A SERMON ABOUT Frequent Communion Preached before the UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD August the 17th 1679. By Tho. Smith D. D. and Fellow of St. Mary Magdalen College Oxon. LONDON Printed for Samuel Smith at the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Church-yard 1685. REVERENDISSIMO in Christo Patri ac Domino D. GULIELMO Divinâ Providentiâ Archiepiscopo CANTVARIENSI Totius Angliae Primati Metropolitano Serenissimae Regiae Majestati à Sanctioribus Consiliis Ecclesiae CATHOLICAE Primaevae Antiquitatis ECCLESIASTICAE HIERARCHIAE Strenuo Vindici Adsertori ECCLESIAE ANGLICANAE Sub optimo benignissimo REGE Prudentissimo Moderatori Magno Literatorum PATRONO T. S. Hanc de frequenti Communione Concionem coram Academicis Oxoniensibus habitam humillimè cum omni debita veneratione offert A SERMON ABOUT FREQUENT COMMUNION 1 Epistle to the Corinthians ch 11. v. 26. For as often as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup ye do shew the Lord's death till he come WHatever doth happen extraordinarily and above the usual and established course of Nature doth mightily affect our minds and fansies at first and surprize and fill us with wonder but as soon as we are grown a little familiar with it our thoughts are at rest and notwithstanding our former transports and heats we quickly grow cool and the impressions which it made upon us wear away by degrees and we care not to make any farther reflexions upon it And the like is to be said of great and extraordinary Favours in the moral state of things as well as of extraordinary events in the natural when they are first conferred they draw our minds hugely after them nothing doth or can insinuate it self more kindly into our affections Greatness may make it self be feared and respected too for who will dare to affront armed Power or chuse to be defective in those points of Ceremony and Honour which are due to the person oftentimes merely for the sake of his character But then there is a secret hatred mixed with that fear and the respect is outward and forced and if it be not it is but the effect of a civil and prudent behaviour and of a wise compliance Whereas we are naturally enclined to applaud to admire to love such as have done any publick good and especially if we have any share in it Interest and a particular concern for our selves heighten our esteem and our affections and our resentments hereupon become more pleasing and ravishing But all this for the most part is but a fit of Passion and a mere scene and representation of Fancy arising from the present sense of the benefit for the longer we enjoy it we become less and less sensible So forgetfull are we of every thing but our selves whom we could be content onely to love and admire for ever Whether this arises from an impatience of fixing our thoughts too long upon the same thing or from the natural Pride which every man carries about him as if the remembrance and acknowledgment of a favour were a tacit upbraiding us of our want and of the infelicity of our former condition yet so it is and we need continually to be put in mind of our Devoirs and Obligations It is but a piece of ordinary Justice for instance and what we cannot deny without the imputation of Rudeness as well as the guilt of Ingratitude that such as have sacrificed their dearest Interests for their Countrey as have out of an Heroick Principle of meriting of the Publick exposed themselves to all the Misfortunes and Hardships and Adversities of humane life and have redeemed the Lives of Thousands with the generous loss of their own should have their Names mentioned with honour they deserve at least as a reward of all their labours and sufferings that their memories be held dear and pretious by their surviving Friends and Country-men this common gratitude obliges us to do and especially if the benefit be perpetual the remembrance of it should be perpetual also Now what greater benefit could possibly be done to the Sons of men than the redemption of them from the slavery of Sin and Hell and from the wrath and indignation of an offended God by the Sufferings and Death of our blessed Saviour This Victory he obtained for us but not without much Sweat and Bloud whereby he has restored Liberty to the World and put an end to the Usurpations and Tyranny of the Devil who had enlarged his Conquest and spread his Empire far and wide and held the greatest part of Mankind in a dismal and miserable Bondage This certainly deserves everlasting Acknowledgments and an eternal Triumph This ought to be continually and for ever fresh in our Memories Who is not amazed at this new and strange way of Conquest that through death he should destroy him who had the power of death that is the Devil Heb. 2.14 that he should triumph over the evil Spirits in the Grave the place where they used to erect their Trophies over the ruines of Mankind and where the direfull effects of their Power and Malice and Revenge were most seen and lastly that the end of his Life should be the beginning of his Glory and Exaltation And then who is not equally or rather more amazed at the greatness of his Condescension and Love that he should come down from his glory and assume the nature of a Man with all the natural Infirmities and Imperfections of it undergo the Malice and Slanders and Fury of an enraged Multitude who by their restless