Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	church_n	communicate_v	communion_n	2,762	5	9.2903	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B04377	The spiritual guide which disintangles the soul, and brings it by the inward way, to the getting of perfect contemplation, and the rich treasure of internal peace. / Written by Dr. Michael de Molinos, priest : with a short treatise concerning daily communion, by the same author. Translated from the Italian copy, printed at Venice, 1685.	Molinos, Miguel de, 1628-1696.; Molinos, Miguel de, 1628-1696. Brief treatise concerning daily communion.	1685 (1685)	Wing M2387A; ESTC R214007	123,380	287

precept of the Church always looks at the benefit of the faithful and so great is our luke-warmness and the frailty of our times that a precept of Daily Communion would be an occasion of sin and ruine and therefore the Church does not injoyn Christians by precept any more than one Communion in a year though the desires that through devotion men would Communicate every day Many men shift off their coming daily to this Divine Banquet that they may not be taken notice of for it and that they may give no occasion to others to grumble and the Ministers hearing this reason hold their tongues and rest satisfied O hurtful silence must they permit for worldly respects that the faithful should lose so great a benefit Is it possible that they should let 'em live at a distance and separate from God and his sweet and loving friendship because the world should not censure ' em if there should be any great account made of what the world says not only the Soul would be lost but also the judgment Is it not known that the world makes it its business to speak ill of what good is and to persecute those that do not take part with it All those that serve great men do make open shew of the degree of their office greatness and dignity and shall a Christian think it a shame to himself to Communicate and be seen in the service of Jesus Christ If it were an evil work to Communicate every day it might breed scandal but if it be the best work that a Christian can do why should he keep from it through an idle fear of offending his neighbour The Jews were offended at the good works of Jesus Christ but for all that his Majesty never left off doing ' em He that doth ill and interprets the good that others do in an evil sense 't is he that gives cause for the scandal but to do well was never a scandal much less can so great a good as Communicating be one If a man should take offence by seeing us eat surely we would not for all that be such fools as to starve our selves We ought to take great heed of following vanities and worldly pleasures that we may not by them offend or scandalize our Neighbour from these vices we ought to keep our selves not from Daily Communion because this cannot cause scandal but will rather edifie our Neighbour and by our good example it may be he may come to change his life and resolve himself to frequent the Sacraments O how many people are there that are cheated by these worldly respects O unhappy men they are not ashamed to be base in their lives and yet they are ashamed to be Christians and to be known for such CHAP. III. Wherein are shewn some of the great benefits of which a faithful man is deprieved by being prohibited the Communion when he is sufflciently disposed for it THat the Minister may see and take good notice of the hurt which he does by deprieving the faithful of the Communion that desire and ask it without the guilt of Mortal Sin it will be necessary to lye before him some of those infinite benefits of which he defrauds 'em onely in one Communion that he may undeceive himself that deprieves 'em of infinite good for mortification sake First he deprieves such a one of the increase of grace and glory which he receives in the Communion whose effect is infallible ex opere operato though he should have venial sins about him He also deprieves him of the mortification of all his five senses and powers which he therein performs whilst his Eyes his Smelling his Tast his Touch his Imagination his Understanding and all his knowledge and capacity do tell him that that Host is Bread by all this he is humbled mortified and subdued whilst he believes that it is not that which he feels and tasts but that his God and Lord is in it He deprieves him also by taking the Communion from him of the cleansing of his sins and evil habits and being preserved from 'em for the time to come of many helps which are therein administred to him for the performance of every good thing and avoiding every evil one and it may happen that the Eternal Salvation or Damnation of a Soul may depend upon one of these helps He deprieves him of the lessening the pains of Purgatory which is participated in every Communion He deprieves him of the high acts of faith hope and charity which he exercises by believing that he receives that God whom he sees not nor feels and hoping in him whom he has not seen and being united with him by love God is goodness it self and he is willing to be