unreasonable fears and nothing but a single ray from heaven can give them any portions of comfort and these men never trust to any thing they do or to any thing that is done for them and fear by no other measures but by consideration of the intolerable misery which they should suffer if they did miscarry and because these men can speak nothing and think nothing comfortable of themselves in that agony or in that meditation therefore they can make use of this rule by the proportions of that judgment of charity which themselves make of others and in what cases and in what dispositions they conclude others to die in the Lord if they take those or the like measures for themselves and accordingly in those dispositions address themselves to the holy Sacrament they will make that use of this rule which is intended and which may do them benefit 5. As there are great varieties and degrees of fitness to death so also to the holy Sacrament he that hath lived best hath enough to deplore when he dies and causes enough to beg for pardon of what is past and for aids in the present need and when he does communicate he hath in some proportion the same too he hath causes enough to come humbly to come as did the Publican and to say as did the Centurion Lord I am not worthy but he that may die with most confidence because he is in the best dispositions he also may communicate with most comfort because he does it with most holiness 6. But the least measures of repentance less than which cannot dispose us to the worthy reception of the holy Mysteries are these 1. As soon as we are smitten with the terrors of an afflicted conscience and apprehend the evil of sin or fear the Divine Judgments and upon that account resolve to leave our sin we are not instantly worthy and fit to communicate Attrition is not a competent disposition to the blessed Sacrament because although it may be the gate and entrance of a spiritual life yet it can be no more unless there be love in it unless it be contrition it is not a state of favour and grace but a disposition to it He that does not yet love God cannot communicate with Christ and he that resolves against sin out of fear only or temporal regards hath given too great testimony that he loves the sin still and will return to it when that which hinders him shall be removed Faith working by charity is the wedding garment and he that comes hither not vested with this shall be cast into outer darkness But the words of St. Paul are express as to this particular In Christ Jesus nothing can avail but faith working by love and therefore without this the Sacrament it self will do no good and if it does no good it cannot be but it will do harm Our repentance disposing us to this Divine feast must at least be contrition or a sorrow for sins and purposes to leave them by reason of the love of God working in our hearts 2. But because no man can tell whether he hath the love of God in him but by the proper effects of love which is keeping the Commandments no man must approach to the holy Sacrament upon the account of his mere resolution to leave sin untill he hath broken the habit untill he hath cast away his fetters untill he be at liberty from sin and hath shaken off its laws and dominion so that he can see his love to God entring upon the ruines of sin and perceives that Gods Spirit hath advanced his Scepter by the declension of the sin that dwelt within till then he may do well to stand in the outward Courts lest by a too hasty entrance into the Sanctuary he carry along with him the abominable thing and bring away from thence the intolerable sentence of condemnation A man cannot rightly judge of his love to God by his acts and transports of fancy or the emanations of a warm passion but by real events and changes of the heart The reason is plain because every man hath first loved sin and obeyed it and untill that obedience be changed that first love remains and that is absolutely inconsistent with the love of God an act of love that is a loving ejaculation a short prayer affirming and professing love is a very unsure warrant for any man to conclude that his repentance is indeed contrition for wicked persons may in their good intervals have such sudden fires and all men that are taught to understand contrition to be a sorrow for sins proceeding from the love of God and that love of God to be sufficiently signified by single acts of loving prayer can easily by such forms and ready exercises fancy and conclude themselves in a very good condition at an easie rate But contrition is therefore necessary because attrition can be but the one half of repentance it can turn us away from sin but it cannot convert us unto God that must be done by love and that love especially in this case is manifestly nothing else but obedience and untill that obedience be evident and discernable we cannot pronounce any comfort concerning our state of love without which no man can see God and no man can taste him or feel him without it 3. A single act of obedience in the instance of any kind where the scene of repentance lies is not a sufficient preparation to the holy Sacrament nor demonstration of our contrition unless it be in the case of repentance only for single acts of sin In this case to oppose a good to an evil an act of proportionable abstinence to a single act of intemperance for which we are really sorrowful and as we suppose heartily troubled and confess it and pray for pardon may be admitted