instructed whence they were called Catechumeni as also Audientes the Hearers and frequently by S. Ambrose and S. Austin Competentes though somewhat differently from the usuall acception of the word it signifying here not an opposition but a fellowship in their suite From the event whereof those that had successe are by S. Gregory called Electi they being chosen unto Baptisme by Scrutinie And there were made before baptisme sixe such scrutinies in the time of Lent and a seaventh on Easter-eve thus to discerne if the persons to be Baptized would after the renouncing of Sathan seriously continue in their dedication to God The Persons to be Baptized did use also to bring their names the men standing on the right hand the women on the Left In the time of the Elibertine Council as appeares Can. 48. the feet of the persons to be baptized were wash'd and for Infants that were to be baptized it was a custome in the Spanish Churches to bring them all before the day of baptisme and wash their Heads which day for that cause was called Capiti-lavium or the Day of the Head-washing and the usuall day for it was Palme-Sunday as Isidore tells us Such like rites does S. Cyrill of Ierusalem also relate in his preface to his Catechisme all which were used as expressions of the Solemnity of this Sacrament Which was performed unto some over the tombes of the Dead to which that of the Apostle seems to allude 1 Cor. 15.29 What shall they doe that are baptized for the dead if the dead arise not at all it is in the originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 over the dead to omit other expositions a custome used by some as it is thought to expresse that they should by baptisme effectually received be dead to sin with the dead over which they were baptized enjoy a happy resurrection We may farther see the excellency of this Sacrament in that it never is repeated There is but one Baptisme says the Apostle Eph. 4. because there is but one death of Christ but one Resurrection but one Originall sinne to be in effect washed away whiles not imputed by the blessing of the Inward Baptisme There is no returne to the Wombe nor to Baptisme says S. Austin there is but one Birth and but one new birth And as it is of such a nature in it selfe so did God by miracle sometimes honour it many bodily diseases being cured by baptisme as S. Austin relates and thus as the stories of the Church tell us the great Constantine was cured of Leprosie Which wonders mistaken were the occasion of preparing Holy water Some thinking by the consecration of water to obtaine the like successe But such cures were extraordinary and immediately wrought by God himselfe and but seldome for the honour of God's own Institution in this Sacrament Such cures then being without promise we cannot build our faith upon such examples therefore not raise our expectations to such effects Yet such was the unwarantable devotion of some in those times that they receiv'd the water which had been consecrated for baptisme in vessells sprinkling therewith their houses and grounds as if though they had not with Moses the sight of a fiery bush they would yet enjoy holy ground A mistaking also of this Sacrament occcasioned some to be baptized every day whence they were called Hemerobaptists or the Daily Baptizers mentioned by Epiphanius thus while they thought by a wrong zeale to make themselves cleane they did by their Heresie become more uncleane By the outward washing sinne is not taken away by the inward washing sinne is not taken away the Dominion of it is taken away sinne Remaines sinne Reignes not To this happy effect the Elect are baptized those of riper age in ancient times not commonly changing their Names Ambrose and Austin being the Names of those Holy men both before baptisme tisme and after but Infants usually taking the names of Saints to prompt them yet without affectation to a holy imitation Nay in an Arabique translation of the Nicene Council one Canon forbids the imposing of a Heathen Name And as the Church was thus carefull of the Names of Infants so much more of their Education anciently and mercifully providing fit persons for the Infants sound instruction in Doctrine and Life in case of the possible Heresie or Death of the Naturall parents a Charity too unhappily corrupted by Ignorance or Neglect being in it selfe if duely observed a speciall wisedome in the Church of God Alike care was used by the most Judicious to have this Sacrament celebrated by one of the Clergy which distinct title from the Layty needs not be proved since it is approved whiles acknowledged by a late Act against great offenders as Adulterers which expresses their offence to be felonie without benefit of Clergie Yet we will grant that this Sacrament was sometimes anciently administred by the Layty nay sometimes by women but ancient practices must be as duely understood as imitated Tertullian de Baptismo cap. 17. admits Lay-men to baptise in case of necessity saying Tunc enim constantia succurrentis excipitur cum urget circumstantia periclitantis in effect Then must an extraordinary helpe be admitted when an extraordinary danger makes the exception We may see then that this permission was but extraordinary and grounded but upon a falsely supposed Absolute Necessity of Baptisme as then the Reason was erroneous so likewise the permission Baptizing by women may seem to have had a double cause the former in respect of Infants in a supposed danger and so with more mistake than charity whiles not with a right charity