communicated through love to Souls by means of the Divine and Sacramental Bread Is there a greater happiness in the world can there be a greater felicity and shall there be any Minister to deprieve the Soul of this benefit In this wonderful Sacrament Christ is united to the Soul and becomes one and the same thing with it In me manet ego in illo St. John 5. which fineness of love is the most profound admirable and worthy of consideration and gratitude because there is no more to give nor to receive and what Minister shall deprieve the Soul of this boundless grace All Blessings do here meet together in this precious Food here all desires of God are fulfilled here is the loving and sacramental Union here 's the Peace the Conformity the Transformation of God with the Soul and the Soul with God. By receiving Jesus in this Sacrament the Eternal Father and the Divine Spirit is also received here are all the Vertues Charity Hope Purity Patience and Humility because Christ our Lord begets all Vertue in the Soul by means of this heavenly Food and what a Heart must the Ministers have to forbid the Soul so great a Happiness If one onely degree of Grace is a gift of inestimable Value and so precious that 't is not to be bought for a thousand Worlds being a particle of God himself and a formal participation of the Divine Nature which makes us his Children and Friends Heirs of Heaven and the Habitation of the most Holy Trinity and if never so little Grace be worth more than all the Vertues Alms and Penances and the removing Mountains as St. Paul says and giving all away to the Poor is a meer Nothing without Grace How then can it be well to deprive the Faithful of the increase of Grace which he might find onely in one Communion How can the Minister deprive him of that and of many others that follow it without giving 'em other things equivalent to those they lose What can be of equal value with habitual Grace which a faithful Man might receive neither can the Humility which he may exercise nor the Reverence nor the Mortification upon the account of which he leaves off the Communion be worth so much

who reckon themselves Ministers of Jesus Christ ought to make it their proper work and business to set themselves against the Devil's intentions not depriving people of their Daily Communion but advising 'em to it and procuring it for ' em Fryer Joseph of St. Mary after he had told us the words of the holy Council of Trent where he says that he desires that all men would communicate daily in his Apology for frequent Communion has these following words Is it therefore possible O my Christian Fathers and Brethren that the Church should have any such children who do so openly contradict her and that understanding from their Mother that it would be a good thing for Christians to communicate every day they should say it is not convenient and so oppose themselves to her and contradict her Certainly this looks like the Devil's temptation to hinder the growth of Souls though it be done with good zeal and to such as be zealous of God's honour and of the Church their Mother this will not look well Thus far the Author Now let any Summist and Learned Man that has a great opinion of himself see whether it be lawful to oppose the Authority of so great a Tribunal and the laudable Custom of the Church and her Declarations against the Practice and Doctrine of the Apostles and against the Preaching of the holy Doctors of the Church Let no man mutter or deny the holy Communion says Lewis Fundone tract de diu Sacr. p. 2. c. 21. fol. 149. as if there were no occasion for it and let him have a care that God do not deny him Heaven since to condemn this is to condemn the commendable Customs and most ancient Practice of the Church and the greatest Servants of God. Thus far the Author Father Peter of Marseilles a Benedictine addit ad memor Compostel fol. 62. says That as often as a man communicates without the guilt of mortal sin either by not having committed it or by being pardoned it he receives grace by it This disposition is not of so small moment as some think since the holy Council of Trent thinks it enough for reverence and holiness They are mightily to be commended that do their best to perswade the faithful to communicate daily and consequently what a great error and prejudice of Souls are they that hinder Lay-men the Sacramental Communion every day Nothing but Mortal Sin says St. Thomas can keep a Christian from the Communion How therefore does it come to pass that the Ministers keep men from it when they have no Mortal sin to indispose ' em It would be well considered that Christ is in this Sacrament for salve for our wounds for comfort to our troubles and for strength in our adversities and lastly for a pledge and memorial of the love that he bears to Souls and that this great Lord stands crying out whether there be any that would have him and the Souls answer that they will have him but asking the Ministers of the Church to give 'em their Lord and divide to them their daily bread the Ministers turn the deaf ear to it being