Christs death an act of obedience a ceremony of memorial but of no spiritual effect and of no proper advantage to the soul of the receiver Against this besides the preceding discourse convincing their fancy of weakness and derogation the consideration of the proper excellencies of this mystery in its own seperate nature will be very useful For now we are to consider how his natural body enters into his oeconomy and dispensation For the understanding of which are to consider that Christ besides his Spiritual body and blood did also give us his natural and we receive that by the means of this For this he gave us but once then when upon the Crosse he was broken for our sins this body could die but once and it could be but at one place at once and Heaven was the place appointed for it and at once all was sufficiently effected by it which was design'd in the Counsel of God â—or by the vertue of that death Christ is become the Author of life unto us and of salvation he is our Lord and our Lawgiver but it he received all power in heaven and earth and by it he reconciled his Father to the world and in vertue of that he intercedes for us in heaven and sends his spirit upon earth and feeds our souls by his word he instructs us to wisdom and admits us to repentance and gives us pardon and by means of his own appointment nourishes us up by holinesse to life eternal This body being carried from us into heaven cannot be touch'd or tasted by us on earth but yet Christ left to us symbols and Sacraments of this natural body not to be or to convey that natural body to us but to do more and better for us to convey all the blessings and graces procured for us by the breaking of that body and the effusion of the blood which blessings being spiritual are therefore called his body spiritually because procured by that body which died for us and are therefore called our food because by them we live a new life in the spirit and Christ is our bread and our life because by him after this manner we are nourished up to life eternal That is plainly thus Therefore we eat Christs spiritual body because he hath given us his natural body to be broken and his natural blood to be shed for the remission of our sins and for the obtaining the grace and acceptability of repentance For by this gift and by this death he hath obtained this favour from God that by faith in him and repentance from dead works by repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ we may be saved To this sense of the Mystery are those excellent words of the Apostle He bare our sins upon his own body on the Tree that he might deliver us from the present evil world and sanctifie and purge us from all pollution of flesh and spirit that he might destroy the works of the devil that he might redeem us from all iniquity that he might purchase to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works and that we being dead unto sin might live unto righteousnesse Totum Christiani nominis pondus fructus mors Christi All that we are or do or have is produced and effected by the death of Christ. Now because our life depends upon his death the ministry of this life must relate â—o the ministry of this death and we have nothing to glory in but the Crosse of Christ the Word preached is nothing but Jesus Christ crucified and the Sacraments are the most eminent way of declaring this word for by Baptism we are buried into his death and by the Lords Supper we are partakers of his death we communicate with the Lord Jesus as he is crucified but now since all belong to this that Word and that Mystery that is highest and neerest in this relation is the principal and chief of all the rest and that the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is so is evident beyond all necessity of inquiry it being instituted in the vespers of the Passion it being the Sacrament of the passion a sensible representation of the breaking Christs body of the effusion of Christs blood it being by Christ himself intituled to the passion and the symbols invested with the names of his broken body and his blood poured forth and the whole ministry being a great declaration of this death of Christ and commanded to be continued until his second coming Certainly by all these it appears that this Sacrament is the great ministry of life and salvation here is the publication of the great word of salvation here is set forth most illustriously the body and blood of Christ the food of our souls much more clearly than in Baptism much more effectually than in simple enunciation or preaching and declaration by words for this preaching is to strangers and infants in Christ to produce faith but this Sacramental enunciation is the declaration and confession of it by men in Christ a glorying in it giving praise for it a declaring it to be done and own'd and accepted and prevailing The consequent of these things is this That if any Mystery Rite or Sacrament be effective of any spiritual blessings then this is much more as having the prerogative and illustrious principality above every thing else in its own kind or of any other-kind in exteriour or interiour Religion I name them both because as in Baptism the water alone does nothing but the inward cooperation with the outward oblation does save us yet to Baptism the Scriptures attribute the effect so it is in this sacred solemnity the external act is indeed nothing but obedience and of it self only declares Christs death in rite and ceremony yet the worthy communicating of it does indeed make us feed upon Christ and unites him to the soul and makes us to become one spirit according to the words of S. Ambrose Ideo in similitudinem quidem accipis sacramentum sed verae naturae gratiam virtutemque consequeris thou recâ—ivâ—st the Sacrament as the similitude of Christs body but thou shalt receive the grace and the virtue of the true nature I shall not enter into so useless a discourse as to inquire whether the Sacraments confer grace by their own excellency and power with which they are endued from above because they who affirm they do require so much duty on our parts as they also do who attribute the effect to our moral disposition but neither one nor the other say true for neither the external act nor the internal grace and morality does effect our pardon and salvation but the spirit of God who blesses the symbols and assists the duty makes them holy and this acceptable Only they that attribute the efficacy to the Ministration of the Sacrament chose to magnifie the immediate work of man rather than the immediate work of God and prefer the external at least in glorious
appellations before the internal and they that deny efficacy to the external work and wholly attribute the blessing and grace to the moral cooperation make too open a way for despisers to neglect the divine Institution and to lay aside or lightly esteem the Sacraments of the Church It is in the Sacraments as it is in the Word preached in which not the sound or the letters and syllables that is not the material part but the formal the sense and the signification prepare the mind of the hearer to receive the impresses of the holy spirit of God without which all preaching and all Sacraments are ineffectual so does the internal and formal part the signification and sense of the Sacrament dispose the spirit of the receiver the rather to admit and entertain the grace of the spirit of God there consigned and there exhibited and there collated but neither the outward nor the inward part does effect it neither the Sacrament nor the moral disposition only the spirit operates by the Sacrament and the Communicant receives it by his moral dispositions by the hand of faith And what have we to do to inquire into the philosophy of Sacraments these things do not work by the methods of nature But here the effect is imputed to this cause and yet can be produced without this cause because this cause is but a sâ—gn in the hand of God by which he tells the soul when he is willing to work Thus Baptism was the instrument and sign in the hands of God to confer the holy Spirit upon believers but the holy Ghost sometimes comes like lightning and will not stay the period of usual expectation for when Cornelius had heard St. Peter preach he received the holy Ghost and as sometimes the holy Ghost was given because they had been baptized now he and his company were to be baptized because they had received the holy Ghost and it is no good argument to say The graces of God are given to believers out of the Sacrament ergo not by or in the Sacrament but rather thus If Gods grace overflows sometimes and goes without his own instruments much more shall he give it in the use of them If God gives pardon without the Sacrament then rather also with the Sacrament For supposing the Sacraments in their design and institution to be nothing but signs and ceremonies yet they cannot hinder the work of God and therefore holinesse in the reception of them will do more than holinesse alone for God does nothing in vain the Sacraments do something in the hand of God at least they are Gods proper and accustomed times of grace they are his seasons and our opportunity when the Angel stirs the pool when the Spirit moves upon the waters then there is a ministry of healing For consider we the nature of a Sacrament in general then pass on to a particular enumeration of the blessings of this the most excellent When God appointed the bow in the clouds to be a Sacrament and the memorial of a promise he made it our comfort but his own sign I will remember my Covenant between me and the earth and the waters shall be no more a flood to dâ—stroy all flesh This is but a token of the Covenant and yet at the appearing of it God had thoughts of truth and mercy to mankind The bow shall be in the cloud and I will look upon it