as a competent testimonial that this sorrow is real and this repentance is contrition because it does as much for vertue as in the instance it did for vice alwaies provided that whatsoever aggravations or accidental grandeurs were in the sin as scandal deliberation malice mischief hardness delight or obstinacy be also proportionably accounted for in the reckonings of the repentance But if the penitent return from a habit or state of sin he will find it a harder work to quit all his old affection to sin and to place it upon God intirely and therefore he must stay for more arguments than one or a few single acts of grace not only because a few may proceed from many causes accidentally and not from the love of God but also because his love and habitual desires of sin must be naturally extinguished by many contrary acts of virtue and till these do enter the old love does naturally abide It is true that sin is extinguished not only by the natural force of the contrary actions of vertue but by the Spirit of God by aids from heaven and powers supernatural and Gods love hastens ouâ— pardon and acceptation
the fruits of his passion and we shall if we abide in this union be all one body of a spiritual Church in heaven there to reign with Christ for ever Now unless we think nothing Good but what goes in at our eyes or mouth if we think there is any thing good beyond what our senses perceive we must confess this to be a real and eminent benefit and yet whatever it be it is therefore effected upon us by this Sacrament because we eat of one bread The very repeating the words of St. Paul is a satisfaction in this inquiry they are plain and easie and whatever interpretation can be put upon them it can only vary the manner of effecting the blessing and the way of the Sacramental efficacy but it cannot evacuate the blessing or confute the thing Only it is to be observed in this as in all other instances of the like nature that the grace of God in the Sacrament usually is a blessing upon our endeavours for spiritual graces and the blessings of sanctification do not grow like grasse but like corn not whether we do any husbandry or no but if we cultivate the ground then by Gods blessing the fruits will spring and make the Farmer rich if we be disposed to receive the Sacrament worthily we shall receive this fruit also Which fruit is thus expressed saying this Sacrament is therefore given unto us that the body of the Church of Christ in the earth may be joyned or united with our head which is in the heavens 3. The blessed Sacrament is of great efficacy for the remission of sins not that it hath any formal efficacy or any inherent vertue to procure pardon but that it is the ministery of the death of Christ and the application of his blood which blood was shed for the remission of sins and is the great means of impetration and as the Schools use to speak is the meritorious cause of it For there are but two wayes of applying the death of Christ an internal grace and an external ministery Faith is the inward applicatory and if there be any outward at all it must be the Sacraments and both of them are of remarkable vertue in this particular for by baptisme we are baptized into the death of Christ and the Lords supper is an appointed enunciation and declaration of Christs death and it is a Sacramental participation of it Now to partake of it Sacramentally is by Sacrament to receive it that is so to apply it to us as that can be applyed it brings it to our spirit it propounds it to our faith it represents it as the matter of Eucharist it gives it as meat and drink to our souls and rejoyces in it in that very formality in which it does receive it viz as broken for as shed for the remission of our sins Now then what can any man suppose a Sacrament to be and what can be meant by sacramental participation for unless the Sacraments do communicate what they relate to they are no communion or communication at all for it is true that our mouth eats the material signs but at the same time faith eats too and therefore must eat that is must partake of the thing signified faith is not maintained by ceremonies the body receives the body of the mystery we eat and drink the symbols with our mouths but faith is not corporeal but feeds upon the mystery it self it entertains the grace and enters into that secret which the spirit of God conveyes under the signature Now since the mystery is perfectly and openly expressed to be the remission of sins if the soul does the work of the soul as the body the work of the body the soul receives remission of sins as the body does the symbols of it and the Sacrament But we must be infinitely careful to remember that even the death of Christ brings no pardon to the impenitent persevering sinner but to him that repents truely so does the Sacrament of Christs death this can do no more than that and therefore let no man come with his guilt about him and in the heat and in the affections of his sin and hope to find his pardon by this ministery He that thinks so will but deceive wil but ruine himself They are excellent but very severe words which God spake to the Jews and which are a prophetical reproof of all unworthy Communicants in these divine mysteries What hath my beloved to do in my house seeing she hath wrought lâ—wdness with many The holy flesh hath passed from thee when thou doest evil that is this holy sacrifice the flesh and blood of thy Lord shall slip from thee without doing