as thou hast been to me for thou hast laid down thy Life for me O let me make much of thy friendship and cherish it by being meek and humble and merciful and patient as thou wert that thou mayest be my Friend when I dye and after Death receive me to thy self O confirm and seal thy Friendship to my Soul in the Blessed Sacrament and let the same Spirit move in me which raised thee from the dead XIV O Thou who hast wash'd me from my Sins with thine own Blood chuse I beseech thee my Heart for thy Dwelling place adorn and replenish it with thy Gifts and Graces make me to loath all transitory things make me poor in Spirit cure in me the itch of Self-love throw down all pride and eagerness after the Riches of this World and make the Holy Sacrament I am going to a mean to adore thee in Spirit and in Truth and to persevere in Goodness to the end XV. Great Comforter of all weary and laden Souls Circumcise my Heart from all evil Thoughts and Words and Actions and Comunicate thy self unto me that I may never be separated from thee or ever be deprived of thy Comfort Draw my Soul after thee in the Holy Sacrament and let that Blessed Ordinance powerfully stir up my Heart to love thee XVI O Thou who art the door of thy Sheepfold By thee let me have access to thy Father's Love And as in the Holy Sacrament thou openest thy Bosom to me so let me run and seek shelter there Chain me to thy self by Bands of Love and let no Temptation defile me O keep me that I may never cowardly faint at any adversity XVII Thou who hast endured contradictions of Sinners against thy self Be thou ever in my mind and teach me to bear Calumnies and Reproaches with great tranquility of Mind Let me refer all difficulties to thee and with silence expect thy Grace and Comfort and let the Blessed Sacrament so influence my Soul that I may fear none but thee XVIII Great Captain of my Salvation I am going to learn to fight the good fight in the Blessed Sacrament of thy Love Let thy great example there encourage me to fight against all Ambition and Ostentation against Censoriousness and Uncharitableness against all Intemperance and Gluttony against all proud and covetous Thoughts against Guile and Hypocrisie against discontentedness and misitrinst of thy Providence Against such Enemies give me grace to fight over these let me triumph that having striven lawfully I may at last be admitted to the Glorious sight of thy Sweet Self and be charm'd with thy Love for ever CHAP. XXVII Of the proper Acts of Devotion when we come to the Holy Table The CONTENTS Private Acts of Devotion must be forborn while the Congregation joyns in common Addresses to Almighty God General Acts of Devotion relating to the wonderful Love of Christ and our Love to him Particular Acts of Devotion at the Consecration and Receiving of the holy Symbols I. THE following Acts are fittest to be used before the Prayers of the Church usual at the Communion do begin or before the Minister of the Ordinance comes to us with the sacred Symbols and while others are Communicating II. While the Minister of the Ordinance is engaged in the Prayers of the Church these Ejaculations must be forborn our Duty during the publick Devotions being to joyn with the Congregation in their common Addresses to God These Acts of Devotion are either General or Particular The General I call those which respect the Love of the Lord Jesus The Particular those which are to be exercised at the Consecration and Receiving of the Consecrated Bread and Wine General Acts of Devotion at the Lord's Table I. GReat Saviour of the World Thou art infinitely amiable worthy to be loved by all to whose Ears the joyful Message of thy Love doth come I rejoyce in the Knowledge of thy Love I count my self happy that I am born under the Shadow of thy Gospel in which thy wonderful Love to the Children of Men is manifested I desire no other Knowledge 'T is enough that I know thou hast loved me beyond Example I desire to count all things Dross and Dung for the Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ. II. O my Jesus I am not worthy to love thee Yet because thou biddest me love thee and hast told me that my Soul was created on purpose to love thee I chearfully resign my Love and Affection to thee I desire to love thee I wish for nothing more than that I may passionately love thee Whom have I in Heaven to love but thee And there is none on Earth that I desire to love more than thy self For thou art altogether lovely and thy Love surpasses all the Love of Friends