superstitious admiration of some mens persons to the injurious usage of others God deliver them and this Church and from the effects of such distempers SECT IX Of the Vnion and Communion with God in the Holy Eucharist or Lords Supper to which certain Instructions are premised 1. IT is the opinion of Learned Doctours that all Orders and degrees Ecclesiasticall are given with designe to Consecrate the Eucharist of the Bodie and Blood of Christ which may well be call'd in question but that the Sacrament of the Eucharist is the summitie of the practicall Mysteries left us and ordained by Christ for our edification and straitest Union with him is not to be denied after such grounds given us thereof in Scripture and assurances thereof from the unisone consent of the Learned and holy Fathers of the Church in all Ages Our own Liturgie teaching us that if with a penitent heart and lively Faith we receive that holy Sacrament we spiritually eat the flesh of Christ and drink his Blood we dwell in Christ and Christ in us we are one with Christ and Christ with us And afterward that hereby we evermore dwell in him and he in us It must necessarily be therefore that an intimate Union is hereby wrought between Christ and the faithfull Soule highly to be valued earnestly to be sought after and diligently and zealously to be laboured for as that true Bread which came down from Heaven excelling infinitely the Mannah which came down from Heaven that Bread which perisheth not but lasteth and leadeth unto Eternall Life as Christ himselfe John 6. testifieth 2. But leaving to others the accurate explication of the Majestie of this Mysterie and not much employing our selves in the opening this Treasurie of Grace and Mercie we shall confine our selves to the more practicall consideration and that briefly of the right use of that which is so effectuall to the more strict full and perfect Union with God. And to this end we shall here first deliver certain fundamentall or at least very profitable Documents to be received and observed by fruitfull Communicants 2. First then it must be noted that the things themselves of which the Eucharist consisteth naturally tend no more to such sublime ends and effects than any other things howbeit severall Analogies are by the ingenious pietie of men alledged to declare the sutablenesse of the Elements to such ends not to be despised but this must in the mean time be acknowledged that it was both in the Liberty and Power of Christ to have chosen what other things he pleased to have annexed his Graces unto had it so pleased him 3. Secondly That the two Elements for so are they called not according to strict signification whereby there are said to be four Elements in Nature but onely as they concurre to make the Sacramentall Bodie as they doe constitute the naturall bodies are the Bread and Wine which were in most common use in the Country where Christ did celebrate his last Supper without any speciall and precise Obligation of Christians to the very same matter in all points and circumstances for we know not infallibly whether the Bread was purely of one kinde of Grain and that of Wheat or whether there were as there possibly might be some mixture in that bodie as it is held there was in the other the Wine For questionlesse Christ was not anxious himselfe about that Point neither ought we but onely to follow and imitate him as neer as we can by honest and ordinarie endeavours 4. Thirdly It is to be considered that whatever Treasure of Grace and Mercie is said and believed to be contained in the Eucharist by Gods dignifying and speciall replenishing of them with them are not said so necessarily to flow from thence that every one should partake of them who are partakers of the outward Formes Neither are they as Pipes or Conduits which run alike to all men that come to them and catch what they lett fall but as by Gods extraordinarie Power and Goodnesse they have this store of benefits given unto them and not of themselves so by the same Providence and Wisdome of God are they there dispensed as it seems good unto him And it seems good to him to proportion the benefits of them agreeable to the capacitie of the receiver I say Capacitie and not Merits which should demand in justice what is there contained but the Condition is there as the Psalmist hath Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it desire earnestly and prepare thy selfe dulie and plentie of Blessings will by vertue of Gods Promise redound to thee which Benefits we shall hereafter touch 5. Fourthly The manner of receiving Christ with the Blessings he necessarily brings with him in this Sacrament is somewhat differing in outward forme from that we receive him in by his Holy Word made known to us and by Baptisme wherein we are regenerate and incorporate into the Body of Christ and that by Faith too as in the Eucharist but agrees in the Inward For the visible Instruments of receiving Christ are much different the Bread and Wine representing Christ to the Eye as the Word of God to the Ear And the Word of God taught and believed initiates us by Illumination and Revelation of the Minde and Will of God not attainable in a saving manner but by that The Sacrament of Baptisme carries us on from thence to Purgation For hereby are we cleansed from all our sins The Sacrament of the Eucharist perfects and crowns all these For as much as all other gifts and graces upon which we