thee any good if thou hast not ceased from doing evil But the vulgar Latin reads these words much more emphatically to our purpose Shall the holy flesh take from thee thy wickedness in which thou rejoycest Deceive not thy self thou hast no part nor portion in this matter For the holy Sacrament operates indeed and consigns our pardon but not alone but in conjunction with all that Christ requires as conditions of pardon but when the conditions are present the Sacrament ministers pardon as pardon is ministred in this world that is by parts and in order to several purposes and with power of revocation by suspending the Divine wrath by procuring more graces by obtaining time of repentance and powers and possibilities of working out our salvation and by setting forward the method and Oeconomy of our salvation For in the usual methods of God pardon of sins is proportionable to our repentance which because it is all that state of Piety we have in this whole life after our first sin pardon of sins is all that effect of grace which is consequent to that repentance and the worthy receiving of the holy Communion is but one conjugation of holy actions and parts of repentance but indeed it is the best and the noblest and such in which man does best cooperate towards pardon and the grace of God does the most illustriously consign it But of these particulars I shall give full account when I shall discourse of the preparations of repentance 4. It is the greatest solemnity of prayer the most powerful Liturgy and means of impetration in this world For when Christ was consecrated on the crosse and became our High Priest having reconciled us to God by the death of the crosse he became infinitely gracious in the eyes of God and was admitted to the celestial and eternal Priesthood in heaven where in the vertue of the crosse he intercedes for us and represents an eternal sacrifice in the heavens on our behalf That he is a Priest in heaven appears in the large discourses and direct affirmatives of St. Paul that there is no other sacrifice to be offered but that on the crosse it is evident because he hath but once appeared in the end of the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of
Agatha advice how to treat a woman who took the Holy Sacrament into her mouth and ran with it to kiss her husband hoping by that means to procure her husbands more intense affection But the story tells that she was chastis'd by a miracle and was not cur'd but by a long and severe repentance 10. He that watches for the effects and blessings of the Sacrament must look for them in no other manner than what is agreeable to the usual dispensation we must not look for them by measures of nature and usual expectations not that as soon as we have received the Symbols we shall have our doubts answered or be comforted in our spirit as soon as we have given thanks for the holy blood or be satisfied in the inquiries of faith as soon as the prayers of consecration and the whole ministery is ended or prevail in our most passionate desires as soon as we rise from our knees for we enter into the blessings of the Sacrament by prayer and the exercise of proper graces both which being spiritual instruments of vertues work after the manner of spiritual things that is not by any measure we have but as God please only that in the last event of things and when they are necessary we shall find them there Gods time is best but we must not judge his manner by our measures nor measure eternity by time or the issues of the spirit by a measuring line The effects of the Sacrament are to be expected as the effect of prayers not one prayer or one solemn meeting but persevering and pasâ—ionate fervent and lasting prayers a continual desire and a dayly address is the way of prevailing In the morning sow thy seed and in the evening with-hold not thy hand for thou knowest not whether shâ—ll prosper either this or that or whether they shall be both alike good 11. He that looks for the effects and blessings told of to be appendant to the Sacrament must expect them upon no other terms but such as are the conditions of a worthy Communion If thou doest find thy faith as dead after the reception as it was before it may be it is because thy faith was not only little but reprovable or thou didst not pray vehemently or thou art indisposed by some secret disadvantage or thou hast not done thy duty and he shall imprudently accuse that physick for useless and unfit that is not suffered to work by the incapacity the ill-diet the weak stomack or some evil accident of the patient 12. Let no man judge of himself or of the blessings and efficacy of the Sacrament it self or of the prosperity and acceptation of his service in this ministery by any sensible relish by the gust and deliciousnesse which he sometimes perceives and other times does not perceive For these are fine accidents and given to some persons often to others very seldom to all irregularly as God please and sometimes are the effects of natural and accidental dispositions and sometimes are illusions But that no man may fall into inconvenience for want of them we are to consider that the want of them proceeds from diverse causes 1. It may be the palate of the Soul is indispos'd by listlesness or sorrow anxiety or weariness 2. It may be we are too much immerg'd in secular affairs and earthly affections 3. Or we have been unthankfull to God when we have received some of these spiritual pleasures and