and the dearest Relations I have III. O my blessed Redeemer I desire to love thee with all my Heart and with all my Strength Thou gavest me this Heart and this Strength And on whom can I bestow it better than on thee the Author of it Oh that all that is within me might be turned into Desires and Inclinations and Sighs and Languishings and Breathings after thee For I cannot express what thou hast done for me What thou hast done for me is beyond all the Kindness that the greatest Men ever did or can do for the meanest and poorest Creatures IV. Great Advocate of my Soul Thou seest my Desire to love thee Make it strong and powerful Take a Coal from the Altar and give it Fire that nothing may hinder the Flame from mounting up that nothing may weaken this Desire nothing may break it nothing may tire it nothing may mingle with it that is unclean or contrary to thy Love V. Great Object of my Desires Make me a Martyr of thy Love Make me willing even to die for love of thee Raise a
a just cause lascivious desires and appetites and revengeful actions c. have so severe a Sanction annexed to them if they be cherished and lov'd is this because the less they are the sooner and the more easily they are avoided and therefore it must argue strange aversion from God not to oblige him in so small a thing and that Men after they have enter'd into this solemn Covenant at the Table of the Lord may be allur'd and enticed by Temptations and perswaded to allow themselves in known Sins both great and small and thereby null the Covenant we have no reason to question since Experience is beyond all Witnesses in the World 7. The only Plank left us after the Covenant is thus broken and null'd to swim out of the Gulph of perdition and to regain God's favour is confess'd on all hands to be true and deep repentance and particularly a Repentance attended with Fasting Alms and great future Self-denials In the stricter Ages of Christianity especially in the Second and Third Centuries it was very much question'd whether a Person who had solemnly and deliberately entr'd into a Covenant with God either in Baptism or in the Lord's Supper if afterwards he fell into some of these three Sins Adultery Murther or Idolatry was capable of regaining the favour of God promis'd in this Covenant The African Churches especially were very stiff in this point yet the more moderate allow'd of a Second Repentance reckoning the first to be that which had been made by adult Persons in either of these Sacraments and the second if after a new fall or wilful precipitation into any of these crimes he rose again with very great purposes and resolutions but if a Man fell again into any of these Sins after the Second Repentance they look'd upon the Third as impossible Others though they did not exclude the Persons thus fallen totally from the possibility of God's favour and Salvation in case he repented either the Second or third time yet did not think fit to receive him again into the Communion of the Church and this which the African Fathers look'd upon only as a thing convenient Novatus enrag'd it 's like because he could not be made a Bishop improved into absolute necessity which made his followers exclude all such Persons as were fallen after their first Repentance into any of these Sins from their Communion That which gave occasion to this Doctrine was their too rigid interpretation of some places in Scripture particularly that of Heb. 6. 4 5 6. and the other 1 Joh. 5. 16. which places are to be understood rather of a malicious denying the Faith and forsaking the very Profession of Christianity and turning Jew Heathen or Infidel than of the aforesaid acts of Sin The Roman Church was the first that receiv'd such sinners after a tedious and laborious Repentance into their Communion again for which Tertullian expostulates with the Bishop of Rome and accuses him of Rashness imprudence and breach of the ancient Canons However since the Apostle himself 2. Cor. 2. 