Stewards of Gods house and are very pinching and niggardly in distributing that which the Lord commands and so freely gives Such a stinginess as this is to be lamented with Tears of Blood. Who would not weep to see that when Gods hand is so open in giving his servants should be so close-fisted and covetous in distributing and that God being so bountiful of his own blessings which cost him his blood they should be so greedy in a thing that cost 'em nothing and in a word this Sacrament being that open fountain of David free to all the Sons of Jacob who go to it for the pretious water without giving any thing for it the Ministers sell it so dear that it costs many even tears of blood to obtain it which gives 'em the lamentation of Jeremy that they are fain to buy the water which is their own as dear as if it did belong to some body else Master John d'Avila a Man known sufficiently for his exemplary Goodness and Learning and Preaching being asked whether a Superiour or one that had the cure of Souls might deny the Communion to him that should ask it of him every day not having lawful impediment made answer thus My opinion is that no lawful impediment appearing the Prelate and he that in his room hath the business of Administrating the Eucharist is obliged to give it to him that is under him every time that he asks it He that denies the most holy Sacrament is unjust and deprieves him of his right and due that asks it A Christian as St. Thomas says has so much a right to ask it that the Prelate cannot deny it him except it be for a publick sin Asking it in publick he ought to give it him though he knows that he has Sin in secret and then how much more ought he to one that asks it devoutly he is cruel he takes away the Spiritual Bread from his Child and I must condemn him for a sinner in it All this says the above-mentioned Author in his Treat 23. Part 3. Will they say if it be a good and holy thing to Communicate every day why doth not the Church then command it and why did not the Founders of Religions who were indued with so much light leave it for a rule and why did not some Saints imbrace this frequency Saint Mark the Evangelist cut off his Thumb that they might not make him ordain Saint Francis of Assize would never be a Priest Saint Benet was a long time without Communicating Before I come to answer I will ask whether it be well that a man in health should not eat something every day because the Law doth not command it why have some Saints abstained from food some days whether single life be good and not Marriage as St Paul says 1 Cor. 7. because the Law commands it not and why some Saints have not been Married whether it be a good and holy thing to hear Mass daily because the Church does not command it and why some Saints have retired into the desert where they could not hear it Again before I come to answer I will suppose that some examples of the Saints are more to be admired than imitated and that therefore they do not make a general rule that if some have not Communicated they were only a few and they that did Communicate numberless and therefore 't will be more safe to follow the most and not the fewest I answer the difficulty and the question that things necessary ought to be commanded that which is evil ought to be prohibited and that which is good and holy ought to be advised The holy Church doth always act rightly and therefore she doth not command the faithful to Communicate daily because how holy and good a thing soever it be yet 't is not essentially necessary and the

make us believe they do He hath been mightily conversant in Modern Casuists and Schoolmen and that makes him so ill a Divine as to tell us of receiving good by the Sacrament ex opere operate i. e. Never minding what is done but only the doing the bare action of it I could not for●●●● shewing a mark of dislike when I found him qu●●●ing two such bouncing Authorities out of St Austine and St. Jerome for delivering Souls out of Purgatory by the efficacy of Mass I confess they are very pregnant for his purpose if he can but shew us those Words in the true Writings of those two Fathers but to send us to the Man in the Moon to know further this is not fair nor Scholar-like If any man else will undertake to shew us those Words in the undoubted and unforg'd Works of St. Austine and St. Jerome he will make me for my part in that point A Quietist THE AUTHOR'S Advertisement 'T IS none of my intention to Difcourse in this Subject by the way of Humane Respects or Passion nor to defend hard Controversies nor promote my own Opinions and though I have Written this short Treatise at the continual ingagements and instances of Zealous Persons yet God's greater Glory and the Spiritual advantage of Souls have been my onely desire Nor is it any less my design that by this Treatise and these Reasons the Faithful should govern themselves in the business of frequent Communion without the Prudent and Holy Counsel of their Spiritual Fathers because I always look upon it more fitting to obey their Orders though it should hinder the Communion than