Monthly Preparations FOR THE Holy Communion By R. B. To which is added Suitable Meditations before in and after Receiving WITH Divine Hymns In Common Tunes Fitted for Publick Congregations or Private Families LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible Three Crowns the lower end of Cheapside 1696. THE PREFACE TO THE READER SAcramental work is solemn work indeed And all those helps are valuable and desirable whereby the furniture of our minds the temper of our hearts and the conduct of our lives may be answerable to the solemnity of a Sacramental Table A mind that is barren or perplext an heart that is false or stupid and the conscience of a disordered conversation are bad Companions to attend us to the Holy Supper of our Lord. The Lord's Body is to be discerned his Death shewed forth his tender'd self and benefits received and his next Coming seriously thought on and throughly prepared for and joyfully expected by us and all this is to be influenced and actuated by this Memorial which Christ hath left with us Such helps as these are the more useful by being brief if brevity do not render them defective and obscure as here I think they will not No Directory can be better than the Institution if well discerned and attended to I. The Memorable Person is the Lord Jesus in his perfections relations and designs Here therefore let him be considered 1. As Man to render him capable of sufferings service and contending with that Enemy of God and Man who once deceived and enslaved us 2. As the Son of Man the chief of Humane Race for Tryals Faithfulness and Advancement 3. As the Son of God as essentially and most intimately one with God as Lord of the Universe Head over all things to his Church and of the Church it self The brightness of his Fathers Glory the one Mediator and so God's way to Man and Man's way to God and one deputed to undertake and perfect our Conduct Government and Salvation II. His Sufferings are the things here next to be commemorated Great were his Tryals from God from Hell and from this World With great composedness and gallantry of spirit did he endure them and work his passage through them to that exalted state wherein he had so much to do with God for us In all these and in his preparations for them doth he appear most exemplary to us claiming and urging our Conformity to his obedient submissive and resolved self And in his Meritorious Sufferings and Expiatory Death must we discern and think severely on what there and thence was evident viz. Gods Wisdom Majesty Holiness and his Governing Justice and Prerogatives the sinfulness of sin the misery of Revolted Man the equity and power of God's Violated Law and the eminence of the Divine above the Animal Life Nature and Concerns III. Our Interest in and Benefit by these his Sufferings are next to exercise our thoughts He died to let us see 1. How glorious a God we have to do with 2 What wise and righteous Constitutions we had violated 3. What dreadful evils we had brought upon our selves 4. What spirit strength and reach there is in Divine Threatnings 5. How hard it is to be recovered when we are faln from God and so what an Enemy Satan is to Man and how unwilling to let his Captives go 6. To shew us the riches of God's Grace in him and his own Dignity in that his Sufferings could and did merit and obtain of God our Pardon Adoption Acceptance and Eternal Bliss through him 7. To raise and cherish holy endeavours to return to God in hope 8. To make us dread the thoughts of ever falling off from God again 9. To justifie our claims to all the Benefits of our Gospel-state and day 10. To obtain of God for us the Spirit and Means of Grace thereby to fit us for our present Work and Trials in this our Probationary state and to suit and bring us to his Father and himself in Glory and that with universul Satisfaction and Advantage and Applause 11. To put himself into a capacity of interceding for us in Heaven and blessing us from Heaven as our High-Priest upon his Throne 12. To put us into and to keep us in a Covenant-state and frame that thus we may deal and walk with God as Children as interested in his Son as inhabited and actuated by his Spirit and as united with all the Family of God and Christ in the same Principles Practices Concerns and Hopes in order to the exercises of all the sympathies and services of mutually Christian Love Ephes iv v. 1-6 IV. Our Commemoration of Christ thus represented to us as upon the Cross and as determining to come again is our next work 1. The Sacramental Elements and the Observed Institution is the Memorial 2. The Remembrance contains 1. Head-work in discerning remembring and believing the Sacramental Doctrine of this Supper to be true and of great consequence to us Christ Crucified and determining to come again 2. Heart-work in forming the temper purposes hopes and comforts of our hearts unto what this Supper imports and our acceptance of what is tendered here and our obliging our selves to do and be as Christ would have us 3. Life-work in keeping up our Christian practice and profession as we are here directed and obliged to for a more full account whereof and greater fitness for it thou art commended to this helpful Treatise by Thine to his poor power for Christ Matthew Sylvester Feb. 3. 