and one Soul that they never celebrated the Communion as we learn from Justin Martyr his first Apology but they sent it to those Believers who were absent particularly to those whose bodily infirmities kept them from the publick Assemblies that they might have Communion with the Church and it might appear by their partaking of the same Bread that they were one Body with those who were present And here let me briefly tell you that this Rubrick or Rule ought in reason to be the rather observed as it will hereafter in this and other Cathedrals that the people who live near or come upon occasion thither may have frequent opportunity to Communicate with the Mother Church Where anciently Christians were very desirous to receive this holy Sacrament as oft as they could that they might testify there was but Vnum Altare one Altar as they called it one Christian Society and Communion unto which they all belonged and with whom they were in Union Particular Parishes in the Diocess being not distinct Churches but parts and Members of one Church which is the Mother Church from whence they all in ancient time did originally spring For so we find in the Monuments of the Church that a Bishop and his Clergy having made Conversions in some considerable part of a Country there they seated themselves and from thence spread the Gospel into neighbour places who all lookt upon themselves afterward as depending upon that one prime place as a stream upon a Fountain which they owned by communicating there with the Bishop and his Clergy as oft as it was possible for them so to do Thus it is apparent by the History of the Acts of the holy Apostles that the very first Preachers of Religion began in Cities and afterward carrying the glad tidings of the Gospel into the adjacent Towns and Villages those Towns and Villages lookt upon themselves as but one Church with that City and thither repaired as oft as they could to testify their unity therewith Especially at the high Festivals when anciently there was such a multitude came to receive that in some places the Church could not contain them So we learn from a Letter of Leo the First Bishop of Rome to Dioscorus Bishop of Alexandria in the Fifth Century where he advises him that when any great Festival makes the Assembly more numerous and there meets together so great a Company of Believers that one Church cannot contain them there is no question but the oblation of the Sacrifice must be renewed when the first company is gone and the Church is filled again with the presence of a new Assembly Epist 81. And St. Austin tells us in the famous Epistle before-named that the Thursday before Easter the numbers of the people were so great in some places that the Sacrament was celebrated both Morning and Evening whereas on that day the custom was to celebrate it only in the Evening Which as it shows the wonderful decay of Devotion among us in comparison with ancient times so reproves that grand error which is now crept in among us even among well-disposed people in many such places as this Where the people imagine that if they Communicate in the Parish Churches of the City where they live they need take no notice at all of the Cathedral there No they rather indeavour and sometimes with a factious kind of zeal to advance the credit of their Parish Churches in opposition to that great Church from which they all flowed and on which they still depend This is quite out of the way of ancient Religion which taught men to bear the greatest regard to the Mother Church where the Principal Pastor of their Souls was seated and thence called the Cathedral and to desire with him immediately to communicate as oft as they had opportunity or could conveniently For to do otherwise was in effect to throw off all respect to him or very much to neglect him and his See and was lookt upon as the principle and beginning of Schism by breaking the unity of the Church and in time led men to that pestilent fancy which now very much prevails that every Parish Church in the Diocess is a distinct Church which hath all power within it self VI. We therefore who are Priests and Deacons placed in a Cathedral should above all others be willing nay desirous to comply with the Order of our Church now recited and not easily admit of any cause as a reasonable excuse for our forbearance For let me further acquaint you that after the people contented themselves with receiving every Sunday at least still the Priests and the Deacons and such as were not intangled in secular business continued the ancient custom of receiving the Communion every day This we learn from Micrologus and Walfridus Strabo before-mentioned and the old Book of Divine Offices in Cassander and from Rhegino who lived not much above seven hundred years ago In whose Book of Ecclesiastical Discipline we find this memorable record that if any Priest or Deacon or Sub-Deacon or any other of the Clergy being in a City or a place where there was a Church did not come to the daily Sacrifice he should not any longer be accounted a Clergyman if upon reprehension he did not amend And can we think it unreasonable then to be tied unto less which is to attend upon this Sacrifice as it may be truly called in many respects every Lords Day at the least We should rather think it an honour and high priviledge that we may wait upon him so oft at his Altar and look upon our selves as bound to do him honour who hath so highly honoured us by restoring this Commemoration of him in his Church as