to communicate every day according to their own Sense and Judgment This Compendium of the Reasons and Authorities of Councils Saints and Doctors is onely drawn up a-purpose that Confessours may see the small reason there is to hinder those Souls from taking the Communion which desire it receive good by it and are obedient to their Directions A Short TREATISE Concerning Daily Communion CHAP. I. No Minister ought to keep a faithful Person from the Communion that does desire and ask it whilst he doth not know his Conscience defiled with mortal Sin. THE Council of Trent treating of the Preparation which Priests and Lay-men ought to make for the worthy Receiving of the Holy Eucharist hath these following words Sess 13. Cap. 17. The Custom of the Church makes it clear that Examination and Proof is necessary in order to the Communion that no man knowing himself guilty of mortal Sin though he may seem Contrite to himself come to the Sacrament unless he have before been at Sacramental Confession Which comprehends all Christians and even Priests who are bound by their Office to Celebrate it from whence 't is clearly to be inferred that the Council makes no other disposition necessary for the Communicating of Lay-men and the Priest's saying Mass than not to have any mortal Sin. Why then should the Ministers be a hindrance to those which have that disposition The Ministers will not say that their Authority is greater than that of the Council nor that they are more Learned than all those Fathers of the Church that came to it nor will they say less that they have a greater light from God than that which he then communicated to his Spouse the Church Therefore the Ministers ought not to require a greater disposition than being without mortal Sin whilst the Council requires no more Either the Ministers and Priests which say Mass daily have this Holiness and Perfection themselves which they require in Laymen or else they have it not they will not say they have it because it would then be pride in 'em If they have it not and yet Celebrate Mass every day why do they require it from Laymen in order to the granting 'em the Communion daily 'T is good to advise 'em to this Perfection but if they should not have it it will not be reasonable to deprive 'em of so great a good because they may have reason to fear that Christ our Lord may say to 'em as he did to the Pharisees St Matthew 23.24 That they bind heavy burdens upon men and they themselves will not touch 'em with one of their fingers And that also is verified which David said Psalm 61.10 That men are deceitful in the weight Mendaces filii hominum in stateris Since they have one weight for themselves and another for Laymen If the Council judges that not being in mortal Sin is a worthy disposition towards saying Mass daily consecrating and offering Sacrifice which is the holiest Service how much more worthy will such a disposition be for onely the receiving the Communion If Councils the Church Popes Saints and Doctors require no greater disposition to receive fruit from this Sacrament than not being in mortal Sin why must the Ministers require a greater The Council of Trent hath the following words Sess 28. Cap. 6. Optaret quidem Sancta Synodus ut in singulis missis fideles adstantes non solum spirituali affectu sed Sacramentali etiam Eucharistiae perceptione Communicarent quo ad eos hujus sacrificii fructus uberior perveniret That is the holy Council would look upon it as a very good thing that in every days Mass the Faithful who assist at it would be Communicated not onely Spiritually and in their desires but also Sacramentally by receiving the Holy Eucharist that they might thus obtain the more abundant benefit by this most Holy Sacrament The Council therefore desires that the Faithful would Communicate every day that they hear Mass with the disposition of having no mortal Sin as it signified Sess 13. Cap. 7. Will any Ministers say that this is not well and so openly set themselves in opposition to the desires of the Church The Congregation of the Council declared it an Errour that any Bishops in a Capriccio should limit and hinder Daily Communion from being taken by Merchants and House-keepers The holy Rota reports it in the year 1587 Barbos in Concil Trid. Sup. c. 22. and after it had Decreed that all Laymen might be communicated even every day though they should be Merchants and House-keepers it adds the following words Quapropter exhortandi sunt fideles ut sicut quotidie peccant ita quotidie medicinam accipiant That is wherefore the Faithful are to be exhorted that as they Sin daily so they daily receive this Medicine of the Sacrament of the Eucharist And the same Council of Trent says Sess 13. c. 2. de Instit Sanctiss Sacr. Qui manducat me ipse vivet propter me tanquam antidotum quo liberemur a culpis quotidianis a peccatis mortalibus praeservemur The Communion is as an Antidote to free us from daily Sins and preserve us from mortal Sins If the Council and its Decree speaks here not of the Basils and Antonies nor of the Catharines and Clares as some say it is required for 'em to be but of those that Sin