are built and in which we stand before God are by this one revived quickened encreased and strengthened But we doe not receive a new doctrine of Faith nor another kinde of Grace of Faith nor another Spirit nor another Christ nor another spirituall life in Christ but the same in substance all with new advantages 6. Fifthly The outward Symboles or Elements of Bread and Wine called the Body and Blood of Christ because they both represent and exhibite them to the duly disposed Soule are not after Consecration Christ himselfe any more than they were before For it is one thing to say what those sensible Objects are which we call the Sacrament though the Sacrament properly so taken consisteth equally of the word Sanctifying and the Elements sanctified by it and another to say what we receive in the Sacrament which is really Christ And therefore they are idle words and calumnies which men give out that we receive not really Christ or that we believe not that Christ is in the Sacrament because we believe not that he is the very Sacrament it selfe or that Bread and Wine are not present in the Sacrament 7. Sixthly Whatever is visible tractable tasteable in the Eucharist is not Christ And if we must not believe our eyes and the eyes of all men assuring us that to be Bread and Wine which we behold to be so then may we not believe our
eares so that if Christ should tell us that it was his Bodie we may as reasonably denie that he doth say what in trueth he doth say For the Eye is a lesse fallible sense than the Ear as Philosophers agree And whereas it is said We cannot see substances themselves but onely Accidents it matters not whether that Opinion be true or false being we see as much of those bodies and their substances as of any substance in the world and no more is needfull 8. Seventhly The sacred Symboles are called the Bodie and Blood of Christ because we should understand the dignity and efficacie and strait conjunction between them and Christ and Christ and us who thereby receive him as our Food 9. Lastly The meanes whereby we so receive Christ in this Blessed Sacrament is Faith as is truely and generally said but not alltogether as some may understand and conceive For Faith as in our Sanctification so in our Justification doth work and no otherwise doth it make us worthie and happie Communicants For it layes the foundation of all our Religion and becoming lively by love and Charitie gives life to all our spirituall performances and consequently renders them effectuall to us So that we must believe first according to the true Catholique Faith in generall then specially the nature ends and uses of this Sacrament Lastly we must have a comfortable perswasion of the goodnesse of God in accepting us in the Sacrament and his dispensations towards us but there must allso be joyned herewith 1. Discerning the Lords Body and that not to be it properly which we see but that which is invisible and spiritually taken 2. That we judge our selves by examination and humiliation of our selves that by rashnesse of approach we be not condemned of the Lord. 3. Invocation of Gods mercie for past sins and of his assisting Grace for preventing the like future failings and falls as we have been formerly subject to 4. To have no malice nor notorious hatred in our hearts but Charitie to all men especially towards them with whome we communicate 5. That we be void of all purpose or designe of committing over again any of those sinnes which we finde in our selves upon due enquity and examination but rather have a sincere how weak soever it may be desire and purpose of living more agreeably to Gods holy Will in all things 6. That we have a good hope through Gods Grace which some miscall Faith that we shall live according to our Vow in Baptisme of old made and there renewed and ratified and that this hope begets a care and conscience of our wayes hereafter lest we by relapsing into former errours dissolve that happie Union and conjunction obtained in this Blessed Sacrament with the Father and the Son. SECT X. Of the Difficulties and dangers in receiving the Holie Communion which are here discussed 1. WE are told in the Office of our Church for the celebration of the Communion That as the benefits are great if with a true penitent heart and a lively Faith we receive that Holy Sacrament so is the danger great if we receive the same unworthily for then are we guiltie of the body and blood of our Saviour Christ we eat and drink our own damnation not considering the Lords Body we kindle Gods wrath against us we provoke him to plague us with divers Diseases and sundry kindes of Death All which seems to be drawn from the words of Saint Paul 1 Corin. 