7. received the incestuous Person into the Communion of the Church of Corinth and desired the Corinthians to do the like after a sufficient demonstration of his Repentance after such falls into wilful and habitual Sins be sincere and true exemplary and laborious that there is just hopes such a person may renew his Covenant get a Title again to the promises of it and be readmitted to God's Favour and Complacency But then 1. This Repentance ought to be speedy To live long in such Sins after the first wilful breach of this Covenant is dangerous hardens the Heart gives the Devil greater power over the Soul and the Person thus sining knows not but he may be given up to hardness of Heart and to reprobate mind in which condition he may be snatcht away by Death and haled to the great Tribunal 2. Such a Person must not make a trade of Repenting and sinning for if he fall often into the same Sin and still pretends to repent it s a sign the Repentance is counterfeit his love to God fickle and unsincere his resistances of God's Spirit strong and the inward Man left without a Guard to secure it against the assaults of the Devil 3. Upon this new Repentance greater watchfulness than ordinary must be used and the Penitent must become a gainer by his Sins i. e. the dreadfulness of his fall must help toward the great exemplariness of his Life and the Sins he hath lived in must make them dread them more than ever A very signal growth in Grace must succeed his Fall and the Ball having been struck against the ground must now rebound the higher His time must now be redeem'd and he that hath been so careless must now double his diligence He must therefore love much now because he expects much should be forgiven him and his greater fervor in Religion is the best demonstration of his unfeigned return from his Apostacy The Preceding Considerations reduced to Practice I. IT must needs be great presumption for Men and Women to enter into a solemn Covenant with God in this Sacrament and not to consider the weight and importance of it Christian when thou enter'st into this Covenant with the Holy Trinity thou solemnly obligest thy self that as thou hopest for Heaven and Happiness as thou hopest for Pardon and Salvation as thou hopest to have thy Sins wash'd away with the precious Blood of Christ thou wilt take Christ's Yoke upon thee endeavour to be humble and meek as he was learn of him and die to the World crucifie thy Lusts and Affections fight against the vanities of the World and labour to conâ—orm to the great example of that Saviour that spilt his dearest Blood for thee Either thou understandest what this engagement means or thou dost not If not how darest thou touch the Sacred Elements with polluted Hands If thou understandest it and art not firmly resolv'd to take care to perform what thou promisest so solemnly how dost thou think to escape the Judgement of God Art thou afraid of breaking a solemn promise made to a Prince and great Man whose Smile or Frown can either help or prejudice thee much and art thou not afraid of violating thy Engagements to the great God of Heaven What dost thou make of God Dost thou take him to be some Heathen Deity that hath Eyes and sees not Ears and hears not Dost thou oblige thy self to be his Subject and dost thou turn Rebel His Child and become a Prodigal His Confederate and conspire against him with his Enemies Dost thou take him for thy Lord and wilt not thou do what he saith If these thy unfaithful dealings with thy Lord and Master be enter'd into Gods Book of Accounts as certainly they are and the black Roll shall at last be open'd and read in thine Ears dost not thou think what Terror Amazement and Confusion thou wilt be in O Sinner There is no jesting with
16 17 18. 3. To believe that Jesus of Nazareth who appear'd in Days of Pontius Pilate and was Crucified is that Son of God and our Redeemer and Mediator and is both God and Man in one Person Act. 10. 38. Rom. 1. 3 4. 4. To believe that without Faith Repentance and an holy Obedience to the Commands of the Gospel we have no interest in Christ's Death and the Benefits of it Heb. 5. 9. 5. To believe that there is an Heaven and Hell and Eternal Rewards and Punishments after this Life according to the good or evil Lives of Men 2 Thess. 1. 5 6 7 8 9 10. 6. To believe that the Dead Bodies of Men shall Rise again in the Great Day of Judgment 2 Tim. 2. 17 18. 7. To believe that the assistance of God's Holy Spirit in order to a sound Faith and true Repentance is a Gift which may be had by earnest Prayer Luke 11. 13. 8. To love God with all our Hearts and with all our Souls and with all our Minds i.e. with great Sincerity Matth 22. 37. 9. To rely upon God and trust in him in all dangers and necessities whatsoever and firmly to believe that all things will work for our good if we love him Rom. 8. 28. Heb. 13. 5 6. 10. To believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the revealed Word of God and to read and search and meditate in these holy Scriptures in order to know we must do to be saved John 5. 