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A39250 The communicant's guide, shewing a safe and easie way to the Lord's table in compassion to the poorer and weaker sort of Christians / by Clem. Elis ... Ellis, Clement, 1630-1700. 1685 (1685) Wing E554; ESTC R3546 46,503 143

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THE Communicant's Guide SHEWING A Safe and Easie WAY TO THE Lord's Table In Compassion to The Poorer and Weaker Sort OF CHRISTIANS By CLEM. ELIS Rector of Kirkby in Nottinghamshire 1 Cor. 11. ●● If we would Iudge our selves we should not be Iudged LONDON Printed for Iohn Baker at the Sign of the Three Pidgeons in St. Paul's Church-Yard M DC LXXXV TO THE Christian Readers More especially to those who belong unto my Charge for whose Help this Book is principally intended My Dear Friends I Hope none of you will think me so vain as to publish this Little Book for this Reason That I suppose there are not many better of the same Subject and for the same Use already abroad in the World I well know that there be very many and not a few of them so excellent that if you had them and knew how to use them this that I now present you with might well seem to be superfluous if not contemptible But I hope till you can be better provided it may be very useful to you at least in this that it may help to fit you for the using of those better and if this only be the use of it you ought not to despise it The true Reasons then why I thus tender you my Service are those which some of your selves have often prompted me with When you have been admonished to prepare your selves carefully for the worthy Receiving of this Holy Sacrament you have been ready to say That you wanted good helps and Books for that purpose and you continue ignorant for want of Instruction for though you hear Sermons and have been Catechized in publick and have been examined and instructed privately too by the Minister yet your Understandings being dull and your Memories weak you are not much better for all this because you want such Books to read as may help you more fully to understand your Duty This is a Pretence and no more than so in very many whose Love to Sin and Carelessness of their Souls and all their spiritual Concerns is indeed the real cause of their Ignorance and Unfitness for this and all other religious Duties To remove this Pretence and that you may not delude your selves to your utter undoing by thinking you have a sufficient Excuse for not doing so necessary a Duty when you have none is the cause of my presenting you with this help to the doing of it Some of you say That the most excellent of those Books already extant to this purpose are too dear and you are not able to buy them Herein some of you speak the Truth such I mean as have not wherewith to buy Bread for their Mouths or Cloaths for their Backs But the most of them who thus plead their Poverty say no more in effect but this That they think their Money better bestow'd in a Lace or Riband a Cup of Ale or a Game at Cards than on their Souls which were so dear to Christ that he paid his most precious Blood to redeem them Others say That those Books are too learned and hard for their Understanding and they should be no wiser for them if they had them And indeed there is too much Truth in this yet are there not wanting such as are so plain and easie that it can be nothing but your unacquaintedness with the very Princ●ples of Religion that makes them seem hard If you were concern'd to understand any other Language than that of the Plow and Cart or thought it as needful to discourse sometimes of matters relating to God and your own Souls as to talk to your Horses and Oxen you might soon learn much Good from the Books you thus complain of Some of these Books you say are too long and tedious And it is true that some of them are longer than they should be for the use of the weaker sort of Christians But it is no wonder if every good Book seem too long to them who have no Delight in Goodness and to them that are weary of hearing a short Sermon of an Hour or it may be not so much A Book that will cost them some days to read it over understandingly must needs be very tedious indeed They that think all their time little enough to trade and drudge in for the World or their swinish Lusts cannot spare much of it for their Souls without grudging and wearisomness Now that you may not henceforward have any colour for such Pretences I here offer you one that is if I mistake not every way fitted to your Condition and Capacity for it is cheap and easie and short and yet I hope sufficient to teach and direct you in your Duty I herein endeavour to manifest my hearty Love and Care for your Souls and everlasting Welfare and if I had no other Reason for writing and publishing it but this only that I desire to shew my Readiness to serve you and to cast in my small Mite amongst those that offer more largely out of their Abundance towards the enriching of your Souls I may I hope be at least excusable But alas what better will you be for my Kindness if you will not make use of it This Book nay all the Books in the World will not make you Christians or worthy Communicants by lying by you or by a careless reading without understanding applying and practising no more than your Meat will nourish you without eating it Some few Years ago I gave you for the same Reasons which move me now to give you this a small Summary both of your Faith and Duty called Christianity in short which hath with very many found a welcome much above my Hope or Expectation the worst Entertainment it hath met with is from some of you for whose Benefit it was chiefly intended and who had it gratis The Reason why it hath been so coldly entertained at home whilst it was so welcome abroad I am apt to think is this That you know me better than Strangers do and seeing my Infirmities daily do more slightly regard my Endeavours than they who see them not But remember I pray you it is the Doctrine of your Blessed Saviour that in both that little Book and this I commend unto you and not my own Example Make but use of that as you ought and my Failings what hurt soever they do my self shall not hurt you One thing you are to be here minded of You read things of this nature so imperfectly and so heartlesly that little of what you read remains with you An obscene Ballad or idle Tale-Book you can read with Delight and though imperfectly at first yet you read them so often till you grow too perfect in them to your own great Hurt Why take you not the like Pains in these Helps of Religion Because you take no Pleasure in Religion nor care much what becomes of God's Honour or the Salvation of your Souls This is too sad a Truth and you cannot deny it Your drowsie
