Faith in the virtue and merits of it For the Sacraments as one saith well are nothing else but Protestationes Fidei the publick Protestations of our Faith They who come to the Lord's Table by their very coming do publickly profess that they believe not only every Article of their Faith but also every part of this Divine Promise and Institution by which Christ will renew strengthen and establish his Covenant to every worthy Receiver Nor is our coming to the Sacrament our Protestation only of our Faith but also of our Repentance which 3. Is hugely advantaged and promoted by the Sacrament for we cannot certainly but repent with all speed of our Sins when we consider that they were the Spears that pierced our Saviour's side the Nails that fastned him to the Cross and that they laid such loads of Wrath upon the shoulders of Omnipotency it self as made him complain and sweat groan and die it being impossible for any Man ever to have such a sense of and sorrow for Sin as when he is awakened by the signs and images of Christ's Sufferings and when he sees it writ and decypher'd in Characters of Blood so that our receiving the Sacrament which commemorates Christ's Death and Sufferings is a Protestation of our repenting of those Sins of ours which most Jewishly crucifi'd the Lord of Glory The Canonist will tell us Sacramentum mortis Articulus aequiparantur that we are considered at the Sacrament as on our Death-bed Now on our Death-bed we repent of our Sins then we lay down our Malice then we nauseat our Lust then we go out of and renounce the World then we quarrel with Mammon then we are meek humble and tractable then we are commonly what we should be in Health Now if we consider our selves at the Holy Table as on our Death-bed we shall undoubtedly repent of our Sins and drown them in the Blood and nail them to the Cross of our Saviour and if so then this Sacrament may very well notwithstanding what some extravagant Fancies may suggest to the contrary deserve the name of a Converting Ordinance that is such an Ordinance as God makes use of to turn Men from Sin to Holiness towards which nothing can contribute more than that solemn Obligation which all Worthy Communicants lay upon themselves at the Lord's Table to forsake their Sins and lead holy Lives there being nothing imaginable that can seen a more probable and proper Instrument to convert Men from a wicked to an holy Life than the sacred Remembrance that Christ's Death was designed to be the Death of Sin and the Life of Holiness 4. A fourth Benefit or Advantage of the Sacrament is That it enlarges and enflames our Love our Charity whether it be First Divine Love or the Love of God Or Secondly The Love of our Neighbour First It enlarges and enflames our Love of God For by the commemoration of Christs Death in the Sacrament we imprint in our Memories that Heroic Act that never yet did enoble the story of any Person namely Christ's laying down his Life for his Enemies the Lamb of God his dying for Wolves for those that would have devoured him So that if the Poet's Fancy of Deucalion and Pyrrha were verified in us and we like the Men and Women in their days were made or Stone yet these Marbles could not but weep these cold stones could not but be warm'd with the Fire of Divine Love struck out of them by the consideration of Christs great Love to us exprest by that Gift he gave to obtain our Pardon namely his Life This was such a transcendent Act of Love as no Romance of Friendship did ever yet fancy or suppose We may have heard of two Companions that would die for each other and that never quarrel'd in their Lives but for this who should suffer first to save the other and strove only for Death and Execution But for a Person in the Trinity to leave his Heaven to come down to us to dwell with Agonies that he might free us from Torments This was an Act of Love fit for Ecstasies of Apprehension there were never such wounds of Love as those that tore his Heart never such meltings of Affection and Goodness as dissolved Christ into sweats of Blood Let us look on our Saviour in the Garden and on Mount Calvari and we shall find him there in as great Agonies of Affection as of Torment and hanging down his head upon the Cross with Languishments of Kindness more than Weakness Now such Meditations of Christ's Love to us as these does receiving the Sacrament suggest to us and if as undoubtedly it is Love is the best Loadstone to attract Love the doing this Holy Action cannot but kindle in us that Holy Passion of Divine Love Nor will it stop here but proceed Secondly To nourish and encrease the Love of our Neighbour For it being the Commemoration of his Passion who was the perfect Mirror of Love it cannot but kindle and enflame our Loves to one another which is an expression of our Love to God For 1 John 4.12 If we love one another God dwelleth in us and his Love is perfected in us Christ died for his Enemies and shall not the Commemoration thereof teach us to love ours When the King of Moab was pressed hard by the Israelites and Edomites he took his own Son and offered him as an Holocaust upon the Wall whereupon they presently raised the Siege So God hath offered up his Son as an Holocaust as a Sacrifice for us and can we choose then when we commemorate that his Oblation in the Sacrament but raise the Siege and cease from quarrelling and