was mine heart grieved or thus was mine heart leavened that is his griefe was so great that his heart was leavened with it A little leaven leavens the whole lumpe therefore much leaven doth it much more his whole heart was sowred with the leaven of sorrow Such is the griefe and sorrow of repentance it is a leavening griefe that leavens the whole lumpe of the heart it seasons and affects all the whole heart Therefore the mourning of repentance is called a great mourning Zach. 12. 11. In that day there shall be a great mourning in Ierusalem How great as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo As great as was the mourning for the untimely losse of Iosiah How great that was see 2 Chro. 35. 24 25. So deepe is the sorrow and so great is the sorrow for sin in repentance Yea it is a bitter mourning Zech. 12. 10. And they shall mourne for him as one mournes for his onely Sonne and shall bee in bitternesse for him as one that is in bitternesse for his first-borne A man that looses his first-borne and his only sonne how bitterly mournes that man Repentance mournes so bitterly Peter went out and wept bitterly they be waters of Marah that flow from the eyes of repentance Nay though it be a bitter sorrow which is for the losse of an only son and the losse of deere friends yet in repentance God lookes for a geeater sorrow than that is which is for the death of dearest friends therefore Isay 22. 12. The Lord called to weeping mourning and baldnesse God in speciall manner prohibited baldnesse in their mournings for the dead Deut. 14. 1. Yee shall not cut your selves nor make any baldnesse betweene your eyes for the dead and yet God that forbad it in mourning for the dead cals for it in mourning for sinne To teach how great our sorrow for sin should be that there ought to be a greater sorrow in repentance for sin than of naturall affection for the losse of our dearest friends by death It was a great sorrow that of Davids for Amnons death 2 Sam. 13. 36 37. The King wept very sore or with a great weeping greatly and David mourned for his son every day He wept He wept with a great weeping and with a great weeping greatly And he mourned daily Such is the sorrow of repentance a deepe and a daily sorrow till God allay it with some answers of peace Hence it is that it manifests it selfe with such outward expressions The Publican smites upon his breast Luke 18. And Ephraim smites upon his thigh Ier. 31. 19. And Ezra rends his garment plucks the haire off his head and beard Ezra 9. 3. All but to testifie the deepe and hearty sorrow for sin By this may men take a triall of their repentance If thou hast had a leavened spirit an imbittered spirit hast lamented after the Lord 1 Sam. 7. 2. whom thou hadst lost by thy sin as thou wouldest have lamented after a deere lost friend if thou hast beene in the waters of Marah the greater thy griefe hath beene the greater cause of comfort hast thou in the truth of repentance But so formall so slight is the sorrow of many hearts for sin that it is a cleere case they are strangers to repentance 3 Thirdly A forsaking an utter Post luctum poenitentiae non redeas ad peccatum non iterum facias quod iterum plangas Non est paenitens sed irrisor qui adhuc agit unde paenitent Bern. de modo bene vivendi ejection and rejection of all our former sinfull lusts and wayes Prov. 28. He that confesseth and forsaketh Repentance not only confesses but forsakes the confessed sin Iob 34 32. If I have done iniquity I will doe no more That is the language and the resolution of true repentance Ephes 4 28. Let him that stole steale no more True repentance makes men doe as God did when he repented him Gen. 6. 6 7. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on earth and it grieved him at his heart but that was not all And the Lord said I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth both man and beast c. for it repents me that I have made them Nay repentance in man goes further one Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord and hee was spared from the common destruction but here not one lust or sin finds grace in the eyes of a man that truly repents but all must be drowned in the floud of the teares of repentance It is with a man that hath the griefe of true repentance as it was with Nehemiah Neh. 13. 7 8. I came to Ierusalem and understood of the evill that Eliashib had done for Tobia in preparing him a chamber in the courts of the house of God and it grieved mee sore but he rests not there but goes further therefore I cast forth all the houshold-stuffe of Tobiah out of the chamber What should Tobiah doe with a chamber there Therefore he not onely outs Tobiah but out goes all his stuffe too So doth repentance when it considers all the evill that Satan and corruption have done and how they have taken up chambers in the heart that should be the house of God it is grieved sore and thereupon it outs Satan and all his stuffe neither Satan nor his stuffe shall bee chamberd there any longer So doth repentance dispossesse Satan of the soule as Christ dispossessed his body of him Marke 9. 