near as we can to its primitive perfection VII And as a motive to it let me now proceed to tell you that when Christian People grew less frequent in receiving the holy Communion this neglect was attended with a great decay of holyness and good manners As when they grew less devout they grew more negligent in this holy duty so this negligence produced great sloth and carelessness in all the other duties of a Christian Life For becoming less sensible of their obligations to their Lord and Master Christ who bad them thus remember him they became unmindful of the rest of his Commands by forgetting this which was intended for the making of a perpetual Sacrifice of their Souls and Bodies to him As we may be convinced by observing what a wide difference there is between the first Christians and us in these dayes that is between them who had Christ continually in their thoughts and us who seldom remember him Then their thoughts were in a manner wholly imployed in contriving how to get to Heaven and now all our thoughts are how to get as much as we can in this present uncertain World Then they had but one Soul in the whole body of Christians and we are so many men so many minds Then they would
upon their people and earnestly beseech them to remember from whence they are faln and repent and do the first works When there was no need to use so many arguments as I have represented to prove this to be a Christian Duty nor so many motives to perswade men to the frequent practice of it but they ran forwardly to the holy Communion and were troubled above measure if they might not have the priviledge to receive it There were no quarrels then raised in those days against the manner of its Administration no disputes against the posture wherein it was received The Ministers of Christ had not their pretious time taken up in answering objections and satisfying doubts and scruples much less did they stand in need of the assistance of the Civil Power to inforce the practice of this duty Which all took to be a Commandment of our Lord and Master to commemorate his wonderful love and shew forth his death and passion for our sakes and therefore was no less chearfully and readily obeyed than if they had been invited to the most delitious Feast and promised to receive the greatest largesses in the World That it may be so again is the design of publishing these Papers in which I have represented those Truths which if they be weighed and laid to heart will save us this labour for the future For I have shown you a short way to be free from all fears and doubts about this matter which is not to leave your selves in uncertainty whether you shall go to Heaven or no but by making that sure to make your selves sit for the Holy Communion unto which you may go with an assured confidence if you have any good hope to be admitted into the Society of the blessed in Heaven If that be out of doubt you need not doubt of acceptance with Christ at his holy Table For which the best preparation is an holy Life or a serious Resolution of it for the future if hitherto we have lived otherwise What other Preparation had the Apostles for the partaking of the first Eucharist with our Blessed Lord and Saviour What other could they have when Christians received it every day If we have this therefore which is the main thing let us not stand upon little niceties nor waste that time in questioning and debating whether we be sit or no which ought to be spent in doing this and other Christian Duties whereby we shall be every day fitter to have Communion with our Saviour Remember that it is in actions of Piety as it is in those of Policy A Wisdom that is too scrupulous commonly doth nothing for fear of doing ill We read of Cities that have been taken while the Senators were gravely deliberating how to preserve them Even so is it here too over-much niceness about preparation makes men never to be prepared Therefore it is a fault when it hinders that duty which it keeps us still thinking how to perform Let us not confound our selves with words but understand the sense of things and then we shall not be perplexed as many have been in this business of Preparation Much less will any be affrighted from the holy Communion by being commanded to kneel when they receive it Which is no more than they do at their daily Prayers and therefore should the rather be inclined to do here when we pray and give thanks for the greatest blessings which we cannot do in too humble a manner We worship also and adore our Blessed Lord in this holy action and therefore one would think should be disposed of our selves without any injunction to fall down upon our Knees in token of the worship which we give Him Which is no Popish Ceremony being not so much as injoined by that Church in the act of receiving nor observed by the Pope himself who when he receives rather sits or leans a little forward upon his Throne but an ancient devout Posture of the best Christians which the people of the Roman Communion observe by long custom without bidding And therefore should much more be chearfully observed by us when we are enjoined to keep to the ancient reverence wherewith the Saints of God received the pledges of our Saviours love Vouchsafe I beseech you to give this small Book wherewith I present you a careful Reading and I doubt not it will free you not only from these but from all sorts of scruples if any of you be troubled with them which now hinder many people from the greatest duty and comfort too of