that I may remember the everlasting Covenant between me and every creature Thus when Elisha threw the wood into the waters of Jordan Sacramentum ligni the Sacrament of the wood Tertullian calls it that chip made the iron swim not by any natural or any infused power but that was the Sacrament or sign at which the Divine power then passed on to effect and emanation When Elisha talked with the King of Israel about the war with Syria he commanded him to smite upon the ground and he smote thrice and stayed This was Sacramentum victoriae the Sacrament of his future victory For the man of God was wroth with him and said Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times then thou hadst smitten Syria until thou hadst consumed it whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice In which it is remarkable that though it was not that smiting that beat the Syrians but the ground yet God would effect the beating of the Syrians by the proportion of that Sacramental smiting The Sacraments are Gods signs the opportunities of grace and actâ—on Be baptized and wash away thy sins said Ananias to Saul and therefore it is calâ—'d the laver of regeneration and of the renâ—wing of the holy Ghâ—st that is in that Sacrament and at that corporal ablution the work of the spirit is done for although it is not that washing of it self yet God does so do it at that ablution which is but the similitude of Christs death that is the Sacrament and symbolical representation of it that to that very similitude a very glorious effect is imputed for if we have been planted together in the LIKENESSE of his death we shall be also in the LIKENESS of his Resurrection For the mystery is this by immersion in Baptism and emersion we are configured to Christs Burial and to his Resurrection that 's the outward part to which if we add the inward which is there intended and is expressed by the Apostle in the following words knowing that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin that 's our spiritual death which answers to our configuration with the death of Christ in Baptism that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in nâ—wness of life there 's the correspondent of our configuration to the resurrection of Christ that is if we do that duty of Baptism we shall receive that grace God offers us the mercy at that time when we promise the duty and do our present portion This St. Peter calls the stipulation of a good conscience the postulate and bargain which man then makes with God who promises us pardon and immortality resurrection from the dead and life eternal if we repent toward God and have faith in the Lord Jesus and if we promise we have and will so abide The same is the case in the other most glorious Sacrament it is the same thing in neerer representation only what is begun in Baptism proceeds on to perfection in the holy Communion Baptism is the antitype of the passion of Christ and the Lords Supper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that also represents Christs passion Baptism is the union of the members of Christ and the admission of them under one head into one body as the Apostle affirms we are all baptized into one body and so it is in the Communion the bread which we break it is the communion
the fruits of his passion and we shall if we abide in this union be all one body of a spiritual Church in heaven there to reign with Christ for ever Now unless we think nothing Good but what goes in at our eyes or mouth if we think there is any thing good beyond what our senses perceive we must confess this to be a real and eminent benefit and yet whatever it be it is therefore effected upon us by this Sacrament because we eat of one bread The very repeating the words of St. Paul is a satisfaction in this inquiry they are plain and easie and whatever interpretation can be put upon them it can only vary the manner of effecting the blessing and the way of the Sacramental efficacy but it cannot evacuate the blessing or confute the thing Only it is to be observed in this as in all other instances of the like nature that the grace of God in the Sacrament usually is a blessing upon our endeavours for spiritual graces and the blessings of sanctification do not grow like grasse but like corn not whether we do any husbandry or no but if we cultivate the ground then by Gods blessing the fruits will spring and make the Farmer rich if we be disposed to receive the Sacrament worthily we shall receive this fruit also Which fruit is thus expressed saying this Sacrament is therefore given unto us that the body of the Church of Christ in the earth may be joyned or united with our head which is in the heavens 3. The blessed Sacrament is of great efficacy for the remission of sins not that it hath any formal efficacy or any inherent vertue to procure pardon but that it is the ministery of the death of Christ and the application of his blood which blood was shed for the remission of sins and is the great means of impetration and as the Schools use to speak is the meritorious cause of it For there are but two wayes of applying the death of Christ an internal grace and an external ministery Faith is the inward applicatory and if there be any outward at all it must be the Sacraments and both of them are of remarkable vertue in this particular for by baptisme we are baptized into the death of Christ and the Lords supper is an appointed enunciation and declaration of Christs death and it is a Sacramental participation of it Now to partake of it Sacramentally is by Sacrament to receive it that is so to apply it to us as that can be applyed it brings it to our spirit it propounds it to our faith it represents it as the matter of Eucharist it gives it as meat and drink to our souls and rejoyces in it in that very formality in which it does receive it viz as broken for as shed for the remission of our sins Now then what can any man suppose a Sacrament to be and what can be meant by sacramental participation for unless the Sacraments do communicate what they relate to they are no communion or communication at all for it is true that our mouth eats the material signs but at the same time faith eats too and therefore must eat that is must partake of the thing signified faith is not maintained by ceremonies the body receives the body of the mystery we eat and drink the symbols with our mouths but faith is not corporeal but feeds upon the mystery it self it entertains the grace and enters into that secret which the spirit of God conveyes under the signature Now since the mystery is perfectly and openly expressed to be the remission of sins if the soul does the work of the soul as the body the work of the body the soul receives remission of sins as the body does the symbols of it and the Sacrament But we must be infinitely careful to remember that even the death of Christ brings no pardon to the impenitent persevering sinner but to him that repents truely so does the Sacrament of Christs death this can do no more than that and therefore let no man come with his guilt about him and in the heat and in the affections of his sin and hope to find his pardon by this ministery He that thinks so will but deceive wil but ruine himself They are excellent but very severe words which God spake to the Jews and which are a prophetical reproof of all unworthy Communicants in these divine mysteries What hath my beloved to do in my house seeing she hath wrought lâ—wdness with many The holy flesh hath passed from thee when thou doest evil that is this holy sacrifice the flesh and blood of thy Lord shall slip from thee without doing thee any good if thou hast not ceased from doing evil But the vulgar Latin reads these words much more emphatically to our purpose Shall the holy flesh take from thee thy wickedness in which thou rejoycest Deceive not thy self thou hast no part nor portion in this matter For the holy Sacrament operates indeed and consigns our pardon but not alone but in conjunction with all that Christ requires as conditions of pardon but when the conditions are present the Sacrament ministers pardon as pardon is ministred in this world that is by parts and in order to several purposes and with power of revocation by suspending the Divine wrath by procuring more graces by obtaining time of repentance and powers and possibilities of working out our salvation and by setting forward the method and Oeconomy of our salvation For in the usual methods of God pardon of sins is proportionable to our repentance which because it is all that state of Piety we have in this whole life after our first sin pardon of sins is all that effect of grace which is consequent to that repentance and the worthy receiving of the holy Communion is but one conjugation of holy actions and parts of repentance but indeed it is the best and the noblest and such in which man does best cooperate towards pardon and the grace of God does the most illustriously consign it But of these particulars I shall give full account when I shall discourse of the preparations of repentance 4. It is the greatest solemnity of prayer the most powerful Liturgy and means of impetration in this world For when Christ was consecrated on the crosse and became our High Priest having reconciled us to God by the death of the crosse he became infinitely gracious in the eyes of God and was admitted to the celestial and eternal Priesthood in heaven where in the vertue of the crosse he intercedes for us and represents an eternal sacrifice in the heavens on our behalf That he is a Priest in heaven appears in the large discourses and direct affirmatives of St. Paul that there is no other sacrifice to be offered but that on the crosse it is evident because he hath but once appeared in the end of the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of