39. 11. To prefer the Will of God before the Will and Favour of Men when these two come to clash or interfere one with another Act. 5. 29. 12. To live and walk in a lively sense of God's Omniscience and Omnipresence Act. 23. Luk. 1. 75. 13. To have great high and reverend thoughts of God and conceptions suitable to his infinite Wisdom and Goodness and Power 1 Pet. 3. 15. 14. To let our Speech be always with Grace season'd with Salt that we may know how to answer every Man Col. 4. 6. 15. To be frequent and serious and attentive in praising of God and praying to him for his Help Assistance and Protection especially Night and Morning Luke 2. 37. Eph. 6. 18. 16. To walk worthy of our Baptism even in newness of Life Rom 6. 3 4. 17 To make great Conscience of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper to come often to that Holy Table and to prepare and examine our selves in order to our worthy receiving of Pardon and Remission of sins 1 Cor. 11. 26 28. 18. To express willingness and alacrity in God's service and to be ready unto good Works Tit. 3. 1. 19. To have pure aims and designs in Holy Duties and good Works viz. The glory of God and the good of others Matth. 6. 22. 1 Pet. 4. 11. 20. To be zealous and fervent in Devotion and in expressing our love to God Tit. 2. 14. Rev. 3. 19. 21. To bring a very serious mind with us to the House of God and to behave our selves there with all decency and gravity 1 Cor. 11. 22. 22. To be not only a hearer of the Word but a doer of it also Jam. 1. 22. 23. To fix our Thoughts upon God in the publick Prayers of the Church and to offer to God the desires of our Hearts in joyning with the Congregatian in their Prayers Rom. 15. 6. 24. To sanctifie the Lord's Day both in private and in publick Acts 20. 7. Rev. 1. 10. 25. To be subject to Principalities and Powers and to obey Magistrates Tit. 3. 1. 26. To obey our Pastors and Teachers that have the rule over us and to submit our selves to them as those that watch for our Souls Heb. 13. 17. 27. To maintain our Ministers and to communicate to them in all good things Gal. 6. 6. 28. Faithfully to discharge the Duties of our respective Relations As 1. Husbands to love and honour their Wives Eph. 5. 25. 2. Wives to be obedient and subject to their Husbands Eph. 5. 22. 3. Parents to provide for the Souls and Bodies of their Children 1 Tim. 5. 8. 4. Children to honour their Parents all their days Eph. 6. 1. 5. Masters to encourage their Servants to Goodness and to be just in paying them their Wages Eph. 6. 9. 6. Servants to serve their Masters in singleness of heart fearing God and to please them well in all things Col. 3. 22. 7. Ministers to be patterns of good Works Tit. 2. 7. 8. Widows to trust in God and to continue in Supplications and Prayers night and day 1 Tim. 5. 5. 9. Virgins to mind those things that may please the Lord Jesus 1 Cor. 7. 32. 29. To learn to be very meek and humble upon all occasions Matth. 11. 29. 30. To hunger and Thirst after Goodness and Righteousness Matth. 5. 6. 31. To purifie the Heart or inward Man from evil Desires and Affections and to season it with holy Thoughts and Contemplations Matth. 5. 8. 32. To labour to make Peace among dissenting Neighbours and to be peaceable our selves and as much as in us lies with all Men Matth. 5. 9. Rom. 12. 18. 33. To rejoyce in being reviled and persecuted for Righteousness sake Matth. 5. 11. 12. 34. To be merciful kind tender-hearted and charitable and ready to forgive Eph. 4. 32. 35. To edifie others by our Conversation and to preserve them as much as in us lies from Sin and Damnation Matth 5. 13 14. 36. To love our Enemies to bless them that curse us to do good to them that hate us and to pray for them which despitefully use us Matth. 5. 44. 37. Rather to lose our Right than quarrel and go to Law about small things Matthâ— 5. 39 40. 38. To use great simplicity in our Speeches and Answers Matth. 5. 37. 39. To give and to lend to our poor Neighbor what is reasonable Matth. 5. 42. 40. To humble our selves sometimes before God by fasting Matth. 6. 16. 41. To be confident God will provide for us in the use of honest and lawful means Matth. 6. 31. 42. To seek God's Kingdom and its Righteousness with more earnest Affections than temporal Things Matth. 6. 20 33. 43. To reform our selves before we seek to reform others Matth. 7. 5. 44. To do to others what we would have others do to us Matth. 7. 12. 45. To enter in at the strait Gate and to deny our selves in our Honour Ease and Pleasure for a better Life Matth. 7. 13. 46. To confess and own Christ and his Religion before Men Matth. 10. 32. 47. To be industrious in the discharge of the Duties of our Calling Rom. 12. 6 7 8. 48. To love without Dissimulation Rom. 12. 9. 49. To be patient in Tribulation Rom. 12. 12. 50. To rejoyce with them that do rejoyce and to weep with them that weep Rom. 12. 15. 51. To condescend to Men of low Estates Rom. 12. 16. 52. To provide things honest in the sight of all Men Rom. 12. 17. 53. To