25. Thou dumbe and deafe spirit I charge thee to come out of him and enter no more into him so repentance casts Satan and filthy abominations out of a man that they enter no more they are cast out for ever Teares of repentance are not onely wetting but washing teares Isay 1. 16. Wash you make you cleane Davids teares washt his couch Psal 6. and so much more washt himselfe Baptisme is called the Baptisme of Repentance Luke 3. 3. In baptisme there is a washing away of sinne And how is baptisme the baptisme of repentance if in repentance there were not the doing away of sinne If a man could shed a sea of teares yet if he doe not drowne his sin in that sea what were he the better If a man should weepe his eyes out yet if he weepe not his sins out to what purpose were it Wheresoever repentance is there must necessarily follow this forsaking and casting off our sins because with true repentance these two things ever goe first an abomination and loathing of sin the man that repents horribly loathes his sins by which he hath offended Iob 42. 6. I abhorre my selfe and repent Ezek. 20. 43. Ye shall loath your selves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed Secondly an indignation against sin 2 Cor. 7. What indignation Hosea 14. 8. Ephraim shall say what have I to doe any more with Idols Now that which a man loathes and that
speakes in another case Psalme 39. 3. Mine heart was hot within me whilest I was musing the fire burned So whilest we are thus musing and meditating of the love of Christ in his passion the fire should burne and our hearts should waxe hot within us the fire and flame of our love to Christ should kindle and grow hot in our hearts The view of his passion should worke in us an holy Rogo te per illa salutifera vulnera tua quae passus es in cruce pro salute nostra e quibus emanavit pretiosus ille sanguis quo sumus redemptiâ— vulnera hanc animam meam peccatricem pro qua etiam mori dignatus es vulnera eam igneo potentissimo telâ— tuae nimiae Charitatis Configcor meum jaculo tui amoris ut di cat tibi anima mea Charitate tua vulnerata sum c. Aug. lib. medit c. 37. passion of love The view of his wounds should wound our hearts with holy and enlarged affection to him Follow and goe along with CHRIST in all his sufferings in thy meditations Begin where his passion begun Iohn 12. 27. follow him thence into the Garden from thence into the High Priests Hall from thence into the Iudgement Hall from thence to the Crosse There is not a passage in all the story that affordes not matter of meditation and not a meditation that may not set forth his love to thee and kindle thine to him Thus therefore at the Sacrament should our hearts be imployed in the meditation of CHRISTS death and passion and thus should we make that good Cant. 1. 12. Whilest the King Sitâ—â— at his Table my spikenard sends forth the smell thereof that is whilest CHRIST had communion with me my graces were exercised and manifested themselves even then whilest I had fellowship with him As CHRIST sate at Table Mary tooke a pound of oyntment of Spikenard very costly and annoynted the feete of Iesus and the house was filled with the odour of the oyntment So the King sits at his table and when wee sit at his table in the SacrameÌ„t we shold cause our spikenards to send forth the smell thereof That we do when in the ordinance we take up our hearts with the holy meditations of the love of Christ in his bitter passion Such holy meditations are the smell of the spikenards and are as pleasing to Christ as Maries spikneard was that filled the whole house with the odour therof This Christ commandes and makes it one maine end of the Institution of the Sacrament Doe this in remembrance of me therefore appointed he the Sacrament that therein we might in speciall manner meditate upon his passion and his love to us therein David had a Psalme of Remembrance Psalme 38. in the title But for the death of Christ his love in it and the benefits by it we have not onely some Psalmes of Remembrance as Psalme 16. 22 and 69. and others but besides the Lord Christ hath to the worlds end appointed a Sacrament of Remembrance that this great worke of CHRISTS death and his infinite love and mercy therin might above all other workes bee meditated upon and had in remembrance One specially in the Evangelists is worth our notice Some of Christs workes are specified only by one Evangelist at his turning of Water to wine as his healing the sick man at the poole of Bethesda his healing that blind man Ioh. 9. Some of them are specified by two Evangelists as the history of Christs birth by Matthew and Luke Some things are recorded by three of them as the Institution of the Sacrament of the Supper But as for Christs death and Passion it is recorded by them all foure Onely two write the History of his birth but all foure the History of his death without doubt to teach us that though all Christs workes and actions are to be seriously minded meditated upon and remembred yet none so speciall as his death and sufferings And therefore specially should his death be meditated upon at the Sacrament whose institution was purposely for the remembrance of it Therefore ought men to make speciall