she did in depriving her of the Communion The Saint obeyed and in recompence of her obedience it seems the Lord making good the Voice of her Prophecy sent the Abbess a great fit of sickness which afflicted her much with continual and sharp pains till acknowledging her fault and that this chastisement befel her for her indiscreet zeal used to the Saint she sent for her and gave her leave to follow her holy custom and so the fault ending the punishment ended also and the disease which had brought her to a very sad condition Other persons also who in like manner used to keep a pother with the Saint about her often Communions repenting of what they had done askt her pardon And other of their complices in their prate and gossippings because they never laid to heart what they had said of her were punished of God with a sudden death In the third Book of St. Gertrudes Life chap. 23. 't is told that a certain Preacher or Confessor being a little warm'd with the zeal of God's Honour took a pet at some religious Women thinking that they were often communicated At this the Saint made a Prayer and askt the Lord Whether this were acceptable to him or no The Lord made her this answer It being my delight to be with the children of men and I having of infinite love left this Sacrament to be often received in remembrance of me and being in it to the faithful to the World's end whosoever shall with words or other ways of perswasion to go about to hinder any from taking it who are free from mortal sin doth in a certain manner hinder me and rob me of my pleasure and delight which I might have with ' em Some Ministers there are who have had a mind to restrain this matter too much as if the Sacrament were not instituted for Laymen or as if they had no right to ask it as often as they are disposed to receive it O as if Christ our Lord had instituted it with a limitation or precept that it should not be taken but by such and such men and on such and such days Expert Teachers do strangely wonder to see the scruple and cautiousness with which some Confessors speak about this matter as if the Communion were a very dangerous thing for Souls or through the too much frequenting of it the Honour of God or the Vertue of the Sacraments must needs be lost or lessened whereas the frequency of it is the very remedy and health of Souls and the work in which there is the greatest honour done to God and which they ought most to endeavour who desire his glory And if the Minister should at any time find himself dissatisfied at this let him peruse that holy Appointment of the Church De Consecr dist 2. Aug. in Ps 48. Non prohibeat dispensator manducare pingues terrae in mensa Domini And if the dispenser himself cannot hinder this much less can they hinder it who have nothing to do to dispense it and if this which has been said is notenough let him be afraid of those infinite Punishments which God has used upon those Ministers which have forbid it But for all this the Communion should always be used at the spiritual Father's order who neither ought to hinder nor delay it when he knows the Soul that desires it and reaps good of it to be so disposed as the Council requires And if another Confessor should order him the quite contrary let him follow the judgment of that ghostly Father who knows better than any other how his Conscience is and by whose Counsel he goes and acts safely CHAP. II. Answering the Reasons which those Ministers give which hinder the Faithful from Communicating and the Priest from Celebrating having their Consciences free from Mortal Sin. EIther the Communion must be forbidden to those that ask it and desire it without the guilt of Mortal Sin because they are not worthy of it or for the greater reverence of it or because much Familiarity breeds Contempt or else for Mortification and Penance The first reason of not being worthy is not sufficient because if they make a Christian forbear till he be worthy of the Communion then he must never receive it because no man is worthy to receive Christ no not Heaven it self Whereupon many holy men say that the Communion taken to day is a disposition for that to morrow Besides that Councils the Saints and Doctors do assure us that not being in Mortal Sin is that necessary worthiness and disposition which is required for the Communion we are not to go to it as worthy but as having need of it we do not go to sanctifie Jesus Christ but to be sanctified and healed by him by the means of the Sacrament as St. Ambrose tells us I who do continually sin ought continually to receive the Medicine of this Sacrament against the pestilent Disease of Sin. Ep. 208. Nor may a Christian be debarr'd the Communion for the second reason of greater reverence because 't is contrary to St. Austin's Doctrine who says Ep. 26. de verb. Dom. Serm. 28. that 't is better to communicate through Devotion than let it alone through Reverence Dionysius Carthusianus says the same thing 'T is better to communicate through Love than abstain from it through Humility and