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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
end_n	lord_n	receive_v	supper_n	1,604	5	9.1492	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91267	A seasonable vindication of free-admission, and frequent administration of the Holy Communion to all visible church-members, regenerate or unregenerate. From the institution, precept, president of Christ himself; the doctrine, practice of the primitive Church, fathers, councils, Christians: the confessions, articles, records, chief writers of our own and other reformed churches: the dangerous consequents, effects, schisms arising from the disusage, infrequency, monopoly of this sacrament, to visible or real saints alone; and suspension of all others from it, till approved worthy upon trial. And that upon meer Anabaptistical, and papistical false principles, practices, (here discovered) unadvisedly embraced, imitated, asserted, exceeded by sundry over-rigid, reforming ministers; to our Saviours dishonour, our Churches great disturbance, their own, their peoples prejudice; and the common enemies, and seducers grand advantage. / By Will: Prynne of Swainswick Esq; a bencher of Lincolns Inne·	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1656 (1656)	Wing P4070; Thomason E495_3; ESTC R203285	81,072	108

5ly I desire such Ministers who have preached printed cryed up this false rule of admission to and administration of this Sacrament sadly to consider the retaliating justice of God upon them arising from this their error and neglect of administring it That whiles they have peremptorily debarred their Parishioners and people from the Lords Supper and laid it quite aside as denying or doubting their real Sain●ship many of their people have upon their own principles turned Anabaptists Independents Quakers Seekers yea publikely in their Churches Pulpits c Writings proclaimed them to be no real Saints or Ministers of Christ at all but Baals Priests Seducers of the people false Prophets Hirelings Hypocrites Deceivers Impostors Antichrists fit only to be cast forth unto the Dunghil trodden under foot of men deserted both their Church assemblies Ministry and withheld their Tithes I beseech them sadly to ponder how God hath thus repaid them in their own false coin and to acknowledge his justice on them in it 5ly Let them consider this notable passage of d Abbot Theon about 530 years after Christ That mens sins ought not to deterre them from but excite them to the frequent participation of the Lords Supper and that those who deem themselves worthy receivers as these supercilious secluders of their Parishioners from the Sacrament doe are most unworthy Nec tamen ex eo debemus nos a Dominica Communione suspendere quia nos agnoscimus peccatores sed ad eam magis ac magis est et propter animae medicinam et purificationem Spiritus avidè festinandum veruntamen ea humilitate mentis ac fide ut indignos nos perceptione tantae gratiae judicantes remedia potius nostris vulneribus expetamus Ali●quin nec anniversaria quidem dignè est praesumenda Communio ut quidam facunt qui in Monasteriis consistentes ita Sacramentorum coelestium dignitatem sanctificationem ac meritum metiuntur ut aestiment ea non nisi sanctos immaculatos debere praesumere et non Potius ut sanctos mundosque nos sua participatione perficiant Qui profectò majorem arrogantiae praesumptionem quam declinare sibi videntur incurrunt quia vel tunc cum ea percipiunt dignos se ejus perceptione dijudicant Multo enim justius est ut cum hac cordis humilitate qua credimus et fatemur illa sacrosancta mysteria nunquam pro merito nos posse contingere singulis ea Dominicis diebus ob remedium nostrorum aegcitudinem praesumamus quam ut vana persuasione cordis elati vel post annum dignos eorum participio nos esse credamus Wherefore as the blessed antient Martyr e Ignatius in his Epistle to the Ephesians thus exhorts them to the frequent reception of the Eucharist Date itaque operam ut crebrius congregemini ad Eucharistiam et gloriam Dei Quando enim saepius in idem loci convenitis labefactantur vires Satanae et ignita illius ad peccat●m jacula irrita resiliunt which f Joannes C●●machus likewise seconds pressing the frequent reception of the Eucharist upon these and other Grounds which the primitive Christians daily and frequently received in common as the marginal g Authors besides those forecited and Eusebius De Demonstratione vangelica lib. 1. c. 10. p. 300. inform us So let our rigid Innovators now imitate this their practice for the future lest they increase the power kingdom of Satan their own and their Parishioners sins and damnation by debarring them from this spiritual balm and soveraign means of their Salvation instead of making them more worthy and prepared to receive it or lesse sinfull by their Suspension from it 6ly Let them ponder that the Primitive Fathers and Christians though they were over-rigid to such as fell away to Idolatry through fear in times of persecution yet upon their repentance they admitted them to receive the Lords Supper at home in private when they lay sick upon their death-beds though they stood actually excommunicated from the Church and all publike Ordinances to the end