1695 6. A Monthly Preparation for our Holy Communion with Christ and his Church in the Lord's Supper THIS is a holy Feast that is purposely provided by the King of Saints for the Entertainment of his Family for the refreshing of the weary and the making glad the mournful Soul The night before his bitter Death he instituted this Sacramental Feast He caused his Disciples to sit down with him and when they had partaked of the Passover the Sacrament of Promise and had their taste of the old wine he giveth them the new even the Sacrament of the better Covenant and of the fuller Gospel-Grace He teacheth them that his Death is Life to them and that which is his bitterest suffering is their Feast and his sorrows are their Joyes as our sinful pleasures were his sorrows The slain Lamb of God our passover that was Sacrificed for us that taketh away the sins of the world was the pleasant food which Sacramentally he himself then delivered to them and substantially the next day offered for them The bread of God is he which cometh down from Heaven and giveth life unto the world John 6. 33. He is the living bread which came down from Heaven If any man eat of this Bread he shall live for ever and the Bread which he giveth is his flesh which he hath given for the life of the world verse 50 51. Except we eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood we have
receive it that you may be pardoned or sanctified or saved barely by the work done or by the outward exercise alone As if God were there obliged to give you Grace while you strive not with your own hearts to stir them up to love or desire or faith or obedience by the means that are before you or as if God would pardon and save you for eating so much Bread and drinking so much Wine when the Canon biddeth you or as if the Sacrament conveyed Grace like as Charms are supposed to work by saying over so many words 8. Lastly It is no appointed end of this Sacrament that the Receiver thereby profess himself certain of the sincerity of his own Repentance and Faith For it is not managed on the ground of such certainty only by the Receiver much less by the minister that delivereth it But only he professeth that as far as he can discern by observing his own heart he is truly willing to have Christ and his benefits on the terms that they are offered and that he doth consent to the Covenant which he is there to renew Think not therefore that the Sacrament is instituted for any of these mistaken ends Direct 2. Distinctly understand the parts of the Sacrament that you may distinctly use them and not do you know not what This Sacrament containeth these three parts 1. The Consecration of the Bread and Wine which maketh it the Representative Body and Blood of Christ 2. The Representation and Commemoration of the Sacrifice of Christ 3. The Communion Or Communication by Christ and Reception by the people 1. In the Consecration the Church doth first offer the Creatures of Bread and Wine to be accepted of God to this Sacred use And God accepteth them and blesseth them to this use which he signifieth both by the words of his own Institution and by the Action of his Ministers and their Benidiction They being the Agents of God to the People in this Accepting and Blessing as they are the Agents of the People to God in offering or dedicating the Creatures to this use 2. This Consecration having a special respect to God the Father in it we acknowledge his three grand Relations 1. That he is the Creator and so the Owner of all the Creatures for we offer them to him as his own 2. That he is our Righteous Governor whose Law it was that Adam and we have broken and who required satisfaction and hath received the Sacrifice and atonement and hath dispensed with the strict and proper execution of that Law and will rule us hereafter by the Law of Grace 3. That he is our Father or Benefactor who hath freely given us a Redeemer and the Covenant of Grace whose Love and Favor we have forfeited by sin but desire hope to be reconciled by Christ 3. As Christ himself was Incarnate and true Christ before he was sacrificed to God and was sacrificed to God before that sacrifice be communicated for life and nourishment to Souls So in the Sacrament Consecration must first make the Creature to be the Flesh and Blood of Christ representative and then the sacrificing of that flesh and blood must be represented and commemorated and then the sacrificed flesh and blood communicated to the Receivers for their spiritual life II. The Commemoration chiefly but not only respecteth God the Son For he hath ordained that these consecrated Representations should in their manner and measure supply the room of his bodily presence while his body is in Heaven And that thus as it were in effigy in representation he might be still Crucified before the Churches eyes and they might be affected as if they had seen him on the Cross And that by Faith and Prayer they might as it were offer him up to God that is Might shew the Father that sacrifice once made for sin in which they trust and for which it is that they expect all the acceptance of their persons with God and hope for audience when they beg for mercy and offer up prayer or praise to him III. In the Communication though the Sacrament have respect to the Father as the principal Giver and to the Son as both the Gift and Giver yet hath it a special respect to the Holy Ghost as being that spirit given in the flesh and Blood which quickeneth Souls without which the Flesh will profit nothing And whose operations must convey and apply Christs saving benefits to us John 6. 