our holy Religion Which if you would be perswaded to perform often the profit which would redound to you thereby would be as great as the Credit which it would do to our Church and Religion For no man can come seriously to the holy Communion but with some Resolutions of being better than he hath been which Resolutions are not presently broken but last for some time And therefore if there were not too long a distance between one Communion and another it is likely they might last for ever For before the force of the first Resolution were quite lost it would be backt and strengthned with a second and so being re-inforced from time to time while it remained in some power would become so firm that it would never be broken Make a trial I earnestly intreat you and suffer not this pains which I have taken to serve you to be thrown away without that good effect Which it will not be if you make the trial with the same seriousness wherewith I have written this Treatise In which you will meet with nothing to entertain the fancy not so much as with fine words and elegant composure but with good store I think of solid sense to inlighten the mind to inform the judgment to pierce the heart to stir up holy devotion nay to turn the will and produce godly Resolutions which if they be pursued and have their fruit unto holiness will in the end bring you to Eternal Life And that such Resolutions may be both produced and pursued I will here add one observation more for the removing the greatest of those hindrances to Holy Communion which lie in the way of those who pretend to Religion It is this That doubts and scruples being the weakness and sickness of the Soul they that readily entertain them and then suffer them to remain there quietly and peaceably are in a very ill case nay ought to look upon themselves as in a very dangerous condition For it is a sign all is naught within and that they deceive themselves with a vain opinion of their being Religious For they who are truly so groan under their doubts and scruples as under a sore Disease and therefore will not let them long dwell with them but seek with all speed to have satisfaction which when it is offered they receive with all readiness of mind and are not loth to be cured but rejoice that they are set at liberty to serve God
without impediment and that there is nothing left in their Souls to oppose their duty Whereas bad people in a quite contrary way give admission to those scruples and doubts into their minds with a secret pleasure and having entertained them let them rest and take up their lodging there very willingly because they will plead their excuse they fancy for not doing their duty and be a defence to their lazyness Worldly mindedness and other naughty affections In short Doubts and Scruples never arise in good mens minds without grief nor stay there without much trouble and therefore they long to be rid of them and are glad when they are discharged because they hinder the performance of their Christian Duty but bad men not only listen to them willingly but embrace them as welcome Guests which they cherish and never part withal without difficulty and some sort of inward displeasure because they desire the Worldly Spirit that is in them should not be left without all excuse but have something to say for it self when it is pressed by the force of Religion against its inclinations Search and try your selves by this mark and the Lord give you a right judgment in all things for Jesus Christ his sake In whom I remain Your Faithful Servant S. Patrick Discourse I. THE NECESSITY OF Receiving THE Holy Communion THE neglect of the Holy Communion of Christ's Body and Blood was so general and so long continued in the late distracted times being laid aside in man whole Parishes of this Kingdom for near twenty years together that in some Ages of the Church it would have been interpreted a downright Apostasie from Christ and a renunciation of the Christian Faith And though blessed be God since the Happy Restauration of his Majesty to his Throne and the settlement of the Church upon its ancient foundations it hath not been so generally neglected yet it is not so much frequented as it ought to be No not upon such great and solemn dayes as this when we are assembled to commemorate that stupendous Grace which our Lord purchased for us by his pretious Blood and bestowed upon his Church in sending the Holy Ghost the Comforter to be a Witness of his Resurrection and Exaltation at God's right hand and to confirm us in the belief of all that he hath taught and appointed in his Church For we content our selves only with the Common Prayers and I wish I could say that they are duly attended and with the Sermon and then turn our backs on that part of the Divine Service which is properly Christian and consequently is above all other most acceptable unto Christ and unto his Holy Spirit Which I shall therefore at this time press upon your Consciences as a means to revive that ancient Devotion wherewith such Festivals as this was kept which now alas is wanting among us And I shall do it from those words of St. Paul 1 Cor. xi 26. wherein he recommends this duty unto us upon this particular account that as oft as we eat this Bread and drink this Cup we do show the Lords Death till he come In which words it is easy to observe these three practical truths The two first whereof are plainly supposed and the other is affirmed and enjoined I. The first thing here supposed is that it is a Christian