desire is a good preparation and God will attend unto it Concerning this therefore we are first to examine our selves Upon the account of our earnest desires it is seasonable to inquire whether to communicate frequently be an instance of that holy desire which we ought to have to these sacred Mysteries and whether all men be bound to communicate frequently and what measure is the safest and best in this inquiry But because the answer to this depends upon some other propositions of differing matter I reserve it to its proper place where it will be a consequent of those propositions SECT III. Of our Examination concerning Remanent Affections to Sin HE that desires communicate worthily must examine himself whether there be not in him any affâ—ction to sin remaining This examination is not any part of repentance but a trial of it for of preparatory repentance I shall give larger accounts in its own place but now we are to try whether that duty be done that if it be we may come if not we may be remanded and go away till we have performed it For he that comes must have repented first but now he is to be examined whether he have or no done that work so materially that it is also prosperously that is whether he have done it not only solemnly and ritually but effectively whether he have so washed that he is indeed clean from any soul and polluting principle When the Heathens offered a Sacrifice to their false gods they would make a severe search to see if there were any crookednesse or spot any uncleannesse or deformity in their Sacrifice The Priest was wont to handle the liver and search the throbbing heâ—rt he inquires if the blood springs right and if the lungs be sound he thrusts his hand into the region of the lower belly and looks iâ—â—here be an ulcer or a schirrus a stone or a bed of gravel Now the observation which Tertullian makes upon these Sacrifical Rites is pertinent to this rule When your impure Priâ—sts look after a pure Sacrifice why do they not rather inquire into their own heart than into the lambs appurtenance why do they not ask after the lust of the Sacrificeâ—s more than the little spot upon the bulls liver The rites of Sacrifices were but the monitions of duty and the Priests inquiry into the puriâ—y of the beast was but a precept represented in ceremony and hieroglyphick commanding us to take care that the man be not lesse pure and perfect than the beast For if an unclean man brings a clean Sacrifice the sacrifice shall not cleanse the man but the man will pollute the Sacrifice let them bring to God a soul pure and spotless lest when God espying a soul humbly lying before the Altar and finding it to be polluted with a remaining filthinesse or the reproaches of a sin he turns away his head and hates the Sacrifice And God who taught the Sons of Israel in figures and shadows and required of the Levitical Priests to come to God clean and whole straight and with perfect bodies meant to tell us that this bodily precept in a carnal Law does in a spiritual Religion signifie a spiritual purity For God is never called a lover of bodies but the great lover of souls and he that comes to redeem our souls from sin and death from shame and reproach would have our souls brought to him as he loves them An unclean soul is a deformity in the eyes of God it is indeed spiritually discerned but God hath no other eyes but what are spirits and flames of fire Here therefore it concerns us to examine our selves strictly and severely always remembring that to examine our selves as it is here intended is not a duty compleated by examining for this carries us on to the Sacrament or returns us to the mortifications of repentance But sometimes our sins are so notorious that they go before unto judgment and condemnation and they need no examining and whatsoever is not done against our wills cannot be besides our knowledg and so cannot need examination but remembring only and therefore I do not call upon the drunkard to examine himself concerning temperance or the wanton concerning his uncleanness or the oppressor concerning his cruel covetousness or the customary swearer concerning his profaneness No man needs much inquiry to know whether a man be alive or dead when he hath lost a vital part But this caution is given to the returning sinner to the repenting man to him that weeps for his sins and leaves what was the shame of his face and the reproach of his heart For we are quickly apt to think we are washed enough and having remembred our shameful falls we groan in method and weep at certain times we bid our selves be sorrowful and tune our heart-strings to the accent and key of the present solemnity and as sorrow enters in dresse and imagery when we bid her so she goes away when the scene is done Here here it is that we are to examine whether shows do make a real change whether shadows can be substances and whether to begin a good work splendidly can effect all the purposes of its designation Have you wept for your sin so that you were indeed sorrowful and afflicted in your spirit Are you so sorrowful that you hate it Do you so hate it that you have left it And have you so left it that you have left it all and will you do so for ever These are particulars worth the inquiring after How then shall we know Signs by which we may examine and tell whether our affections to sin remain 1. Because in examining our selves concerning this we can never be sure but by the event of things and the heart being deceitful above all things we secretly love what we professe to hate we deny our lovers and desire they should still press us we command away the sin from our presence for which we dy if it stayes away therefore while we are in this prepartaory duty of examination the best sign whereby we can reasonably suppose all affection to sin to be gone away is if we really believe that we shall never any more commit that sin to which we are most tempted and most inclined and by which we most frequently fall Here is a copious matter for examination 2. When thou doest examine thy self thou canst not but remember how often thou hast sinned by wantonnesse perhaps or by intemperance but now thou sayest thou wilt do so no more If thou hadst never said so and failed it might have been likely enough but the Sun does not rise and set so often as thou hast sinned and broken all thy holy vows and thy resolution to put away thy sin is but like Amnon thrusting out his sister after he had enjoyed her and was weary Sin looks ugly after it hath been handled and thou having lost thy innocence and thy peace for nothing but the
same Ministry of salvation and but one and the same Oeconomy of God Thus St. Peter affirms That by the precious blood of Christ we are redeemed from our vain conversation and it is every where affirmed that we are purified and cleansed by the blood of Christ and yet these are the express effects of his Spirit for by the spirit we mortifie the deeds of the body and we are justified and sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus by the spirit of our God By which expressions we are taught to distinguish the natural blood of Christ from the spiritual the blood that he gave for us from the blood which he gives to us that was indeed by the spirit but was not the same thing but this is the spirit of grace and the spirit of wisdom And therefore as our Fathers were made to drink into one spirit when they drank of the water of the rock so we also partake of the spirit when we drink of Christs blood which came from the spiritual rock when it was smitten for thus according to the Doctrine of St. John the water aâ—d the blood and the spirit are one and the same glorious purposes As it was with our Fathers in the beginning so it is now with us and so it ever shall be world without end for they fed upon Christ that is they believed in Christ they expected his day they lived upon his promises they lived by faith in him and the same meat and drink is set upon our Tables and more than all this as Christ is the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world so he shall be the food of souls in heaven where they who are accounted worthy shall sit down and be feasted in the eternal Supper of the Lamb concerning which blessedness our B. Saviour saith Blessed is he that eateth bread in the Kingdom of God for he hath appointed to his chosen ones to eat and drink at his table in his Kingdom plainly teaching us that by eating and drinking Christ is meant in this world to live the life of the spirit and in the other world it is to live the life of glory here we feed upon duty and there we feed upon reward our wine is here mingled with water and with myrrhe there it is mere and unmixt but still it is called meat and drink and still is meant grace and glory the fruits of the spirit and the joy of the spirit that is by Christ we here live a spiritual life and hereafter shall live a life eternal Thus are sensible things the Sacrament and representation of the spiritual and eternal and spiritual things are the fulfillings of the sensible But the consequent of these things is this that since Christ always was is and shall be the food of the faithful and is that bread which came down from heaven since we eat him here and shall eat him there our eating both here and there is spiritual only the word of teaching shall be changed into the word of glorification and our faith into Charity and all the way our souls live a new life by Christ of which eating and drinking is the Symbol and the Sacrament And this is not done to make this mystery obscure but intelligible and easie For so the pains of hell are expressed by fire which to our flesh is most painful and the joyes of God by that which brings us greatest pleasure by meat and drink and the growth in grace by the natural instruments of nutrition