THE DUTY and BENEFIT OF Frequent Communion IN A SERMON Preached at St. Peter's Church in Lincoln upon Passion Sunday 1688. By WALTER LEIGHTONHOUSE A. M. Chaplain to the Right Honourable the Earl of Huntingdon late Fellow of Lincoln Colledge in Oxon. and now Rector of Washingburgh nigh Lincoln Published at the Request of many that heard it Preached 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil Epist 289. ad Caesariam Patriciam Quotidiè Eucharistiae Communionem percipere nec laudo nec reprehendo omnibus tamen Dominicis diebus sâ—adeo hortor Aug. in lib. de Eccles Dogm LONDON Printed for W. Crook at the Green Dragon without Temple-Bar nigh Devereux Court. 1689. Imprimatur Concio cui titulus The Duty and Benefit of Frequent Communion GUIL NEEDHAM Octob. 26. 1688. To the Right Honourable THEOPHILUS Earl of HUNTINGDON One of His Majesties Most Honourable Privy Council c. May it please your Lordship ALthough the following Discourse be for the most part built upon that Authority that needs no Patronage to defend it yet I no sooner agreed to the making of it Publick but I saw a necessity of affixing your Lordship's great Name before it Not to remind you My Lord of your Duty of which you need no Monitor but your own Active Piety but to let the World know That whatever of Worth it carries in it has had its Origen from your Lordship's Encouragement and Support and therefore must justly become your Votary I confess My Lord 't is too slender a signification of that unfeign'd and undelible Gratitude I owe to you but if your Honour please to make an Addition to your former Favours by the acceptance of this first Testimony of my Regards I hope My Lord if Success crown my undertakings to acknowledge them very shortly in some greater Instance In the interim the great Importance of your Publick Charge making me sensible that your minutes are sacred and that therefore 't would be a Piacle to invade them with a tedious Address I shall only add That the height of the Honour I most passionately aspire to is that my deserts may give me the Title of My Lord Your Honour 's most affectionately devoted and most humble Servant WALTER LEIGHTONHOUSE Octob. 30. 1688. LUKE XXII ver 19. This is my Body which is given for you do this in remembrance of me AMongst all those Blessings in which Mankind seems to take satisfaction there is none with which we are more deeply affected than Deliverance from Calamities For as the Passions of Fear and Grief are according to * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alcin. de Doctr. Plat. p. 72. Philosophers more impressive upon our Senses than those of Hope and Love so it must needs fall out that the release from the former will be more satisfactory than the completion of the latter For let our Hopes be buoyed up with the rapid Torrent of an expected Felicity and let our Love swim in the full Stream of our Desires effected the first is but the glimmering of Satisfaction and the latter quickly dies or grows languid by fruition But on the other hand let our Thoughts be benighted with the sad Apprehensions but of an imminent Danger with what a busie activeness do we bestir our selves to the evading of it And if by chance we lie under the heavy Pressures of a present Grievance with what regret do we shrink under our Burthen Curse our ill Faté and repine and murmur at the Author and Instruments of it All which being so What * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phot. Epist 46. Transports of Passion must we needs be in when we compare our past with our present state Impendent Danger on one hand exquisite without a parallel inexpressible Deliverance on the other effected without our assistance Faln Man grovelling in Sin and hastning to eternal Ruine a gracious God speeding our Rescue by his own Misery Here 's in one Scale Mankind distracted through Fears and rack'd with the sad Thoughts of a future state Here 's in the other an innocent Redeemer no less so through the sense of our Sins and Transgressions Here 's the Raptures of Joy succeeding the Pangs of Despair and Mercy seated where Judgment ought to have taken place Here 's Sin in one expiated by the innocent Death of another and here 's a kindness freely dispens'd which Men and Angels could not otherwise have purchas'd Here 's our Holy Jesus giving his Body for the Redemption of our Souls and requires nothing for the kindness but that we will not forget it This is my Body which is given for you This do * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for my Commemoration in remembrance of me Which words import as much as though our Saviour had said thus My beloved Friends and Followers that you were brought into a low miserable Condition by the Sin of your first Parents you cannot but be sensible and that you were out of a capacity of freeing your selves from those Chains of Darkness your are no less sensible which dreadful Condition of yours I your Saviour being touch'd withal was highly concern'd which way to snatch you