Judge and he that thus condemns himself judges himself IV. The third act of Judging our selves is to inflict Judgments upon our selves By which I do not mean maiming or wounding our selves or cutting off an Arm or a Leg or whipping our selves but inflicting such Judgments on our selves for the Sins we have been guilty of and so often fallen into as are neither hurtful to the Body nor unprofitable nor prejudicial to the Soul but serve rather to bring the Soul into an excellent temper These Judgments though the design of them is to meliorate the Soul yet they are in a great measure to be inflicted on the Body because the Body tempts the Soul to great extravagancies and by presenting a thousand pleasant Objects to her leads her into Nets and Snares and Dangers The Judgment therefore must be laid upon that part which is the tempter and that being under restraint the Soul may more freely move toward her Center God blessed for evermore It 's true naturally no Man hates his own Flesh but cherishes it and makes much of it but Grace and the Gospel teaches us to treat it with greater rigour To be too fond of the Body in St. Bernard's sense is a Charity which destroys Charity a Mercy which is full of Cruelty for this is to serve the Body in order to kill the Soul Is this Charity saith he to tender the Body and to neglect the Soul To caress the Handmaid and to let the Mistress starve Let no Man think that for being thus merciful he will ever obtain mercy So that the Flesh and Body are to be treated as a wild or unruly Horse if we curb him not he will give us a fall Our Bodies are greater Enemies than we are aware they are friends too but the hurt they do too often to our Souls shews they are greater Enemies than Friends and therefore the Fathers do so often call the Flesh the Grave of the Soul a Prison where we are held Captive and a Dungeon where we sit in Darkness The Platonists used to say that our Souls deriving their Original from Heaven are sent into this World to shew forth the Praises of God here on Earth as the Angels do in Heaven but the Body the Soul is in is a kind of Inchanted Castle in which the Soul through the flatteries of the Flesh forgetting too often her nobler Extraction is diverted from her glorious Designs and debased to vile Employs And to this purpose Seneca That the Body is the weight and punishment of the Soul lying heavy upon it ready to link it and putting Shackles upon her if Philosophy do not make a Reformation The Body therefore being such a treacherous Servant must feel the effects of our Justice as it hath been the great instrument of the Sins we have committed that it may be more modest in its Desires And accordingly we find that good Men in all Ages when they have sate as Judges upon themselves to shew their detestation of the Sins they have been guilty of have inflicted Judgments on that part which is most sensible of any thing that is uneasie not out of any ill will to it for it is God's Creature but to preserve both Body and Soul unto Salvation So David punish'd himself for his Sins sometimes by mingling his Drink with Weeping Psal. 102. 9. Sometimes by making Sackcloth his Garment Psal. 69. 11. Sometimes by weakening his Knees with Fasting and Prayer Psal. 109. 24. Sometimes by making his Bed swim with Tears Psal. 6. 6. Sometimes by great acts of Self-denial as overcoming Shimei ' s Malice with Patience and Meekness 2 Sam. 16. 10. And delivering him that without cause was his Enemy Psal. 7. 4. And keeping Fasts and Humiliation Days for the recovery of those that were his Enemies Psal. 35. 13. Sometimes by lying all Night upon the Earth or Floor 2 Sam. 12. 16. Sometimes by rising at Midnight to praise God Psal. 119. 61. So the Penitent Publican punish'd himself by a violent smiting his Breast Luke 16. 13. So Mary Magdalen punished her self by washing the Feet of the Lord Jesus with her Tears and wiping them with the Hair of her Head Luke 7. 37. So Zacheus punish'd himself by giving the halfe of his Goods to the Poor and by fourfold Restitution Luke 19. 