importunity got him sentenced to die as an Impostor and Malefactor and submit to the Torments and Ignominies of the Cross and endure with so great patience the revilings and contradictions of these impious and unrighteous Men even while he hung upon the cursed Tree which must needs add to the anguish and pain which the violent extension of his Nerves caused in his tender Flesh and all this for our sakes who were the Enemies of God and lost to all sense of goodness and who deserved no pity This was the effect of his tender Compassion and Love to Mankind 't was this that made him even relish that bitter Cup and though as Man he had just apprehensions of the Horrours of Death and the Wrath and Justice of God which he as our Surety and as in our stead was to undergo and satisfie yet this alleviated his passion and made him submit willingly to the hard condition of dying This indeed which he hath done and suffered for us men and for our Salvation cannot be forgotten without monstrous baseness and unpardonable ingratitude and without making our selves unworthy of the blessed effects and consequences of his passion And our Blessed Saviour himself would have the Memory of it perpetuated to all Ages and Generations and to assist our Weakness and sustain our Faith which has need of such supports and to make it impossible that it should ever be forgotten He has instituted the blessed Sacrament of his Body and
Bloud as a perpetual and visible representation of it He still presents himself before us as hanging upon the Cross his Body rent and torn with wounds and his pretious Bloud gushing in a plentifull stream out of his side Thus he is evidently set forth before our eyes crucified among us still Gal. 3.1 as it were in Effigie These memorials he has left us of himself till his second coming to put us continually in mind how much he suffered for us This was the grand Reason of the Institution the better to imprint it on our minds that we might always have before our Eyes a lively Image and Figure of his Sufferings the mysterious Rites used in the celebration being for this very end and purpose and the whole Action solemn and fully significant For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye shew the Lord's death till he come I shall comprize the full sense of these words in these four following Propositions I. That the holy Elements after Consecration retain their own proper Essence and Nature without any Physical and Substantial Change made of them It is Bread that we eat and Wine that we drink but with a distinction and note of Dignity and Honour it is this Bread and this Cup that is of ordinary and common they become mystical and sacramental they are altered and changed as to their use and effect and condition and not onely a divine Signification but a divine Virtue is imprinted upon them II. That the blessed Sacrament of the Body and Bloud of our Lord doth very fitly and fully represent and set forth his death III. That it is of perpetual Use and Observation and to be continued till the end of the World ye shew forth the Lord's death till he come that is till he come to judge the World at the last day and to put an end to the present state of things IV. That all who profess their Belief in a crucified Saviour and exspect the saving benefits of his Passion are obliged to a frequent celebration of this holy and tremendous Mystery which is here plainly supposed as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup. Which last Proposition I intend to make the Argument of my Discourse at this time Now the Reason and Necessity of the Obligation will appear if we consider these two things I. The End and Design of the Institution of the holy Sacrament II. The blessed Consequences and Effects of frequent Communion 1. The End and Design of the holy Sacrament is that it might be an everlasting Memorial of the Death and Passion of our Lord and Saviour He was pleased after the Consecration of both Elements to add particularly and distinctly not in the way of Advice to be followed if we think fit our selves but in the way of a peremptory and absolute Command v. 24. This doe in remembrance of me and v. 25. This doe ye as often as ye drink it in remembrance of me It is certain that we ought to remember the Death of our Blessed Saviour at other times as when we are upon our knees at our Prayers He gave himself for us an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour Ephes. 5.2 by virtue of which our Prayers wing'd with a lively Faith in his Bloud and with Zeal ascend like a Cloud of Incense into the Holy of Holies and find acceptance with God We cannot employ our Thoughts and Meditations better when we are upon our Beds or when we are in private and especially upon our Days of Fasting and Penitence when God onely is witness to these spiritual Exercises No Argument can make us more and better sensible of the defiling and damning nature of Sin than the consideration of a crucified Saviour that his Bloud was shed on purpose to expiate and attone it This will make us reflect upon our sins with a hearty sorrow and regret which brought the Son of God to so sad and shamefull an end How ought I to abhor and loath my self when I consider that the sins which I have committed though so many hundred years after contributed to his dying and make me an accessory of the guilt of the Jews who were