out of this Fire of Affliction and seeing that nothing less than mine own Blood could effect it and that too by being shed upon an accursed and disgraceful Tree I resolv'd to go through that direful Scene and to offer up my Body as a Sacrifice for you of which this Bread which I now break is a Sign or Emblem Now I see you pretend as indeed you ought to have a great Value and Esteem for me your dying Saviour you seem very sonsible of my being cloath'd with Misery and wrinkled with sable Cares for your sakes And withal you seem to be desirous of some opportunity whereby by you may attest your Gratitude and thanksulness to me for those galling Calamities which I have suffered for your Redemption This you seem mighty zealous in and very desirous of for my part it is not any pleasure to me nor is it my desire to lay any severe * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plat. Dialog de reb divin p. 255. Task or heavy Impositions upon you but yet I am now about to leave the World and to die a bitter an accursed and shameful Death for the compleating your Salvation and I am unwilling I must confess that you should lock such signal Favours as these out of your remembrance and therefore I resolve to try whether these your great Pretences have any thing in them besides Ceremony and Complement I will lay one easie Injunction upon you which is this You see that I am now quitting this earthly Station and ascending to Heaven from whence I came so that I cannot afford you my bodily presence any longer however when I have left this World all ye that have any hearty respect for me be so kind as to meet lovingly together at my House and eat and drink this representative of my Body and Blood in my Name at my
Table * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Const Clem. l. 8. c. 12. still remembring discoursing of and laying before you the Agony and bloody Sweat the bitter death Cross and Passion and all the meritorious Sufferings of me your Master and Redeemer And now certainly you must needs acknowledge that this is no very severe Penance which I enjoyn you and therefore if after all your specious Pretences any of you should either wilfully or carelessly neglect this small piece of Service which I so earnestly enjoyn you I shall then really believe that all your Protestations are nothing but Noise and Shuffling If you have any Value therefore for this Body of mine which is given for you This do in remembrance of me This is the substance of our Saviour's words in my Text from which thus briefly explain'd I shall endeavour to shew you the great reasonableness of a frequent Communion and the monstrous Indiscretion as well as Disobedience if we refuse to perform this Injunction of our Holy Jesus denying or neglecting to do this in remembrance of him And this I shall do first from the easiness of the Service and the slender returns which Christ requires of us for those great Favours he has conferr'd upon us 2ly From the vast Advantages which will accrew from a frequent reception in order to the encreasing those Graces which are absolutely necessary to Salvation The first shews us our Duty the second the great Benefit of receiving the Holy Sacrament The latter of which being a Topick not frequently inculcated may perhaps be the more grateful to you for its Novelty I begin with the first viz. to endeavour to shew you the great reasonableness of a frequent Communion from the easiness of the Service and the slender returns which Christ requires of us for so great Favours bestowed upon us Had our God like those of the Heathens requir'd us to * Porphyr de abstinentia ab esu animal Plutarch Pausanius eat our own Children in Sacrifice or by way of Atonement to †Clem. Protrepti Dionysius Halicarn lib. 1. offer up our dearest Friends or the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justin Mart. Apol. 1. noblest of our Relations had he bid us cut and slash our beloved Flesh and bathe our selves in our own Blood had he bid us lay down our life for him and commemorate his Death by rushing our selves into our own Nay had he requir'd but the first Fruit of our Flocks and of our Herds of our Oil and of our Meal these perhaps to some would have seem'd hard Sayings and grievous Commandments and the kindness of our Redeemer tho' inexpressibly great would have seem'd to have been purchas'd by us at too dear a rate Nay if we reflect upon the state of our Forefathers and therein view those almost * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vid. Justin Mart. in Apol. 2. Euseb Dem. Evang. l. 1. c. 10. lib. 5. c. 23. vid. Weems Exercitat vol. 2. p. 55. innumerable Sacrifices and Offerings which were enjoyn'd them under the Oeconomy of the Law the lazy humor of our days would repute that too severe a Task for us now altho' our Reward do vastly transcend theirs But that the Mercy of God may surmount not only our Merits but our Expectation too we have a Saviour who hath delivered us not only from the Curse but from the Burthen