7. So St. Paul punished himself by keeping under his Body and bringing it into subjection 1 Cor. 9. 27. By making himself a Servant to all that he might gain the more 1 Cor. 9. 19. By labouring Day and Night that he might not be chargeable to the Church 1 Thess. 2. 9. By denying himself in Marriage 1 Co. 9. 5. So Daniel punished himself for his own and his People's Offences three Weeks together by eating no pleasant Bread by avoiding Flesh and Wine and forbearing to anoint himself Dan. 10. 2 3. So the Primitive believers punished themselves by various Self-denials in the Pleasures Satisfactions and Recreations of the Flesh and of the World thereby to express their Anger either against Sin in general or against some particular Sins they had run into But the most usual Judgment that good Men have ever inflicted on themselves as a Testimony of their Displeasure against themselves for offending God hath been Fasting and Prayer or chastening their Flesh by frequent Fasts spent in deprecations of God's Judgments and in other exercises of Humiliation and when Men have said to them Why are you so cruel as not to spare your Flesh They have answered We spare or use it as we do the Earth which we plough and cut with Coulters that it may bring forth more Fruit. V. This judging our selves in all its acts is certainly very pleasing to God especially before we come to the Holy Communion else St. Paul would never have told us in the passage mentioned in the beginning of this Chapter that by doing so we do put a stop to God's judging of us So that we have reason to believe that God upon our accusing our selves or humble Confessions stops the mouth of the Accuser of our Brethren which is open against us who this is we may learn from Rev. 12. 10. even the Devil who brings severe Accusations against us before God night and day and as he wants neither Wit nor Malice to do it so we have an instance of it in the History of Job Chap. 1. Ver. 9. Where appearing among the Sons of God whether wrapt up in a dark Cloud or in the form of an Angel of Light is not said but among the Angels that gave an account of their Negotiations here on Earth to God he appear'd and as those Ministring Spirits were commending Job for his exemplary Virtue so he displeased at the fair Character immediately seeks to blast and sully it by aspersions and misconstructions and thus we must suppose he deals with other persons that have the same inclinations to Virtue for those Examples are recorded in Scripture not only to tell us what happened just at
Days too from Easter to Whitsuntide we know but whether they observed the same Posture at the Sacrament is uncertain though if they used Standing still it was their Posture of Worship and Adoration St. Chrysostom indeed tells us that the Priests in his Time stood at the Altar waiting for Communicants but how they received the Symbols he doth not mention Dionysius of Alexandria speaking of a Person unlawfully baptized tells us that he stood at the Table of the Lord when he was to Receive But Ruffinus interprets that of the Act not Gesture of Receiving it being common among the the Ancients to express their Publick Worship by Standing or Stations 'T is like that when the Apostle had reproved the Corinthians for not distinguishing the Lord's Table from their common Suppers in point of Reverence and Seriousness the Christians bethought themselves of a more humble and suitable Posture than they used at their common Meals There is no Man I hope so wicked as to exclude Prayers and Praises at the Receiving of the Holy Symbols And what can be a more proper Posture for these Devotions than Kneeling Kneeling hath in all Ages been accounted the proper Posture of Prayers and Praises And who can think of the Love of God represented to us in this Sacrament without them And if these be proper and necessary here why should the humble Posture in which they are offered be counted superstitious The Heathens themselves have condemned Irreverence in the External Performance of God's Service And shall Pagans and Infidels out do us in Humility of Worship Whenever Sacrifices were offered heretofore the Officer bowed himself to his God And shall we offer the Sacrifice of Prayer and Thanksgiving to our Crucified Redeemer in this Sacrament without bowing We come before God in this Sacrament as Beggars as Sinners as indigent Worms And what can be more suitable to Persons under those Circumstances than the humblest