11. ver 27. Whosoever shall eat this Bread and drink this Cup unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. And ver 29. He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himselfe not discerning the Lords Bodie which Speeches it behoveth straitly to understand aright lest by violence used in wresting them to too favourable a sense we occasion the profanation of those Holy Mysteries by rudenesse and presumption of unbelieving and impenitent comers unto it or we so straiten the way to Gods holy Table that Believers and they none of the worst rank should be disheartened and discouraged from approaching to it The genuine sense therefore and importance of those Sayings are faithfully to be unfolded for the better informing of the Judgement and directing and satisfying the Conscience of the cordiall Christian and sincere For it is most certain upon too frequent experience that an horrible abuse is made of the opinion of the Holinesse of the Sacrament and Doctrine of Saint Paul and allso of the Church even now recited and that by worldly and loose men who believing in grosse the sacrednesse of the Communion alledge that for a sufficient cause to excuse themselves from receiving of it when God knowes they have little apprehension either of the Holinesse of that or their unholinesse or unfitnesse pretending more scrupulousnesse and warinesse than others and than the Word of God requires absolutely at their hands though it is granted that divers finde themselves so entangled between the consciousnesse of their own unworthinesse and perswasion of the worthinesse of that that they are unwillingly obstructed in drawing nigh thus unto Christ so mercifully offered to them For whose sake I have prepared these following instructions leaving others to be condemned for their falsenesse and hypocrisie in sacred things by their own consciences and that very judgement which is pretended to be feared in so abstaining 2. First then It is to be granted and supposed by all ingenuous as well as pious Christians that it is in it selfe incredible and a great injurie done to the wisdome and goodnesse of Christ instituting this holy Sacrament to imagine that he should so mock the greatest number of true though weak Believers as to ordain such a Sacrament and to such great ends and propound so great benefits and leave so many gracious and kinde invitations and exhortations to come to him there present and in readinesse to satisfie the hungrie Soule with goodnesse and to feast him with the fat and sweet of his own Table and yet withall cloth that precious Ordinance with so many severe circumstances and clogge it with so many dangerous difficult and heavie Conditions as very few should dare to come at it or be the better for it 3. Secondly There is to be observed a very great difference between Worthy Communicating and due or Fit communicating and that both these are vulgarly and Fallaciously contained in that one word Worthie which hath a double sense For he properly is said to be worthy who is equall in qualifications of Vertue and Graces to the worth and merits of that holy Sacrament and in this acceptation no man may be said to be worthy no not the best prepared and holiest man. Another sense of Worthinesse is that we call'd Fitnesse whereby how unworthy soever a Soule may be of that Sacrament he may be reputed worthy and come acceptably and fruitfully and so that willfully in such cases to absent himselfe may turne to his own
end of Faith. If a man believes firmely but not soundly nor truely his faith like to the knowledge acquired by our first Parents upon the eating of the forbidden fruit brings him to shame and confusion of face And of this sort are innumerable mistakes not to be here instanced in that only excepted which is of most generall evill consequence whereby men are wont and willing to divide and rend faith from it selfe I mean the Forme or inward act of believing from the power and effect of Faith perswading themselves that Faith alone so taken gives us Justification and if so it must needs give us Sanctification too For none are justified but such as are thereunto prepared by a competent degree of Sanctification And so in trueth at length it will be found that whatever is pretended and more dangerously presumed no man is more Justified alone by Faith than he is Sanctified by it alone and the workes of Faith are in no place of holy Scripture opposed to Faith it selfe the cause of such workes in reference to our Justification And it is altogether as derogatory to Christs merits and the freenesse of Gods Grace to rest upon such Faith for justification and salvation as upon such workes of Faith. But this I speak as I passe 4. However therefore the Authours of such Doctrine or at least formes of speaking as have lately prevailed disown the necessary ill consequences of the same and allow yea urge much good workes and with many flourishes commend the use of them yet advancing immoderately and injudiciously the Act of Faith creeple it and binde it up from the free course and full influence it may and otherwise would have upon mens lives to the purging of the Soule from evill and impregnating it to good works of vertue and holinesse 5. But leaving that Controversie let us proceed to what is without Controversie shewing by plain instances what we have propounded concerning the power of Faith in our militant state here And let it be ingenuously judged how a man by Faith thorowly convinced of that one first Principle that there is a God Creatour of all things Judge of all things and of all Men especially and their hearts and actions and infallibly rewarding the good and the evill can easily omitt the good so amply hereafter to be remunerated or rashly fall into the evill of Sin-tempting standing by his Christian Faith assured that his temporary trifling vanishing as soon as felt pleasures shall end infallibly in bitternesse and never-failing sorrowes Who would sow that seed in his Field which he might easily believe will rise up to an harvest of Serpents which will sting him to death Or can a man stedfastly believe that Article of his Creed teaching and assuring him that