of the Law likewise He hath fully absov'd us from one and hath laid no Injunction upon us in the room of the other He only tells us that he thinks that we have some reason to remember this kindness and not to bury his Favours in oblivion and therefore in order thereunto he invites us to come now and then to take a small Repast with him as a Memorandum that he has been our Friend and Benefactor He requires nothing of us but that we will let him have our Company at Supper there to think to meditate and discourse of those obliging Favours which he hath long since done for us the effects of which do yet and will for ever continue with us And now is this such an hard piece of Service Has not our Blessed Redeemer merited as much at our hands as this comes to Doth he not however deserve something as an acknowledgment And if he do what less can we do for him Should he have left it to our selves to have made choice of some Method whereby to attest our acceptance what easier what cheaper way could we have invented 'T is but what we do every day at home Eating and Drinking and at a cheaper rate too it costs us nothing and therefore if we refuse doing this which is so mighty facil it appears we will do nothing for him For indeed as * Author of the whole Duty of Man Laà ies Calling p. 134. one very well observes this is not only a Disobedience but an Unkindness which strikes not only at the Authority but at the Love of our Lord when he so affects an Union with us that he creates Mysteries only to effect it when he descends even to our Sensuality and because we want spiritual Appetites puts himself within reach of our natural and as he once veil'd his Divinity in Flesh so now he Sacramentally veils even that Flesh under the form of our corporal nourishment only that he may the more indissolvably unite yea incorporate himself with us When I say he does all this we are not only impious but inhumane if it will not attract us Nay farther when he does all this upon the most endearing Memory of what he has before done for us when he presents himself to our Embraces in the same form wherein he presented himself to God for our Expiation when he shews us those Wounds which our Iniquities made those Stripes by which we were healed and that Death by which we are reviv'd we shall be strangely rude and impious if we turn our Backs and refuse to commemorate so great a Blessing But 2ly If we be not so ingenuous as to be mov'd by Gratitude and Obedience let us be so wise as to do it for Interest for advantage and therein let us consider that 1st Our Faith is hereby confirm'd 2ly Our Hope is by this strengthned 3ly Our Charity is thereby inlarg'd 4ly Our Thankfulness to God is by this enflam'd And 5ly Our Repentance is hereby promoted Which five Topicks if I can make out may methinks be sufficient to evince the reasonableness of this our Blessed Saviour's Institution and be Engagement enough to incite us to do this in remembrance of him Of these therefore in Order and First By a Participation of the blessed Sacrament our Faith is confirm'd 'T is I confess the Accusation that a * Mr. Hales of Eaton's Tracts p. 57. Great Man of our own lays upon our Church that through a too unreasonable fondness of this great Mystery we abuse it to many ends amongst which he reckons this That we teach That it
a Sign of that second Covenant which God made with man so it ought to be received with * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justin Apost 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Liturg. S. Marc. in Eccl. Alexandr Blessing and Thanksgiving But besides methinks it is preposterous to imagine that this action which assaults our very Senses and strikes our Heart by the most lively representation of God's greatest Mercy should not if we have any Gratitude move us to a chearful acknowledgment To see God as one expresses it send down his very Bowels amongst us to witness his Compassion to satisfie for us by his own Death and attach himself for our liberty to see our Redeemer and our Friend clad with Beggary and Disgrace that we may thereby abound in Wealth and Honour To see him executed on a Cross as a Malefactor and a Slave that we may thereby be freed from the dominion of Satan to see him humbly stoop from the Joys of Heaven that we may be nobly advanced thither to see him who knew no Sin to be made Sin and a Curse for us and that not whilst we were his Friends but when we were in open hostility with him Vid. Dr. Barrow's Passion Serm. These are such Acts of kindness as none could none would perform but he whose Goodness is as extensive as is his Greatness and therefore if we have any spark of Thankfulness in us the visible Proof of these things must needs blow it up into the Ardours of Affection and make us more and more mindful of and thankful to that God that sav'd us But then when we farther consider our own Demerits and the miserableness of our former Condition being * Rom. 3.9 under Sin †Rom. 5.16 18. under Condemnation ‖ Gal. 3.10 