the cruel Instruments of his Murther Nothing can more and better inflame our Zeal and Love to God and to Christ than frequent Meditation on our Saviour's Death that God should contrive this admirable way of our Redemption by the Death of his onely Son whom he sent out of his own bosome on purpose to be a Sacrifice for Sin and whom he set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his bloud for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God Rom. 3.25 and that Christ should willingly undergo all this for our sakes O blessed Saviour how can we recompense this thy infinite Love towards faln Man Jesu God! I cannot doe I cannot suffer enough in the way of a just acknowledgment of thy inexpressible Kindness and Pity to my poor Soul which thou hast redeemed from the nethermost Hell and from the Wrath of God which would have been the more intolerable The reading also of the Narrative and History of our Saviour's Sufferings and Death as they are recorded in the holy Gospels together with a reflexion on the several circumstances of them must needs leave deep impressions upon our memories This tragical story wherewith the Heathen of old used to upbraid the Christians as Votaries and Worshippers of a crucified God was so universally diffused throughout the World that it was impossible that it should be forgotten and the sight of a Cross which assoon as the Roman Empire turned Christian became an Ensign and Trophy of Honour every where to be met with in their Banners and upon their Bucklers and Helmets upon the Diadems of the Emperours upon their Medals upon their Churches and Spires of their Towers and in their solemn Processions would quickly refresh their memories and put them in mind of the great Saviour of the World whose Hands and Feet were nailed to it and his Armes extended upon it to receive and embrace all who fly to him for refuge from the assaults and pursuits of offended Justice But Christ who knew the best and most effectual method to keep alive for ever the Memory of his Passion and Death has ordained this holy Sacrament as the most proper Instrument to make us truly and really sensible and mindfull of it It is not then a matter of mere indifference whether we will receive the Sacrament or no we cannot with any pretence or shew of Reason take a liberty of dispensing with this Law of our Religion as if it were wholly in our power to come and abstain as we please For certainly all Laws were given with an intent that they may be observed and obeyed If they oblige to a Duty and require any thing to be done the Omission is culpable and is more or less aggravated
us and baffle our purposes and resolutions This drives us upon our knees again and we pray God not to leave us to our selves and by degrees we gain greater measures of strength and in some sort get the mastery over the inclinations of corrupted nature This holds much more in the Sacrament when we go to it with fresh desires and more vigorous resolutions of living a holy and truly Christian life and when we reflect upon our failings and miscarriages since our last receiving with deep humiliation and sorrow Thou O Lord God art full of compassion and mercy long suffering plenteous in goodness and truth O turn thee unto me and have mercy upon me give thy strength unto thy servant and help the son of thy hand-maid We need no invitations to satisfie the natural desires of the body which is nourished and cherished and oftentimes pampered by us Nature has laid upon us a necessity of daily food for the preservation of life to repair those decays which we daily suffer without this we consume and dye Now if we believe the blessed Sacrament to be the food of the Soul that we grow and are strengthened in grace by this bread of life the true spiritual manna that comes down from heaven that is designed by God for this purpose and conveys his blessing and sanctifying graces to all worthy receivers that by virtue of this nourishment we either retain or recover our vigour and healthfulness of mind and that without it we languish and decay in the inward man there would be no keeping us from this heavenly banquet at the Lord's table where there can be no fear of a furfeit where we eat and drink health and salvation and where Christ himself is the entertainer and the entertainment 100. For thou O Christ as the Greek Priest prays in the Liturgy of St. Chrysostome just before the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when they carry the gifts from the Prothesis to the Altar where he consecrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou offerest and yet art offered up thou receivedst the Elements into thy holy hands and yet at the same time thy body and bloud are distributed thou O Christ makest this bread in the Sacrament to be thy flesh mystically which thou still givest for the life of the World Can we eat too much or too often of this bread of life whereby we are nourished to immortality the holy Elements being the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so St. Clement in his former Epistle to the Corinthians must be understood that is not of the doctrine of our blessed Saviour for that is mentioned in the following clause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much less of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or things pertaining to our bodily sustinance and things of