Fear De Euch. cap. 5. sect 6. There is not more devotion love and respect shewed to God by less frequent coming to the Sacrament but rather he loves and fears God most who without mortal sin and with a desire of his own spiritual advantage comes every day to it and the delaying of it is not a greater disposedness nor veneration but a manifest temptation By keeping away they think to find better devotion and fervour and in the mean time they are dry luke-warm and cold as we see by experience These people that will not communicate unless they be sensibly and actually devout are like those who are cold who will not come near the fire till they are warm or like those sick men that will not ask the Physicians counsel till they are grown well Christ's Body is like a spiritual fire let us approach towards it and it will warm us The flesh of Christ says Damascene is a live coal which heats and burns The third reason which some give for the hindring Christians the Communion that desire and ask it is a certain whimsey or capriccio which they imprint in their minds telling 'em that to go frequently to the Sacrament is too much familiarity and that this breeds contempt Nimia familiaritas parit contemptum O hurtful Deceit O pernicious Doctrine though taught by the Ministers with no bad zeal Is it possible that among so many Saints and Doctors of the Church which have written professedly upon this Point as is manifest by the former Chapter none of 'em should light upon the reason that these Ministers talk of 'T is well inferred therefore that 't

is of small consideration and account True it is that too much familiarity is sometimes the occasion of contempt but of what and to whom The too much familiarity with a vile thing occasions contempt but how can familiar conversation with a thing that is grave good and amiable how can this cause contempt In earthly things familiarity begets contempt because the more one man gets acquainted and intimate with another he discovers his defects by degrees and so values him less than he did at first But with God the thing is quite otherwise because as the creature proceeds in the knowledge of that fountain of true perfection by the same measure the love and esteem of that great Lord grows more If by communicating daily there could be any defect discovered in Jesus Christ certain it is that this frequency and familiarity would breed contempt of him but the more that boundless ocean of perfection is received the more is his goodness known and the greater doth the love the respect and the reverence to him grow And if it were true that too much frequency occasioned contempt it would be necessary to give laws to God himself and take care not to render himself so easie and familiar to the Saints and Angels of Heaven with whom he hath so great and continual an intimacy Who is more familiar with God than the Angels who continually behold his divine countenance and what doth this make 'em leave off honouring reverencing and loving him But they will say it is not good to abuse this familiarity and intimacy with God. What a blindness is this what should the meaning of this be unless they would not have us so united with God and have a mind that we should serve him at a distance and not near and more by name than affection These words arise rather from the little will they have that we should receive this divine Lord than from the respect of not displeasing him if they had true charity and did but heartily love Jesus Christ they would despise all fear and not remove us from the frequency of this divine Sacrament nay they would desire and prompt us on to receive him daily that we might be united unto God. If they know that Christ desires to be united with us why should they be unwilling that we should be united with him our great Lord fearing where no fear is if they see that an infinite God desires our familiarity and friendship what is it that they build upon to hinder us from being his friends do they think that by this continual frequency that will be tedious to us without which every thing else is tedious do they believe that that will make our life uneasie which gives us life that that good will be a trouble to us from which all goodness proceeds and in a word that he who is the pleasure and delight of all Creatures of all the Seraphims of all the Saints and of the whole Court of Heaven will be a tediousness to us true it is that he satiates but never becomes tedious Nor any less ought a Christian to be denied the Communion to mortifie him which is the fourth reason because in Mortification to be without the Communion he only exercises one Vertue and in the Communion he exercises 'em all Would it therefore be well that a Christian for obtaining one Vertue should be deprived of all the rest 'T is great pity to deprive him of the great good he receives in the Communion only for mortification-sake which being well thought of will prove rather a privation of good than the vertue of mortification Besides to be able to say Mass and communicate perfectly it is not the best way to leave