fighting with our Enemies and do them all the good Offices of Love and Kindness Epictetus hath ingeniously observed That * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every thing in the World hath two handles one turned towards us which we may easily take the other turned from us harder to be laid hold of the first makes all things easy the second does not The instance he brings fits my present purpose Be it says he that thy Brother hath offended thee there are two handles one of the offence the other of thy Brother if thou take hold of that of the Offence it will be too hot for thee but if of that of thy Brother it will make all his behaviour towards thee so tolerable as to continue him still the Object of thy Love There is no part of out Brother's carriage towards us but if we examin it we shall find some handle some circumstance that may reconcile our Love to it if we can find no other that of our Saviour's dying for his most virulent bitter and malicious Enemies will accomplish and effect it For says St. Chrysostom didst thou know that thy Brother intended particular Mischief against thee that he would even embrue his hand in thy Blood * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 kiss that very hand for the Lord Christ did
THE NECESSITY OF RECEIVING THE Holy Sacrament That great Test both of the Christian and Protestant Religion Declared in a SERMON at a CONFERENCE of the several Ministers of the Deanery of Braughin in the County of Hertford appointed by the Right Reverend Father in God HENRY Lord Bishop of London to be held at Ware August 28. 1678. By ROBERT NEVILLE B. D. Rector of Ansty LONDON Printed by J. D. for Benj. Billingsly at the Printing-Press in Cornhil near the Royal Exchange 1679. LICENSED May 20. 1679. W. JANE To the Worshipfull My much honoured Kinsman James Wilymot Esq OF Chelsull in the County of Hertford Honoured SIR I Am so big with the Resentments of your multiplied and repeated Favours that I am in pain till I am delivered of them in Public Acknowledgments and have therefore chose rather to expose my own weakness to the World by making this Discourse Publick than be ungrateful to you designing not so much the Publication of my Sermon as my Gratitude when at the Command of our Right Reverend and Noble Diocesan I preached this Sermon you were pleased to do me the honour to ride some miles to be an Auditor of it What was then presented to your Ear I now place before your Eye not that I flatter my self to serve the ends of my Reputation by it for I am too well assured that those Discourses which in the hearing went down with a tolerable relish are often found flat and insipid in the reading especially when they are leisurely and critically considered by Persons of Judgment and Understanding I have read of a young Gentleman of Athens who being to plead for his Life hired an Oratur to make him a Defensive Oration to be pronounced before the Judges which at the first reading was very grateful and pleasing to the Young-man but when by reading it often that he might fix it in his memory and speak it with the better grace he began to nauseate and grow weary of it the Orator bid him consider that the Judges and the People were to hear it but once and then it was probable they might at the first instant hear it with as much delight and satisfaction as he himself had done This Story hath often represented to my mind the Fate of my Sermon which is now stript of the Advantages it had in the Delivery but however I can dispense with my own Credit and give my self sufficient satisfaction in that particular because I have sent it into the World upon no other Errand than to put me into a capacity of making a solemn and publick profession that I am Honoured Sir Your much obliged Kinsman faithful and humble Servant Robert Neville Ansty May 15. 1679. A SERMON PREACHED At a CONFERENCE at Ware August 28. 1678. LUKE 22. latter part of the 19 verse This Do in Remembrance of Me. The whole verse runs thus And he took Bread and gave thanks and brake it and gave unto them saying This is my Body which is given for you This do in Remembrance of Me. THE Holy Sacrament was in such great esteem and veneration in former Ages that in Can. 21 of the Council of Illiberis the keeping Men from it was thought an heavy Punishment as appears by these words of the Canon (a) Quod si quis per tres Dies Dominicos ad Ecclesiam non accesserit c. That if any absented himself from the Church for three Sundays he was to be kept as long from the Holy Sacrament that he might thereby seem punish'd and corrected for it And it was decreed by the Council at Aken in the Year 836 That the Sacrament should be administred every Lord's day lest they who stand off from the Sacrament of their Redemption should be kept also at as great a Distance from Redemption it self And St. Basil in his 289 Epistle ad Caesaream Patritiam commends an every-day Communion as (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good and profitable A sense whereof caused St. Cyril of Jerusalem to invite Guests to this Feast in these words (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eat the Bread that renews your Nature drink the Wine that is the Smile and Delight of Immortality And St. Cyril of Alexandria tells us (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That to drink of the Sacramental