63. 7. 39. These three being the parts of the Sacrament in whole as comprehending that sacred Action and participation which is essential to it The Material parts called the Relate and Correlate are 1. Substantial and Qualitative 2. Active and Passive 1. The first are the Bread and Wine as signs and the Body and Blood of Christ with his Graces and Benefits as the things signified and given The second are the Actions of Breaking Pouring out and Delivering on the Ministers part after the Conscration and the Taking Eating and Drinking by the Receivers as the sign And the signified is the Crucifying or Sacrificing of Christ and the Delivering himself with his Benefits to the Believer and the Receivers thankful Accepting and using the said gift To these add the Relative Form and the Ends and you have the definition of this Sacrament Direct 3. Look upon the minister as the Agent or Officer of Christ who is Commissioned by him to seal and deliver to you the Covenant and its benefits And take the Bread and Wine as if you heard Christ himself saying to you Take my Body and Blood and the Pardon and Grace which is thereby purchased It is a great help in the Application to have mercy and pardon brought us by the hand of a Commissioned Officer of Christ Direct 4. In your preparation before-hand take heed of these two extreams 1. That you come not prophanely and carelesly with common hearts as to a common work For God will be sanctified in them that draw near to him Levit. 10. 3. And they that eat and drink unworthily not discerning the Lords Body from common Bread but eating as if it were a common meal do eat death to themselves instead of life 2. Take heed lest your mistakes of the nature of this Sacrament should possess you with such fears of unworthy receiving and the following dangers as may quite discompose and unfit your Souls for the joyful exercises of Faith and Love and Praise and Thanksgiving to which you are invited Many that are scrupulous of receiving it in any save a feasting gesture are too little careful and scrupulous of receiving it in any save a feasting frame of mind The first extream is caused by prophanness and negligence or by gross ignorance of the nature of the Sacramental work The latter extream is frequently caused as followeth 1. By setting this Sacrament at a greater distance from other parts of God's worship than there is cause So that the excess of Reverence doth overwhelm the minds
no life in us Whoso eateth his flesh and drinketh his blood hath eternal life and he will raise him up at the last day For his flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed He that eateth his flesh and drinketh his blood dwelleth in Christ and Christ in him As the living Father hath sent the Son and he liveth by the Father so he that eateth him shall live by him This is that bread that came down from Heaven not as the Fathers did eat Manna and are dead he that eateth this bread shall live for ever I shall here only give you some brief Directions for your private duty herein Direct 1. Understand well the proper ends to which this Sacrament was instituted by Christ and take heed that you use it not to ends for which it never was appointed The true ends are these 1. To be a solemn Commemoration of the Death and passion of Jesus Christ Mat. 26. 28. Mar. 14. 24. Luke 22. 20. to keep it as it were in the eye of the Church in his bodily absence till he come 1 Cor. 11. 24 25 26. 2. To be a solemn renewing of the Holy Covenant which was first entred in Baptism between Christ and the Receiver and in that Covenant it is on Christ's part a solemn delivery of himself first and with himself the benefits of Pardon Reconciliation Adoption and right to Life eternal Heb. 9. 15 16 17 18. 1 Cor. 10. 16 24. And on mans part it is our solemn acceptance of Christ with his Benefits upon his terms and a delivering up our selves to him as his Redeemed ones even to the Father as our reconciled Father and to the Son as our Lord and Saviour and to the Holy Spirit as our Sanctifier with Professed Thankfulness for so great a benefit 3. It is appointed to be a lively objective means by which the Spirit of Christ should work to stir up and exercise and increase the Repentance Faith Desire Love Hope Joy Thankfulness and New-Obedience of Believers by a lively Representation of the evil of sin the infinite love of God in Christ the firmness of the Covenant or Promise the greatness and sureness of the Mercy given and the Blessedness purchased and promised to us and the great obligations that are laid upon us And that herein believers might be solemnly called out to the most serious exercise of all these Graces 1 Cor. 11. 27 28 29 31. 1 Cor. 10. 16 17 21. 1 Cor. 11. 25 26. 2 Cor. 6. 