conscience of this duely How cold and dead a remembrance of Christs death is the receiving of the Sacrament without this serious meditation of the bitternesse of his death and the sweetnesse of his love therein Wee make not good the end of the Sacrament without it yea wee as much as in us lyes make the Sacrament but a dumbe shew What remembrance is there of Christs death in such receiving the Sacrament Makes it bee in a fresh crucifying him againe by our unworthy receiving 2 Secondly An exercise of Repentance And this exercise of Repentance must be in two things 1. First in godly sorrow for sinne 2. Secondly in a solemne renewing of our Covenants with God 1. First in godly sorrow for sinne for our owne sinnes in particular for which Christ did undergoe all that sorrow and smart in his sufferings Wee have in the Sacrament a representation of the sufferings of Christ wee have him crucified before our eyes Behold saies Iohn the Lambe of God that takes away the sinnes of the world In the Sacrament should we behold him taking away the sinnes of the world In it we see and behold Christ crucified wee see his hands feete and side pierced now this sight should so affect us as it should pierce the very hearts of us What The blessed Sonne of GOD to strip himselfe of his glory to humble and abase himselfe to the ignominious and accursed death of the Crosse The glorious Sonne of GOD thus abused and abased Why How comes this about The only begotten Sonne of the Father to make such bitter lamentation My God my God why hast thou forsaken me What may the cause of all this be Alas all this was for our sinnes It was not Iudas not the Iewes not Pilate not the Souldiers but they were our sinnes thy sinnes my sinnes that put the Sonne of God to all his sorrow We we and none but we were the evill beasts that devour'd this Ioseph Our sinnes were so heinous and had so provoked the Iustice of God that there was no way to satisfie Gods Iustice to appease his wrath and to make our atonement but by the pretious bloud of the Sonne of God crucified on the Crosse And shall I now see my sins lye so heavy upon him as to make him sweate bloud shall I see him even squeezed under the huge weight of my sinnes shall I see my sinnes crowne him with thornes nayle his hands and feete to the Crosse Gore his side with the speare with an unpierced heart Oh the deepe sorrow that our hearts should bee leavened withall when wee see Christs body brusing and bleeding in the Sacrament Christ our Passeover is sanctified for us The Passeover was to be eaten with bitter herbes or will bitternesses Exod. 12. 5. And how happy is that soule that in this respect can say at the
A VVORTHY Communicant OR A TREATISE Shewing the Due Order of Receiving the Sacrament of the LORDS Supper By IER DYKE Minister of Epping in Essex Levit. 10. 3. I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me Cypr. de Can. Dom. Nec se judicant nec Sacramenta dijudicant Petr. Bles Epist. 40. Vide ne Dominus dicat de te Ecce manus tradentis me mecum in mensa Dederunt in escam meam fel. LONDON Printed by R. B. for R. Dawlman and L. Fawne at the Brazen Serpent in S. Pauls Church-yard 1636. TO the Right Honourable LORD THOMAS Earle of Winchilsea And to the Right Honourable the Lady CECILL Countesse of Winchilsea his most Pious Consort Right Honourable IT was a salt and a smart speech which one Melancthon spake unto an Italian Vos Itali vnltis Deum habere in pane quem non creditis esse in coelis Melch. Adam in vit Melanch You Italians will have God to be in the bread in the Sacrament whom ye beleeve not to be in Heaven It were to be wished that many amongst our selves were not under the guilt of somewhat the like incongruity It is an high opinion that men generally have of the Sacrament and reason good it should be had in pretious esteeme but that which is sad to consider they partake of that Ordinance with such irreverence carelesnesse and prophanenesse of spirit as if they beleeved not there were a God or as if in that Ordinance they had not to do with the God of Heaven That which was once injoyned the Dominican Priests in memory Morn myst Iniq. prog 56. and hatred of that heinous act of one of their fraternity in poysoning the Emperour Henry the seventh in the Hoast That they should communicate only with the left hand may bee feared to bee the case of too many thorow their owne negligence that they are no better than left-handed Communicants It matters not before God with what hand the Sacrament be received the right-hand or the left so the heart be right and the work done in a right order But yet in a spirituall sense to be left-handed receivers is a matter not only of disgrace but of danger It is all one in Scripture phrase to be left and to be lame-handed And to be sure to be left-handed in this worke is to be lame-handed The lame and the blinde who knowes not in what ill esteeme they were with God The lame and the blind had no acceptance with God And wherein concernes it men to be more solicitous for acceptance than in the solemne service of receiving the Sacrament No acceptance is to be had but when it is well done If thou do well shalt thou not be accepted sayes the Lord to Cain It was good which Cain did in offering Sacrifice but if thou do well shalt thou not be accepted It must be a good thing and a good thing well done which shal find acceptance That speech of Aarons in his case would be a very seasonable thought for men before the Sacrament Behold this day such Lev. 10. 