he therefore withdraws those pleasant entertainments 4. Or it may be we are therefore without relish and gust because the Sacrament is too great for our weakness like the bright Sun to a mortal eye the object is too big for our perceptions and our little faculties 5. Sometimes God takes them away least we be lifted up and made vain 6. Sometimes for the confirmation and exercise of our faith that we may live by faith and not by sense 7. Or it may be that by this driness of spirit God intends to make us the more fervent and resign'd in our direct and solemn devotions by the perceiving of our wants and weakness and in the infinite inability and insufficiency of our selves 8. Or else it happens to us irremediably and inevitably that we may perceive these accidents are not the fruits of our labour but gifts of God dispensed wholly by the measures of his own choice 9. The want of just and severe dispositions to the Holy Sacrament may possibly occasion this uncomfortableness 10. Or we do not relish the Divine Nutriment now so as at other times for want of spiritual mastication that is because we have not considered deeply and meditated wisely and holily 11. Or there is in us too much self-love and delight in and adherence to the comforts we find in other objects 12. Or we are carelesse of little sins and give too much way to the dayly incursions of the smaller irregularities of our lives If upon the occasion of the want of these sensible comforts and delightful relishes we examine the causes of the want and suspect our selves in these things where our own faults may be the causes and there make amends or if we submit our selves in those particulars where the causes may relate to God we shall do well and receive profit But unlesse our own sin be the cause of it we are not to make any evil judgment of our selves by reason of any such defect much lesse diminish our great value of the blessings consequent to a worthy communion 13. But because the pardon of sins is intended to be the great effect of a worthy Communion and of this men are most solicitous and for this they pray passionately and labour earnestly and almost all their lives and it may be in the day of their death have uncertain souls and therefore of this men are most desirous to be satisfied if they apprehend themselves in danger that is if they be convinced of their sin and be truly penitent although this effect seems to be least discernable and to be a secret reserved for the publication and trumpet of the Arch-Angel at the day of Doom yet in this we can best be satisfied For because when our sins are unpardoned we are under the wrath of God to be expressed as he pleases and in the method of eternal death now if God intends not to pardon us he will not bless the means of pardon if we shall not return to his final pardon we shall not passe through the intermedial if he will never give us glory he will never give us the increase of grace If therefore we repent of our sins and pray for pardon if we confess them and forsake them if we fear God and love him if we find that our desires to please him do increase that we are more watchful against sin and hate it more that we are thirsty after righteousnesse if we find that we increase in duty then we may look upon the tradition of the holy
intrusted in a greater he that does not pray holily and prosperously can never communicate acceptably This therefore must be severely and prudently examined But let us remember this that there is nothing fit to be presented to God but what is great and â—xcellent for nothing comes from him but what is great and best and nothing should be returned to him that is little and contemptible in its kinde It is a mysterious elegancie that is in the Hebrew of the Old Testament when the Spirit of God would call any thing very great or very excellent he calls it of the Lord so the affrightment of the Lord that is a great affrightment fell upon them and the fearful fire that fell upon the shepherds and sheep of Job is called the fire of God and when David took the speare and water-pot from the head of Saul while he and his guards were sleeping it is said that the sleep of the Lord that is a very great sleep was fallen upon them Thus we read of the flames of God and a land of the darknesse of God that is vehement flames and a land of exceeding darknesse and the reason is because when God strikes he strikes vehemently so that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God And on the other side when he blesses he blesses excellently and therefore when Naomie blessed Boaz she said Let him be blessed of the Lord that is according to the Hebrew manner of speaking Let him be exceedingly blessed In proportion to all this whatsoever is offered to God should be of the best it should be a devout Prayer a fervent humble passionate supplication He that prays otherwise must expect the curses and contempt of his lukewarmness and will be infinitely unworthy to come to the holy Communion whether they that come intend to present their Prayers to God in the union of Christs intercession which is then solemnly imitated and represented An indevout Prayer can never be joined with Christs Prayers Fire will easily combine with fire and flame marries flame but a cold devotion and the fire of this Altar can never be friendly and unite in one pyramid to ascend together to the regions of God and the Element of love If it be a prayer of God that is fit to be intitled fit