4. and might be provoked and assisted to stir up themselves to this Communion with God in Christ to pray for more as through a sacrificed Christ 4. It is appointed to be the solemn Profession of Believers of their Faith and Love and Gratitude and Obedience to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and of continuing firm in the Christian Religion And a Badge of the Church before the World Acts 2. 42 46. 20. 7. 5. And it is appointed to be a sign and means of the Unity Love and Communion of Saints and their readiness to Communicate to each other The false mistaken ends which you must avoid are these 1. You must not with the Papists think that the end of it is to turn Bread into no Bread and Wine into no Wine and to make them really the true Body and Blood of Jesus Christ For if sense which telleth all Men that it is still Bread and Wine be not to be believed then we cannot believe that ever there was a Gospel or an Apostle or a Pope or a Man or any thing in the World And the Apostle expresly calleth it Bread three times in three Verses together after the Consecration 1 Cor. 11. 26 27 28. and he telleth us that the use of it is not to make the Lords Body really present but to shew the Lords Death till he come that is As a visible representing and commemorating sign to be instead of the Bodily presence till he come 2. Nor must you with the Papists use this Sacrament to sacrifice Christ again really unto the Father to propitiate him for the quick and dead and ease Souls in Purgatory and deliver them out of it For Christ having died once dieth no more and without killing him there is no sacrificing him By once offering up himself he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified and now there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin Having finished the sacrificing work on Earth he is now passed into the Heavens to appear before God for his Redeemed ones Ro. 6. 9. 1 Cor. 15. 3. 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. Heb. 9. 26. and 10. 12 26. and 9. 24. 3. Nor is it any better than odious impiety to receive the Sacrament to confirm some Confederacies or Oaths of Secresie for rebellions or other unlawful designs as the Powder-Plotters in England did 4. Nor is it any other than impious prophanation of these sacred Mysteries for the Priest to constrain or suffer notoriously ignorant and ungodly persons to receive them either to make themselves believe that they are indeed the Children of God or to be a means which ungodly men should use to make them godly or which Infidels or Impenitent persons must use to help them to Repentance and Faith in Christ For though there is that in it which may become a means of their Conversion as a Thief that stealeth a Bible or Sermon Book may be converted by it yet is it not to be used by the Receiver to that end For that were to tell God a lie as the means of their Conversion for whosoever cometh to receive a setled pardon doth thereby profess repentance as also by the words adjoyned he must do And whosoever taketh and eateth and drinketh the Bread and Wine doth actually profess thereby that he taketh and applieth Christ himself by Faith And therefore if he do neither of these he lieth openly to God and lies and false Covenants are not the appointed means of Conversion Not that the Minister is a lier in his delivery of it For he doth but conditionally seal and deliver Gods Covenant and Benefits to the Receiver to be his if he truly Repent and Believe But the Receiver himself lieth if he do not actually Repent and Believe as he there professeth to do 5. Also it is an impious prophanation of the Sacrament if any Priest for the love of filthy lucre shall give it to those that ought not to receive it that he may have his Fees or Offerings or that the Priest may have so much money that is bequeathed for the saying a Mass for such or such a Soul 6. And it is odious prophanation of the Sacrament to use it as a League or Bond of Faction to gather persons in to the party and tie them fast to it that they may depend upon the Priest and his Faction and Inerest may thereby be strengthned and he may seem to have many followers 7. And it is a dangerous abuse of it to
cleanse thee and take thee to himself betroth thee to him for ever and after all will give thee to see his Glory even the same Glory which he had before the World And the Father is willing to all this for he tells thee his Son is his well-beloved Son and bids thee believe him and misdoubt not one syllable And canst thou after all this doubt that the Father is not willing But do not his Angels likewise who are ministring spirits with voice and looks proclaim as much that Heaven is well-pleased with the Son and with his Death and Passion and so with thee in him Do not the Angels admire the mystery of Redeeming Grace that makes them so desirous to peep into it Why did they proclaim his coming into the World and sing for joy that there was good will in Heaven to men on earth or why do they so diligently attend thee by night and day Thou seest them not keep guard about thy Chamber-door and round about the Curtains of thy bed Why do they attend thee from room to room and follow thee down stairs and out of doors if it were not but that thou art some great Princess nearly allied to their Lord and Master