Son When we lay polluted in our Filth and odious to thy pure Eyes thou opened'st for us in his precious Blood a Fountain for Sin and for Uncleanness Thou hast not disdain'd to admit me poor Sinner into thy holy Church and Family by Baptism and into a sacred Covenant of Grace and Peace with thy self through the Blood of the blessed Mediator And even now after so many careless and even willful Violations of this holy Covenant thy Mercy follows me with fresh Offers of Reconciliation and thou hast invited me to a Feast of Love in thy House and at thy own Table and on the Body and Blood of thine own dear Son and my blessed Redeemer O my most bountiful God how long have I plaid the ed Prodigal and pleased my self in Sin and Vanity and delighted in disobeying thy Commandments How often have I set light by the Bread of Life in the House of my Father and preferred the Trash of this World before it How often have I boldly and presumptuously without due Preparation approached unto thy holy Table And how often have I return'd thence with the same unclean Heart and unmortified Lusts which I carried thither When I consider this I tremble to think what Entertainment such a monstrous Sinner as I have been might expect from thee O let me not any longer through Impenitence and Negligence lose the Benefits of thy rich Mercy in Iesus Christ. For his sake pardon all my former Neglects Misbehaviours and Breaches of Covenant with thee and grant me now good God I beseech thee such a measure of thy Grace as may fit me for this sacred Ordinance Once more most blessed God I am preparing to come at thy gracious Call but what can I do without thy Help I am clogged with Sin and Corruption I have suffered my Lusts to get the upper hand and to lead me Captive O! shew thy Strength in my weakness pull down every proud and unruly thing in me that exalteth it self against thy holy Spirit strengthen me henceforward for ever to do thy Will Awaken and stir up my dull Affections to love thee and praise thee for thy wonderful love in redeeming us by the Sacrifice of thy beloved Son O Lord I do now renew most heartily my so often broken Vows and Promises to be wholly thine O Father Son and Holy Ghost for evermore Accept of me O my God and let not my great Unworthiness provoke thee to reject thy poor Servant whose Soul panteth after thee Enable me amongst those that keep Holyday in thy House worthily to shew forth the Death of our blessed Iesus even as he hath commanded us in a joyful and truly thankful Remembrance of his inestimable Love in an absolute and entire Dedication of our selves to his Service and Government in a total Reliance upon thy Mercy through his Merits in a cordial Love to him our Head to all his Members yea to all Mankind and even our Enemies for his sake And do thou O merciful Father for thy dear Son's sake herein seal unto our Souls the Pardon of all our Sins confirm and strengthen us in all Grace and Goodness and bring us by the constant and conscientious use of this and all other Instruments of Grace to everlasting Life through Iesus Christ our Lord in whose holy Words I farther beg whatever is needful for my self and for thy whole Church Our Father c. A Prayer after receiving this Sacrament O Father of Mercies and God of all Comforts I have this day tasted and seen that thou art good and that thy Mercy endureth for ever It is well seen O God that thou delightest not in the Death of a Sinner seeing thou vouchsafest so vile a Sinner as I am to feast my hungry Soul at thy Table and to drink of the Rivers of thy Pleasures For ever blessed be thy Goodness and praised for evermore be thy Mercies to us poor Sinners in the Lord Christ Iesus O let the deep sense of this thy wonderful Love ever rest upon my Heart Let the spiritual Relish of this heavenly Feast so delight my Soul as to render all Sin and Vanity unsavoury and loathsome to it for ever Let this great Grace and Favour of admitting me this day to renew my Covenant with thee after so many Breakin gs of it oblige me to constant Thankfulness and continual Obedience to the greatest watchfulness over my Heart● and Circumspection in all my ways And as I have been shewing the Death of Christ in this holy Sacrament in the midst of the Congregation so give me Grace and Strength to shew it daily in a Christian Life and Conversation and in the continual mortifying and crucifying of my sinful Affections and Lusts. Enable me to resist and vanquish all those Temptations to Sin whereby I have been formerly conquered O holy Iesus I have given my Heart to thee this day take I beseech thee such a full Possession of it by thy holy Spirit that neither the Devil the World nor Sin may ever again have any part or interest in it nor let me ever desire to be any otherwise my own than that I may continue wholly thine at thy sole Command and Disposal O good God pardon all the Infirmities and Failings whereof I have been guilty in the performance of this great Duty And bless I beseech thee this sacred Ordinance to thy whole Church so that Truth and Holiness and Christian Love may ever flourish and abound therein As we have one Faith one Baptism one Lord one Hope and profess our selves one Body by partaking this one Bread so grant us to hold the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace till we come to the Church triumphant in Heaven through him who loved us and hath wash'd us in his Blood even IESUS CHRIST our only Lord and Saviour Amen FINIS Books printed for and sold by John Baker at the Three Pidgeons in Saint Paul's Church-yard THE right Foundation of Quietness Obedience and Concord by Clement Elis. Lately published by Dr. Parker Arch-deacon of Canterbury An Account of Church Government for the first six hundred Years Religion and Loyalty or a Demonstration of the Christian Church within it self octavo in two Volumes The Service-Book in folio in 〈…〉 fit for Churches and Chapls Duport in Psalmos quarto Gr. Lat. idem in Homerum 4 o. idem 4 o. Graece separatim An earnest Invitation to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper 12 o. by Ioseph Glanvil A Sermon before the Artillery-Company by Dr. Calamy lately published FINIS Acts 4. 12. Iohn 14. 6. Heb. 5. 9. 2 Thes. 1. 8. Rom. 9. 5. Col. 1. 16. 1 Cor. 6. 19. 1 Pet. 1. 19. Matt. 28. 18. Matt. 17. 15. Act 3. 22. Iohn 15. 9. 10. 13. Rom. 5. 6. 8. 1 Cor. 11. 26. 1 Cor. 10. 16. 1 Iohn 1. 3. 1 Cor. 11. 17. Gen. 1. 27. Eccl. 7. 29. Gen. 3. Rom. 5. 12. Rom. 8. 7 8. Mat. 1. 21. 1 Thes. 1. 10. Mar. 16. 16. Act. 3.