Duty to eat this Bread and drink this Cup here spoken of that is to receive the Holy Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood II. The second is that it is a Christian Duty which ought to be often performed And then III. It is here plainly asserted that when it is performed the thing designed in it and which we ought to aim at is to show the Lord's Death till he come The last of these will be sufficiently explained in the handling of the other two viz. the Duty and the Frequent repetition of it unto which I shall confine my Discourse And of the first at this time I. THat it is a Christian Duty incumbent upon every one of us to eat this Bread and drink this Cup that is to receive the Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood This is supposed in the words Which are not to be understood as a mere permission that we may do this if we think good and when we think good but as a command of something we ought to do For when he tells us what it is we do when we eat this Bread and drink this Cup in which we show forth Christs Death it plainly implies that it must be done and is not left to our choice whether we will show forth the Death of our Lord or no. Of which more anon when I have laid some other things before you which will convince you if they be considered of the Obligation that lies upon you to the serious performance of this Duty And for our clear and orderly proceeding I shall cast my Discourse into this method I. First I shall show you that there is a plain institution of this Sacrament and a command that it should be received And then II. Secondly I shall show from the practice of the Apostles after â—hat time when they first received it with our Saviour that it was no temporary command but of Everlasting Obligation III. Thirdly That there is more â—han their practice to interpret the meaning and obligation of this command IV. Fourthly That in this Discourse of St. Paul to the Corinthians there are evident proofs of the necessity of its performance V. Fifthly That the very Text shows the same by the end for which it was instituted VI. Lastly That all these reasons are exemplified by the practice of the Universal Church of Christ I. And first let it be considered that this Holy Sacrament is a Divine Institution Ordained Commanded and required by Christ Himself Who the same night that he was betrayed took Bread and blessed it and brake it and gave it to his Disciples and said Take eat this is my Body And he took the Cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying Drink ye all of it For this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins Matth. xxvi 26 27 28. Here is as manifest an Institution of this Sacrament and as formal a Command to take and eat and drink what Christ then gave as can be contrived in words Unless they be plainer which we read in other places for the Institution is recorded by the two next Evangelists St. Mark and St. Luke and here again in this Chapter by St. Paul Which two last named say that our Saviour added these words in the Institution of this Sacrament This do in remembrance of me Luk. xxii 19. 1 Cor. xi 24 25. Which enjoin this duty by as express a Command as those of old Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy And Honour thy Father and thy Mother Which may henceforth be blotted out of the number of the Commandments if we take this to
against what I have said that surely it is sufficient if we every day pray to God in Christs name and for his sake desire our Prayers may find a gracious Audience praising him also as our Saviour and Redeemer and Intercessor at Gods right hand though we do not use these visible signs which he hath appointed But if this be intirely sufficient so that our Christian worship may be justly thought intire compleat and perfect without doing this in remembrance of Christ then for what end was it instituted by him Why did he appoint it if our worship be compleat without it Then it is as needless and superfluous an addition to the Christian Service as we seem now by our intire neglect of it or seldom performance to imagine it to be Which since no Christian dare say because it disparages the wisdom of our Saviour in appointing it if all be perfect without it we must therefore to our shame take the other course and say that we are faln into a state of imperfection but hope our less perfect services will be accepted by vertue of that most perfect Sacrifice of Christ which we commemorate publickly as oft as we are able V. And that might very well be oftner than we do commemorate it for I shall now proceed to tell you as an Introduction to the account I am about to give how the Service of the Church came to be so defective that when Christian people grew less devout yet still they did not fail to perform this peculiar service to Christ every Lords Day and Holy Day at the least that is on those days of the Week as you heard out of St. Basil when the memory of any Martyr was celebrated Which in time becoming the practice of many Churches made an ancient Writer about Divine Offices mentioned by Cassander in his Book of Liturgies affirm that men imployed in secular businesses received the Communion even in the primitive times only on the Lords Days and other Festivals interpreting as many think the practice of the most antient times by the Customs of his own It is possible indeed that he had a better reason for what he affirmed because we find something in Scripture to countenance this opinion that very