and the work of the Soul by the ministeries of the body and the graces of God by the blessings of nature for these we know and we know nothing else and but by phantasmes and ideas of what we see and feel we understand nothing at all Now this is so far from being a diminution of the glorious mystery of our Communion that the changing all into spirituality is the greatest increase of blessing in the world And when he gives us his body and his blood he does not fill our stomachs with good things for of whatsoever goes in thither it is affirmed by the Apostle that God will destroy both it and them but our hearts are to be replenished and by receiving his spirit we receive the best thing that God gives not his liveless body but his flesh with life in it that is his doctrine and his spirit to imprint it so to beget a living faith and a lively hope that we may live and live for ever 4. St. John having thus explicated this mystery in general of our eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ added nothing in particular concerning any Sacraments these being in particular instances of the general mystery and communion with Christ. But what is the advantage we receive by the Sacraments besides that which we get by the other and distinct ministeries of faith I thus account in general The word and the spirit are the flesh and the blood of Christ that is the ground of all Now because there are two great Sermons of the Gospel which are the summe total and abbreviature of the whole word of God the great messages of the word incarnate Christ was pleased to invest these two words with two Sacraments and assist those two Sacraments as he did the whole word of God with the presence of his Spirit that in them we might do more signally and solemnly what was in the ordinary ministrations done plainly and without extraordinary regards Believe and repent is the word in Baptisme and and there solemnly consigned and here it is that by faith we feed on Christ for faith as it is opposed to works that is the new Covenant of faith as it is opposed to the old Covenant of works is the covenant of repentance repentance is expressly included in the new covenant but was not in the old but by faith in Christ we are admitted to pardon of our sins if we repent and forsake them utterly Now this is the word of faith and this is that which is called the flesh or body of Christ for this is that which the soul feeds on this is that by which the just do live and when by the operation of the holy spirit the waters are reformed to a Divine Nature or efficacy the baptized are made clean theâ— are sanctified and presented pure and spotless unto God This mystery St. Austin rightly understood when he affirmed that we are made partakers of the body and blood of Christ when we are in baptisme incorporated into his body we are baptized in the passion of our Lord so Tertullian to the same sense with that of St. Paul we are buried with him in baptisme into his death that is by baptisme are conveyed to us all the effects of Christ's death the flesh and blood of Christ crucified are in baptisme reached to us by the hand of God by his holy spirit and received by the hand of man the Ministery of
a holy faith So that it can without difficulty be understood that as in receiving the word and the spirit illuminating us in our first conversion we do truely feed on the flesh and drink the blood of Christ who is the bread that came down from heaven so we do it also and do it much more in baptisme because in this besides all that was before there was superadded a rite of Gods appointment The difference is only this That out of the Sacrament the spirit operates with the word in the ministery of man in Baptisme the spirit operates with the word in the ministery of God For here God is the preacher the Sacrament is Gods sign and by it he ministers life to us by the flesh and blood of his Son that is by the death of Christ into which we are baptized And in the same Divine method the word and the spirit are ministred to us in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper For as in Baptisme so here also there is a word proper to the ministery So often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye declare the Lords death till he come This indeed is a word of comfort Christ died for our sins that is our repentance which was consigned in baptisme shall be to purpose we shall be washed white and clean in the blood of the sacrificed Lamb. This is verbum visibile the same word read to the eye and to the ear Hear the word of God is made our food in a manner so near to our understanding that our tongues and palats feel the Metaphor and the Sacramental signification here faith is in triumph and exaltation but as in all the other ministeries Evangelical we eat Christ by faith here we have faith also by eating Christ Thus eating and drinking is faith it is faith in mystery and faith in ceremony it is faith in act and faith in habit it is exercised and it is advanced and therefore it is certain that here we eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ with much eminency and advantage The sum is this Christs body his flesh and his blood are therefore called our meat and our drink because by his incarnation and manifestation in the flesh he became life unto us So that it is mysterious indeed in the expression but very proper and intelligible in the event to say that we eat his flesh and drink his blood since by these it is that we have and preserve life But because what Christ begun in his incarnation he finished in his body on the crosse and all the whole progression of mysteries in his body was still an operatory of life and spiritual being to us the Sacrament of the Lords Supper being a commemoration and exhibition of this death which was the consummation of our redemption by his body and blood does contain in it a visible word the word in symbol and visibility and special manifestation Consonant to which Docrtine the Fathers by an elegant expression call the blessed Sacrament the extension of the Incarnation So that here are two things highly to be remarked 1. That by whatsoever way Christ is taken out of the Sacrament by the same he is taken in the Sacrament and by some wayes here more than there 2. That the eating and drinking the consecrated symbols is but the body and lesser part of the Sacrament the life and the spirit is believing greatly and doing all the actions of that believing direct and consequent So that there are in this two manducations and Sacramental and the Spiritual That does but declare and exercise this and of the sacramental manducation as it is alone as it is a ceremony as it does only consigne or expresse the internal it is true to affirm that it is only an act of obedience but all the blessings and conjugations of joy which come to a worthy Communicant proceed from that spiritual eating of Christ which as it is done out of the Sacrament very well so in it and with it much better For here being as in baptisme a double significatory of the spirit a word and a sign of his own appointment it is certain he will joyn in this Ministration Here we have bread and drink flesh and blood the word and the spirit Christ in all his effects and most gracious communications This is the general account of the nature and purpose of this great mystery Christians are spiritual men faith is their mouth and wisdom is their food and believing is manducation and Christ is their life and truth is the Air they breath and their bread is the word of God and Gods spirit is their drink and righteousness is their robe and Gods laws are their light and the Apostles are their salt and Christ is to them all in all for we must put on Christ and we must eat Christ and we must drink Christ we must have him within us and we must be in him he is our vine and we are his branches he is a door and by him we must enter he is our shepherd and we his sheep Deus meus omnia he is our God and he is all things to us that is plainly he is our Redeemer and he is our Lord He is our Saviour and our Teacher by his Word and by his Spirit he brings us to God and to felicities eternal and that is the sum of all For greater things than these we can neither receive nor expect But these things are not consequent to the reception of the natural body of Christ which is now in heaven but of his Word and of his Spirit which are therefore indeed his body and his blood because by these we feed on him to life eternal Now these are indeed conveyed to us by the several ministries of the Gospel but especially in the Sacraments where the Word is preached and consigned and the Spirit is the teacher and the feeder and makes the Table full and the Cup to overflow with blessing SECT III. That in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper there are represented and exhibited many great blessings upon the special account of that sacred ministery proved in General IN explicating the Nature of this Divine mystery in general as I have manifested the nature and operations and the whole ministery to be spiritual and that not the natural body and blood of Christ is received by the mouth but the word and the spirit of Christ by faith and a spiritual hand and upon this account have discovered their mistake who think the secret lies in the outside and suppose that we tear the natural flesh of Christ with our mouthes So I have by consequent explicated the secret which others indefinitely and by conjecture and zeal do speak of and know not what to say but resolve to speak things great enough it remains now that I consider for the satisfaction of those that speak things too contemptible of these holy mysteries who say it is nothing but a commemoration of