off communicating and celebrating but rather 't is the best that can be to say Mass and communicate every day though it be with some imperfections To inable a man to pray perfectly or to obtain some vertue in perfection 't is not a good way to leave off doing acts of that vertue Who will say that to make a perfect Prayer 't is a good way to let it alone some days and that to have patience 't is a good way not do any acts of it rather the best means to obtain patience and to make a perfect Prayer is to exercise those things day by day though there should be some imperfection in ' em If the divine Majesty vouchsafes to be with sinners to lodge in their houses to eat with 'em at the same table for which he bears for his arms and commands to be fixed on the doors of his house an Inscription that says This Lord receives sinners and eats at one table with 'em why is the Minister and Servant of this same Lord so loath to receive a Christian if he be changed and mended by repentance is it therefore reason that the Ministers of this Lord should limit a thing not limited by their Master The Lord invites us and calls us to his banquet and will the servant pretend to give leave to those who are invited when they are introduced to God in his own house Let 'em come in if they have no mortal sin about 'em and if they have 't is washed away in the fountain of repentance Put this on the account of their Lord that will have it so and commands it though it seem inconvenient to the Minister wherefore the Lord may answer him with great reason 'T is well known that the sinner costs thee nothing and that having so narrow a breast as thou hast thou admittest him not to the Communion though he desires it and I invite him to it but I came down from Heaven for him and was made man suffering 33 years incredible torments even to death it self I will have him thus penitent as he is and because I am God I have a heart of infinite extent where all how wicked soever they may have been do come if they turn to me and become reform'd by means of repentance Christ our Lord moves the tongue of Angels to exhort men to frequent Communion and the Prince of darkness moves the tongues of men to perswade 'em the contrary The Angel said to Elijah 1 Kings 19.7 Arise and eat for thou hast a long journey to go So the Angel perswades him to the Communion and not only once but twice he waked the Prophet that was asleep to eat Bread the figure of the Eucharist 'T is the property of Angels to invite to frequent Communion Well did St. Jerom say He is an Angel to thee who puts thee upon the Communion and a Devil that hinders thee from it 'T is plain that the Devil shews himself against this Sacrament more than any other in that he seeks by so many disturbances and ways to hinder it amongst which 't is not the least powerful and effectual which he makes use of by Preachers and Confessors and Ministers themselves because many of 'em with a cloak of zeal disturb it Those

nor are they equivalent to that Grace onely which he loses and which he might have had by receiving that Communion And now le ts make up this Account If Restitution ought to be as all the Doctors say conformable to the Good which was taken from one's Neighbour what can he restore which deprives a faithful Man of God himself Would it not be great want of Charity to take from a Man a Mount of Gold onely to gather up a little Grain Onely for one Grain of Mortification if yet there is any in it the Ministers do deprive a Christian of a whole Mount of Blessings which are heaped up together in the Communion If there were no other way to mortifie and try the Soul but this it ought not to be used because by this Mortification they deprive him of a greater good but there are infinite ways of proving and mortifying the Soul besides without doing it so great a Spiritual Prejudice The Blessings of this Sacrament don't end here because besides the increase of Grace it sustains and gives new strength to the Soul to resist Temptations it satisfies the desires takes away the hunger of temporal things unites with Christ and his Members who are the Just and Righteous breaks the power of Satan gives strength to suffer Martyrdom pardons the Venial Sins to which he that Communicates doth not stand affected and keeps from Mortal Sins by vertue of the aid which it doth contribute The Body of Christ says St. Bernard In Serm. Dom is Medicine to the Sick Provision for the Pilgrim fresh Strength to the Weary it delights the Strong it heals the wounded it preserves the Health of Soul and Body And whoever is a worthy Communicant is made more strong to receive Contempt more patient to suffer Reproof more fit to indure Troubles more ready for Obedience and to return the Lord Thanks St. Leo Pope de praec ser 14. de pass Domini says that when a man is Communicated Christ comes to honour him with his Presence to anoint him with his Grace to cure him with his Mercy to heal him with his Blood to raise him by his Death to illuminate him with his Light to inflame him with his Love to comfort him with his infinite Sweetness to be united and espoused with his Soul to make him partaker of his Divine Spirit and of all the Blessings which he purchas'd us by his Cross Dost thou seek says St. Bonaventure de praec where God is thou must expect to find him in this Divine Sacrament which being worthily received do's pardon Sins mitigate Passions gives light to the Understanding satiates the Soul revives Faith encourages Hope inkindles Charity increases Devotion fills with Grace and is the rick Pledge of Glory This Sacrament says St. Thomas Opusc 58. de Sacr. cap. 21. 