the other in respect of women of riper age that were converted and this was in a modestie a part of the celebration being ordered by those that in the first times were called Diaconissae a principall part of whose office was to prepare the women that were to be baptized partly by annointing their bodies if we admit the testimonie of the Constitutions attributed to Clemens and partly by dressing them with that civilitie that only the Brow of the Female was permitted to the eie of the Priest who was indeed the usuall baptizer Besides women were separated and so baptized a part from the men as S. Ciril of Ierusalem teaches us in his Preface to his Catechismes But since that truth must be the Judge of all Custome we may remember that it was the judgement of a most learned and Royall judge that though the Minister be not of the Essènce of the Sacrament yet he is of the Essence of the right and lawfull Ministry of the Sacrament taking for his Ground the Commission of Christ to his Disciples Mat. 28.20 Goe Preach and Baptize It was only their office to whom it was Committed and surely the Office was not ordinary when as the memoriall of the performance of it was Extraordinary the Day of every one's baptizing being anciently his Festivall So Naziannan tells us and therefore devout are the Exhortations
is the last Conquerour It is indeed a practice unreasonable and usefull if we consider the morall of their perseverance And surely the Labour and Constancy in our Christian combat our Apostle did more then intimate when be exhorted Timothie io indure hardnesse as a good souldier of Jesus Christ 2 Tim. 2.3 to indure hardnesse the word of the Apostle is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suffer evill the evill of affliction or bodily punishment suffer hunger and cold and Labour like a good Souldier So did S. Paul himselfe in his high degree of Souldiery and so must the meanest Christian in his inferiour proportion And as those ancient Gentiles did practice themselves before hand against their great and publique combates as S. Basil and Cassianus note so must we count all wrestling in our life time but but a preparative to our last agonie and combate in death Besides all their practises were but bodily exercises which profit but little as S. Paul speakes of them for of them he speaks 1 Tit. 4.8 but ours are spirituall combates we fight against Principalities and Powers and therefore it behooves us to make all advantage of example And since that the understanding is not ashamed to learne of the sense so neither must the soule be ashamed to learn of the body As they then got bodily strength for their wrestlings by Preparation and a Temperance in all things so must we grow strong and cunning in a spirituall imitation of their bodily temperance which is the next thing to be considered Their Temperance in all things And indeed so great was their Temperance to make them the more active that these words which our Apostle uses in this place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is Temperate in all things was a powerfull speech amongst the Grecians Now their common temperance was from Lust and the wayes unto it wine and Glotonie nay their Diet was so moderate as Irenaeus describes it that it never was unto satiety nay it never was unto a full meale And some were so exact as Plato relates of Diopompus and some others that they would not let their stomachs trie the weight of any heavy meale or but their backs the weight of any heavy cloathes much lesse of any superfluous lest they should thus dull the purity of their spirits And does not S. Paul Hebr. 12.1 exhort us to the like exact temperance to a holy curiosity in our christian Race Let us lay aside sayes he every weight every weight and the sinne which does so easily beset us and let us runne with patience the race that is set before us Is it not an intimate speech let us lay aside every weight The shippe that is but lightly laden may happily scape in a tempest but the heavy laden may quickly perish by temperance fasting saies S. Chysostome we shall lighten our vessell and more safely passe through the waves of this life Let us then lay aside every weight We must saies S. Ierome be circumcised in the flesh which is when in those things that concerne the body we cut off the Delight and reserve only the necessity making them ours as S. Austin speakes utentis modestia non amantis affectu with the appetite of nature not of wantonesse And thus temperate we must be in all things When in relative actions concerning other men we shew equality we call it Justice but when in the retired actions of our soules upon our bodies wee labour for equality wee call it Temperance which does assist reason in restraining the affections the senses and the parts of the body from an abuse in pleasure It restraines the Eie from a licence in prospect for otherwise the eie finds out pleasures and the phansie multiplies them It restraines Laughter and saves it from folly for when the purer parts of the blood the Spirits are over acted into an excesse they shake the body into an unseemely laughter which commonly abounds in such bodies as have not enough Melancholy to make them wise It restraines the Tongue and makes it as it were remember that it is not an Instrument of Invention but only of Execution which therfore must waite till it be imply'd by Reason and that Then it is but to declare the mind of Reason It principally restraines the Throat and Belly these being as the Moabites that inticed Israel