they should not be swallowed up utterly in despair but die comfortably as the Members of Christ as h Bishop Iewel proves at large by the story of Serapion and Concil. Carthaginense 6. Can. 13. With what hearts faces consciences then can these Cathari and Novations deny this Sacrament now to their Parishioners who earnestly desire and long after it both in their healths sicknesses and at their very deaths though never actually excommunicated nor guilty of such Grosse Apostacy to Idolatry when as they freely admit them to their Church-assemblies and all other publick Ordinances contrary to the practice of the Primitive Churches Fathers who cast all such as were excommunicated for any scandalous sins crime or heresie ont of their Churches debarred them from their Congregations and all Christian Communion with them in prayer or any other publike Ordinances as well as in the Lords Supper which is most apparent by the Excommunications and presidents of i Serapion k Numerianus l Philip and m Theodosius the Emperors n Apoiinarius and o Arius the Hereticks with others recorded in Ecclesiastical Histories By this pregnant Testimony of Tertullian in his Apology Summumque futuri judicii praejudicium est si quis ita deliquerit ut a Communione orationis et Conventus et omnis sancti commercii relegetur By these phrases of p St. Cyprian whereby he expresseth the nature and use of Excommunication in his age Arcere cohibere ejicere excludere pellere rejicere ab Ecclesia Seperare a Christi corpore c. By these expressions of q Origen Ab Ecclesiae corpore desecari per Ecclesiae Praesides Auferatur è populo Dei eradicetur et tradatur Satana Is qui praesidet populo regit Ecclesiasticam disciplinam ejicit eum de Congregatione fidelium In Ecclesiis Christi consuetudo tenuit talis ut qui manifesti sunt in magnis delictis ejiciantur ab oratione Communi c. By this phrase of r Gregorius Thaumaturgus Bishop of Neo-Caesaria against covetors plunderers of Captives and other mens goods for filthy gain whom he resolves to be a Dei Ecclesia abdicati which Theodorus Balsamon Patriarch of Antioch thus expounds Ecclesia abdicatus id est ejectus et al●onus dicuntur enim abdicati filii quando propter aliqua crimina ab haereditate paterna alienantur In tempore autem talis calamitatis existimare aliorum calamitatem esse sui lucri occasionem est impiorum hominum et Dei invisorum et qui omnem improbitatem superant Unde visum est eos abdicare pro eo quod est aperte Ecclesia expellere et a sidelium multitudine separare ne propter ipsos Dei ira ad omnes veniat c. Which I wish the plundering Covetous Saints of our age would consider being all ipso jure excommunicated persons Qui ea rapiunt

Dignity hereby above the Dignity of their ordinary Lay Parishioners this New Papal Authority Tyranny Sacrilege being never claimed practiced by them before but only since their late pretended divine right and claim to their new Presbyterian Soveraign Authority to examine all their Parishioners visible worthiness fitnesse preparednesse to receive this Sacrament before their actual admission thereunto Wherby they have now altered this blessed Sacrament of Equality Unity to which all visible Members of every particular Congregation capable of Self-examination have an equal right and common interest as well as themselves or their new Presbyteries Triers and ought to receive it together with them as frequently as they shall receive it made it a Sacrament of Difference Dissention division separation and no Communion at all nor yet so much a Sacrament or Ordinance of Christ at all in many Churches but only in Notion and Dispute not actual publike Celebration according to Christs command m This doe in remembrance of me They having now metamorphosed our Saviours precepts Take ye Eat ye Drink ye ALL of this in Remembrance of me As OFT as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup shew ye the Lords death till he come into This doe not Take ye not Eat ye not Drink ye not AT ALL in Remembrance of me Never once much lesse oft eat this bread nor drink this Cup nor shew ye the Lords death thereby till he come O my obstinate refractory Christian Brethren if I may be now deemed worthy by you to call you so who are guilty of this practice I advise you beseech you for the Honour of my blessed Saviour and this his holy Sacrament the Honour of our Protestant Church and Religion the Honour of your own Ministry and Function the comfort the Salvation the edification of your own your peoples Souls now at last most seriously to consider this your worse than Papal Romish impious Sacrilege Impiety Antichristian Pride Usurpation Tyranny Rebellion against Christs positive Precepts for I can truly give it no other better Terms than these with shame and confusion of Face Heart Spirit and then be n no more stiff-necked no longer Popish Romish in this and other forementioned particulars as you have hitherto been which render you more really scandalous if not impious than any you debarre from this Sacrament And o repute me not your Enemy nor a Rayler because I thus plainly impartially tell you the truth and have paralleld your late practices with Popes and Popish Priests exorbitances Sacrileges not minced your Crimes with