Christ that righteous Judge shall appear a second time in glorie and severe Justice towards quick and dead rendering to every man according to the good or evill he hath done in his bodie viz. Life Everlasting or shame and torment everlasting and not feare or fear and yet committ such things as will weigh him down into the place of such miserie What wise man would be tempted so with the beautie and desireablenesse of drinking out of a Golden Cup when he knowes it is filled with deadly Poison Or would any man eat of that bread fair to the Eye and perhaps pleasant to the palate which he knowes will suddenly after breed gravell and stones in his reins and bladder and infinitely torture him Certainly such a mans perswasion which in Religion we call Faith must needs be verie weak and his fondnesse strong which can impose so hard things on him unrejected 6. No more can any man have a sound and sufficient perswasion of the heavenly Mansions and the unspeakable Glories thereof yea the perfection and beautie of Vertue and Divinenesse of holie Life and good Conscience and neglect or contemn the same for the fallacies vitious practices put on the outward senses for a moment or lesse if lesse we can imagine Is not this next to a Miracle if we may allow the Devill to be able to work Miracles contrary to the Doctrine of the Schools For what way we call a Miracle if not deluding the senses and so far changing the natures of things to mans eye and common sense that he shall call good evill and evill good and have no other opinion of Flames into which he must be cast than of a Feather bed 7. To him that lives by Sense the present sweet is most sweet and the present bitter most bitter but to him that lives by Faith and not by Sense the future exceeds in both kinds And to a truly wise man knowing the worst of troubles and hardships in this world no more to be compared to the miseries wicked men suffer hereafter than the joyes of sin in this life are to the glorie to be hereafter enjoyed in Heaven by the Righteous it may seem most reasonable to choose the least of Evills and to run the least of hazards too as that poore simple austere man vilely and coldly clad and as ill fed did with whom as our own histories tell a boisterous and soft Gallant meeting demanded of him Why he used himselfe so hardly and was answered by him I doe this to escape Hell-fire But said the Gallant again If there be no Hell what a Fool art thou to use thy selfe so ill But he more wittily and sharply replied But what if there be an Hell how much more Fool art thou to live so as thou doest Put the case to common Reason for true Faith is infallibly assured of it that it was a doubtfull point Whether there were an Hell or not a Heaven or no Heaven and the Scales weighing both sides were equall would not generall Reason advise so to believe as to take the safest course and live that life which may lead to the supposed happinesse and escape the threatened torments What hurt befalls that man that lives continently temperately modestly justly soberly yea and selfe-denyingly as to those things which are not necessarie though no reward followes upon his rigours but the ordinary comforts of health and peace of minde which are greater to him than the riotous liver and pleaser of his appetites and senses without restraint But what hurt doth not befall him hereafter who by indulging to his sensible Soule bereaves himselfe of everlasting happinesse in the world to come that not being all neither as our Religion truely informes us 8. Let us therefore truely examine our selves as St. Paul exhorteth whether we be in the faith and prove our selves knowing of our own selves that Jesus Christ is in us except we be reprobates 2 Corin. 13. 5. Surely if Christ be in us it must be by Faith and if Faith be in us it will discover so much of the events of an holy and wicked life as not to be like a Horse and Mule which have no understanding nor like such men who have
that as Pride is the beginning of all sins and wickednesse the contrary Vertue Humilitie is the mother of all Christian Vertues This foundation then must be laid here allso otherwise all repairs of the ruinous Soule will be frustrated For where Humility is wanting a thousand false phansies of our perfections and merits will swell the minde above its proper height and largenesse so that every little thing will stand in its way and offend it For men suspecting themselves undervalued by others as they doe and needs must who overvalue themselves presently the vindicative Spirit falls to work by word and deed to satiate it selfe upon detractours as it accounts them mistakenly childishly and madly at the same time 9. Where therefore true Humility is found Meeknesse will not be far distant nor long absent And where Meeknesse dwells Madnesse and Choler will have but cold entertainment And to the Spirit of Meeknesse doe much conduce a Discipline and cohibition imposed on the outward man. It is often alledged by the riotous minde I cannot bear that abuse or this affront or such contempt or disobedience or neglect I cannot be so advised as I should be But no man can say that professes manlinesse and humanity but he can move or hold his hand and can speak or keep silence or compose the outward parts of his body or suffer them to break out into disorders which Regiment when he hath obtained over himselfe outwardly and for a time practised he shall finde a