Wine is to drink of the Blood of Jesus to be partaker's of the Lord 's Incorruptibility And Holy Ignatius in his Epistle to the Ephesians calls the Sacramental Bread (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Medicine of Immortality An Antidote against Death A Purge that expels all evil And the Fathers of the Nicene Council style the two Elements of the Sacrament (f) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Symbols of our Resurrection And at this rate did several of the Antient Fathers speak of it And I could heartily wish that the generality of Men had the same opinion of the Sacrament in this as they had in former Ages and that they would not exercise the power of the Keys against and excommunicate themselves by their wilful Absence from this Holy Feast And since the Heathens had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Feasts in memory of their Heroes Aeacus and Ajax and the Israelites their Passover a Type of this our Feast in memory of their Deliverance in Egypt let us Christians celebrate this Memorial Feast which our Saviour did institute in these words This Do in remembrance of Me. Before I contrive the words into a Proposition I shall first resolve this Question How Christ could at the eating the last Supper with his Disciples with whom he was present bid them Do this in remembrance of him how could they be said to do that in Remembrance of his Death which was then future and to come For if we do an Action in remembrance of any thing it must be of a thing that is past or if in remembrance of any Person it must be either of a Person absent from us or of one departed this life To which I answer That it follows only from these words that Christ instituted and appointed a Sacrament or Figurative mysterious Representation of a thing which in the whole use of it was variabie either to this day to morrow or any other day and therefore never to be naturally verified but on the Cross by a Proper and Natural Presence because then it was so and never else In Remembrance of which his being and suffering on the Cross we do this Holy Action We do this in Remembrance of Him The importance of which words may be comprized in this Proposition That this Holy Action of receiving the Sacrament in Remembrance of Christ's Death and Passion is a Duty incumbent upon every Christian every Christian is bound to Do this in remembrance of him and that for these following Reasons I. Because Christ who did institute and appoint it requires it of us whose Command is of that extent and latitude as to comprehend all Christians 'T
is true indeed that the Apostles only were present at Christ's first Celebration and so the Command was directed to them But how not to the Apostles only as Apostles but also as Communicants as representing the People or else to the Apostles as Dispensers and to the People as Receivers For if the Officers and Ministers of the Church are bound to give it all Christians no doubt are bound to receive it and that they are obliged so to do St. Paul hath fully and plainly declared to us telling us in 1 Cor. 11.24 that when our Lord had given thanks he brake the Bread and said Take eat this is my Body which is broken for you Do this in Remembrance of me Here this Command Do this immediately refers to these words Take eat which the verse of my Text hath not and therefore it must there refer only to taking Bread giving Thanks breaking it and giving it to them in which the Apostles and their Successors were more immediately concerned and none can do this i. e. take Bread give Thanks break it and give it but they but in the other actions of taking and eating all Christians are concerned The Receiving the Sacrament is not a thing Arbitrary or Indifferent to be done or not done at our pleasure because it is under the Obligation of a Positive Command which our Saviour hath given us in these words This Do in remembrance of me that is Do this in remembrance that I put a cloud of Flesh upon my bright and resplendent Glory In remembrance that I who am the Light of the World suffered my self to be put into the dark Lanthorn of an Human Body In remembrance of my bitter Pains and Sufferings on the Cross In remembrance of the stretching out of my Arms on the Tree of Shame to receive and imbrace You In remembrance of the opening of my Side to make an avenue and passage for You to my Heart In remembrance of my pouring out Water to wash You and Blood to redeem You. Memorials of Dying-Men are of great account with all Men being placed among their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their most valued and esteemed Treasures And we usually say That the words of a Dying-Man make the strongest and deepest impressions in the minds of the Living Be pleased therefore to bribe your Fancy to suppose One who had always been a loving and indulgent Husband now lying upon his Death-bed and the very moment before his Soul is divorced from his Body and he from his Wife by Death making this his last and dying request to her I perceive the last Sand of my Glass is now running and my time of Departure is near at hand let me therefore beg this last favour of thee and desire thee to keep my Picture by thee when I am dead and gone let me desire thee to do this in remembrance of me Undoubtedly his Wife if she had but the least spark of kindness for him would