to Lust and as the Body is a temptation to the Soul So the Belly and throte are a temptation to the rest of the body Wherfore we must strive to get the mastery of These and then we shall easily be the masters of ourselves Hence were those mighty indeavours of the ancient Christians in Chastitie and Abstinence by which whiles the Body is separated from the pleasures of the body the Soule though not separated from the body is in an admirable manner elevated above the body and attaines that happinesse which in the body it properly but expects But because the effect is taken away by removing the cause and lust is but the consequence of gluttonie hence was that practice and hence that necessity in all ages of the Church of holy fasting This in some sort including a Temperance in all things since a temperance in this thing invite 〈◊〉 Lord to give that universall blessing A Temperance in all things It was a temperance in diet that those Heathens us'd and it must be a temperance in diet that Christians must use The body knows no mean 't is allwayes in extreams 't is allwayes either a Slave or a Tyrant Therfore we must by fasting use it as S. Paul speaks in the last verse of this chapter I keep-under my body and bring it into Subjection his own word is of more power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I bring it into Servitude And this practice of Fasting is as old as the world nor was Man sooner permitted in paradise to Eate then he was commanded to Fast neither was he permitted to eate all fruit though he did eat nothing but fruit His happinesse in Paradise sayes S. Ierom was not dedicated without fasting and so long as he fasted so long he was in Paradice yet as by violating that fast he was cast-out so with fasting sayes S. Basil he may be well help'd to return into it again And he that fasts must not thinke that whiles he fasts he has no food he may say as our Saviour did I have food that you know not of And as it was his food to doe the will of the Father so must it be ours to doe his will which is to Fast and keep-under our bodies The fasting of the Body sayes S. Chrysostome is the food of the Soule and that food is the food of Angels sayes Athanasius He that fasts must remember sayes Theophilus of Alexandria that of the Apostle Rom. 14.17 The kingdome of God is not meat and drink but righteousnesse and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost And well may they rejoyce when as the holy Angels as S. Basil sayes
we phrase it strictly to lye on the same Couch and in the bosome even of Abraham the famous patriarch of the Iews or for an Eleazar Abraham's servant in Hebrew the same with the Greek name Lazarus to feast even in the bosome of his great Lord Abraham were such a union of the King and the Begger or such a union of the Lord and Servant as were no lesse a wonder than a Feast yet such shall be the entertainment of our Saviour's Ghuests as it is said Mat. 8.11 Many shall come from the East and West and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdome of Heaven the Originall is more exact 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 recumbent they shall lie downe or feast on the same couch with Abraham In like manner it is said Ioh. 13.23 the Disciple lean'd on Iesus bosome they were not then risen from the table as may be observed in the story of that chapter and v. 25. he is said to lie on Iesus breast And thus shall we be not in the bosome of an Abraham but indeed of Christ himsefe and he will prepare a table for us and we shall be abundantly satisfyed with the fatnesse of his house and he shall make us drink of the Rivers of his pleasures Psal 36.8 He will feed us with the fat of wheat as the Prophet David speaks Psal 81.16 and 147.14 according to the Originall He will feed us with the fat of kidnies of wheat as as Moses speakes or rather sings Deut. 32.14 in a phrase almost as strange as the blessing All which blessings are Promised to us in this bread all which are sealed unto us in this bread this being by faith the bread of Life which evermore give unto us O thou that art both the bread and the Lord that we being fed with this bread of Life in this life may be strengthned to eternall Life and to eternall thanks which for thy bounty and thy Mercy in this bread be render'd unto thee O Lord with the Father and thy Blessed Spirit for evermore FINIS OF Anathema Maranatha A SERMON BY BARTEN HOLYDAY Doctor of Divinity OXFORD Printed by Leonard Lichfield 1657. 1 Cor. 16.22 If any man Love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha TO shew the beginning of Love were to shew the beginning of God the first Love that was being God Himselfe so that He which first Loved and he who was first Loved was the same the First love then consisted in Identitie Thus whiles there was nothing but God not only God was love but all Love was God But when God made something and that there was an Intelligent Nature that was not God then did there beginne a love which consisted in similitude and shews it selfe to be but a deriv'd Love Which resemblance of the Creator in the Creature is in things meerely Naturall call'd similitude as in Creatures indued with a reasonable Will it is call'd Love which we may terme a voluntary reflexion of Goodnesse in the Reasonable Creature towards the Creator So that for the Creature to Love God is as truely naturall as to be a Creature and to fall from the Love of God is to fall from the similitude of God and so to fall from the nature of a Creature Yet man thus