22 23. drives away evil Spirits defends us from Concupiscence washes off the Stains of the Heart appeases Gods Anger illuminates the Understanding to know him inflames the Will to love him delights the memory with Sweetness confirms the whole man in Goodness frees him from Punishment Everlasting multiplies the merits of good Life and brings him to his Eternal Country The Body of the Lord as he pursues it cap. 24. produces Three principal Effects First it destroys Sin. Secondly it increases Spiritual Blessings Thirdly it comforts men's Souls and in Chap. 25. he says it satiates the Spirit to follow what is good it comforts and strengthens the Soul to shun what is evil it preserves the Life always to praise the Lord. As it is a Sacrifice it remits the Sins of those who are alive and lightens the punishment of those who are in Purgatory and augments the accidental Glory of those who are in Heaven Lastly the Body of Christ is called the Sacrament of Charity because it makes us partakers of the Spirit Divine of the sweet Abode of Christ himself and the rich Transformation of God. 'T would be an endless thing to relate the Blessings which according to the saying of Saints they do receive from this Sacrament who come to partake of it without Mortal Sin and of all these doth the Minister deprive a Christian when he onely forbids him one Communion But more than this deprieving 'em of the Communion he deprieves all the Saints of Heaven all the Angels the most holy Virgin and Christ himself of that accidental glory which accrues to them by every Communion received in grace If the Saints in Heaven have a special accidental glory by every good work though never so small that is done here below as many pious Authors are of opinion with how much more reason will they have it by a work so sublime as the Communion is wherein there is included an immensity of all the wonderful works of God Memoriam fecit mirabilium suorum Psal 110. And if from one onely Communion there are so many blessings as are specified before to be obtained what will there be of the sacrifice of the Mass the gravest the highest work that is in Heaven or Earth And shall there then be Ministers who under pretence of Penance Mortification or the old way must hinder Priests so great so holy and so fruitful a sacrifice Saint Jerom said in Missis defunct Pavi c. 14 that at the least the Soul suffers not in Purgatory whilst Mass is said for it 't was well the Author did not point to us where this blind passage is in Saint Jeromes Works Saint Austin assures us Ballester in the Book of the Crucifix of S. Saviour f. 207. that the Divine Sacrifice is never Celebrated but one of these two things follow upon it either the Conversion of a sinner or the leting loose of some Soul out of Purgatory this is as much Saint Austins saying as t'other is Saint Jeromes William Altisiodorensis was not contented with one Soul but affirmed that by every Mass there were the Lord knows how many Souls that got away from thence Severus in Saint Martins Life gives an account that he set as many Souls at liberty with his Masses as persons assisted at the hearing of ' em Venerable Bede says that the Priest who being not lawfully hindred doth neglect to say Mass deprieves the most holy Trinity of glory and praise the Angels of joy Sinners of pardon the Righteous of grace and help the Souls in Purgatory of cooling and refreshment the Church of the heavenly benefit of Jesus Christ our Lord and the Priest himself of Medicine and help If every Mass therefore has all this of its own what Minister under the colour of zeal shall be so bold as to hinder and defraud the Trinity the Angels the Virgin the Church the Righteous Sinners the Souls in Purgatory and the Priests themselves that desire to celebrate so much glory and so much good without doubt though this be done with zeal yet 't is want of consideration and it will be well to premeditate and consider it better before any goes about to hinder it THE END THE CONTENTS CHAP. 1. No Minister ought to keep a faithful Person from the Communion that does desire and ask it whilst he doth not know his Conscience defiled with mortal Sin. Page 1 Chap. 2. Answering the Reasons which those Ministers give which hinder the Faithful from Communicating and the Priest from Celebrating having their Consciences free from Mortal Sin. Page 17 Chap. 3. Wherein are shewn some of the great benefits of which a faithful man is deprived by being prohibited the Communion when he is sufficiently disposed for it Page 31