diminutive termes but set them forth by their proper Titles in their Native Colours that you might the better discern their horrour avoid their danger and bee the more humbled for them before God and Men but p repute me your best your truest cordiallest Christian Friend q for discovering these your Iniquities and rebuking you sharply that you may be sound in the Faith r Remember therefore whence you are fallen repent and reform your late dangerous Errours and doe your first workes by discharging your Pastorall duties to your people in frequent publike common Celebrations of the Lords Supper together with them as your Ministerial and Parochial Functions Christs Precepts the Statutes Edicts of our Church and Realm oblige you And that upon this ensuing Consideration super added to the Premises 7ly That Å¿ Bishop Iewel and the Fathers Authors forecited by him resolve That one principal end of the holy Communion is to joyn and unite Christians together in Christian Communion unity amity as being all fed together and partakers of this one bread That by their common open receiving of this holy communion frequently together they do openly testifie and declare that they are all one in Christ Jesus and all one amongst themselves That this is the principal means to joyn keep them together and to prevent Schisms Divisions Sects Contentions amongst Christians It being impossible as t S. Aug. writes to conjoyn men together into any name of religion be it true or false unles they bejoyned together with some bond of visible Signe or Sacraments like confederated sworn Brethren Hereupon the later Confession of * Helvetia cap. 12. writes thus of this Holy Supper Moreover we are admonished in the celebration of the Supper of the Lord to be mindfull of the body whereof we are made Members and that therefore we be at Concord with all our Brethren that we live holily and not pollute our selves with wickedness and strange Religions but persevering in the faith to the end of our life give diligence to excell in holinesse of life With which accords the Former Confession of Helvetia in these words Also the Lords Supper is as a badge unto us for as one loaf and one wine are made of many grains and grapes so we being the whole multitude of the faithfull are gathered together to be one bread and one body By this we testifie in an outward profession that we are redeemed by the bloud of Christ and made the members of Christ to whom we give thanks in whom we are Confederates and do promise to perform mutual duties one towards another The Confession of Saxony thus seconds them God will have this publick receiving to be a Confession whereby thou maist shew what kind of Doctrine thou dost imbrace and to what company thou doest joyn thy self Also he will hereby that the members of the Church should have a Bond of mutual love among themselves * God would that these publick Meetings should be witnesses of the Confession and severing of the Church of God from the Sects and Opinions of other Nations John assembled his flock at Ephesus and taught the Gospel and by the use of the Sacraments the whole Company did declare that they embraced this Doctrine and did invocate this God who delivered the Gospel and that they were separated from the worshippers of Diana Iupiter and other Idols For God will be seen and have this Church heard in the World and have it distinguished by many Publike Signs from other Nations And the promises wherein God doth affirm he will preserve his Church ar included in the very words of the Supper where he commandeth the death of the Lord should be shewed forth and this Supper distributed till he come Therefore doubtlesse the principal and only means that Ministers or Magistrates can use to prevent the dangerous universal epidemical increase of Sects Schisms Separations from our Parish Churches and publike Assemblies to reclaim reduce re-unite their people in personal presence and affection to themselves their Churches and one another and to restore unity amity peace settlement to our miserably distracted dilacerated Church and Realms divided subdivided into so many Sects Factions one from and against another is to restore presse practise the frequent publike use of this Holy Communion every Lords day or Moneth at least and not to seclude any of their Parishioners from it

there be no divisions among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgement 3ly l Stand constantly upon your watch and m unite all your studies endeavours together against the manifold plots policies of Satan and your Iesuitical Popish Sectarian common Enemies who seek nothing but the speedy ruine of your persons Ministry and of our Protestant Religion Church State being more active subtle and successfull of late years in this design than ever in former ages And let their present joynt attempts combinations against you be a prevailing argument to unite your affections endeavours studies to countermine them 4ly Avoid all carnal Machivilian Policies all sordid Compliances and n base Fears of any Mortals how great or powerful soever And never o act nor consent to any evils error unrighteous impious Projects or hypocritical designes yea hope that any good may come thereby but rather