fell when God to shew his love and his Nature to be the same and to be as unchangeable as Infinite renew'd man not by a new making of man but by a making of himselfe man by an unexpected wonder of Mercy making Man in part become his own Saviour There ought then to be in renewed Man a new Similitude a new Love the Love of Jesus of this Saviour And since the Essence the Nature of a Christian consists in this Love he that has not in him this Love has not in him the nature of a Christian And having not the nature of a Christian he cannot have the blessing of a Christian and therefore he is as necessarily an Anathema or Accurs'd as he is voluntarily not a Christian So that a man is made an Anathema by his unbelief as he is to be declared an Anathema for his unbelief Which curse our Apostle seeing to be due to some and foreseeing the danger which might be easily due to many he uses in this place Indignation and Mercy making the same speech which is a condemnation unto some to be only a Threatning unto others Those that were guilty might feele it and those that were Innocent might Feare it and by Fearing it not Feele it That therefore we may learne this Feare we must learne to know this Curse and that we may know the justice of the punishment we must know the justice of the Duty for the breach whereof the punishment is due all which being expressed by the Apostle we may see the Cause of the Duty why we ought to love the Lord Iesus Christ we may see the Punishment for the Violation of the Duty expressed in the words Anathema Maranatha we may see also the Nature of the duty wherein it consists that so knowing what it is to Love the Lord Iesus Christ we may understand our Innocency or Guilt The Cause of the duty the duty of Love to our blessed Saviour is implyed in the names of our blessed Saviour names alwaies used Devoutly by our Apostle but here Eminently as including the principall Reasons of the Love a love due to our Saviour for his Dominion over us he is the Lord a Love due to him for his Love towards us he is Iesus our Saviour a love due to him for God's Love toward Him Christ he is the Annointed of God He is a Lord in the Highest sense being the Ruler of his People he is a Lord in the nearest sense being the Husband of his Church Indeed God says unto the People Hos 2.16 they shall call me Ishi my Husband and no more Baali my Lord not that he was not as well their Lord as their Husband but as S. Jerome observes they should not call him their Lord by the name Baali it being the usuall name of their Idol-god Being then the Lord and Husband of his Church his Church must have power on her head 1 Cor. 11.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dominion indeed in a figurative speech a veile the signe of his dominion Which right was implyed by Abimilech rebuking Sara he is saies he of Abraham a Covering of the eies unto thee that is a veile the signe of the Husband's power and therefore by the Hebrews is the veile called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some think from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have dominion strictly to spread 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being to have dominion Thus should the Gracious behaviour of every true Christian be as a testimonie of subjection to Christ our Lord who extends to us his Love his Providence his Protection And most eminently is the title due to our Saviour since in accurate use of the word Dominus
a table in the Church to that purpose which also for the Charity at it as Pontius Pautinus says was call'd the Lords Table And in the time of Monica S. Austin's mother there was a custome upon festivall days to stay in the Church four and twenty houres together and every man having brought thither his meat they gave after the feast what remain'd unto the poore Which custome when Monica would have used in the Diocesse of Milan S. Ambrose would not permit it it being not with them the custome to doe so Nor doth this Communion make us love only the poore but also our enemies the Pascall Lambe was to be eaten with unleaven'd bread this bread must not be eaten with the leaven of malice as the Apostle shews 1 Cor. 5.8 The Heathen though they reached not to the high precept of the Gospell to love their enemies charity being a thing unknown unto thē yet understood and practised a morall reconciliation of enemies For which purpose they had their feast Charistia as Valerius Max. tels us which principally was for the reconciling of Kinsfolk fallen out Theirs was Charistia but ours an Eucharistia a happy love or acknowledgement of Love Besides it is a Communion for the great and Mysticall Union or collection of so many unexpressible graces as are united in it imparted by it If therefore it were but for our own sakes we should be perswaded easily to frequent it and well might they here then extend their crie and their desire Give us this bread evermore S. Luke relates Act. 2.42 That in the Apostles time they did continue stedfast in prayer and Breaking bread that is in receiving the Sacrament For by this as Ignatius tells the Ephesians the power of Satan grows lesse and retires back being more powerfully resisted by the united devotion of so many Communicants And as S. Luke expresses the constancy of the Church in receiving the Sacrament so Iustin the Martyr 2. Apol. expresses the frequency saying that all in Townes and Villages met and received it every Sabbath S. Basil ad Caesariam says it was the custome to receive it four times in a Weeke