considerable change in his inward man in due time and the heat allayed and a wonderfull calme and tranquillitie with admiration that he should heretofore be hurried away in a storme frivolously occasioned And as it is observed that too hot mettall'd Horses which are apt to run away with their Riders are no wayes better tamed and taken off their courage than by accustoming them to walk a foot-pace so modest and moderate actions outwardly will in time qualifie the impetuousnesse of the minde It were therefore well worth a mans labour attendance and time to bend his minde resolutely for tryall of his strength and what Mastery he hath of himselfe to act though an unwilling part of patience and to prove how impregnable he is against wonted provocations and having some few times hardened himselfe against such provokings it will become easie to doe and suffer the same in earnest even when the like caution and attendance are not used 10. But because there are certain junctures and causes which doe allmost naturally dispose to anger such as are Sicknesse and Pampering the Bodie making it thereby more than one way resty immoderate Cups and even Fastings rarely used and such as the Bodie is not accustomed to and some other which justle as it were nature out of its Rode and so offends it Great circumspection is in such cases to be used And in trueth such excesses are wholly and absolutely to be avoided as they which blinde the eyes of Reason inslame the Blood precipitate the Spirits to act violently And Abstinences or Fastings themselves stand in need of watchings over a mans disposition For as all things are molested inwardly by denyall of wonted food and naturally complain so the Body of man being disappointed of its ordinarie supply and refreshment is apt to be murmuring discontented and querulous untill it be better acquainted with such changes and fretting and pinchings within will goe nere to vent themselves outwardly upon such as shall stand in their way and converse with them Care therefore is to be taken not as some may inferre to shun fasting but to bridle at such times especially the sharp humour which may stir up strife or discontent lest the good be evill spoken of or a scandall brought upon a Christian Dutie by some misbehaviour consequent thereunto 11. And to the better preventing of such ebullitions of the Spirit it is requisite a man should carefully avoid such Passion when it seems to carrie much innocencie and veniallnesse with it For it seems to divers no offence allmost to be angrie as Balaam was with his Beast to be in Choler against Dogs that will not hunt and Hawks that will not flie against Horses that will not goe according to our mindes and some think themselves excusable when their Choler is high only against their Servants but all with a dangerous errour For as much as libertie being allowed to a mans selfe in such cases Flesh and Blood will not long contain themselves in those bounds but being accustomed to such heats and perturbations will transgresse where perhaps they never intended For by such usances tolerated men become easily inflameable and their blood afore they are aware is as it were sowr'd and disposing to other excesses and that upon occasions lesse warrantable 12. And upon the same reason circumspection is to be had how a man is offended and angrie with himselfe for some men have held it verie laudable so to be and some have been religiously vindicative upon themseves by severe Penances for their follies and offences against God and others which must not be disallowed when governed by Christian prudence which many times being wanting a man punishes one sin by another and offers unnaturall violence to himselfe which is worse than to doe the same to another So that herein is requisite the Counsell and conduct of others no lesse than in Controversies of trespasses against a mans Neighbour to whome he would seldome doe justice if he were Accuser Judge and Executioner too And so not rarely men transported with a religious Passion against themselves as it may seem offend in punishing offences And this is seen in cases extra-religious men fretting and storming and raging that matters under their hands succeed not according to their mindes and merits They will miscall themselves complain of themselves and be enraged as if no man had so ill luck as they or did so ill as they and this doing hold themselves very excusable because none but themselves suffer hereby But there is herein commonly a double errour For first they who give way to any exorbitances against themselves prepare a way to be injurious and furious against others much more and that upon the reason here given But secondly what seemeth to be seldome is really so And men fretting and in a tosse against themselves to outward appearance are in trueth incensed against Gods Providence or perhaps their tutelarie Angells not doing their parts toward them in giving better events to their good actions For no man as Saint Paul saith ever hated his own flesh or himselfe naturally and no man that is supernaturally or by Grace vindicative upon himselfe can lightly fall into such passions and therefore inconsiderately accuses others of his mistakes and miscarriages who can be no other than the mentioned whether he intends so much or not Some instances may make this more probable as When he misses a thing he had in his hand a little before and cannot suddenly finde it for