part with your lives liberties and all worldly enjoyments than with a good conscience and the truth or Ordinances of God intrusted to your care 5ly Take Notice of some particular late failings and scandalous sinfull Omissions or Neglects in the discharge of your Ministerial Office in which divers of you have been and still are very peccant Whereas by our former Liturgies confirmed by p sundry Acts of Parliament yet in force the Decalogui or Ten Commandements of God himself q asserted by all or most of you to be Moral and Perpetual as they are a rule of Life and Obedience were to be publikely read in all Churches as heretofore was usual once every Lords day and when ever the Lords Supper was administred to the end the people might the better remember and observe them in their lives and conversations This godly custom hath for sundry years together been universally neglected and cast aside by all or most of you By which means the elder sort of people have quite forgotten these Commandements the younger sort are alltogether ignorant of them and generally know not whether there be any such Decalogue for them to learn know observe their Parents Masters not instructing them in them in their private families as formerly since discontinued publikely in our Chnrches The number of Antinomians is hereby augmented confirmed in their Error the Knowledge Sence Conscience of sinnes against these Precepts almost quite obliturated And these Laws of God with all other good Laws of the Realm quite cast aside slighted scorned violated in the highest degree by many professed Saints of the highest Orb like Old Almanacks quite out of date or force especially the 5 6 8 and last of them Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours house c. nor any thing that is his now turned into an affirmative or quite expunged out of the Decalogue of too many English Protestants as well as the r second Commandement heretofore out of the Papists And whether this omission be not a sinne against Deutr. 6. 1. to 10. c. 18. 18. to 22. c. 4. 9 10. Acts 13. 15. Psal. 1. 2. Iosh. 1. 8. and other Scriptures fit henceforth to be reformed let your own Consciences with all Protestant Commentators on these Texts and the Decalogue resolve you 2ly Whereas the Summary Heads of the Christian Faith comprised in antient Creeds made Å¿ used in the Primitive Church and continued in all Christian Churches as most useful necessary ever since were usually repeated by the Ministers and people in all our Churches heretofore when ever they assembled to worship God on Lords-dayes and other Festivals or times of Devotion This Godly profitable Christian practice hath been generally disused and set aside by most of you for sundry years together whereby the old Principles of our Christian Faith and Creeds are quite forgotten or neglected by the ancienter sort and unknown to the younger people not instructed to learn or repeat them by heart as formerly by their Parents and Masters since disused in our Churches by Ministers and a world of New Faiths Heresies Blasphemies Errors have been set up and vented in opposition thereunto destructive to the very Foundations of our Religion Now whether this Omission be not a great Misdemeanour or Oversight in you repugnant to the 1 Cor. 15. 1. to 8. Hebr. 5. 12 13. c. 6. 1 2 3. 2 Pet. 1. 12 13 15. c. 3. 2. and other Texts let all Old and New Expositors on the Creed determine and your own Consciences judge 3ly Whereas by the Laws of our Land confirming the Book of Ordination and the Liturgies of our Church all our Deacons Ministers formerly on Lords dayes and other times of publike Divine Service were specially obliged to read certain Psalms with one Chapter of the Old Testament and another out of the New in the Church for the peoples better edification and instruction in the Scriptures and incouragement to read them diligently in their Families and private Closets yet now of late years contrary to their Solemn Promise at their t Ordinations diligently to read the Canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to the people assembled in the Church and contrary to Exod. 24. 7. Deut. 6. 1. to 10. c. 11. 18. to 22. c. 31. 11 12 13. Josh. 8. 34 35. 2 Kings 23. 1 2 3. 2 Chron. 34. 29 30 31. Neh. 8. 1. to 19. c. 9. 1. 3. c. 13. 1. Isay 34. 16 Ier. 36. 6 10 c. c. 51. 61 62. Luk. 4. 16 17. Acts 13. 15. c. 15. 21. 31. 2 Cor. 1. 13. Eph. 3. 4. Col. 4. 16. 1 Thess. 5. 27. Rev. 1. 3. c. 5. 4 5. 2 Cor. 3. 14. 1 Tim. 4. 3. contrary to the practice of Gods own people the Iews of Christ himself and his Apostles of the Primitive Fathers Councils Church Christians as u Bishop Iewel proves at large of all x Protestant Churches in foreign parts the Practice Canons Rubricks and Liturgies of our English Church and command of God himself in the forecited Texts most of our Independent Ministers have wholly cast off the reading of all Psalms Chapters of the Old and New Testament in their Churches and Meetings more particularly in Pendennis Castle in Cornwall where there was not one Chapter Psalm either sung or read during my near two years close imprisonment in their Meeting-house there yea many Presbyterians and other Ministers have overmuch failed herein reading only either one Chapter out of the Old Testament or New and somtimes only one Psalm without a Chapter now and then on Lords dayes and other Publick Dayes of worship By which ill president the generality of their people especially such who cannot read are become wholly ignorant of the Scriptures and made a prey to every seducer the constant reading of the Scriptures in privat is much neglected the Scriptures themselves much slighted yea many turned professed Anti-Scripturists rejecting the Old and New Testament both together and others who retain the New Testament have quite rejected the old as nothing