of the body of Christ for we being many are one body and one bread in baptisme we partake of the death of Christ and in the Lords Supper we do the same in that as Babes in this as men in Christ so that what effects are affirmed of one the same are in greater measure true of the other they are but several rounds of Jacobs ladder reaching up to heaven upon which the Angels ascend and descend and the Lord sits upon the top And because the Sacraments Evangelical be of the like kind of mystery with the Sacraments of old from them we can understand that even signs of secret graces do exhibit as well as signifie for besides that there is a natural analogy between the ablution of the body and the purification of the soul between eating the holy bread and drinking the sacred calice and a participation of the body and blood of Christ it is also in the method of the divine oeconomy to dispense the grace which himself signifies in a ceremony of his own institution thus at the Unction of Kings Priests and of Prophets the sacred power was bestowed and as a Canon is invested in his dignity by the tradition of a book and an Abbat by his staffe a Bishop by a ring they are the words of St. Bernard so are divisions of graces imparted to the diverse Sacraments And therefore although it ought not to be denyed that when in Scripture and the writings of the holy Doctors of the Church the collation of grace is attributed to the sâ—gn it is by a metonymy and a Sacramental manner of speaking yet it is also a synecdoche of the part for the whole because both the Sacrament and the grace are joyned in the lawful and holy use of them by Sacramental union or rather by a confederation of the parts of the holy Covenant Our hearts are purified by faith and so our consciences are also made clean in the cestern of water By faith we are saved and yet he hath savâ—d us by the laver of regeneration and they are both joyned together by St. Paul Christ gave himself for his Church that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word that is plainly by the Sacrament according to the famous Commentary of St. Austin accedat verbum ad elementum tum fit sacramentum when the word and the element are joyned then it is a perfect Sacrament and then it does effect all its purposes and intentions Thus we find that the grace of God is given by the imposition of hands and yet as Austin rightly affirmes God alone can give his holy spirit and the Apostles did not give the holy Ghost to them upon whom they laid their hands but prayed that God would give it and he did so at the imposition of their hands Thus God sanctified Aaron and yet he said to Moses thou shalt sanctifie Aaron that is not that Moses did it instead of God but Moses did it by his ministery and by visible Sacraments and rites of Gods appointment and though we are born of an immortal seed by the word of the living God yet St. Paul said to the Corinthians I have begotten you through the Gosâ—el and thus it is in the greatest as well as in the least he that drinks Christ's blood and eats his body hath life abiding in him it is true of the â—acrament and true of the spiritual manducation and may be indifferently affirmed of either when the other is not excluded for as the Sacrament operates only by the vertue of the spirit of God so the spirit ordinarily works by the instrumentality of the Sacraments And we may as well say that faith is not by hearing as that grace is not by the Sacraments for as without the spirit the word is but a dead letter so with the spirit the Sacrament is the means of life and grace And the meditation of St. Chrysostom is very pious and reasonable If we were wholly incorporeal God would have given us graces unclothed with signs and Sacraments but because our spirits are in earthen vessels God conveyes his graces to us by sensible ministrations The word of God operates as secretly as the Sacraments and the Sacraments as powerfully as the word nay the word is alwayes joyned in the worthy administration of the Sacrament which therefore operates both as word and sign by the ear and by the eyes and by both in the hand of God and the conduct of the spirit effect all that God intends and that a faithful receiver can require and pray for For justification and sanctification are continued acts they are like the issues of a Fountain into its receptacles God is alwayes giving and we are alwayes receiving and the signal effects of Gods holy spirit sometimes give great indications but most commonly come without observation and therefore in these things we must not discourse as in the conduct of oâ—her causes and operations natural for although in natural effects we can argue from the cause to the event yet in spiritual things we are to reckon only from the sign to the event And the signs of grace we are to place in stead of natural causes because a Sacrament in the hand of God is a proclamation of his graces he then gives us notice that the springs of heaven are opened and then is the time to draw living waters from the fountains of salvation When Jonathan shot his arrows beyond the boy he then by a Sacrament sent salvation unto David he bad him be gone and flie from his Fathers wrath and although Jonathan did do his business for him by a continual care and observation yet that symbol brought it unto David for so are we conducted to the joyes of God by the methods and possibilities of men In conclusion the sum is this The Sacraments and symbols if they be considered in their own nature are just such as they seem water and bread and wine they retain the names proper to their own natures but because they are made to be signs of a secret mystery and water is the symbol of purification of the soul from sin and bread and wine of Christs body and blood therefore the symbols and Sacraments receive the names of what themselves do sign they are the body and they are the blood of Christ they are Metonymically such But because yet further they are instruments of grace in the hand of God and by these his holy spirit changes our hearts and translates us into a Divine nature therefore the whole work is attributed to them by a Synecdoche that is they do in their manner the work for which God ordained them and they are placed there for our sakes and speak Gods language in our accent and they appear in the outside we receive the benefit of their ministery and God receives the glory SECT IV. The blessings and Graces of the Holy Sacrament enumerated and proved
is the first principle of the world not meaning that darknesse was before light but by Darkness they mean God as Damascius the Platonist rightly observes saying This darknesse or obscurity is the beginning of every intellectual being and every Sacramental action and therefore in their ceremonies they usually made three acclamations to the unknown Darkness that is to God whose secrets are pervious to no eye whose dwelling is in a light that is not to be discerned whose mysteries are not to be understood by us and whose Sacraments are objects of faith and wonder but not to be disordered by the mistaking undiscerning eye of people that are curious to ask after what they shall never understand Faith is oftentimes safer in her ignorance than in busie questions and to enquire after the manner of what God hath plainly and simply told may be an effect of infidelity but never an act of faith If concerning the things of God we once ask Why or How we argue our doubt and want of confidence and therefore it was an excellent Counsel of S. Cyril Believe firmly in the mysteries and consent to the words of Christ but never so much as speak or think How is this done In your faith be as particular and minute as Christ was in his expressions of it but no more He hath told us This is his body This is his blood believe it and so receive it but he hath not told us how it is so it is behind a cloud and tied up with a knot of secrecy therefore let us lay our finger on our mouth and worship humbly But he that looks into the eye of the Sun shall be blind and he that searches into the secrets of Majesty shall be confounded with the glory The next enquiry is What is the use of faith in this Sacrament It is tied but to little duty and a few plain articles what then is the use and advantages of it To what graces does it minister and what effect does it produce To this the answer is easie but yet such as introduces a further enquiry Faith indeed is not curious but material and therefore in the contemplation of this mysterious Sacrament and its Symbols we are more to regard their signification than their matter their holy imployment than their natural usuage what they are by grace than what they are by nature what they signifie rather than what they are defin'd Faith considers not how they nourish the body but how they support and exalt the soul that they are Sacramental not that they are also nutritive that they are made holy to purposes of Religion not that they are salutary to offices of nature that is what they are to the spirit not what they are to sense and disputation For to faith Christ is present by faith we eat his flesh and by faith we drink his blood that is we communicate not as men but as faithful and believers the meaning and the duty and the effect of which are now to be inquired 1. It signifies that Christ is not present in the Sacrament corporally or naturally but spiritually for thus the carnal and spiritual sense are opposed So St. Chrysostom upon those words of Christ the flesh profiteth nothing what is it to understand carnally To understand them simply and plainly as they are spoken For they are not to be judged as they seem but all mysteries are to be considered with internal eyes that is spiritually For the carnal sense does not penetrate to the understanding of so great a secret saith St. Cyprian For therefore we are not devourers of flesh because we understand these things spiritually So