Thou dost not see this blame then thine eyes and the infidelity of thy heart shall it be less true because thy base infidelity cannot digest it Thou might doubt God Heaven and every thing else on that score but hast thou not it from his own mouth that the Angels are ministring spirits for the heirs of Glory Come tell me I say tell me quickly I must have an answer Can this and all this be true and Heaven yet not be pleased If God with his Son and Angels be all content that thou shouldst be restored and so exalted to such dignities as to be heir unto the Crown of Heaven if these be pleased who is there in Heaven that can else be displeased What saith my heart what not yet one word Oh how long shall I be troubled and pestered with my unbelief Oh my God strike chide and break this flint reprove this stubborn and unbelieving heart I cannot perswade it that thou lovest me or art willing to love me I urge thy word and my best reason to prove it but I cannot make it yield Oh break I pray thee this Flint or Adamant upon thy downy breast of love strike and one blow of thine will make it fall in pieces and confess at length that thou art well pleased with thy Son and fully satisfied that he should bleed and die for me But let me try thee once again if thou hast lost thine ears and eyes I 'le see if thou hast lost thy feeling too Thou sayst thou canst not believe that God is willing to accept the Son for thee or that thou so vile a wretch canst be accepted of by the Father through the merits of his Death and sufferings Come tell me is not this thy language I know thou darest not to speak so much in words But ah my Heart I find thou hast got a Tongue as well as my Mouth that often mutters and speaks a different language But tell me if thy unbelief hath any ground for it What makes it then that thy self is so free from fears and terrours when thou shouldest believe the Almighty of thy Bodies Death Resurrection and coming to Judgment if thou thoughtest him not thy friend and reconciled to thee in his Son if not methinks thy fears should fright thee and trembling seize on every joynt and yet thou wilt foolishly mutter against thine own feeling Soul Speaks O blessed God! I feel thou hast overcome I yield I yield I have not left a word to speak against thy love thy Son hath offered satisfaction and thou hast accepted it thou hast laid down O my Saviour thy life for mine and thy Father and my Father is well pleased with it Blood is paid Justice is satisfied Heavens doors are widened thine arms opened to receive me nothing is wanting but by heart make it such as thou wilt have it and then take it to thy self Come up my soul thou hast an heart and there is a Christ the Father thou seest is willing and the Son is willing give but thy consent and he is thine for ever Fear not thy hardness blindness deadness loathsomness all these cannot hinder if thou be but willing He hath been in the world to ask the worlds consent already and also thine thou canst not doubt of his good-will speak but the word and he hath thine too What stickest thou at surely thou art a sluggish spirit what dost thou ail Half of this ado would find a heart for a little mire or dirt or something else that is worse and is not Christ better But ah yet I feel a piece of unbelief still working in thy very bowels as if that Jesus that died at Jerusalem were not the Son of God and the Redeemer of the World And is this all O were I certain thou wouldst ne're doubt more how freely should I make satisfaction But Oh! I faint and tire with the trips and stumblings of my unbelief But mount my Soul thou must resolve to tire and put to silence all thy unbelieving bablings or they will thee which if they do never expect an hours peace or quiet more thou must resolve to conquer thy unbelief or to be conquered thou knowest her tyranny too well to let her go away the victoress He was not the Christ thou sayest but tell me why Object His Parentage was too low and mean what the Saviour of the world a Carpenters Son how can it be Answ My unbelief in the first place thou lyest his Mother was a Virgin and her Conception knew no Father but the Almighty power of the overshadowing Holy Ghost he was more truly the Son of God than Joseph's Son And was his birth thinkst thou so mean whose Parentage was so glorious Object His birth but mean and beggarly no sooner born but cradled in a manger and could Heaven suffer this Answ It consists But yet it was as glorious for did not a Star proclaim him born and did not a whole Host of Angels sing and shout it up for joy and did not wise men yea and Kings bring Incense Myrrh and Frankinsense being but as so much tribute unto the new-born King and heir of all things as if by instinct they knew they held their Crowns of him a greater honour than ever any new born Prince hath yet received before him or ever shall or will do after him Methinks my unbelieving heart I could dare to tell thee that room was no stable it was a Palace and did not the cost presents and glorious presence of Kings speak as much Object But his days were spent in poverty meanness and disgrace and can I dare I trust my soul with such a one and take him to be the Son of God Answ And now I wonder at thee it's true what