this life as Junius thought fit to explain but of the divine viaticum of the Sacrament that we may not faint in the journey which we are taking to the other world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for it immediately follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to which there can be no other relative but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which express testimony of this Apostolical writer for the Divinity of our blessed Saviour I could not but observe by the bye to help to confound the arrogance and blasphemy of that profest Arian Sandius so that these words seem clearly to relate to the Sacrament where the sufferings of Christ are so livelily represented to our sight 3. By frequent receiving of the Sacrament we are more and more made partakers of the benefits and blessings and merits of Christ's holy passion and death It is the great artifice of the Roman Church to keep up the credit of their private Masses to which antiquity is a mere stranger to make the people believe that the Priest hath a power of applying the efficacy and merit of Christ's sacrifice to their particular benefit for whom he intends it so they contribute somewhat in the way of charity or gift and are but present in the time of the celebration But 't is certain that before superstition and corruption of Doctrine had overspread that Church and before they had perverted this most solemn part of the Christian worship into a mere piece of pageantry and theatrical shew all that was anciently designed by the mentioning the names of the living to say nothing at present of the commemoration of the dead at that time as is clear from the Canon of the Mass still in use was onely by way of intercession that God would be pleased for the merits of his Son's death which they were then commemorating to have mercy on them to forgive them their sins and to pour down of his grace abundantly upon them and not onely upon them but upon the whole number of Christian people throughout the world But this cannot yield such peace and quiet and satisfaction to my conscience as my own particular application of the merits of Christ's sufferings to my self what another does for me cannot be my act when I am obliged to do it in my own person and not by my representative I am to eat his flesh in the Sacrament and drink his bloud if I would live in him and by him Now Christ by his death hath satisfied the divine Justice and reconciled us to the Father who no longer imputes our sins to our charge and condemnation the bloud that he spilt upon the cross is the seal of an everlasting covenant for this cause he is the mediatour of a new covenant that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant they which were called might receive the promise of an everlasting inheritance Heb. 9.15 So that now heaven and salvation are made over by God by virtue of this expiatory Sacrifice to all that truly believe in his Son's name This Sacrifice was made once for all upon the Altar of the Cross but the merit reaches backward to the first being and original of things and looks forward to the end of the world and to eternal ages It is as to the fruit and efficacy of it as present to God as if Christ were born every day into the world again and really every day offered up or as if it were but yesterdy or but just now offered it being all-sufficient and of infinite value and fully accepted by God as a just price and ransome Now that he suffered this bitter and cursed death upon the cross for me and that I may apply all the saving benefits of his passion to my self he assures me by giving me his body and bloud Every time we receive the Sacrament worthily there is a new confirmation of our pardon the spirit of God beareth witness with our spirit that we are his children and reinstated in his grace and favour 'T is an infallible pledge of our immortality and that he will raise us up at the last day as much as if his natural flesh and
and admits of greater or lesser degrees of guilt determinable by the variety of circumstances that attend it and in this case especially when the Law-giver to make our Obedience more ready and yielding has been pleased to superadd to the express Declaration and Determination of his Will Considerations of its agreeableness and reasonableness as well to encourage as to command our Obedience which he might otherwise justly claim as an Acknowledgment of our Dependence upon him So that from what Principle soever our Non-performance proceeds whether from Obstinacy and Pride or from Carelesness and Neglect we throw off and reject the Authority that imposed it as if that did not oblige or that we were not to be commanded Now Christ has commanded us to commemorate his Passion and Death by participating the Symbols of his holy Body and Bloud and if we admit him to be our Lord as well as our Saviour we can doe no other than obey nor can we question his Power and Authority even in the more difficult Duties of taking up his Cross of Self-denial and Mortification or of sacrificing our Interests and our Lives in the propagating and defence of his Truth For no difficulty in the thing to be performed can warrant or excuse the not doing of it where the Obedience is necessary and especially if we consider that the End of the Institution of this holy Sacrament is highly agreeable to Reason that the Sufferings