keep his Picture by her as a most valuable Treasure and when ever she beholds it pay him whom it represents the just Tribute of a Tear The Church is Christ's Spouse and the Sacrament is the Picture of Christ's Death drawn to the Life and if Christ a little before his Death desires nay more commands his Spouse the Church for whom he was about to die and shed his most precious Blood to commemorate his Death after his Suffering and Crucifixion and break Bread and drink Wine in remembrance that his Body was broken and his Blood poured out call to mind his bloody Passion by that holy Action certainly if she hath any bowels of Compassion in her she cannot deny his so just and reasonable request she cannot disobey so obliging a Command If this Sacrament could have well been spared and Men could have kept the Law of the Inward-Man without it our Saviour who came to beat down all the Rites and Ceremonies of the Old Law would never have raised up this under the Gospel but he knew it necessary and therefore left it upon Record as binding as a Law 1 Cor. 11.25 This do ye as often as you drink it in remembrance of me As oft as ye do it implies a doing it often and does not leave it at large to our will and pleasure to be taken up at the discretion of every private person but supposeth that it must be done frequently as frequently at least as that Church whereof we are Members requires it of us Had our Saviour imposed upon us a heavy Yoke of Judaical Rites and laborious and expensive Ceremonies and crowded them in so thick and fast upon us as to employ and take up all our time and exhaust our strength we had had some tolerable Plea for our disobedience But when he hath freed us from the burdensom imposition of Judaical Observances and except that of Baptism hath recommended but one innocent cheap and easie Rite to our observation We are Monsters of Ingratitude if we take not and most chearful Obedience to this his peculiar Command A Command in so peculiar a manner His as no other is but that of Baptism For his other Commands are but inforcements of those Precepts that are either contained in the Old Testament or derived to us from Principles of Nature but this is his Peculiar his own proper Commandment and our Receiving the Sacrament in obedience to it is the proper Characteristical mark of a Christian the very Test of our Christianity for Christ is concernd in no piece of Worship so much as this This is more properly Christian Worship than any other Act of Religion Shall we not then observe this Mandate obey this Command and enjoy this Privilege properly belonging to his Disciples This this it was that caused the Christians of old when for their Sins they were debarr'd and excluded to lament their condition in large showers or Tears and sadly bewail their banishment from the Lord's Table This was esteemed the highest Honour the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 could receive when after long attendance and strict examination they were permitted to commence and take the Degree of Fideles and admitted into the Society of Communicants into the Fellowship and Communion of Saints 2. This Holy Action of receiving the Sacrament in Remembrance of Christ's Death and Passion is a Duty incumbent upon every Christian because this was the practice of the most Apostolical and Primitive Times which is a good Comment upon Christ's Intentions and a clear discovery of the Obligatory Power of this Command They who were the immediate Auditors of Christ and his Apostles had certainly the best Notion of the import of this Command and the Notion they had of it made them as constantly do this as they assembled together either to eat drink or confer together in love and friendship And the 46th verse of the 2d of the Acts seems to intimate to us that the Church of Jerusalem receivd the Sacrament every day and that they continued
daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking Bread at home did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart that is after they had daily performed their common Devotions with the Jews in the Temple they because the Jews would not then permit them to do it in the Temple went to their own Houses to tender a more peculiar Service to Christ by doing this in remembrance of him But the principal time for this Holy Exercise seems to have been on the Lord's Day for we reade Acts 20.7 that the Disciples were assembled on the first day of the week to break Bread And as in the Apostolical so in the next succeeding Times they often met together to do this and while the Spirit of Christianity was yet warm and vigorous it is more than probable they did communicate every day or as often as they came together to the Publick Worship insomuch that the Canons (g) Canon 9 Apostolical and the (h) Canon 2. Synod of Atioch threatned those persons with Excommunication who resorted to the Public Assemblies to hear the Scriptures and departed from them without this Spiritual Food This custom of communicating every day was of no short continuance in the Church and some Churches and particularly the Western did retain it longer than others And St. Cyprian assures us that it was practis'd in his time saying (i) Eucharistiam quotidiè ad cibum salutis accipimus Cypr. de Oratione Dominicâ p. 268. We receive the Eucharist every day as the food our Salvation The like