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	communion_n	universal_a	2,106	5	9.1629	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

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

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

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

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

though he does not without intending so you 'l clearly find besides that this Traveller with one single and explicit of the Will and Intention travels speaks hears sees reasons eats drinks and does several other things without any interruption to his first intention nor yet of his actual journying to Rome 112. It is just so in the contemplative Soul A man having once made the resolution of doing the Will of God and of being in his Presence he still perseveres in that act so long as he recals not the same although he be taken up in hearing speaking eating or in any other external good work or function of his Calling and Quality St Thomas Aquinas expresseth all this in few words Contra Gentiles l. 3. c. 138. Un 2. Non enim Oportet quod qui propter deum aliquod iter arripuit in qualibet parte itineris de Deo cogitet actu 113. Thou 'lt say that all Christians walk in this Exercise because all have Faith and may although they be not internal fulfil this Doctrine especially such as go in the external Way of Meditation and Ratiocination It is true all Christians have Faith and more particularly they who Meditate and Consider But the Faith of those who advance by the inward Way is much different because it is a lively Faith universal and indistinct and by consequent more practical active effectual and illuminated insomuch as the Holy Ghost enlightens the Soul that is best disposed most and that Soul is always best disposed which holds the Mind recollected for proportionably to the Recollection the Holy Ghost Illuminates And albeit it be true that God communicates some light in Meditation yet it is so scanty and different from that which he communicates to the Mind recollected in a pure and universal Faith that the one to the other is no more than like two or three Drops of Water in respect of an Ocean since in Meditatation two or three particular Truths are communicated to the Soul but in the internal Recollection and the Exercise of pure and universal Faith the Wisdom of God is an abundant Ocean which is communicated in that obscure simple general and universal Knowledge 114. In like manner Resignation is more perfect in these Souls because it springs from the internal and infused Fortitude which grows as the in ternal Exercise of pure Faith with Silence and Resignation is continued In the manner that the Gifts of God's Spirit grow in contemplative Souls for though these divine Gifts are to be found in all those that are in a State of Grace nevertheless they are as it were dead without strength and in a manner infinitely different from these which reign in contemplative Persons by reason of their illustration vivacity and efficacy 115. From all which be perswaded that the inward Soul accustomed to go daily at certain hours to Prayer with the Faith and Resignation I have mentioned to thee walks continually in the Presence of God. All holy expert and mystical Masters teach this true and important Doctrine because they have all had one and the same Master who is the Holy Ghost CHAP. XVI A Way by which one may enter into internal Recollection through the most Holy Humanity of our Lord Christ. 116. THere are two sorts of Spiritual Men Diametrically contrary to one another The one say That the Mysteries of the Passion of Christ are always to be Considered and Meditated upon The others running to the opposite extream teach That the Meditation of the Mysteries of the Life Passion and Death of our Saviour is not Prayer nor yet a Remembrance of them but the exalted Elevation to God whose Divinity Contemplates the Soul in quiet and silence ought onely to be called Prayer 117. It is certain that our Lord Christ is the Guide the Door and the Way as he himself hath said in his own Words John 14. I am the way the truth and the life And before the Soul can be fit to enter into the Presence of the Divinity and to be united with it it is to be Washed with the precious Bloud of a Redeemer and Adorned with the rich Robes of his Passion 118. Our Lord Christ with his Doctrine and Example is the Mirrour the Guide of the Soul● the Way and the onely Door by which we enter into those Pastures of Life Eternal and into the vast Ocean of the Divinity Hence it follows that the Remembrance of the Passion and Death of our Saviour ought not wholly to be blotted out nay it is also certain that whatsoever high elevation of Mind the Soul may be raised to it ought not in all things to separate from the most holy Humanity But then it follows not from hence neither that the Soul accustomed to internal recollection that can no longer ratiocinate should always be meditating on and considering as the other Spiritualists say the most holy Misteries of our Saviour It is holy and good to Meditate and would to God that all men of this World practised it And the Soul besides that meditates reasons and considers with facilitie ought to be let alone in that state and not pushed on to another higher so long as in that of Meditation it finds nourishment and profit 119. It belongs to God alone and not to the spiritual Guide to promote the Soul from Meditation to Contemplation because if God through his special Grace call it not to this state of Prayer the Guide can do nothing with all his Wisdom and Instructions 120. To strike a secure means then and to avoid those two so contrary extreams of not wholly blotting out the remembrance of the Humanity and of not having it continually before our eyes we ought to suppose that there are two ways of attending to the holy Humanity that one may enter at the Divine Port which is Christ our well-being The first is by considering the Mysteries and meditating the Actions of the Life Passion and Death of our Saviour The second by thinking on him by the application of the Intellect pure Faith or Memory 121. When the Soul proceeds in perfecting and interiorizing it self by means of internal recollection having for sometime meditated on the Mysteries whereof it hath been already informed then it retains Faith and Love to the Word Incarnate being ready for his sake to do whatever he inspires into it walking according to his Precepts although they be not always before its Eyes As if it should be said to a Son that he ought never to forsake his Father they intend not thereby to oblige him to have his Father always in sight but only to have him always in his Memory that in time and place he may be ready to do his Duty 122. The Soul then that is entered into internal recollection with the opinion and approbation of an expert Guide hath no need to enter by the first door of Meditation on the Mysteries being always taken up in meditating upon them because that is