under the Curse When we are reminded of the consequent of these things and consider that nothing but that blood which we see now shed could expiate for us and when we withal consider that there are still many thousands who whilst we are surrounded with the Sun of Righteousness are wrapp'd up in Darkness and Idolatry that they starve with Hunger or surfeit with Profaneness whilst we are partaking of that Bread that came from Heaven Certainly such Thoughts as these will nobly advance our Thankfulness and make us daily more and more to thirst after those Eucharistick Bowls and fill our Hearts with passionate Eulogies to the Author of our Redemption Fifthly Our Repentance is hereby promoted We usually hate and detest the fawning Treachery of Judas that betray'd our Saviour the black Suggestions of the Jewish Priests that did impeach him the rude Carriage of the Populacy that did abusively insult over him we abhor those poisonous Tongues that revil'd him and those bloody Hands that smote him How can we then reflect on those Sufferings which are there represented to us without extream Displeasure against those Sins of ours which were the occasion of them For alas the Jews were but the Instruments of his Passion the long train of our Iniquities were the chief the real Actors of that direful Tragedy * Isa 53.5 He was wounded for our Transgressions and bruised for our Iniquities †Rom. 4.25 He was delivered for our Offences and became a ‖ Gal. 3.13 Curse for us that is It was we who by our Sins did impeach did adjudge did sentence him to death 'T was our Obscenity which besmear'd his glorious Face with Spittle and our profane Oaths Cursing and Blasphemy were the false Witnesses that forg'd the black Indictment against his sacred Person 'T was our Wantonness that expos'd him naked and our Surfeiting and Drunkenness that gave him Vinegar and Gall to drink 'T was the Virulency of our * Psal 57.4 Tongues which was the Spear that gor'd his precious Side and our deep Sleep of Sin made him give up the Ghost And can we then chuse but hate those Sins which were the perfidious Betrayers of our dearest Friend Shall we not utterly detest those unjust Slanderers who have abus'd the Lord of Righteousness Shall we not for ever abhor those barbarous Murderers that have slain our own Brother I remember 't is recorded in * Hist Imper. Rom. a Pedro Mexia Vit. Jul. Caes ancient Story that when Antony was in a Funeral Oration rhetorically copious in perswading the Romans to revenge the Death of Caesar he expatiates of the great excellency of the Person shews that he was crown'd with Valour Wisdom and Industry recounts his many Victories shews his Conduct and the several Stratagems he made use of aecyphers the vast kindness he had for that flourishing City and how he had attested it by * Vid. Testamentum Caesaris in Pedro Mexia ample Legacies at his Death as well as by his Courage and Resolution whilst he liv'd and that after all this he should be barbarously murder'd by his own Senators was a Crime so heinous that the Gods themselves stood amaz'd at the horribleness of the Fact. All this they hear tho' with a mixture of Wrath and Pity yet with somewhat of Patience But when he shews them the Princely Vestment and in it the Holes and the Blood which were occasioned by those murdering Instruments When they see the Purple chang'd into Scarlet and read the violence of his Enemies by the number of his Wounds which they see in his Garment This adds Wings to their passionate Resentment and spurs forward their enflam'd Indignation they presently snatch Instruments of Revenge out of his own Funeral Pile and destroy if not the Persons the Habitations of the Murderers Now to being this to our selves We may perhaps hear or read the Passion of our Saviour elegantly decypher'd and have the greatness of his Sufferings and the vastness of his Love described to us with all the Flourishes of Rhetorick and not be much transported at the Discourse But can we in the Blessed Sacrament see his Wounds gaping his Blood pouring forth and his Flesh broken in pieces without Indignation against our selves who were the direful Actors of this Scene No sure if we have any love for our dying Lord or any respect for a crucify'd Redeemer if we have any regard to the Sufferings of a beloved Friend or any kindness for our greatest Benefactour unless we design to re-act Judas his part and to crucifie afresh the Lord of Life Heb. 6.6 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orig con Cels lib. 5.272 Unless whilst we boast our selves Christians we design to practise and espouse the manner of the Jews Briefly unless all our Pretences to Religion and Christianity be but Ceremony and Complement we shall at such a spectacle as this be stricken with hatred of our Sins and a full purpose to decline them for the time to come But if we do not proceed thus far there will however by our receiving be one step made towards a new Life For let the Debauchees of the Age disregard the Methods