S. Jerom epist 28. testifies of the Roman and Spanish Churches that they receiv'd it every day and S. Cyprian de Orat. Dom. Serm. 6. witnesses as much for the African Church And Tertullian de Oratione understands this Sacramentall bread by our Daily bread in the Lords prayer so likewise does S. Ambrose lib. 5. de Sacram. cap. 4. And if this says he be Daily bread why doest thou take it but once a yeare as some in the East or Greek Church did use to doe Receive that daily says he which may daily profit thee and so live every day that every day thou mayst be fit to receive it He that is not fit to receive it every day will be lesse fit to receive it once in a yeare He will be most fit for the Sacrament who will most frequent it the Sacrament being also a Preparative to it self He that has not a clean conscience is not fit to receive it once a yeare says S. Chrys in Ep. ad Hebr. hom 27. he that receives it but once a yeare shall never likely have a clean Conscience so shall never likely receive it once a yeare Some think a man may sometimes abstain in reverence yet such may know a man may frequent it with reverence True it is that the Centurion cried out unto our Saviour Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest come my roofe Mat. 8.8 And yet againe we know that Zachaeus receiv'd him joyfully Luk. 19.6 He that would abstaine from the Sacrament for Reverence is by his reverence fit to receive it He that ceases to sinne says S. Hilary must not cease to Communicate nay therefore he must not cease to Communicate because he ceases from sinne But he that finds himselfe not disposed to receive must know that he is spiritually sicke and therefore he must strive to dispose himselfe by repentance that he may eate of this food and recover his health He must remember that to frequent the Sacrament is frequently to remember the death of Christ and such remembrance ought to be as perpetuall as it is gratefull The Godly man must be like God as he is described Revel 4.3 where he is said to be like a Iaspar and a Sardine stone and to be incompassed with a Rainebow like an Emerald This mystically implys the nature of God the nature particularly of Christ and the nature of a Christian The Iaspar is a green stone and signifies flourishing perpetuity The Sardine is a stone like to blood and flesh and aptly fignifies the precious wounds in our Saviour's body And the union of these two shews that those wounds must be still fresh in our memory they must be as perpetually remembred as they are perpetually beneficiall The Raine-bow is a signe of God's covenant of Protection and the Emerald a glorious and green stone much of the nature of Iaspar signifies likewise the perpetuity and Glory of that protection So that he who pepetually remembers in this Sacrament the bloody Passion of our Saviour shall be both gloriously and perpetually incompassed with divine protection Yet for the frequency of receiving we need not descend to private prescriptions but use that moderate devotion of religious Congregations which constantly communicate once a month which practice where it may be may be the hope and endeavour of every good Christian a practise that may with a holy discretion preserve both a Frequency and a Reverence of this great Mystery which to receive is not left to our carelesse libertie but is the Commandement of our blessed Saviour Doe this in remembrance of me And as the Commandement is to all so also the Duty and therefore none to be excluded but notorious sinners they must be great sinners and known to be great sinners Iudas was admitted to it by our Saviour as the Christian Fathers generally believ'd though S. Hilary indeed differed from that perswasion and their collection from thence is very charitable they conceiving it to shew unto us that whiles a sinner is conceal'd as it was in Iudas his case so long the Church must be so charitable as to admit him a judgement that detests the rigour of private suspicion Let us not then whiles we would be over righteous be unrighteous and by thinking to exclude sinners increase their number their Guilt In what age in some unhappy places was there ever as of late years such sad neglect of this blessed Sacrament this Remedie against sinne And in what age in the mid'st of Zeale was there ever such various corruptions in religion Is not the Cause as well as well as the Effect Evident Let not such as in charity I hope detest the Socinian become by a mistaking zeale partakers with him in a contempt of the Sacrament To which that we may come with Reverence we must come with Faith
whereby we shall discerne the Lord's body and worke the true the mysticall transubstantiation of ourselves by Grace into Christ so shall we be one with him and he with us We must come with an Examined Conscience sometimes that is occasionally examined by the Minister as in a Conscience very Ignorant and usually rather for Instruction than Censure but alwaies examined by it selfe Let every man examine Himselfe says the Apostle The examination by the Minister is more Charity than command and therefore we must beware that we Lord it not over the Lord's people They are his people more than Ours nor at all Ours but because His. Let us then chiefely examine Ourselves and come with a Consceince as resolute to Leave sinne as to acknowledge it Let us come with sorrow answerable to that Joy which we tooke formerly in sinne The Paschall Lambe was to be eaten with bitter herbes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Septuagint