19. things have befallen me and if I had eaten the sin-offering to day should it have beene accepted in the sight of the Lord Happy were it that before the Sacrament men would thus say with themselves Behold this day week this moneth c. such things have befallen me and I have fallen into such sinnes as have made my person guilty mine heart hard and dead and if I should in such a case before I have prepared my self by faith and repentance eat the Supper Lord should I be accepted in the sight of the Lord They were crosses and afflictions which by Gods providence befell Aaron in the death of his Sons and the sorrow and mourning that followed thereupon that indisposed and unfitted him for eating the flesh of the sin-offering Sanctified things were not to be eaten in a mans mourning Deut. 26. 14. They be sins that men thorow their owne corruption fall into that they live and lye in and the want of sorrow and mourning for them that unfit men for eating the Sacrament With spirituall sorrow and mourning for sin should these sanctifyed things be eaten And for want of this and other due dispositions it is that this holy Ordinance that men seeme to think so highly and reverently of is so much abused and profaned Conceiving it therefore a worke of charity to direct people to a preparation and a performance suitable to the holinesse and excellency of the Ordinance I have published this small treatise And such as it is I present it to your Honours as a publike testimony of that thankfulnesse service and due regard I owe unto you and your Noble Family the which deserves so much the more honour from men by how much the more it is honoured by God They were ill Si quis ex nobilibus ad Deum coÌ„verti caeperitstatim honorem nobilitatis amittit Religio ignobilem facit Si honoratior quispiam religioni se applicueâ—it â—llico honoratus esse disistit Salv. de Provid lib. 4. times that Salvian lived in and complained of when religion and godlinesse were thought staines and blemishes of Honour as if Religion made Noble Persons vile and ignobled Greatnesse But that which GOD cals Glory and Honour let no man account shame and basenesse It is most true which S. Bernard writes to Sophia a religious Noble Woman Thou art the more Insignior plane atque illustrior quod de paucis facta es quam quod orta de magnis Illud namque Dei munere tuum est Hoc tuorum Porro quod tuum est tanto carius cst c. Bernard Ep. 113. illustrious that thou art made one of few aluding to that of Paul Not many Noble than that thou art borne of Great Ones That by Gods gift is thine owne this namely her Birth and Noble Parentage thou art beholding to thy Parents for That which is thine owne is so much the more deere by how much the more rare Who shall finde a vertuous woman much more a vertuous and Noble one God indeed is no accepter of persons yet I know not how it comes to passe yet to passe it comes that vertue in a Noble person is more pleasing peradventure because it is more shining As light is more glorious in the Stars of greater than of lesser magnitude It is a most sure thing what ever the world may judge that nothing so enobles as Christ grace and being in the Covenant I have blessed Ishmael sayes the Lord twelve Princes shall he beget But my Covenant will I establish with Isaac Account it your greater Honour Gen. 17. 20. 21. to be in the Covenant than to have Seed Royall issue out of your loynes or to have Bloud Royall runne in your veynes Then are persons truly Honourable indeed when pretious in Gods sight Since thou wast pretious in my sight thou hast beene honourable So may You
neither of these pure Well then who are they now that are defiled ones See the words of the Text to them that are defiled and unbelieving Therefore an unbelieving person is a desiled and an uncleane person Faith purifies the heart Acts 15. 9. and so fits for pure Ordinances but unbeliefe defiles the heart and a defiled heart defiles Gods Ordinance to it selfe And how can that man bee welcome to an Ordinance welcome to a Sacrament that defiles it 2 To come without faith makes our comming an abomination To come without faith is to come out of Christ and to performe the service which a man doth out of CHRIST Now all service performed out of Christ is abominable to GOD. See Lev. 17. 