St. Ambrose reports of Millain where he was Bishop And St. Hierom affirms that this custom was in use in his time at Rome And St. Augustin intimates that in the Age in which he lived it was not wholly disused and laid aside In the Eastern Churches this custom disappeared sooner than in the Western though more or less according to the ebbing or flowing of their Zeal And St. Basil (k) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil in 289 Epist ad Caesaream Patritiam positively affirms that in his time they did communicate four times a week namely on the Lord's day Wednesday Friday and Saturday and upon other days (l) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil ibid. if the memory of any Martyr were celebrated upon them Afterwards as Religion began to be in her Wane and Decrease this Sacrament was more and more discontinued and from a daily was first changed into a weekly and then into a monthly Service and afterward performed but thrice a Year at Christmass Easter and upon Whitsunday and even at these three great Festivals it is now by many lukewarm Christians neglected and disregarded for to speak the truth we have much degenerated from the Devotion of the Primitive Christians and are taught of late to idolize Preaching and value our selve from our much Hearing being like that People called Corimandi whose Ear as Historians tell us covered their whole Body The Epidemical Disease of this Age being the Rickets of Religion or the having great Heads Heads swell'd and big with Knowledg falsely so called but their Legs weak and impotent not able to walk in the ways of God's Commandments Prayer and the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper must strike sail to Sermons because Men are too feeble in Spirituals to prepare themselves for it they are unwilling to come to this holy Feast and perswade themselves that Superstition did eat out the heart of true Religion in the Primitive times and that then Men did come so frequently to eat with Christ at his Table only in a Complement and Complaisance and flatter and wheadle their Saviour with a superfluous and needless Devotion and therefore they will not do this once a year nay some of them scarce once in all their lives But let me advise such not to dare to neglect Christ's gracious Invitation nor disobey his Command of doing this in remembrance of him for not only Acts but Omissions are evil It is a Sin to contemn the Sacrament and a Sin not to receive it when we may the one leads to the other Neglect and Indifferency as we have seen by woful experience terminate at last in open Prophaneness If we had a true esteem of the Cup of Blessings we should thirst more after it but the truth is our thoughts are seldom or never imployed upon the consideration of those many Benefits and Advantages we receive by it And this brings me to the third Reason why this holy Action of Receiving the Sacrament in Remembrance of Christ's Death and Passion is a Duty incumbent upon every Christian And that is III. Because 't is fraught with many Benefits and Advantages this is not an empty barren Ceremony or an unprofitable Rite it hath a large train of Blessings attending on it And 1. It makes us participate of Christ and his Grace and Spirit The external Act indeed only declares Christ's Death in Rite and Ceremony but the worthy communicating of it makes us feed upon Christ and unites him to our Souls and makes us to become one Spirit according to those words of St. Ambrose (m) In similitudimem quidem accipis Sacramentum sed verae naturae gratiam virtutemque consequêris Ambros de Sacramento Thou receivest the Sacrament as the similitude of Christ's Body but thou shalt withal obtain the Grace and Vertue of the true Nature The Elements of Bread and Wine in the Sacrament are not as some tell us only Symbols of mutual Charity Allegorical Admonitions of Christian Mortification and Rites instituted only to stir up Faith by way of Object and Representation this were to imbrace a meer Cloud instead of the true Juno the true Deity Those Names and Appellations which the Scripture gives them speak them to be more than so such as are the Body and Blood of the Lord the communication of his Body and the communication of his Blood all which intimate no less to us than a real change in the Elements and that Christ is really present there and though we must never hope to have our sight so acute as the Romanists tell us theirs is when through that strange glass of Transubstantiation they pretend to see and discern the very Flesh and Blood of Christ yet we must not entertain such mean thoughts of them as to think them only bare signs of what Christ did for us but firmly believe that they exhibit Christ himself to all worthy Communicants 2. A second Benefit or Advantage of the Sacrament is That it quickens strengthens and encreases our Faith All Habits are encreased by often repeated Acts Now this Sacrament requires frequent and great Exercises of our Faith by fixing it upon its proper Object a Crucified Saviour and it being as St. Cyril of Jerusalem tell us (n) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Catech. 2. A Representation of Christ's Sufferings makes us seal to that Truth which he hath signed and sealed with his Blood and make a publick profession of our