render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Theodorus Gaza expounds it interpreting the ninth book of Aristotle De natura Animalium signifies Wild Lettice lactuca agrestis which as Dioscorides tells us lib. 2. cap. 130. was a very bitter herbe And likely it is God did not leave the choise of the herbe to the libertie of the Iewes to whom in all other things he had so particularly prescribed and so S. Jerome every where renders it lactuca egrestis And since this was a figure of the bitternesse or sorrow of the soule for sinne which every one ought to bring unto the Secrament it will be necessary to know what sort of the wild-lettice they did use That which is Old and Grown is not only bitter but also full of prickles upon the back or out side of the leafe so that it cannot be eaten but the more yong and tender sort was used in medicine though it was bitter yet it had a milkie moisture in it whence it is call'd Lactuca this being boild they eate with the Paschal Lambe Thus is there an Old and Grown sorrow for sinne a sorrow that goares the soule a sorrow which we rather call despaire but this is not that which comes to the Sacrament but we must bring the more gentle and tender grief which has the milkie moisture a supple Comfort with the bitternesse We must have sorrow but we must have Hope nay we must have sorrow and we must have Joy Yet must we come with Feare remembring that the surfet of bread is of all surfets held the most dangerous especially then the surfet of this bread which they shall take that unworthily take this bread He that receives unworthily insteed of bread receives a stone or a Scorpion usually 't is undigestable death The Apostle indeed told the Corinthians 1 Ep. 11.30 that for unworthy receiving many of them are weake and sickly and some slept that is God did strike some of them with infirmities of body some with grievous diseases and some of them with the last sleep of nature death it selfe We must come likewise with Humilitie and then by the Humility of our Saviour we shall obtaine pardon for our pride He wash'd the feet of his Disciples nay of Iudas whom yet he pronounced to be a Devil Can any man think he has an enemy worse than Iudas can any man think he can be so injur'd as our Saviour O what humility then ought we to shew towards the Lord of Glory who shewed such humility towards a servant towards his own servant and a traitour And that we may be sure we come not unworthily we must come with a Desire an earnest desire the true signe of a true receiver we must not like prophane Livers be glad to scape a Communion but we must long for it we must seek for it David professes such a search and such a desire in a like kind when he cries out Psalm 132.6 We heard of it in Ephratah we found it in the fields of the Wood. He speaks as it appeares v. 8 10. of the Arke of God which was a visible signe of God's gracious presence and in which as the Apostle says Heb. 9.4 was the golden pot of Manna Now David had heard he knew that the Arke had at the first been placed by Ioshua at Shiloh a City in Ephratah the Country of Ephraim Iud. 18.1 but he found it in the fields of the Wood that is at Kireath-jearim or the City of the Woods where it had continued for the space of twenty years after it had been brought home from the Philistines 1 Sam. 7.2 Now you know with what paines joy he went to fetch it when he had it how he triumphed in the Musique and in the Dance The like Desire and Labour and Joy we must come with unto this admirable signe of God's presence unto this more admirable Manna The Infant sayes S. Chrysostome does with alacritie snatch the teat fasten the lip upon it and suck with a most fixt impression so must we saies he like innocent babes suck the grace of Christ and like the babe crie when we want this spirituall nourishment The Iewes made great hast to be guilty of the blood of our Saviour and shall not we make more hast to purge our selves by his blood from our Guilt And if we truly purifie our selves with his blood we shall be as carefull of our behaviour after our receiving as we were before Otherwise we shall be but like the Iews who brought our Saviour into Ierusalem with shoutes of joy crying Hosanna and afterwards cryed as fast Crucifie him Crucifie him We must not in the Morning drinke the Lord's wine and continue at wine all the day after nor must we expell the Joy of our soule with the Mirth and Riot of our Body But we shall be certainely carefull after the receiving of it if we be truly carefull before And if we be thus truely carefull to receive we shall truly receive we shall truely feast with Christ both in this Kingdome of his Grace in the Kingdome of his Glory wherein this mstically feast shall be fullfilled as it is said Luke 22.16 by being changed into that heavenly and eternall feast in which as our Saviour speakes Luk. 22.30 we shall eate and drinke at his table in his Kingdome Then shall we be like Lazarus in Abraham's bosome not in a Limbus Patrum or the Confines of a Purgatory but without a mistake of the speech in an honourable place with a loving intertainment at a feast The speech is drawn from the custome of the Ancients to eate lying in Couches inclining sōewhat on the left side somewhat resting on the left elbow the head of the second lying in the bosōe of the first as of the third in the bosome of the second the right hand being at liberty whiles they eate being somwhat more erect the table being placed before the couch Now for a Lazarus a poore Iew to sit at the table as