He addes y The Feast saith Mr. Harding is common all are invited They shall be received that are disposed and proved If this feast be common it must needs be common to very few for the provision is very little to serve many That all be called in the Latin Mass is a great and manifest untruth for neither the Priest nor the Deacon either by word or by gesture calleth them nor have they any preparation for them if they were called Yet are not these men ashamed to say They shall be received that are disposed and proved Every man ought humbly to prepare and dispose his heart before he presume to hear or receive any thing that toucheth God For God is Spirit and we are Flesh God is in heaven and we on earth Pythagoras being but an heathen was wont to say We ought not to speak of God without light that is without premeditation and good advisement who it is of whom we speak And the Pagans in their sacrifices were wont to remember their Priests with these words Hoc age the meaning whereof was Dispose thy mind it is God unto whom thou speakest The wise man saith z Before thou pray prepare thine heart and be not as a man that tempteth God Likewise in old time they that were called Catechumeni were warned afore-hand to prepare their hearts that they might worthily receive Baptism as it is decreed under the name of Clement a whose words be these Let him prepare himself in all things that after three Moneths ended upon the Holy day he may be baptized Also b St. Augustine exhorteth the Catechumeni likewise to dispose their minds against the time of their Baptism Thus ought every man to examine and prepare himself before he hear Gods word Before he presume to open his mouth to pray unto God Before he receive the Sacrament of Baptism and namely Before he come to the holy Communion And therefore the Priest giveth warning unto the people with these words Lift up your hearts which words as c St. Augustine saith were commonly used in the holy Mysteries But I think Mr. Harding here by these words prepare and dispose meaneth privy Confession which many have used as a rack of mens consciences to the maintenance of their Tyranny d Peter Lombard saith Without it there is no way to heaven e Innocentius the third commandeth That whosoever is not confessed neither be suffered to come into the Church being alive nor to be buried when he is dead f Hugo writeth thus I am bold to say whosoever cometh to the Communion unconfessed be he never so repentant and sorry for his sins certainly he receiveth unto his judgement So violent the late Writers have béen in exacting things of their own devices Otherwise the old Fathers notwithstanding they sometimes speak of Confession yet they require it with more modesty and many of them require no such thing at all g Chrysostom saith Let the Court where thou yieldest thy self guilty be without witnesse Let God alone see thee And again If thou be ashamed to shew thy sins to any man then utter them every day in thy heart I say not go confesse thy sins unto thy fellow servant that may upbraid thee with them but confesse them unto God that is able to cure them And again thus he imagineth God to speak unto a sinner Open thy sin privately to me alone that I may heal thy wound And Theodorus sometime Archbishop of Canterburie saith h Graci totus Oriens confitetur soli Deo The Greeks and all they of the East confess confess themselves only to God Thus much I thought good to touch hereof lest it should be thoughs there is none other way for a man to prove and dispose himself but only by Auricular Confession The meaning of these words of St. Paul i Let a man examine himself standeth in two points in Faith and Repentance Faith containeth the truth of our belief Repe●tance cencerneth the amendment of our life which kind of examining endureth all our life long But to say or think we are all examined and disposed one only day in the year and that of custom not of Holiness and not one day before nor one day after it is childish it is super st●tious it is Jewish it is no pers●asion meet for the people of God If k Chrysostom were alive he would cry out O what presumption O what a custom is this And l St. Ambrose would say If thou be not worthy evry day to receive then art thou not worthy once in the year 2ly He hath these observable passages out of the Fathers and School-men concerning the community of the Lords Supper belonging alike to all the Church People Congregation present whence it is stiled the Communion and not to the Priests elect or truly regenerated alone and concerning the end use of the Sacraments to unite Christians together into one body and Christian