early some Christians did content themselves with so doing For in Acts xx 7. we read that at Troas upon the first day of the week when the Disciples came together to break Bread i. e. to receive the Eucharist Paul preached unto them c. From whence it should seem saith our learned Mr. Thorndike that in this Church at Troas the Eucharist was celebrated even in the times of the Apostles not every day as it was at Jerusalem but only on the Lords Day For the first day of the Week being mentioned as the time when they came together to break Bread it seems saith he to stand against the rest in terms of difference as if upon other days they did it not And thus much I believe is certain that when the Church was multiplied all Christians could not meet together every day but some one day some another and all on the Lords Day Which being the principal day it came to pass in process of time that it was the only day of the Week when they celebrated the Eucharist but on that day none omitted it no more than they did the rest of the Christian Service And thus it seems to me most reasonable to understand the matter here at Troas where they did not omit the Communion on other days for I cannot perswade my self but that they were conformable to the Mother Church of Jerusalem but such as could assemble themselves and attend upon Divine Service daily ' did receive it and on the Lords Day all the Christians in the City came together for that purpose and whatsoever business they had which hindered them on other dayes it did not hinder them on this but they all came to do their duty to their Saviour and make a publick Commemoration of his love And in this they were so strict for a long time and it was accounted so great a fault to be absent that if any persons were found not to have Communicated for three Sundays together they were to be Excommunicated and separated from the Society of the Church by the Canons of three several Synods mentioned by Zonaras upon the eleventh Canon of the Apostles which orders them to be cast out as an offence to the Church who entred into the Church and heard the holy Scriptures but did not stay for the Prayers nor receive the Holy Communion Which was thought so necessary that the Deacon who before the Communion as you shall hear anon out of St. Chrysostom cryed all you who are under penance you who cannot pray i. e. with the faithful go out is appointed by the Constitutions called Apostolical to stand with the Sub-Deacon at the Door of the Church and hinder all the rest who were not under Pennance and so bound to Communicate that they should not go out till they had received the holy Sacrament And unto this pitch of perfection if not higher our first Reformers desired to bring the Service of the Church I say if not higher because in the first Communion Book of Edward VI. there is a Rubrick which supposeth daily Communion not only in Cathedrals but in other places as there is another which takes care the people should be admonished and quickned when they are negligent to come to the Communion upon the Sunday or Holy-Day Which shows as the learned person above-mentioned observes that they affected the frequentation of this Service according to the primitive pattern so far as they thought it attainable desiring that even upon other Holy Days as well as Sundays it should be celebrated in the Mother Churches at least as patterns and examples unto the rest And thus much Mr. Calvin himself roundly declares after he had commended the ancient custom of communicating daily and condemned the custom of communicating only once a Year as a Diabolical invention that the Table of the Lord ought to be prepared for Christian people at least once a Week and that all should be exhorted and stimulated and the slothful chidden to flock as hungry people unto such a Banquet As his words are in his IV. Book of Institutions C. xvii n. 46. And so it is still enjoined in one of our Rubricks that in Cathedral and Collegiate Churches and Colledges where there are many Priests and Deacons they shall receive the Communion every Sunday at least except they have a reasonable cause to the contrary Now nothing you have heard was thought a reasonable cause in ancient time to keep any of the people from the Communion except such sins as threw them into the number of the Penitents For none of the rest were suffered to go out of the Church but stayed to receive it Nay such was the devout affection of the primitive Christians while they remained one heart
with-drawing himself from the holy Communion and in not acquainting those with the crimes which he pretends for the cause of his withdrawing who were concerned to redress them IV. And lastly suppose that after information given they who are concerned do not take care to redress those things but such scandalous Livers be still admitted to the Communion yet this not being the fault of private persons but of those who have power to exclude them it ought not to keep any good Man or Woman from the Table of the Lord. For there can be no reason why any man should be hindred by this from doing his own duty because another man doth not discharge his And let it here be seriously considered that if this were a just hindrance it would have hindred Christ and his Apostles and the primitive Christians from communicating For there was ill Company among the very first Communicants Judas the Traytor in all likelihood being there when our Lord himself administred And in this Church of Corinth it is evident