to be presented unto him it must be most vehement and holy The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man only can be confident to prevail nothing else can ever be sanctified by a conjunction with this sacrifice of prayer which must be consumed by a heavenly fire There is not indeed any greater indication of our worthiness or unworthiness to receive the holy Communion than to examine and understand the state of our daily prayer SECT V. Of preparatory examination of our selves in some other instances HE that comes to the holy Communion must examine himself concerning his passions whether that which usually transports him to undecency and shame to sin and folly be brought under the dominion of grace under the command of reason under the Empire of the spirit For the passions of the soul are the violences and storms of reason neither reason nor grace can be heard to speak when they are loud and in vain it is that you tell a passionate person of the interests of wisdom and Religion We see it in fools who have no allay of reason their anger is rage their jealousie is madness their desires are ravenous their loves are troublesome and unseasonable their hopes are groundless but ever confident their fears are by chance but alwayes without measure and a fool when his belly is full may as soon be perswaded into temperate discourses as he that is passionate to be obedient to God and to the rules of his own felicity A great fear and a constant vertue are seldom found in one man and a coward is vertuous by chance and so song as he is let alone but unless the fear of God be greater than the fear of man it is in the power of his enemy whether that man shall be happy or wise And so it is in a great or easie anger every man and every thing can put a peevish person out of his Religion It cannot in these and all the like cases be well unless by examining we find that our spirit is more meek our passion easier overcome and the paroxysms or fits return lesse frequently and the symptomes be lesse malignant In this instance we must be quick and severe and begin betimes to take a course with these vermin and vipers of the soul. Suetonius tells that when the witty flatterers of Cesar had observed that no frogs did breed in his Grandfathers Villa which was in the suburbs of Rome they set themselves to invent a reason which should flatter the Prince and boldly told abroad that when young Octavius was a childe he once in sport forbad them to make a noise and for ever after they were silent and left those pools ever since Octavius began to speak they left off to make their noises and their dwellings there If we suppresse our passions that make inarticulate noises in the soul if betimes and in their infancie we make them silent we shall find peace in all our dayes But an old passion an inveterate peevishness an habitual impotency of lust and vile desires are like an old Lion he will by no means be made tame and taught to eat the meat of peace and gentleness If thy passion be lasting and violent thou art in a state of evil if it be sudden and frequent transient and volatile thou wilt often fall into sin and though every passion be not a sin yet every excess of passion is a diminution of reason and Religion and when the acts are so frequent that none can number them what effects they leave behind and how much they disorder the state of grace none can tell Either therefore suffer no passion to transport and govern you or no examination can signifie any thing For no man can say that a very passionate man is a very good man or how much he is beloved of God who playes the fool so frequently nor how long God will love him who is at the mercy of his imperious passion which gives him laws and can every day change his state from good to bad It was well said of one If you give the reines to grief every thing that crosses thee can produce the biggest grief and the causes of passions are as they are made within He that checks at every word and is jealous of every look and disturb'd at every accident and takes all things by the wrong handle and reflects upon all disturbances switches and spurs his passion and strives to overtake sin and to be tied to infelicity but nothing can secure our Religion but binding our passions in chains and doubling our guards upon them least like mad-folkâ— they break their locks and bolts and
to the contrary such which Plutarch compares to windy eggs which though they look fairly yet produce no birds Now by this consideration it is not intended that a man must defer his Communion till he hath fully performed all his purposes of a holy life for then he should never Communicate till he dies but by this we are advised to make such inqâ—iry and to use such cautions and to require such indications of the reality of our purposes as becomes wise interested and considering persons who are undone if they be deceived and receive damage by the prophane and uâ—holy usages of the Divine Mysteries if they were cozen'd and abused themselves in the sinceriâ—y and â—fficacy of their preparatory purposes Plato tells that Alcâ—biades did sometimes wish Socratâ—s hâ—d been dead because he was ashamed to see him for that he had not kept the promises which he had so often made to him If we who often have communicated do find that the purposes of reformation which we have formerly made proved ineffective if we perceive that we have begged pardon for our lust and yet still remain under the power of