3 4. What man soever there be of the house of Israel that killeth an Oxe and a Lambe c. And brings it not to the doore of the Tabernacle of the Congregation to offer an offering to the LORD c. bloud shall be imputed to that man he hath shed bloud and that man shall be cut off from among his people And againe vers 6 7. And the Priest shall sprinkle the bloud upon the Altar of the Lord at the doore of the Tabernacle c. And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto divels Sacrifices then not brought to God to the doore of the Tabernacle were as murder and bloudshed were as the service of the Divell And what more abominable before God The doore of the Tabernacle was a Type of Christ Iohn 10. I am the doore And the drift of that Law is to teach that they should performe all their services to GOD in CHRIST and to shew how loathsome to GOD all services are that are not done in him Now he that is in his unbeleefe that wants the grace of faith is not in Christ neither can he doe any thing in Christ And therefore such a mans comming cannot but be an abomination God abhors and abominates that man and his comming that wants faith The end of comming to the Sacrament is to seeke and see Gods face and to have fellowship and communion with him Now if we come without faith God will not let us see his face GOD will turne away and hide his face from us Deu. 32. 19. 20. And when the Lord saw it hee abhorred them because of the provoking c. And he sayd I will hide my face from them But why will God do so He gives his reason for it for they are children in whom is no faith So that when a man hath not faith he shall not see GODS face in the use of his Ordinance for how can a man see an hidden face But that is not all GOD not onely hides his face but he abhorred them He abhorred them because of their provoking him How did they provoke him Not onely by that spoken of in the verses going before but by that also in the verse following because they were children in whom was no faith Such then as have no faith have no communion with GOD and doe provoke God so as he abhors them There can bee no communion with GOD where a man is cut off from God and fellowship with him And where a man is cut off from covenant he is cut off from communion Now where there is no faith there is an excision a cutting a man off from God and covenant with him Rom. 11. 20. Through unbeleife they are cut off And besides it is a provoking sinne An unbeleever lives in a sin that continually provokes God Numb 14. 11. How long will this people provoke mee And how long will it be yer they beleeve me And Psal 78. 21 22. The Lord was wroth so a fire was kindled against Iacob and anger also came up against Israel because they beleeved not in God And what wonder then that a man comming to the Sacrament without faith is abomination to GOD when his unbeleife angers and provokes the Lord. 3 The state of unbeliefe is a state of spirituall death I live by the faith of the Sonne of God Gal. 2. 20. A beleever is a living man an unbeleever a dead one spiritually dead The want of faith in the soule is the death of the Vnde mors in anima quia nō est fides undemors in corpore quia non est ibi anima ergo animae tuae anima fides est August in Ioh tract Placuit ut corporibus defunctorum Eucharistia nō detur Dictum n. est ◠Domino Accipite edite Cadavera aut◠nec accipere posiunt nec edere Concil Carthag 3. can 6. soule as the absence of the soule from the body is the death of the body It was an ancient abuse of the Sacrament to give it to dead bodyes an abuse condemned and cast out by a Councill upon this reason Because CHRIST sayes Take Eate But carcases and dead bodies can neither eate nor drinke It was a good reason to deny it to dead bodyes The very same reason excluds unbeleevers Vnbeleevers are dead unbeleevers can neither eate nor drinke for beleeving is eating drinking Ioh. 6. 53. What should a man doe at the Sacrament that can neither eate nor drinke CHRISTS flesh and bloud An unbeleever can doe neither because he is a dead man because hee wants faith the life and teeth by which Christ is to be eaten 4 Vnbeleife evacuates enervates and de-sorces the Sacrament of its efficacy and vertue or powerfull operation The Sacrament in Gods Institution is an Ordinance that hath a fulnesse of spirituall blessing in it full of efficacy and spirituall power and offers to empty it selfe with a rich and plentifull blessing upon the soule of the receiver But yet provided that hee come to receive it after the due order that hee come prepared with a beleeving heart And Christ sayes to every receiver as he sayd to the Centurion Matth. 8. 13. As thou hast beleived so be it done unto thee and as to the blinde man Matth. 9. 29. According to your faith bee it unto you So in this case as you beleive and according to your faith when you come to the Sacrament so bee it done unto you According to your preparation with faith so shall mine Ordinance worke and be effectuall and empty out it selfe unto you And as every man brings faith so hee carryes away an answerable portion of blessing and spirituall good from the Sacrament But now when a man comes to the Sacrament in unbeliefe voyde of the grace of faith the Sacrament proves but a dead Ordinance utterly ineffectuall utterly empty of any spirituall good That looke as the Apostle speakes of CHRIST to them in case of circumcision and justification by the workes of the Law Gal. 5. 2. Behold I Paul say unto you that if you be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing and verse 4 Christ is become of no effect unto you who ever of you are justified by the Law So it may be said of the Sacrament and