Communion and prevent all Schisms Discords Separations in the Church m Christ himself hath already determined the case For albeit he hath appointed no certain number of Communicants yet hath he by speciall words appointed a number Take ye Eat ye Drink ye ALL Divide ye among your selves n Do ye this in my remembrance Ye shall set forth the Lords death These very words I say cannot be taken of one single man but necessarily import a number St. o Hierom saith Dominica Coena OMNIBUS debet esse communis quia ille omnibus Discipulis suis qui aderant aequaliter tradidit Sacramenta The Lords Supper must be common to All And that he proveth by Christs example because Christ gave the Sacraments equally to all his Disciples that were present p Iustin Martyr declaring the order of the Church in his time saith Of the things that be consecrated every man taketh part The same things are delivered to the Deacons to be carried to them that are away And q St. Ambrose expounding these words Wa●t one for another saith thus That the oblation of many may be celebrated together and may be ministred unto All r Clemens Alexandrinus saith As●● 〈…〉 as the manner is have divided the Sacrament they give every of the people leave to take part of it ſ St. Chrysostom plain●y de●cribeth the very order of the Communion that was used in his time by these words The spiritual and reverend Sacraments are set forth equally to rich and poor neither doth the rich man enjoy them more and the poor man lesse They have all like honor and like coming to them The Sacraments once laid forth are not taken in again until all the people have communicate and taken part of that Spiritual Meat but the Priests stand still and wait for all even for the poorest of them all Again t he haith There are things wherein the Priest differeth nothing from the people as when we must use the

the Father through the Son his passion and death The custom of the Popes Church is that the people receive the Sacrament usually but once a year that is to say at Easter By which ●eans the Commandement of Christ is broken the Sacrament neglected the death of Christ not so earnestly remembred the people become unthankfull Dissolution of life breaketh in Vice increaseth Virtue decreaseth From these with sundry other like Passages of Bishop Iewel and Thomas Beacon incomparably eminent both for their Learning and Piety it is irrefragable 1. That in the Apostles days as some from Acts 2. 46 47. c. 20. 7. 11. 1 Cor. 10. 16 17 21. c. 11. 17. to 34. resolve and in the l Primitive Church for many hundreds of years next after the Apostles and among the Greeks and Christians under Precious Iohn at this day all Christians and visible Members of the Church of years of discretion to examine themselves constantly received the Communion all together every day or Lords day at the least when ever they met to pray hear the Word or perform any other publike Duties of Religious Worship unto God and that out of meer duty piety devotion zeal and love to Christ m Bishop Iewel in his Defence of the Apology of the Church of England proves this more fully by the confession and testimonies of sundry Popish Authors Thomas Aquine saith In Primitiva Ecclesia quando magna vigebat devotio Fidei Christianae Statutum suit ut fideles quotidie communicarent In the Primitive Church when great Devotion of the Christian Faith was in strength it was ordained that the faithfull should receive the Communion every day n Durandus saith In the Primitive Church all the faithfull daily received the Communion o Hugo Cardinalis saith In the Primitive Church All as many as were present at the Canon of the Masse did daily communicate and if they would not they departed out of the Offertory If ye think these Authorities are not sufficient p Iohannes Cochlaeus saith Omnes olim c. In old time both all the Priests and all the say people received the Communion with the Minister that had made the Oblation as is plainly perceived by the Canons of the Apostles and by the Books of the antient Doctors of the Church c. Likewise saith q Iodocus Clichthovius In Primitiva Ecclesia c. In the Primitive Church the faithful received the Communion every day Likewise it is noted in the Margin upon the Apostles Canons Omnes olim qui intererant communicabant In old time all that were present did communicate In the Council of Antioch Can. 2. Concil. Aquisgran cap 70. Omnes c. All that come into the Church of God and hear the Holy Scriptures and refuse the receiving of the Lords Sacrament let them be put from the Church These Decrees reach not only to the Ministers of the Church but to the whole People r St. Ambrose saith Munus obla●um totius populi fit c. The oblation offered is made the whole peoples For that in me bread all are signified For in that we are all one we must all receive of one bread In imitation hereof the Protestant Churches in forein parts did frequently receive the Lords Supper all together witness the ſ Former Confession of Helvetia Artic. 