there were such disorders that many did eat and drink their own Damnation and yet it did not hinder good Christians from partaking with them to their Salvation And the very truth is if this were a sufficient reason to hinder us from Communion it ought also to hinder us from being Christians and make us forbear to become members of any Church or profession For there is no Church but consists of a mixt multitude good and bad and therefore compared by our Saviour unto a Net wherein all sorts of Fish were caught Math. xiii 47 48. and unto a Field wherein wheat and tares sprung up which must grow together till the Harvest lest by an indiscreet indeavour to gather up the Tares the Wheat be also rooted up with them ver 24 25 29 30. And therefore this scruple driven home will destroy Christianity as it hath done in some places where men have divided and subdivided till by their separation from them whom they accounted wicked they have crumbled into nothing and left no Church at all remaining but what was in their particular person That is none for the Church is a Society and there is no Society nor can be any but we may find some exception or other against every person in it and particularly against such persons who judging others unworthy to Communicate with them abstain on that account from the holy Communion For besides the suspition of rash judging and pride that is in the thing they are apparently guilty of a gross sin in not coming to the holy Communion of Christs Body and Blood according to his Commandment The secret reason of which perhaps they do not declare and so others have as much authority to judge them unworthy as they to judge others and by this means all of them if this be a just excuse may let the holy Communion alone I hope you see by this short Discourse whither such exceptions as these lead and therefore that you will no longer be guided by them but notwithstanding the faults you think you can find in any person there present be perswaded by the weighty reasons you see for it to do your own duty at the Table of the Lord. III. Where we should have more Company than is usually seen there were it not for another hinderance arising not from others but from mens selves alone Who are wont sometimes to say we would come to the Table of the Lord being convinced it is our duty if we were worthy of so great a benefit but we are deterred from it by the consideration of our many sins or great frailties We have at least too many diversions by business too many avocations by the affairs of this World for I am alway in a hurry saith one I have no leisure to examine my self or I am not disposed for so serious a work saith another We had better forbear than be rash say all of this sort it is safer to honour the Sacrament by a fearful and reverent abstinence from it than by a careless and unprepared forwardness to partake of it prophane it In a word we conceive our selves to be utterly unfit therefore we dare not come to it Now in answer to this third Exception against the performance of this duty which hath a shew of humility in it and looks like a pious care not to do good things in an ill manner I have many things to propound to your consideration which are so convincing and will so unmask the dangerous deceit that lurks under such pretences that they will not suffer you to be cheated by it any longer I. And in the first place every one who complains of his unfitness and makes that the reason of his not coming to the Holy Communion ought to consider both whose fault this is and whether it be not likely he shall grow still more unfit every day than other that is be more in fault by not receiving it For you will not you cannot say it is our Saviour's fault who commands you to come that you are not sit to come to it Whose fault is it then but your own And why do you not then amend it lest you still grow greater strangers to him nay Enemies by evil works and by continuing to neglect the means of living better For this very unfitness which you alledge for your forbearing the Communion is your sin and will you turn your sin into an Apology and make it serve for your Plea for the neglect of a plain duty Can you think that this will pass at the Bar of the Divine Judgment when you appear before it Dare you thus excuse your neglect of the Sacrament by acknowledging another crime When an accusation a just accusation lies against you will you then go about to turn it into a defence of your self as you are bold to do now I come not to the holy Communion it is true but it is because I am unholy I am sensible of the looseness of my life which is not strict enough I am not in Charity or at best I am Worldly minded and too much distracted with the affairs of this life This is the plea of some men who do not mind how after a strange manner they make one sin an excuse for another For this is the plain sense of their Plea God we hope will be merciful to us in forgiving one sin because we commit another which is the cause thereof Pardon that is the neglect of the Sacrament because they neglect to fit themselves for it For none can deny that it is one sin not to commemorate the Death of Christ as he hath appointed and it is also another to neglect a due preparation for it And so instead of amending one such men add another to it heaping evil upon evil and aggravating their Condemnation by their very pleas and excuses Of which they could not be thus senslesly guilty were this plain truth duly considered that there is the same