Theophilaect 2. Since the spiritual sense excludes the natural and proper it remains that the expression which is natural be in the sense figurative and improper and if the holy Sacrament were not a figure it could neither be a sign nor a Sacrament But therefore it is called the body and blood of Christ because it is the figure of them as St. Austin largely discourses â—or so when good Friday draws neer we say to morrow or the next day is the passion of our Lord although that passion was but once and that many ages since and upon the Lords day we say to day our blessed Lord arose from the dead although so many years be passed since and why is no man so foolish as to reprove us of falshood but because on these dayes is the similitude of those things which were done so long since Was not Christ once sacrificed and yet he is sacrificed still on the solemnities of Easter and every day in the Communions of the people neither does he say false who being asked shall say that he is sacrificed for if the Sacraments had not a similitude of those things whereof they are Sacraments they would be no Sacraments at all But most commonly by their similitudes things receive their names Thus Tertullian expresses this mystery This is my body that is the figure of my body and St. Gregory Nazianzen calls the Passeover because it antedated the Lords Supper a figure of a figure 3. But St. Austin added well The body of Christ is truth and figure too The holy Sacrament is not only called the Lords body and blood for the figure similitude and Sacramentality but for the real exhibition and ministration of it For it is truly called the body of Christ because there is joyned with it the vital power vertue and efficacy of the body and therefore it is called by St. Austin the intelligible the invisible the spiritual body by St. Hierom the Divine and spiritual flesh the celestial thing by St. Irenaeus the spiritual food and the body of the divine Spirit by St. Ambrose for by this means it can very properly be called the body and blood of Christ since it hath not only the figure of his death externally but internally it hath hidden and secret the proper and divine effect the life-giving power of his body so that though it be a figure yet it is not meerly so not only the sign and memorial of him that is absent but it bears along with it the very body of the Lord that is the efficacy and divine vertue of it Thus our blessed Saviour said of John the Baptist that Elias is already come because he came in the power and spirit of Elias As John was Elias so is the holy Sacrament the body and blood of Christ because it hath the power and spirit of the body of Christ. And therefore the ancient Doctors of the Church in their Sermons of these divine Mysteries use the word Nature and Substance not understanding these words in the natural or Philosophical but a Theological in a sense proper to the Schools of Christians by Substance meaning the power of the substance by Nature the gracious effect of his natural body the nature and use and mysteriousnesse of Sacraments so allowing them to speak
the beloved Son the first born of every creature according to the Prophecies which went before him of the seed of of Abraham and David and of the Tribe of Judah He who is the maker of all that are born was conceived in the womb of a Virgin and he that is void of all flesh was incarnate and made flesh He was born in time who was begotten from eternity He conversed piously with men and instructed them with his holy Laws and doctrine He cured every disease and every infirmity He did signs and wonders among the people He slept and eat and drank who feeds all the living with food and fills them with his blessing He declared thy Name to them who knew it not He enlightned our ignorances He enkindled Godliness and fulfilled thy will and finished all that which thou gavest him to do All this when he had done he was taken by the hands of wicked men by the treachery of false Priests and an ungodly people he suffered many things of them and by thy permission suffered all shame and reproach He was delivered to Pilate the President who judged him that is the Judge of the quick and dead and condemned him who is the Saviour of all others He who is impassible was crucified and He died who is of an immortal nature and they buried him by whom others are made alive that by his death and passion he might free them for whom he came and might dissolve the bands of the Devil and deliver men from all his crafty malices But then he rose again from the dead he conversed with his Disciples forty days together and then was received up into heaven and there sits at the right hand of God his Father We therefore being mindful of these things which he did and suffered for us give thanks to thee Almighty God not as much as we should but as much as we can and here fulfil his Ordinance and believe all that he said and know and confess that he hath given us his body to be the food and his blood to be the drink of our souls that in him we live and move and have our being that by him we are taught by his strength enabled by his graces prevented by his spirit conducted by his death pardoned by his resurrection justified and by his intercession defended from all our enemies and set forward in the way of holinesse and life eternal O grant that we and all thy servants who by faith and Sacramental participation communicate with the Lord Jesus may obtain remission of our sins and be confirmed in piety and may be delivered from the power and illusions of the Devil and being filled with thy Spirit may become worthy members of Christ and at last may inherit eternal Life through the same our Lord Jesus Christ Amen CHAP. IV. Of Charity preparatory to the Blessed Sacrament SECT I. THE second great Instrument of preparation to the blessed Sacrament is Charity for though this be involved in faith as in its cause and moral principle yet we are to consider it in the proper effects also of it in its exercise and operations relative to the Mysteries For they that speak distinctly and give proprieties of employment to the two Sacraments by that which is most signal and eminent in them both respectively call Baptism the Sacrament of Faith and the Eucharist the Sacrament of Charity that is Faith in Baptism enters upon the work of a good life and in the holy Eucharist it is actually productive of that Charity which at first was designed and undertaken For Charity is that fire from heaven which unlesse it does enkindle the Sacrifice God will never accept it for an atonement This God declared to us by his Laws given to the sons of Israel and Aaron The Sacrifice that was Gods portion was to be eaten and consumed by himself and therefore to be devoured by the holy fire that came down from heaven And this was imitated by the Persians who worshipped the fire and thought what the fire devoured their god had plainly eaten So Maximus Tyrius tells of them that bringing their Sacrifices they were wont to say O Fire our Lord eat this meat And Pindar in his Olympiaes tells of the Rhodians that when they brought a Sacrifice to Jupiter and had by chance forgotten to bring their fire he accepting of their good intentions and pitying their forgetfulnesse rained down upon them a golden shower from a yellow cloud that is a shower of fire came and consumed their sacrifice Now this is the great emblem of Charity the flame consumes the feasters Sacrifice and makes it a divine nutriment our Charity it purifies the Oblation and makes their Prayers accepted The Tables of the Lord like the Delian Altars must not be defiled with blood and death with anger and revenge with wrath and indignation and this is to be in all senses of duty and ministration an unbloody Sacrifiâ—e The blood of the Crosse was â—he last that was to have been shed The Laws can shed more but nothing else For by remembring and representing the effusion of blood not by shedding it our expiation is now perfected and compleat but nothing hinders it more than the spirit of war and death not only by the emissions of the hand or the apertures of a wound but by the murder of the tongue and the cruelties of the heart or by an unpeaceable disposition It was love that first made Societies and love that must continue our Communions and God who made all things by his power does preserve them by his love and by union and society of parts every creature is preserved When a little wâ—ter is spilt from a full Vessel and falls into its enemy dust it curles it self into a drop and so stands equally armed in every point of the circle dividing the Forces of the enemy that by that little union it may stand as long as it can but if it be dissolved into flatnesse it is changed into the nature and possession of the dust War is one of Gods greatest plagues and therefore when God in this holy Sacrament pours forth the greatest effusion of his love peace in all capacities and in all dimensions and to all purposes he will not endure that they should come to these love-feasts who are unkind to their brethren quarrelsom with their neighbours implacable to their enemies apt to contentions hard to be reconciled soon angry scarcely appeased These are dogs and must not come within the holy place where God who is the Congregating Father and Christ the great minister of peace and the holy spirit of love are present in mysterious Symbols and most gracious Communications For although it be true that God loves us first yet he will not continue to love us or proceed in the methods of his kindnesse unlesse we become like unto him and love For by our love and charity he will pardon us and he will