22. Of the Lords Supper We do therefore use the holy meat oftentimes because that being admonished hereby we do by the eys of faith behold the death and bloud of Christ crucified and meditating upon our salvation not without a tast of heavenly life and a true sense of life eternal we are refreshed with this spiritual lively and inward food with an unspeakable sweetnesse and we do rejoyce with a joy that cannot be expressed with words for that life which we have found and we do wholly and with all our strength pour out our thankssgivings for so wonderfull a benefit of Christ bestowed upon us And this t Confession of Sweveland of their practise Our men do often times with as great reverence as they may receive the Sacrament to be the lively food of their souls and to stir up in them a gratefull remembrance of so great a benefit The which thing also useth now to be done among us much more often and reverently than heretofore was used to wit in times of Popery With the u Confession of Auspurg in these words Therefore the Masse to wit the celebration of the Lords Supper must be used to this end that there the Sacrament may be reached unto them that have need of comfort As Ambrose saith Because I do alwayes sin therefore I ought alwayes to receive a medicin And seeing the Masse is such a Communion of the Sacrament we do observe one common masse every Holy-day and on other dayes if any will use the Sacrament when it is offered to them which desired it Neither is this custom newly brought into the Church With what * hearts of adamant browes of brasse searedness not tenderness of Conscience then can or dare any Protestant Ministers Parsons or Vicars now who have Cure of Souls obstinately deny peremptorily refuse to deliver the Lords Supper to themselves or any or all of their Parishioners and Church members when they earnestly desire it at their hands not only for sundry dayes weeks months but years together and that under a new monstrous x pretext of extraordinary Zeal Piety Devotion Sanctity tendernesse of conscience transcendent Love to Christ his Sacraments their own and their peoples souls Or with what colour will such Pastors be able to justifie or excuse themselves before any Tribunals of God or men when legally accused convicted for this notorious detestable Sacrilege and Apostacy from the custom of the Primitive and Protestant Churches if they presently repent not of it with confusion of face and redemption of their former wilfull neglect herein by constant frequent publike Communions henceforth delivered to all their people in Common without future seclusions of any unexcommunicate persons from it who unfeignedly desire it 2. That the Apostles Primitive Christians Fathers Authors with these two most judicious Divines believed asserted both by their preaching writing practise y That the Sacrament belonged to and ought to be administred to every visible Christian and Church-member alike to all the whole Congregation in common and that none ought to be secluded suspended from it but persons actually z excommunicated from Church-communion and all other publike Ordinances for notorious scandalous offences That upon this ground and its frequent common reception by all it was stiled The Communion both by the Fathers Primitive and Modern Christian Church-writers of all sorts This is the express doctrine of the whole Church of England confirmed by a Parliament and subscribed assented to by all true Ministers Pastors of the Church of England admitted to any Pastoral Charge Article 30. The Cup of the Lord is not

examin their fitnesse and suspend them from the Communion they have by divine retaliating Iustice or Providence at least and I desire them to observe it sodeinly unexpectedly beyond all humane probability by an unparalleld sacrilege lost most of their Church revenues Tithes Duties either seised or detained from them by their people from whom the● detain this Sacrament yea lost both their intended Presbyterial Government Classes Iudicatories Reputations Credits Reverend esteem the love and affections of the Generality of their Parishioners and rendred their Persons Function Ministry generally odious contemptible opprobrious throughout the whole Nation as themselves experimentally feel complain of and all intelligent men observe Which being an undeniable experimental truth there can be no better speedier means used to regain their former honor love respect and reduce their straying flocks from their several Schisms Sects Conventicles unto their Parochial Congregations Assemblies Ministry but to renounce those Anabaptistical Errors Practices they have unadvisedly taken up and strenuously defended to restore the frequent weekly monthly use at least of the holy Communion the principal bond of Christian Amitie Peace Vnity * serving instead of ANOATH to bind them all together in the true Profession of Christianity to re-gather their people together and re-unite and keep them close to themselves and one another and to grant a free admission unto all visible Church members able to examine themselves to the holy Communion as well as to all other Ordinances as Christ his Apostles the Primitive Fathers Christians did and the premises undeniably manifest they are bound to doe and to endeavour by preaching writing exhortations and all good Christian means to prepare and excite all persons capable to the frequent participation of this Sacrament and not dehort deterre any such from