required that they should know the Motions of the Celestial Bodies or the Influences of the Stars if they do but feel any good Motions within themselves and how CHRIST the bright Morning-Star * Rev. 22.16 and that this Star descended from his bright Orb of Glory and set in a Sea of Blood to raise such black Sinners as they are to Mansions of Eternal Glory It is not expected from a Worthy Communicant that he should dive into the depth of any new Mystery or study for any new Notion All that is new he is to be in quest of is the New ‖ 2 Cor. 5.17 Creature Every Child that hath but learnt his Church Catechism can tell that the Sacrament was ordained for the continual remembrance of the Sacrifice of the Death of Christ and the Benefits we receive thereby and that the Reception of this Sacrament is the ratifying and confirming our Covenant with God and that it is required of those who come to the Lords Supper to examin themselves whether they repent them truly of their former Sins stedfastly purposing to lead a new Life have a lively Faith in Gods Mercy through Jesus Christ with a thankful remembrance of his Death and be in Charity with all Men. He that knows but thus much knows enough of the nature of the Sacrament and he that knows not this after so many Sermons and Catechisings that have been made upon the Sacrament for this his gross and supine Ignorance may justly be reputed such a Dunce in Christianity as scarcely to deserve the Name of a Christian And therefore if any Person be ignorant in this matter why does he not repair to those whose Office and Business it is to teach and inform him better Why hath he not recourse to those * Mat. 2.7 whose Lips should keep Knowledg who I am confident would be glad of all opportunities to â—nstruct those who are ignorant in this or any other kind Fourthly A fourth Objection against coming to the Sacrament is a fear in Men that when they have prepared themselves for it as well as they can they are not yet so well prepared as they should be To which I answer That if we may not come to God's Ordinances till we are as well prepared as we should be why then are we not afraid to pray to God and why are we not afraid to hear hâ—â— Word For when we hear and pray we do the same thing that is perform'd at the Sacrament the not in so solemn a manner So that by the same Argument that some Men scare themselves from the Sacrament they may also fright themselves from other holy Duties such as Praying or Hearing the Word For as the Apostle saith that he the eats and drinks unworthily so it is true also that he that prays or hears unworthily prays and hears to himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judgment and temporal Punishments and if he repent not by the Admonition of those Punishments Eternal Damnation and as he that is not the better for the Sacrament is certainly the worse for the Sacrament So he that is not the better for a Sermon is certainly the worse for a Sermon every Sermon he hears amiss shall rise up in Judgment against him Let us then prepare our selves for the Sacrament as well as we can and God will accept of it though it be not so well as we should he will accept of our sincere endeavours of Preparation And if we will not chuse to feed rather upon Doubts and Scruples than upon the Bread of Life we may assure our selves of a welcom to and advantage by this Holy Feast Indeed if we come like rude and unmannerly Guests once is too often but if we purge and cleanse our Hearts if the stomach of our Souls be clean often we may come but we cannot come too often Christ's Blood is always full of virtue and efficacy it will put out the Fire of immoderate Anger cool the Heart-burnings of Malice and Envy the Calentures of our Lust quench the raging Thirst of Covetousness If we drink of this Cup as we ought it will keep us from drinking too frequently and immoderately of any other Christ is always a Fountain of Life to those who desire to taste the Waters of Life at which we may draw as often as we please if our Pitcher be clean and the oftner we draw our Pitcher will be the cleaner And that it may be so God grant us such a sense of our Saviour's Sufferings as may create in us a just detestation of our Sins and quicken our endeavours in the ways of Repentance and a holy Life till we obtain those Blessings which by the effusion of his Blood he hath purchased for us to whom with the Father and the holy Spirit be all Honours Glory and Praise FINIS Books sold by Benjamin Billingsley at the Printinâ— Press in Cornhill CHristian Religion 's Appeal from the groundless Prejudices of 〈◊〉 Sceptick to the Bar of Common Reason Wherein is provâ—â— 1. That the Apostles did not delude the World 2. Nor were themselves deluded 3. Scripture Matters of Fact have the best Evidence 4. The Divinity of Scripture is as demonstrable as the Being 〈◊〉 Deity By John Smith Rector of St. Maries in Colchester Fol. Pr. 1. 〈…〉 A Sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Maâ—â—â—â—â—… and Court of Aldermen of the City of London at Guild hall Chaâ—â—â—â—â—… Aug. 18. 1678. By Robert Neville B. D. late Fellow of King's Colâ—â—â—â—â—… in Cambridg and now Rector of Ansty in Hertfordshire 4. price 6 〈…〉 Of Baptism and the Lord's Supper Two short Discourses oâ—â—â—â—â—…ing the Nature Design and Ends of those two great Gospel-Oâ—â—â—â—…nances and teaching the holy use and improvement of them In 〈…〉 Price 6 d.