of the Cross might never be forgotten that our thoughts of it be not slight or transient a cold reflexion upon it as upon a sad and lamentable accident the reading of which may trouble and move us a little and incline us to pity or melancholy for a time but that they be composed and serious and often sixt upon the Object of a dying Saviour who doth so well deserve them and at last be raised up to a due pitch and height to which this holy Solemnity is so conducing For if it be our Duty as most certainly it is to meditate on the Death of Christ to reflect and that seriously and with due intention of Mind on the dolours of his Passion if this be to be done often for who can reflect too much or too often upon the effects of infinite Love and Condescension the greatest that could possibly be shewn and if Christ has prescribed us a way how it may be done most effectually that is in the Sacrament the consequence is easie and just and natural that we are to communicate often this being the most likely means to attain that end the solemn commemoration of his Passion and Death So that the design of the Institution makes frequent Communion necessary Now that this was the mind of Christ will appear demonstratively from the practice of the Apostles who may be presumed to know and understand it best and of their first Converts of whom we read Acts 2.42 they continued stedfastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were very assiduous and diligent in the Apostles Doctrine and fellowship or rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 communication and so may refer either to their presents and gifts of Bread and Wine and Fruits for the use of the Sacrament and Love-Feast which followed or to the liberal distribution of the good things with which God had blessed them in a way of Charity and Benevolence for the support and sustenance of the poorer sort of Christians it follows and in breaking of bread and in prayers that is in receiving the Sacrament and in joint and publick Devotions This was their constant practice and it was universal too For it takes in the whole number of Christians which then began to encrease mightily no less than Three Thousand having been converted to the Faith of Christ by Saint Peter's Sermon v. 41. of all which this is expresly affirmed So great was the Faith and Piety and Zeal of these new Converts that they communicated every day For Saint Luke is punctual in relating this material circumstance v. 46. And they continuing daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking bread from house to house 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in or at the house where they used to make their resort did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart the meaning of which words seems to be plainly this that as many of the Christians as could with convenience met every day in a certain upper Chamber adjoining to the Temple or not far from it and there celebrated the blessed Sacrament and afterwards very chearfully and heartily entertained one another with Feasts of Love and Charity This upper room being the same with that in which our blessed Saviour eat the Passover with his Disciples and instituted the Sacrament afterwards called The Oratory of Sion according to a tradition which passes current among the Christians of the East For that which is alledged by some that the former part of the verse may refer onely to their daily resort to the Temple at the hours of Prayer that is that they went and prayed in the mixt Assemblies of the Jews for so they must be understood if they speak consonantly to themselves but that they brake bread from house to house that is at their particular homes is of little force because the words have an intimate connexion and dependence one upon another and seem to contain the reason of their continuing daily with one accord in the Temple which was to receive the Sacrament in a particular place in it or near it as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may very fitly be rendred For if they render the words distributively from house to house what hinders but that upon this supposition it may be inferred that the Sacrament was celebrated in every Christian house of Jerusalem apart which is against the undoubted practice of those first Christians who used to meet in great numbers together for this sacred purpose at a certain place if it were wide and large enough to receive them But to let this pass onely as a probability that there was a constant weekly Communion that is every Sunday is certain beyond all possibility of exception Act. 20.1 upon the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread Saint Paul preached unto them c. This was at St. Paul's being at Troas which was two or three and twenty years after the Ascension variety of practice as to these and the like circumstances being allowed at different times and in different places and what they did here weekly might formerly have been done daily by the Apostles and Disciples at Jerusalem I do not urge their example as if all Christians were obliged to follow it in these punctualities and circumstances or as if we were guilty of a horrid neglect if we do not receive the Sacrament daily at least every Lords-day but I onely mention it as an instance of their piety and zeal and of the great sense which they had of the obligation