Postures Here we come to receive a Pardon from the Great King of Heaven And doth a Man receive a Pardon of a Temporal King upon his Knees and shall he refuse to receive a Pardon of far greater Consequence and of a greater Prince too in that Posture We believe that at such Times we receive Christ into our Souls And shall our External Humility be less than the Centurion's who did not think himself worthy that Christ should come under his Roof Or if we have the same Apprehensions of our own Unworthiness shall not we express them by proper External Postures Where the Soul hath a great Sense of the Love and Gracious Presence of God it will even force the Body into humble Postures And it is to be feared where People are loth to kneel they are Strangers to this Sense in the Holy Sacrament What is urged that Pope Honorius in the Thirteenth Century did first bring in Kneeling at the Sacrament is evidently false for all that he ordered was that the Body should be decently bowed when the Holy Symbols were lifted up by the Priest which is nothing to our Kneeling at the Sacrament The Primitive Church though they do not mention Kneeling at the Sacrament yet they exhort their Hearers to Grief and Sorrow and Confessions and an humble Sense of Sin in the Act of Receiving and we may rationally infer that they did not do this with out Kneeling or Prostration And since the Ancient Writers make frequent mention of the Word Adoration in Receiving we cannot but conclude that they used a Posture proper and expressive of that Adoration And why should we scruple to express our Adoration of God by Kneeling in this Sacrament when we see the Church Triumphant in Heaven at their singing the Praises of the Lamb that was slain fall down before the Lamb and say Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive Power and Riches and Wisdom and Strength and Honour and Glory and Blessing as St. John informs us Rev. 5. 8 12. The PRAYER O Thou Eternal Wisdom of the Father Who being in the Form of God thoughtest it no Robbery to be equal with God but madest thy self of no Reputation and tookest upon thee the Form of a Servant and wast made in the Likeness of Men and being found in Fashion as a Man didst humble thy self and becamest obedient unto Death even the Death of the Cross Wherefore God also hath highly exalted thee and given thee a Name which is above every Name that at the Name of Jesus every Knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth and that eveey Tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the Glory of God the Father O Lord of Glory Over-awe both my Outward and Inward Man with a Sense of thy astonishing Mercies that both may bow and both may express their Gratitude Let my Body as well as Soul worship thee love thee admire thee and humble themselves before thee who art the Image of the Invisible God the First-born of every Creature for by thee were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers all things were created by thee and for thee To thee be Glory for ever and ever Amen A TABLE OF THE CHAPTERS Contained in this BOOK Chap. I. OF the Name of this Ordinance and why distribution and Participation of Bread and Wine usual in Christian Assemblies is called the Lords Supper Page 1. Chap. II. Of the Mystery of Christ's Instituting the Sacrament that very Night in which he was betray'd pag. 13. Chap. III. Of the place where the Lord's Supper is to be Eaten the Church and of private Communion pag. 24. Chap. IV. Of Eating the Lord's Supper the nature of it and how it is to be Eaten pag. 36. Chap. V. Of the various abuses of this Holy Sacrament pag. 48. Chap. VI. Of Reciving the Lord's Supper Fasting and how far it is necessary pag. 60 Chap. VII Of the Elements in this Sacrament and first of the Bread Christ made use of and of the nature and design of it pag. 71. Chap. VIII Of Consecration and what Consecration Christ used Of his Thansgiving before he broke the Bread and our imitation of him in that particular pag. 85. Chap. IX Of Breaking the Bread and the Mysteries of it pag. 102. Chap. X. Of taking the Consecrated Bread with our Hands and the Mystery of it pag. 116. Chap. XI Of these words This is my Body whether they import a Transubstantiation and how the Bread is Crist's Body and how Christ's Body may and is to be eaten pag. 126. Chap. XII Of Remembring Christ in this Sacrament or doing what we do here in Remembrance of him pag. 148. Chap. XIII Of the other Element or part of this Holy Sacrament viz. The Wine and the Cup Christ made use of in the Institution of the Eucharist pag. 168. Chap. XIV Of the Covenant represented by the Cup in this Holy