it as they have done of later years and thereby driven them both from their Churches and Ministry Remember what f Bishop Jewel in his forecited words replies to Mr. Harding O miserable is that Chdrch wherein no man no not so much as one is well disposed and fit to communicate at the Lords Table What conscientious zealous Christian can with comfort continue in such a Church or what Minister with comfort or conscience continue in his Pastoral charge over it and not remove or separate from it to some other Church and people better qualified for Christian Communion at Christs heavenly Feast Such Churches these Ministers declare their own to be by their practice to whom they pretend they cannot dare not administer the holy Communion at all as having no right unto it to the peoples scandal and their own And how many such Parochial Churches have we now in England who have had no Sacrament of the Lords Supper publikely administred in them for divers years last past though the more sinfull and worse they are the more they need this Soveraign Medicine this Sinne-clensing Soul-recovering Antidote to cure their Spiritual Maladies and diseased Souls the with-holding whereof from them instead of working their Spiritual cures hath f but only lengthned increased their diseases and made them more sinfull obstinate vicious irreligious sacrilegious prophane undevout atheistical neglectful contemptuom of this and all other sacred Ordinances than before and banished the serious frequent meditation of Christs precious bloudshed and benefits of his passion quite out of their remembrance As therefore the h Anabaptists and Independents seclude none from their Sacraments whom they deem visible members of their selected refined gathered Congregations upon this account That none are or ought to be members of their Churches but such who have an equal right and free admission to all Gods Ordinances So let our Presbyterian Ministers now upon the same account either separate from their Churches as no true visible Churches of Christ or else admit all the visible actual Members of their Parochial Congregations to this holy Communion as well as to all other Ordinances wherein they have all an equal interest as Church-members lest all their people withdraw and separate from them as many thousands have lately done and will do must else doe more and more till this Sacrament be restored to them That being no true visible Church of Christ nor true Christian Congregation wherein the Sacraments are not duly frequently administred as well as the Gospel preached as all i Protestant Churches Confessions Writers unanimously resolve And those Churches must needs be full of Schisms factions Contentions Animosities hatreds void of Christian love unity and in a most desperate sad condition where the Supper of the Lord the k sign and bond of the love peace unity amity that Christians ought to have amongst themselves and Sacrament of their redemption by Christs death is wholly cast aside kept from them by their Ministers Which the Lord give all such obstinate Church-distracting Church-destroying Ministers grace now timely to consider reform for their own their peoples the Churches benefit union Peace and future Settlement upon serious perusal of all the premises compiled published for this much-desired end alone For a close of all I shall desire all proud Pharisaical supercilious over-severe Ministers and other Christians puffed up with such a swelling conceit of their own transcendent Holinesse worthinesse and most others unworthinesse that they think them altogether unworthy to communicate with them at the Lords Table to consider seriously with themselves these few particulars which may abate this their spiritual pride and uncharitablenesse and reform their erronious practices in this kind 1. Advisedly ruminate upon Christs own parable of the boasting Pharisee and humbled sinfull Publican who went both up together into the Temple to pray and which of these two Christ himself justified Luke 18. 9. to 15. Which Parable he spake unto certain who trusted in themselves as being righteous and despised others v. 9. This alone methinks should at least abate if not fully cure this their overweaning self-conceit Compared with those Isay 65. 5. Which say to others stand by thy self come not near to me FOR I AM HOLIER THAN THOV These are a smoak in my nose a fire that burneth all the day Behold it is written before me I will not keep silence even recompence into their bosoms Let all such pure Justiciaries take heed they come not within the verge and censure of Prov. 30. 12. 13. There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes and yet are not washed from their fillhinesse O how lofty are their eyes and their eye lids are lifted up with spiritual pride Withall let them remember that of Jam. 4. 5. and 1 Pet. 5. 5. Yea all of you be cloathed with humility for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace unto the humble With that of Phil. 2. 3. Let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory but in lowlinesse of mind let each esteem other BETTER THAN HIMSELF And then they would seclude none from the Lords Table especially before a legal conviction trial and sentence of