Soter exhorted all persons to receive upon the day of the Institution or the vespers of the Passion he excepted those who were forbidden because they had committed any grievous sin But what was the Doctrine and what were the usages of the Primitive Church in the ministery of the Blessed Sacrament appears plainly in the two Epistles of St. Basil to Amphilochius in the Canons of Ancyra those of Peter of Alexandria Gregory Thaumaturgus and Nyssâ—en which make up the Penitential of the Greek Church and are explicated by Balsamo in which we find sometimes the penance of two years imposed for a single theft four years and seven years for an act of uncleannesse eleven years for perjury fifteen years for adultery and incest that is such persons were for so many years sepâ—rate from the Communion and by a holy life and strict observances of penitential impositions were to give testimony of their contrition and amends The like to which are to be seen in the Penitentials of the Western Church that of Theodorus Archbishop of Canterbury that of venerable Bede the old Roman and that of Rabanus Maurus Archbishop of Mentz The reason of which severity we find thus accounted in St. Basil All this is done that they may try the fruits of their repentance For we do not judge of these things by the time but by the manner of their repentance For the Bishop had power to shorten the days of their separation and abstention and he that was an excellent penitent was much sooner admitted but by the injunction of so long a trial they declar'd that much purification was necessary for such an address And if after or in these penitential years of abstention they did not mend their lives though they did perform their penances they were not admitted These were but the Churches signs by other accidents and manifestations if it hapned that a great contrition was signified or a secret incorrigibility became publick the Church would admit the first sooner and the latter not at all For it was purity and holinesse that the Church required of all her Communicants and what measure of it she required we find thus testified The faithful which hath been regenerated by baptism ought to be nourished by the participation of the divine Mysteries and being cloathed with Jesus Christ and having the quality of a child of God he ought to receive the nutriment of life eternal which the Son of God himself hath given us and this nutriment is obedience to the word of God and execution of his will of which Jesus Christ hath said Man lives not by bread alone but my meat is to do my Fathers will and a little after he affirms that whereas St. Paul saith that Jesus Christ hath appointed us to eat his body in memory of his death the true remembrance which we ought to have of his death is to place before our eyes that which the Apostle saith that we were wholly dead and Jesus Christ died for us to the end that we should no more live unto our selves but to him alone and that so we should do him honour and give him thanks for his death by the purity of our life without which we engage our selves in a terrible damnation if we receive the Eucharist And again He that not having this charity which presses us and causes us to live for him who died for us dares approach to the Eucharist grieves the holy Spirit For it is necessary that he who comes to the memorial of Jesus Christ who died and rose again for us should not only be clean from all impurity of flesh and spirit but that he should demonstrate the death of him who died and rose for us by being dead unto sin to the world and to himself and that he lives no more but only to God through Jesus Christ. And therefore St. Cyprian complains as of a new and worse persecution that lapsed persons are admitted to the Communion before they have brought forth fruits of a worthy repentance and affirms that such an admission of sinners is to them as hail to the young fruits as a blasting wind to the trees as the murren to the cattel as a tempest to the ships The ships are overturned and broken the fruits fall the trees are blasted the cattel die and the poor sinner by being admitted too soon to the ministeries of eternal life falls into eternall death And if we put together some words of Sâ— Ambrose they clearly declare this Doctrine and are an excellent Sermon Thou comest to the Altar the Lord Jesus calls thee he sees thee to be clean from all sin because thy sins are wash'd away therefore he judges thee worthy of the câ—lestial Sacraments and therefore he invites thee to the heavenly banquet Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth But some desire to be admitted to penance that presently they may receive the Communion These men do not so much desire themselves to be absolved as that the Priest be bound for they do not put off their own evil conscience But I would that the guilty man should hope for pardon let him require it with tears seek it with sighs beg to obtain it by the weepings of all the people and if he be denied the Communion again and again let him consider that his prayer was not sufficiently earnest let him weep more and pray more To which I shall add some like words of St. Austin Therefore my dearest Brethren let every one consider his conscience and when he finds himself wounded with any crime first let him take care with prayers and fastings and alms to cleanse his conscience and so let him receive the Eucharist .... for he that knowing his guilt shall humbly remove himself from the Altar for the amendment of his life shall not fear to be wholly ex-communicate from that eternal and celestial banquet For this Divine Sacrament is not to be eaten with confidence and boldnesse but with fear and all manner of purity saith St. Chrysostome for impudence in these approaches will certainly slay the souls For thâ—s is the body whither none but Eagles are to gather because they ought to be sublime and elevated souls such which have nothing of earthliness in them that do not sit and prey upon the ground that are not immerg'd in the love of Creatures but such whose flight is towards heaven whose spirit does behold the Sun of Righteousnesse with a penetrating contemplation and piercing eyes for this is the Table of Eagles and not of Owls And therefore this Saint complains of some who did approach to the Eucharist as it were by chance or rather by custom and constraint of Laws rather than by argument and choice In whatsoever estate their souls are they will partake of these Mysteries because it is Lent or because it iâ— the feast of the Epiphany but certain it is that it is not the time which puts us into
it is but a suspicious state of life that can give no wise account to God and the Common-wealth 6. Examine thy self in the particulars of thy relation especially where thou governest and takest accounts of others and exactest their faults and art not so obnoxious to them as they to thee Princes and Generals and Parents and Husbands and Masters think more things are lawful to them towards their inferiours than indeed there are and as they may easily transgress in discipline and reproof so they very often fail in making provisions for the souls and bodies of their inferiours and proceed with more confidence and to greater progressions in evil because they pass without animadversion or the notice of laws These persons are not often responsible to their subordinates but alwaies for them and therefore it were good that we took great notice of it our selves because few else do 7. Let us examine our selves concerning the great and little accidents of our private entercourse and conversation in our family especially between man and wife in the little quarrellings and accidental unkindnesses wherein both think themselves innocent and it may be both are to blame If the matter be disputable then do thou dispute it with thy self or rather condemn thy self for if it be fit to be questioned it is certainly in some measure fit to be repented of For either in the thing it self or in the misapprehension of the thing or in the not expounding it well or in the not suffering it or in the not concealing it or in the not turning it into vertue or in the not forgiving it or not conducting it prudently it is great odds but thou art to blame These little rencontres between man and wife are great hindrances to prayer as St. Peter intimates and by consequence do infinitely indispose us to the greatest solennity of prayer the holy Sacrament and therefore ought to be strictly surveyed and the principles rescinded and the beginnings stopt or else we shall communicate without fruit 8. Be sure against a day of Communion to examine thy self in those things which no law condemns but yet are of ill report such as are sumptuous and expensive cloathing great feasts gaudy dressings going often to Taverns phantastick following of fashions inordinate merriments living beyond our means in these and the like we must take our measures by a proportion to the prudence and severity of Christian Religion and by observation of the customs and usages of the best and wisest persons in every condition of men and women For that we do things which are of good report is a precept of the Apostle and as by little illnesses in the body so by the smallest indispositions in the soul if they be proceeded in we may finish â—he method of an eternal death And these things although when they are argued may in many particulars by witty men be represented in themselves as innocent yet they proceed from an evil and unsafe principle and not from a spirit fitted to dwell with Christ and live upon Sacraments and secret participations 9. Let us with curiosity examine our souls in such actions which are condemned by the Laws of God and man respectively but are not defined and the guilty person cannot in many cases be argued and convinced such as are pride and covetousness For when external actions can proceed from many principles as a haughty gate from pride or an ill habit of body or imitation or carelesness