Sacrament pag. 198. Chap. XV. Of frequent Receiving the Holy Communion and the necessity of it pag. 228. Chap. XVI Of the Perpetuity of this Ordinance and the Necessity of its continuance to the Worlds End pag. 250. Chap. XVII Of Eating and Drinking unworthily in this Ordinance and the Guilt the unworthy Receiver incurs thereby pa. 269. Chap. XVIII Of the sad Effects and Consequences of unworthy Eating and Drinking in this Holy Sacrament and first of Temporal Judgments pag. 343. Chap. XIX Of Bodily Sickness Weakness and untimely Death which are sometimes by way of Judgment inflicted on unworthy Receivers of this Blessed Sacrament pag. 360. Chap. XX. Of Spiritual Weakness Sickness and Death the second Temporal Judgment inflicted sometimes on the unworthy Receivers of this Holy Sacrament pag. 375. Chap. XXI Of Damnation which the unworthy Receiver Eats and Drinks to himself pag. 393. Chap. XXII Of Preparation and first of Meditation of Christ's Passion pag. 408. Chap. XXIII Of Sâ—lf-examination the Second Act of preparation for this Holy Sacrament pag. 496. Chap. XXIV Of Judging our selves the Third Preparative Duty in order to our worthy Receiving of the Blessed Sacrament pag. 531. Chap. XXV Of Self-resignation the Fourth Preparatory Duty in order to a worthy Receiving of this Holy Sacrament pa. 553. Chap. XXVI Of Preparatory Devotions and Aspirations fit to be used in Private before we come to the Sacrament pag. 566. Chap. XXVII Of the proper Acts of Devotion when we come to the Holy Table pag. 573. Chap. XXVIII Of the proper Acts of Devotion after we have Receiv'd 582. Chap. XXIX Of the Life we are to lead after we have Receiv'd the Holy Communion pa. 587. Chap. XXX Of the Ceremony or posture of Kneeling at the Holy Sacrament pag. 594. FINIS L. Plotius 2 Tim. 3. 1. 1 Cor. 11. v. 28. l. 19. contr Faust. c. 11. l. 6. de Bell. Gall Acts 2. 36. Oecum in loc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Soc. l. 2. c. 33. Euseb. Hist. Eccl. l. 7. c. 21. Gregor l. 7. Epistol 62. L. 6. c. 23. See Archbishop Spotswood's Hist. Book 2. p. 69. Vid. Vers. LXX l. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vid. Voss Disp. 19. de Sacris Coen Dom. Symb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide Platin. in Sixt. 1. Greg. M. l 7. Ep. 63. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. 36. Can. 101. L'Arroque ' s History of the Eucharist Part 1. O. 13. Jac. Goar in Not. ad Miss Chrysost. p.m. 150. Hoc vero nihil aliud est nce aliter nominari aut haberi potest quam magica incantatio Hosp. Hist. Sacrament Part. 2. p. 103. Distinct. 2. de Consecr Can. 74. Lib. 3. de Euch. cap. 8. Suffragatur nobis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 analogia Hebraismus actio circumstantia nihil non Oeconimo Epist. ad Melancth Sir George Wheeler's Voyage l. 2. p. 128. In Ludolph Hist. Aethiop l. 3. c. 5. De Defect Orat. Idiot de Am. div cap. 4 Euseb. Hist. lib. 7. c. 17. Sozom. Hist. 1. 5. c. 20. Zonar ad Can. 32. Conc. in Trulio Epiphan Haer. 46. August Haer. 64 Philastr Haer. 77. Ludolph Histor. Aeth l. 3. c. 6. Platin. in Zephyrin 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Georg Cassand Consult Art 22. Concil Constant. Sess. 13. Hist. Eccl. l. 13. C. 7. Hierom. in 1 Cor. 2. Hist. Fccl. l. 17. c. 25. Hesych in Levit. 18. Can. 3. Petrus de Natalibus l. 5. 21. Herodot l. 4. See The Happy Ascet. Exerc. 6. Just. Mart. Apol. 1. pro Christianis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Psal. 22. 6 7. 8 9. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See Chap. 15. Sect. 5. ¶ 1. Sophr. vel Mosch in prat Spir. cap. 31. Dr. Hammond â— Sam. 14. 31. compared with 2 Sam. â—18 14. Council Eliber c. 3. Ne lusisse decommunione Dominicâ videantur Cap. 8. Serm. 5. de Laps In corpore ore violato Eucharistia permanere non poâ—uit Sanctificatus in Domini sangâ—ne potus de pollutis visceribus â—rupit Id. Ib. Psal. 78. 30 31. Dionys. Areop de Hier. Eccl. cap. 5 De Sacram. Dist. 3. Tract 1. cap. 4. De Myster Miss l. 4. c. 44. Damian in spec Monach. P. Jean Bapt. de St. Jure de la Connois de l'amour de nostre Seign Liv. 1. Sect. 2. Serm. de diligend Deo Hospin Hist. Sacram lib. 2. cap. 2. Conc. Trid. Sess. 5. cap. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Willam de Raley and Wil. Longspe Arrian Epict. l. 2. c. 16. Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. 5. cap. 23.