the passion if we have deplored our pride and yet cannot endure to have others preferred before us if we have resolved against our hasty angers and yet after the Communion find our peevishness to return as often and to abide as long and still to forrage and to prevail we are like those foolish birds who having conceived by the wind lay their eggs in the sand and forget the place and the waters wash them away In such cases as these something more must be done besides making resolutions Let every man make some experiment of himself and give some instances of performance and get ground of his passion and make no great haste to passe instantly to the holy Communion you may more safely stay one day longer than passe on one minute too soon but be sure of this the fierce saying of a few warm and holy words is not a sufficient preparation to these sacred Mysteries and they who upon such little confidencies as these have hastned hither have afterwards found causes enough to deplore their profane follies and presumptions for they see when they have eaten the Sop they go out to sin against the Lord as soon as the sacred Calice hath refreshed their lips they dishonour God with their mouths and retain their affections here below fastned to earth and earthly things This is it that makes our Communions have so little fruit Men resolve to be good and then Communicate they resolve they will hereafter but they are not yet and yet they will Communicate they resolve and think no more of it as if performance were no part of the duty and the obligation In such cases it is not good to be hasty for a little stay will do better than twenty arguments to inforce your purposes You must make new resolutions and re-enforce your old but if you have already tried and have sound your purposes to be easily untwisted and that like the Scenes at Masques they were only for that show to serve at that solemnity learn to be more wary and more afraid the next time The first folly was too bad but to do so often is intolerable But here are two Cases to be resolved Question I. But of what nature and extent must our preparatory resolution be Must we resolve against all sin or against some kinds only If only against some sorts then we are not clean all over If against all then we find it impossible for us to perform it And then either it is not necessary to resolve or not necessary to perform or not necessary to Communicate I answer It is one thing to say I shall never fall I shall never be mistaken I shall never be surpris'd or I shall never slacken my watchfulness and attention and another thing to resolve against the love and choice of every sin It is not always in our powers to avoid being surprised or being deceived or being dull and sleepy in our carefulnesse and watches Every good and well-meaning Christian cannot promise to himself security but he may be tempted or over-pressed with a sudden fear when he cannot consider and be put sometimes to act before he can take counsel and though there is no one sin we do but we do it voluntarily and might escape it if we would make use of the grace of God yet the inference cannot run forth to all we cannot therefore always escape all any one we can but not every one The reason is because concerning any one if we make a question then we can and do deliberate then we can attend and we can consider and summon up the arts and auxiliaries of Reason and Religion and we can hear both sides speak and therefore we can chuse for he that can deliberate can take either side for if he could not chuse when he hath considered which to chuse he were more a fool in considering than by any inconsideration in the world for he not only does unreasonably by sinning but he considers unreasonably and to no purpose since his consideration cannot alter the case Certain it is by him that can consider every sin can be avoided But then this is as certain that it is not possible always to consider but surprise and ignorance haste and dulness indifference and weariness are the entries at which some things that are not good will enter but these things are such which by how much they are the lesse voluntary by so much they are the less imputed Thus therefore he that means to Communicate worthily must resolve against every sin the greatest and the least that is 1. He must resolve never to commit any sin concerning which he can deliberate and 2. He must resolve so to stand upon his gâ—ard that he may not frequently be surprised he must use prayer against all and prudent caution in his whole conversation and all the instruments of grace for the destruction of the whole body of sin and though in this valley of tears there are but few so happy souls as to triumph over all infirmities we know of none and if God hath any such on earth they are peculiar jewels kept in undiscerned cabinets yet all that intend to serve God heartily must aim at a return to that state of innocence to the possibility of which Christ hath as certainly recovered us as we lost it by our own follies and the sin of Adam that is we must continually strive and every day get ground of our passions and grow in understanding and the fear of God that we be not so often deluded nor in so many things be ignorant nor be so easily surprised nor so much complain of our weakness nor the imperfection of our actions be in so many instances unavoidable But in the matters of choice in voluntary and deliberate actions we must resolve not to sin at all In