or humour it will be hard for any man to say I am proud because I lift up my feet too high and who can say that a degree of care and thriftiness in my case and in my circumstances is covetousness Here as we must be gentle to others so we must be severe to our selves and not only condemn the very first entries of an infant sin but suspect his approaches and acknowledge a fault before it be certain and evident In these things we must the rather examine our selves because we can be the most certain accusers of our selves and the inquiries are of great concernment because they are that curiosity of piety and security of condition which becomes persons of growth in grace and such as are properly fitted to the Communion and indeed they are of things most commonly neglected men usually living at that rate that if they be not scandalous they suppose themselves to be Saints and fitted for the nearest entercourse with Christ. These instances of examination do suppose that we have already examined our selves concerning all habits of sin and laid aside every discernable weight and repented of every observed criminal action and broken every custome of lesser irregularities and are reformed by the measures of Laws and express Commandments and are changed from death to life and that we are persons so far advanced that we need not to regard what is behind but to press forward towards the state of a perfect man in Christ Jesus For he that is in that state of things that he is to examine how many actions of uncleanness or intemperance or slander he hath committed since the last Communion is not fit to come to another but must change his life and repent greatly before he comes hither SECT III. Of an actual supply to be made of such actions and degrees of good as are wanting against a Communion-day 1. IF on a Communion-day we need very much examination we can make but little supply of those many defects which it is likely a diligent inquiry will discover and therefore it is highly advisable that as we ought to repent every day and not put it all off till the day of our Communion or our death so we should every day examine our selves at the shutting in of the day or at our going to bed for so St. Basil St. Chrysostome St. Anthony and St. Austin St. Ephrem and St. Dorotheus do advise Others advise that it be done twice every day and indeed the oftner we recollect our selves 1. The more weaknesses we shall observe and 2. the more faults correct and 3. watch the better and 4. repent the more perfectly and 5. offend less and 6. be more prepared for death and 7. be more humble and 8. with ease prevent the contracting of evil habits and 9. interrupt the union of little sins into a chain of death and 10. more readily prevail upon our passions and 11. better understand our selves and 12. more frequently converse with God and 13. oftner pray and 14. have a more heavenly conversation and in fine 15. be more fitted for a frequent and holy Communion 2. The end of examination is 1. That we grieve for all our sins 2. That we resolve to amend all * 3. That we actually watch and pray against all Therefore it is necessary that when we have examined against a Communion day 1. We alwaies do actions of contrition for every thing we have observed to be amiss 2. That we renew our resolutions of better obediencâ—
of thy Cross reconcile me to thy eternal Father and bring to me peace of Conscience let the victory of thy Cross mortifie all my evil and corrupt affections let the triumph of thy Cross lead me on to a state of holiness that I may sin no more but in all things please thee and in all things serve thee and in all things glorifie thee 7. Great and infinite are thy glories infinite and glorious are thy mercies who is like unto the Lord our God who dwelleth on high and yet humbleth himself to behold the things that are in Heaven and earth Heaven it self does wholly minister to our salvation God takes care of us God loves us first God will not suffer us to perish but imployes all his attributes for our good The Son of God dies for us the holy Spirit descends upon us and teaches us the Angels minister to us the Sacrament is our food Christ is married to our souls and heaven it self is offered to us for our portion 8. O God my God assist me now and ever graciously and greatly Grant that I may not receive bread alone for man cannot live by that but that I may eat Christ that I may not search into the secret of nature but inquire after the miracles of grace I do admire I worship and I love Thou hast overcome O Lord thou hast overcome Ride on triumphantly because of thy words of truth and peace load my soul in this triumph as thy own purchase thy love hath conquer'd and I am thy servant for ever 9. Thou wilt not dwell in a polluted house make my soul clean and do thou consecrate it into a Temple O thou great Bishop of our souls by the inhabitation of thy holy spirit of purity Let not these teeth that break the bread of Angels ever grind the face of the poor let not the hand of Judas be with thee in the dish let not the eyes which see the Lord any more behold vanity let not the members of Christ ever become the members of a harlot or the ministers of unrighteousness 10. I am nothing I have nothing I desire nothing but Jesus and to be in Jerusalem the holy City from above Make haste O Lord Behold my heart is ready my heart is ready Come Lord Jesus come quickly When the holy Man that Ministers reaches the consecrated Bread suppose thy Lord entring into his Courts and say Lord I am not worthy thou shouldest come under my roof but speak the word Lord and thy servant shall be whole After receiving of the Bread pray thus Blessed be the Name of our gracious God Hosannah to the Son of David Blessed is he that cometh in the name of our Lord. Hosannah in the highest Thou O blessed Saviour Jesus hast given me thy precious body to be the food of my soul and now O God I humbly present to thee my body and soul every member and every faculty every action and every passion Do thou make them fit for thy service Give me an understanding to know thee and wisdom like as thou didst to thy Apostles ingenuity and simplicity of heart like to that of Nathanael zeal and perfect repentance like the return of Zacheus Give me eyes to see thee as thy Martyr Stephen had an ear to hear thee as Mary a hand to touch thee as Thomas a mouth with Peter to confess thee an arm with Simeon to embrace thee feet to follow thee with thy Disciples an heart open like Lydia to entertain thee that as I have given my members to sin and to uncleanness so I may henceforth walk in righteousness and holiness before thee all the days of my life Amen Amen If there be any time more between the receiving the holy Body and the blessed Chalice then add O immense goodness unspeakable mercy delightful refection blessed peace-offering effectual medicine of our souls Holy Jesus the food of elect souls coelestial Manna the bread that came down from heaven sweetest Saviour grant that my soul may relish this divine Nutriment with spiritual ravishments and love great as the flames of Cherubims and grant that what thou hast given me for the remission of my sins may not â—y my fault become the increase of them Grant that in my heart I may so digest thee by a holy faith so convert thee into the unity of my spirit by a holy love that being conformed to the likeness of thy death and resurrection by the crucifying of the old man and the newness of a spiritual and a holy life I may be incorporated as a sound and living member into the body of thy holy Church a member of that body whereof thou art head that I mâ—y abide in thee and bring forth fruit in thee and in the resurrection of the Just my body of infirmity being reformed by thy power may be configured to the similitude of thy glorious body and my soul received into a participation of the eternal Supper of the Lamb that where thou art there I may be also beholding thy face in glory O blessed Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Amen When the holy Chalice is offered attend devoutly to the blessing and joyn in heart with the words of the Minister saying Amen I will receive the Cup of salvation and call upon the Name of our Lord. After receiving of the holy Cup pray thus It is finished Blessed be the name of our gracious God Blessing glory praise and honour love and obedience dominion and thanksgiving be to him that sitteth on the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever I bless and praise thy Name O eternal Father most merciful God that thou hast vouchsafed to admit me to a participation of these dreadful and desirable mysteries unworthy though I am yet thy love never fails and though I too often have repented of my repentances and fallen back into sin yet thou never repentest of thy loving kindness Be pleased therefore now in this day of mercy when thou openest the treasures of heaven and rainest Manna upon our souls to refresh them when they are weary of thy infinite goodness to grant that this holy Communion may not be to me unto judgment and condemnation but it may be sweetness to my soul health and safety in every temptation joy and peace in every trouble ligâ—t and strength in every word and work comfort and defence in the hour of my death against all the oppositions of the spirits of darkness and grant that no unclean thing may be in me who have received thee into my heart and soul. II. Thou dwellest in every sanctified soul she is the habitation of Sion and thou taâ—est it for thine own and thou hast consecrated it to thy self by the operation of glorious mysteries within her O be pleased to receive my soul presented to thee in this holy Communion for thy dwelling place make it a house of prayer and holy meditations the seat of thy Spirit the repository of graces reveal to me